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By Miles Hunter, September 15, 2011

September 15th, 2011

Grow your own Garlic!

Vampires beware it’s time to plant garlic. Fall is a great time to plant your garlic crop for next year. Growing good garlic is fairly easy. If you just plant the cloves in the ground anytime between September and March and it will probably grow, but not very well. If you want to grow large, healthy bulbs, there is more to it. Click here to download our Garlic Growing Tips Information Brochure.

This year you can choose from ten different varieties of garlic, including three varieties of certified organic garlic. They include:

• Regular White – regular type of white garlic, has a mild flavor.
• Elephant - has large cloves but very mild flavor
• German Hardneck – A very nice strain for our northern climates. Great for roasting due to large cloves.
• Legacy - A rocambole type hard neck garlic produces 4 to 6 cloves in a large bulb. Has a strong, full flavour.
• Mexican Purple – This garlic has a hot flavour when raw, but becomes milder when baked
• Music - Music is large beautiful and a well-formed porcelain garlic. Its flavor is very rich and musky, strong and robust and sticks around for a while.
• Red - The standard of excellent flavor in rocambole garlic. This is a delightfully mild, full flavored, productive garlic that store very well, present a nice appearance and has an excellent raw flavor.
• Russian Red (Certified Organic) – A rocambole garlic with a rich, musky flavour and is very hot when eaten raw. Grows great in the northwest.
• Inchelium Red (Certified Organic) – An artichoke garlic with delightfully robust flavour. A large and healthy garlic to grow resistant to most diseases. It is a good for storing but still peels easily.
• Italian Porcelain (Certified Organic) – A hardneck type that produces large bulbs with easy-to-peel purple cloves that do wonders for Mediterranean cooking.

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By Miles Hunter, September 10, 2011

September 10th, 2011

Winter Pansies are Ready to Plant!

It is hard to believe that fall is here but even harder to think that it is time to plant your winter pansies. As your summer annuals finish blooming it is time to start replacing them. Pansies make a great filler for winter adding colour to your garden beds, planters, or pots. You can choose individual pansy plants in 4 inch pots or get a better value buying them in a pack of six plants.

Pansies come in a variety of colours including shades of yellow, purple, lavender, mauve, orange, and black (dark purple). When you are planting your pansies be sure to plant your fall bulbs underneath them. You can create colourful combinations with pansies and fall bulbs like yellow crocus with purple pansies. Or try white hyacinths with purple pansies. The combinations are endless.

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By Miles Hunter, September 1, 2011

September 1st, 2011

Add Fall Colour to Your Garden with Mums!

Mums are a great addition to your garden for fall. They provide colour from August to October. They are a great combination plant with Pansies, Kale, or other fall perennials. They are excellent in the garden or in pots and containers. Mums are sold as annuals but they can be left in the garden to flower again next year, just cut them back in the winter and they come up again next spring.

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By Miles Hunter,

September 1st, 2011

Enjoy your Water Garden!

You should be able to enjoy your water garden through the fall. Enjoy the last blooms on your water lilies and other plants before they start to die back for the winter.

Leaves on the surrounding trees may start to turn and fall. You should clean them out regularly to prevent build up or clogging your pump intake. Marginal plants can be cut back so the tops are above the surface of the water.

There are many great water plants that will still give you colour through the fall. These include; the Colocasia with their dark leaves and stems, Cypress ‘Baby Tut’ with their tufts of grass like leaves, Equisetum with their dark tips to the foliage, Fairy Moss with their beads of dew or rain, Orza ‘Black Madrass with their dark leaves, and Thalia with their teardrop shaped leaves.

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By Miles Hunter,

September 1st, 2011

Fertilizing your Lawn

As your lawn begins to recover from the summer drought be sure to help encourage new growth with a fall fertilizer. Fall is a time when the lawn needs to be given a feeding of fertilizer that has more potash in it. The Evergro Winter Ready (6-3-20) helps to develop a strong healthy lawn for next year. The best time to apply fertilizer to your lawn is when it is raining. If it is not raining when you apply the fertilizer you should set out the srpinkler and water your lawn for a few hours to ensure that the fertilizer is washed into the soil.

