Happy Holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.) No matter what you celebrate, we hope you have the happiest and healthiest of holiday seasons!

This is our last show for this, our 12th, season. We have truly enjoyed bringing you a huge variety of gardening stories this past season and we’re looking forward to continuing to do the same next year. That’s right! We are going to be returning in March of 2018 for our 13th season! You can keep in touch with us during our three month hiatus by either following us on Facebook, subscribing to the free Garden Time Magazine or checking our website.

We also want to remind everyone, before we leave, of our upcoming trip to Europe in 2018. There is so much to see that we tried to cover it in the story on this week’s show, but since we did that story we have added some much more to the tour. Check out the details below and on our website. Remember you will save $300 per person if you sign up by January 1st.

See you in 2018!

This week we featured...

Portland Nursery Holiday Wreaths

One of the signature decorations of the Christmas season is a holiday wreath. These decorations are one of the first things that people see when coming to your home, and they are easy to make. We stopped by Portland Nursery on Stark Street (503-231-5050) to meet with Sara to learn how to make one of these. You first start with a wreath ring (this gives you something to build your wreath on), some holiday greens and some florists wire. Start by taking a few small bracts from the greens, then tie together with the florist wire. Do this at least 8-9 times to create similar bunches of greens. Take your large wreath ring and, starting on one side, tie the bunches on the ring, one after another, in a circular pattern with the florist wire. Once you have completed the circle you can embellish with pine cones, dried flowers, decorative bows or other accents. If this seems like a lot of work to you, you can stop by either location of Portland Nursery and pick up a premade wreath. If you would still like to tackle making one yourself, you can contact Portland Nursery for a schedule of classes. These classes include bow making and building a terrarium. If you can’t make it to one of the scheduled classes, you can have a special one just for yourself. Get a group of 5 to 10 friends together and call the nursery and they will put on a class just for you! You can also make other great decorations including centerpieces and kissing balls.

One of the best times to come to Portland Nursery is this weekend. They are having their annual Holiday Open House. There are specials, classes and tons of fun for any garden lover! Stop by and get your home ready for the holidays. This year Portland Nursery is also participating in the Little Boxes campaign in Portland. This event promotes the small, locally owned shops in our area. You can shop at these places and pick up a raffle ticket, and you can even get bonus tickets for shopping at different participating vendors. The grand prize includes a dream vacation valued at $2,000, but there are around 100 other prizes to win too! You can also get an additional savings at some stores. Portland Nursery also has a great program for after the holidays. You can bring in your poinsettia, dead or alive, and you will receive a $5 credit to use at their stores in January. The gardener doesn’t have to be left out in the cold this holiday season. Stop by Portland Nursery and let them help you get just the right gift for everyone on your list.

Christmas in the Garden

One of the newest events in our area for the holidays, and one of the most fun is the Christmas in the Garden at the Oregon Garden (1-877-674-2733). This is an outdoor event that is patterned after a traditional German Christmas Market. The Discovery Forest at the garden is decorated with over 600,000 lights. There are lots of things to do with the family when you get there. A couple of years ago they added an ice rink and last year a snowless tubing area! You can enjoy ice skating and tubing even if the days are warm! For the adults there are different local vendors offering holiday gifts and crafts. Adults can also enjoy gluhwein, a mulled wine and other adult beverages while listening to live music and carolers. While you are enjoying the scene you can sit by one of the many fire pits and enjoy the warmth. Kids can see Santa every weekend too. It promises to be one of the best holiday events in the state. Plus, the Oregon Garden Resort is offering a special package where you can stay at the resort and enjoy the event as well. Packages start at $149. The Christmas in the Garden event continues through December (except Christmas Eve and Christmas day) until the 31st. For more information you can call the Oregon Garden or check out their website. They even have a great color-coded schedule of events here.

