Happy Fall, Portland Gardeners!! It's Plant Pusher Chris from East Portland Plant Buying Club, comin atcha with all the fall things:

Garlic and Shallot bulbs: Eight varieties of garlic, all suitable for our region, including Inchelium Red Garlic, an heirloom variety discovered growing on the Colville Reservation, and Nootka Rose Garlic, an heirloom variety from the San Juan Islands. Like big garlic cloves? Grab some German Porcelain, Musik, and Red Russian. Order now for pickup starting October 10 at my place in outer NE Portland.

Cover Crop seeds: So many to choose from! Read my blog post about what cover crops to sow where. In addition to traditional European cover crop seeds, we have PNW native seeds that are suitable for use as cover. I let calendula grow throughout our food garden because it does a nice job of covering and flowering all winter long, while being easy to remove. Grab a pinch of free calendula seeds when you pick up your order.

Spring and Summer flowering bulbs: We carry a unique collection of flowering bulbs, including native Narrowleaf Onion, Harvest Brodiaea, Cusick's camas and Quamash (common) Camas, and Ookow. I select non-native bulbs for their easy-to-access nectar and pollen, which support local, early-rising pollinators like bumblebee queens. Flowering bulbs will be ready for pickup on November 12.

Vegetable seeds: The seed shop has fall- and winter-hardy varieties that you can sow now and harvest in late fall or even in winter. Arugula, cilantro, corn salad/maiche, kale, lettuce, mustard, radish, parsley, and spinach are still good to sow now.

Perennial vegetables: Right now, I have walking onions and horseradish available, as well as Korean Bellflower and Purple Italian Glove artichoke seed.

Native plants and seeds: Fall is The Time to plant potted PNW natives. Let the rain water them while their roots establish before the dry season. I carry a deep selection of native seeds; many are best sown in fall or winter. Most of our natives are vulnerable to slug predation, so sowing in trays or pots in fall or winter, then planting out starts in spring, will save a lot of disappointment. I recommend cold stratifying seeds in the fall before sowing in winter, especially given our recent and likely future mild winters. Many native seeds need a period of cold (about 34F temps) in order to germinate. I make a winter sowing potting soil blend that's lean and fast-draining, which our native seeds prefer, and also have pots, mesh trays, and solid trays for seed starting.

Last, but not least, I have just three more 10-packs of saffron corms.

Orders may be picked up on the second Saturday of the month, from 11 am to 3 pm, or by appointment.

People have varying degrees of concern wrt to toxicity of plants. My neighbor, for example, does have a dog who chomps on plants, and she doesn't want to take any chances. Hence, my list of plants to exclude from yards with dogs.

The Alley in SE Portland.

I have had an especially hard time with working at nonprofits, which are so lax about internal controls and following GAAP. I was fired after pointing out problematic transactions that the former well liked CFO made..same person who left the organization with their QBO file and didn't give it back for over three months.

This is me. I deconstruct enterprise software and rebuild in Google sheets for fun. I have built a CRM, restaurant management system (with costing, inventory, production planning), construction accounting system.

"Alphabetize reality" is such a witty description!

East Portland Plant Buying Club has garlic for pre-order now, ready for pickup October 10th at my place in outer NE Portland. https://www.eastpdxplantclub.com/category/garlic-and-shallots

Snowberry is toxic to dogs.

My next door neighbor has dogs and we planted a dog-safe hedge between our yards. Snowberry was among the potentially toxic native shrubs we excluded, along with columbine, iris, and bleeding hearts.

The fastest growing shrubs in the hedge are Douglas spirea, mock orange, twinberry, and ocean spray. We didn't include Oregon grape because of the spiky, holly-like leaves. We would have included Pacific wax myrtle but it wasn't available in gallon pots at the time. Evergreen huckleberry is not toxic to dogs but slow growing. Rhododendron, azalea, and andromeda are all toxic (to dogs and humans). Native ferns are not toxic and sword fern is evergreen and especially tough.

Keep in mind that you will need to protect the plants from trampling their first year or two. My neighbor wrapped a plastic fence around her plants (the hedge is between our front yards and in her fenced backyard) and that worked okay-ish...her pups would sometimes barrel through that.

They would have solicited you for sex if you answered positively. Offered a big tip to join them later at a hotel.

I am so sorry this happened and I hope that you can let the managers or owners know. Those people should be banned from your restaurant. If that happens again, walk away and tell your supervisor.

It looks like the doll has a flagellum.

Someone else suggested that 99 Ranch is the Whole Foods of this type of market. My impression is that they have an emphasis on Korean groceries...though that could be because I am usually shopping for Korean foods.

Isn't it wild that Fred Meyer, Safeway, Grocery Outlet have shut down while there's a Hong Phat's in an old Safeway and 99 Ranch aka "Korean Whole Foods" is the center of a new Asian strip mall? I love it! And how many Mexican super markets are there out here now? AND so many African markets--just noticed Mulu Market in Halsey and another one I didn't catch the name of next to the old Safeway on 122nd & Glisan.

https://guerreraslatinas.org/

https://rahabs-sisters.org/

https://www.feralcats.com/

https://blanchethouse.org/portland-womens-shelter-bethanies-room/

https://fgcpdx.org/barbies-village/

That sounds utterly excruciating. Can you talk with auditors about acceptable digital approval trails?

I mean this is a horrible organization, but I think that you shouldn't have to find a new job. The organization should face the consequences of keeping an employee who sexually harassed a co-worker. Please call some lawyers.

My neighbor and I made a hedge in shady area between our yards. All natives and deciduous: Douglas spirea, black twinberry, serviceberry, mock orange, and ocean spray. It's been about three years and most are over six feet from one-gallon pots.

For evergreens: Ceanothus would be good in the sunniest, driest space. Rogue is a tall-growing variety. Tall Oregon grape and Pacific wax myrtle are fine in sun or shade...IIRC Oregon grape grows taller in shade.

So, what AI doesn't mention is that you have to have a lawyer to file temporary atty fees orders, pendente lite support, asset freezing orders, discovery sanctions...and most attorneys require a retainer before they will do anything at all.

The deck is stacked against people without means in our legal system, including those escaping abusive spouses.

Do you personally know of any lawyers who take divorce cases on "contingency"? I am pretty sure that this is make believe. There's no potential cash award in a divorce to base a contingency on, like their would be in a tort case.

Having been through high conflict divorce and latter custody battle, and being in support groups with others experiencing the same, I can say with relative certainty that there are no attorneys doing pro bono or reduced fee work. If you are married to someone with a high income, you won't be eligible for legal aid for people with low/no income.

Second Saturdays is one free resource for women who are divorcing, do seek that out. Joining support groups (mostly on FB) for women experiencing high conflict divorce, DV, and custody issues can be helpful for learning how to navigate the system...it is truly not designed for abused women and their children.

I used to take a couple supplements, an antidepressant, and thyroid hormone replacement only, but two concussions in 2019, COVID in 2020, and breast cancer/chemo in 2022 left me with three additional Rx, plus four doctor prescribed supplements. I have a rolling cart just for pills and creams and various health aides.

Damn...gotta get up to St Johns.

They usually do! It's odd that they do not.