Fall is also an ideal time to apply lime to your lawn. Lime is essential to balance the Ph in the soil. In addition Lime helps the grass absorb important nutrients. If you have a significant amount of Moss in your lawn the Lime will also help to deter the moss from growing. However it is best to wait until March or April to apply a moss control to kill the moss.

Watering your Lawn

During the fall the west coast generally receives enough rain to provide adequate water for your lawn. In the event of a warm dry fall it may be necessary to continue to water your lawn through September.

Mowing your Lawn

Lawns should be mowed at regular intervals. However, lawns grow more slowly during the fall months. This reduces the frequency with which you have to cut it. For best results your lawn should be cut every 10 to 14 days. A rotary mower should to be set at a height of 2 to 3 inches for the season. Your lawn mower should be kept sharp at all times. A dull mower tears the grass instead of cutting it, making it more susceptible to diseases.

You should use a grass catcher, or rake the cut grass to remove the cuttings and prevent the build-up of dead grass. If you do not remove the dead grass you should power rake your lawn on a regular basis to remove the layer of dead grass (thatch) that builds up, this is called power raking or de-thatching.

Applying Moss Control

Spring is the best time to apply Moss Control. However if moss has taken hold of your lawn you might want to consider a fall application of the Moss Control to reduce the problem for the winter. Moss usually goes dormant over the summer but as we start to receive cooler weather and rain in the fall the moss in your lawn may rejuvenate and need to be controlled.

Tips for Starting a New Lawn

Fall is an excellent time to start a new lawn from seed or to over-seed your existing lawn to fill in the spaces. You will need to apply the grass seed at least six weeks prior to the first frosts, which normally arrive in mid November. So be sure to start your new lawn before the first week of October.

To over-seed your existing lawn first spread some fresh topsoil. You should mix a Turf Starter fertilizer (15-30-10) with the soil while you spread it. The fertilizer helps to promote development of strong healthy roots.

Make sure that you spread the soil evenly and level it to ensure even growth. Then apply lawn seed and lightly rake the seed into the soil. To ensure that the lawn seed germinates best keep the new lawn moist for at least four to six weeks. You should not fertilize the new lawn until after it has been mowed at least twice.

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By Miles Hunter, August 31, 2011

September 1st, 2011

Fall is when trees show their best colours!

Most of the time we take the trees in our garden for granted. We enjoy the shade and the privacy they provide. Fall is when many of those trees show their best colours. The range of red and orange colours seems limitless. If you are looking around your yard and wondering where you can add a bit of colour look up and see if you have space for one of these trees.

Some of the best trees for fall colour include the Maples, both Japanese and European types. Even the green leaf varieties turn to beautiful yellow, orange and red tones. Other great choices include the Katsura Tree (Cercidiphyllum japonica), Sourwood (Oxydendron), and the Forest Pansy (Cercis).

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By Miles Hunter, August 30, 2011

September 1st, 2011

It is time to start Your Winter Vegetable Garden!

As the summer begins to wind down you should be thinking about growing winter vegetables. There are many vegetable that you can grow during a west coast winter. You can start many of the vegetables from seed like lettuce, carrots, radishes, and many others. You can also buy plants that are already growing like broccoli, cabbage, kale, and swiss chard. You can even plant herbs like Sage and Thyme now for a fall or winter harvest.

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By Miles Hunter, August 22, 2011

August 22nd, 2011

It is never too late for some Summer Flowering Perennials!

