Paul Parent Garden Club To Feature Black Gold!
“Good Morning, Gardeners!” is the cheery Sunday morning greeting familiar to over half a million radio listeners in New England and more from the rest of the United States, from “Mr. Nice Guy”, Paul Parent. Read More Read More
Grow Organic: All or Part
Edible artichokes make outstanding perennials accented with petunias. Call it botanical profiling. It’s gone on since the beginnings of agriculture. Tomatoes, corn and lettuce belong in the organic food garden. Flowers grow in the ornamental garden. The primary reason for such a division is that food growers are all about a clean, edible harvest. Flower growers put the emphasis on an abundance of perfect blooms throughout the season. They often... Read More
Succulents Squared
Succulent Square. Photo by Brian Jacob There are many fun things to do with succulents and a recent trend is to use them as pockets in a wall or planted in a wooden ‘picture’ frame and used either vertical or horizontal. In this particular photo, the wooden frame of succulents is part of a fence and notice the variety of colors and leaf shapes that have been used. This same succulent square could be used as a centerpiece on an outdoor table. Read More
Spiky, Snaky, Sensational Snake Plants
Snake plants look fabulous outdoors, too, but only during the heat of summer. Sansevieria (aka Snake Plants or Mother-in-law’s tongue) are architecturally dramatic houseplants. Native from environs as extreme as the nutrient-competitive jungle floor to arid deserts, this plant definitely doesn’t need pampering. Sansevieria thrive indoors in bright to low light, with minimal watering, so be sure to grow them in a porous potting soil, such as Black... Read More
Harvest Mosses for Container Plants
Cool, damp winter temperatures bring mosses out in all their glory. This amazing spore bearing plant often grows on rocks, in shaded tree dells, the north side of a house, and anywhere else it’s wet enough. This moss is perfect for using in glass terrarium containers and as a surface covering for bonsai specimens. To harvest free mosses for container plants from your yard, gently lift it off the surface with your fingers so that it comes up... Read More
Getting The Fruit Back In Fruit Trees
In the hoity toity world of landscape architecture, small flowering trees known as “accents” are often fruit trees bred to enhance the flowers but eliminate the fruit. The Japanese flowering cherry is a famous example in Washington DC. The Bradford pear has become a favorite white accent for urban gardens. But times have changed and my clients are all clamoring to get the fruit back without sacrificing beautiful flowers. Read More Read More
Soil, Seed and Supplies: Planning Your 2012 Garden
One of the best things about backyard food gardening is that it demands we live by the seasons. Spring is for preparation. Summer demands maintenance. Autumn is the harvest. Most important of all is winter – the time for planning. Just as a landscape architect creates a garden on paper before it’s bid or built, it saves a lot of money and time to use January to plan your own food garden with research, notes and sketches. Do it right and... Read More
A Gift Idea for the Gardener In Your Life
If you have a garden friend on your list that is needing a gift, think about Hydrangea ‘Limelight’. Here in the Pacific Northwest, this particular garden gift idea has proven to be an easy to grow and spectacular blooming plant and your garden friend will thank you next summer. In my garden, I mix Black Gold Soil Conditioner into the soil when planting. Read More
Indoor Gardening With Black Gold®
There is no reason we need to stop gardening just because summer is ending and winter will soon be here. Many gardeners that I know ‘switch gears’ and set up a special place where they can continue to garden indoors. It might take a little more effort but it is worth it, not only with what you can grow, but the idea you have accomplished what some perceive as difficult. Think for a moment of the many summer herbs we have enjoyed in... Read More
Tending Your Organic Garden
