The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2010. That’s about 6 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 27 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 223 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 52mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was March 4th with 90 views. The most popular post that day was About.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, mail.yahoo.com, slashingtongue.com, digg.com, and twitter.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for yackawow, yaka-wow definition, berry seasons, ren thompson portland, and pdx chinese garden.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

About February 2010

A Good Day for a Parade in St. Johns May 2010
5 comments

Hats Galore at the Easter Parade April 2010
2 comments

A Big Splash on the Waterfront February 2010
6 comments

Yaka-wow! A New Word is Born May 2010
1 comment

It’s a project that stars Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live–he’s the guy who plays Barak Obama) and Carrie Brownstein (who was in the band Sleater-Kinney). The first episode will air Jan. 21 on cable TV’s IFC channel.

Meanwhile, here’s a video link that should make you smile.

And a link to the series home on the web.

❅ ❄ ❅ ❄ ❅

And I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanzaa / solstice season. For me, I’ll be glad when the days start getting longer again–only a few more days!

I’m paying special attention to a couple of transplanted shrubs; to a tricolor beech tree (Fagus sylvatica ‘Roseomarginata’), planted by the wonderful volunteers at Friends of Trees in my parking strip this summer; and to a few vegetable plants still struggling to produce results after a late start (my fault) and a slow growing season (the cool weather’s fault).

But how much water do lawns and garden plants really need during the dry summer and early fall?

Updated every Thursday

If you live in Multnomah, Clackamas or Washington County, you can save both water and money by using the Weekly Watering Number (at right) as your guide.

You type your ZIP code into a box on that page, hit enter/return, and the website tells you how many inches of water your lawn needs that week.*

For other plants, adjust the number in this way, according to the site:

The Weekly Watering Number:

http://www.conserveh2o.org/outdoors/irrigation/weeklywateringnumber/

* [To determine the amount of water, in inches, that your hand or automatic sprinkler gives plants, see instructions here. You can order a free kit there, too.]

Of course, there already is kvetching online about how much better the multimedia show on the bridge tonight could or should have been.

To which Jackie Uh-Oh says: Get some gratitude, people!

Think about putting on a dinner party for 100, spending two solid weeks doing all the cooking yourself, and then having to park all the guests’ cars after they arrived.

Multiply that workload by 100 or 1,000, and maybe you’d be getting into the equivalent neighborhood of what these folks did over the course of more than a year.

On a shoestring.

Without a big sponsor like all the other big summer events in PDX have.

As a great big gift to all of us.

A way to say "yay!" at OPSFest

It’s finally sunny in PDX! As you join the mass exodus to the outdoors that this inspires, think about dropping by a neighborhood park to see the hilarious rendition of “Much Adoe About Nothing” that is being performed in various Portland parks through August 16.

"Much Adoe About Nothing" poster

Even in the misty rain in Cathedral Park last Sunday, the performers gave it their all. There is a rotating cast, and they don’t learn their lines in preparation. Hence the “Original Practice Shakespeare Festival” label [and the extra "e" on adjectives] that this totally Weird & Wonderful event proudly wears. (Read more explanation here.)

It’s a great introduction to Shakespeare for kids, because they don’t have to sit still or stay quiet. Indeed, the Groundlings arrayed on blankets and in lawn chairs are expected to shout their approval or disdain whenever the action on “stage” warrants it. (If you prefer to be genteel, OPSFest sells wooden smile/frown signs for you to hold up.)

I’m writing this too late for the performance that took place today in Washington Park this weekend. And  next week the OPSFest actors will take the 4th of July weekend off. But they’ll be back from July 11 to August 16.  Wander over and check it out!

Click on the “My Faves” tab at the top of the page to see my latest (okay, my ONLY) additions to the long-promised list of my favorite places and events  full of Weird & Wonderful in PDX energy.

There are website/blog recommendation there, too. (Who ever coined the term “blogroll” anyway? I’m boycotting this ridiculous word.)

