Pat's Visit

It's been a hectic start to the year. Can you believe fall semester is already 1/3 over?

We really enjoyed our visit with George's mum, Pat. Although I spent most of the time studying and at school, George and Pat got out and about to see a bit of the Seattle area.

Much of Pat's trip was actually a working vacation. She is an incredible gardener, and - lucky for George and I - she was anxious to get her hands on our very sad and empty garden. We planted new grass in the spring, but we hadn't done anything with the surrounding flower beds.

In the main part of the back yard, she put together a lovely set of beds full of really beautiful, colorful plants. In the mix are hummingbird-attracting fuschias, hostas, plumbago, tickseed, cone flowers, bleeding heart, eupatorium, crocosmia, silver mound, garden aster, alumroot, and walker's low. Click on the pictures to get a better look. We're already seeing more birds, bees, and other pollenating creatures, so we really hope all these flowers will withstand our local squirrels and cats. We know they'll die off as the weather gets cold, but Pat assures us that we'll have all this wonderful color back in the spring.

Even better, Pat developed a plan for our garden that we can work on when we have time and money and that she can work on when she comes back. When it's all finished, we'll have several distinct areas in the back (including a section with New Zealand plants), a deck off the back, a utility area to one side, a bit of privacy from taller plants in the front, and perhaps a veggie patch to the other side. I can't wait to see how it all develops!

Just before Pat left, she and George planted a very special tree in our front/side yard: a feijoa (aka pineapple guava). George really misses having them, so we really hope that we're able to grow a little bit of New Zealand here in Kirkland. I'm particularly fond of this photo of mother and son wearing matching shirts, glaring at the feijoa as if they're demanding that it grow well. We'll see how it works out next summer. Hopefully we'll have lots of fruit on our feijoa tree.

Even though that's the only specifically Kiwi plant Pat put in during this go-around, George and I think of her every time we see the garden. Pat, thank you for sharing your time and gift of the green thumb with us!