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Judy Alleruzzo

 Episode 22 -
September 2, 2006

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William McClenathan

Labor Day!  Funny how we spend a holiday that celebrates the worker by trying to do nothing.  So, in the full spirit of the day, try spending the entire weekend enjoying your garden.  If you do feel the urge to get out, visit the Dahlia Festival in Canby, the Oregon Garden, the Portland Classical Chinese Garden or visit the display gardens at the Oregon State Fair.  Soak up the sun, ponder the fun times of the past couple of months and start planning for next year’s garden. 

Also, make your plans now for the Le Tour de Plants.  This 9 day, self-guided tour of local garden centers features events, seminars, and plant specials that will get you excited about gardening in the fall!   Check out www.OAN.org for details and directions. 

This week we featured...

Farmington Tomato Festival

Tons and tons of tomatoes!  That is what you will find at Farmington Gardens (503-649-4568) 4th annual tomato festival.  Stop by the nursery between 11-3 on Saturday and taste over 60 varieties of tomatoes.  Also featured during the day; cooking demonstrations, tomato talks where you can learn how to grow healthy and productive tomatoes at home, food from the Century High dance team and plant specials around the nursery. It is a free event and fun for the whole family.

Cooking Tomatoes

While we are on the subject of tomatoes, we had Chef Dan Brophy of the Oregon Culinary Institute show us a recipe using cherry tomatoes for a quick taste of summer.  The tomatoes are at their tasty peak right now.  Chef Dan mentioned that we can buy the shape of a tomato, but capturing the taste is only possible this time of year.  If you would like to try this recipe, check out this link.  Dan will be giving cooking demonstrations at the 4th annual Farmington Gardens Tomato Festival today (Saturday 9/22/2006).

Lloyd's Landscape

It is great when a community can come together to help out someone in need.  Such is the case in Tualatin.  Lloyd Ziemer lost his home last Thanksgiving in a terrible fire.  Within 3 days his neighbors got together and set in motion a plan to build him a new home.  Neighbor Randy Glanz and members of the Tualatin Valley Fire District formed a group of volunteers and within 110 days they had Lloyd back in his new home.  Another part of the project was provided by Al’s Garden Center (503-981-1245).  Mark Bigej from Al’s approached vendors and fellow employees and with a little help from neighbors, helped get a new landscape planted for Lloyd.  Some of the issues they dealt with were the same as those of the average homeowner: Sun exposure, soil conditions and a steep slope!  In the end, this is a great story about how people can help one another!

Gartner's Labor Day Grilling

The best part of a big holiday weekend is the food.  We all look forward to that unique ‘taste of summer’ that we get when we fire up the grill.  To get another grilling idea on what to prepare we dropped by to visit Jerry Yost from Gartner’s Meats (503-252-7801).  Jerry pulled out a flat-iron griller.   This is a great piece of meat.  We heard how easy it is to grill.  Jerry put it on the grill and turned it every 5-7 minutes.  In 20 minutes it was done.  What made this taste so good was the marinade.  Gartner’s makes their own special sauce that just knocked our socks off.  If you get a chance, stop by and see them at 7450 N.E. Killingsworth and make a huge impression at your next barbeque. 

Allan Armitage

The northwest is a Mecca for gardeners.  It is also a Mecca for garden publishers.  Timber Press (1-800-327-5680) is one of the best!  They brought one of the best authors, Allan Armitage to town to speak recently and we got a chance to chat with him as well.  Allan is known as the king of perennials and has written many books that are used as text books by some colleges.  We met him at the Children’s Garden at Emmanuel Hospital to chat about his new book ‘Armitage’s Native Plants’.   This king of perennials told us how he is a ‘mix’ type of person.  He told us that he loves roses, but detests rose gardens.  He sees a garden as a mix of the best plants for the garden owner.  The same holds true for natives.  Even though he has written a book on natives he sees them as a piece of the garden puzzle.  He is a delightful man and a great gardener.  If you get a chance, pick up a copy of one of his books and enjoy some late summer reading.
 

 
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