Welcome to the rain. Some of us are getting rain today for the first time in months! It feels good. Yes, we know that some outdoor events are in danger of being canceled but the gardens (and the forest fires) need a good dousing. Plus it might feel good to head out with a light jacket to enjoy some outdoor activities for once. One of those activities is the start of the Swan Island Dahlia festival. Rain or shine, it is a must see event!

I have been telling you about the next Garden Time trip to Ireland next June. This is a great tour of some wonderful gardens and another ‘must see’ event! I have to let you know that we have sold over half of the available seats as of this past weekend! Time is running out and if we keep up this pace, the rest will be gone by the end of September. Sign up at the Garden Time tours page on our website.

This week we featured...

Pest Patrol - Wasp Solutions

It is that time of year when the wasps start to make their way into our gardens (and picnics, and parties, etc.) We found a nest in our yard so we thought we could share some information with you about dealing with them. First of all, if they are not in an area where there are a lot of people, you can just leave them alone. Wasps can be a beneficial insect if they are not bothering people. Unfortunately we found our nest near a populated area, near a garden path. Next identify the type of flying insect you are dealing with. If it is a honey bee colony you can get a bee-keeper to come and get them and they can soon be put to work in an orchard making honey! If it is a harmful pest, there are various ways of taking care of the problem. One way is to use a pheromone trap. There are a couple that are on the market by Rescue. These use scent to attract the wasp or hornet. They are targeted to the hornet or wasp and not to honeybees. There are also glass traps that work on the same theory. The most effective way of controlling them is with a chemical spray. This involves an insecticide that you buy and apply it yourself. Remember to ALWAYS read the label, it is the law! You will want to wait until dusk, that is when all the wasps return to the hive, and you can make sure you get them all. Get a product that has a stream sprayer, this will get you out of the area where the nest is. And finally, use protective clothing and don’t spray in a breeze. We stopped by Al’s Garden Center in Woodburn (503-981-1245), but you can find most of these products at your local garden center. You want to make sure that you get the bugs that are causing a problem and not any helpful bugs… follow these simple rules and you can be stinger free this summer.

Hot Dahlia Colors

Dahlias are the most spectacular flower of the late summer and they are at their peak during wedding season. That makes them one of the most popular flowers for brides. Heather from Swan Island Dahlias (800-410-6540) works with lots of brides and she pulled some of the flowers that are very popular right now. First of all the most popular color tones for this season are the, light pink/cream/peach colored blooms. She showed us some of the different varieties that come in these shades. Some of the most sought after colors and varieties are Touché, Papageno, Jitterbug, Dream Catcher, Uptown Girl, Peaches and Dreams, Sheer Heaven, Chilson’s Pride, Gabrielle Marie and Innocence. That was just one vase full of blooms! We had one more bloom to look at but it actually looked like 3 different blooms. ‘Café Au Lait’ has a great big bloom that presents itself in a few different colors. Depending on how it grows it can be a peach or pink or blush or cream colored. It is one of the most popular blooms for weddings! In fact it is sold out for this season as a cut flower, but you can always order the tuber and grow it in your garden to enjoy for next year. The next two weekends are perfect for ordering your tubers! Swan Island Dahlias is having their incredible Annual Festival on August 29-31 and September 5-7, and if you order your tubers now through the 7th either in person or on-line, you will save 10% on your order. It is better if you stop by! At the festival ou will get a chance to see over 15,000 blooms in 400 different cut flower arrangements. You can also enjoy food, music, cut flowers and informational talks to help you grow dahlias like the experts. And it is all free! Stop by and have some fun while taking in the 40 acres of blooms!

Aquarium History

One of the highlights of any trip to the Oregon Coast is a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium (541-867-3474). This showcase of Newport used to have the slogan of Raindrops to Raging Sea. It truly covers the journey of rain from the coastal rivers to the sea and all the animals it touches in between. The native plants that surround the OCA are stunning and are only matched by the wonderful sea life on display in their tanks. But it wasn’t always like this. The site used to be the home to a defunct mill and a cluttered industrial development. It took a group of inspired local leaders to build this facility in 1992 and make it what it is today. If you are ever on the Oregon Coast and in the Newport area, stop by and check it out. They have great permanent features and ever changing special exhibits, so there is always something new to see.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

We recently took a wonderful trip to Costa Rica for one of our Garden Time Tours. While we were there we visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest. A cloud forest is very similar to a rain forest. They both deal with lots of moisture in the form of clouds and rain. While we were there with Colette Tours we had the opportunity to attend some informative lectures and learn more about the conservation activities that they are doing to save the cloud forest and why it matters to us here in the Pacific Northwest. We met with Victorino Molina a conservation specialist with the Costa Rican Conservation Foundation to plant a tree (as a group) and to learn more. The Monteverde forest is located on the continental divide of Costa Rica and because of its forest it supports over 100 species of mammals, 400 species of birds, tens of thousands of insect species, and over 2,500 varieties of plants, 420 of which are orchids alone. The planting of the tree is just part of a program that aims to reestablish areas of the forest for the future.

And why should it matter to us in Oregon? Victorino gave us an example of a few birds. Migratory birds from the US use the forest in Costa Rica as a wintering grounds before they return to our area and our gardens in the spring and summer. Birds like the Wood Thrush, Wilson’s Warbler, and the Cedar Waxwing to name a few. Every little effort that is made down there leads to a more diverse and healthier population up here! For more information on how you can help in the effort, contact them through their website.

Timber Press Summer Reads

Summer time is a great time to do some lazy afternoon garden reading and some of the best garden books are from Timber Press! We met with Tom from Timber to get a rundown on some of his favorites for the late summer. The first book was called The Indestructible Houseplant by Tovah Martin. Tovah gives a list of the 200 most popular plants that everyone can grow. There are also how-to tips for planting, decorating with, and maintaining those same plants. The next book was Color Concrete Garden Projects. This book is a great book for making those durable garden structures and accessories with a few simple ingredients. They walk you through the steps of making some first rate projects that will add a touch of pizzazz to your garden. The third book was The Art of Gardening. This book is centered around the public garden at Chanticleer. This garden allows its staff of gardeners to do pretty much whatever they want. Their creative genius is put on display in this great book. You can learn about combining colors and textures, bulbs and perennials, and even container plantings by reading the stories and looking at the great pictures. If you are looking to do something different in your garden, why not learn from the experts? And speaking of great pictures, the next book was incredible! Seeing Seeds is a book from Robert Llewellyn and Teri Dunn Chace. Robert has some spectacular pictures of seeds in their various forms and Teri has written some great stories on those same seeds. The tight photography of these seeds puts them in a different perspective and really shows us the beauty of the vessel and how striking they are in nature. Our last 2 books are perfect for the wet days in our gardens. The first one is called The Magical World of Moss Gardening and it showcases moss in its various forms and how you can use moss to accent and complement your garden. Pretty stunning uses for a something that most of us are trying to get rid of in our lawns. The other book, The Plant Lover’s Guide to Ferns, is a compilation of ferns that are hardy for our region and it also has a lot of design ideas for using them in your own garden.

If you would like to find out more about these books and possibly get a copy of one or two, check out the Timber Press website!

TOW - Veggie Water for Plants

Our tip for this week is about water and containers! We recently steamed some vegetables for dinner and when we were through we decided to share the leftover water with our thirsty container plants. We let the water cool down and then poured it on our plants. This water contains some of the nutrients from our steamed vegetables and helps keep our container plants happy and healthy.