Chuck's Grants Pass Real Estate

30 Years to Bloom

2011-09-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

This plant is one that my Mother gave me 30 years ago (actually it is more like 31 years, but 30 year plant sounds better).

So I have had this plant for 30 years and I like it. It is a succulent so it can dry out and not suffer. I liked it because of its look. It had never bloomed. That is, until a few days ago when my wife said, "Chuck, look at this." I was amazed. It sure looked like a bloom forming, a big bloom forming.

So now we have a beautiful plant with a bloom to be and I am thinking, "who knew it would bloom?"

When I talked to my wife yesterday she said, "It opened!" When I looked at it, I thought, "Wow! what a blossom!"

I didn't actually measure the blossom, but it is at least six inches across. Wonderful gift from my mother 30 years ago. She passed away 16 years ago and part of why I like it and keep it is to remember her. I wonder if she knew it would bloom? However, God knew and it is a gift from Him. Good things come to he who waits.

God bless you from Grants Pass Real Estate. Bye for now. chuck
P.S. Mother and Dad's wedding anniversary was today, September 9th. They were married in 1931.
P.P.S. I never knew the name of this plant, but a friend did a search and found it. It is called Stapelia gigantic, also known as the carrion flower since it attracts flies for pollination by its foul-smelling flowers reminiscent of the odour of rotting meat (I need to tell my wife, she thought the smell was me). It is native to South Africa.

Daffodils! Spring is here!

2011-04-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

Spring is here. the daffodils have been in full bloom for a while now. I am putting up a few recent pictures of some of ours. Daffodils are great flowers. They are poison so the deer won't eat the blossoms and the gophers and moles won't eat the bulbs. They multiply and come up year after year. They do need some cooling hours so if you live in a warm climate, you will need to dig them up and put them in your freezer for a month each year and then replant them. Fortunately, here in Grants Pass Real Estate we have a mild winter that is enough to make the daffodils and tulips bloom.

They come in a variety of colors from white to yellow to orange. There are also double blooms and fancy blooms. I have a few of those that are starting to bloom. When they come out fully I'll put some more pictures up.

They are always cheerful flowers. Just the thing for spring to brighten your day and bring a smile to your face. So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

SNOW!

2011-02-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

We had our first snow of the year recently. On February 10th, 2011 I woke up to about 6 inches of snow at my house. As I drove to town the snow got less and less until in Grants Pass there was only about an inch. The home base for Grants Pass Real Estate is about 8 miles west of Grants Pass. So at my house and in Merlin and Selma and Cave Junction we got snow. Grants Pass and near Grants Pass had only a little. By the afternoon, the snow was off the roads and by Saturday the 12th the snow had melted entirely (except for the snowman who hung in there for a few days more).

The snow was wet and stuck to the trees which made for some lovely pictures.

When I was a kid, I grew up in Iowa and we had snow and then more snow and more snow throughout the winter. It was fun for a while but soon got old. Here in Grants Pass Real Estate we get snow once or twice a year and it doesn't hang around long. So it remains fun to have snow.

What could be better than to have enough snow for fun and beauty and yet have it go away before it becomes a bother? That is winter in Grants Pass Real Estate.

So long for now.

chuck

Nasturtiums!

2010-11-18T16:22:00.001-08:00

Nasturtiums. What a treat. Lovely flowers and you can add them to your salad to brighten it up and provide a nutritious bite of joy. They taste mildly peppery but very delicate.

Another treat here in Grants Pass Real Estate.

Bye for now.

chuck

Fall Leaves

2010-11-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo in our yard. A few clouds in the distance and setting sun make the light just right for this picture. Note that now the grass is all green--not just the grass where we irrigate.

This is our Redbud in full fall color. From spring through fall this is a thoroughly delightful tree.

This is a shot of one of the local golf courses.

This is a picture of a tree in Grants Pass. Fall colors are especially lovely this year. I took this shot on a simple drive around town. We have just enough of a winter to make the four seasons possible. Lovely times here in Grants Pass Real Estate.

Bye for now.

Chuck

Fall Garden and Flowers

2010-09-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

Zinnias are so easy to care for and give you such beauty. Here are a few.

This is a magic lily that sends up deep green straps in the spring. In the summer they die down to be followed in late summer by sturdy scapes that are topped by these lovely blooms.

This is a petunia. They are such reliable bloomers. Filled with blossoms from late spring until frost they are a joy to have around.

This is an aster. Perennial to its core it comes up each year to brighten the fall garden.

Bye for now

chuck

Rhodies, Strawberries, Lettuce and more!

