SHOW ARCHIVE

Episode 360 • June 13, 2015

VIDEO ARCHIVE

We hope you all had a happy National Garden Week. I find it funny that we have a ‘week’ to celebrate gardening. For those of us in the Northwest we have a gardening ‘year’, for avid Northwest gardeners we can find something to do just about any time, rain or shine. The weather is finally cooling off so get out there this weekend and get the garden in shape for Father’s Day weekend!

Speaking of getting out and in the garden. We are going to be leading a Garden Time bus tour on July 17th. We will be traveling around the valley visiting gardens, nurseries and growers. Lunch and dinner are included. Right now we are getting prices together. You can sign up for more information at www.gardentime.tv/tours. You will also find more information about our trip to Ireland coming up in June of 2016.

A short trip you can make this weekend is right down between Aurora and St. Paul. You can attend ‘A Vintage Flea’ and ‘Berries, Brews and BBQ’. Learn more about those events in this week’s show.

Movie – ‘A Little Chaos'

I’m not talking about our days when we are shooting the TV show! This movie is a romantic drama following Sabine, a talented landscape designer, who is building a garden at Versailles for King Louis XIV. Sabine struggles with class barriers as she becomes romantically entangled with the court's renowned landscape artist. The movie opens to the public on June 26th, but we have 75 passes that we are offering for a preview screening of this movie. It is a first come, first served event. It is happening on the evening of the 22nd at 7pm. You can get your ticket by going to this website and entering the code.

Screening Link: http://www.gofobo.com/CHAOSKPDX   Code: CHAOSKPDX

We hope to see you there!

This week we featured...

Rose Garden Store

Rose Garden Store

Portland is the city of roses and rightfully so, roses thrive in our climate. You can enjoy roses in your garden for a good part of the year, and right now you can see thousands of blooms at Washington Park. If you are a fan of these lovely blooms you can never get enough of their beauty. The answer for you is the Rose Garden Store (503-227-7033) at the International Rose Test Garden at Washington Park. We stopped by and visited with Lilia Villasenor the manager at the store. She told us that the store is run by the Rose Festival Foundation and it benefits the Rose Garden and other parks within the Portland Park system and even though the store is small it is making a big difference for our parks. As of 2014, the store has made over a MILLION dollars to benefit our parks. It isn’t all about just making money, she is also making the effort to showcase local artists and products in the store. We saw some great products like Portland Rose soaps, greeting cards, ornaments, rose flavored tea and even some cool clothing like scarves and hats. If you are looking for a unique gift or you want to be surrounded by roses inside and outside your home, this is the place to visit.

A Vintage Flea

A Vintage Flea

Antiques have always been hot. Now they are getting hot in the garden! Flea markets are the place to be for some of these buried treasures that you can use in your home or your yard. This weekend there is one place where you can get your garden and flea market fix at one time. Margie’s Farm and Garden is hosting ‘A Vintage Flea’. A Vintage Flea is a vintage/flea/antique market with anything from antiques and mid-century vintage to crafts and castoffs. Kathy joined us to tell us about the event which is happening from 9am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. We found a bunch of cool furniture that had been repurposed. One TV cabinet had been modified into a retro bar. Awesome! As I mentioned before you can also get your plant fix too! Margie joined us to tell us that they will have 30% off almost every plant in the nursery. They are still full of great color plants and baskets. You can still add color to your garden. If you are thinking about planting now you should just pay more attention to the watering and you should be fine. If you are out and about this weekend, stop by!

Aurora Visualscaping

Aurora Visualscaping

When we move into homes we generally fall in love with everything about them. But after a few years we realize that sometimes changes have to happen. That is what happened with Mark and Cindy, some homeowners from Aurora. They had been in the same home for over 20 years. When they moved in there were small junipers along the front edge of their home. As you can imagine, 20 years later they were huge and some of them were dying. Then 2 more trees blew over and they realized that they needed to do something. This is where GardenPalooza comes in… They attended the spring event at Fir Point Farms and met Rick of French Prairie Perennials (503-679-2871) and he told them about Visualscaping. Visualscaping is a process of landscaping where you don’t have to draw up expensive plans. Rick meets with you and discusses your needs and then brings out different plants and you get to ‘test-drive’ them in your garden. He places them around and you can actually see what they will look like in your garden. Plus with the money you saved on drawing up plans, you get to buy more and better plants!

