I shot this photo in my garden this morning. It's an example of how colors and shapes can contrast or blend with each other.

The plant in the foreground is white lupine. In the back is a brown foliaged ninebark shrub called "Diablo."

I like the way the lupine and the ninebark both have white flowers but the shapes are very different. The lupine is spiky and the ninebark is round in bush and in flower. You can't see it too well but there is a Sambucas nigra 'black lace' on the right side of the photo. It's similar to the ninebark in foliage color and will bloom soon in pinkish white. And hidden still is a golden leafed ninebark.

Similarity and difference = eye catching combinations in the garden.

ALERT! The Get Growing bloggers will be at the Point Defiance Flower & Garden show tomorrow from 10:30-12:30. We'll be the ones blogging live! Find us at The News Tribune booth. See you there?

What are you most looking forward to at the show?

I drove through Pt. Defiance Park this weekend and saw that the work is already underway for the Pt. Defiance Flower & Garden show. The area is all fenced off and there are big display gardens going up.

Sue asked me this morning what I was most excited about. The whole show is a site to see -- they spare no expense for the display gardens and exhibits. But the thing I'm most excited about is the Community Growers exhibit, where local non-profit farmers like Mother Earth Farm, L'Arche and Purdy Women's Prison will sell starts and flowers while sharing their stories.

I'm not just looking forward to buying starts -- it makes me happy that groups like these are thriving here, and that they're teaching others the value of working the soil. I think that's something we can all appreciate.

I've been so busy, I put the garden on autopilot last week. But over the weekend, I got a chance to reacquaint myself with it.

First, I planted the cucumbers and squash. I didn't know where I wanted to put them yet, so I planted them in pots. Kind of weird, but it'll do for now. Then, I planted a tomato start and three pepper plants. I hope they survive, because I'm really getting hooked on peppers.

My last gardening act for the weekend was thinning the carrots. Because I didn't want Joseph (who thinks pulling sprouts is a crime) to accuse me of carrot-killing, I gently re-planted each and every one of the thinned carrots. But, as I found out the following day, carrots don't do well after being yanked from the ground and replanted. I think all of them have died. Is there some trick to this I don't know?

In other news, the spinach is doing really well -- we had it in a breakfast burrito this morning. Yummy!

We know have tomatoes from three different sources growing in our yard. But what I realized this weekend as we were planting the last batch that arrived in the mail from Burpee.com was that they were all grape tomatoes.

Yep. We now have 12 grape tomato plants in our yard.

My goal for the weekend: branch out. Seriously. Can one or two heirloom varieties squeeze in?

Anyone out there have a favorite heirloom variety?

I took a hike in an undisclosed location last weekend. It was a typical Northwest native forest. But, it had some rather unusual plants growing in it. And for that reason I'm keeping its location a secret.

In short order I found three odd native plants. The first was a variegated blackberry. It looked rather ill - many variegated plants die a quick death in the wild because their white and pale foliage can't compete with their chlorophyll-stoked brethren. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of it...there were only a few leaves left. But, they were white mixed with grey-green.

The other plants...I'm not so sure if they were truly variegated or just lacking in something. The first one was (I think) a salmonberry. It looked healthy and growing well but its leaves were white with green ribs. Very odd looking.

The third, and most bizarre, was a trillium with purple foliage that was so dark it looked black. Now, I know what you are thinking: the thing was dead. But, trilliums don't turn black when they die and this thing, while past its prime, was still healthy with a shiny metallic-purple sheen under its leaves. In addition its stem was a medium purple and was thick and healthy.

A google search turned up nothing referring to a black trillium other than some sort of fictional book series. So, what do you all think? Did I find true freaks of nature or just some sick and dying plants? And yes, I left them in place.

They're everywhere. Those ugly, narrow strips in front of your house. The no man's land between the sidewalk and the street.

The Point Defiance Flower & Garden Show will have an entire display devoted to those annoying strips that are so challenging to design.

The organizers of the show started a contest in January asking locals to transform their strips.

Want to check in on the progress of the contestants? There's a photo gallery at the Point Defiance Flower & Garden Show web site where contestants have uploaded photos of their projects.

So far, Elizabeth appears to have progressed the most of any of the contestants. Her hardscape/rock design is really interesting.

Have an ugly parking strip you'd like to make over? Check out the designs at the Point Defiance Flower & Garden show website. Also, visit the Point Defiance Flower & Garden Show, which runs June 1-3 (this Friday-Sunday) at Point Defiance.

