As is often the case on weekends, I’m at the competition pool. The roads are sheets of gray sleet, tree branches and the black iron railing outside the aquatic center are topped with a line of white snow, and the aqua pool below is splashing with kids warming up.
We weren’t sure if the meet would happen today because of the winter storm, but plows are out in force — we passed about six vehicles on the highway, four or five of which were plows — and here we are. I’m timing today, and I didn’t think to bring anything to entertain myself during warmups. So as is often the case in winter, I’m daydreaming about the garden.
We have a family budget meeting later this month, so I’m sitting in the bleachers, switching between the Pinterest and Trello apps on my phone, putting together a garden while kids swim butterfly in the blue lanes below me.
The obsession has begun
My gardening blog has been a huge help with timing of when different plants started showing up at the nursery last year. I had no idea it would be so useful. I’ll have to make sure to keep it up again this year.
It’s rough getting winter storm warnings in autumn. The kids were out of school yesterday, with inclement weather days chipping away at their summer break before we even get to December.
But ice sure is pretty.
Little bluestem grass encased in iceTwo berries in an ice podIcicles are always funIced dogwood berriesGlad I didn’t cut back the hydrangea
Last winter I obsessed over the garden. I scoured seed catalogs, bought graph paper to design flower beds, stood at the back door staring at the bare hill and tried to visualize what it would look like with plants on it.
Now that everything is dead and gardening season is over, I wanted to take a look at the gardens’ transformation through the months.
Back garden
Back hill, marked for flower beds. February 2018Forsythia in bloom, March 18, 2018Back hill, March 25, 2018Back hill after transplanting plants from front garden. April 21, 2018Moved more plants from out front. May 21, 2018Bought some plants, others filling in, seedlings starting to grow. June 17, 2018Flowers blooming, weeds proliferating. July 2018As filled in as it’s going to get. Late August, 2018Peak. Some things starting to fade. Early September, 2018.Time to clear out spent stems. October, 2018.I need to rake leaves for compost. November, 2018.
Front bed
February. So sad.Moved some plants, sowed some seeds. Bought new perennials. May 2018.Starting to flower, including seeds I sowed. July 2018.Wrong angle, but the only August shot I have.Early September.October 2018November 😭
Now I can study these photos all winter to see where I want to change things. I’ve already got a seed catalog stashed away for a snowy day.
The garden is is peak bloom right now. Pollinators buzz busily, and the bigger butterflies are starting to find their way to the flowers I planted for them.
CleomeMonarch on milkweedBee coming in for the liatris (bottom center — I didn’t realize it was in the photo)Cabbage white on purple top verbenaMexican sunflowerBumblebee on lavenderShasta daisyMonarch on zinniaEchinaceaDillCleome and Miss Ruby butterfly bush
These are mostly just the close-ups. I published more photos on Andrea’s Gardening Blog if you like photographs of gardens and flowers.
What better way is there to reflect than to go on a hike? The day after Expo ended, Support Driven organizer Scott Tran and I wandered the Portland International Rose Test Garden while we thought about what went well at the conference and what we will need to improve on next year.
What a treat! June is peak rose season in Portland. We were surrounded by hundreds of rose bushes, row upon row down the slope of a hill. Every bush was drenched in blossoms, in white, yellow, peach, orange, red, pink, lavender. The only color not represented was blue, and the blue Hydrangeas made up for that.
Fluffy yellow rosePeach colored roseLavender roses 😍So many rosesMaybe my favorite.Rows of rosesSo pinkI love the backdrop hereMore peach rosesMore lavender rosesA whole hillside of rosesAnd a blue hydrangea
After reflecting quietly among the roses, we hiked through Washington Park to talk and plan. I had no idea there were even more treats in store. I’ve always wanted to go to northern California to see the redwoods, and it turns out there are redwoods right there in Portland. We hiked through a grove of them, and I was awed. I wish our son could have been with me to see them. He loves rain and trees. He’d fit right in in Portland.
Lemon balm gin smash? I’m not sure if that’s the right name.
Recipe (my first cocktail creation!)
1/2 lemon, squeezed, then cut into quarters Leaves from 2 sprigs lemon balm 3/4 oz honey syrup* 2 1/2 oz gin
Squeeze 1/2 lemon into cocktail shaker. Cut the remaining lemon rind in quarters and drop them into cocktail shaker. Add lemon balm leaves and honey syrup. Muddle until the oils from the lemon and balm are good and distributed. Add gin, then ice. Shake vigorously until very cold. Strain into chilled martini glass.
*To make honey syrup, combine equal parts honey and water in a sauce pan (1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup water). Warm and stir until honey dissolves, then cool. Store in refrigerator.
When I purchased our jug of Tanqueray at the liquor store the other day, the woman at the cash register said, “Oh, gin! What do you use gin for?”
And I thought, “Everything?”
“Martinis,” is what I blurted out. “Really cold. With big fat olives.”
Her coworker stopped what he was doing, ready to share in the joys of gin. “With just a hint of dry vermouth,” he said. I nodded.
“Tom Collins,” he continued.
“Gin sling,” I said.
And that honey grapefruit Gin Gila recipe from the Beach House album, or the Cucumber Gin Gimlet recipe from the Tennis album, both from Vinyl Me Please. Or my favorite cocktail when we eat out on summer nights, something with gin and honey and lavender, usually with “Bee” in the name.
In July, when the herb garden is out of control, the basil gin smash.
“What about appletinis? Are those gin?” the cashier asked.
I looked at her coworker. “No,” we said together.
A few days later, I was walking the garden, as I do multiple times per day. The lemon balm is flourishing, and lemon balm is one of my favorite scents on earth. I just want to bury my face in it.
I wondered, can I make a cocktail out of this? Maybe a variation on the basil gin smash? And with honey?
So I tried it tonight. It was my first attempt at creating a cocktail recipe. And omg, y’all, it was delicious. I’m not sure how much of it was the lemon balm, and how much of it was just the combination of lemon and honey, but I don’t really care. Whatever it was, it worked. It went down way too easily. I have to actively stop myself from having another.
Thanks to conversations at work today, I have a lot more lemon balm experiments to try. Some with gin, some with bourbon.
Summer is the best season. Especially when you have a garden full of herbs and flowers for cocktails.
Butterfly Mind 