If you are into “zonal denial” and enjoy pushing the boundaries, then perhaps a lemon or lime tree may be worth your time and effort. Make no mistake however, the Pacific Northwest is not Florida or California and you won’t be able to just plant a citrus tree in the backyard and in a few short years start harvesting your very own navel oranges. On the other hand, when planted in a container, Meyer lemons and seedless Bearss limes will do okay - provided you follow some simple procedures…
How To Keep Our Landscapes Thriving In This New Climate Paradigm
Last week I wrote about how to successfully plant in the dry summer months and I promised this week to discuss how to keep our landscapes thriving (not just surviving) as we shift to drier, hotter, and longer summers. As a side note, don’t let this recent “rain event” lure you into complacency about watering. At best, it only moistened the top ½ of the soil, which for the most part only keeps the dust down…
How To Plant In Summer
A few weeks back I was harping about why gardeners don’t bother with compost and fertilizer when they are planting. This week I feel the need to talk about the importance of good planting practices. No matter where you purchase your plant material, I can guarantee you they will croak if it they aren’t planted properly. Here are some of my tips to help you succeed…
June Is Perennial Planting Month
There is no shortage of things to do in the garden in the month of June. Hedges need to be pruned, warm season veggies should be planted, spring-blooming plants (like Forsythia, Heather, and Rhodies) should be deadheaded, weeds of course need to be controlled, it’s time to start thinking about watering, and all those annuals we planted in May need to be fed. But, one of the most important tasks for every gardener is to KEEP PLANTING. There are always holes to fill in and beds to rejuvenate, and in June the best choices usually come from the perennial department of the garden center…
Compost and Fertilizer - A Boring But Necessary Topic
It pains me to see customers spending hundreds of dollars on new plants and simultaneously refusing to spend a few more on a bag or two of compost and a box of starter fertilizer. These two items are not unnecessary “add-ons” that the retailer is just trying to add to the sale, they are critical components of a successful transplanting process - or as I like to refer to them as “plant insurance”. Unless you have phenomenal soil, you should always add compost and starter fertilizers when you are planting new plants. Here is why…
The Changing Garden, What A Difference A Couple Of Weeks Can Make
A few weeks back I was lamenting the fact that there were still so many bare spots in my new garden that needed to be filled in, due to plant failures from this last winter… No matter how good of a gardener we might be, some things thrive while others just whimper away into oblivion. Isn’t that the nature of gardening?
Here's How To Have The Best-Looking Containers
May is, without a doubt, the primary month for planting up our containers. In the garden center you will find an endless supply of annuals and perennials ready to be creatively combined, for what will hopefully be a summer-long display of blooms. But to be successful (as in “over the top” successful) with our pots, we need to pay attention to a few details. Here are my thoughts on “growing in” containers…
Get Some Color In Your Garden, For Pete's Sake
May is high season in the garden center, when all levels of gardeners venture out for their annual spring ritual of adding some color to their yards. Whatever level of gardener we might happen to be, I think it is safe to say that we all get the same rush of endorphins whenever we interject colorful plants into our gardens. It is a feel-good kind of activity…
We dove into oxygenating our indoor spaces with houseplants a couple of weeks ago, and now let’s continue our indoor discussion by investigate some superior pet-friendly options. As the weather continues to cool and the wind and rain ramp up, it becomes easier and easier to garden indoors and work outside a bit less. Many of us have…