In the Garden: Peas can help you weather a cool spring
If your get-out-there-a-gardening juices are flowing ahead of tomato planting time, perhaps a dose of pea planting will sustain your impulses. Peas are cool-weather annuals taking only 55 to 70 days to harvest, depending on variety. Plant them now and you can be enjoying crunchy, fresh-picked vegetables by the end of May.
In the Garden: Small lots need smaller trees
Towering, stately conifers gracing Ohme Gardens are impressive there, but would look out of place on a small home site. Trees in scale with their surroundings make a huge difference. Most lot sizes are a half-acre or less, with the home using a large part of that space. That means smaller trees are the ticket.
In the Garden: Square-foot gardening is a popular strategy
A compact garden that produces lots of food — that’s the concept of square-foot gardening. Let’s shorten the name to SFG. Coined by author Mel Bartholomew more than 20 years ago, it’s basically dividing raised beds into foot-sized increments and growing a quantity of vegetables or flowers in those small spaces.
In the Garden: Consider plants of winter interest
With a fresh new year underway, welcome to these cold and blustery days of winter! Absent the luxurious growth and flamboyant color of the growing season, this is the perfect time of year for re-evaluating what’s in your landscape. January presents an entirely different picture — revealing the real structure of your landscape.
In the Garden: Don’t let bamboo bamboozle you
There are types of bamboo hardy enough for our climate, but don’t get too excited and run out and buy just any bamboo. It’s best to thoroughly understand the difference between the “runners” and “clumpers” — the two types of the some 1,400 bamboo species. Surprisingly, bamboo is a grass, although it varies from petite 2-foot-tall species to timber bamboo, reaching up to 100 feet tall.
In the Garden: Problem trees
Leaves shimmering in the breeze, brilliant golden fall coloring, fast growth — what more could one want from a tree? Above ground, aspens are pretty easy to enjoy; below ground, those invasive, suckering roots are a challenge, making aspens among the list of problem trees. Problem trees are just that — problems. Before buying that cute, little 4- or 5-foot tree at the nursery, do some homework and find out if its mature size fits your needs and it doesn’t have other drawbacks, such as suckering, diseases or brittle branches.
In the Garden: Problem solvers answer your gardening questions
Powdery mildew, scorched leaves, brown spots in the lawn, anthracnose — have any of these headaches appeared in your landscape? These are among recent garden problems handled by the Master Gardener diagnostics clinic, where many similar questions come in batches. I recently visited a Monday clinic in the WSU Extension office and found four friendly folks handling diagnostics; Master Gardeners Linda Sarratt, Homer McNeill, Orv Vanderlin and intern Linda Morse. Clinics handle phone calls as well as walk-ins on Monday and Wednesday afternoons 1 to 4 p.m. at 400 Washington St.
In the Garden: Make ivy work for you, or avoid it altogether
English ivy is one of those plants we either love or hate — sometimes a bit of each. It grows quickly, offers a lush evergreen appearance and is easy to grow. The hate part is when it gets out of hand and sort of takes over the world (or at least the immediate yard). This Old World native was introduced to our Northwest, where it grows with abandon, especially on the cooler and wetter west side of the Cascades. Its aggressiveness transforms it into a weed that easily engulfs trees, yards, fences — even houses.
Problem looms for backyard fruit growers
You’ll know drosophila has arrived when your berries or soft fruit turn mushy and icky
Beware, a tiny species of fruit fly may beat you to your ripening fruit this year. The name, spotted wing drosophila (dro-soph-ila), may seem unpronounceable and foreign, but predictions are we gardeners will come to know it dreadfully well this summer. SW vinegar fly may be an easier name to remember (it’s attracted to vinegar).
A greenhouse visit will get your spring growing
Spring is definitely in full swing when visitors enter the magic of Grant Road Greenhouse. It’s practically filled wall to wall with vigorous young flower, vegetable and herb starts. This is Diane Hendricks’ second year of leasing the nursery at 2419 Grant Road, East Wenatchee. Her excitement and enthusiasm is contagious as she shows visitors around and helps them find exactly what they want.
In the Garden: Help your garden recover from freeze damage
Alive or dead? Repercussions from last winter’s capricious cold are showing up on many plants this spring. If your garden looks like ours, damage ranges from a few plants flat out dead to ones mostly living with a mix of healthy and blackened branches. I’m surprised how many shrubs and trees fared just fine, even though zero degrees and below hit before most plants had time to reach full dormancy last fall.
Sunnyslope family is serious about their blueberries
If a few is a good thing, then a lot must be better. Perhaps that’s why Brent Cunderla of Sunnyslope planted 30 blueberry bushes in his fenced backyard. He chose blueberries because of their healthy antioxidants; plus they’re tasty, and the family wanted something good to eat with a fairly long-fruiting season.