2010-06-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

Our Rhododendrons are late this year. The unusual late cool rainy spring we had this year made them bloom much later than I have seen in over 20 years. Still they are now lovely and grace our landscape here in Grants Pass Real Estate.

Here is a closeup of these magnificent blooms.

Also the garden is now growing. The strawberries are small, but oh so sweet. A delicious treat.

The lettuce is coming on fine. Colorful and nutritious.

The Roses are now coming on as well. Lovely so see and these are antique roses that actually smell like roses. Ahhh.

Oh, by the way, some birds have started to make a nest in a second birdhouse gourd. The gourd hanging in the Redbud tree now has little sticks in it. Always fun to watch the garden and yard here in Grants Pass Real Estate. So long for now. chuck

Garden Time

2010-06-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

Garden time again. Tilled up the garden on Saturday, let it rest a few days and planted it on Tuesday evening. I found lots of good plants. Went to Fort Vannoy farms and got some peppers and melons including a Crenshaw melon. They get large and very sweet.

Went to the grower's market and got tomatoes, peppers and more melons.

Went to Chet's Nursery and Redwood Nursery and got more tomatoes, melons, peppers, sugar snap peas, lettuce, squash and cucumbers.

I put down black plastic for the melons, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, since our nights here in Grants Pass Real Estate are cool during the summer and the black plastic collects and holds the heat so they grow better, faster and ripen better. I found a Sun Gold cherry tomato--very sweet and prolific.

Inside of the Compost Tumbler after 10 days. Still steaming and warm, about half the volume it was when I filled it up. A few more days and it will be finished. I used the compost tea mixed about 10 parts water to 1part tea as a pick me up drink for all the new plants in the garden. Great fun here in Grants Pass Real Estate.
So long for now.
chuck

Lilacs, Apple Blossoms, and Bird House Gourds

2010-05-06T13:12:00.000-07:00

Lilacs have a short season, but they are so beautiful and the smell will carry you away.

Always a treat.

And now for a

few apple blossoms.

If I can keep the ground squirrels

from eating the little apples,

then I will have some good

eating in the fall.

This is a five way apple

with five different varieties grafted

onto one tree.

And now a bird house gourd. I planted these a few years ago in the garden and got a bumper crop of gourds. This spring I put a hole bit on my drill and voila--bird house. I actually put up three of them. One in the Princess Tree, one in the Redbud tree and one on the garden fence. The ones hanging in the trees are more romantic, but the one on the garden fence is the one that the birds started to build a nest in.

God has a sense of humor.

So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Wild Flowers

2010-04-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

This is a wildflower that comes up every year in late spring. I used to know the name of it, but I have forgotten and since I didn't plant it I can't look it up. However, since God planted it, I am sure He knows what the name is.

Lovely blossoms that can be seen for the price of a walk around Grants Pass Real Estate.

So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

More Daffodils

2010-03-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pics of daffodils. Later blooming than the others. We have had daffodils at Grants Pass Real Estate for a long time this year. Maybe the weather has been cooler than usual. We have had blooms since late January.

This one is a double bloom. Didn't know I planted it but am glad I did.

Such cheery faces these blooms have. Does my heart good just to look at the picture now. Spring is always lovely here in Grants Pass Real Estate, it lasts a long time and eases into summer. One more of God's blessings for us.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate for now.

chuck

More Spring Flowers!

2010-03-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

We have more spring blooms. This is flowering quince. Lots of lovely flowers early before the leaves are fully on. And no fruit. This one is planted close to the house so I have to trim it every year to keep it away from the house. Better to plant it in the open and then you can choose to prune or not.

This is a blossom on an azalea. Lovely early blossoms. Slow growing plant, but reliable bloomer. Notice the pine needles as a mulch. Azaleas and rhododendrons like acid soil and the pine needles accommodate them. When I lived in Virginia and North Carolina

I could get a bale of pine needles for mulching. They have lots of pines and lots of azaleas and rhododendrons so it works great. Blueberries also like acid soil. Most of the soil in Grants Pass Real Estate is not acid so amendments are needed. Pine needles are the cheapest fix.

Another picture of more of our daffodils. Lovely time of year in Grants Pass Real Estate.

So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Composting.

