The West Seattle Garden Tour celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. The gardens were lovely, and the views were spectacular, but what really inspired me were the small touches accessible to gardeners at all levels. Here are my top 5 takeaways from the tour. I hope they might inspire you in your own garden.
Do you know about Swansons’ Swan Dollars? This fabulous tradition is our way of saying “thank you” for shopping with us in the spring. Each April, May, and June, you collect Swan Dollars on every purchase you make. In July, it’s time to gather them all up and visit Swansons to redeem them. You can use Swan Dollars (from any year!) to save up to 50% on your purchase throughout July, even on sale items. Here are some of the things we’re using our Swan Dollars to buy this year. We hope it inspires you to come in and treat yourself!
Many shrubs bloom in spring, and there are lots of choices for gorgeous fall foliage, but it can be harder to find the right stand-out shrub to highlight your garden in the summer months, especially if you are trying to complement colorful summer perennial or annual flowers. Here are a few of our favorites for summer flowers or interesting summer foliage.
When the weather is hot and dry, it's important to protect your plants and keep them healthy. Even established plants, like street trees, suffer from a dry summer, so get out there and water! Here are 7 water-wise tips to keep your plants hydrated and make watering your garden easy and effective.
Nothing can conjure up a memory like a certain fragrance. Whether we want to reproduce the scents of our childhood gardens, or simply create a new sensory experience, there are many fragrant plants to enjoy. We all know that roses and lilies smell amazing, but here is a collection of annuals, perennials, and shrubs you may not be as familiar with and which will bring unique and evocative fragrances to your garden throughout the year.
Is there anything more beautiful than a PNW garden in May? Although every month has its special beauty, the May garden is bursting with new foliage and blooms, filled with abundance and freshness, and with the promise of summer to come. Here are a few of our favorite garden plants for the month of May.
The world’s favorite flower just might be the rose, inspiring epic romantic poetry, sonnets, even wars, for thousands of years. And, in addition to bestowing elegance and altering the course of history, roses offer us an astonishing variety of flower types, fragrances, and colors! So we want to keep them looking their best, and proper pruning can significantly improve most roses’ blooming performance and overall health.
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!
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