Getting to the root of the problem of strangled plants
Most gardeners have faced the revelation of discovering girdling roots — roots wrapped around the root collar — when digging up a shrub or small tree. This causes strangulation, or at the very least, an unhealthy plant. What happened? As the young plant grew in a pot, its roots began circling inside the container. Most likely it was just plopped into the ground when transplanted, without any effort at directing roots outward. As the plant grew, so did those roots, which began squeezing off other roots. Not a healthy shrub or tree.
Take a look at the winter garden
Bleak and blustery days call for winter landscape interest, often displaying more subtle colors and shapes than what we’re accustomed to during those glorious warmer months of abundance. A blanket of snow takes on entirely different elements, turning the entire landscape into a black and white domain. And even when rain and warmer-than-usual temperatures melt most of that snow away, you can still see the bare bones of your landscape; it’s a great time to scrutinize it, utilizing this stark perspective without the distraction of lush flowers and greenery.
New herbaceous plants for a new year
A New Year and time to drool over new plants. After November’s arctic blast, we’re probably all in the same boat — realizing our futures hold more than the usual spring plant buying.
You, too, can be a Master Gardener
“It’s so much fun to learn more about good gardening practices and work with people who have similar passions in gardening,” said Betsy Cook, 2010 Master Gardener intern. Cook was describing her experience in this year’s class. She and Tom Ernsberger met me at the Master Gardener community demonstration garden on Western Avenue recently to share their thoughts on the program and encourage others to take the annual training class.
You can grow figs around here, but it will take work
Being the Apple Capital of the World just doesn’t cut it for growing figs. But growing up in a temperate climate may be enough inducement for taking on the challenge in our less-than-ideal climate for growing figs.
Master Gardener fall plant sale set for Saturday
Shorter days and cooler nighttime temperatures mean hardy plants are slowing down and starting to settle in. Plants need this transitional cooling-off period in preparation for surviving the winter cold that Mother Nature throws at them. The last half of September into October is the perfect time to get plants in the ground and working toward these goals.
Fire near gun club in East Wenatchee
EAST WENATCHEE — Firefighters expected to contain a large brush fire on Badger Mountain by the middle of this afternoon. The fire never threatened any structures and burned only grassland, said Doug Miller, fire marshal for Douglas County Fire District 2. He did not have an estimate of acreage burned.
Fall flowers provide a lift from the summer blues
Most plants (and people) get caught in the summer doldrums, especially after a slow-starting spring followed by our more usual July heat. Want to put a smile on your face that lasts into fall? Try these star performers to brighten your days: Chrysanthemums are synonymous with fall, offering a huge range of colors and shapes. Brighten the landscape with eye-catching gold, yellow and bronze types, or choose soft lavenders, mauves and reds. Blossoms range in size from petite to big and dramatic dinner plates, with shapes to suit all tastes: spoons, spider, cushion, pompon and single.
For ripples without water, try ornamental grasses
Like water’s ever-shifting patterns along a stream bed, ornamental grasses offer mesmerizing feelings of calmness. Graceful movement in the wind, multiple seasonal interest, nice texture, contrast with flowers and shrubs, easy-care — these are comments from local gardeners about ornamental grasses.
Small water features can be soothing addition to garden
On hot summer days when temperatures climb and human frailties seem taxed, melodious and soothing water features can be a solace for the senses. The stage is set for pleasant company with the inviting music of water bubbling near your front door or on the back patio. A low volume of water — not a noisy gusher — provides a soothing backdrop without hampering conversations.
In the Garden: Go ahead and start your pruning
This is shape-up time for many shrubs and trees. There’s a lot to be said for judicious pruning this time of year. It reinvigorates plants, opens them up to more sunlight and gets rid of dead and diseased wood. Plants are completely dormant now and haven’t started their burst of spring growth yet. But as days lengthen and inch up into warmer temperatures, emerging bumps along branches give the promise of spring.
Gardening’s great debate: Heirloom or hybrid?
Heirloom or hybrid? So many seed and plant catalogs feature heirloom plants these days that a gardener wonders whether to choose the “new and improved” hybrids or the old tried-and-true heirlooms. It depends on what your priorities are for the particular plant. Both the old and new have redeeming characteristics. Seeds from old varieties can be saved and handed down from generation to generation. Hybrids are crosses that blend the best features of two parents, but the seeds they produce won’t likely result in a similar-quality plant. So with hybrids, a gardener needs to buy new seeds every year.
Nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ like a hori hori
Probably the most precious gift for gardeners is more time, winter sunshine and healthy, flexible bodies. For some of us, those gifts are literally beyond our reach, but we can find items that make gardening more efficient, time-saving and body protecting.
In the Garden: A look back at this year’s garden can help next year
The good, the bad and the delicious describes our garden results this season. Luckily, most of our produce fell into the latter category. Fall is when my husband Pat and I like to evaluate — before we forget — so next year, when planting season rolls around, we’ll have specific ideas in mind of what to grow and what to avoid.