SHOW ARCHIVE

Episode 376 • October 3, 2015

VIDEO ARCHIVE

Pumpkin spice is everywhere! That must mean that fall is here. We know it’s fall, not because of the coffee flavors, but because of the giant pumpkin weigh-off and drop at Bauman’s Farm and Garden. In fact we talked to Brian about the event in this week’s show. That is just one location of the fall festival fun in our area. Go just about anywhere in the United States and you will have something ‘fall’ going on.

These are also great days to get out and into the garden. The season is changing and each plant is reacting differently. Whether it is the change of a leaf color or some late season blooms, there is still something to enjoy in the garden! Get out and enjoy the season.

 

This week we featured...
 

Bauman Pumpkin Weigh Off and Drop
 

Bauman Pumpkin Weigh Off and Drop

The fall is here and that means it is time for Bauman’s Fall Festival. This year the people at Bauman’s Farm and Garden (503-792-3524) are celebrating another year of fall fun and they have something planned for each weekend. This weekend is the second weekend of their festival with the ever popular Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off and pumpkin drop. Last year the weigh off at Bauman’s included a new WORLD record squash at over 1500 pounds! The weigh-off weekend includes the inclusion of other ‘giant’ vegetables like tomatoes, watermelons and sunflowers. The big event is the giant pumpkin drop at 1pm on Saturday. After the big drop you can enjoy all of the outstanding harvest activities that Bauman’s has become famous for. There are hay mazes, zip lines, petal carts, slides, a bunch of bounce houses, the jumping pillow, the slide tower, hoppin horses and the bug train and so much more! You can enjoy over 20 different activities on the farm, including the new laser adventure!! They are also bringing back the Gem Mining sluice, where you can mine for gems, shark teeth and even fossils. You can also enjoy some of their great baked goods, wonderful plants and all kinds of fresh garden produce.

Of course the stars of the show will be the giant pumpkins. These giants can get as big as 1,700 pounds and larger! Rumor has it that there may be a world record set this year at Bauman’s! The winning pumpkin will walk away with a nice prize check and that is sure to guarantee a ton (sorry for the pun) of pumpkins will be entered. Come and walk among the giants!

 

Drought-Stressed Trees
 

Drought-Stressed Trees

The past summer has been long, hot and dry. That has created some problems for the trees in our area. To see some of the damage and get some tips on tree care we met with Logan Collier from Collier Arbor Care/Bartlett Tree Experts (503-722-7267) at the arboretum at Clackamas Community College. He said that you should look for the signs of drought stress on your trees. Those include curled leaves, scorched leaves and even burned and pealing bark on some trees. Some will even lose leaves if they are very stressed. We passed a red maple that was in the beginning of changing to its fall color. This too was a sign of drought stress. You may even see drought symptoms on your conifers. All these symptoms can open up your tree to other problems too. The tree is a pressurized system and if there is not enough fluid in the system it opens up the tree to attacks from pests. At Colliers/Bartlett they are seeing more borer attacks, aphids, and foliar diseases.

What can you do to help your trees survive? Even though we have had a couple of showers in the area in the last couple weeks, Logan recommends that you give your trees a deep watering. Adding mulch and fertilizing will help as well. Bartlett has a couple of great handouts to help you with your stressed tree. One gives you 5 steps to drought recovery, http://www.bartlett.com/resources/DroughtRecoveryProgram.pdf. While the other walks you through the signs of drought and long term problems for your trees without proper help, http://www.bartlett.com/resources/Drought-and-Landscape-Plants.pdf. If you think your trees are in trouble you can always give Collier/Bartlett a call and have them come out for a free consultation.

 

