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Friday, June 27, 2025

Spring garden

Well, it's summer now, but here are some "spring" pictures of my garden. It's doing great! I took these pictures 2 weeks ago and you should see it now. With a recent rain, everything has shot up another foot!

The following pictures are my raised veggie beds.... strawberries, Walla Walla sweet onions, tomatoes and lemon cucumbers. The strawberries didn't have many berries, but I think most of the plants are everbearing, so I will have more berries later in the summer.

The nasturtiums that I planted last summer, came back with a vengence, so I took most of them out! There are a few left in amonst the strawberries!

My two tomato plants have grown at least a foot since I took these pictures! Same with the lemon cucumbers. I'll take more pictures once the rain stops!






See the pointy things in the middle? Those are artichokes! I've never planted them before and have no idea what they should look like or if I'll get any fruit.



My flowers are all looking great and my yellow roses are opening up! I've netted my vegetables so the deer won't eat everything! I didn't net any flowers, and the deer do LOVE roses, so one of these days, I may go outside and have my roses all eaten. I have a bird bath closeby, so the deer may want to come and drink. I really should move the birdbath!



I planted some more pansies in a couple of planter pots that I got from my neighbor.


My fuschias should be starting to get flowers very soon.

The nasturtiums are taking over in the front planters also! I've pulled some out to give the petunias underneath a chance.



Neighbors one lone foxglove. My property in Washougal, WA used to be covered with hundreds of them!

Neighbor's cute array of garden goodies.

First strawberries.

Maddie says hi!

Besides enjoying my garden, I spent a few days a month ago, watching our old old wood fence being removed from behind the mobile homes on one side of the park, to make way for a new tall chain link fence. That old wood fence has probably been here for at least 30 years! and then......... they removed a bunch of big old growth fir trees that were too close to the homes and ruining any fence that was there.. also to make room for the new fence. That was fun to watch!

Here's the old fence. I'd already removed a bunch of the boards.

I'd removed about every other board, using my handy dandy battery screwdriver. It worked great, but many of the screws were so rusty, that my screwdriver would not budge them. I wanted to save the better boards, to use for building "something"! (not sure what)


Here's my first stack of boards. The neighbor came over and  helped me take many more off, using his impact screwdriver. Now I need one of those. It worked so  much better.



Then came the tree falling, a few days later.........



That huge tree was encroaching into the wall of this mobile home! 


Fence all gone! See the old stumps that are on my lot? Those trees were cut down years ago to make room for the old wood fence. I hope to have those removed one of these days, so I'll have more room for vegetables. 


Now we're just waiting for the new fence. I hear that the company has been  hired and they have the supplies, so it may happen hopefully in the next couple of weeks. It sure opened up my yard area and this entire side of the park has more sun now. A win win situation, but hated to see those beautiful old trees go.

FINAL NOTE: Whenever I go into town, or at least once a week, I usually go to town (it's about 9 miles from me so I run all my errands at once), and go to McDonald's, and then find a nice place to park on one of the hills overlooking the town. I ALWAYS have a stunning view! 


It's hard to tell, but I'm WAY up high on a hill!

Until next time... please everyone enjoy the start of Summer!

Marilyn













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17 comments:

  1. Little Maddie is so cute. Your garden is looking so great. Yep I am experimenting with my garden flowers this year on what will not attract the bunnies and deer. So far so good. Have a great weekend. Hugs. Kris

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    1. Kris, thank you. It's fun to experiment with new ideas and flowers! I'm yet to see if the artichokes I planted will give me any fruit! Marilyn

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  2. What beautiful raised beds and flowers! You have me wanting to plant foxgloves - so lovely. I got a late start on my garden this year - next week should be a blooming week for what I planted.

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    1. Maryleigh.. thank you for visiting! I do love Foxglove.. it is so so pretty. As I said in my post, where I used to live by Vancouver, WA, my fields were covered with Foxglove every June! I sure miss that. Just seeing one brought back those memories. Marilyn

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  3. I enjoyed this dispatch from the coast. Your strawberries look delicious! Also I like to see pictures of your cats (I have two). I just planted seven raspberry bushes, four blueberries, and a loganberry. I won't be getting any fruit until next year (hopefully). Raspberries remind me of Brownsmead in summer. We used to make our own "Kool Aid" by smashing raspberries in a strainer, and adding water, sugar and a lemon. It was fantastic...and also much more healthful than store bought summer drinks.

    I made a trip to walk in Brownsmead a few weeks ago. I saw elk in a farm field. So many of the old farms are going back to nature. The newer generation don't care, or are absentee owners. The jungle moves in fast. I was surprised to see the old store is undergoing some kind of renovation. I looked online. It sold for $98,000. in February. Before that, it sold for $25,000. back in 2010, and had been used up until the most recent sale as a residence. There has been a thing in Oregon for about 30 years, where outsiders come into remote areas and restore old buildings for a new life as a pub, restaurant, hotel or bakery. Could this be the plans for the old Brownsmead store?

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    1. Kris, I think the old Brownsmead store was bought by the owners of the Blackberry Bog Farm nursery which is currently set up just west of Svensen. They have other land in Brownsmead and I think it's right next to the old store. I'm not sure what they are going to do to fix it up or develop it. They are having an open house of their Brownsmead farm on July 20th, with food, vendors and live music. I may go to see what's happening there! Yes I love raspberries and all berries too! I have blueberries here where I live, some strawberries and all the free blackberries I want! I would love to plant raspberries as they are my second love. Fresh off the bush is the way I like them best.

      That's funny about your raspberry koolaid!

      Take care... Marilyn

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    2. Thank you for the info about the open house! I may go check it out.

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  4. You have been doing a lot of work, Marilyn - stay safe. Your garden is coming along so well and those strawberries look delish!

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    1. Thank you for visiting Carrie! I need to pop over to your blog! I used to follow you but then I quit getting notifications from most blogs, so I forget now who I was following. I sure miss those notifications! Take care... Marilyn

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  5. I'm very happy to see that your park keeps up with keeping it nice for the residents. Some do not. The chain length fence might be better at keeping the deer out of your garden, while you also benefit from more sun on your plants.
    I like the spot you've found to picnic on your shopping days. How nice to sit there and watch the ships go by. I haven't bought a burger in a very long time, it sounds real good. I'm going to have to do that very soon. 😊🍔

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  6. P.S. come visit, I have a new post too 😊

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  7. Maddie is sweet and delightful! Please give her a hug for me. Lovely photos, the strawberries look fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing, and warm greetings from Montreal, Canada.

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    1. Thank you Linda. She is such a sweet girl and folllows me around my yard like a dog.. also to go get the mail! I visited your blog. It's very nice and inspiring! Thank you for visiting! Marilyn

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  8. Hi Marilyn. Your garden is gorgeous and those strawberrie are something.

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  9. Marilyn, so sorry about the problem. I absolutely hate this laptop. It has a mind of its own and screws me up in so many ways. I think that is the main reason I have slowed way down with blogging. To continue -- what a mess with that tree but weren't you lucky with it being so close to your home. That is always so scary. Your garden looks wonderful and it seems you have been very busy. I think that will keep you young and I should be taking a page from your book..Happy Summer, my friend..xxoJudy

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    1. Judy, that was sad to see those big mature trees go. I was lucky and no trees on my lot that could possibly blow down on my house! Those were further down from me. Yes yardwork keeps us young (maybe?) but wears me out too. I do love all the color in my yard now. I really didn't get that many strawberries. I have alot of plants but not many berries. Summer trudges along and am trying to do some fun things, though mostly I prefer to stay home and craft! Marilyn

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