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Gardening

Flower Pots

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Flower pots are a big commitment for someone like me. Throw them together in April or May, and then my neighbors and I have to look at them until September or October.  That’s a long time…and that’s slightly terrifying to a person like me. What if they’re ugly? What if I hate how they turn out? Ugh. My solution used to be to opt out and make my poor, tired husband do it. I kinda did that…for years. I water, dead-head, and make sure they don’t die, but for a long time I just couldn’t handle the pressure of creating something that needed to be beautiful.

Well, I finally got brave a few years back, and now I plant the flowers!  This is a big deal.  I usually stick to the same basic flowers every year, but I always try something new that I haven’t seen before.  Like I said, brave!

So this is one of those things that I show ONLY to illustrate that I am still learning how to garden (and manage my time with 4 busy kids).  Since our last baby came in the Fall, all I had the time/energy/mental capacity to do was stick my pots in the garage.  They had been sitting under a honey locust tree, so they were full of leaves.  Not so beautiful.  {The upside down bottles are my plant nannies.  I love them!  You attach the long plastic cap to an old water bottle, fill it with water, and then stick it in the terra cotta spike (which you sink into the soil in your pot).  The terra cotta (which stays moist from the bottle of water) keeps the soil moist, which keeps my plants a lot prettier on hot summer days.  Moist soil also absorbs water better than dry soil, so it’s easier to water them.}

This is what the terra cotta looks like

This is my house plant nanny.  Just push the terra cotta down into the soil, and you’re in business!

Back to flower pots…this is what I went home with to make my porch more beautiful!  I also ended up with some veggies for my garden.  I couldn’t resist!

I always like to do a pot with orange and blue flowers.  Probably my favorite flower combination.  Ever.

And then I did a pink pot for Princess Sassy Pants because she helped me pick out flowers and pink is her favorite color!

I tried a yellow and white combo this year.

Osteospermum is probably my all-time favorite flower to put in my pots!!

So here are my before and afters!  This doesn’t look like a big deal, but I’m excessively proud of myself.  Just like every year.  And if you knock on my door, I will probably make you tell me how lovely my pots are.  It’s amazing how much they really do add to a space.  I’m not cutesie and with-it enough to put out fun decor for every holiday, so my porch looks kind of bleak and barren in the winter.  I love Spring!



Spring Flowers, and another GIVEAWAY!!

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I’m getting ready to show off my pots that I put together last week!  Flower pots used to be one of those things that I hated doing because I didn’t want to mess up and have ugly pots on my porch all summer.  And since my wonderful husband sees beautifully arranged pots all day at work, why not just let him bring home whatever looks good?  And plant them.  And make sure I have beautifully arranged pots on my porch all summer.  Okay, so maybe that’s what we did for a few years, but about 4 years ago I finally decided to be a big girl.  And now I plant my own pots.  I even pick out the flowers!  Which mostly consists of the same flowers Hubby used to bring home, but hey, it works so I’m sticking with it!

So while I was at Western Gardens picking out my flowers, I kept ogling the hanging baskets.  All the gorgeous flowers flowing over the sides, the vibrant colors…it made me want one.  A lot.  So I batted my eyes at the store manager, and now I get to GIVE ONE AWAY!!!  I’m so excited about this, you’d think I was getting a hanging basket!

And if you’re not keeping track, Mother’s Day is on Sunday.  Just sayin’.

Here’s how to enter:

1) Leave a comment with your favorite flowers to plant in your pots or yard.

2) “Like” Western Garden Center on Facebook, then leave a comment HERE saying you did.  Or if you already “Like” us, then leave a comment saying so.

3) Share this giveaway on Facebook with a link to this blog post, then leave a comment HERE saying you did.

Each comment is worth one entry (so you get up to three!!), and the winner will be randomly chosen.  This would be a perfect Mother’s Day gift, or an awesome prize to just keep for yourself!  Which is probably what I would do.

Giveaway closes Thursday at midnight, winner will be announced Friday!!

Get the Kids Involved!

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We asked for ideas to involve kids in the garden, and had such a great list of thing to do that we had to share!  I’ll definitely be using some of these to get my kids excited about gardening.  Thanks to everyone who contributed!!