Although the best times to plant perennials are the spring and the fall it is never too late to plant summer flowering perennials like Rudbeckia. Rudbeckia are among the best perennials available. One of the most popular varieties is the ‘Goldsturm’. Goldsturm is a variety of one of our native North American wildflowers. The plants make a bushy, upright clump with a profuse display of brown-eyed, golden-orange daisies from midsummer through the fall. In addition to their brilliant fall colour their seed heads have good winter interest. They make a terrific choice for mass planting, combining especially well with ornamental grasses. They are excellent as a cut flower in bouquets. By removing faded flowers when the flower petals start to fall lengthens the blooming time. Rudbeckia plants can be easily divided in early spring as they start to emerge from the ground. The flowers are attractive to butterflies and make a great centerpiece to any garden bed. The ‘Goldsturm’ variety was the Perennial Plant of the Year in 1999.

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By Miles Hunter, August 15, 2011

August 15th, 2011

Add warmth to your garden with Echinacea!

Echinacea, or Coneflower, are one of the most popular perennials. Echinacea love full sun and lots of heat. They have large, showy flower heads, blooming from early to late summer. Many varieties bloom until frosts in the fall. Some varieties can be used for herbal or medicinal purposes. They work well at attracting butterflies to your garden. There are many varieties for you to choose from including:

purpurea

This is the most common form of Echinacea which has large purple flowers and grows to 24 to 36 inches high. Click here for more information.

purpurea ‘Double Decker’

This is a unique form of Echinacea. In their second-year plants produce a large magenta-pink daisies with a second smaller flower produced on top of each dark brown central cone. In their first-year plants usually produce only single blooms before becoming double in the second year.

purpurea ‘Magnus’

This is a classic purple coneflower. Beautiful rose-pink ray petals with a coppery-brown, spiky central cone comprise the huge, flat flower heads. They flower from midsummer thru fall. Click here for more information.

purpurea ‘Ruby Star’

This variety has larger, more vibrantly coloured flowers than the regular purpurea species. From a central brown cone the deep carmine-pink petals are held flat, rather than drooping. Click here for more information.

purpurea ‘Coconut Lime’

This variety is the first ever double-flowered, white Echinacea. The flower heads feature a ring of white petals surrounding a large pom-pom of pale green florets. These blooms are big, but the stems are strong enough to hold them. ‘Coconut Lime’ not only looks great in the border but also is a distinctive and very long-lasting cut flower. It’s as easy to grow as any traditional Coneflower. Click here for more information.

‘Pixie Meadowbrite’

This hybrid is a vast improvement over other dwarf Coneflowers on the market. Flowers are midsized, with flat medium-pink petals surrounding a cone that begins greenish-pink, maturing to deep crimson. Deadhead regularly for continual blooming into the autumn. Click here for more information.

‘Maui Sunshine’

This variety has large bright yellow flowers, that are sweetly scented. This variety is well-branched with strong, upright stems. Showy orange cones with green backgrounds (great for cutting and drying). Click here for more information.

‘Tomato Soup’

This variety has warm, tomato-red flowers that grow to 6″ wide. It grows to 32” tall and nearly as wide. Flowers cover the plant till frost. Plants are well branched and show excellent vigor. Click here for more information.

‘Big Sky’ – series

There are many new varieties including a group of new Echinaceas that belong to the Big Sky™ series. The Big Sky™ series currently has five members, all of which are sweetly scented. The varieties include; ‘Sunrise’, ‘Sunset’, ‘Twilight’, ‘Matthew Saul’ (Harvest Moon™), and ‘Evan Saul’ (Sundown™). These varieties all have large green leaves, strong branching stems, wide flower petals, and profuse blooming tendencies.

All photos courtesy of www.perennials.com.

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By Miles Hunter, August 8, 2011

August 8th, 2011

Enjoy the summer blooms of Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’

Crocosmia are one of the best summer flowering perennials to have in your garden. They produce clumps of sword-shaped leaves. These leaves are topped with tall, arching spikes of tubular funnel-shaped blossoms in mid to late summer. There are several named varieties are now available, in a range of hot colours. The most popular variety is the ‘Lucifer’. Lucifer has brilliant flame-red flowers, and a tall habit. They attract butterflies and hummingbirds and make an outstanding cut flower in a bouquet. Every garden should have at least one variety of Crocosmia in it and Lucifer is by far the most popular variety.