It is more than magic watching a seed develop into a plant. It is the delightful introduction to life we can share with children, and all of us with green thumbs thrill to the germination of seeds and the promises they hold.
Given that December is the darkest time of the year with a little more than eight hours of sunlight, who cannot appreciate the delight of flowering plants? It is satisfying to give and to receive plants this month, but sometimes cut flowers are a wise choice.
Not all plants are equally welcome because they can cause problems.
A perfect gift for a gardening friend is a soil test. Commercial soil tests indicate various levels of basic nutrients in the soil. Mostly, they calibrate the fertility of the soil to guide the gardener’s use of fertilizers.
The tests, among other features, indicate the level of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Some tests also indicate pH and micro-nutrients such as calcium or magnesium or boron. Gardeners often find that their soil actually has enough of the major nutrients and more bags of fertilizer do not have to be purchased.
Fall is one of the best times to enhance your landscape with trees and shrubs. The temperatures are cooler, so plants can put more energy into creating roots
Yes, everything is still growing, and the garden is producing bountiful crops. All our work has paid off. But it is not good form to be patting yourself on the back. It is time to assess the landscape. Have you been taking pictures or videos all season to document what is working in the landscape and what may need a bit more attention?
It is nearly Labor Day, which means it’s time for the county fairs and time to organize our fall garden tasks.
We think about planting trees and shrubs in the fall and harvesting our garden’s bounty. One of the tasks we often do not think about in the fall is weeding because we are just so tired of dealing with weeds and wish they would go away.
It is August. The weather the first half of summer was moderate until a scorching end to July. The tomatoes, though, are ripening; all is well with the world. Well, maybe not the lawn.
WSU Chelan Douglas Master Gardeners volunteer in many ways to help community members create sustainable landscapes. The activity I am involved in most often is the Diagnostic Clinic.
Hoary Cress, also called White Top, Cardaria draba, is another pernicious weed from Europe that probably came in animal feed. It has been found in Washington state since the early 1900s.
Snout-nosed weevils are fairly common. There are, believe it or not, hundreds of types. The gardeners of Europe were complaining about this pest in the 18th century. The most common ones in our gardens are the Rhododendron, strawberry and vine weevil. They gnaw on the young leaves of rhubarb, liliac, hosta, peony and many other ornamental leaves from late May through September. The little c-shaped notches are a sign that weevils are present.
The Greater Wenatchee Arbor Day Celebration will take place on Saturday. The plants for distribution have been selected with drought tolerance and Firewise characteristics in mind.
Spring officially arrives in a few weeks, signaling the start of the gardening season — at least a start on the gardening tasks.
Before we can plan for the new gardening year, let’s recap last year’s gardening challenges. Here are my notes from my gardening journal.
Our lawns probably need tender, loving care this year. The winter and spring of 2021 were abnormally dry, and the early summer was abnormally hot, and this winter has been a return to our winter cold temperatures. These events all affect how the lawn grows.
What a wonderful, snowy winter. It looks like the plants are tucked in and protected from the cold. They are dormant. So are all the diseases and insects that prey on the fruit trees.
