Summer is here! The days are going to be at their longest and with all that
sunshine you would figure that we would have more sun and warmth! Patience
dear gardener... our time is coming. We all want to get out and enjoy the
garden and all those wonderful plants we have planted and tended during the
rainy season. Soon enough we will be enjoying the outdoors everyday!
We want to extend a happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. A lot of
gardeners learned to love gardening from their fathers. In fact, one of the
Garden Time crew was featured in this week's 'Homes and Garden of the
Northwest' section of the Oregonian. Producer Jeff told everyone of his
memories of his dad and gardening. Check out the article here.
This week we featured...
Asparagus Vinaigrette
One of the first vegetables of spring is the asparagus. Once
established it is one of the easiest vegetables to grow and can produce for
20 years or more in your garden. To learn a new way to prepare it we
stopped by the Glockenspiel Restaurant (503-845-6222) in Mt. Angel, Oregon. Chef Paul Brakeman uses a lot of local, fresh produce in his recipes at the restaurant and he made a lovely vinaigrette that he shared with us. First he showed us how to pick some asparagus and how to remove the fibrous parts of the stalks (you simply snap them off!). We then moved to the actual recipe, which is a 'cold dish' appetizer. This one started with Chef Paul blanching the asparagus with salt and sugar. He then added shallots, garlic, salt, mustard, lemon juice, balsamic vinaigrette and oil into a bowl and mixed it all together. You pour that over the asparagus, garnish and serve. You can try the recipe or stop by the
Glockenspiel Restaurant in Mt. Angel to try some of Chef Paul's other
recipes featuring local produce.
Seeding Our Future Garden Tour
Last year we were really impressed with the 'Seeding Our Future'
event. This garden tour benefits the Foundation for Tigard Tualatin
Schools. Normally we don't do garden tours on the Garden Time TV show. It
is hard to show people gardens that they can't normally see everyday, but we
decided to do this tour because of the great gardens we saw. We stopped by
to see a couple of fantastic gardens. The first garden belonged to Sandy
Woodley. Her garden was a large yard with tons of plants which had changed
with a growing family. There were play structures, kids and animals to deal
with for years. Now she has the room to try different things and grow
different plants. One of her favorite varieties of plant is the boxwood.
And she has them mixed in well through out her landscape. The second
garden belonged to Sandy Willis. Her garden was on the other extreme.
Sandy has a small lot but you couldn't tell that with all the plants she
has. Sandy has also made quite little landscape in the back, with no grass
and lots of stonework. It showed us the power of plants and planning in a
small space. Their gardens are part of the Seeding Our Future Garden Tour
and Art Show. These gardens are 2 of the
8 you can tour next weekend in the Tigard, and Tualatin areas.
The garden tour is on Friday and Saturday, the 25th and 26th of
June, and tickets are $20 each, but the Art Show is free at Fowler Middle
School. You can get tickets at many of the local nurseries, garden centers
and local businesses. For more information, check out the Seeding our
Future website.
Baja Container Tomatoes
The best way to enjoy your garden more is to bring it to your
backdoor! We traveled to Little Baja (503-236-8834) to learn what that means. We
wet with Tracie to learn how we can garden in containers. Judy planted a
tomato in one of their signature 'terra cotta' pots. It is not too late to
plant tomatoes and a terra cotta container will help your tomatoes catch-up
and pass your regular tomatoes in a short time. Terra Cotta is great
because it is made with an all natural material. The clay also allows for
the passage of water and air through the walls of the container and that
promotes healthier roots and stronger plants. Judy showed us how to plant
the tomato extra deep which makes a bigger and better plant. We also
learned about all the other products that Little Baja carries; from
fountains (which they install and service), to statuary and benches, they
have a lot of what every gardener needs. Check out their 2 locations, in
Portland on Burnside and in Tigard on Hall Boulevard near Washington Square.
Planting Bamboo
Bamboo is a great plant. It adds great structure to your
garden, it sounds great in a little breeze with the soft rustling of leaves
and it can make a beautiful and effective screen between you and your
neighbors. Still, with all those benefits it can be a tough plant to
control. Certain types of bamboo can out-grow its home and soon be all over
your garden. To learn how to enjoy the benefits of the plant, without
problems, we stopped by Tsugawa Nursery (360-225-8750) and talked to Brian about
tips for planting and controlling it. First he showed us the barrier that
they recommend. It is a thick plastic that they bolt together. If you
don't do this your bamboo will squeeze through and start running through
your garden. You will also want to leave the edge up out of the ground.
This will help prevent the runners from 'jumping' the barrier. As far as
care, you can use a standard 'grass' fertilizer. If you want to slow down
the growth of your bamboo you can neglect it and just like your lawn, the
growth will slow down. Now if you are a little concerned about 'running'
bamboo there are some clumping varieties of bamboo as well. For a great
selection or to get all your questions answered you can stop by Tsugawa's
for more information.
Green Stihl
Stihl tools are
known as an industry leader in power equipment for the garden. So we
stopped by to visit with Wayne to hear what Stihl had in the way of power
efficient and 'Clean and Green' power tools. The first tool that we looked
at was the Yard Boss tiller. It has a new 'Easy 2 Start' system which is
less wasteful with fuel during starting. We then saw some of the new types
of blowers. Some cities have enacted laws that restrict the noise that a
lawn blower makes. The new Stihl blowers are great when it comes to being
quiet. In fact they meet or beat any noise standard that we have. They are
also less polluting as well with a fraction of the exhaust that older models
have produced. We moved to the new Stihl chainsaw that has a new engine
that is extremely clean, yet still produces an incredible amount of power.
We also saw some of the newer models of the Kombi system. This is the
popular interchangeable lawn tools kit. These newer models are fuel
efficient and they make sense for the home gardener. Since you only use one
engine and just change the power head, you can save money on gas and you
only have one power tool to maintain. Check out the full line at you
local Stihl tool dealer.