2010-03-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of my Compost Tumbler. I mow my lawn with a riding mower with a grass catcher on it. I fill up the composter with 4 parts green and one part brown. For the green I use fresh grass from the lawn and kitchen scraps (fruit, vegetables, coffee grounds, egg shells). For the brown I use dried grass and dried leaves though you can use newspaper, sawdust, small wood chips. Fill up the composter. Turn five turns once a day. It will reach 160 degrees the next day--hot enough to kill most weed seeds. Two weeks to compost. Great. Compost is good for any soil. Soil too sandy and loose--use compost--it will bind it up and make it more like good topsoil. Soil has too much clay--use compost--it will loosen it up and make it more porous and topsoil like. Composting is great in Grants Pass Real Estate.
This is my traditional compost pile. During the winter the weather is too cold to make compost in the compost tumbler. So I pile stuff up the old way. Leave it for a year and you still get good compost. You also have a place to put the kitchen scraps in the winter. Pull back some of the grass, dump your scraps, pull the grass back over top. It will not smell bad and if you don't put in meat products, you won't have animals digging in your compost pile.

So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Daffodils!

2010-02-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

Daffodils are blooming now. So beautiful. And coming early in the year. At least in Grants Pass. I checked the weather in Platteville, Wisconsin and the high today is 34 degrees with the low being 18. Later in the week the high and low are forecast to be 22 and 2. Yes, that is 2 degrees. Daffodils can withstand cold weather but let's not be ridiculous. I grew up in Iowa and have vivid memories of the winters there. Spring and fall once they came were great but short. Spring was on Tuesday and Fall was on Thursday. The rest of the year was hot humid summer and cold winter.

You might also notice that the grass is green. And it is growing. In fact, I am going to need to mow my lawn soon. I haven't mowed it since October, but it has been green the whole time. To be fair, it is green throughout the fall (once it starts to rain), winter, and spring; however, in the summer, if you put no water on it, it will turn brown. Still in the Midwest unless there was snow in the fall and winter, the landscape was brown.

To be blunt I much prefer the climate here in Grants Pass. But then, I am biased.

A man was in New York and he went into a church and saw a red phone on the wall. When he asked the pastor what the phone was for, the pastor said, "That's a direct line to God." The man said, "Can I use it." Pastor said, "Oh, sure. The call costs $20,000."

The man traveled through many states always stopping in a church and seeing a red phone asking and getting the same answer, "Yes, direct line to God, $20,000."

Until one day he got to Southern Oregon and when he asked got the response, "Yes, direct line to God, 20 cents." Twenty Cents! How come? "Oh, this is Southern Oregon. It's a local call."

So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Royal Empress Tree

2010-02-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

This is what will be the blossom for the Royal Empress Tree, also known as the Princess Tree or the Paukownia Tree. This tree is widespread in the South and the Midwest, and the East Coast where sometimes it is regarded as an aggressive invader. However, it is not widespread here on the West Coast probably because the conditions for its easy spread are not met.

The wood is prized in China and Japan and used for jewelry boxes and furniture. Sometimes it is planted in the USA with thoughts of selling the wood. There are reports of selling a tree for $20,000. However, I have not found any markets for it.

I bought it for it's beauty and fast growth. It was touted as growing up to 40 feet in eight years. I have had mine for about 12 years and it is about 20 feet tall. I got it by mail order from http://www.raintreenursery.com/ for $15.00, though now it is listed at $9.75. It came in a little pot and was about 6 inches tall. I thought, "What have I done!" But it grew 2 feet that summer. Then it died down to the ground in the winter. They did say it would do that, though.

The next year it grew to 4 feet. And died down to the ground. The next year it grew to about 8 feet and stayed up. From the first it had huge leaves. After 10 years it bloomed. Lovely blooms. Overall I find it to be a wonderful specimen tree here in Grants Pass Real Estate.

So long for now.

chuck

Daffodils are up! Is Spring far behind?

2010-02-01T15:57:00.000-08:00

Daffodils are up! They started coming up in January and now have blossoms on them. It won't be long before they are blooming. Even though it is still winter, can spring be far behind?

Daffodils are great here in Grants Pass Real Estate. They are hardy. They are perennial, coming up year after year. They multiply. Plant a few and wait and you have more, then lots more. They don't have enemies. The deer won't eat them, they are poisonous to moles and gophers who also won't eat them. And they are beautiful.

In this photo you can see some of the daffodils. And the taller plants are garlic. Garlic also comes up by itself. These started in late October and will be up and ready to pick in the late spring or early summer. Or you can let them go and watch the beautiful blossoms and let them die down and come up again in the fall.

Here is another harbinger of spring. These crocus are up and lovely.

Even though it is still winter here in Grants Pass Real Estate we still have some nice weather and it is mild enough to have daffodils and crocus come up early.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate for now.

chuck

Merry Christmas to You.

2009-12-25T14:12:00.000-08:00

No snow yet this year, but here are pictures from other years.

Snow here is fun as we don’t get it often and when we do it usually doesn’t stay long. We can build a snowman, have a snowball fight, and slide down the hill on our toboggan and usually by that time the snow has melted off the roads.

