Sunday, October 28, 2012

Welcome! After all the efforts to master gardening in the sunsoaked and windblown slope area of upcountry Maui, we are now unpacking our belongings in a sleepy little area east of Florence, Oregon, to revive a former ranch alongside a river. There are world-class blackberries hiding and guarding a pair of loafing sheds and a couple of chicken coops, with rumors of a "creek" and maybe even a pond.

Our backyard merges into the Siuslaw National Forest, complete with lots of wildlife you'd expect in a heavily forested mountainous area. The coho and cutthroat salmon are already starting to run upstream, bringing out fishing folks every day.

We have dozens of decisions and unanticipated "discoveries" to resolve in the winter months with the house, but the pastures and a few long-neglected fruit trees will eventually get some attention. Soil testing clearly will help us to decide how best to restore tilth. The dandelion crop will have to be tamed, as will the battalions of moles. Raccoons have visited briefly, but we don't leave anything open for them.  

I hope I can learn more about the many plants here, only a couple of which I recognize. I know some are just weeds, but some are random sprouts of useful plants, such as huckleberries, plums, and of course, there are those monster blackberries!

I'm still looking for my camera in those packing boxes, so for now, the cellphone camera will have to suffice. Much of my Maui garden stuff gradually found other homes, and I didn't want to bring any plant matter here, so I'll have fun setting up a new tool set for here. Best part of that will be getting a decent garden tractor to tackle the acreage! I hear folks take quite some pride in their "seat time". Hmmm, watch this space to see.

I will be learning a ton of new-to-me information, so please feel free to add to my storehouse of knowledge anytime! For those who had seen my old blog, A Tradewinds Garden, I warmly bid you "a hui hou" and in turn, "E como mai"  to this blog. It will be hard to get used to shoes instead of slippahs!