I never thought I would say this, but the rain feels really good! My water bill will be lower and I’m not sweating for the first time in weeks! Watch your plants, they bow to the weight of the rain but then stand even taller when the sun returns. Everyone likes a nice shower!
This week we featured...
Drake’s Miniature Plants
With garden spaces getting smaller you may have tried to plant ‘dwarf’ varieties to save space. If you have, you may have found out that ‘dwarf’ plants don’t always stay small! We met up with Lynn from Drake’s 7 Dees (503-256-2223) to learn what the difference is between dwarf and miniature. A dwarf is a plant that is a shorter version of a full size plant. That could still mean that the plant could grow to 10-15 feet if the parent plant was a 30 footer. A ‘miniature’ plant is a small plant that will only grow a few millimeters a year or one that will reach maturity at a foot or less. Lynn had a couple of planters that featured these mini-wonders. They were planted with Port Orford Cedar ‘Blue Gem’, Japanese Holly ‘Lemon Gem’, Mondo Grass ‘Nana’, Eleocharis radicans – Miniature Rush, Potentilla ‘Pygmaca’, Juniper ‘Gold Cone’, and one plant that required selective pruning, Korean Hornbeam. You can find most of these plants at your local independent garden center or at Drakes. Plus, you can attend a seminar Saturday morning at 10:00am to learn more!
Stihl Yard Boss
With the smaller size of the gardens that people now have, it is hard to find the right tool for the job. Most of the garden equipment you find is too big for the smaller areas we are faced with. Stihl has found a solution for that. They have designed the Yard Boss rototiller. This versatile tiller was designed to be used by anyone. Features include safety guards, a weight kit, ergonomic handles and folding handles for easy storage. It also comes with a number of attachments that really makes this an all-in-one tool for the gardener.
Pest Patrol – Earwigs
A lot of people think that earwigs are harmless pests that chew on the rotting material in your garden and that they don’t do damage to your landscape plants. But if you have an infestation of them or they need a new food source they can do real damage to your plants. Judy covered some of the ways you can get rid of them. One product that you can use is ‘Eight’. This product will kill over 100 different insects. You should use this only if you have a large infestation. Another product is an insect control from Natural Guard that contains diatomaceous earth. This creates a physical barrier that cuts them as they crawl over it. The final solution was a trap that uses bread in a rolled up newspaper to trap them and then you dump it in the trash with out using chemicals. With any pest problem that requires the use of a chemical, please read and follow the directions!
Maple Accents
A lot of us have plants in our garden that become signature plants. Because they stand out it is hard to find plants to accent them. We traveled to Garland Nursery (1-800-296-6601) to check with Lee Powell on his suggestions for one of those common plants, the lace-leaf Japanese Maple. These plants are planted in a lot of newer homes and they have a wonderful weeping habit, but because they are so low to the ground they can be hard to plant under. Lee found a few plants including a dwarf azalea called ‘Gumpo Pink’ that has beautiful pink flowers that will accent the red maple color. He also showed us how grasses, hostas and mosses can create a nice area in your landscape.
Garden Molds – Sconce
On an earlier show we saw how to make your own garden step stones using some GardenMolds (1-800-588-7930) forms. Today we saw how to make a wall sconce using a different form. Catherine Failor walked William through the steps to create a cute candle holder. Catherine also showed him how to add a special touch by using a mixed paint applied without a brush! If you are interested in trying to make your own garden art you can check out GardenMolds on-line or at your local independent garden center.
Jan’s July Tips
Wow, what a difference a month makes. Last month we hardly had anything to chat about in Jan’s garden. The Master Gardener tips from OSU Extension were few and far between. This month we found much more to talk about. First we found a landscape plant that was doing quite poorly. The lesson we learned here is that, no matter how hard you try, some plants will die. Don’t consider yourself a failure. Chalk it up to experience and try another plant! Then we moved to the vegetable garden to see what is happening there. We learned about squash blooms. Some people see the blooms and think that zucchini is on the way. Be careful to not get your hopes up. The first bloom is a male bloom and then come the female blooms and the fruit. We also saw some spinach that had bolted being replaced by bush beans and lettuce. Finally, we saw how you can mow the tops of your strawberries to get them ready for winter and a better crop next year. For more tips check out the OSU Extension website!
