Gardening In Transition

After a two year hiatus, I felt that it was important to continue the Central Oregon gardening journey in spite of the state of the economy, the union and the world. Gardening has always been my passion and will continue to be wherever I live!  We sold our home (and my garden) in June of 2012.  Since that time we have moved twice.  We have been in our current rental for over a year and I have to say that I have experienced some small satisfaction in knowing that we have been able to update the curb appeal significantly.  We were told that the house had been empty (bank owned) for about 18 months.   According to the homeowners nearby, it had been vacant since they bought their homes in 2009. The grass and most of the shrubs were dead.  The property management company had hired a landscaper to "spiff" things up a bit before putting the house up for rent. By spiffing we mean that they mowed, feed and watered the grass and chopped back the shrubs. The tough and hardy managed to survive.  In taking inventory, there are two lovely large lavender plants in the front, a red current bush, a small Stella de Oro daylily, a white creeping shrub rose that my research suggests is a variety called "Green Snake", Shasta Daisies, landscape grasses and a pink blooming ice plant.
I dug out the dead shrubs, chopped the overgrown Shasta Daisies into five clumps, moved the daylily out from under the lavender and filled in with plants that I had stashed in four large wine barrels that moved with us in 2012.  I was gratified to find that I had enough raw material to fill in the front and side flower beds with perennials and herbs with just a few (necessary) purchases to round things out.   I added a forsythia shrub, two varieties of agastache, purple cone flower, Gaillardia, creeping phlox, Moonbeam coreopsis, Russian sage, garden sage, thyme and a few new lavenders purchased at the Oregon Lavender Festival in July 2013.
In going through my many bags of seeds I ran across some hollyhock seeds that I had saved for several years and got a wild idea to plant them in several different places in the yard.  I have a myriad of colors planted here and there but the medium pink single seems to be the hardiest of the bunch so they are happily blooming in the corner by the garage.
There was a blank spot in the yard under the kitchen window that cried out to become a mini vegetable garden.  Salad greens, tomatoes and squash are loving the long warm days.  This is the first time in many years that we have attempted tomato plants without a greenhouse. So far the harvest has been good.  We are still dreaming of a garden of our own but as long as I have dirt, water and sun, I will be outside!