Here are some tidbits to lure you into clicking on “My Faves” above. Or just click here, or below.

Gardening & Plants

Lan Su Chinese Garden, which many people still call the Portland Classical Chinese Garden.

Growing Gardens, which has great info on a blog, & classes too.

Mary’s Garden, a NE Portland woman whose propagation avocation has taken over her front yard. She’ll share her bounty with you.

Just Us Hens, the blog where you can find two charming PDXers who will help get your yard or chicken coop into shape.

See more…

Being Green

The Weekly Watering Number, which might keep you from turning into a beastly Water Hog. If it ever stops raining in Portland this summer, that is.

See more…

Weird Portland

Dave Knows, written by a native Portland who always told his friends what was going on that weekend, and then decided to tell everyone else too.

PDX.fm, an online radio station with PDX-unique shows

Voodoo Doughnut, the other one (with free parking!)

See more…

And This Too

Willamette Valley birding maps (downloadable)

Tide Tables, for the Willamette River

See more…

⼥   ⼥   ⼥

(Before this, the buds were doing something I had never seen before: They seemed to turn to mush from the heavy rains. No chance of full bloom there!)

One of My Roses (Photo: John Recht)

The new blooms reminded me that I never thanked The Anonymous Neighbor who secretly finished trimming back that rose bush for me last fall.  I had become distracted during the task, and left the bush only half-scalped.

It was days later when I finally had a “Doh!” moment. But I was amazed to find that the trimming had been finished already, by an expert hand.

Because of this random act of kindness, the bush is looking like its normal healthy self this spring.

And that, friends, is one of the many reasons that I love living in weird & wonderful Portland!

A Jackie Uh-Oh Reminder

The PDX/Oregon strawberries clock is ticking. With so much rain, the fruit of the single-bearing varieties (still the best kind, in Jackie’s opinion) will turn to mush before long. So buy these jewels of the Oregon fields right way, or you’ll be too late!

Learn more here.

Sisters Josie Lomax & Marissa Recht, new grad from St. Mary's Academy.

After enjoying daughter Marissa’s graduation from St. Mary’s Academy Saturday, husband John and I drove her sister Josie to a farm in the Tualatin River valley of Washington County.

It was the first sunny day that the PDX has enjoyed in a couple of weeks. PDX is not for rainfall sissies.

The sun was glorious after the almost relentless rains, and the valley looked picture-postcard perfect. Josie’s aunt was having an outdoor birthday party, on a nut farm overlooking the fields and hills.

Nonetheless, for me the highlight of our excursion was buying our first Oregon strawberries of the season. I like to say that I eat my way through the berry seasons in Oregon. In a couple of weeks, even as I mourn the end of our strawberry season, the raspberries will be on the horizon. And so on.

We usually buy our berries at a farmer’s market, or on Sauvie Island near our St. Johns home. But, on the only sunny day in what seems like forever, there was no time to waste.

The PDX local-strawberries clock is ticking. With so much rain, strawberries won’t be here for very long. Field berries quickly turn into mush in the rain.

So we stopped at the Hoffmann Farms roadside stand in North Scholls for a half-flat (~$2 per overflowing basket of ruby jewels). My kitchen is fragrant with the scent of strawberries this morning. Mmmm.

In Oregon, the early-season strawberry varieties really do taste the best, in my opinion. So I advise everyone to snag some quickly, whether from the farmer, from a buy-local grocer like Sheridan Market, or from a farmers market. You’ll never look at an out-of-state strawberry in the same way again!

But that might not be enough prevention when the weather is as wet has it has been in Portland lately. A friend emailed recently to say:

…I have two red roses that are the long-stem kind, but one of them hasn’t started blooming yet and the blooms on the other one look deformed.

As a serial gardener (4 PDX gardens, all with different growing conditions), I volunteered some advice.

Is Mildew/Fungus to Blame?

If there are leaves with black spots or yellowish blotches areas on them or if you see dryish leaves with patches of whitish dust on them, that’s fungus/mold/mildew from too much moisture.

