As much as I love gardening, I also love the opportunity for rest that late fall and winter offer. November presents us a chance to wrap up the last of our garden cleanup and put our yards to bed for winter. As the gardening season draws to a close, here are a few things I’m going to be doing around my yard this month and would encourage you to do [...]
With regular soaking rains, cool temperatures, and crisp sunny days marked by the slanting rays of a sun sinking further into the southern sky, there’s little doubt that autumn is here to stay. As you work at cleaning up your yard and getting your garden ready for winter, here are a few items to keep your lawn and garden healthy and thriving throughout the months to come. First, while our [...]
Photographers call it the “golden hour,” that magical first hour after sunrise and last hour before sunset when the lighting is just perfect for photography. If I might, I think we gardeners could borrow the idea for our hobby, for certainly September is one of the “golden months.” With warm days, cool nights, abundant sunshine but occasional showers—this time of year is just about perfect in my book. As we [...]
For anyone who has paid attention to the weather over at least the last several years, it seems like our winter here in the Pacific Northwest often happens in the latter half of the season. Although we had a mild start to winter, recent weather has brought us some bitter cold, northeast wind, and snow--Pacific Northwest winter in its truest form. For those of us who love to garden, this [...]
I love Christmas songs—and frankly, with the year we’ve had, I think we could all use the extra joy that a good old-fashioned Christmas carol brings. Although not really a Christmas song, “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music has somehow worked its way into standard radio Christmas repertoire, and hearing it lately has gotten me to think of some of my favorite things in gardening over the [...]
As Thanksgiving approaches, outdoor gardening takes a backseat to indoor activities. And with good reason—short days and cold, wet weather test the mettle of even the hardiest of us webbed-foot Washingtonian gardeners. Although our winters are more mild than many areas of the country, windstorms from the northeast are particularly damaging not so much for the cold they bring as for the drying effect of the wind, which can leave [...]
Mild though it’s been so far, winter in the Pacific Northwest doesn’t typically arrive until about the time we start thinking about spring. After last February’s bitter cold winds and blowing snow, remember that there is plenty of potential for winter weather for at least the next six weeks, and maybe as soon as this weekend if forecasters are correct. As you prepare for whatever winter weather may soon arrive, [...]
As a child, one of my favorite Christmas stories was a book about a family that brought a living Christmas tree into their apartment, only to have it grow up to the ceiling and through holes they cut in both of their upstairs neighbors’ floors, bringing joy and new friendships to all three families. Magical potted Christmas trees notwithstanding, gardening is a hobby that brings joy and grows friendships [...]
With dusk creeping into the four o’clock hour, regular morning frosts, and maple trees shedding the last of their autumn brilliance, we can be sure of one thing: late autumn is upon us. As you put your garden to bed for winter, here are a few items you’ll want to check off your list this month. First, let me suggest that before you do any final raking of leaves [...]
Gardening? In this weather? I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right—at 20 degrees, with frozen ground and blowing snow, we’re a far cry from the early spring we were expecting as recently as two weeks ago. Later this month, though, as the temperatures begin to warm, it will be time to assess the damage, replant pots for early spring and get back to gardening, so here are some tips [...]
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