Mushrooms make their appearance in lawns and gardens anytime, but more conspicuously in the fall. That’s when wetter weather and cooler temperatures make ideal conditions for them to emerge. Should you be concerned? Or, can you embrace your garden mushrooms? Read on for more information about these fascinating funghi.
The marigold is much more than a beautiful garden flower. Its utility as a colorful annual, edible flower, and companion plant for vegetable gardens is greatly enhanced by its profound role in religious and cultural practices around the world.
When fall arrives, it always inspires me to nest. I search out new recipes, spend weekends cooking and baking, and then test my creations on my friends and family. There’s just something about the chill in the air and the early sunsets that encourage a hearty, home-cooked meal or sweet treat. Here are a few of my favorite fall recipes, including fall cocktails, sweet treats, and savory dishes.
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.
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.
Often, one of my first orders of business when designing a garden is to embellish the immediate surroundings of the house. Carefully selecting plants to enhance the view just outside of our windows can go a long way toward staving off the winter blues, and if those plants offer a bit of fragrance as we scurry back and forth while gathering provisions, so much the better. Here are a few options to brighten the dreary Northwest wintertide.
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.
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 and fall foliage.
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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