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

garden trends

It's Show Time!

It's Show Time!

This week marks the beginning of the 33rd annual Northwest Flower and Garden Festival which will run February 15th to the 19th at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle (it should be the 34th but Covid shut it down in 2021).  This is a world class production that is sure to get you in the mood for the upcoming gardening season.  Every year I come away with some new ideas, a few new plant purchases, and an overall renewed excitement for gardening.  If you have yet to partake in this event, then you really should consider going this year…

Regenerative Gardening: Saving The Planet One Garden At A Time

Regenerative Gardening: Saving The Planet One Garden At A Time

Have you heard of “regenerative agriculture”? I hadn’t until recently, but after a bit of research, I realized that this “new” movement is at its base just an expansion of organic gardening and farming principles that can be adapted from commercial agriculture to our very own backyards. Here are some components of this style of gardening that we should all take to heart…

Gardening Trends For The Next Decade (Or At Least The Next Year)

Gardening Trends For The Next Decade (Or At Least The Next Year)

I have just spent this last week, and countless hours, researching the topic of ‘trends for 2020’’ in hopes of bringing you something of deep profundity.  Unfortunately, I have to confess; it has been a struggle to find the perfect morsels of wisdom for your reading pleasure and I have come to the conclusion that perhaps I am trying to set the bar too high.  The trends for 2020 are really just a continuation of what I have observed over the last 5 years, so here are some of the points that caught my eye that hopefully you will find informative and useful…

Latest post from Trevor Cameron,  “The Golfing Gardener”:

Featured
Explore the World of Itoh Peonies

During the months of May and June one of the all-time favorite plants of local gardeners, the peony, is bursting into bloom.  There are many excellent peonies available to utilize in our landscapes; including herbaceous cottage types in all sorts of colors (and varying fragrances) and larger growing tree peonies too.  I would never scold anyone for growing either of these types (since I do as well), but I want to bring attention to another fabulous peony option… what is known as the intersectional or Itoh Peony.

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