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.
An emerging idea as we blur the boundaries between ornamental and food gardening is the Food Forest. A project garnering recent attention is the Cascadia College (CC) Food Forest, on the campus shared by Cascadia and the University of Washington, Bothell (UWB). It is one of a few but growing number of college campuses in the U.S. which are maintained using sustainable practices and without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.
After winding down NW Blue Ridge Drive for what seems like forever, I pull up in front of my assigned meeting place with Amy Pennington, cook, writer, blogger, TV personality and edible gardener extraordinaire. I follow the sounds of laughter-filled chatter up the stairs and into the back garden, where I am met with a spectacular view: beautiful ornamental landscaping blending harmoniously with an edible garden of raised beds at the height of the property, with sweeping views of Puget Sound and the Olympics. It is a tapestry of blues and greys on this overcast morning.
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