Gardening in the PNW with lots of shade: we mostly love living among the trees. We recognize the importance of preserving and restoring our diminishing urban canopy. But trying to grow colorful flowers, fruits or vegetables under trees can be a challenge. And increasing urbanization brings taller buildings and more shade at ground level. This blog post will help illuminate the types of shade you may be dealing with, discuss other design considerations, and offer sample shade garden designs and plant lists.
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.
Colorful spring containers celebrate the start of the gardening season and creating them is fun and easy if you know which plants to choose. Look for these great gems to create a new spring container or refresh an existing pot.
Spring gardening is in full swing and we’ve teamed up with our friends at Dunn Lumber to bring you a great DIY building and gardening project you can do at home - no backyard needed! Kirsten will teach you how to make two wooden planter boxes. I’ll help you decide what to plant in them and show you how, step by step!
One of the first activities I want to do outside in early spring is to plant my early spring vegetable garden. There’s nothing like the smooth, clean surface of prepped garden beds, the soil still pristine and just waiting to nurture rows of bright green spring vegetables, carefully planted in perfect rows. It’s like a fresh school notebook - full of promise. But what to plant? Here are a few of my favorite vegetables to plant in spring, with tips on when and how to plant them.
Browsing through Swansons’ gift shop recently, I picked up The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living by Meik Wiking. Hygge is a term which is hard to translate exactly into English, but virtually any Dane (or northern European) knows hygge or its equivalent. It's what gets them through their chilly, gray winter months.
It's hard to believe that after our long, hot summer it's already time to start planning and prepping for the colder seasons. However, nature and the changes in the garden are telling me that it's time to start the process. Here’s what I do in my garden to prepare it for fall. One of my first fall tasks is to survey the garden to look for yellowing of leaves, fungal damage, and eggs that some of the pests may have left. I'm also looking for signs that plants may need transplanting or separating. I will prune some of my perennial plants, and also mulch to protect them.
Hi, I'm Mollie! In my short tenure as Swansons' indoor plant and pottery buyer, I have had one goal: to find a source for the hot new plant everyone needs for their living room. And that plant is a Cactus! I don't mean just your regular run-of-the-mill cactus in a four-inch pot, no no. I’m talking about big, juicy, tall, spiky cacti that can take your pad from drab to fab (#jungalowstyle, anyone?) in an instant.
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