That is what happened in Aurora. They were looking for low maintenance plants, but they didn’t want the same old plants that their neighbors had. Rick was able to bring in some really cool plants and place them in the new landscape. He also added some rocks and boulders for some structure! Rick handpicks has rocks and these had some really beautiful shapes and colors. They worked well with the unusual plants! If you would like to learn more about Visualscaping, give Rick a call and let him take a look at your garden.

Berries, Brews and BBQ

Berries, Brews and BBQ

French Prairie Gardens (503-633-8445) is a great place to buy plants and produce, but they also have a lot of farm friendly events that they are becoming known for. The one that is happening now is Berries, Brews and BBQ’s. We met up with Stacy in the greenhouse to learn about this family friendly event.

The Berries, Brews and BBQ event is happening over the next 2 weekends at the farm. The parking and admission are free for the farm and once you get in you can find tons to do for the whole family. If you are into brews, they will have different breweries sampling brews on each weekend. This year they also have a selection of ciders too. They will have lots of berry treats to share and if you like BBQ they will have an assortment of different BBQed meat for you to try too. Of course they will have the farm animals out for visitors and tractor wagon rides for the family and live music! Stop by and enjoy a day in the country with the best tastes of the season.

Bird and Butterfly Plants

Bird and Butterfly Plants

The sign of a healthy garden is when you can get the local wildlife to hang out with all your flowers and plants. One way to get them to visit is to plant the right kind of plant to attract them. To learn how to attract birds and butterflies we stopped by Farmington Gardens (503-649-4568). MJ had walked around the nursery to select some plants that she could share with us and she had a hard time just keeping the selections to 2 carts! She started with a group of sun and shade plants that will work for hummingbirds, butterflies and birds. The first plant was a spirea, which is a favorite for butterflies and bees. The flower has a flat top which is easy for butterflies to land on. Then we saw a couple of shade plants for butterflies. A hanging geranium and a torenia. Even hummingbirds like some shade and these will keep them cool while they feed from the flowers. Another plant for the hummingbird is the hardy fuchsia. These plants will keep coming back, year after year, with great hanging flowers. The next 2 plants are annuals and will just be around for one season. The heliotrope and a lantana. These are great butterfly plants and they have striking color and fragrance. Smoke Bush was next on the cart and this one is a great landscape tree that can offer shelter for your favorite song birds. The next one was an obvious one, buddleia, also known as butterfly bush. Butterflies and bees LOVE this plant and with the new varieties on the market, they are less aggressive too. The next cart had a few really tall plants. The first one was pampas grass. This grass has huge seed heads late in the summer and fall which birds can use for building nests. That brought up a point about using plants that can provide shelter as well as food. These tall grasses can also provide food with their seed heads, so they can do both jobs! We were now down to 3 plants known for their berries, a holly and a current and a wintergreen. These all have berries that will help keep your birds well fed during the winter months. The final plant was a flowering crabapple and as the name says, it gets little apples which the birds love. This tree also gives you some great color with blooms in the spring and colored leaves in the fall.

As you can see, there are lots of different plants that you can use to attract birds, butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden. For more ideas you can stop by Farmington Gardens or your local independent garden center.

Garden Trains

Garden Trains

If you are looking to try something new in your garden, have you ever considered a garden train? There is a very active club of Garden Railroaders in Portland and later this month they are having their annual garden tour. We stopped by one of the locations to talk to Tom about his railroad. Tom retired and told his wife he needed something to do. I’m not sure she expected this! Tom’s layout takes over about 75% of his backyard! Tom had some ideas that he wanted in his layout including ease of access and room for lots of his railroad friends. He is not a big plant person so he hired someone to help him with that. When you are building a garden train you have to remember the scale. Nothing should be too big and it should be a slow grower too. Rocks, trees and the model buildings should all work together so a person can ‘get lost’ in the details and the design. It is amazing when you get down and look at the train at eye level. It is a different world.

