My Last Month

The summer is ending for Renee's Bouquets. I will start up again in June, unless I feel ready by May. I am delivering flowers through the rest of September. It has been so much fun having this business, farming with Martha, meeting clients and arranging flowers.

Hood to Coast.

I didn't make it to the farm last weekend. I ran the Hood to Coast instead. What an exhilarating experience. I can't believe how good and bad it felt. The team bonding, staying up all night, running in the dark of 4 am, my thighs turning to bricks in the middle of the 14th mile....all so good and so painful. I think I'll do it again.

This weekend I wont be out on the farm until Sunday. I am doing my first senior care day on Saturday, a 12 hour shift. I'm trying senior care as a companion, no nursing skills necessary. Part of my bouquet business was supposed to be about seniors, but it didn't go that way. Now I am signed on with Home Instead, a senior care franchise, my job is to just "be there". This saturday I will take a walk with 88 year old Wilda hopefully through a garden.

Denise's Wedding

Denise got married last weekend. I did the bouquets and the cake maker used gladiolas, calendula, oregano and dahlias from the farm.

Amanda's Wedding

Wedding arranging is so much fun!

My sister-in-law Amanda got married August 9th. The wedding was in Oysterville. Mary and I had buckets full of flowers to play with. It was wonderful, I could get used to this. Afterwards there were so many flowers left over I got to give them away in bunches on the streetcar, a dream come true.

The Farm Awaits the Full Moon

The birds in the pie cherry tree ate and ate and ate today pecking away at one cherry for five minutes at a time, they picked the tree clean. It was a full moon. The echinaea popped open, it's one of the best medicinal plants on the planet. Good things are happening. We turned the compost bins so we could make potting soil, everything in the nursery is outgrowing its pot. The middle of the bins have all the worms, at the bottom the soil is pure organic humus. We used weedmat to cover a few hundred square feet near the lower field so we could plant perennials like Sedum, Echinops, Echinacea and other clumping plants. We also planted Sumac a fabulous tree whose trunk is furry and feels like antlers, it gets a red fuzzy cone all over it in the fall.

Early July Bouquets

These are three of the $15.00 bouquets, delivery included. Better give me a call!

4th of July on the Fruit Loop

Hood River has two main roads to Parkdale. Dee Hwy, where I grew up is on the west side and Hwy 35, where the farm is, on the east. My old friend and school pal, Paul Aubert, just opened a stand on his families land at fruit loop number 17, near Toll Bridge park, high up on the east side. I have flowers there for sale and this weekend between cutting and watering I went there for a wine tasting. It was lovely, Naked Winery out of Hood River is buying grapes from The Dalles, their wine was fine. The cherries at the stand were from The Dalles too, which I haven't heard much about lately except talk of Google's move there. My flowers sat in the windows and made me happy while I tasted pinot noir and merlot, but when trekers came by motorcycle I had to admit to myself that their chances of selling were slim. Oh well, I love Paul and his fruit stand, its worth it.

Renee's Bouquets

I'm proud to say that all of my June customers, which was my very first month, have signed on for July. I am so thrilled! Now I need to just keep spreading the word.

The card is much more readable in person, send me your address and I'll mail one off to you.

In the meantime, here is what it says:

Renee's Bouquets are local, organically grown flowers from Parkdale, Oregon. Our mission is to produce affordable flowers delivered weekly to businesses and residents in NW and SW Portland. The monthly rate is $60.00 for 4 Mondays, or $30.00 for 2. Service begins in June and continues through October. To begin service call Amy Gray at 503-530-0398 or email amyreneegray@netscape.com.

Welcome July

June is almost over and the farm is blooming madly. It rained today after a thrilling thunder and lighting storm. The drops were warm and cooling at the same time, we cut cattails out of bogs a mile from the farm. I got back in the car covered in burrs.
July will bring crocosmia and gladiolas. We're seeing the last of the peonies and peach leaf bellflower.

