Cooler weather is no reason not to enjoy the beauty of your garden. The plants are enjoying the break from the very hot weather of the past few weeks and most of them are responding with their best color and fragrance this spring. Get out and enjoy all your hard work!
This week we featured...
Tsugawa Strawberry Festival
It is mid-June and that means strawberries and the annual Strawberry Festival at Tsugawa Nursery (360-225-8750) in Woodland Washington. Tsugawa’s not only has a great nursery, they also have a farm that grows strawberries and raspberries. This weekend they show their appreciation to their customers by sharing some strawberry shortcake. Saturday from 11-3 you can get free strawberry shortcake when you stop by (while supplies last). They are also offering seminars all weekend long. If you have a Japanese maple or a sculptured pine and are looking for pruning tips, they will be having a couple of seminars on that. They will also have a container seminar to show you how to plant up a great container for your deck or patio. If you bring a container, they will even help you pot it up and provide the soil and fertilizer for free! If you don’t have a container they have some on sale for you. Finally, for those who are interested in bonsai, Brian Tsugawa will be deconstructing an over-grown bonsai and showing you how to prune, root-prune and replant the container so it can grow for many years to come. It is really easy with the right instruction! Of course, there are great plants, and fresh strawberries for you to take home when you are done shopping! Stop by for some short cake and enjoy the plants!
Edible Flowers
Did you know that there are lots of edibles in the average garden? You don’t even have to buy a fruiting plant to enjoy some tasty treats. Laura from Portland Nursery on Stark Street (503-231- 5050) pulled a full cart of flowers and shrubs out of the nursery to show us how may flowers you can eat and enjoy in your garden. She started with a great plant that lots of people have in their garden, the tuberous begonia. This flower is spectacular to look at but you can also eat the petals, which have a zesty flavor, and use them to color vinegars. The blue flower we saw next was borage. These lovely small flowers have a cucumber flavor and can be used in salads or on other dishes. The oil from the seeds is sometimes used for medicinal purposes. Martha Stewart has also recommended using the flowers in ice cubes so you have a beautiful and tasty treat for your summer lemonade. We also found out that sunflower petals are edible and delicious! If you are looking for more information on edible flowers, you can download a Portland Nursery brochure here.
June Shade Perennials
The leaves have returned to your landscape trees and that has created the shade that some perennials love! We were wondering which of the shade loving perennials were looking the best right now in the garden so we stopped by to visit the experts at Extra Perennial Nursery (503-628-1492). Ken pulled a couple of beauties to show Judy. We first started with a Plumed Soft Shield Fern. This one is a spectacular fern that has some cool characteristics. The fronds start out white and then end up curving at the end. They also have a layered look with fronds too that give soft look to the fronds. Then we moved to the Maidenhair Fern. This one has a lacey look to it and it is a great slow spreading fern that will almost become a groundcover. Hostas are always great in the shade and Ken had a couple that were looking nice. The first was ‘Marilyn Monroe’. This one has a frilly edge to the leaf, some striking red stems and a lavender colored flower. The second hosta was called ‘Golden Meadows’. This one has a two-toned leaf that starts with a yellow center in the spring and grows into a light green with dark greenish/blue edges. Finally we moved to a hardy orchid that is just getting ready to bloom. This was a hardy Chinese ground orchid called ‘Bletilla Striata’. This one is hardy to around minus 10 degrees. For those who think that orchids are hard to grow, these are very easy to grow and will come back year after year with little care. If you have a shade area that needs some help, stop by Extra Perennial and see some of their great shade plants.
Asparagus Vinaigrette
One of the first vegetables of spring is the asparagus. Once established it is one of the easiest vegetables to grow and can produce for 20 years or more in your garden. To learn a new way to prepare it we stopped by the Glockenspiel Restaurant (503-845-6222) in Mt. Angel, Oregon. Chef Paul Brakeman uses a lot of local, fresh produce in his recipes at the restaurant and he made a lovely vinaigrette that he shared with us. First he showed us how to pick some asparagus and how to remove the fibrous parts of the stalks (you simply snap them off!). We then moved to the actual recipe, which is a ‘cold dish’ appetizer. This one started with Chef Paul blanching the asparagus with salt and sugar. He then added shallots, garlic, salt, mustard, lemon juice, balsamic vinaigrette and oil into a bowl and mixed it all together. You pour that over the asparagus, garnish and serve. You can try the recipe (click here) or stop by the Glockenspiel Restaurant in Mt. Angel to try some of Chef Paul’s other recipes featuring local produce.
Jan’s June Tips
It is time for Jan’s tips of the month. Retired OSU Extension Agent, Jan McNeilan joins us to share some of the information she has learned over the years and tips from OSU to help you in the garden. This month we found Jan at her containers on her back patio. She talked to us about the proper care for your containers. It is time to fertilize your containers and fertilize them. First you want to water your pots with regular water before you use fertilizer. Look for the water to run out the bottom of the pot to make sure they get lots of water. You should NOT fertilize every time you water, this can build up salts in your container and this will damage your plants. You should also be looking for slugs and treating for them once you see them. Trust us; slugs will make it into your pots, containers and even hanging baskets! We them moved to Jan’s vegetable garden to look at a new layout she is trying this year. Jan went with a ‘square foot garden’ kind of look this year. This means she had wider planting areas and fewer paths in her garden. She also planted fewer plants in 4 foot square areas. This gives plants more space to grow than her old garden. The plants usually respond by growing more fruit and you get better produce from fewer plants. William and Jan also talked about the importance of good soil! Adding compost and garden mulch will energize your soil and your plants will respond better! If you think it is too late to start a vegetable garden, you are wrong. You can still plant now and have lots of produce by the fall. Check with the OSU extension website or your local garden center to get started.
