SHOW ARCHIVE

Episode 627 • April 23, 2022

VIDEO ARCHIVE

COVID-19 AWARENESS: Please note that we are taking all necessary precautions to keep our on-air personalities, interviewees and crew safe during this challenging time. However, we do run repeat stories and segments that were shot last year, before social distancing practices were recommended by health officials. If you see our hosts standing close to someone, please be assured that the segment was shot before March of 2020. We thank you for your concern and your interest in Garden Time.

Happy Earth Day weekend! This weekend we are celebrating Earth Day (April 22) by welcoming back some nice weather. After a couple weeks of record setting rain, we have a somewhat dry weekend. It is time to get out and do some planting. I noticed that a lot of garden centers are having sales. The ones we have visited in the past week are packed full of colorful annuals and perennials. Check out our stories on the show this week about herbs, natives and hanging baskets. The cooler weather has also held up the blooms of lilacs and tulips, with dryer and warmer weather, those two festivals (Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival and the Hulda Klager Lilac Days) are primed for some great color to start popping! Be sure to check them out!

This week we featured...

Egan Spring Hanging Baskets

Egan Spring Hanging Baskets

Spring is hanging basket time! This is when selection is the best and you can create an immediate impact by hanging a few around your deck or patio. It’s like making a huge jump from winter to summer when you are surrounded by great color. One of the best places to get a beautiful hanging basket is at Egan Gardens (503-393-2131) near Brooks. Ellen is known for her huge selection of colorful plants and she combines some of those great colorful plants into her baskets. She walked us through some of her shade and sun tolerant baskets. The first we saw was one with trailing torenia and bright waterfall begonias, which is the replacement for the bonfire series of begonia. This pot and the one after it were grown in the Western Pulp pots. These are fiber pots that can be composted at the end of the season. The second pot was an ‘easy care’ planter with upright geraniums and trailing calibrachoas (million bells). The third basket was planted with a bright ‘salsa’ colored combination of plants in a rattan woven container. The fourth basket was a wire/coco fiber pot filled with light pink geraniums and trailing white bacopa. The fifth basket was a color combination that brought together different salmon colored plants/blooms together. It was stunning. The final basket was filled with petunias, verbenas and calibrachoas in a standard plastic pot. It will be the one that will trail to the ground if you feed and water it regularly. For feeding Ellen recommends the Proven Winners timed release and water soluble fertilizers. Start with the timed released fertilizer at the beginning of the season and again in mid-season, and then do a weekly fertilizing with the water soluble fertilizer to give your plants the best nutrition for lots of blooms!

Stop by Egan Gardens to fill your bed and planters with great color, and get a hanging basket or two for that immediate POP of color!

Hulda Klager Lilacs

Hulda Klager Lilacs

It is that time of year, Lilac time. We took the short trip up I-5 to Woodland, Washington to check out the lilacs at the Hulda Klager Lilac Days (360-225-8996). This year the blooms were just coming on and it is great to have the garden open again! They were closed for a bit to the pandemic. We met with Dwight to learn what changes they have in place for this spring. We were standing in their covered patio area to dodge a passing shower and we could see lilacs were just starting to bloom. In fact, with the warm weather returning, they are anticipating a peak bloom in the next couple of weeks. If you plan on coming to the garden you will want to check their website first. Dwight said that any news or changes to the schedule will be posted there first. There also may be limits on how many people can be in the garden so be aware that there may be a short wait if the crowd gets big. Also, due to indoor space and limitations on people, the gift shop and farmhouse will be closed. They are planning on having plants and other items on sale so check out their outdoor plant area to see what they have. Dwight also gave us tips on planting and pruning lilacs. Lilacs love full sun and well drained soil. They also like 'sweet' soil, so add some lime to the planting hole when you plant them. For pruning you should cut your lilacs after they quit flowering. Don't wait until fall or you will be cutting back the blooms for the following season. When you do heavy pruning to manage the plant size you can cut them back all the way to the ground, removing only about 1/3rd of the stems per season. This will promote new shoots coming from the ground.

