Holiday Fundraising Season

Using only the freshest Northwest greenery, Farmington Gardens is a local producer of outstandingly beautiful wreaths, swags, garland and door decorations. Once more, we offer a simple to follow program for fundraising and corporate giving. Schools, churches, youth groups, sports associations and other organizations can take advantage of our attractive pricing to maximize their profits. Using our successful selling tools, top results are easy and...

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Another New Garden Revealed

!-- --> Readers may remember when I revealed the front garden at my new rowhouse, complaining at the time that I couldnt plant anything in the back garden until construction was done. Well, after seven months of workers and inspectors and three-jurisdiction permit purgatory, my life is at last quiet. And heres where I spend hours a day on this 11 x 17-foot screened-in porch. A bug-free place to work and read and nap, with my three indoor cats....

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No longer cursing the darkness

!-- --> Although a meadow of drought-resistant wildflowers would be great, living under the shade of four big maple trees may be the next best thing. At least this year. This is the first time Garden Walk visitors have complimented me on my shade instead of commiserating. People were talking about hosta and colocasiatwo shade-lovers I use extensivelywith more interest than Ive ever noticed before. Of course, there are plenty of interesting woodland...

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Deter Foraging Deer with Natura

Natura products work initially by the smell and then by the taste. The deer are repelled by the fear associated with the smell. Yet, they are smart animals and, after a while, seem to sense that their fears are unfounded. They then come in for a tasty nibble and are surprised by the bitter taste. Off to other pastures they go. Step One Start by spraying your area or plants with this formula for an immediate protection.Plant Saver spray with dried...

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Please Stop Liming your Soil Based on the pH!

!-- --> Guest Rant by Phil Nauta, author of Building Soils Naturally: Innovative Methods for Organic Gardeners Soil pH is talked about a lot in the gardening world, but most people dont understand it, so its generally misused. Im here to rant about it. To simplify what pH is, its basically a measurement comparing how much hydrogen we have in our soil versus a handful of other nutrients mainly calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and aluminum....

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The Story Ends Well For Heronswood

!-- --> Heronswood, the revered botanical garden created in Kingston, Washington by plant collector Dan Hinkley and his partner, architect Robert Jones, as an adjunct to the nursery they founded in 1987, was put up for a sealed bid auction last month by its owner of the last 12 years, W. Atlee Burpee & Co. . . and won by a Native American tribe, thePort Gamble SKlallam, who have a reputation for careful environmental stewardship and whose...

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Go for the Gold

The top prize for an event at the Olympics is a gold medallion, along with the honor of being the outstanding athlete from among many talented athletes. We have many outstanding plants at Farmington Gardens but there are some which stand out more because of their gold coloration. Lysimachia nummularia Aurea has golden yellow foliage and yellow flowers. Commonly known as Gold Creeping Jenny, it is a great spiller in a pot or can be used as a groundcover....

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Heat wave, what heat wave?

!-- --> Guest Rant by Lajos Szabo, London-based seed-seller, blogger and allotment gardener While one heat wave hits the USA after the other, here in the UK (you know that small place somewhere in Europe) the summer is a complete washout. We had the wettest June on record and looks like that July will be the same. And with rain comes cold weather too. While you guys are enjoying high summer temperatures we celebrate if its in the 70s. I read...

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Stop the Madness!

!-- --> Let us review the brief and troubled history of the Modern Cocktail. It began in the early nineties, when youngsters realized that a Martini was a nice thing to order in a bar. A few variations on the martini followed, most notably the godawful dirty Martini made with excessive amounts of olive brine, and the vodka-based Cosmopolitan, which featured prominently in HBOs Sex and the City. That gets us to about 1999. A few years later, somebody...

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Lavender Lovers

Lavender lovers unite this time of year for the festivals that surround this impressive perennial herb. If you are able to attend one of these events you will find that Lavender is known for more than just beauty and fragrance, its a source of inspiration for artists, makes for unique flavor in foods and has medicinal properties as well. You certainly dont need to travel to a festival to enjoy this plant, when you can add some to your own garden....

