The weather outside is delightful!   But soon it will be very frightful!  Get out there and enjoy it.  Be sure to watch out for those wasps and yellow jackets!  They are getting meaner as the days get colder and shorter…  The other thing you will notice is what your trees are telling you.  The changing color of the leaves means fall is in the air.  This week’s show is full of fall related stories…

This week we featured...

Fir Point Farm Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off

We found our way to Fir Point Farms (503-678-2455) for their Giant Pumpkin Weigh Off.  Fir Point is one of the locations where they weigh giant pumpkins to determine who has the largest in the country!  The last few years we have witnessed some of the biggest pumpkins in the nation.  We talked with Jim Sherwood, a giant pumpkin grower, about how they grow these massive giants!  Then ‘Farmer’ Frank Battilega talked to us about all the events going on out there.  The GIANT Pumpkin Festival kicks off the month-long Fall Festival at Fir Point Farms, which is now in its 24th season. Every weekend in October, Fir Point offers the full compliment of pumpkin patch activities, including hayrides, a corn maze, a pumpkin slingshot, a hay maze, pony rides, a hay-slide, delicious food, pumpkin carvers, live entertainment, and pumpkin arcade games for small children ... plus various farm animals featuring the always entertaining tree-climbing goats.

Jack Richards Fall Container

You are limited only by your imagination.  That is the motto of Jack Richards, an award winning floral designer, when he puts together his decorative containers.  We caught up with Jack at Fresh to You Produce and Garden Center (503-769-9682) in Stayton.  Fresh to You is a great garden center and they are getting ready for the fall season.  Jack was putting together some of their displays and he offered some tips for the homeowner that wants to make a splash with their fall containers.  He incorporates almost everything in his garden when he does his designs.  Flowers, live and cut, only create the base of his designs.  He also uses corn stalks, small gourds and hard fruits, plus decorative birds and other holiday knick-knacks.   The main things he looks for in a container are texture, color, and design.  Catch Jack or any of the other helpful staff at Fresh to You to answer any of your container questions.

Solexx Greenhouses

Having a ‘green’ house in your backyard shouldn’t send you to the ‘poor’ house.   We found one by Solexx that is easy to assemble and really inexpensive, too.  A greenhouse will help to extend your gardening season and it will give you a head start on next year.  Michelle Moore from Solexx Greenhouses (800-825-1925) and William assembled one in just a few hours.  When you order the kit it arrives in just a couple of boxes.  The kit is so well organized, and color coded, that it is really simple to assemble with just a couple of tools.  A couple other benefits: It can be sited anywhere and there is no need for expensive site preparation -- you can place it directly on your lawn.  Plus, it is lightweight.  You can assemble it in one area and move it to another area with just 2 people.  This is great if you want to place it over an existing garden area.   Check out their website to see all the different types of greenhouses available and all the tools to extend your growing season.

Forcing Bulbs

Looking to add some color to the upcoming holidays?  Donna Wright from Black Gold showed us how to force your favorite bulbs into spectacular beauty for the winter months ahead!  She demonstrated how easy it is to force Paper Whites and Amaryllis.  You can use any pot or decorative container and you can use a variety of different soils and stones to do it.  Now is the time to do this as the selection of bulbs in the garden centers is at its best right now.

Grass Seed Choices

Fall is the perfect time to renovate your lawn.  Growing a new lawn or reseeding an old lawn now can give you a head start on a beautiful lawn next year.  Your choice of grass can help ensure your success.  Grass seed, like plants, sometime prefers a specific condition.  Certain seeds perform well in shade and others in sun.  Tom Combs from DF Marks, which distributes Professional’s Choice grass seed, joined William to explain what to look for in a quality seed.  Things you should look for?  Check out the percent of ‘weed seed’ and ‘crop seed’.  Since it is grown in fields, grass seed can be a combination of seed that blows into the field.  The Professional’s Choice seed have 0 percent of both, which is what you are looking for.  The other thing to check out is the ‘test date’.  Like freshness date on any product, this tells you when it was tested.   If it is more than a year old you may want to look for another bag.  The closer the test date the better the germination rate, the better the lawn.  If you have any questions you can always stop by your local independent garden center.