A trip to the farmer's market + the rest of the plants

It's a cloudy, misty day here in Portland. But we Pacific Northwesterners don't mind a little rain and we've already been out and about. W had soccer this morning and then we hit up the Portland Farmer's Market at PSU for coffee, breakfast burritos, and artichokes. DeNoble Farms is my go-to stand for produce at the farmer's market and today they didn't disappoint with some really lovely globe and Italian varieties of artichokes. I can't wait to have them for dinner tonight!

When we came home, I noticed that our rose bush out front was blooming beautifully, so I thought I do a quick post on some of the rest of the plants growing around the new house. This rose bush is right outside our front door and adds a real pop of color.

 On the other side of the front walk, under the kitchen window, I have a rhododendron and a hydrangea. The hydrangea I planted myself a couple of weeks ago so it's still fairly small, but you can just see a tinge of blue on the flowers that are starting to bud. I fell in love with hydrangeas back in Seattle but never had a location to plant them in. We actually had another plant in that space but it died over winter, so I pulled it out and popped in the hydrangea. Now I'm happy :-)

I've also got 4 blueberry plants on the side of the house. Right now, only one has anything resembling a blueberry but I have high hopes (maybe not this year but in the future).

Back in the patio garden, it looks like we have our first red strawberry! I think it might need one more day, so I'll try my best to keep W away from it. He'll be my official taste tester when we do pick it. 

Also, the zucchini plant is completely taking over this container. The leaves are so big, the poor pepper plant is forced to huddle in the corner. I think I might need to replant it, but I'm afraid I'll kill it if I do. But then again, it might not survive anyway if the zucchini plant keeps stealing all of its sunlight. What to do?

Well, we are off to a kiddo birthday party  (isn't having kids great! :-p), hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday weekend!

Cheers!

- c