Gardenpalooza is here!  We are back with our 8th annual Gardenpalooza event. Today, Saturday, April 3rd, we are at Fir Point Farms in Aurora for this wonderful FREE, one-day event. William and Judy will be there from 8-4 and can answer all your gardening questions. We also will have over 50 different garden vendors with just about every type of plant you can think of. Now we know that the warmer days are gone and we may have a few showers in the forecast, but the event will happen, rain or shine and everything is under cover!

You can check out the Gardenpalooza website and download coupons, get directions and even check out past events. This year we will even have a limited number of freebies too. You can get some free seeds, some small bags of soil and even a little fabric pot to plant your seeds in! There will also be drawings for a $25 Al’s Garden Center gift certificate! This is a free event and we have free parking too! Remember this is a one-day only event. We will see you at Fir Point!

This week we featured...

Ferguson’s Gardenpalooza Color

Dani Ferguson always has great color and fragrance at her nurseries and this year she returns with some wonderful plants for the Gardenpalooza event. We stopped by Ferguson’s Fragrant Nursery (503-636-0073) in Lake Oswego to help pick out plants that she will be bringing to the event. She had some great plants for us to choose from. First she showed us the Azalea ‘Girard’s Crimson’. Crimson is an understatement! This one was a blaze of color and full of blooms yet to come. This one can get 3 feet high so it is not too over powering in your garden. Next we saw the Rock Daphne, Daphne cneorum. This plant is one of the older daphnes on the market. It has been around for a long time, but it still is a favorite because of the incredible fragrance, the evergreen appearance and the lack of care once it is established. We saw a foliage plant next. The Acanthus mollis, ‘Tasmanian Angel’ has striking variegation on the leaves and a super tall flower stalk too. It is a great plant for those dark areas of the garden that need a little brightening up. Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ was next. This plant has a soft silvery foliage and delicate small blue flowers. This plant also would work well in the darker parts of your garden. It stays relatively small and will only get a foot tall and 18 inches wide. We then moved to another daphne called ‘Lawrence Crocker’. This daphne gets a little taller and has soft purple blooms that will repeat all summer long. It likes the drier areas in the garden so it is great for the NW gardener. The final plant that she selected was the Ribes or Red Currant, ‘King Edward VII’. This one can add some great structure to your garden. It will get between 6-8 feet tall and 4 feet wide so chose its location carefully. Once established it will reward you with a show of blooms in the early spring that will knock your socks off. It is also a great hummingbird magnet. They will literally fight over the blooms on this plant! This is just a small selection of the plants that Dani and her crew will bring to Gardenpalooza this year. Come down and stop by her booth to see all her great plants.

Greenhouse Catalog Gardenpalooza

If you buy a lot of plants at Gardenpalooza you may want a place to keep them. How about a greenhouse? Michelle from the Greenhouse Catalog (800-825-1925) showed William some of the things that they can offer to extend your growing season. Michelle told us about the ‘Grow 4 It’ system. This is a complete system that will help you feed your family for an entire season. We have featured it on the show before and she will be able to answer your questions about it at Gardenpalooza. Michelle will also be bringing a couple of greenhouses for people to look at including the Mini Propagator, a miniature greenhouse for starting your seeds and other plants. The Greenhouse Catalog will also be holding a drawing for a complete kit of gardening supplies. From seeds and pots to fertilizer and tools this is a great kit for beginners and advanced gardeners as well. The Greenhouse Catalog is a great place to get everything for you to be a success in the garden. Check them out at Gardenpalooza.

Fir Point Farms Gardenpalooza

Gardenpalooza is not just about plants! We stepped inside the farm store to check out everything they have to offer. The new owners of Fir Point Farms (503-678-2455) are Erika and Aaron Wilcott. They are new to Gardenpalooza, but not to the farming community and farmers markets. Erika is a member of the Lee family. We have made many visits to Lee Farms for their great festivals. We recently did a story on their Christmas Trees. Erika and Aaron are excited to be involved in Gardenpalooza this year. Erika told us about all the new gifts that she has brought into the store. They have also expanded the number of baked goods and the selection of fresh vegetables that you can choose from. You will also find a huge selection of their jams, jellies and other local products for you to try. They also have plants… including the famous ‘pink’ blueberry. If you come out to Gardenpalooza, stop by the store and enjoy a donut. And remember, even after Gardenpalooza is over you can stop by anytime for a wonderful treat!

Burl's Gardenpalooza Plants

One of the new vendors to Gardenpalooza is Burl from Rare Plant Research. Burl sells rare and exotic plants. Many are succulents, cactus and other ‘tropical’ types of plants. We stopped by his greenhouses as he was getting his plants ready for the Gardenpalooza event. He started by showing us a hardy amaryllis. This one was so cool because it was blooming straight out of the bulb and it wasn’t even in soil! Speaking of tropical, we checked out a Banana Cana. He had them in reds and greens and they can get about 12-18 feet tall if you give them a couple of years. They can even freeze back to the ground and will keep coming back. He also had a huge selection of succulents that he will be bringing to Gardenpalooza. Most of the ones he showcased can survive temperatures in the 20s. Some featured thick leaves, variegation, unique flowers or ‘all of the above’. Some truly special plants for your garden! Some of these are perfect for containers; in fact Burl will be bringing a couple of containers so you can get an idea of how great they look in pots. To see some really unusual plants stop by his booth at Gardenpalooza and check them out.

Pot Sizes

Recently you may have noticed some changes in buying your plants. The gardening industry has changed the names of certain containers. You used to be able to buy a 1 gallon plant, but now you will find a pot called an N-1 or ‘Number 1’. The industry has standardized the containers so you will be getting the same values in plant no matter where you shop. So what that means is a 5 gallon container will be called an N-5 or Number 5 and so on. If it is still confusing just ask the experts at your local independent garden center.

 

Tool Posture

Having the right tool for the job is only half the battle, using that tool correctly is the other half! Bob Denman from Red Pig Tools (503-663-9404) gave us a quick primer on the correct use of some of the most common long handled tools that you may have in your garden shed. First we started with the hoes and cultivators. Bob recommends getting a tool that is at least as tall as yourself. This allows you to avoid bending at the waist to get the job done. He also weeds across his body, this lets him use his upper body strength and avoid stress on his lower back. Shovels use a different technique. Shovels need to be selected according to the type of job you are trying to do and the type of material you are moving. You should also consider the ‘lift’ of the shovel, which in layman’s terms means the angle of the blade to the handle. Bob even demonstrated the correct way of digging. If you have any questions, stop by Bob’s booth at Gardenpalooza and see his great tools or stop by the ‘Red Pig’ store in Boring.