Portland adventure

Sharon had a meeting downtown so we decided to make an adventure of it and walked to the Max and took the Green Line to Pioneer Square. On the way we saw some navy ships docked for Fleet Week.

I hopped off early to check out the offices of Timber Press which publishes a number of books I have enjoyed and many more that I want. I asked them if I could get a discount if I bought one of each. Turns out you can get 10% off if you buy $200 or more. That would be easy do. I probably found 40 books that would be nice to have. Then I remembered the reading stack I am actively trying to work through. They are coming out with a book on Free-Range Chicken Gardens that looks really cool.

When I finally made it to Pioneer Square to meet up with Sharon there was a cool display of flowers in the form of a World Map.

We enjoyed the view as we shared a Honkin' Huge Burritto.

Plant Propagation -- Week 5 -- Checkup

In class there was a book recommendation:

While I was in the greenhouse, I made sure to check on the plants from the previous weeks. Not a lot of changes since the prior week. But it was determined that this would be a good time (if not a little late) to move most of them from greenhouse 2 to greenhouse 1 where they will not get quite as steady a supply of mist.

The dogwood stem cutting still has a very odd yellow-green color...

A look at last week's cutting. Not much change in evidence...

Here is the bench in greenhouse 1...

Book review: Teaming with Microbes

I read Teaming with Microbes by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis and published by Timber Press. The first part of the book is a fascinating overview of the biology of the various goodies living in a typical teaspoon of soil. It then goes on to investigate various ways in which this understanding applies to gardening.

I hadn't heard of the distinction between bacterially dominated soils (typical of annual gardens and grasslands) and fungal dominated soils (typical of perennial plantings and forests). I am also very interested to try the techniques for measuring soil life as a way to baseline and measure progress of the development of the soil food web. The section on composting enhanced my appreciation of the biological aspects of compost as a product for inoculating soil. I am also interested in trying AACT (actively aerated compost tea).

I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the magic stuff that is soil.