A Holiday Vintage Flea

The current decorating trends are pushing antiques as a hot item, but they can also make great gifts for that hard to satisfy person on your shopping list! Flea markets have always been known as the place to be for some of these valuable, ‘buried’ treasures that you can use in your home or your yard. Today, November 25th, there is one place where you can get your holiday shopping and flea market fix at one time. Margie’s Farm and Garden is hosting ‘A Vintage Flea’. A Vintage Flea is a vintage/flea/antique market with anything from antiques and mid-century vintage to crafts and castoffs. We visited A Vintage Flea earlier this summer when they had their annual event. Kathy joined us to tell us about this holiday event which is the biggest they have ever had, with 80 vendors! At the event you can find cool furniture that had been repurposed, homemade crafts, and one of a kind items, in addition to the antiques. You will also find a lot of holiday décor items to get your home ready for the holidays. There will be food and other holiday treats as well. Plus, if you need a Christmas tree, Margie will have those available too! She will also have wreaths and garland available as well. This is a great event for the one-stop shopper! This is a wonderful FREE event to kick off your holidays. Check out their website or Facebook page for all the details!

Lee Farm’s Christmas Trees

Thanksgiving has past and now it is time to start thinking about Christmas and Christmas trees. We stopped by Lee Farms (503-638-1869) in Tualatin to visit with Noah about the most popular types of cut Christmas trees this season. The varieties that Oregonians are buying include Douglas fir, Grand fir, Nobel fir and the Nordmann fir. The newest variety of tree that is also gaining in popularity is the Nordmann fir. Lee’s also carries the wonderful Davis Tree Stand. Pick one up and you will never need another stand again!

Now that you have your tree and your new stand, how can you make sure that it will last through the season and stay fresh? You could get a flocked tree. The flocking on a tree helps to seal in the moisture and that means little or no water is needed. If you have a green tree there are a few rules you need to follow before you decorate to make sure it lasts through the season and into the New Year. Noah told us to always make a fresh cut on any tree you purchase from a tree lot. If you cut your own tree make sure you get it into some water as quickly as possible. Some other tips; use luke warm water the first time you water your tree, and add an aspirin and a couple drops of bleach to the water. Don’t use any soda/pop in your water. Some people think the sugar in the soda will help the tree last longer, but it really just promotes the growth of bacteria and that is not good for your tree. Remember, if it runs out of water once, it will seal up and then it doesn’t matter how much water you add, so make sure you have a large reservoir of water under your tree. Don’t let the tree run out of water and you will have a longer lasting green tree for your holidays.

The people at Lee’s will also do everything for you. Just find your tree in their fields and they will cut it, shake it out, bundle it and even tie it to your car for free! While your tree is being taken care of take a trip inside and see all the great stuff they have in the gift shop. Lee’s has a wonderful bakery where they make pies, fudge, donuts and lots of other goodies! We all took home pies, but they also have Chicken Pot Pies and gluten free options as well. Plus they have a nice selection of gifts and ornaments for your holiday decorating! Stop by, pick up a wreath or a tree, and something tasty for a happy holiday season!

Garden Time European Tour

It is tour time again! Actually it is about a year away. Garden Time is announcing their next tour and we’re giving people a year to prepare. In August of 2018, we will be going to London, Paris and Belgium! We are leaving on the 5th of August and returning on the 18th; prime garden time! We start in London with a stop at Hampton Court Palace, a royal garden of Henry the VIII. The next day we travel to another historical garden, Kew. This garden is huge and so we are going to devote an entire day here. They have huge glass houses and even a former royal residence. The producers have been here and were in awe of the plant material! The next day we will travel to County Kent, the garden center of England. There we will tour the gardens at Great Dixter and Sissinghurst. The 4th day is a free day to explore London on your own. Day 5 takes us to Paris and our hotel is right next door to the Eiffel tower! When we arrive we take a tour of Paris which ends at Notre Dame Cathedral. Day 6 we are touring Rodin’s sculpture garden. This garden is equal parts of sculpture and plants. Or you can take the train and head to Versaille! The 7th day we travel to Monet’s garden at Giverny. Here we tour the gardens that were an inspiration for his ‘water lilies’ series of painting. The next morning we tour the Musee de L’Orangerie, which houses a huge display of Monet’s work. The afternoon you can explore Paris! Day 9 takes us to the Champagne region, where we enjoy a glass or two of the bubbly. Then we are off to Belgium. We start our first full day in Belgium at the Annevoie Castle and it’s world famous water gardens, a one of a kind garden in Belgium. From there we travel to the Citadel of Namur. Originally built in the Roman era, it is now classified as a Belgium Major Heritage site. We enjoy lunch at the beautiful Château de Namur and stroll it’s wonderful rose garden. We end our day at the enchanting Château Bon Baron vineyard for a tour and tasting of their fine wines.

