osprey94's Blog

orchid!
May 25, 2008 | 6:23 PM PST

In the woods yesterday, I found this little guy:

I didn't get to take this picture, unfortunately. I got it from flickr.com. When I found the little stand of them it was already getting dark and I didn't have time to tie a marker to the tree they were near so I could find them again when I had my camera and better light. I just tried to memorize the location. Today, I got my camera and took a walk in the woods to find 'em again. I was dying to get a picture and then identify them. Well, no luck. I absolutely couldn't find them. I gave up, went inside and tried enature.com to identify it. It was easy looking up native northwest orchids; there weren't that many. And, this is what I found. I'm 100% sure this is what I saw yesterday. It's called summer coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata). I'm so excited I have a little orchid in my woods! I'm really going to have to pay better attention next time I see them, so we don't kill them when we're thinning the woods.

On my walk, I also found this guy:

The pic is pretty bad, but here is our native slug, the banana slug. They eat detritus, not growing plants, so they're good to have around. The brown ones we also have are introduced. They eat the HELL out of growing plants.

While I'm on the topic of wildlife, check out the mason bee house:

You can see how the females have cemented their eggs into the holes with mud. They fly all around the garden when it's warm out.

Here's what the deck bed currently looks like after I planted a few more things in it today:

 

I added a few rhodies, lady's mantle and a barberry from elsewhere on the property and added a few more purple fountain grass plants. I even experimented with a shoot from the wild rose plant by the porch. I just dug one up and stuck it in the dirt. You can just see it there right above the pink flowering rhodie in the middle. I added diluted fish fertilizer to each transplanted plant's hole and watered with it, too.

We've almost finished the inside of the greenhouse too:

After this was taken, we put in some wire shelving. We then need to install the "j board" I think it's called that contains the thermostat, and other electrical thingies. Can you tell I'm illiterate when it comes to these things?

I think I will buy a copy of this book:

(thanks for the image, amazon.com!)

I got it at the library and it seems really good. Very detailed instructions on growing just about every kind of plant in your greenhouse.

All for today...no work tomorrow. Yes!