Fresh, juicy strawberries are coming into season, vegetable gardens are bursting into growth mode, and daylight hours stretch long into the evening—summer has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. While you may be slowly finishing the last of your spring planting of annuals in containers and flowerbeds, planting season is far from over. As the seasons change, June is an excellent time to shift focus to planting shrubs and perennials. Here [...]
Hanging baskets--and in particular, our famous Lynden Baskets--are an easy way to add beautiful, long-lasting color to your front porch or back deck. And while caring for hanging baskets isn't complicated, there are a few tips we like to share with our customers to ensure success in growing and caring for these beautiful plants. Follow the steps below and you'll enjoy the beauty of our Lynden Baskets through summer [...]
The late Robin Williams famously said, “Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’” For gardeners, it’s easy to understand the sentiment—with bulbs bursting into bloom, flowering cherries and forsythia showing off their bright spring colors, and a kaleidoscope of other spring flowers soon to come into bloom, the fun time of year in the garden is just beginning. As you start working around your yard this month, here are [...]
A piece I read in a magazine the other day encouraged me to change my attitude about the things on my to-do list—to see the work not as a chore but as an opportunity and a blessing. As we look at our final gardening tasks for the season, let’s “switch the O to an E”: focus not on the things we’ve “got” to do, but on the things we “get” [...]
Josephine Neuse is credited with saying that contrary to those who say that gardening begins in spring, “gardening begins in January with a dream.” While I appreciate the sentiment—and often dream of spring in the cold, dark days of winter—I would argue that for many aspects of gardening, the adventure begins in autumn. With mild temperatures, blue skies, and that crisp fall morning air, this “second spring” is the perfect [...]
Years ago, one of my friends commented on what a wonderful verb “gardening” is. I couldn’t agree more—for those of us who love the smell of freshly cultivated dirt, the warmth of the sun on our skin, and the taste of a freshly-picked carrot, gardening is a fantastic word. As your gardening efforts come to fruition in these summer months, here are a few things to tend to in late [...]
When our son was three, he used to get excited when he would hear a “fever bird”—chickadee, to the rest of us—singing its spring melody. With a call that to the anticipating ear does sound like a sweetly-spoken “fee-ver,” the chickadee’s song reminds me now each spring of the excitement I feel as the new season arrives. As spring begins, let’s consider a few of the tasks to get started [...]
As the last of autumn’s beauty succumbs to the effects of time and weather, we’re reminded that once again, the seasons are changing. With short, dark November days upon us, it’s time to wrap up the work around the yard and put your garden beds to sleep for the winter. In the short hours of daylight we have to work with this time of year, here are a few things [...]
Each year at the nursery we take questions from customers asking what type of soil we have--is it acidic, neutral or basic? Some people even go to the work of buying a pH test to determine for themselves just how acidic or basic their soil is. Frankly, though, it's hardly worth the money to have your soil professionally tested. Why? Our soil in the Northwest is notoriously acidic. Period. If [...]
Gardening is an exciting hobby if for no other reason than no two days spent outside are exactly alike. Although the changes from day to day are incremental, go away for a week and you’re sure to notice how much things have changed the minute you pull into your driveway. Likewise, the shift from summer to fall brings sweeping changes to the landscape and to the rhythms of this hobby [...]
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