I believe that we yearn for a White Christmas because new snow looks pure and it thus represents the purity of Christ, the pure expression of love from God to us.

Luke Chapter 2 verse 10-11 “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

May the joy and peace of Jesus Christ’s presence envelope you now and throughout the New Year.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

What is new in Real Estate in Grants Pass?

2009-12-18T11:08:00.000-08:00

Three Local Real Estate Companies Join Forces.

Agents from ERA Prestige Homes, Coldwell Banker Doran Taylor, and RE/MAX Ideal Brokers, Inc. are merging to help agents survive and remain competitive in the still challenging real estate market. Bob Gervais, owner/broker of RE/MAX office said, “We will have, at the least, about 45 full-time, seasoned professional agents. We will not only survive, but thrive.”

Michael Masters, owner/broker of ERA Prestige Homes, said, “I have released my agents to work for one of my competitors, since there are just too many offices to survive in the challenging market.” He plans to stay with ERA until his commitment to ERA is up. Then Masters plans to join the REMAX management group.

Coldwell Banker Doran Taylor is closing. Bob Chalupa, owner/broker is retiring. Most of his agents are expected to move to RE/MAX.

RE/MAX will have the synergy of three good offices combined in one office and the excitement and positive energy that comes with that.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Brrr! It's Cold!

2009-12-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

Last night, I was sitting beside the wood stove toasting my back and thinking about the temperature. It was unseasonably, unreasonably cold. 18 degrees when I went to bed and 10 degrees when I got up. Frosty as you can see.

Crinkly, icy frost. However, the cold weather is good for our fruit trees here in Grants Pass Real Estate as they need a certain number of cooling hours in order to produce fruit. (Cooling? Doggone this is cold!) Also tulips need the cold in order to bloom. I remember reading an article years ago where a lady from Florida was asking why her tulips would not bloom. The answer was to dig up her bulbs and put them in the fridge for 2 or 3 months in order to chill them enough to bloom. Not here. Even in a normal cooling year, the tulips bloom when you leave them in the ground.

When the sun came up a little more, things looked a little better, but still only 15 degrees. This is unusual temperatures for us. Yesterday Grants Pass broke a record for cold temps going back to 1896.

Global warming.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

There are many blessings for all of us even though it has been a hard year for many of us. I am thankful for my family and friends. For my home and the garden produce of this year. For the mountain views. For the rain that nourishes the earth. For the fall leaves that were so pretty this year. For work to do and for health when I’m well and healing when I’m sick.

God is still in heaven and he still loves us and sends us blessings each day. Sometimes we are too busy to look for them, but they are there nevertheless. A smile from a friend. A smile from a stranger. Someone who lets you in a long line of traffic. A bird that flies by in a graceful air cutting swoop. The laughter of a child. A late blooming flower. A cat’s antics. A sunset that spreads a sky blue pink knock your eyes out ease your soul experience.

Count your blessings, count them one by one.

What are you thankful for?

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Fall Treasures

2009-10-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

This is a reblooming iris. It blooms in the spring like all the other iris. Then in the fall, Surprise here it comes again--more blooms that last past the first frost.

This is cabbage coming on well with the cool fall weather. This is actually from a few cabbages that we planted last year and they kept growing throughout the winter and hung on through the summer and now are forming heads again. The climate here in Grants Pass Real Estate is mild enough that cabbage and kale will go through the winter. Also you can plant spinach in the fall and when it gets a little warm in February, sometimes in January, the spinach starts growing again and you get the earliest, tenderest, tastiest spinach ever. Please eat it raw so that it tastes great, don't cook it into a mush.

This is our asparagus patch. I pulled the weeds and the grass out and put a mulch of compost all around it. The compost will keep the weeds down and feed the asparagus so that it will come up early and strong in the spring. This asparagus is a purple variety that is sweet to eat raw and turns green when steamed or stir fried. Don't cook it to death and make it mush so that kids hate it. Leave it crunchy and tasty.

God bless your day. So long from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Late Garden Greats

2009-10-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of an organic garden here at Grants Pass Real Estate is healthy animals as well. This is a tree frog on a corn stalk. He earns his keep by eating bugs. Plus he is beautiful.

This is a surprise. I bought a four way pear tree to plant in the garden and the root stock sprouted and grew into a lovely quince! Who knew! I just now looked up recipes for quince and found some neat ones.

This is sweet meat squash and a pumkin. The sweet meat squash is supposed to be a very good keeper and have good sweet flavor. The pumpkin is---well it is a pumpkin.

