Welcome to the spring! It sure feels like it is finally getting here. The warmer weather of the last few weekends has gotten us out into the garden to get some clean-up done. Sometimes we just don’t have enough room in the yard debris bin for everything! The problem about all the clean up is that the cold weather returns after a couple of days. Ah, spring in the Northwest, sunny and pleasant one day, cold and rainy the next!

By now you all know that the Fusion show will not be returning this year. We are going to include home and entertainment stories in the Garden Time show now. To start that off we have a great cocktail to share in this week’s show that includes cucumbers and herbs from the garden. We visited Bull Run Distillery to learn about a cocktail and to get the lowdown on the TOAST event. Check out the story to learn more.

Also, don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour this weekend, and remember it just means more sunlight for gardening, and we are getting closer to the GardenPalooza event on April 6th!

This week we featured...

Spring means the return to color in the garden. It is great to see all those flowers brightening up the garden again. But if you think your garden looks great you should check out the color at your local garden center. There are lots of plants out there that you can add to your garden and make the spring even brighter. We met with Sarah at Portland Nursery on Stark (503-231-5050) to talk about some of her favorites and others that were looking great. The first one we looked at was the camellia. These plants are just starting to bloom right now and they are spectacular. Once they are done blooming their shiny leaves will still look great into summer. The next one we saw was the hellebore. These are late winter favorites and there are so many new varieties out there now. We saw Sara holding a double petaled one, but there are lots of different styles and colors. William then talked about primulas which are great in protected areas and have a great light fragrance. Anemones were shown next. These are a tender perennial but in the right areas they will come back year after year with little or no help. Ranunculus are also one of these overlooked tender perennials. These have some great spring colors that will pop in a planter or on a patio. When the weather starts to warm up they will suffer, but right now they are spectacular. Sara then talked about an old favorite in the garden, the tulip. These are definitely hardy and will come back year after year. You can pick up a pot of blooming bulbs now and after this year they can be moved to the garden and planted for a show next year. Finally we talked about foliage color. Heucheras are one of the best plants for foliage color in the spring. They are just starting to put on their new leaves and they are great contrast plants for all your spring colors. If you are looking for some new spring color for your garden, check out the plants at Portland Nursery or your local independent garden center.

Goodwill Garden Stuff

It is almost spring and a lot of people are itching to get out in the garden again. If you are getting the itch and are tight on your budget you can get almost all of the items you need at a place you wouldn’t normally think of for gardening supplies. To see what they have for the local gardener we met with Dale Emanuel of the Goodwill Industries of the Columbia Willamette (503-238-6100). Goodwill takes your gently used items and sells them in their stores to help get people back to work! She took us to an outlet store in east Vancouver. This facility is the last stop for your donated items after they have been in their regular retail stores. After time here and if there are no buyers, the remaining items are either donated to other organizations or recycled. Still, there were a lot of cool items available. We started in one bin that held all kinds of little garden related things. They had garden books, boots, pots and even a small fountain!
Then we moved to another bin with much larger items. This one had lots of long handled tools, including a ‘garden weasel’ that was brand new, and even a large whiskey barrel. Next to the bins they even had patio sets, a lawn mower and benches. So if you thought that Goodwill just had clothes you need to stop by and see all the other great things they have on sale.

Fruit Tree Grafting

As a kid I always thought that I could plant an apple seed and get a tree full of apples in my backyard! I learned later that was impossible. The seeds from an apple are a mish-mash of different genes and you can never be sure of what you will get. The only way to get a fruit tree that is a true variety is to graft one. Grafting is the art of using one type of tree for healthy roots and another type of tree for good fruit production. To learn more we stopped by the Home Orchard Society Arboretum at Clackamas Community College. We met with Monica Maggio, who is the manager, to get a tour and lesson in grafting. First we started at the back of the property to see a row of Melrose apple trees. These were all different sizes to show people how you can control the height of a tree by the type of root stock you choose. The apples will all taste the same (because they came from the same parent tree) but the size of the plant can change. Next we moved to a very unique cherry tree. This one had 4 different types of cherries on one tree. The tree started with one root stock and over time the different varieties were added one at a time. Now you can get 4 different kinds of cherries during the season. Pretty cool!

Finally we moved to a demonstration table where Monica showed us how to graft an apple tree. She started with a piece of root stock that was already planted in a pot. Then she took a piece of scion wood and made a sharp angled cut. The scion wood is actually a piece of first year ‘new wood’ from a parent plant (a type of apple you want to have in your garden to eat). She made a sharp cut to this one as well. The surface areas of the 2 cuts have to match up pretty well for the graft to work. Then she made an additional cut in both pieces so you had a little ‘tongue and groove’ area to secure the pieces together. Then you wrap them with a piece of rubber band and some grafting seal to keep it from drying out or keeping bugs and diseases from entering. If the graft works you should be able to start harvesting apples in 3-4 years.

If you would like to make your own tree the opportunity is coming up next weekend at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby during the Home Orchard Society’s Fruit Propagation Fair. They will have over 500 different varieties of apples and pears to choose from so you can pick the fruit you want to enjoy for years to come and graft it yourself! The event is Sunday March 17th from 10am to 4pm. Stop by and learn more about this fascinating process!

Toast Cocktail #1