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.