ALERT: The Get Growing bloggers will man The News Tribune booth at the show on Friday morning, from 10ish to noonish. Come see us!

We just got back from our Thursday trip to the Tacoma Farmers Market. Tomato starts were looking a little thin (buy now people!), but there were lots of herbs at Cheryl the Pig Lady's booth. News Tribune designer Elysia Smith bought two hanging herb gardens at Cheryl's booth – they looked delightful.

Fellow Get Growing blogger Craig Sailor bought himself an eggplant plant and another tomato start from the Morgan Creek Farm booth (they also sell at the Gig Harbor Farmers Market). See the picture of him below hiding coyly behind his newly purchased tomato start next to the delightful Donna White, co-owner of Morgan Creek farms with husband Steve.

We found a great booth selling trees, including a whole mess of magnolia trees. The name of the business is Trees of Change. I'm going to buy one of their trees before the season is over, I swear.

The countdown to the Point Defiance Flower & Garden show is on!

Here's a look at what the show will have to offer kids this year:

Native plants: Kids can plant a native tree seedling in the "Hundred-Acre Wood," a play/plant area for kids. The Native Plant Salvage Alliance will replant the seedlings in deforested areas.

Guided hikes: Kids can learn more about native plants while hiking to the Native Plant Garden, one of the permanent gardens at the park.

Bee hives: Get up close and personal with the secret lives of bees.

The Tacoma Farmers Market was all kinds of garden crazy last Thursday. And I'm sure tomorrow will be just as glorious for gardeners in search of plant starts and gardening advice and some seriously random moments (see photo below).

Cool stuff we found:

Tomato starts. Loads of them. Our favorites were sold by Laura Pittman-Hewitt of Ambergardens in Port Orchard (her picture is below) and the starts at the Morgan Creek Farm booth (you'll also find them at the Gig Harbor Farmers Market). Also, Cheryl The Pig Lady had all kinds of perennial and herb starts at her booth. They'll all be back tomorrow with more garden starts. Show up early -- last week, the starts were almost gone by the end of the market day.

And speaking of tomato starts, if you're just getting around to putting yours in the ground, be sure to read Jean Parietti's story that ran in our Home&Garden section on Saturday.

Other cool gardening stuff we found at the farmers market:

Great gardening advice. The master gardeners were on site answering all kinds of crazy questions. We tried not to monopolize their time, but we couldn't help ourselves. Fellow garden blogger Craig Sailor asked all kinds of questions about his garden oddities. We love it when Craig talks about his garden oddities.

Weird dude with a plant on his head. See photo below. It was a totally Tacoma moment. He was there representing the people at mudup.org.

The Point Defiance Flower & Garden Show starts next week – June 1.

At last year's show, I spent most of my time wandering around looking at the display gardens, and talking to vendors who had all kinds of gorgeous nursery plants for sale. My most favorite spot at the 2006 show was the display rock garden by Erin Rockery in Gig Harbor. It was exactly what I want my back yard to eventually look like – well designed, tranquil and beautiful.

I just checked out the list of grand display gardens and saw that several will feature small-space gardening projects. That's where you'll find me. My tiny back yard needs some help.

What are you planning on checking out at this year's show?

With all the building, sowing and fretting over my raised vegetable beds I've neglected my non-edible garden.

So, last night I took my camera in to the garden and found all sorts of things in blossom and leaf.

The top photo is Embothrium coccineum, the Chilean fire tree. Normally a circumspect evergreen tree this South American import catches fire in May with orange/red blossoms. It stops passers-by and hummingbirds in their tracks when the sun shines through it.

The bottom photo is Actinidia kolomikta, an ornamental kiwi vine. It's been in my garden only a few years now but has been fairly lackluster. But this year it's pumping out its pink and white variegated leaves for which it's known. A few leaves floating in a shallow bowl makes an unconventional but arresting centerpiece.

I posted last week about a mysterious creature who'd screwed up our garden bed right after we'd fixed it all up. I'm happy -- I guess -- to report that we found the creature over the weekend.

It was Harriet the pug.

The scary part was how we found her. We'd sent her out to go to the bathroom on Saturday night. A few minutes later, we called her back in, but she didn't come. That never happens, so we went out looking for her.

When I found her, she had the twine that we used for the Square Foot Garden grid wrapped around her body and neck and she couldn't move. While I tried to unwrap her, Joseph found some pruning shears and we cut her loose.

True to her nature, she jumped right out of my arms and started running around the yard like nothing had happened. Meanwhile, we were feeling like terrible pug parents. So ... now I know who's been ruining the garden -- and that I need to get a new fence.