The 2022 Lilac Days will run from this weekend through Mother's Day. Hulda Klager hybridized many lilacs and became known as the 'Lilac Lady' in the Woodland area. This year they will have a few of the varieties that Hulda hybridized for sale in the sales area. The Hulda Klager Lilac Society now runs the garden and opens it every year for this festival. They have spent a lot of money in the past few years to improve the gardens and grounds. The improvements include restoration to the historic home, the water tower and the addition of signage and a new entrance pavilion. New seating areas and even an expanded and improved parking lot. They charge a small fee during the festival. The fee is $5 per person with kids under 12 free. Take the time and visit the garden when you get a chance, it is spectacular!

Little Prince Mixed Containers

Little Prince Mixed Containers

When planting patio containers for the summer a lot of people limit themselves to simple outdoor plants, but you can take your containers to the nexhttps://littleprinceplants.com/t level by using indoor plants in those same containers when planting. We stopped by Little Prince of Oregon, a grower of great plants and supplier to almost all of your local garden centers, to talk with Molly on how you can blend these plants into stunning collections for your summer enjoyment. With the recent popularity of houseplants, there is now a huge palette of plants to choose from. Molly talked about the wide selection of choices you can make because the outdoor temps and conditions are perfect for a lot of indoor plants. This allows you to work in more color and texture into your planters. Molly had put together a couple of containers for us to look at including one that was more of a dry shade container. The plants she chose included a small Japanese maple, heuchera, libertia (looks like grass) and aeoniums. The second container needed even more shade. It included acorus, a bromeliad called ‘Fancy’, a tri-color fern, some peperomia, and a small pilea vine.

Molly then put together a container with various colored plants with different leaf shapes and textures. This means that her containers will hold their beauty long after the blooms of other containers have faded, and after the season is done she is going to remove the indoor plants and bring them inside to enjoy them even longer. So the next time you put together a container for your deck or patio, broaden your palette by including indoor and outdoor plants together! If you would like to see a great selection of indoor plants, succulents and tropicals, check out their website to order some online, or stop at your local independent garden center and look for the crowned frog on the plant tag.

Bosky Dell Spring Natives

Bosky Dell Spring Natives

If you are looking for beautiful plants to diversify your garden, do well in our soil and climate, and are loved by pollinating insects, animals and people alike, try natives! These plants are good for any garden because they grow naturally here! One of the best places to pick up some cool and unusual native plants is at Bosky Dell Natives. Lory is an old friend of the Garden Time show and crew. Every time we stop by we spend so much time wandering that we are sometimes late to our next appointment. This time was no exception. We were in awe of all the great spring blooming native plants! Lory pulled a few of her favorites that she wanted to share. We started with a Ribes or Red Current. This plant grows well in sun or shade with pendulous red flower clusters that the bees and hummingbirds love! They also come with pinkish and white blooms too. Lory recommends that you put one plant in the full sun and one in the shade, so you can spread out the bloom times for more personal enjoyment and food for the birds. You can even prune it to keep it pretty small. The next plants were all lower growing shade plants. We started with the Trillium. There are a couple varieties that people can find. We had the popular Trillium ovatum. This one has flowers with 3 petals that starts out white and fades to a magenta pink before it dies back. It is one that you will find in Northwest forests if you are hiking this time of year. The second Trillium that we looked at was the much larger 'Kurabayashii' This one has large dappled leaves around deep red/purple blooms. It is native to Oregon but got its name from a Japanese grower who found it here. We moved to the small but beautiful Fawn Lily. This one is also called a Trout Lily. It has a dainty little bloom that droops over and points to the ground. Even though the blooms are small they are wonderful. There are 2 types, one has a yellow bloom and the other has a light pink bloom. They get their name from the leaves which look like the spotted back of a fawn or trout.

