Oregon Tree Hugger

With the rains came heavy winds, and with heavy winds came damage to some tender plants. The tall/skinny things seem to take the worst of it — the iris and the pea shoots.

We actually have four colors of Iris this year that I did not see last year. The things that come up here continue to amaze me! Some people might find the randomness to be annoying, as we didn’t plant any of this stuff so we don’t really know what is going to come up. I [...]

If you live in the hills in Eugene, you have definitely heard these frogs calling. I’ve lived here for over a year though, and I had never seen one. I finally found one sitting under a bush in my yard, so i had to take some pictures.

Urban wildlife is a reality for anyone living in the hills. In the long run, you (and your garden) will be happier if you can learn to live with the wildlife, stop fighting it, and actually enjoy the local fauna in your own yard.

Why fight nature? It’s much easier in terms of time and maintenance to work with it … and a lot more visually pleasing. I am going to try to keep a lot of the area under the trees somewhat natural. I pulled out a lot of the dandelions because they do totally take over if you let them, but I left a lot of these nice little groundcovers and poppies to grow somewhat unhindered. The result (I hope) is a natural-looking sort of woodsy area that will have a calming feel.

What amazes me about this area is the diversity—just check out these pictures of trees I took while walking. (They were all in a row along one stretch of sidewalk. Every tree way different!)

I can’t help it, I have fallen in love with the weeds in my yard. What will I keep and what will I cull? Follow the link to the rest of the article to give your own opinion on what should stay and what should go! (I’ll give bonus points for anyone being able to identify these things!)