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SHOW ARCHIVE

Episode 149 • October 31, 2009

VIDEO ARCHIVE


Happy Halloween! We have reached the end of the month and though it started with sun and warmth, it has ended with rain and cooler weather. People are turning their attention indoors. We will soon be planning for the holidays with friends and family stopping by. Gardeners can still flex their green thumbs by building their own holiday decoration and even an outdoor container or two. If you are still struggling with the change of seasons we would recommend you read Judy’s blog on her trip to Holland this past summer. She shares some thoughts and pictures from gardens on the other side of the world. Enjoy!

This week we featured...

Chrysanthemums

A lot of gardeners have the common chrysanthemums in their garden, but one of the overlooked types of mum is the ‘show’ mum. We visited the growers of some of these beautiful flowers, King’s Mums of Oregon City (503-656-2078). King’s has been growing Chrysanthemums for over 40 years, but recently the growing operation was purchased by Kim and Ray Gray. Ray joined us to talk about these ‘show’ flowers and how they are different than those that you find in your local garden center. Ray showed us the show mum that is grown for contests; these mums are protected from the sun, pinched back to just a few blooms and cultivated carefully. Ray also showed us a couple of varieties that they have in stock at the nursery including Shamrock, Flair, Bill Holden, and Coral Charm. There are tons of different styles of blooms and most make great container flowers for your deck or patio. If you are interested in seeing these blooms up close you can check out the Annual Chrysanthemum Flower Show, hosted by the Portland Chrysanthemum Society this weekend, October 31 - November 1, Saturday and Sunday at Portland Nursery, 90th and Division hours, 9 am to 6 pm You can also get information on joining the society at this event.

Parking Strip Planting

One of the toughest places to grow plants is the parking strip. This no-man’s land between the street and sidewalk is hard to water, maintain and is pretty much neglected by most home-owners. The fall back planting for this area is a lawn. Of course that means lots of watering and fertilizer to try to keep it looking good, and some of it actually makes it on the grass. Most of the time the sidewalk is getting more water than the lawn, but there are other options. You can plant a ‘water friendly’ landscape. We visited one that you may have heard of. Kym Pokorny, garden writer for the Oregonian’s Home and Garden section decided to redo her parking strip a couple of years ago and has been keeping her readers up to date on the progress ever since. First, before we saw Kym’s project, we visited with Lindsey from the Regional Water Providers Consortium to learn about water usage on this small strip of green. Lindsey told us how the average homeowner can be wasting gallons of water by trying to keep these small areas of lawn green. She recommended that people check out alternatives like Kym has done. We then caught up with Kym and checked out her little parking strip where she has used numerous plants to create a beautiful and unique planting area. She told us how surprised she was at the hardiness and versatility of the plants that were available for planting. Once she planted the area she had to water for one season until the plants became established, then it was just spot watering during a couple of the hottest days of the year. The plants proved to be For a list of her plants and one of her blog entries about the parking strip you can read her blog here and for more tips on saving water in your landscape or inside your home you can always check the Regional Water Providers Consortium website (503-823-7528)

Solexx Greenhouses

Having a ‘green’ house in your backyard shouldn’t send you to the ‘poor’ house. We found one by Solexx that is easy to assemble and really inexpensive too. A greenhouse will help to extend your gardening season and it will give you a head start on next year. Michelle Moore from Solexx Greenhouses (www.greenhousecatalog.com, 800-825-1925) and William assembled one in just a few hours. When you order the kit it arrives in just a couple of boxes. The kit is so well organized, and color coded, that it is really simple to assemble with just a couple of tools. A couple other benefits… it can be sited anywhere and there is no need for expensive site preparation, you can place it directly on your lawn. Plus it is lightweight. You can assemble it in one area and move it to another area with just 2 people. This is great if you want to place it over an existing garden area. Check out their website to see all the different types of greenhouses available and all the tools to extend your growing season.

Winter Tree Care

The wind, rain and possible snow of the coming winter can mean trouble for your large landscape trees. How can you tell if your trees are healthy enough for all that mother nature has to offer? We sought out our favorite ‘Certified Arborist’ Terrill Collier from Collier Arbor Care (503-72ARBOR) and asked him for some signs we can look for. Terrill took us to a park in Vancouver Washington to show us a multiple-trunked tree that had lost one of its trunks due to rot and decay at its base. That is just one of the 8 signs that you should look for in a dangerous tree. Other signs included weakly attached branches, cracks in the branches of the trunk, pealing bark and signs of decay or rot. These are the most obvious signs, but if you are unsure of the safety of your trees you can contact Collier Arbor care or a certified arborist. Collier’s even has a brochure that can tell you what else to look for. Terrill emphasizes that you insist on a certified arborist. They are trained to look for the damaged spots and are trained (insured and bonded) to remove the weak tree safely.

Bulb Layering

As we enter fall we are reminded to plant our spring blooming bulbs. Donna Wright from Black Gold reminded us that bulbs are great in pots too! You can create waves of color by layering your spring blooming bulbs. She demonstrated that by using different layers of bulbs in a pot you can have color that lasts all spring! She used daffodils, tulips and crocus in 3 different layers with some stacked pots. She then topped it all off with some winter hardy plants to create some great color for the coming winter months. When the warm days of spring arrive she will have these bulbs blooming at different times and will have waves of color for months. But always remember to start with a quality potting soil, like Black Gold!
 

 
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