Ever wonder why some people can grow fabulous gardens and others can’t? The answer is simple: they spend more time with their plants. Experienced gardeners know that frequent inspection allows them to see the first signs of trouble, whether it’s wilt, broken limbs, a digging dog or caterpillars. These can be remedied immediately before damage occurs, and without the need for chemicals. Great gardeners do it each day. Sometimes it’s... Read More
Cure Late Season Malaise
~ Written by Maureen Gilmer Soil in raised beds can often become deficient in elements or micronutrients replaced by adding organic fertilizer during the growing season. Eat a doughnut for breakfast and you start the morning on a sugar high. Then the inevitable follows. Blood sugar plummets leaving you foggy and sluggish. If you eat another doughnut to refire your system, you’ll only crash all over again. But if you eat a balanced... Read More
Enjoying Summer Gardening
Here it is July and summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest. It took quite a long time for this to happen as our spring was one of the coolest and wettest on record. But now that summer is here, what a glorious time of year it is. As some garden friends have told me; this is why we live here and perhaps it is because we have had such a gloomy winter that when we do see sun, it is a cause to celebrate. Finally summer herbs and vegetable... Read More
Thriving Purple Oxalis
Hi, I want to tell you I think your BLACK GOLD potting soil is the best! I would routinely purchase a national branded potting mix, thinking it lived up to its advertising… but it doesn’t. One of my favorite houseplants, Purple Oxalis, has struggled for years and years. It would produce a few scrawny leaves and they’d be brown and crispy at the edges. I bought some BLACK GOLD soil and transplanted the Oxalis and watered it only with... Read More
BLACK GOLD® Natural & Organic Potting Soil
~Written by Maureen Gilmer Black Gold Natural & Organic potting soil is so versatile it works for everything from hanging baskets to raised vegetable beds. This is not just any soil, it’s a precise blend of everything your plants need to look their best and produce abundantly. Because it’s listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute, you can be sure your organic food crops grown in this enriched soil remain blessedly chemical... Read More
Heavy Pumpkin in Utah
Check out the pumpkin I grew this year in a 400 square foot patch! It was the 4th heaviest in Utah this year at 855 pounds. This is my 5th year of growing and my previous best was 404 pounds in 2007. One of the only things I did differently than previous years is add 160 quarts (10 bags) of Black Gold Earthworm Castings into the top 6 inches of soil. Please don’t tell anybody! Thank you! Sincerely, Russ, Utah Read More
Very Excellent Soil
Black Gold® All Purpose Soil is a “very excellent” soil. In the past I used another soil & it killed my pansies so I tried the Black Gold® All Purpose & within 2 weeks they were bigger than the ones in the other soil that had been in it for over 2 months. Thank you and don’t ever change the formula because it works great!” -Allan, Portland, OR Read More
Black Gold® Soil Conditioner Reviewed in Gresham
I worked at a garden center in Gresham, Oregon and that is where I tried the Black Gold Soil Conditioner. I live in an area near Mt Hood that has a lot of sand and fir needles in my soil, so I thought I would try this product since I sold the product at the garden center, and I felt I needed to know how it worked. I started using it in my flower pots. I planted my flowers in some pots, and tomatoes in other pots using soil conditioner. It... Read More
Recommendation from Nat Lichten
I’ve attached the first few photos we’ve gotten of Home Gardens Program participants’ container gardens. All these beautiful veggies are being grown in Black Gold potting soil! I’ll pass on more photos as the season continues. Thank you and everyone else at Sun Gro so much for all your support in helping low-income Portlanders grow their own food! Best, Nat Lichten Home Garden Coordinator NWSA AmeriCorps Read More
3-2-1 GERMINATION!!!