Bosky Dell is a great place to visit if you are looking for inspiration in building a native garden at your home. Lory has built lots of little scenes and vignettes for people to look at and get ideas. If you want to escape into a wooded wonderland, stop by Bosky Dell.

Spring Yellowjacket Traps

Spring Yellowjacket Traps

It may seem weird that we are putting out traps for wasps and yellow jackets in the spring, but next to the late summer this is the best time to use them. Our friends at Rescue (they make those cool yellow Wasp, Hornet, and Yellow Jacket traps) told us why it is a good time to put them out now. In the early spring the queens emerge from their winter hibernation and look for places to make their nests for the new season. If you get them now they won't be around to create a nest of nasty pests to ruin your summer fun. Take down your old traps, clean and refresh them with the pheromone attractant packets available at most of your local garden centers. To make your hunting more effective, place a couple of traps around the perimeter of your yard and garden.

Wooden Shoe Tulip Update

Wooden Shoe Tulip Update

You know that spring is in full swing when the tulips are in full bloom at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival (503-634-2243) in Woodburn. A couple of years ago the festival was one of the first casualties of the Covid crisis. This year things have changed for the better! Barb from the farm joined us in the fields which were at peak bloom! The cooler weather, including hail and heavy rain, have stalled the progression of the blooms and so they are taking longer to fade. That means that the blooms are expected to last longer, causing the festival to now be extended until May 8th! We started by talking about ‘full bloom’. With the many varieties of tulips in their fields you can never really approach ‘full bloom’ as some are fading while others are just starting to pop! That being said, this weekend will be as close to full bloom as you can get. If you are thinking of going to the fields remember that this year they will have a timed ticketed entry. You can go to their website and book your time and ticket there. Once you get to the farm you can visit one of two different fields of flowers. Of course Barb also reminded us of the ‘Field Report’ link on their website so you can see where they are in the bloom season and how close they are to peak bloom!

The fields are only part of the fun once you get there. Once you are on the grounds you can visit the gift shop, which is full of tulip and Dutch themed gifts. There are a great group of food vendors also on site if you get a little hungry after walking the fields, and you can also pick up Wooden Shoe wines or Red Barn Hemp CBD products for your family. You can also pick up cut tulips and potted flowers to take home with you. There are other activities, and things are always changing, so go to their website to get the most updated information!

We are so happy the tulip festival has returned for 2022! Let the fun continue!

Tsugawa Candling

Tsugawa Candling

People often wonder how they can prune their conifers. It can be hard if your trees and shrubs get away from you and get too big. There is one way you can keep them in check! It is called candling. Brian Tsugawa of Tsugawa Nursery (877-658-0566) explained that when your conifer starts showing new growth, those are called candles. You can regulate the growth of your conifers by removing some or all of these candles. It is a great way to avoid unnecessary pruning as your plants get older, plus it can help you maintain the shape of a favorite conifer. For more tips on conifer care, stop by Tsugawa Nursery.

Terra Casa Outdoor Décor

Terra Casa Outdoor Décor

If you have ever driven through the city of Damascus in the east metro area you have probably seen the Terra Casa (503-577-8242) store. A lot of people think that they only carry pottery, because of the huge selection that you can see from the street, but they have so much more. Diana has packed her store with tons of garden and home décor items to show people all of the possibilities for decorating your entertaining spaces, inside and out. WE started by talking about statuary. The are cute little ceramic and metal statues available and even the continuing trend of garden gnomes that you can add to your garden. Patio lights are still a hot item and this year that includes stain glass colored solar powered lights in metal balloons, bright metal flowers and sedum terrariums. Then you can also add the soothing sound of water with patio fountains and even larger water fountains from their large selection of fountains and bubblers. If you want to add a cute little element to your outdoor area, consider a porch sign. Some are very cute and some are a little goofy, but they will all bring a smile. Something else that will bring a smile are the bird and bee accessories that Terra Casa carries. The bird feeders came in shapes that included a small porch swing, a burrito truck and a tiny Adirondack chair.

