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Book review: The Lifelong Gardener: Garden with Ease & Joy at Any Age by Toni Gattone (Timber Press, 214 pp., $19.95) While at this year’s Garden Communicators’ conference in Salt Lake City, I met Toni Gattone. She told me she’d recently written a book. Even though it had just been released, it was already in its second printing due to […]
Read moreIf you’ve been watching my Facebook and Instagram accounts, you know that Joe Lamp’l recently came to Spokane. He is the host and executive producer of the PBS program, “Growing a Greener World.” I thought you might enjoy hearing a little bit about his visit. Joe is based in the Atlanta area. He was invited to give the keynote presentation […]
Read moreMother Nature recently decided it’d be fun for us to break a weather record. Two days of snow, a huge temperature drop, and then two nights of freezing temperatures. Yes, the 2019 season has come to an early close! What better time to do a season wrap-up for my garden column? You can read it below: Crazy weather hit at […]
Read moreNow that we’re all transitioning to indoor pursuits, I’m focusing on the five easiest houseplants to grow. For this week’s column, I interviewed Spokane County Master Gardener Rhonda Elliott. She’s a great resource because she knows houseplants! You can read my column below: Houseplants need right amount of water, light to flourish. Houseplants need right amount of water, light to […]
Read moreQuite a few years ago, while reading a vegetable gardening book, I first heard about trombone zucchini. What?! This is a vining zucchini rather than the bush form we’re all familiar with. The author, Mary Ann Newcomer, who is a dear friend of mine, raved about it. What particularly got my attention was her comment that they taste like artichoke […]
Read moreHi, everyone. If you live in the Inland Northwest, our gardening season is getting ready to end this weekend! There are forecasted lows in the low to mid-30s and even the potential for some light snow. Yes, you read that correctly! Snow. But at the very least, I wanted to give you a frost alert. How to prepare Harvest your […]
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You probably saw a recent Facebook post of mine, in which I shared a photo of some beautiful delphiniums. The point was to explain that delphiniums will rebloom if you deadhead the previous flower stalks right away. The next morning, I discovered a moose had also admired them… and, may I add, very closely. Sigh. It’s true that deer (and […]
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Boy, I just got a bit of a surprise: the nighttime temperatures here in the Inland Northwest will be dropping significantly by the end of this week. Since we live in an outlying area, it will probably be even colder than the forecast of 34 to 38 degrees. So, of course, my first thought was “I’d better get out in […]
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Aren’t birds just the coolest creatures around? My husband and I are avid birdwatchers. We made it an early priority to landscape with the idea of attracting birds to our garden. That’s the topic of today’s garden column, which you can read in The Spokesman-Review: Planting for the birds reaps many rewards. You can also read it below. And don’t […]
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It’s always exciting when a new event comes on the scene that holds a lot of promise. This is the case with the Spokane Dahlia Festival, which will take place at Northland Rosarium on Sept. 21. This event is the subject of my garden column, which you can read in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Celebrate late bloomers at Dahlia […]
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