Welcome to spring. Though it seems like we have been in the middle of spring for a while, according to the calendar, we are now ‘officially’ in the spring season. As one of our viewers let me know this week, only 3 months of warming up and then back to the heat of summer. I’ll check back with him in a few months and see if he is still excited!

We can tell it is spring because of all the events that are happening. This weekend starts the annual Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival (800-711-2006). The fields are showing a huge amount of color for this time of year. It looks like it will be a great season and if it continues to be this warm, it may go fast. Be sure to get out there before you miss the great color! You can always check out their field camera to see how the fields are progressing. You can see there is lots of color out there right now!!!

The second sign of spring is the Ladies Only night at French Prairie Gardens. William and Judy will be there and it is always fun. Check out the details below.

Another sign of spring is the 13th annual GardenPalooza event happening at Fir Point Farms on April 11th. Garden Time hosts this event and this year is shaping up to one of the best we have ever had. We have so many giveaways and contests it is incredible! For example, we have a $2500 French Prairie Perennials garden makeover, a $500 Black Gold helps you build a better garden, garden tools from Dramm, and swag from KPTV. We will also will be giving away a $25 gift card every half hour to Al’s Garden Center or Portland Nursery. Be sure to check the GardenPalooza website for more details.

This week we featured...

Garden Snakes

There are only a few animals that will get most gardeners wound up and freaked out. The big 3 are spiders, bats and snakes. All three of them are great garden helpers but the one that gets the least attention is the common garter snake. Recently we made the trip down to Corvallis and Oregon State University to talk to one of their biggest fans, Dr. Bob Mason, a professor of integrative biology at OSU. His specialty is snakes and once you talk to him you become a big fan too! He told us that garter snakes are the most common snakes you will find in our area and they are great in the garden. These little wonders will take care of most of our worst garden pests. They feed on slugs and grubs, and with larger snakes you can even take care of your mice, voles and rats. The warmth of the spring is bringing them out of hibernation right now and soon they will be breeding. Most of the time they are scurrying off to avoid predators, like humans, cats and dogs, so we don’t see them much in the garden, but if you do that is a good indicator of the overall good health of your garden. If you want to attract snakes to your garden you will need to make a welcome home for them. Leave piles of yard debris at the back of your yard, include a few boards and maybe even a little bit of black plastic for them to crawl under. It may take a year or two before you get any, but if you build it they will come. To keep them in your garden, limit your pesticide use, protect the area from your pets, and walk your lawn before mowing to scare them into hiding. For more information, click on this link for a list of reference materials from Dr. Mason or you can check out the OSU Extension website, http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening.

French Prairie Gardens Ladies Only Night

Kick off your spring at the annual Ladies Only Night at French Prairie Gardens (503-633-8445) near St. Paul. They have a whole bunch of fun planned for March 26th from 3:00 to 7:00. The evening starts off with a basket building time, where you can get William and Judy to help you with your hanging baskets for the coming season. Next is a private tour of the greenhouses showcasing their new retail area and the growing area where you can see some of the new combinations of baskets they have coming out this year. Then you will learn about some new plants coming to the market with a great ‘show and tell’ of new varieties. You can also taste local wines, enjoy six different microbrews on tap, and sample small plates and appetizers. Finally, there is an ‘antique your landscape’ class where they show you how to take old junk items and make them new again in our landscape. They will also have a raffle that includes lots of cool gifts! It should be a great evening. The event is free and if you want to save some money you can go to their Facebook page, or call them and RSVP to get an additional 20% off your purchases. Sorry guys, this is ladies only!

Fruit Tree Grafting

As a kid I always thought that I could plant an apple seed and get a tree full of apples in my backyard! I learned later that was impossible. The seeds from an apple are a mish-mash of different genes and you can never be sure of what you will get. The only way to get a fruit tree that is a true variety is to graft one. Grafting is the art of using one type of tree for healthy roots and another type of tree for good fruit production. To learn more we stopped by the Home Orchard Society Arboretum at Clackamas Community College. We met with Monica Maggio to get a tour and lesson in grafting. First we started at the back of the property to see a row of Melrose apple trees. These were all different sizes to show people how you can control the height of a tree by the type of root stock you choose. The apples will all taste the same (because they came from the same parent tree) but the size of the plant can change. Next we moved to a very unique cherry tree. This one had 4 different types of cherries on one tree. The tree started with one root stock and over time the different varieties were added one at a time. Now you can get 4 different kinds of cherries during the season. Pretty cool!

Finally we moved to a demonstration table where Monica showed us how to graft an apple tree. She started with a piece of root stock that was already planted in a pot. Then she took a piece of scion wood and made a sharp angled cut. The scion wood is actually a piece of first year ‘new wood’ from a parent plant (a type of apple you want to have in your garden to eat). She made a sharp cut to this one as well. The surface areas of the 2 cuts have to match up pretty well for the graft to work. Then she made an additional cut in both pieces so you had a little ‘tongue and groove’ area to secure the pieces together. Then you wrap them with a piece of rubber band and some grafting seal to keep it from drying out or keeping bugs and diseases from entering. If the graft works you should be able to start harvesting apples in 3-4 years.
If you would like to make your own tree the opportunity is coming up this weekend at the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby during the Home Orchard Society’s Fruit Propagation Fair. They will have over 500 different varieties of apples and pears to choose from so you can pick the fruit you want to enjoy for years to come and graft it yourself! The event is Sunday March 22nd from 10am to 4pm. Stop by and learn more about this fascinating process!

30 Seconds Cleaner

Spring is clean up time and sometimes the job is just too much! Every year we have been pulling out the power washer to clean the deck, gutters and sidewalks. It is a time consuming and messy job that takes the better part of a weekend. Half the time it still doesn’t look clean when we are done. Well, we recently found a product that will do the job and does it well! 30 Seconds Cleaner is a locally made outdoor cleaner and we met with the owners Jill and James Collier near Gresham where they make this great product. Jill’s parents came up with the formula in the 70’s. It is the same safe, effective, cleaner today. We watched as James sprayed it on a ‘green’ concrete patio and in a couple of minutes he rinsed it off to show a bright, clean surface. The best news is that it is safe around lawns, pets and plants. It works on algae, mold, mildew, moss and lichens. Pretty much everything we deal with in the Northwest. They have developed a couple other products but this was the original and we can see why it has remained so popular. We asked James about some of the newer products on the market and he said that they have done testing that show their product will do a better job of cleaning and that the surface will stay cleaner longer too. If you are headed out to do some spring cleaning you have to use 30 Seconds Cleaner.