Now, if you are interested in seeing this train and would like to see up to 12 more garden trains, then next weekend is the perfect time. The Rose City Garden Railway Society is having their huge summer garden tour. This tour takes place every year on the Saturday before Father’s Day from10am to 5pm. Society members open up their backyards to the general public and you can stop by and see these enchanting layouts. There is a booklet that is a self-guided tour of trains from Corbett to Hillsboro. It is also your ticket! The booklet/ticket is available at local hobby shops and garden centers around the area. If you would like to find the location nearest you, check out their website. The cost is only $10 for an entire carload of people. So gather all your friends and pick up a booklet/ticket and start ‘training’.

Jan’s June Tips

Jan’s June Tips

We are nearing the end of spring (feels like summer, right?) and the garden is in full swing. We saw that when we stopped by Jan McNeilan for our tips of the month. Of course there was plenty to talk about in the garden, but we started with a plant that she had in her greenhouse. She brought out an Easter Lily that had died back a few years ago, and it is now in full bloom. While it was in the greenhouse she would just water the container and suddenly it came back. This is actually the time for lilies to start blooming in the garden, growers force the blooms for Easter to help sell them. In fact, Jan told us about the Easter in July event at the lily fields in northern California where they grow them in the field. We went from those blooms to the blooms in your garden bouquets. Jan gave us the helpful tip of shaking the blooms before you bring them inside. The carpet beetle is a small pest that feeds on the pollen of your garden flowers and if you don’t give them a good shake you may be bringing those critters back indoors. Once inside they can start attacking your carpet and clothing, and they are much worse than your common clothing moth. We then took a look at Jan’s veggies. She is comparing grafted and ungrafted plants side by side. There was one grafted cherry tomato that was going gangbusters! The rest of the plants were about the same size so far. Jan mentioned that it is still early and there might be a difference down the road. She is going to keep us updated.

Being a retired extension agent Jan is all about education. She brought out a few publications for us to look at from OSU. The first one was about identifying ants. Jan told us a story about a high pressure salesman who came to her door to warn her about ants and the damage that they can do. Some people would be scared by this pitch and buy the services, but Jan told us that you can identify these pest yourself with this brochure and then call and find a certified specialist to take care of the problem (if there is one). Speaking of ants and bad bugs, her next brochure was on how to attract beneficial insects to your garden. This handout had pictures of beneficial bugs and a list of plants you can use to attract them. The last handout had tips on picking a Pest Control Company. This brochure also included sections on IPM, or integrated pest management. IPM is a way to help control pests in your garden in a way that is holistic and tries to minimize the damage of chemicals to people and the environment. All of these and many more informational pamphlets are available through OSU publications. Check out the website to see what is available. You might even see some that have been written by Jan and her husband, Ray. Finally we talked about the weather. With this recent hot weather Jan recommended that you keep an eye on your plants and once they show signs of stress, give them a drink. During the very hot weather the mantra is water, water, water. Not only for your plants but also for you! For more extension gardening information go to their website, http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening.

JustFreshy.com

JustFreshy.com

Everyone talks about ‘going local’ in their purchasing and cooking, but do you even know how to get local without going to a store? To learn about a new website that highlights local, we stopped by and talked to Sara Tetreault about JustFreshy.com. The Just Freshy.com site features locally homegrown & crafted items. You can buy, sell or trade and it is free for sellers and buyers. As Sarah said it is a little like Craig’s List but less creepy and a little like Etsy except it doesn’t cost anything. You can connect with local home gardeners, crafters, small farms and artisans. For example, Sarah traded some of her home canned green beans for a hand forged garden trowel. It is easy to sign up and you can be notified of people in your zip code or in your town through alerts when they post something new. There is even a forum where you can share your thoughts, ideas and even recipes. So if you have something you can offer, or something you are looking for, check out their website.

