Keeping our landscapes changing is so critical to keeping our interest in gardening.  With change, there’s the anticipation of something new and exciting.  With change, our garden compositions take on whole new personalities.  And with change, we find opportunities to experience our gardens in ways we may not have originally conceived…

I don’t know about you guys, but I can hardly believe that it is October already.  With all this climate change I am beginning to think that maybe October will be my favorite fall month.  I read somewhere that our rains are coming later and ending earlier, even though the total rainfall is about the same.  What this means is that not as much rain gets to soak into the soil, so our summers are getting drier.  Making our soils more absorbent by continuing to apply layers of compost will help mitigate this phenomenon.  Here are some other activities for the month that will also improve our gardens…  

One of the treats of a fall garden is enjoying the sight of clusters of different colored berries on our shrubbery.  In my own backyard is a delightful Beautyberry, called ‘Profusion’, that has the most incredible purple berries later in fall.  The shrub itself is nondescript, but when the berries arrive in the fall I immediately remember why I have allocated so much space for it to grow.  The same can be said about a lot of shrubs that can be boring as hell during the growing season, but then suddenly strut their stuff in the fall and early winter.  Here are three that do the trick for me…

It has always puzzled me that there are plants that bloom in the fall, or stranger yet, in the winter.  It seems so out of sync with the rhythms of nature, but hey, while I may not understand the “grand plan”, I am sure as heck going to take advantage of these little beauties and enjoy them in my garden.  Here are three bulbs that bloom this time of year and can usually only be found and planted in the fall…

September is a glorious month in the northwest - the days are warm, the nights cool, the shadows long, and the lawns are coming alive again after their dry summer slumber.  The garden wakes back up for about 6 to 8 weeks before it shuts down for the winter and it is an excellent time to get some serious gardening done.  Here are some suggestions on how to best spend your time…

It always seems a bit odd to me to be talking about fall and winter gardens when we are still very much into late summer, but “fall is in the air” and now is the time to make some changes in our containers and plant some fall veggies while the soils are still warm and conducive to good root growth.  It’s also a perfect time to…

Trees are our friends, in more ways than one.  There are a multitude of benefits that we receive from trees and it never hurts to remind ourselves just how important trees are to our ecosystem.  As we look around the world…

I love summer tropicals.  The drama they create is unsurpassed by anything the northwest has to offer.  Take my red Abyssinian bananas for example.  In the month of May, or even early June, I always plant a couple of pots up with a red banana in the center as the focal point of the container…

Believe it or not, August can be a busy month in the garden.  Watering, of course, is at the top of the list…

A funny thing happens to me this time of year…  As we move from the glory of spring to the doldrums of summer, I often find myself in a state of mild depression.  I call it my “gardener’s post-partum depression”.  All of the fabulous floral displays that I labored over in spring have now faded and I am faced with the drudgery of taking care of what is left…