Welcome to GardenPalooza: The Tour! We are proud to be hosting this brand new event. The last few years people have grown to love the Le Tour des Plants and since it was not appearing this year, Gustin Creative Group and Garden Time decided we had to do something, so we started 'GardenPalooza: The Tour'. This 4 day event started on Thursday and will continue today and tomorrow at over 20 nursery locations around Oregon and SW Washington. It is a FREE event and each nursery has their own list of activities, events, discounts and sales. You can check out the GardenPalooza website for all the information. Be sure to check out the 'tour page' of each nursery for their own video and listing of events and sales specials.

You can also check out some locations where William and Judy will be appearing. At those locations you can attend a seminar hosted by William and Judy and also enter to win a $50 gift card to a great restaurant like Oswego Grill, Metrovino, The Glockenspiel or the East India Co. Grill and Bar. This week's show we take you to some of the great nurseries on the tour!

We also want to thank KOIN Local 6 and Meta, the active ingredient in Corry's and Deadline, for all their support. A lot of businesses say they support the local community, but these guys really stepped up and that allowed this event to happen!

We'll see you on the Tour this weekend!

This week we featured...

Al's in Gresham and Bauman's Farm and Garden

The first 2 stops on our GardenPalooza tour took us first to Gresham and the Al's Garden Center (503-491-0771) there. This Al's location is unique. It is also the growing operation for a lot of the plant material that Al's sells. In fact, this location grows a large number of poinsettias for the holidays. They also have a huge variety of plants to choose from. If you are in the area, this is a great place to stop.

Our second stop was at Bauman's Farm and Garden (503-792-3524) in Woodburn. Brian Bauman really knows how to throw a party and GardenPalooza gives him the excuse to throw a biggie! Brian took us to his new 'Bauman's Reward Zone' which is located near the old family home at the front of his property. It is loaded with a ton of great plants at great prices. He has large maple trees that are usually $150 and are now $40. Chocolate mimosa tree ($100) now for $40, Grasses are 2 for $10, Chinese indigo ($40) now only $20 and Echinacea's 3 for $10. They are also having their pansy sale where you can get 16 pansies for $10. You can also try out some of their pansies in the new biodegradable ellepots. Brian works with a group of growers and that lets him get some great plant material! Sign up for your rewards card and get rewarded!

Dancing Oaks - Plant Pick

Our plant pick for GardenPalooza took us down to Dancing Oaks Nursery (503-838-6058) near Monmouth. Dancing Oaks is a wonderful nursery that is in the middle of farm country. They have some truly unusual plants that you won't find anywhere else. Leonard found one that will do great in our area, the hardy impatiens. This one is called Impatiens arguta and it is a great perennial that comes up in mid spring and started blooming with purple/blue flowers which will bloom until frost. It is not self-sowing so it won't take over your garden! For GardenPalooza the nursery has a lot going on. You can enjoy tea and treats in their beautiful pavilion then take a tour in the garden on one of their great tours. You can also enjoy 15% off your plant purchases and take home a free plant from a group of their favorites. Make a day of it and stop by for a relaxing tour and enjoy their nursery!

Farmington Gardens

Today, Saturday, is the 8th annual Tomato Fest at Farmington Gardens (503-649-4568) and we are proud that they are celebrating it during our big event. We caught up with Chef Dan Brophy and he showed us how to use those tomatoes out of our gardens in a delicious recipe. He started by sautéing some cherry tomatoes in a pan with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Then he roasted some peppers, onions and garlic with a garden dragon. When they were roasted he peeled the skins off and took out the seeds added it to a pan with tomatoes and roasted tomatillos to make a spicy sauce for tacos and burritos. If you would like to learn how to make something like this you can check out Chef Dan at 11am and 2pm on Saturday. He is also leading a class on Sunday called 'preserving the harvest' to teach people how to save their great garden veggies for the winter season. Other events on Saturday include tomato sampling from 11 to 4 and a tomato contest from 9 to noon, with prizes awarded after 3pm. Bring your best tomato before noon and see if you win a prize!
 
These are just a few things they have planned at the nursery for the GardenPalooza weekend. Check out their GardenPalooza 'tour page' on the GardenPalooza website for more information.

French Prairie Perennials

Growing grapes seems easy enough, but it can be intimidating if you have never tried it before. To learn more about growing these tasty vines we stopped by French Prairie Perennials (503-679-2871) in Dundee to chat with Kerry Naylor about tips for growing them. In our area grapes love the temperature. Just look at all the wineries in our area and you can see tons of different varieties of wine grapes. Still Kerry cautions about growing wine grapes. You need a lot of room to get enough grapes to make wine. Her choice for the home gardener is table grapes. These are easy to grow. Table grapes like a sunny location, good water and flat ground. Some varieties to try include Interlaken, Suffolk red and Tomcord, which is a cross between Concord and the Thompson seedless. They all were very delicious! As part of GardenPalooza you can stop by and learn more about these great and easy to grow edible plants. They also have some great deals on cool plants including the heuchera which are going for less than $10 each!

Meta Slug Control

Slugs are not just a spring time problem. Fall, with its increasing rains, can bring them back into your garden when you thought they were under control. Remember to bait now so they don't destroy your beautiful fall flowers. We recommend a quality bait like Corry's or Deadline with the active ingredient, Meta. Meta is safe around your garden and pets when used as directed. Norm from Central Garden and Pet talked to William about tips that you can use to reduce your slug problem. First remove all loose wood and debris from around your garden. Compost this debris away from your favorite plants. Then apply the bait and let it do the work for you. Some people say that if you bait now you will reduce the amount of slugs you get next spring because they are not around to lay eggs. Always remember to read and follow the label directions with any garden product. We would like to thank Meta for sponsoring 'GardenPalooza: The Tour' so we could make this happen.

Garland Nursery and Ferguson's Fragrant Nursery

Our last 2 stops for the day were at Garland Nursery and Ferguson's Fragrant Nursery (503-633-4585). Garland Nursery (1-800-296-6601) has become a destination garden center for a lot of people in the state. They are THE place for the gardener in the mid-Willamette Valley. We stopped by to get a preview of one of their great GardenPalooza classes. Erica joined Judy to talk about water efficient gardening in front of their 'living wall'. This is a great demonstration of 'green' and decorative growing in a garden. They are also having a turf class as part of the GardenPalooza event to teach you how to use plants instead of grass in your lawn to reduce watering and maintenance. We also talked about plants that are water efficient in the garden. Drought tolerant doesn't have to mean brown and dead looking plants. We took a look at euphorbia's, Agastache, and hypericum as examples of plants that you can find in your garden center. To get a complete list of their events for today and tomorrow you can check out their page on the GardenPalooza website.

At Ferguson's Fragrant Nursery we wrapped up the show before we took off for another nursery. During GardenPalooza you can get anything at the nursery for 40% off! This is available in St. Paul only!

Worm Tower

If you have a small garden you may not have room for a large compost pile. In fact, you may not have room for much at all. You still can have the benefits of creating a nutritious soil for your plants with a 'worm tower'. Kith from Bethany Nursery (503-439-0707) showed us how to build this mini-composter for your garden. The tower is just a large PVC pipe. It is about 3 feet long. You drill ½ inch holes in the bottom 18 inches of the pipe and then bury that part of the ground in your garden. When you have kitchen scraps, you just add them to the pipe and cover it with an irrigation cap. The cap keeps out rats and other animals. Then the worms can make their way into the tower and then they take the nutrients out and into your garden! Check with Bethany Nursery if you have any questions on how to build one.