Daffodils! Spring is here!

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

More Spring Flowers!

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

Daffodils!

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

Daffodils are up! Is Spring far behind?

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

Garden Growing

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!

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!

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

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