On certain nights in January this year, more than ninety percent of the U.S. shivered with temperatures under 30 degrees F. Especially vulnerable were those plants with evergreen foliage. So what’s a gardener to do? If you couldn’t trundle susceptible plants into a greenhouse or other shelter when the cold hit, how do you help […]
I love when I come across a new (to me) gardening term. I’d never heard the word fascine, until I talked with Vanessa Gardner Nagel, award-winning landscape designer and author. She mentioned she was building fascine to stabilize the slope in her Pacific Northwest ravine garden. A fascine, she explained, is a bundle of sticks […]
Small yet highly effective tools can be the perfect gift for the holidays. When garden space is tight—like inside a greenhouse—this collection of scaled-down products will be appreciated. Or, put these miniature offerings on your own wish list if someone needs a hint about your preferences. Cobrahead Mini Weeder – Folks who use the regular […]
“Suit your plants to your soil, rather than creating soil to suit your plants.” That’s what Paul Bonine tells me. He’s the co-owner of Xera Plants, in Portland, Oregon, and author of the upcoming Gardening in the Pacific Northwest—A Complete Homeowners Guide. The results of following his advice? We’d all experience less struggle, less work, […]
Want the perfect bloomer for the winter greenhouse? How about one that continually festoons itself with blossoms in the colors of a summer sunrise? Let me introduce you to tecomas. “In the greenhouse they’ll bloom every day of the year,” says their foremost breeder, horticulturalist George Hull. The retired Arizona State University professor explains that […]
I need new trees. Last winter, a 100-year-old Douglas fir came crashing down on six of my specimen trees. So, now in late summer, I looked for replacements at the Farwest Show New Varieties Showcase in Portland, Oregon. If you also need new trees, early autumn can be an excellent time to plant. According to […]
Stephanie Niedermyer is a bean farmer. Granted, hers is miniature-scale farming operation in her Eugene, Oregon backyard. But still, she manages to produce at least 26 different kinds of beans each summer. She says, “I’m a magpie, attracted to pretty bright things—that’s beans!” A road trip to the Southwest was the catalyst for her bean-farming […]
In the colder months, birds bring color and motion to gardens at rest, whether you watch them from a kitchen window or enjoy their antics through the glass of a cozy greenhouse. When I have questions about feeding my winged denizens, I turn to Dan Gleason, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Eugene. Dan taught […]
