General Gardening
Ben Smith
Compost and Fertilizer - A Boring But Necessary ...

It pains me to see customers spending hundreds of dollars on new plants and simultaneously refusing to spend a few more on a bag or two of compost and a box of starter fertilizer.  These two items are not unnecessary “add-ons” that the retailer is just trying to add to the sale, they are critical components of a successful transplanting process - or as I like to refer to them as “plant insurance”.  Unless you have phenomenal soil, you should always add compost and starter fertilizers when you are planting new plants.  Here is why…

Compost and Fertilizer - A Boring But Necessary Topic
Summer Gardening
Ben Smith
The Secrets Of Proper Summer Watering

Summer watering is inevitable in the northwest if we want to keep our landscapes green and healthy…

The Secrets Of Proper Summer Watering

gifts

Pick Up Your Spirits With These Indoor Blooming Bulbs

Pick Up Your Spirits With These Indoor Blooming Bulbs

For those of us that miss the pleasures of gardening this time of year, growing things inside the house can be a good substitute. Forcing bulbs like Paperwhites and Amaryllis can help us fill a need to be grounded in nature and can uplift any soul mired in the gray doldrums of a northwest winter…

A Few Surefire Ways To Bring Some Color Inside This Winter

A Few Surefire Ways To Bring Some Color Inside This Winter

As the temperatures continue to drop, along with all those leaves on our deciduous trees, we are pretty much left with just shades of green in our gardens to look at throughout the winter.  There are, of course, quite a few winter-blooming perennials and shrubs that can add some winter interest to our gardens, but as far as bouquets or vases of blooms, the pickins are slim.  For those of us that experience color starvation, here are some ideas…

Latest post from “The Golfing Gardener”:

The Golfing Gardener

Trevor Cameron

Featured
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Proper Pruning in Winter Part Two
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Proper Pruning in Winter Part Two

My hope from last week is that I got everyone’s pruning juices flowing.  This week I will attempt to build on that momentum and get into some more specifics.  If you got outside in this wonderfully cold and sunny weather and started your personal pruning battle plan, pat yourself on the back!  You have earned a gold star and embarked on a journey to pruning success.  If you haven’t, don’t worry, there is still time…

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