Last of the cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. It has been getting unseasonably cold at night and I think soon there will be a frost to end this particular part of the harvest.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate for now. May God's blessings follow you throughout your day.

chuck

Mac vs PC

2009-09-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

Now that Snow Leopard has been out for a while, I have a few comments. First, by way of full disclosure, I have been a Mac user since 1989. I became a real estate agent and had to use a computer. The first one I used was a windows machine using DOS. A real pain and more user unfriendly than anything windows now. But then I got a Mac, an SE, which worked and was fun to use.

In 2001 with the advent of OS X 10.0 the computing world changed radically. The original OS X was Cheetah in January 2001, followed in September 2001 by Puma, followed in August 2002 by Jaguar, followed by Panther in October 2003, followed by Tiger in April 2005, followed by Leopard in October 2007 and Snow Leopard in August 2009.

All the various iterations worked well with each succeeding iteration working better than the last one.

During this time Microsoft was plodding along with XP (which admittedly was better than Windows 98) and promising year after year that they would have a new wonderful version codenamed Longhorn. When Steve Jobs introduced Tiger he commented that you know what happens when a Tiger goes up against a Longhorn. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft announced the new name was Vista. After five years in production it came out in January 2007 with much fanfare and a thudding response. Many corporations refused to update to Vista because of its many problems. Eventually Microsoft stopped selling XP to force adoption of Vista. Now they are coming out with Windows 7 (basically lipstick on the Vista pig) which is meant to fix all the things wrong with Vista.

Installing Snow Leopard was easy and quick. I put the DVD in, clicked a few times, and 45 minutes later I had a new computer. It made my computer (an iMac that I bought in 2006) faster in many areas and gave me back 11 gigabytes in disk space. Snow Leopard was meant to be a refinement of Leopard. So Apple charged only $30 for the upgrade. A great deal for a small price. I keep finding little enjoyable surprises about how things work--it is like being on an extended Easter egg hunt.

I don't have Windows 7 and won't go there ( I use XP that I run on Parallels for the few Windows applications that I need to run) but I have heard that it is very difficult to install. From Microsoft's website Windows 7 will cost $119.99,or $199.99, or $219.99 depending on the version you use. (Apple has one price for Snow Leopard--$30.00) If you would like to pay a lot and have a difficult time installing and an inferior OS once installed, then go for Windows 7.

However, that is not my choice.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Harvest Time!

2009-09-11T10:18:00.000-07:00

Hello from Grants Pass Real Estate. This is a wonderful time of year in the garden. Just take a look at what God grew for us.

We have sweet corn, lots of juicy tomatoes, sweet red, yellow, and orange peppers, cucumbers, hot red cayenne peppers and still some honeydews getting ripe.

Everything is organic, bug free and full of taste that you cannot get from food in the store. Fertilizing with compost makes the plants strong and bug resistant. The one pest that we have problems with is ground squirrels. They take one or two bites out of a tomato or cucumber or melon and then move on. The only thing to do is to cut off the bite area and eat the rest. Not that big of a deal.

It is a joy to go to the garden to see what is new today. Beautiful colors, great smells, fresh air, sunshine, and God's bounty. What more could you want? A great use of real estate.

One of my daughters will not eat tomatoes from the store since they taste somewhere between a piece of cardboard and a piece of plastic. But a couple of years ago when she was six, we went to the garden and I gave her a yellow cherry tomato which she ate and then said, "Now that is a good tomato!"

So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Garden Growing

2009-08-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

The garden is growing here at Grants Pass Real Estate. We have gotten lots of melons--watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew! Yum. Also lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, and now peppers.

It is a great time of year for a gardener. Great fresh tasty stuff free for the picking from your own real estate.

As you can see I also need to look at the sweet corn as it is looking like it will be ready soon if not now.

The picture here of a pepper also has a little bit of the orange cherry tomatoes in the bottom right hand corner. They are sweet and beautiful as well.

Gotta go check the garden. Later from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Watermelon!

2009-08-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! Watermelon fresh from the garden. We have had some unseasonable hot weather this summer in Grants Pass Real Estate so melons have ripened early this year. I actually got our melons planted late and they still got ripe early. This is a picture of a sugar baby watermelon and two varieties of cantaloupe, namely fast break and ambrosia. Both are exceedingly sweet. Cantaloupe is easy to pick--simply watch and when it turns tan or brown check the stem and when it pulls off easily the melon is ripe.

Watermelons are a different matter. There are several things to check for with watermelons. One is a yellow patch on the bottom where it touches the ground. Next is a low pitched thump when you pat the melon. And the third is the curly tip that goes off to the side of the stem end. When it is still green so is the melon. When that curly cue is brown, the melon has a yellow patch on the bottom and the melon thumps when patted, then the melon is ripe and sweet. Nothing like a fresh melon right out of the garden. Cost effective too. So far we have gotten three watermelons off of one plant with at least one more to go. The plant cost me $1.50. Try to buy four watermelons in the grocery store for $1.50. No luck. Plant your own.

