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.
Sure, you can buy garlic, but for the best flavor - and an incredible sense of satisfaction - nothing beats growing it yourself. Unlike most vegetables, garlic is planted in the fall but not harvested until the following summer, making it a very long-season crop that’s worth the wait. In fact, it can be very encouraging to plant something new in late fall when all around you, most plants are fading in anticipation of winter.
I love the transitions to a new season and this year has been another exceptional year for the vegetable garden. Now that the last picking of pole beans has happened, the garlic is drying in a dark location along with the lavender, thyme and sage and the indeterminate tomatoes continue to flourish, it is an appropriate time to reflect what went right and how do I want to proceed with fall maintenance and planting for an extended crop.
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