Share my passion for all things gardening!
I love seeing other folks’ gardens. Unfortunately, our current situation has really thrown a wrench into my annual routine of profiling local gardeners. You’ve probably been missing them, right? For today’s column, I had the privilege of interviewing Marie Cole. You can read about her unusual garden in The Spokesman-Review: Gardener finds creative ways to deal with willow’s unintended consequences. […]
Read more
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I have a fixation with birds! They are so delightful to watch, especially throughout the seasons. With that in mind, I have produced a new video on how to care for your garden birds in winter. In this video, I include information on providing your birds with water and food. I also cover which types […]
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 […]
Read more
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 […]
Read more
Cool Plants for Cold Climates: A Garden Designer’s Perspective by Brenda C. Adams (Snowy Owl Books/University of Alaska Press, 239 pp., $35) I have found a book geared for those living in a colder climate. Especially those who have a tendency to let their heart govern their plant purchases! I’m sure you know what I mean because I often suffer from the same […]
Read more
Every so often, I mention the hoop house in my garden. It seems like the least I could do is give you an update on the vegetables growing inside it. I’m growing ‘Vates’ kale, 3 kinds of lettuce, spinach and — amazingly enough — celery. More on that in a moment. The origin of our hoop house (For a quick […]
Read more
Take a close look at the photo to the left. Do you see how the rhododendron leaves are curled? Is this a sick plant? Is it doomed to a terrible fate? Nope, it’s just a very cold rhodie that is doing what it can to get through our cold winters! This doesn’t happen to all rhododendrons, though. When my husband […]
Read more
Does the photo to the left look like your place these days? Have you got plants stashed all over the place, waiting for the weather to warm up? This week’s column is about protecting seedlings from the weather, which is very important. I mean, you just went to all of the trouble to raise them, right? Well, before you move […]
Read more
Here in the Inland Northwest, we’ve been buried under a heavy blanket of snow for months. It’s wonderful for insulating our plants against bitterly cold winter temperatures. But it can cause an interesting (and annoying) problem that most of us will likely see. Once the snow has melted from our lawns, we’ll discover snow mold. That’s the weird stuff you’re […]
Read more
My garden columns seem to be coming fast and furious now that my writing season is underway! Today’s is about important regional considerations when selecting plants and seeds. Here is a link to it, in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Know your zone to pick the right plants. (or you can read my column lower in this post) While this […]
Read more