Put down black plastic, cut a hole for the plant, put in the plant, water regularly and wait for God to grow your melon. Very easy.

This is a picture of the watermelon pictured whole above, here cut with what was left of it. Within a half hour it was all gone as our family loves melon and this one was really good.

What a great way to use your Grants Pass Real Estate.

Bye for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Ahh Summer!

2009-07-17T15:47:00.000-07:00

As you can see the garden in Grants Pass Real Estate is growing greatly. My dad used to say about the corn, "Knee high by the Fourth of July." Our corn was a bit above knee high on the Fourth, but now two weeks later it is shoulder high. A couple of weeks ago I put some compost around the bottom of the corn stalks. That may have something to do with the great growth. The melons are setting. Squash and pumpkins are setting on the vine and blooming. We have started picking cucumbers. Tomatoes are on the vine and growing. Peppers are on the plants and growing.

It is a great time to sit back and watch God grow the garden. Although I did have to take a run through the garden with the tiller again. And my wife pulled some weeds as well. But all in all we watch. The grapes are growing and getting bigger. The blackberries (these are o

nes that I planted and want) have set fruit and are ripening. The plums are growing.

Here in Grants Pass Real Estate, plums, apples and pears are usually consistent producers. Other fruit trees bloom early when the weather gets warm in the spring and then have their blooms frosted off with a late frost. If you can protect the blooms on other fruit you can get beautiful crops as well. I have tried turning on a sprinkler when frost comes with some success. The sprinkler will coat the blooms with a layer of ice. The ice will melt slowly when the sun comes up and this slow warming will protect the bloom. Whereas if the bloom is coated with frost, the frost will melt quickly and the cells in the bloom will burst and kill the bloom. I have a friend who says that he has put a light bulb in the center of the tree and turned it on when frost comes and the heat from the bulb has warmed up the tree and prevented frost damage.

This is a picture of the sunset over the mountains here in Grants Pass Real Estate. As is very evident here only God can make a mountain like that and a sunset like that. We are blessed to live here.

Bye from Grants Pass Real Estate for now.

chuck

Summer is coming

2009-06-16T16:05:00.001-07:00

Summer is on the way here in Grants Pass Real Estate. The longest day of the year is June 21st and that is officially summer. The garden is starting to take off. As are the weeds. But then, if weeds won't grow nothing else will either. By the way, do you know how to tell the difference between a flower or vegetable you want and a weed? Pull it out by the roots and if it grows back then you know it is a weed.

Over the years, our garden soil has gotten better. We started with decomposed granite and a few inches of topsoil. I added a few yards of topsoil. Then I added leaves in the fall and grass clippings, and compost during the summer. Now when I till the soil in the spring it breaks up easily and is lovely loose topsoil that gets deeper every year. I rarely use any other fertilizer and the soil stays loose, the plants grow well, and the bugs stay at a minimum. Occasionally I get a tomato hornworm, but those big ugly things are easy to see and pick off the tomatoes and squash. Splat!

Great days at Grants Pass Real Estate.

Bye for now.

chuck

Lettuce begin again.

2009-06-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hello again. Sorry for the pun. I couldn't resist. Grants Pass real estate has been favored this year with relatively cool weather in a spring that has allowed cool weather crops like lettuce to last longer. I actually put these plants in late and they have done well without bolting. Spring has been delightful here. Makes me glad all over again that I live in Grants Pass and in Southern Oregon. The sign in Grants Pass says "It's the Climate" and this it true most of the time. Lovely spring and fall. Sunny summer. And an easy winter. I grew up in Iowa which had awful, cold winters that went on too long. Spring and fall were nice, but spring was on a Tuesday and then sultry summer came on with a vengence. Fall was on a Thursday and then the long winter began.

As a kid I didn't know any different. I thought all places had the same weather. When I grew up and went to a different climate I was amazed. Grants Pass real estate has the best climate I have lived in (I have lived in the Midwest, East Coast, South and now the West Coast).

Even roses grow easier here in Grants Pass real estate. The dry climate for the summer makes it hard for mildew and black spot to start or take hold on my roses. They just grow and bloom and look beautiful. Though I do have to put them behind a fence or the deer will eat them (thorns and all, ouch!).