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Big Name Gardening Website Coming Soon

!-- --> Recently this message went out to the Yahoo group of one of Washingtons tonier neighborhoods, with the title Beautiful perennial garden in back yard needed for TV Commercial. Would anyone be interested in having a tv commercial shot in their back yard one day around the third week in July, at your convenience, for a big name new gardening website? They will pay $1500 for the day, and probably add a few flowers for extra punch. Whoa, Nelly!...

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Garden Party

!-- --> Ive been blabbing away about Garden Walk Buffalo, which is a free tour of only 380 or so gardens. What I should have mentioned is that is is the centerpiece of a larger, month-long garden festival that offers 1,000 gardens to visitors, including a a weekly Open Garden program, and 14 other garden walks throughout the greater Western New York area. This video was produced under the auspices of our vistors center, and is clearly meant for a general audience. Host Nelson Starr tends to be more passionate about Buffalo food promos (he managed...

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Performance anxiety

!-- --> In spite of drought, heat, and relentless animal assaults, there will be no quarter asked or given this weekend, when thousands of walkers fan out among the gardens of Buffalo. Theyre not going to understand or appreciate beds and containers filled with wilting plants and/or chewed-up plants, or the bare dirt left by long-dead plants. I came back from vacation to find three recently-planted hay-scented ferns croaked for no reason that...

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Another illegal front-yard garden, and this ones gorgeous!

!-- --> Illegal. Vraiment? This time, the craziness is in Quebec. And this time, the gardeners health is an issue. According to this story, the couple has lost a combined 100 p0unds since they planted the garden in March! Expect to see a garden-to-lose-weight book coming soon, based on their experience. Via: Another illegal front-yard garden, and this ones gorgeous! ...

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Spiraea Add Color in More Ways Than One

Spiraea are low maintenance shrubs which can be used in borders, as foundation plants, or in cottage gardens. They are attractive individually or in groupings. I love this display of three very different spiraea. The leaf color varies from a green, a blue green and a yellow while the flower color varies from a pink, white, or rose-red. All are fairly drought resistant once established and like full to part sun. Shearing off their early summer blooms...

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Hardy Fuchsias Are Looking Good!

Whether it was because ofthe winter temperatures we had this year or the record breaking rain we had in June, my hardy fuchsias are looking better than ever before. It could alsobe that I learned they do like more sun than shade and moved a few in my garden. Plant deeper than in the pot, much like tomatoes, and allow the soil to fill in as the plant grows. Given a moist, humous rich soil and regular feedings with a balanced fertilizer, hardy...

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A Theme of Complaint

!-- --> Every man may be observed to have some peculiar theme of complaint on which he dwells in his moments of dejection. Samuel Johnson I was having a delightful phone conversation with my old boss last week. He always makes me laugh and gives the best advice of anybody. We always gossip about the people we know in common, ask polite questions about each others families, say a few outrageous things about the state of the world, and then move...

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Planting Between Bricks

I finished the brick pathway through my garden last fall. (Thought Process in the Garden May 21st blog) The winter rains kept washing away the sand between the stones. This will continue until the sand settles and some type of plants, hopefully not weeds, colonize the sand. I decided to help out the process. I wandered the groundcover and Stepables area of the nursery for plants that will tolerate foot traffic and do well in sun/part shade. I came...

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Am I Eating the Right End?

!-- --> For a vegetable gardener, the definition of exciting A few years ago, I interviewed a gardener from Bangladesh who grew exotic gourds like fuzzy melon and snake melon in the Fenway community garden in Boston. She pointed out that the growing season is short, certainly compared to her home country, so before she got the gourds, she made sure to enjoy eating the flowers and the tender shoots of the vines. Huh, I thought stupidly. I didnt...

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Japanese Aralia

The photos above were not taken in a tropical rainforest. Surprisingly enough, they were taken in our shade house here at Farmington Gardens. The name of this plant is Japanese Aralia or Fatsia japonica. This evergreen shrub really stands out with its distinct glossy leaves that can grow to be 16 inches across. When grown in a mass planting, it really brings the feel of the jungle to your own backyard. It also works just as well as a specimen plant,...

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