Biomimicry and Me

Biomimicry, http://www.biomimicry.net/. The theory is; use nature's time tested patterns and strategies to design todays buildings. In Portland this building is in the Pearl, its the same height as all the other ones, and color, brown. The difference I see is the staggered window pattern. Christopher Alexander wrote The Pattern Language decades ago and its chock full of wonderful design ideas following the same principals. I guess I should get some clients in there so I can get a look.

Sarah's Peonies

My friend sarah posted the bouquet she bought for her office this week on her blog: http://sarahsthreads.blogspot.com/

I love this blogging business.

These Peonies are called Sarah Burnhart, they are from Bethany Little's farm in Eugene Oregon. I went out there Sunday and we cut for hours. There were lime green spiders with red stripes on some of the Ben Franklin peonies, I can't tell you how bright they were, neon on the magenta blooms. I guess they weren't made to crawl on the blossom but thats where the food is so they have to take the risk.

June 2nd Bouquets.

This picture is a bit fuzzy, the tallest blooms are columbine, iris and meadow roo, mid-height are lupine, lady's mantle, euphorbia and bachelor buttons. I'm up to 6 customers, not bad for my first official week in business. Next Monday's flowers are coming from a flower farm where I used to work in Eugene. I am spending the weekend there. We'll see how the Willamette valley growing season differs a bit from Hood River Valley. I'm hoping for Calla lilies.

A garden drama

This morning I started weeding at 7:30. It felt great to be out that early. It was quiet and calm. Perfect conditions for a hunter cat like Bear. All I heard was a furious fluttering and then I jumped up and saw him pinning the robin to the ground. I shouted at him and he looked at me long enough to let the maimed bird get one foot off the ground. Then Bear licked his teeth and sprung up like he was on a pogo stick. The bird went down in a mess of feathers. I felt awful about the bird, but then I thought of his would've been worm breakfast.

Check Out These Puppies

Dogwood, columbine, corral bells, euphorbia, and snowball vibernum meet and here's what you get.

Secret Gardens

Guerilla Gardening, now here is a concept. This Brit took neglected public space by storm and organized moonlight gardening. I love the idea. I can just imagine Londons dry scrappy curb sides transforming into brightly planted beds while the pubs crawl and the double decker buses gas up for morning commuters. How about strawberry hot air balloons? Maybe I'll give away more bouquets, but this time at night on doorsteps.

Why Bother, from The New York Times

Michael Pollan sums up his article perfectly in the last sentence. "The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world." Read it if you have time, it's wonderful. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3

A Monarch Meal

The Lilac bushes are twenty or so feet tall and wafting. In teams we pull their limber trunks down and someone cuts the blooming branches. Brit and Chris and Martha and I started Sunday at 7:30 in the morning. The days got so hot suddenly. The lilacs burst open. Into the basement they go to stay cool. I don't like cutting through someone's table in the middle of his breakfast, but these guys eat and fly. Lilacs don't last as long as some cut flowers but the smell is worth the few days you get, everyone says it reminds them of their mother or their childhood. Its just one of those things.

First Bouquet Delivered

June 2nd marks the first day of my weekly delivery business, but in the mean time I'm taking small orders, like this birthday bouquet. Dogwood, Barberry, Caria, Hellebore, Tulip and Oregon Grape.

A Smoky May Day

Today we got back in the lower field and planted 15 buckets of Dahlias and a bucket of Lilies. The Dahlias are dug up each year so they don't freeze, they are huge corms the size of soccar balls almost. Meghan and Martha and I double dug the rows and pulled out what was left of the grass weed, but there always seems to be more. The forest next door has been plowed for building houses, a new development is in the air. They are burning the piles of brush and stumps where a few months ago trees stood. The smoke blew through on the wind. Martha and I starting talking about politics and what wins out the mind or emotions. Her blood temperature rose and she was on tip toe while I stood my ground that emotion wins out. "Get your facts, there are facts, get the facts!" she screamed. It was a good healthy day on the farm.

