Tomato seeds! Where to start? So many to choose from! Looking over a recent garden catalog arrival, there were over 100 different named cultivars of tomato seed offered for sale. It is hard to think of any other offering that would have such a vast selection.
March is here and the official start of spring is right around the corner. Depending on where you live, you are either starting the annual spring garden clean-up, or staring moodily at a landscape still covered with snow. No matter what your situation, get the creative juices flowing with…
There are many flowers that herald the coming of the spring season and most gardeners have their favorites. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have a surprisingly large number of shrubs that bloom in January/February. Our own native Mahonia, (Oregon Grape), is a good example with the bright yellow…
“A rose is a rose is a rose,’ Gertrude Stein famously wrote. But sometimes a rose is not, in fact, a rose. The perennial “Christmas rose” (Helleborus niger) is more closely related to buttercups than true roses, but the elegant, rose-like configuration of the flowers probably made an earlier…
Depending on where you live, December is probably a slow time in the garden. The stalks and other debris left over from the gardening season just past may still haunt the landscape like horticultural ghosts. The sustainable gardener living inside your…
Halloween has passed, Daylight Savings time has bowed out, and the spring-blooming bulbs have been planted (maybe). It’s time to think about holiday decorations, no matter what holidays you celebrate. Gray and Damp Meets…
It’s that time of year again…All manner of skeletons, witches, tombstones and other items of Halloweenalia are popping up on stoops, porches and front lawns. But something else is also populating these autumn displays—decorative gourds—and they will hang around long after the skeletons retreat to attics and garages.
As of September 22, we have officially moved into the autumn season. I don’t think that plants know it is autumn, nor that they care, but we humans do know and care. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it has been a very unpredictable spring and summer season, and autumn…
Not all hostas are going to be ‘big and bold’ like ‘Empress Wu’, (photo above), but being one of the largest growing hostas, it certainly does make a statement! At the opposite end of the spectrum is a hosta like the miniature ‘Country Mouse’. photo…
Butterflies, along with other winged beauties like skippers and moths, bring magic to the garden with their colorful wings and intricate flight patterns. But the magic doesn’t stop there. Butterflies are among the…
Who doesn’t love bumblebees (other than the occasional apiophobe)? These colorful, fuzzy, aerodynamically challenged hymenopterans charm and delight us as they bumble from bloom to bloom. They also provide first-rate pollination services. In most situations, bumblebees are far more efficient pollinators than those exotic…
For maximum satisfaction, I find that planning my garden so that it produces fresh floral displays throughout the growing season, is a good idea. As a side benefit, every day I can look out and enjoy the view, and on blue days when I need a pat on the…
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