Gardeners are by nature learners. This hobby we call “gardening” is not one to be mastered—with new plants, new insect and disease issues, and weather conditions constantly in flux, the school of gardening has no graduates as we all learn more skills and gain fresh knowledge with each passing season. As spring unfolds, you may be discovering new issues around your yard you need to address, so let’s dive into [...]
Charles Dickens once wrote of sunny March days as “summer in the light and winter in the shade.” With the promise of sunny, warmer weather arriving in the coming days, the chilly late winter we’ve been experiencing lately may begin to shift to real spring, when even the shade isn’t so wintry. As we gardeners excitedly get outside to feel the sun on our skin and work the soil in [...]
I love the excitement of a good winter storm, but once February rolls around, my mind starts shifting to the anticipation of spring. With mild temperatures and sunny days teasing the new season just around the corner, it’s time to start preparing your garden for spring. As you get started with your initial spring garden tasks, here are a few suggestions of where to start. My first task around the [...]
Compared to the last couple of years, this winter has been pleasantly mild, and with seed catalogs arriving and bulbs beginning to sprout, you may—like me—have begun to dream of spring. As is typical for the Pacific Northwest, however, winter weather often arrives later in January or even February, and by the time you’re reading this, the bitter northeast wind may be whipping snowflakes past your windows. If you haven’t [...]
With Christmas just around the corner, it won’t be long until we’re turning the calendar to a new year and can begin to dream of a fresh season of gardening laid out like a blank canvas before us. In this season of gardening rest, there are still things you can do to keep your garden looking its best, even if just preparations for the year to come. If you’re looking [...]
One of the aspects of gardening that I love the most is the seasonality of it. As much as I love the earthy smell of the first mowing in spring, by this time of year I equally look forward to the feeling of satisfaction that accompanies that final pass over the lawn in autumn. And sad as it is to tear out summer’s flowers in anticipation of the first frost, [...]
Looking out my window, the maples and sumacs in my neighbors’ yards are proudly showing their fiery fall colors, the last of the cucumbers are ripening in my vegetable garden, and the zinnias and dahlias are beginning to wind down their summer blooms. As autumn tightens its grip on our corner of the world, October is the month to begin preparations for winter and take the first steps toward a [...]
To borrow the words of a late, dear friend of mine, this time of year offers an “embarrassment of riches” in the garden. From hydrangeas to zinnias, roses to dahlias, and a huge array of summer-blooming annuals, there’s certainly no shortage of color to enjoy this time of year. Vegetable gardens are beginning to yield their abundance as well, and who can resist the mouth-watering taste of fresh-picked berries? We’re [...]
It’s been said that March is “in like a lion, out like a lamb,” and thankfully--at least for a few days each week--the latter half of this month has proved the axiom somewhat true, with pleasant weather and sunny days. As we inch toward warmer spring gardening weather and with daylight hours rapidly lengthening, there are some key tasks to accomplish outdoors this in these first weeks of spring—all of [...]
Looking outside my window, I can see the first signs of spring beginning to emerge: my daffodils are sprouting, the winter heather is in full bloom, and the buds on my rose bushes are beginning to swell. Although it’s too early to declare winter past and gone, it’s time to think spring and get underway with early season tasks around the garden. First, with the aforementioned roses beginning to bud, [...]