Peninsula Park Rose Garden (by Ren Thompson)

I’ve never tried the homestyle, organic remedies (which Google will help you find–e.g., spray the leaves with diluted milk), so I can’t vouch for them. But they’re certainly worth a try.

If you must resort to a chemical remedy, try to keep its impact local to the plant itself. Buy the tiniest bottle of spray-on mildewcide/fungicide that you can, because you won’t use much per year.

I prefer this to sprinkling fungicide around the plant’s roots. This “systemic” treatment is taken up by the roots, making it work for a long time. But it also wipes out all the “good” fungi in the surrounding soil ecosystem–not a good idea, in my opinion.

Hungry Aphids

The other affliction that I’ve seen deform rosebuds like that is aphids. So look for those suckers (literally, that’s what they do to the plant). They like tender new leaves and the flower buds.

Aphids line up along the bud or new leaf, spilling onto the stem below. If they’ve been eating well they get really fat and orangish in color. If you’re patient, you can buy ladybugs at the garden center and let them loose to eat the aphids.

Or you can wipe away the aphids with your gloved fingertips and smash them into oblivion. Then rinse the buds & leaf tips with water or spritz them with water that has a little dish soap in it. Stores sell “insecticidal soap” for this, but regular dishwashing detergent (like Dawn, etc.) is handy and effective.

I use the smash-then-soap method several times before resorting, very rarely, to chemical warfare. Again, I keep the treatment as local as possible, and use a homemade insecticide.

The recipe: Soak a small piece of a cigar (with a tobacco leaf wrapper, not artificial) in ½ cup or less of water overnight. In the morning, strain the brown liquid into a small spray bottle and lightly spritz the new growth at branch tips.

***Store leftovers where kids and pets can’t reach.***

The tobacco juice is a neurotoxin that stays around on the new growth long enough to keep a new bunch of aphids away. It’s nasty stuff and should be handled with care. (Wear gloves. Don’t put the wet tobacco in your compost pile. Wash hands carefully after using. Keep it away from children and pets.)

And enjoy your beautiful roses!

]]> http://lindaroach.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/mildew-aphids-on-roses-oh-my/feed/ 0 LindaR_PDX PeninsPk roses, Ren Thompson http://lindaroach.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/confession-im-a-sunny-day-gardener/ http://lindaroach.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/confession-im-a-sunny-day-gardener/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 01:07:50 +0000 lindaroach http://lindaroach.wordpress.com/?p=538 Continue reading →]]>

The worms in the garden ate well over the winter.

This spring, I must admit to myself that I’m a sunny-day gardener.

Even when there wasn’t a downpour during the last 2 weeks, the transplants I’ve been wanting to get into my St. Johns garden have languished unattended. I try, try, try to get out the door between rain squalls. But the ol’ gardening juices just don’t start flowing for me until I can do the work without all my clothes getting soggy.

This explains why my plants often are a week or two, or more, behind everyone else’s. They get even further behind if a sunny weekend is full of events like the St. Johns Parade two weeks ago, or “Condo Millennium” in Seattle last week.

A Jackie Uh-Oh prediction

Our rains in the last several years have resembled the pelting downpours of the U.S. Southwest more than they have the gentle, misty rain that was characteristic in Portland 25+ years ago.

A favorite way to describe those rains was, “It’s spitting outside.” A waterproof jacket and hat would keep you dry most of the time–hence the bias among longtime Portlanders against umbrellas.

Jackie Uh-Oh predicts: If the shift in rain pattern persists, even the natives will begin carrying umbrellas.

Today, with a backlog of vegetable starts, native plants and color spots piling up, I went outside to garden anyway. And about 45 minutes later fled back indoors, after trying vainly to outlast a cloudburst.

My KEY “Imperial” overalls (“The Aristocrat of Overalls”) are  just on the dry side of “wet washcloth”–and will just have to stay that way, because I plan to try again when the raindrops on the skylight cease. My plants & I hope it’s soon!