Our second day in Belgium’s Wallonia region starts with a short river cruise by the picturesque town of Dinant. We then travel to the Lavaux-Sainte-Anne Castle and tour the castle and wetlands garden. We enjoy lunch in the charming Belgium countryside, then pay a visit to the garden and house at Le Sous-Bois. We end our day at the Caracole Brewery. This small artisanal brewery, originally established in 1766, still uses a wood fired oven to warm the water for brewing. It is a hands-on brewery with bottling and labelling of its 5 different beers still done manually. Then we head to our final stop Brussels. There we will visit the world famous Floral Carpet. This begonia display covers 2 whole blocks in the center of the city and is only done every two years! We end our tour with a nighttime display of fireworks over the carpet of bloom!
This 13 day tour includes 24 of your meals and also includes your airfare and hotels. It would cost around $10,000 per person if you traveled with another garden group, but our tour is under $7,000, and if you book now you can save an additional $300! We just received a brochure for another European garden tour that is only 9 days and costs as much as ours! Our tour is a great deal!

If you have traveled with the Garden Time crew before, you know that it is a great time with the rewards of laughter and friendships included. You will remember this trip for years to come!! Check out the link on our website for all the details, www.gardentime.tv/tours.

Navigating the Garden Time Website

Every week we tell people to go to the www.GardenTime.tv website for more information, but in this story we decided to take you on a tour of the page to show you what you can find. We start with our flower mascot ‘Mortimer’ on the front page. There are 6 petals to his flower and each is a link to a helpful page. A couple of these links include the ‘Plant Pick of the Week’, a listing of our sponsors (who help bring you the show each week), and our archive. This archive covers all the stories we have done over the last decade. Looking for a past episode or subject? Just type it in the search box in the upper right corner and hit enter. All the stories we have done on that subject will be listed. Another petal link from the front page is our How-to section. This covers and has links to lots of helpful gardening topics.

The most important link on the front page is the ‘This Week’ link. Click on this and you will get the most current information for that week. This page has all the current stories for you to read and watch again.  Click on the video link to see the stories and read the content for links to the businesses and their phone numbers. You will also find links to recipes when we showcase those. If you want to watch the entire show over again, you can find that link right under the picture of William and Judy.

We also have ways you can win prizes too! Back on the front page you will see the Garden Time Subaru from Capitol Subaru. Just click on that and you will see a photo of our ‘flower car’. Make a correct guess on its location and you’ll have a chance to win a $25 gift card to a local nursery!

The bottom of the page has links to our magazine (see past issues), our GardenPalooza event and other great information. One link will show you stations and times for various cities if you are looking to find our show in your local area. We also have one of the most comprehensive events calendars in the state. We also have a link to our ‘tours’ page. Here you can find information on all our past tours and how you can join us for upcoming tours (including London, Paris and Belgium in 2018).

Two more links on the front page include our store where you can buy hats, t-shirts, backpacks and even Garden Time flowers! We also have our little mailbox so you can send us a note or get in contact with us.
So you can see, the Garden Time website is full of great information and all you have to do is ‘click’! What a great way to keep in touch with the Garden Time crew any time of year!