So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Garden Time

2009-05-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Plant a garden. work in the dirt. Good for the soul. Put hot weather plants (melons, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers) on black plastic because Grants Pass Real Estate is in an area where the climate is warm during the day and cools off during the night. Those cool nights are not good for the hot weather plants. They will grow better and ripen sooner with the black plastic to hold the heat overnight. When I first came to Grants Pass, I planted a garden and planted melons. My first mistake was to think, 'Well, it's not raining today, maybe it will tomorrow.' I got up the next day and the sun was shining, a nice day. That happened the whole summer. Eventually I gave the plants some water. Now I have a sprinkler system on a timer. Much easier.

There are benefits of using the black plastic: you till the soil and put the plastic down, cut a hole in the plastic and plant your plant, turn on the sprinkler system and wait. The plastic not only keeps the plants warm it smoothers the weeds. No weeding. Lazy gardeners unite! Enjoy your Grants Pass Real Estate while you watch it grow and wait for God to finish His work for you to have garden produce.

Another treat this time of year for Grants Pass Real Estate is Foxglove (which is the source of digitalis used for heart medicine). The original old fashioned flower color is purple, but now there are white and red and yellow and pink colors as well. The leaves are very poisonous to humans, cattle and horses. The leaves contain a heart stimulant. Plant away from livestock.

Enjoy your Grants Pass Real Estate.

So long for now.

chuck

Evergreen Park is Grants Pass Newest Park

2009-05-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Evergreen Park is great!

Evergreen Bank bought the property from the Riverside Inn and shaped it into a lovely series of walkways, waterfalls, ponds, paintings and sculptures. The park is on private land, but is open to the public.

Brady Adams of Evergreen invites everyone in. Brady Adams calls the park a community asset.

Quality workmanship abounds. The quality of workmanship and attention to detail astound the eye with the attractiveness of the waterfalls, the many plantings, the paintings, and the view of nearby Caveman Bridge. The waterfalls are a delight to the ear and a refreshing coolness on a hot day.

Thank you Brady Adams & Evergreen Bank.

Providing this treasure for our community makes us all feel happy to live in our beautiful city where people step out to beneﬁt us all.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Blackberries are the bane of real estate

2009-05-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

All over Southern Oregon Real Estate you will find blackberries growing (like the one pictured here). Most people say, 'Oh, there are the Oregon blackberries.' Not so. The widely spread blackberries are actually a domestic berry that has been spread by birds conveniently with fertilizer attached. They grow very well and are very tasty. However, the birds are not discriminating on where they plant them. They put them wherever they can sit on something for a few minutes. Fences, flowers, trees all have blackberries growing in them and around them.

The actual Oregon blackberry (pictured here) has a different leaf pattern with a serrated edge and a different berry that is smaller and has a different sweeter taste. The canes are not as vigorous as the domestic berry and they are not nearly as wide spread as the domestic berry.

Years ago we bought our first home in the country. When we moved in, the back yard had a patch of domestic blackberries that was 40 feet wide, 100 feet long and 12 feet high. I took a chain saw to them and cut them down and burned them up. Then I dug up the roots and discovered that there was a bulbous root about as big as my fist about six inches down. I cut this off and burned it as well, leaving only the thin roots that continued down from there. After that I planted grass, and grapes and raspberries and garden where the blackberries had been. My neighbor cut down his blackberries too, but neglected to dig up the roots and his blackberries came up bigger than ever having been pruned as it were.

One of the best things about spring is Iris. They are a lovely addition to any real estate. Easy to care for, a multitude of colors, and now there are reblooming iris that bloom in the spring and again in the fall. What a treat.

So long from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

The Sun Shines Again

2009-05-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Hello,

The sun shines again. Yeah! The rain was cool and fresh, and the sun shining is warm and comfortable. Spring here in Grants Pass Real Estate is wonderful to behold. Now I need to develop my own piece of real estate by planting a garden. However, first I need to mow the weeds from last year and till them under before I plant.

A few years back I wrote this about our garden real estate:

I planted asparagus over the weekend. It sounded simple. Dig an 18 inch deep trench, fill in with 8 inches of topsoil and 4 inches of compost, plant the asparagus roots, cover with 2 inches of topsoil and as they grow fill in the other four inches with more topsoil.

I have a tiller so I thought 'oh a couple of hours tops.' It's Friday night about six o'clock. So I started tilling--10 feet long and 14 inches wide. The soil I was working in was decomposed granite--hard but not so bad since we've had a lot of rain. I would till down about 4 inches and shovel it out into a wheel barrow, then dump it around the garden fence to fill in spots where the soil did not come up to the wire (I am trying to keep digger squirrels out of the garden). Three hours later I am 10 inches down, have 8 inches to go, and it is now dark.

The next day I am pooped from digging and hauling dirt. So I rest.

