By and large, gardening is a forgiving hobby. Plant something too close to another plant? You can often dig it up and transplant it into a larger space. Prune a shrub wrong? Don’t worry, it will grow back. And maybe worst: put Roundup in your sprayer instead of lawn weed killer? Well, you can always reseed. The fact is, gardens are by nature works in progress; nothing is ever complete, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
In an old comic strip I read recently, the characters lamented the fact that even though the days of July and August are some of the longest of the year, the months seem the shortest. Indeed, summer’s balmy weather and long days are fading quickly, and as September ushers in the shortening of daylight hours and the beginning of a new season, it’s time to make the transition to early [...]
With the screams of kids enjoying carnival rides and the wafting smells of fried foods, the telltale signs of the Northwest Washington Fair can mean only one thing: early autumn is just around the corner. However, if this year’s weather proves anything like last year—and frankly, many years—we still have nearly two months of summerlike weather ahead of us, so now is no time to give up on the garden. [...]
Gardeners are by nature learners. This hobby we call “gardening” is not one to be mastered—with new plants, new insect and disease issues, and weather conditions constantly in flux, the school of gardening has no graduates as we all learn more skills and gain fresh knowledge with each passing season. As spring unfolds, you may be discovering new issues around your yard you need to address, so let’s dive into [...]
Charles Dickens once wrote of sunny March days as “summer in the light and winter in the shade.” With the promise of sunny, warmer weather arriving in the coming days, the chilly late winter we’ve been experiencing lately may begin to shift to real spring, when even the shade isn’t so wintry. As we gardeners excitedly get outside to feel the sun on our skin and work the soil in [...]
If I had to pick a favorite season, my choice would have to be autumn. Cool, crisp mornings and warm sunny afternoons; occasional rains returning and bringing the earthy, welcome smell we call petrichor; and the opportunity to get out in the yard and reimagine gardens and containers for a new season—all these bring me almost as much excitement as the thrill of spring. With a new season upon us, [...]
It’s been said that March is “in like a lion, out like a lamb,” and thankfully--at least for a few days each week--the latter half of this month has proved the axiom somewhat true, with pleasant weather and sunny days. As we inch toward warmer spring gardening weather and with daylight hours rapidly lengthening, there are some key tasks to accomplish outdoors this in these first weeks of spring—all of [...]
Ben Franklin once said that “nothing is certain in life except death and taxes,” but he had obviously never visited the Pacific Northwest in autumn and experienced the rainy season that, though delayed this year, has finally arrived. As the traditional wet fall season begins to take hold in Western Washington, this month is a great time to get a head start on next year’s gardening success, so here [...]