Bill Bird, who writes the Sacramento Vegetable Gardening blog, raved recently about Black Gold seed starting mix. His tomato seeds sprouted in six days! Read More
Thanks to Black Gold®
Jeanne writes, I wanted to let you know that received the Black Gold gardening apron and the Black Gold potting mix and transplant fertilizer. Thank you so much! I added those items to other gardening products in a basket to be auctioned off for charity this Saturday. I’m intending to bid on the basket, but in any case the basket will go to a gardening enthusiast and the money will go to a good cause. Black Gold gardening products... Read More
Black Gold® Recommended by Fine Gardening Magazine
Black Gold® Recommended by Fine Gardening Magazine In the January/ February 2009 edition of Fine Gardening Magazine, Black Gold® was recommended by the article’s author as “great container soil”. Black Gold® was his choice because we offer a “high-quality organic alternative to larger, mass-produced products”. We appreciate those kind words, and we hope that all of our customers feel the same. Read More
Black Gold® Receives Recognition from Home Gardeners
Black Gold® Receives Recognition from Home Gardeners Black Gold® All Purpose w/Multicote, Black Gold® Natural & Organic and Black Gold® Waterhold Cocoblend have just received the National Home Garden Club Seal of approval. Last summer and fall several hundred members of the National Home Garden club in the western United States tested the three potting soils. The producttesters were asked to use the sample in their home garden and determine... Read More
The Dogma of Drainage
~Written by Maureen Gilmer. Ten years ago I digressed into a netherworld of horticulture that is secretive, dogmatic, painful and unforgiving. Call it Cultus Succulentata, an unofficial group as unconventional as the plants we cultivate. What binds us all is plants that contain a unique type of plant cell that absorbs water quickly and holds it far longer than any other. They are what makes a plant a succulent. But I’m hooked on one division... Read More
Transitioning from Cool to Warm Weather
~Written by Mike Darcy, photos by Rich Baer. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have finally had some sunny days and the temperature actually reached the 80′s. How nice it was to see the sun and what a wonderful feeling to get outside in the garden without a jacket. I always like to visit other gardens and made a recent visit to the garden of a friend to check on the status of the peas he had planted from seed earlier this spring. Since peas... Read More
Tilling Your Organic Garden
Written by Maureen Gilmer If you don’t have a spading fork, now is the time to buy one. This unique tool looks like a pitch fork, but the tines are straight and much thicker. For anyone serious about an organic garden by hand, this is your most important purchase. Do not scrimp on quality because a good fork will last for decades. The spading fork turns soil more easily because the tines make clods break up automatically compared to... Read More
Switch to Drip
Written by Nan Sterman With water shortages from California to South Carolina, Arizona to New York City, even rainy Pennsylvania, what’s a garden lover to do? Adapt. We need to choose plants that survive on little more than rainfall. We need to improve our soils so they absorb and hold water. And we need to make our irrigation systems more efficient. Our task is to grow great gardens using as little water possible, applied as efficiently... Read More
Plant a Kaleidoscope for Spring
Written by Nan Sterman I always caution gardeners in California and other hot, dry summer areas not to plant in summer. Plants just don’t adapt very well when it is so hot. Instead, it is better to plan in summer and plant in winter. That said, there are a few groups of plants are best planted now, one of which is the South African bulbs. These plants adapt to their hot, dry native habitats by dropping their leaves and sleeping through... Read More
Pot Medic to the Rescue
Written by Nan Sterman This time of year, its pretty hot in my garden – too hot to for new plants to go into the ground and too hot for me to be out in the garden all day. Instead, I turn my attention to my container plants. I have dozens of them, so several are always in need of attention. I walk the garden looking for pots in need of help: Problem: Potting soil disappears from the pot to the point where the pot is only half filled! This... Read More
Raised Bed Gardening
Written by Nan Sterman Imagine this: a vegetable garden that produces a huge amount of food in a small space, takes a minimum amount of water, requires very little maintenance, and brings the plants to you, rather than you having to bed down all the way to the ground. Sound impossible? Not at all if you garden in raised beds. Raised beds are like giant, bottomless planter boxes filled with your favorite soil mixture. The best beds are four... Read More
So Easy Seed Starting
Written by Nan Sterman Each spring of my childhood, I’d pester my mom for radish seeds to plant in the narrow, no-man’s land between our sideyard fence and the wall outside my bedroom. I’d rough up the hardened soil, sprinkle on the seeds, and splash with water. Every day after school I’d check for green sprouts, and then for tiny, spicy red orbs. With the level of care I gave them, I got maybe a radish or two from each packet. ... Read More
Sneak A Peak!