Farming with Martha and Meghan

Meghan made it out to the farm to work, the few weeks before she goes to Alaska. We got the rest of the rows in the lower field weeded, the Crocosmia and Echinacea. Martha rototilled. We moved the Scabiosa and Lupines that we didn't want to til over. Many of the Echinacea had been chewed by the gophers, only their green tops left. Sassy, our farm terrior, spent the afternoon digging holes in the rows looking for the rodents. In the kitchen while we drank water we watched a fly get stuck in a daddy-longlegs web, watched her 8 legs spin the fat black fly into the white woven package. Back and forth we watched the grace and speed of the spider against the flys' constant buzz and struggle. The gophers and the bulbs, the terrior, the spiders and the flies, I love this balance.

The Cards Arrive- What a Proud Day.

What it says: Renee's Bouquets are local, organically grown flowers from Parkdale Oregon.
Our mission is to produce affordable flowers delivered weekly to businesses and residents
in NW and SW Portland. The monthly rate is $60.00 for 4 Mondays, or $30.00 for two.
Service begins in June and continues through October.
To begin service call Amy Gray at 503-530-0398 or email amyreneegray@netscape.com
and check the blog (clearly you got this far) for weekly updates on what's happening on the farm.

Crusader for the Bees

It was the first farmers market on the park blocks by PSU, a five minute walk from my city job. I needed to go to the market, to see my flower competition. Something I have been thinking about came to mind again when I saw the booth with all the honey. A woman sat in red behind baskets of tomatoes. Another market goer stood blockading the table of beeswax candles and pollen. I wanted in.

"Do you work here?" I asked him, doubtfully. His green eyes blazing "No, but I'll talk to you" he said.

"I want to know about the bees." I slid by him to stand in front of her, she looked out at me from behind the baskets, the scale at her finger tips. "What" she said.

"How are the bees?" without stopping I spit out "I mean, I'm reading articles from last year, but how are they now, is it getting better?"

"It never get better" she said thickly accenting each word "It always get worse". My eyes began to well in the cold of her spring booth, the cold of her face.

"My husband do the bees" she said "he never quit, how bad it gets but he never quit the bees."

"They were writing about it and talking about it before." I said

"They stop talking about it, they open a pandora's box and they close box because they see problem is too big, they push it back they can not face problem."

She is greek, with auburn hair blowing around her face. She's been on the planet I'm guessing six decades. She grows tomatoes.

"Do you see an end in sight?" I ask her, I beg her.

she lowers her head, then looks up at me. "no." her face, her voice, is flat.

I stare at the table of honey in jars, at pollen and bees wax candles. I imagine the man who will not give up on his bees. I buy a small bottle of honey and while she watches me I pull a tomato from the basket. She tells me what I owe her, and I throw in a pair of green bees wax candles.

April 19th, snowing

Last weekend and this feel like they belong in different seasons, as if the seasons are moving backwards. It is snowing on the blossoms and the orchardists have smudgepots between the trees. I'm repotting tomato starts in the greenhouse from 2" to 4" pots. My nose is running and I am watching the snow come down fast, tiny little dry flakes. All night long I will keep the fire burning in the wood stove and all day tomorrow too.

Our First Weekend

April 12th and 13th, my first weekend on the farm. We tilled one field and planted 1000 blue gladiola bulbs. It was hot; we wore t-shirts and sunscreen. Sassy, the terrior, sat in the shade or belly down in the cold soil we'd just dug. There are 2000 more bulbs to go, thousands of starts in the greenhouse and buckets of seeds. Haven't touched the weeding yet. Temp's in the 80's... I'm feeling my freckles coming out.

Renee's Bouquets

This spring I am doing something different and wonderful. My friend in Hood River, where I grew up, has a flower farm. I am going to farm with her in exchange for flowers. This is the start of my own little business, Renee's Bouquets.
June, July, August, September and October I am delivering fresh, local, organic flower bouquets to clients on Monday mornings. To be a client one must only dwell or work somewhere in NW or SW Portland. The fee will be a flat rate of $60.00 a month, just $15.00 a bouquet. Clients have the option of buying the flowers for themselves or someone else and there will also be the option to donate one bouquet a month to a nursing home, family or organization that can't afford fresh flowers.
I will also offer an every-other-week rate for $30.00 a month. The flowers grown and delivered will keep your home or office cheery, and will be replenished each Monday. The idea is to make fresh, local flowers affordable so you enjoy them on a daily basis.