I’m very excited to announce that this is my last week of being nomadic! That’s right after two years of living out of a backpack and several boxes and using my friends parents place as my mailing address I am settling down in a shared house in Portland, Oregon.
The best part about my new home is that the growing season is 71 days longer than in my home state of Michigan! 71 days! That’s so much time time! The last frost date for Portland is April 3rd and the first frost is November 7th. The number one reason my dad should leave Sweden to come farm near me: the last day of frost in his neck of the woods is late May or June. I’ll have harvested my first crop by then.
The extended growing season here in Portland means that plants that were annuals or house plants back in Michigan are perennials out here. Yesterday was a rainy Sunday here in Portland, so while homeowners were curled up indoors I roamed the streets with sharp scissors slicing off plants I want for my garden. That’s right, I like to combine the thrill of stealing with the joy of propagating plants from cuttings. I simply cut three to four inch pieces of new growth from various hardy plants like rosemary, sage and thyme. Back at my sublet I stripped all but 2 or 3 leaves and put them in little pots of dirt. I’m not sure if they’ll take, but there’s a pretty good chance that in a month they’ll send out roots and be ready for planting in the spring.
I also discovered that succulents can reproduce from a leaf. I have always lusted over the exotic and beautiful hens and chicks, and yesterday I gave in to my desires and snatched three little hens and chicks from an over crowded garden bed in NE Portland. Please don’t tell the neighbors of my sins. I like to think I was helping thin out the patch.
The succulent leaves are laying out in the sun for the next three days in order to callus over. The calluses prevent direct contact with fungus or disease in the same way that scabs prevent open bloody wounds from directly mixing with bacteria and viruses in our environment. After three days each leaf will start to send out little roots in an attempt to keep living. I will then set the leaves on top of pots of sandy soil so that their roots can take hold. The tricky thing with propagating succulents from cuttings is that they are apt to rot if they are buried in dirt of given to much moisture.
With a little bit of luck the hens and chicks I snagged will turn in to 30 hens and chicks! 