Written by Nan Sterman I tend to divide the world into two kinds of people: those who walk or drive down a street, oblivious to their surroundings; and those who notice everything, especially cool gardens. The latter group often dreams of strolling through gates and peaking over fences into backyards and courtyards. If you notice everything (and of course you do), this is your lucky day. Or at least your lucky season. From Mendocino to... Read More
BLACK GOLD® Natural & Organic Potting Soil
Black Gold Natural & Organic potting soil is so versatile it works for everything from hanging baskets to raised vegetable beds. This is not just any soil, it’s a precise blend of everything your plants need to look their best and produce abundantly. Because it’s listed by the Organic Materials Review Institute, you can be sure your organic food crops grown in this enriched soil remain blessedly chemical free. The scientists at... Read More
Raised Beds In Dry Country
Written by Maureen GilmerA large hole filed with Waterhold Cocoblend Potting Soil and newly planted pepper.The same pepper weeks later with mulch and windbreak.My desert garden is the worst case scenario, and I like it that way. When I test plants and products for gardens, they go through the wringer…literally. I want to know how far I can push things before they fail. When the dry wind blows up here in the high... Read More
Black Gold® Natural & Organic Potting Soil
First things first: Black Gold® Natural & Organic is the exact same recipe as Black Gold® All Organic. Why the name change? State regulations prohibited us from continuing to use the “All Organic” name since the product contains both perlite and pumice. These two ingredients are not carbon based; therefore we could not use the words “All Organic”. But we can and are using the very same formula as before and calling it “Natural &... Read More
Enrich Your Garden Soil
When you garden, you are gardening with a desired end result in mind, whether it is a bountiful vegetable garden, a bloom-laden bed of roses, a floriferous flowering bed of spring or summer bulbs or a thick rich lawn. All of these results might not be possible unless you invest into your garden with quality garden soil amendments and fertilizers. Garden soil amendments are designed to improve the physical properties of your soil. Quality amendments... Read More
Freshness Counts!
Everything is better fresh, whether it is a doughnut at the store, cut flowers for your dinner table or the potting soil for your patio container. After potting soils or amendments are manufactured they become a living entity. The fertilizers and wetting agent start to react in their moist organic media environment. As part of our commitment to quality we put a date of manufacture on all Black Gold® potting soils, amendments and peat moss.... Read More
Why Buy A Premium Potting Soil?
As each of us begins a gardening project, we all have the end result in mind: a bountiful vegetable garden, an overflowing flower covered basket or perhaps a thick and rich new lawn! At Sun Gro, we believe that the key to these and many other gardening successes is directly related to the quality of product that we, as a manufacturer, put in a bag. We hope the following chart will illustrate the advantages of Black Gold® made by Sun Gro Horticulture,... Read More
Think Green & Recycle
In an effort to continue to be good stewards of the environment, we would like to share some information on how to recycle your Black Gold® packaging.All of our Black Gold® potting soil and amendment plastic packaging is recyclable. The bags are manufactured using a Low-Density Polyethylene (#4) and can be recycled if the plastic is clean. You can find a local recycler in the United States on the USA LDPE Recycling Directory , or in Canada... Read More
Overlooked Improvements in Black Gold®
An important component of Sun Gro Horticulture’s mission statement is the concept of continuous improvement. That concept has become a reality with the Black Gold® product line in recent years. Beginning in spring 2007 all of the Black Gold® packaging has been updated. We worked hard to maintain the familiar bag images, but at the same time making the colors more brilliant, the bag easier to read and the information on the bag... Read More
Fall Planting and Winterizing Your Garden
Fall is a wonderful time to garden. You can look over this year’s accomplishments and start developing your plans for next year, but it is also the perfect time for working in your garden. Planting garden beds, color bowls and hanging baskets with fall annuals is a wonderful way to extend the joy of gardening throughout the remainder of the year. Be sure to add some Black Gold® Garden Compost, Soil Conditioner and Garden Amendment or Planting Mix... Read More
Perlite and Pumice: Valuable Potting Soil Ingredients
Have you ever wondered what those little white things in your potting soil are? In most instances they are perlite and/or pumice. Perlite is a mined siliceous rock that is expanded, similar to microwave popcorn, into a white lightweight material, while pumice is a soft insert-mined stone that often comes from Oregon. What makes Black Gold® Perlite and Black Gold® Pumice particularly desirable is both are screened for uniformity, with the finer... Read More
Beauty in the Details