Another website you might want to check out is Sara’s healthy lifestyle webpage at http://gogingham.com.

Oregon Hot Tub

Oregon Hot Tub

If you are considering a hot tub or spa for your home you probably have a lot of questions, I know we did. So we met with Dave from Oregon Hot Tub (503-643-5002) to see if we could get some of those questions answered. The new styles of hot tubs are really loaded with lots of toys! You can get a bunch of features with tubs these days; from massagers and different seating configurations to cool lighting patterns and wireless music, there are so many things to choose from. The best thing is the ease of installation and maintenance. You don’t need much to install a new tub. Some of the newer tubs just need a secure platform (you can even put them on an existing deck) and a regular electrical outlet. As far as maintenance, you don’t have to load up on chlorine either. There are new products that are safer and easy to use, including salt. If you are just too busy to keep up on the maintenance, the Oregon Hot Tub people will come out and take care of that for you. The best feature of the new tubs is the emphasis on energy efficiency. The newer tubs cost just a couple bucks a month to operate, so relaxing in your tub won’t eat you out of house and home. Take the stress out of buying a hot tub by checking with the experts at Oregon Hot Tub Company.

Squirrel Deterrents

Squirrel Deterrents

Squirrels can be cute little garden goof-offs or they can be the pest that are destroying your birdfeeders and creating a mess. Either way you can find ways to take care of them at Backyard Bird Shop (503-620-7454). We stopped by to talk with Angie and see what they had. We started with things for the squirrel lover. Angie showed us one of the many feeders that they have for squirrels. Some of the feeders actually make them figure out how to get their treats. They have to learn how to work doors and lids to get their food. There were some great designs and, of course they had a wide selection of food too.

But what if you don’t like these guys and they are stripping your bird feeders dry? This is where we started to see some interesting ideas for keeping them out of the bird seed. First we talked about baffles. These are physical barriers that you can use on your posts or shepherds hooks to prevent them from climbing up the post to the food. But what if they are jumping over from the trees and roof of your home. Well they have guards called top baffles that you can place over the top of the feeder too! Angie also told us that you should position your feeder at least 16 inches away from a wall, roof or tree. This also makes it harder for them to get to the bird food. We then looked at feeders. The best one that she recommended was the Squirrel Buster. This one had a weight triggered shut off. The birds are light so they can just perch and eat, but when a squirrel comes along his weight will cause the feeder to close and he gets nothing. There were a couple styles of this feeder available. Another feeder used a cage design. This feeder have a large cage around the feeder and so the birds can fly through the cage to eat. The squirrels can’t reach the food! The final feeder was more of an entertainment center. The Yankee Flipper from Droll Yankees has a battery operated spinner. The birds can land on the perch to eat but once the squirrel tries to grab it to eat it is flung off by the rapidly spinning perch. People love watching this. Pretty soon the squirrel stops coming back. In fact, some people let the battery die and when the squirrels start coming back they will put in a recharged battery and let the show begin again!

Finally we talked about bird feeds. You can treat your bird food with Cole’s ‘Flaming Squirrel’ hot sauce. You use a few drops of this to treat your food with habanero pepper sauce. This will burn their little mouths and then they stop eating at your feeders. This doesn’t affect your birds since they don’t have taste buds, but any mammal will sure be surprised when they feed. Cole’s also makes ‘Hot Meats’ which is shelled sunflower seeds that have already been treated. If you are looking for more information you can stop by any Backyard Bird Shop and pick up an informational flyer or check out their website.

WSU Soil Testing

WSU Soil Testing

Soil testing can save you a lot of time and money in the garden. How? Well, to answer that question we stopped by the WSU Extension office in Vancouver and talked to Karen Palmer. She told us that by testing your soil you can find out exactly what nutrients you have there. Once you know what you have, you can determine what types of amendments and fertilizers you need, if any. This can save you money! All you need to do is to stop by the extension office or give them a call. They will provide you with a kit and you send it, with your soil sample, into a local lab with your money (kits start at $12). You should get the results back in a few days. Your garden will thank you!
 

 
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