Legacy Therapy Garden
 

Legacy Therapy Garden

There is nothing like the feeling of walking through a garden. Legacy Health realized that this feeling is not only good for the soul, it is also great for the body. To learn how they use the garden as a therapy we stopped by Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center and visited with Teresia Hazen, the head of the therapy gardens in the Legacy system. Legacy has 12 therapeutic gardens at their 6 hospitals that serve the public and the 10,000 employees in their system. We were at the second floor garden, which actually overlooks the Children’s Garden on the first floor. This garden, like most therapeutic gardens, focuses on the 5 senses. Teresia walked around the garden with Judy to showcase some of the plants and structures that feed those 5 senses. We started with a visual tour of the garden. The various plantings and containers create a stunning display that are fun to see and enjoy. There is really no place in the garden where you can’t sit and enjoy the beautiful plantings. Next we talked about the touch of plants and feeling textures. She pulled a leaf off of a lamb’s ear plant. Its fuzzy touch, as with the other texture plants in the garden, help with the mind to body connection that people need when healing. Fragrance is also very important with the ‘mind-body’ connection. There were lots of fragrant plants in the garden, but we stopped by the Hot Lips Salvia. This plant has a nice gentle scent and it also is a hummingbird magnet! There was another salvia in the garden that works with the sense of taste. The Pineapple Salvia not only has the same great flowers, but you can also taste it. In fact, Teresia said that they place leaves from the plant in ice cube trays and they will gently flavor your water when they melt in your drink. If you would like to check out some of these gardens, you can check out the Legacy website that is devoted to them. If you would like to volunteer to help maintain these jewels of healing, you can contact Teresia through that website. Stop by and take a moment to do a little ‘self’ healing at one of these gardens. You won’t regret it.

 

Little Prince Orchid Wanna-bes
 

Little Prince Orchid Wanna-bes

Little Prince of Oregon grows some great plants and so when we called to see what was blooming Mark told us to stop by and see something special! We were not disappointed. One was a hardy orchid and the other was an orchid look-a-like. The first one was the bletilla. I say it is a wanna-be because it doesn’t have the huge orchid blooms like some of its cousins. Mark had pulled out three varieties for us to look at. The first was a white one called Bletilla ochracea ‘Chinese Butterfly’. The second was Bletilla yokohama ‘Kate’ and the regular yokohama. The difference was in the size. Kate gets a little bit bigger in the garden. They love partial sun and well-drained soil. They bloom from early June until the end of July or later. They will survive down to a minus 10 and will slowly spread out into a nice clump. A great plant for the shade garden!


The second plant is a true orchid wanna-be. This one was the Tricyrtis or toad lily. The common name of toad lily comes from the spots on the leaves which look like the spots on the back of a toad. These grow in the same conditions as the bletilla so you can place them in the same area and they will extend the bloom time in those garden beds. The first one that we saw was Tricyrtis hirta ‘Miyazaki’, which is a shorter variety with white blooms. The second was Tricyrtis taiwan ‘adbane’ with a taller habit. The third was ‘Dark Beauty’ with a darker bloom and long flower stalks, and the final one was ‘Samurai’ with its variegated foliage. These will slowly spread in your garden by rhizomes and will also produce a nice clump. If you would like to find these great plants you can check out the Little Prince website for a retailer near you.

 

Oregon Garden Grafted Vegetables
 

Oregon Garden Grafted Vegetables

Grafted vegetables are the hot new style of garden vegetable in the US. A lot of people have seen the starter plants in their local garden center in the spring, but they never get to see how they produce at the end of the season. But we found a place where you can see how they perform and what the fruit looks like. We traveled to the Oregon Garden (503-874-8100) in Silverton and met with Harry Olsen an OSU Master Gardener from Marion County. He and a few other volunteers have planted and maintained a vegetable bed in the Silverton Market Garden full of different grafted vegetables. They look incredible! There were multiple varieties of tomatoes, melons, peppers and eggplants. Almost all of them were huge and full of fruit. Grafted vegetables are widely used in other countries to combat soil borne diseases and to promote healthier plants. Since some of those countries have very little farm land, diseases can become a problem because of the intensive planting that occurs. By grafting heavy producers on strong root stock, they can get better yields, and that is what Harry and his crew have found. Harry has noticed that these grafted plants will fruit earlier, producing more fruit and larger fruit. Plus they will continue to produce. Harry noticed that they will sometimes go a month or more longer in production than the regular varieties. If you would like to see these great plants, head up to the Oregon Garden in the next few weeks. They will soon be harvesting the fruit and providing it to the restaurant at the resort for use in the kitchens. For now, it is a phenomenal display of what grafted vegetables can do in the garden!

 

TOW - Coffee Grounds for Plants
 

Coffee Grounds for Plants

If you are looking for a simple way to help give your acid loving plants a boost, look no further than your coffee maker. Rhododendrons, azaleas and blueberries all like a slightly acidic soil to grow and prosper. By simply using your used coffee grounds lightly around the base of your plants about once a month, you will help them get the pH conditions they love and make them a happier, healthier plant in your landscape.
 

 

 
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