Gardening is one of the many ways people are able to express creativity. The use of decoratives in your gardening allows you to express yourself, but at the same time they can provide horticultural benefits to your plants. Black Gold® has a product line of decoratives to fill your creative needs. By adding Black Gold® Charcoal to a Black Gold® potting soil, you can increase the moisture retention in the mix. This would be desirable if you are... Read More
Germinating Seeds or Propagating Cuttings
Black Gold® Seedling Mix is the perfect medium for germinating seeds and propagating cuttings. The mix is designed to promote better root development in young plants. We start with a careful blend of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (which has been double-screened to remove larger particles and sticks); fine perlite and vermiculite to give seedlings and cuttings the aeration and moisture retention they need to develop a good root system. A wetting agent... Read More
Perfect Potting Soil for House Plants
Do your houseplants need to be repotted? If so, Black Gold® offers a wide variety of product choices. We have four specialty mixes to choose from in addition to three standard all-purpose mixes. Black Gold® African Violet Mix – Finicky African violets thrive in this blend of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, compost, pumice, earthworm castings and screened forest humus. The pH has been balanced to create the optimal rich and porous medium for growing... Read More
Black Gold® Garden Compost
One of the secret ingredients used by successful gardeners is Black Gold® Garden Compost. What exactly is garden compost? Compost happens when microbes break down or decompose organic or living matter. The next time you are on a walk in a forest, look down at the forest floor and you will find compost being made naturally. The final product is a dark, rich, earthy smelling material, which gardeners commonly call “black gold”. Today at Black... Read More
Black Gold® Citrus, Avocado & Vine
Featured Black Gold® Starter Fertilizers Black Gold® Citrus, Avocado & Vine is a natural and organic fertilizer derived from feather meal, blood meal, bone meal, sulfate of potash, alfalfa meal, dried poultry waste and kelp meal. The guaranteed analysis is a balanced 7-3-3, meaning it is 7% nitrogen, 3% phosphate and 3% potash. The nitrogen content is delivered in both readily available and slow release forms, while the phosphorous and... Read More
The Leader in Sustainable Peat Resources
Sun Gro, the makers of Black Gold®, is North America’s largest producer of horticultural-grade peat and the largest distributor of peat moss and peat and bark-based growing mixes – and we’re the leader in ensuring the sustainability of this important resource. We endorse the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association’s definition of sustainable peatland management as the “balanced stewardship of the environmental, social and economic... Read More
Potting Soil vs. Top Soil
I’d like to start this post with a story. A couple of weekends ago, we had a truckload (12 yards to be more specific) of top soil from a local supplier delivered to our house. I had brought it in to fill our new raised garden bed and to supplement our existing flower beds. Many people ask themselves what is the difference between potting soil and topsoil. My goal in this blog entry is to hopefully answer that age old gardening question. Topsoil... Read More
Pea Patch Gardening With Black Gold
According to a recent survey 44 percent of Americans plan to grow a vegetable garden this year. That is 12 percent increase compared with last year. Many of the new vegetable gardeners will be located in urban and suburban settings where the use of pea patch gardening is on the rise. The goal of my blog entry is to discuss how you can use Black Gold to transform your new patch into a successful vegetable garden. This information is also applicable... Read More
A Mix With A Heritage
As you may or may not know, Sun Gro Horticulture is the largest supplier of growing mixes to professional greenhouse and nursery growers in North America. One of the more popular professional growing mixes is Sunshine® Mix #4. It was developed by Sun Gro’s team of horticulturalists based on initial work done by Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. Mix #4 is a blend of peat moss and perlite, and its claim to fame has always been its high... Read More
Coir: A Perfect Panacea For Problem Soil Structure
My soil has never resembled that perfect loamy ground in Martha Stewart’s garden. The first plot I cultivated for 18 years was dense clay too filled with rocks to resemble the soft dirt used to demonstrate gimmicky tools on TV ads. My second garden here in the desert is just the opposite, it’s sand and decomposed granite so porous it won’t make a clod. My two yards, like yours, are a battleground where we all struggle to improve... Read More
Gardening for Northwest Weather
For those of you that have followed my monthly web articles, you are aware that I live and garden in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. While we are probably famous for our rainy weather, this year seems to be an exceptionally wet year. Not only wet, but some very cold days this past winter and the spring has continually been cool. We made a record (perhaps not something to brag about) these past few months by having the longest period without the temperature... Read More