Sunday afternoon, I start again. Now it is raining, but not hard, and I am living in Oregon. The trench is too deep to till in any more so I take a couple of shovels and dig down. This time I pile the dirt beside the trench (I'll haul it away later).

Once the trench is done I have to get the topsoil which is about 300 feet away. Back to the wheelbarrow. The topsoil is moist because of the rain, which is good for the asparagus; however, water is heavy. So I put in some topsoil and then 25 gallons of compost (the compost maker is right outside the garden fence {it makes compost in two weeks, such a deal}), some more topsoil, plant the asparagus and cover with two inches of topsoil. Done (except moving the dirt later) six hours. And now next year I will get a crop of fresh asparagus (purple asparagus that turns green when you stir fry it or steam it). This year I might get a couple of spears, mostly it has to grow to get established.

Years ago I rented a place that had an asparagus bed and I picked some fresh and stir fried it within the hour--it was really great. Nearly everything that is that good takes time to produce. And the time that it looks like it will take is nearly always shorter than the time it actually does take. In this case six hours instead of two (plus a year to wait). Along the way in those six hours I saw a sunset, heard several birds singing, saw a snake, saw a pair of Goldfinches sitting on the fence, saw the Purple Martin mama poke her head out of the birdhouse that we hung up this spring, saw three deer about 50 feet from me (one doe, one yearling buck and one older buck, both with their antlers in velvet). Nice surprises that I wouldn't have seen had I not been there then.

So long for now from Grants Pass Real Estate.

chuck

Using Native Plants in Landscaping to improve your real estate.

2009-05-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

Native plants are plants that have adapted to the geography, rainfall levels, and climate of a particular region. Native plants occur in communities, that is, they have evolved together with other plants. As a result, a community of native plants provides habitat for a variety of native wildlife species such as songbirds and butterflies.

Incorporating native plants into your landscape provides a beautiful, hardy, drought resistant, low maintenance area to your landscape, while beautifying your real estate. Native plants, once established, save time and money by eliminating or significantly reducing the need for fertilizers, pesticides, water, and lawnmowers.

Southern Oregon real estate provides a great climate for native plants and herbs.

Which plants attract birds and butterflies?

For song birds: sunflowers, blazing star, white prairie clover, compass plant, prairie dock, big bluestem, downy serviceberry, hackberry, dogwood, juniper, elderberry, and hawthorn.

For hummingbirds: columbine, jewelweed, native phlox, native honey-suckle, and cardinal flower.

For butterflies: milkweed, aster, purple cone-flower, blazing star, native phlox, black-eyed Susan, dogbane, New Jersey tea, coreopsis, joe-pye weed, goldenrod, vervain, and ironweed.

Useful native plant info links:
• Wild Ones Natural Landscapers is a 23-year-old non-profit organization devoted to restoring native ecologies and promoting environmentally sensitive horticultural practices.
• The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center has a comprehensive list of resources for every state.
• National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program tells the basics for starting a backyard wildlife habitat.
• The Environmental Protection Agency's Green Landscaping site has information about reducing energy consumption through the use of native plant landscapes.
• Ken Robertson's write-up on the tallgrass prairie of Illinois features excellent photos of many dry prairie species.
• The University of Wisconsin Herbarium features photos and descriptions of all plants native to that state.
• The Soil Conservation Service's Midwestern Wetland Flora describes more than 300 species with photos.
• There's lots of info about milkweeds at the Monarch Watch site.

Good Morning!

2009-05-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

When I got up this morning I looked out the window and saw a beautiful bird, yellow with black accents, sitting on the magnolia in the midst of the green lawn and then moments later a hummingbird flew by in a glint of red to say hello and went to the other window to greet my wife before buzzing off.

It rained overnight so everything was fresh. Even though I had turned on the sprinkler system just last night (I'll need to check all the heads to see if they are functioning since this is the first time the system has run since last fall). First I thought it was just the sprinklers, but the smell and the driveway being wet all gave me clues as to the reality of the situation, God had straightened up His living room overnight.

Part of the joys of owning your own piece of ground, your own real estate. Have you really thought about that term "real estate?" Real, yes this is real, tangible, it exists--not made up, you can't make any more (a scientist says to God, "I can do anything you can do. In fact, I can create life." God says, "OK, go ahead." The scientist bends down and starts scraping some dirt together when God says, "Wait a minute. Get your own dirt."), you can buy it, you can sell it, you can use it, you can give it to your kids or anyone else you want to in your will. Estate... piece of land. To the center of the earth and up into the sky.

The picture in the header is of our garden and yard. We are caretakers of it for God who made it and gave it to us to use for the time being.

chuck