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

General Gardening

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

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

I am back once more to help you continue down the road to pruning success this week with episode three.   Most things work best as a trilogy, right?  I am sure that all of your eager gardening minds are ready for more this week as we keep this momentum going.  Up next is a focus on types of buds, which will…

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

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

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

Winter presents the ideal time to prune a great many things, so I am going to attempt to inspire you to get your landscape specimens pruned… and properly.  This will be a difficult subject to explain through verbiage, but I am thinking we can at least tackle some…

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Dormant Spraying In the Garden

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Dormant Spraying In the Garden

As we march on through the month of January, it is time to recall the annual gardening tradition of dormant spraying.  The ideal products may have changed a bit over the years, and certainly their effectiveness has improved as well, but the spray techniques and principles remain the same.  A plan for success always begins with…

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January In The Garden

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January In The Garden

As we begin to navigate 2025, I have decided to start the year with a new mantra… “Strive in ’25”, which of course has meaning in my landscape AND my daily life.  There seems to be so much strife and negativity these days, but we can counter this by striving for positivity.  We can strive for…

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The Evolution Of The Gardener

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The Evolution Of The Gardener

I thought it might be fun to kick off 2025 in style with some talk about climate, gardens, and the adjustments we continue to make to both our gardening choices and practices.  Gardeners have certainly always been flexible, or rolled with the punches as they say.  As Mother Nature surprises us with this or that, she always…

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The Golfing Gardener

Trevor Cameron

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Are You Going Scottish Or Irish?
Are You Going Scottish Or Irish?

As you read the title above, I am curious what comes to your mind.  Could it be Irish or Scotch Moss?  Maybe haggis or scotch eggs versus corned beef or colcannon (a funky Irish cabbage dish)?  Did you think of Jameson, Bushmills or Tulamore Dew Irish Whiskey?  Or is it a bit peatier Glenmorangie, Johnny Walker, or Macallan Scotch Whiskey you prefer?  Guinness or a true Scottish Ale?  Perhaps this article will…

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