The peanut mystery, however, has yet to be solved ...

As a dutiful son I made the trek out to Willapa Bay for Mother's Day. She had all sorts of tasks for me. #1 was building a mini greenhouse for her tomatoes. Actually, it was a rebuild. She left last year's up and the December windstorm did not treat it kindly. This year, we're going to remove the plastic when the tomatoes are done.

The frame is made from pipes and wasn't hard to put up. As soon as we put the plastic on it the temperature and humidity rose immediately. Mom got to work planting starts of generic red tomatoes.

Meanwhile, my reseeding of my black cherry tomatoes and red/orange striped tomatoes worked. I have about 15 of each, small as they are.

I'll let you know how they turn out.

Readers: I need your help.

My neighborhood has a storm retention pond surrounded by an ugly and flimsy chain-link fence. The problem? Kids are slipping through the fence and playing in the pond. Yes, this is the pond where the street runoff collects in a big pool of disgusting water. Seriously, where are their parents?

If mom and dad can't keep junior out of the pond, I suggested to our homeowners association that we need some kind of thorny fast-growing plant that will keep kids from climbing over and slipping through the gap in the fence. The board members loved the idea. It's a beautiful solution to an ugly problem.

Now: the dilemma. What do we plant?

Several friends have suggested climbing roses. I think they're beautiful, but I was hoping for something that would grow faster and would keep its leaves through the winter. I'm also thinking I'd rather have an evergreen vine that has a natural twining habit -- something like akebia, but with thorns (in fact, we'll probably go with akebia if we can't find anything else).

Ideally, we'd like something that is drought tolerant after we get the plant established. We don't want to plant something that is a water sucker. The location is partially shaded with fairly good soil.

Please add a comment if you have a suggestion. Thank you!

Thursday afternoon fellow Get Growing blogger Sue Kidd and I took a trip to Paldo World - the wonderful Korean megagrocery on South Tacoma Way. After lunch we checked out the wares of a friendly but English challenged woman selling starts outside the store.

I bought several plants though I don't know what all of them are and the woman couldn't quite explain them to me. But through sign language and with the help of some passersby I believe I bought a cucumber, pepper, cherry tomato, pumpkin, sesame, and a few others that remain a mystery.

All this while trying to fend off a sash-wearing proselytizing church lady trying to save my soul. Too late for me. I hope these plants can stand hot weather. REALLY hot weather.

The raised bed to house the Freak of Nature garden has been created.

I'm sorry that I haven't updated you earlier. A little trip to Alaska and Prince William Sound left me only enough time to get the thing built, filled with dirt and planted.

I used only salvaged lumber which saved me a lot of money - money I promptly spent on bags of soil at Home Depot. What can I say: some people are suckers for $3 lattes and I'm a sucker for $3 bags of dirt.

The bed is four feet wide, 12 feet long and one foot high.

Here's what I've planted: green onions (the bulbs were white, yellow and purple), mixed lettuce, red romaine, bak choi, arugula, broccoli, purple carrots, daikon radish, watermelon radish, beets, edamame beans and shiso.

Not everything has sprouted yet but most have.

My project next week: keeping the wildlife out of it.

I went into the garden yesterday to check out our handiwork and let out a small scream: Two of the three broccoli plants had disappeared from the black-plastic-covered, fenced-off garden bed. The plastic had also been ruffled a bit.

I pulled on the cover, and it turns out the broccoli plants were underneath -- whatever creature had been in the garden had pulled the plastic, obscuring the plants.

"Someone," probably the same someone, has also been leaving peanut shells EVERYWHERE -- garden beds, sidewalk and patio -- for a couple of months.

I know I should live in harmony with nature, but I don't like picking up after myself, let alone some peanut-eating scoundrel that messes up my garden.

First, who is doing this? A squirrel?

Second, who is feeding them? Don't they know wild animals stop being wild if you FEED THEM A BUNCH OF #(@*$& PEANUTS!

Third, how do I get them to stop?

A reader emailed this question to me:

Which pink perrenials can be planted along the south side of a brick walk? We need to plant about 20 altogether. 10 on each side.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Here's the little baby carrot I accidentally pulled up while weeding last night. The look on Joseph's face? That's his reaction to what he considered my brutal murder of the baby carrot. I promised to -- and promptly did -- replant the little guy.

As a side note, I'm pretty sure the carrot seeds spilled out of my pockets a couple weeks ago, because there were carrots everywhere in the garden bed. That will be a nice surprise in the coming months.

