January19

Rose (my black Labrador and constant companion) and I planted one salal (Gaulteria shallon) in a corner between the tractor road that leads up the hill east of our house and gardens, and a very small creek about ten feet from where the creek exits a small pond east of the mink shed "bench" there. This bench is a small flat area, carved out of the hillside there to hold sheds for mink. Like lots of local people, the folks who owned our property from the early 50's to 1990 when we bought it, tried several ways of making money from their land. They milked several cows, raised mink, and planted some Christmas trees. One of the reasons our land is devoid of some native plants - for instance, there was no salal until we planted some in our yard - is the grazing by the cows who were pastured here. Probably. I don't think they eat it, but they trample small growing things.

At this point in my planting, I was at 18 plants in 19 days of the new year, and not worried about keeping up. This was the honeymoon phase.

The photo is of Oregon big leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum), a common tree of open bottom land around here. They get huge, and in old age are covered with moss, ferns and lichen of many kinds. I'm just learning how to add images to my blogs.

I don't have an easy to find photo of salal, but it is a beautiful plant, a shrub up to 6+ feet tall, with oval leathery leaves. In sun, they bloom with pink/white bells in early summer. I think it's the plant David Douglas, the English plant explorer of the first part of the 19th century, had in mind when he wrote home that he'd discovered a plant that made the whole trip worthwhile. Douglas fir, Oregon's state tree, and Douglas spirea are named after DD.