What's Growing in Mountain Brook?

We were all exhausted at the end of the day, but the garden tour was a success! We will have a debriefing session some time later this week so we can compare notes and make plans for next year.

The only picture I have is this one:

Thank goodness for Robin, my hostess. I had organized everything I needed ahead of time, from plates and napkins to lemonade and homemade zucchini bread, but I am entirely worthless when it comes to hostessing. It is not and never will be one of my talents. Robin sent me to the old herb garden to cut echinacea, grabbed some Mountain Brook Studio pottery for the floral arrangements, and set up the refreshments where people could partake on their way in and out of the greenhouse. She sat at a table outside and greeted people as they arrived, keeping track of all the administrative details and freeing me up to talk about the garden. During the quiet times, she crocheted potholders—a woman after my own heart.

The day started out cool and foggy, but by mid-morning it was a glorious 70 degrees and sunny. We had somewhere around 50 people come through. I was at the very south end of the route, so I expected that some of the attendees might not make it down that far. However, tickets were punched at each garden, and anyone who got all five punches could take the ticket back to the starting area and enter to win the gift basket.

The best part, for me, was getting to meet some of the new people who have moved into our community. I am enough of an old-timer now, having been here for 28 years next week, that I put people on my mental landscape map based on whose house they live in. One couple said, “Yes, we live in that yellow house just around the sharp curve,” and I said, “Oh, Earl and Evelyn’s house!” They are several owners removed from Earl and Evelyn, and the house used to be red, but they are part of the neighborhood now. The lavender hedges generated lots of comments, and I invited people to come back in the spring to get lavender seedlings.

The pigs were thrilled to have so many people admiring them. They love to be social and came running to the fence as soon as people entered the garden.

Our tour organizer, Sunnie, is an artist, and she had arranged for each of us to have an artist set up for plein air painting. I had two—one set up in the garden and one set up in the front yard by the apple orchard. (I got more than my 10,000 steps in yesterday, because the garden is on the rental property and the orchard and chickens are here by the house, so there was a lot of back and forth.) Gini Ogle was painting in the garden. She did two small oils, one of a tomato and one of the greenhouse with the lavender hedge. I purchased the greenhouse painting from her at the end of the day. I don’t have it yet because she took it back to her studio to put some finishing touches on it.

The husband went to one of his jobsites to strip forms yesterday but helped us clean up and put things away when he got home. He needed a new pair of boots and I hadn’t made anything for dinner, so we had date night with a stop at the Army-Navy store followed by a fabulous dinner at Blaine Creek (for you locals). I had the most amazing grilled salmon and finished up with a piece of cheesecake with caramel sauce. The food there never disappoints, although the husband noted that they could do three times the business if they could find enough wait staff. Everyone is shorthanded.

Now garden cleanup can begin in earnest. We ran into one of our farmer friends at Blaine Creek and he and the husband made arrangements for the husband to go over and get some straw bales soon. I think I am going to pull everything but the tomatoes and get to work on bringing in some loads of compost.

But first, some down time for me in Spokane this week. I can’t wait.