Summer is here! The days are going to be at their longest and with all that sunshine you would figure that we would have more sun and warmth! Patience dear gardener... our time is coming. We all want to get out and enjoy the garden and all those wonderful plants we have planted and tended during the rainy season. Soon enough we will be enjoying the outdoors everyday!

We want to extend a happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. A lot of gardeners learned to love gardening from their fathers. In fact, one of the Garden Time crew was featured in this week's 'Homes and Garden of the Northwest' section of the Oregonian. Producer Jeff told everyone of his memories of his dad and gardening. Check out the article here.

This week we featured...

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 or stop by the Glockenspiel Restaurant in Mt. Angel to try some of Chef Paul's other recipes featuring local produce.

Seeding Our Future Garden Tour

Last year we were really impressed with the 'Seeding Our Future' event. This garden tour benefits the Foundation for Tigard Tualatin Schools. Normally we don't do garden tours on the Garden Time TV show. It is hard to show people gardens that they can't normally see everyday, but we decided to do this tour because of the great gardens we saw. We stopped by to see a couple of fantastic gardens. The first garden belonged to Sandy Woodley. Her garden was a large yard with tons of plants which had changed with a growing family. There were play structures, kids and animals to deal with for years. Now she has the room to try different things and grow different plants. One of her favorite varieties of plant is the boxwood. And she has them mixed in well through out her landscape. The second garden belonged to Sandy Willis. Her garden was on the other extreme. Sandy has a small lot but you couldn't tell that with all the plants she has. Sandy has also made quite little landscape in the back, with no grass and lots of stonework. It showed us the power of plants and planning in a small space. Their gardens are part of the Seeding Our Future Garden Tour and Art Show. These gardens are 2 of the 8 you can tour next weekend in the Tigard, and Tualatin areas.

The garden tour is on Friday and Saturday, the 25th and 26th of June, and tickets are $20 each, but the Art Show is free at Fowler Middle School. You can get tickets at many of the local nurseries, garden centers and local businesses. For more information, check out the Seeding our Future website.

Baja Container Tomatoes

The best way to enjoy your garden more is to bring it to your backdoor! We traveled to Little Baja (503-236-8834) to learn what that means. We wet with Tracie to learn how we can garden in containers. Judy planted a tomato in one of their signature 'terra cotta' pots. It is not too late to plant tomatoes and a terra cotta container will help your tomatoes catch-up and pass your regular tomatoes in a short time. Terra Cotta is great because it is made with an all natural material. The clay also allows for the passage of water and air through the walls of the container and that promotes healthier roots and stronger plants. Judy showed us how to plant the tomato extra deep which makes a bigger and better plant. We also learned about all the other products that Little Baja carries; from fountains (which they install and service), to statuary and benches, they have a lot of what every gardener needs. Check out their 2 locations, in Portland on Burnside and in Tigard on Hall Boulevard near Washington Square.

Planting Bamboo

Bamboo is a great plant. It adds great structure to your garden, it sounds great in a little breeze with the soft rustling of leaves and it can make a beautiful and effective screen between you and your neighbors. Still, with all those benefits it can be a tough plant to control. Certain types of bamboo can out-grow its home and soon be all over your garden. To learn how to enjoy the benefits of the plant, without problems, we stopped by Tsugawa Nursery (360-225-8750) and talked to Brian about tips for planting and controlling it. First he showed us the barrier that they recommend. It is a thick plastic that they bolt together. If you don't do this your bamboo will squeeze through and start running through your garden. You will also want to leave the edge up out of the ground. This will help prevent the runners from 'jumping' the barrier. As far as care, you can use a standard 'grass' fertilizer. If you want to slow down the growth of your bamboo you can neglect it and just like your lawn, the growth will slow down. Now if you are a little concerned about 'running' bamboo there are some clumping varieties of bamboo as well. For a great selection or to get all your questions answered you can stop by Tsugawa's for more information.

Green Stihl

Stihl tools are known as an industry leader in power equipment for the garden. So we stopped by to visit with Wayne to hear what Stihl had in the way of power efficient and 'Clean and Green' power tools. The first tool that we looked at was the Yard Boss tiller. It has a new 'Easy 2 Start' system which is less wasteful with fuel during starting. We then saw some of the new types of blowers. Some cities have enacted laws that restrict the noise that a lawn blower makes. The new Stihl blowers are great when it comes to being quiet. In fact they meet or beat any noise standard that we have. They are also less polluting as well with a fraction of the exhaust that older models have produced. We moved to the new Stihl chainsaw that has a new engine that is extremely clean, yet still produces an incredible amount of power. We also saw some of the newer models of the Kombi system. This is the popular interchangeable lawn tools kit. These newer models are fuel efficient and they make sense for the home gardener. Since you only use one engine and just change the power head, you can save money on gas and you only have one power tool to maintain. Check out the full line at you local Stihl tool dealer.