And in other news, we finished amending the soil (using the Square Foot Gardening recipe of 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost and 1/3 Gypsum ... can you call it "soil" if you're creating it from scratch?) in the second garden bed last night. We also covered it with that black plastic stuff that's supposed to keep weeds down and added the grid for SFG. So ... between the fake soil, plastic cover, 2-foot dog fencing and grid, the garden bed looks like nature-phobes built it. Kinda creepy.

Oh, and I planted one tomato plant. If it can't survive in weather like we had today, I don't want it in our garden. What else should we be doing or planting? Is it too soon for squash?

Update: Craig informed me this morning that that cute little carrot might not be a carrot at all. It could be poppy! It smelled like a carrot, but I can't be sure quite yet: Sometimes wishful thinking tricks us. I'll keep you posted.

I'm pretty laid-back. I generally do things correctly ... but like to think I have useful improvisations from time to time. Joseph likes to do things correctly and by the book. No cutting corners.

That is perhaps why, last night, when we were readying the second raised bed, we butted heads a little bit. I thought we could follow the Square Foot Gardening's soil mix prescription (a mixture of Gypsum, compost and peat moss) by eyeballing it. He wanted to measure out the quantities precisely.

Frustrated, I vented to my mom. I thought she'd offer some sympathy about how ridiculous he was being. Instead: "See, you're just like your dad. Joseph's just like me. Tell him I understand him completely. Also, tell him if he and I ever gardened together and competed against you and your dad, our garden would produce way more."

Today, her update was, "Your dad says Joseph's idea to add those things to the soil was right on. He said Joseph would make an excellent farmer. He said that's the kind of people he likes to be around."

"Ahem. Buying the book was my idea. Joseph did not dream up peat moss, it came from the book!"

She didn't even hear me. So now, apparently, Joseph and I are moving home so he can garden with my mom and farm with my dad. Don't mind little old me. I'll just be over here, doing things poorly.

Hmph.

There's a great New York Times story here (registration required) about how global warming is affecting gardeners, which, according to the article (via the National Gardening Association), make up 3/4 of the country and spend $34 billion dollars a year. (That's crazy: Three-quarters of the population?)

Here' a bit of it:

Many experts agree that climate change, which by some estimates has already nudged up large swaths of the country by one or more plant-hardiness zones, has meant a longer growing season and a more robust selection. There are palm trees in Knoxville and subtropical camellias in Pennsylvania.

Sound good? There's more...

But horticulturists warn that it is shortsighted to view this as good news. Warmer temperatures help pests as well as plants, and studies have shown that weeds and invasive species receive a greater boost from higher levels of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas, than desirable plants do. Poison ivy becomes more toxic, ragweed dumps more pollen, and kudzu, the fast-growing vine that has swallowed whole woodlands in the South, is creeping northward.

This is also wild:

By the end of the century, the climate will no longer be favorable for the official state tree or flower in 28 states, according to “The Gardener’s Guide to Global Warming,” a report released last month by the National Wildlife Federation.

Here is a link to the report mentioned above, which says our state flower, the Coast Rhododendron, but not our state tree, the Scarlet Oak, is going to be affected. One problem: I don't see when it might be affected.

Has anyone noticed their rhodies acting angry? Do you, like some of the gardeners in the NY Times story, welcome a warmer climate? Let us know.

I was just reading BoingBoing, which, you'll come to find, I do all the time. Anyhow, I found a curious link to this, the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra.

It sounded too good to be true, but the site claims they play concerts using instruments strictly made out of vegetables. Like this 'cucumberphone':

I watched the video on their web site and thought it was all really cool ... until my computer froze and I couldn't get it to turn off. Hopefully you won't suffer the same fate!

Speaking of Niki and her recent obsession with her outdoor spaces, I wonder how people here deal with bugs while trying to enjoy their outdoor spaces. I have friends who believe the best insect repellent is to chew on a raw clove of garlic just before retiring to the patio.

I just can't stomach that. I've tried all kinds of repellents during prime bug season, but nothing like the device detailed below in an e-mail that just hit my inbox. Anyone ever tried such a thing?

With Spring and insect season upon us, I thought you'd be interested in covering a new insect repellent device that combines the best effectiveness with ease of use and convenience. Called the ThermaCELL Mini Lantern, it is a small 4 inch tall lantern-shaped device that, with the push of a button, creates a 15 ft. x 15 ft. area of protection, repelling 98% of all biting insects, mosquitoes in particular.

Details here.

No sprays = a good thing. What do you think?