It’s April and tomatoes are here! We know you’re ready to get them planted since it’s sunny (wait… now it’s cold and raining…. wait! It’s sunny again! Wait…) ;) but your tomato plants won’t grow into incredibly prolific tomato producers if you don’t protect them until the night temperatures remain consistently above 50 degrees. Most of us at Swansons swear by protection tools so we can plant our warm-season vegetables earlier and encourage larger, stronger plants and better harvests. Here’s what we use and how to use them.
You and your rose soul-mates have found each other. Now what? How do you keep them happy and thriving in our maritime Pacific Northwest climate? Roses are not completely carefree, but with a few basic care guidelines, you can grow them successfully and enjoy their beauty for years to come.
For many of us, the choice of which tomatoes to grow can be daunting. We've boiled down the tomato decision process into a few helpful questions and our suggestions: a secret (tomato) sauce, if you will, of how to make the right choice for your individual tomato needs. At the end of this post are a handy infographic and a link to our tomato variety list.
The most recognizable “spring” flowers - tulips, lilacs, azaleas - have finished blooming or are beginning to fade and a host of new flowering plants are ready to take the baton for the race into summer. Here are some of our favorite late-spring flowers; some even keep blooming all summer long. Best of all, these flowers attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds!
In this post, I’m repotting a very rootbound Marble Queen Pothos plant. I’ll walk you through all the steps for a successful repotting. These steps are essentially the same for all types of indoor and outdoor plants, so you can take these tips and use them for any potted plant.
It's late summer and what’s needed is a pop of color to spruce up the garden - even better if the plants continue to bloom well into fall! Luckily, there are plenty of flowers that are in their prime right now and that will keep on blooming into fall or even until frost. Here are a few of our favorite late-summer flowers.
Dahlias die back each year as autumn advances, but, with the proper care, the tuberous root system can live on to produce a stunning display year after year. The advice in this post is based on many years of growing dahlias in a low-lying area of Seattle with relatively moderate winter temperatures and excellent drainage.
August is the quintessential summer month here in the Pacific Northwest. Consistently dry, sunny, and warm, but with a slight tinge of fall in the air by the second half of the month. The sun is starting to set a little earlier, but we still have pleasantly warm summer evenings to enjoy in the garden. Flowers abound and we can enjoy sizzling colors under the sun as well as find comfort in the coolness of the shade garden. Here are some of our favorite plants for August.
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