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

Fall Gardening

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Planting Containers In The 'Shoulder Season'

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Planting Containers In The 'Shoulder Season'

September and October can be tricky times of the year when it comes to our container plantings. Depending on our level of care, some of our pots may have…

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Something Coming And Something Going

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Something Coming And Something Going

It’s been almost 3 years since my wife and I moved into our new house, just 2 miles from the nursery. In the first year we did nothing to the yard, but the second year (2020)…

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Fall - The Second Planting Season

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Fall - The Second Planting Season

Let me get straight to the point. Fall is an excellent time of the year for planting trees and shrubs, as well as continuing to introduce annuals, perennials, and ornamental grasses to our gardens. It’s a fact…

New Wintergreen Varieties Are A Holiday Hit

New Wintergreen Varieties Are A Holiday Hit

Now that the thrill of summer has passed and the warm colors of fall are fading with each passing storm, our eyes should be being drawn to attractive broadleaf plants like…

The Dreaded November To-Do List

The Dreaded November To-Do List

The recent freeze we experienced over this last weekend should have been a wakeup call for gardeners to take care of some chores before winter finally sets in…

Fall & Winter Can Be Colorful Seasons Too!

Fall & Winter Can Be Colorful Seasons Too!

I just had the opportunity to sit through a class on plants for fall and winter interest… and it brought back home to me that there is no excuse for a drab garden in the fall, or even the winter, considering that there is a multitude of plants to choose from that will brighten our gardens over the next 5 to 6 months…

October In The Garden

October In The Garden

In my world, September always feels like a continuation of summer, whereas October puts me in the mood for fall. Shrubs and trees are starting to really color up, everywhere you look retailers are displaying mums and pumpkins (not to mention Halloween candy)…

Red Twig Dogwoods - A Shrub For All Seasons

It isn’t every day that a plant comes along that will grow just about anywhere and has some interesting feature every season of the year. But that’s just exactly what our northwest native Red Twig Dogwood does…

Latest post from “The Golfing Gardener”:

The Golfing Gardener

Trevor Cameron

Featured
Bring On The Fall
Bring On The Fall

Apologies, but I have some pertinent news to pass along that might be an unpleasant reminder to all local gardeners…  Yes the rumors are true, we are about to say goodbye to our PNW summer.  Goodbye to…

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