Terra Casa also carries a large selection of patio and deck furniture. These chairs and benches are heavy duty and are designed to last for years. Above those chairs and benches you can also hang some great metal wall art and surround yourself with incredible pottery and containers. There is so much to see you have to stop by their store in Damascus to see it all for yourself!

4 Simple Trellises

4 Simple Trellises

If you are looking to add height to your garden you can buy something, or you can build a simple trellis yourself! Ryan and Judy walked us through the steps of building a couple of different ones. The first one was easy. Judy used a tomato cage, for something other than tomatoes, to help her climbing peas. She also planted the peas on the inside of the cages to protect them when she was going to weed. Then we saw a structure that was a folding trellis made from PVC pipe. We cut the pipe into various lengths to fit our garden size. This one had 3, ľ inch pipes that were 3 feet long. These are for the two base pieces and the top. Then we cut 4 longer pieces (4 foot) these are for the sides. 6 elbows create the square and then we also had 2 tees. The top of the tee was a bigger size than the rest of the pipe. This will allow the folding of the trellis when the season is done. The finishing touch was the string. Last year we used a hemp string for the plants to climb on. This quickly broke down and that meant it didn’t work as well as we had hoped. This year we are using a cotton fiber string, which will give our trellis the strength to give our beans and other climbing plants a good strong base to grow on. Then Ryan showed us how to make a simple teepee of bamboo sticks. He tied them at the top and they made a quick and simple structure. The final one was a simple set-up of eyehooks that were screwed into the post on an arbor that we built a couple of years ago, but you could do this on a couple of fence posts if you want. Then we ran a heavy duty string through the hooks to make a structure for the plants to climb on. The string gives you support and you can cut it and tighten it as the season goes on and it stretches. Once the season is done you can cut it down and recycle it. Give one (or all of them) a try and see if you can get your gardening ‘off the ground’ this season.

TOW – Cleaning Deck Cracks

Cleaning Deck Cracks

Our tip of the week is about cleaning a part of your deck to help preserve it. When you are cleaning off your deck for the summer, remember to clean in the cracks between the boards. Under your deck there are crossbeams that support your deck. They can get gunk and debris on them between your regular deck boards. Over time the debris can hold moisture and lead to rotted support beams. Take a plastic spatula or a fabric scrubber and clean those deck cracks to remove that debris. Avoid a metal tool, that can damage the wood. This little job will help preserve your deck and help prevent rot.

Planting an Herb Pot

Planting an Herb Pot

Growing your own vegetables and herbs is very popular right now. So to learn how to make an herb pot we stopped by Little Baja to talk to Wayne. He was using a strawberry pot, which is a pot with lots of little pockets that you can plant with different types of herbs (or strawberries). They have the largest selection of strawberry pots in the area! Wayne started by filling the bottom of the pot with a fine quality potting soil. This will give the plants all the nutrients they need to get started and none of the pests and diseases if you use regular soil from your garden. He filled the container to the bottom layer of pockets. Then he inserted various herbs in the pockets on that first layer. Their strawberry pots had nice large holes so he could use a little larger plant in each pocket. Then he filled the container with soil up to the second row of pockets. He topped the container off with a large thyme plant. He was careful to leave a large reservoir around the top plant for watering. The problem with containers is that people pack them to the top with plants and soil, so when you do water them, the water runs over the side. This reservoir will allow that water to drain slowly through the whole container so all the plants get watered.

Little Baja doesn’t just have strawberry pots. They have one of the largest selections of terra cotta, concrete, fiber and clay pots in the Portland area. If you are looking for a quality container, stop by and check them out! Then try building your own herb pot this spring and enjoy fresh herbs all summer long.
 

 
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