Is it a Fruit or a Vegetable?

Sometimes I wonder what makes a fruit a fruit. 

From a culinary standpoint we consider sweet things like peaches and plums to be fruit and savory foods like peas and carrots to be vegetables. But what if a fruit is sour like a cherry? It’s still a fruit, right?


I remember reading once that tomatoes are fruit because they have seeds inside, and it’s true they are fruit but that’s not the only reason. Strawberries are fruit as well but their seeds are on the outside.


Botanically speaking fruit are produced at the flower of the plant so apples, plums, tomatillos or any other plant that produces a flower and a subsequent seed holding/containing product is a fruit. That includes cucumbers, peppers and yes, tomatoes. 


What about peas and beans, you ask? Well they are called legumes and technically the pod or she’ll is the fruit and the seed is found inside, but we classify the entirety as a legume.

Vegetables are the leaves (lettuce), roots (carrots), tubers (potatoes) and stalks (celery) of plants. Some vegetables are the flowers of plants (broccoli).


Sometimes a plant can be a vegetable in its early stages (like the flowers of zucchini or bean sprouts) and still produce an edible fruit.

Clear as mud?

Harvesting Trees Old Style

 The Pacific Northwest is littered with the remnants of massive trees that were cut down decades ago, many harvested over a century back. It’s not unusual to see two eyes looking back at you from these ancient stumps.
No, they’re not haunted or possessed. Those two cavities represent the footholds cut into the base of the tree in order for the lumberjack to access the point at which he wants to make his cut. Often there will be holes cut on either side of the tree, particularly if it’s a large specimen. A pair of ‘jacks would work in tandem on a larger tree using a two-man saw to bring it down. 

Lumberjacking is still a viable career choice in places like Washington State where logging has been part of the history for over 150 years. In 1879 the state produced 160 million board feet of lumber.

And the Winner is…

 White Rock used to participate in the national Communities in Bloom program, but as far as I can see they haven’t done so for a number of years. It’s a shame because there are so many lovely gardens in our pretty little City by the Sea.

The long growing season, the lovely sunshine, the (normally) ample moisture all contribute to copious blooms and rich green foliage. Not everybody knows how to harness and choreograph all those elements, it’s a true art and takes lots of time, energy and patience. 

If I was awarding the prize for the best condo garden display in White Rock, hands down it would go to this building on Merklin. Bold color, changes of height, and the use of texture all convene to make one of the finest displays in town. With both staple perennials and the addition of carefully placed annuals this wall of blooms has been flowering incessantly for the past two months. I love to walk by and see what’s new every week.

   

  

 Whomever is responsible should be proud of what s/he has accomplished. You get five stars from me.

   
   
   
 

Thriller, Fillers and Spillers: The Formula for a Fabulous Planter

 
The good, the bad and the ugly; that’s what comes to mind as I wander the streets of White Rock looking at planters. Another staple of condo buildings, planters are often used to flank the entranceway or add drama to the landscape. 
Some buildings have take time to either plan their containers well or they’ve hired a person with some know how. Other condos have taken the “Marge always does it” approach. Poor Marge, someone should speak to her about the marigolds.

I have no desire to “planter shame” any buildings in White Rock, so I’m just going to stick to posting some of the fabulous ones I’ve seen within a few blocks of my place. 
Containers should be made up of “thrillers” (plants that stand high and perhaps have a strong color or presence), “fillers” (the soil level plants that anchor the display) and “spillers” (the leggy ones that hang over the side). Sometimes not all three are necessary as you’ll see from these photos I took, but you’ll notice that the most interesting planters are those that have all these elements. Here are some good examples:
   
  

Personally I also like some stark contrast in color like in this one filled with purple and lime:  

This one has a tall central plant but looks a bit unfinished:  

And here’s an example of large planter with a tree as its main element, and it’s finished nicely with some anchoring foliage beneath:   
Ivy is great for a spiller:  

Love this ornamental grass:

  

Pretty colors: 
  There are lots of planter “recipes” on the Internet and ones for your specific zone can be found. Personally I enjoy wandering through the garden center and imagining how things will look together in a group. It’s a lot like painting with plants.

Semiahmoo Library’s Green Wall

A couple of blocks from my home there’s a library that features North America’s largest and most diverse living wall. Designed by Green over Grey a Vancouver based company with projects across Canada and the USA, the wall was installed in 2010. With 2680 sqft of space and over 10,000 individual plants the “sky wall” is a living work of art.

From the Green over Grey website:   
 

The original design is difficult to discern now that it has grown in; I took a few pictures of it this week. It’s really something to behold, although I think our extremely hot and dry spring/summer to date has taken its toll on some of the plants. That being said I saw birds enjoying the wall, insects buzzing around the flowers, and even some ripe ready to pick blueberries too high to reach.

My photos this week:

 
  
    

 

Green over Grey has done projects at numerous airports including Edmonton International and Vancouver. They do both interior and exterior walls and have corporate and residential clients. Inspiring! 

Fifty Shades of Hydrangea 

Hydrangea are hugely popular here on the West Coast, and for good reason. They grow prolifically and produce an abundance of large colorful blooms that last for weeks. Almost every garden has at least one hydrangea and condos seem to rely on their easy-go-lucky personality as a landscaping staple.

What amazes me as I wander the streets of White Rock (which I do on a regular bases thanks to Lucy and her dog needs) is the multitude of colors of hydrangea. With over 600 cultivars, most of the hydrangea in this region are of the species Hydrangea macrophylla. I’ve seen both the Mophead type (with large flowering blooms) and the less common Lacecap style (with a central flatter area of subdued flowers)

  Although some of the diversity in color can be attributed to the different hybrids – there are all sorts of cultivars like Limelight (green), Maltisse (red) and Annabelle (white) – much of what makes the colors so variable are the soil conditions. Some hydrangea will vary in color depending on the pH of the soil, resulting in a range of hues from a light pink to a deep blue. The more aluminum in the soil the more blue the flowers. In order to absorb the aluminum the soil pH must be low or acid (5.2-5.5), so by lowering the pH you can shift the color of your hydrangea to the blue end of the spectrum. Even the same plant can produce a range of shades, as seen in some of the photos I captured this week.
Hydrangea can be grown in containers, so it could potentially be a balcony plant. In a container it’s much easier to toy with soil conditions in order to achieve that perfect shade of bluish-pink.
Enjoy the hydrangeas of White Rock:

   

                             

Raymond Evison Clematis

Raymond Evison is a English gardener and plant breeder who has worked in developing clematis cultivars for over 50 years. 

When I went to West Coast Gardens looking for a balcony-suitable climber I was directed to the “new” Evison clematis’. Apparently they flower in late spring and then again later in the late summer. Mine has been forming buds for the past few weeks and I’ve been excitedly waiting to see what the flowers will look like. Today I was rewarded.  I chose a pink double flower variety called “Empress”, simply because I thought the picture on its accompanying card was pretty. I’m definitely not disappointed.

This clematis has been joyfully growing on my balcony for about a month, climbing noticeably higher on a daily basis. It seems to love the east-facing space where it gets good strong morning sun and avoids the strongest heat of the day.
In the winter I’m directed to cut the upper 1/3 of the plant and leave it outdoors where (as long as it has moderate wind protection) it will be safe until it begins to grow again the following spring.
Here are some photos I’ve taken over the past week. Enjoy!