Share my passion for all things gardening!
Happy Easter! Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: With proper care, winter squash thrive. It’s all about growing winter squash and pumpkins. Last year, I really got ours off to a great start by starting them early indoors, then covering the soil in their bed with red plastic mulch to increase the soil […]
Read morePhoto #1: Getting ready to swap out the old T Tape for Aqua Traxx Last year, my husband and I installed a new irrigation system on our raised beds. We’ve used soaker hoses on each bed for years but they frequently clogged with minerals, which reduced the amount of water coming out of them. We felt it was time to […]
Read morePhoto #1: drip irrigation Continuing our discussion (see previous post) of the new drip tape system we recently installed in our garden, I wanted to show you what we did on one of our 3′ x 8′ raised beds. Photo #1 shows the supplies we needed: 1/2″ tubing to make the manifold, 1/2″ figure-8 ends to seal off each end […]
Read moreThis young Chickadee mugged for the camera in my garden last summer. Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Bringing in the birds. It’s about one of my favorite subjects, which is attracting birds to the garden. If you regularly follow this blog and/or my Facebook page, you know that I’m an avid birdwatcher. […]
Read moreFear not: those wimpy seedlings will grow into these big leeks! (Note: I think this post needs a subtitle of “How to torture your leeks” because that’s what I’m going to tell you how to do!) If you are growing leeks for the first time this year, congratulations! I’ve grown them off and on for years and just love their […]
Read moreI wrote about growing onions in my Sunday column but wanted to give you a bit more information about how you would plant onion starts. I planted mine today. This is probably the earliest I’ve ever gotten any type of onions in the ground! They are a cool-season crop so I haven’t jumped the gun in that regard. Also, they […]
Read moreNow that spring is officially here, there are plenty of gardening clean-up activities to take care of. Many can wait a bit but one of the most important things is to get our trees ready for the new season. And since deciduous trees don’t have any leaves on them yet, it’s a perfect time to prune because you can really […]
Read moreFor the past 3 years, I have been growing artichokes. Yes, artichokes, here in the Inland Northwest! I didn’t even realize you could grow them here until I bought a couple seedlings on a whim at a Leavenworth, Wash., nursery. Lo and behold, they grew beautifully and what’s even better is that they rewarded my efforts with several artichokes. And […]
Read moreSince seed-starting is our hot topic right now, I wanted to give you more information about what I’m starting and the types of seed-starting kits and containers I use. I mentioned in my Sunday column that I start peas, beans, squash, pumpkins, corn and melons indoors. You don’t have to do this unless you have the same situation I do: […]
Read moreHere is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Timing is everything when it comes to planting seeds. It is the second of two parts on starting your own flowers and vegetables from seed. I hope you’ll find it helpful! If you have any questions, just let me know by either commenting on this post or […]
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