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
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
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
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
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
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
