Dahlias grown by Dan Pearson of Dan’s Dahlias in Oakville, WA. Here, they await pick-up from the buyer at the Seattle Wholesale Grower’s Market. Photo: David E. Perry San Francisco’s Baylor Chapman created this boutonniere with foliage from fuzzy lamb’s ear, forget-me-not blooms and the fruit and leaves of an alpine strawberry. Photo: David E. Perry We’re swooning over the glorious photos in Debra PrinzingR…
…and tightly-packed round buds that open to reveal layer upon layer of soft, curved petals. Placed in a random pattern, with the stem lengths varied for interest, they convey the new, hopeful spirit of the season. Ingredients 10 stems of lilac (Syringa sp.), grown by Oregon Coastal Flowers 12 stems Ranunculus asiaticus, including La Belle and Super Green varieties, grown by Everyday Flowers Vase 5-inch tall x 5-inch wide x 3-inch deep vase (over…
…nd what went into producing it. So how come I can’t have the right to know what’s in the food I buy in the store? That’s the goal of the Just Label It campaign, which last month submitted a record-breaking 1.1 million signatures to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in favor of labeling genetically engineered (GE) foods. And in polls by ABC, MSNBC, NPR, the Washington Post, Consumer Reports and others, consistently…
Flat-leaf parsley I used to do much more canning and freezing than I do now. With our household down to just two, we’re cooking smaller meals and don’t need to have as much food around. But there are still quite a few garden crops that I squirrel away in my freezer or pantry, and one of those is parsley. I can chop and freeze a huge basket of fresh-picked parsley in about 15 minutes. With a half-dozen sessions like that throughout the…
If you can grow vegetables in less space, what about flowers? Our new cutting garden plans show you how it can be done. During the summer months, we like to keep a fresh bouquet of flowers in our reception area. I cut this bouquet from one of our two cutting gardens and just plunked it into a vase. No flower-arranging skills required! I planted the beds in early May, using the wooden planting grid from our Square Foot Garden Kit to mea…
…t first came in a bag of mixed colors); Green Star Gladiolus; Verbena bonariensis. It looks like another banner year for vegetable gardening. Results from the National Gardening Association’s 2009 Gallup Survey predicts a 19 percent increase — 43 million people are planning to grow a vegetable garden! That’s music to our ears and we’re doing everything we can think of to fan the flames of this vegetable gardening enthusiasm (be sure to check…
Fall is a great time to cut and dry perennial herbs such as thyme, oregano, rosemary and bay. Use sharp scissors or flower snips to cut the stems. Keep the bundles relatively small and secure them with rubber bands. If you use twine, the bundles will come apart as the stems dry and shrink. Hang the bundles upside down in a dry, well-ventilated place out of direct sunlight. A bouquet of culinary herbs that includes several types of sage and…
Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the importance of fertilizing plants. One of my favorite pots this season (see plant list below) with two of the three fertilizers that I’m applying and one of my trusty watering cans. Over the years, I have become a firm believer in the importance of fertilizing plants. Now, when there’s a pest problem in my garden, I run for a fertilizer rather than a pest control. In most cases, I…
…en the earth-friendly ones. At first, I tried neem, a relatively harmless spray that does wonders on aphids and controls blackspot on roses. It worked to control the larvae the first year, but I had to spray frequently (every 10 to 15 days). The second year, I couldn’t keep the larvae under control. My lily crop was hit hard, and I got few blooms. Last year, I decided to resort to a systemic called imidacloprid. The results were instantaneo…
…tes hosts a trailer, brings it in when it is full, and returns with an empty one,” Cline says. Steve Cline sorts plastic pots and cell packs at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s recycling program, where they collect 100,000 to 140,000 pounds of horticultural plastic every year. Cline, former director of the Garden’s Kemper Center for Home Gardening, started the program in 1998. The botanical garden’s Pots to Planks program s…