  • kids in the gardenBecky–I pay my kids a penny per rock to get all the little rocks that creep into our garden from our neighbors yard.  Sometimes I pay them a penny per dandelion head too!
  • Laurie–When my kids were little I paid them a penny per snail—solved our garden snail problem in a hurry!
  • Jami–We have a million pine cones in our yard, so I give each kid a grocery bag and tell them to see how many they get. The winner gets a treat…the winner always gets 3 treats so they can share with their brother and sister!!
  • Solducky–Going on bug hunts! A good chance to teach the difference between good bugs and pests in the garden too. And then I can squish the squash beetles or other pests.
  • Renee G–I used to have my boys make veggie pictures and then we stapled them to wooden popsicle sticks to label the rows in our garden.
  • Ruthann H–My four year old helps me by pointing out all the “nasty” weeds (goat head thorns) he also points out all the poop in the yard. Such a helper!!
  • Sarah B–I got a set of child-sized garden tools for my 4 year old and gave her her own little patch to work in. She chooses what to plant and gets to learn the ins & outs by working her “garden!”
  • Jenette–I let the kids pick what kind of garden they want to plant. My daughter did a pizza garden and my son did a ratatoulli garden. They each have their own grow box and take care of their garden from seed to harvest and preparation. They have so much fun doing it! They are very possesive of their gardens and make sure the weeds stay out and the plants get the water they need. Great way to teach responsibility and a self-sufficiency skill!
  • Kammi B–We give our kids plants and seeds as gifts, like at Easter time or for birthdays. They sometimes will get a little hand shovel or gloves to go with them. Each year they get a spot to plant their own garden items. Sometimes their spot requires a little bit of weeding so we make that a family activity. I have to remind them to water their plants every once in a while, but it’s so rewarding for them to see that they grew something all by themselves. Even more rewarding when they can eat what they grew! Also, in the summertime we have fun making an “only from our garden” dinner. We eat only what we pick from the garden. Gets us to go out and pick our veggies and fruit, and plan a meal together. My kids are much more interested in what we plant, and how we take care of our garden now.
  • Jane C--I remember as a kid getting paid at an aunt’s house a penny a weed. But my favorite thing was picking raspberries! It is always fun to know you are helping to grow something you can eat later!
  • Melissa–We have weeds that grow from bulbs in our garden. In order to get my little brother to dig out the bulbs as well as the plants, we have hidden arrowheads and other fun things in the dirt by the plants.
  • Paula–We got our kids interested in gardening by letting them pick seeds and plant them on the condition that they had to help water and weed. And they were excited to see their results. My daughter started by helping with planting a watermelon, she was 4 at the time.
  • Deanne–Our favorite Primary teacher Lani gave her little 3 year old class a lesson on water and what a gift it is from Heavenly Father. She gave the kids each their own watering can, I can’t tell you how many times our little grand-daughter is bringing it to me to help me water outside. When my girls were little each had their own row in the veggie garden, some wanted to plant veggies, but one liked flowers the best so she planted those. We would go on snail hunts and stick them in a big ziplock and leave in the sun to cook. The kids got a kick out of that.  They foam up, sick I know, but kids like that kind of stuff. Two out of the three are great gardners in their own homes now.
  • Katie–I have my boys see if they can get up to 100 weeds…we have a very weedy patch of gravel. The 7 year old easily made it and then decided he wanted to go to 1000! He got up to 475 in one day. My friend asked what they get for doing this. I said, “Um, the satisfaction of pulling 100 or 1000 weeds.” No prizes necessary, but I might copy the penny per rock idea for rocks that make their way out of a pathway into the lawn.
  • Tobi S--I worked in the front yard weeding, but this time I had my three little granddaughters help me. They picked up about 100 pinecones and made a bundle of money. After that, they got right into the dirt with me. I gave them a spade or fork and boy did they have a ball kicking up the dirt. At one point, Bella started to collect Rolly Pollys. A little later I asked her where the Rolly Pollys were and she opens her little sweaty hand and had about 20 poor little guys in her palm. I had her put them back into the dirt. I worked in the yard for over 2 hours and they never left me, sweet little darlings.
  • Eric F–While we were out working in the yard the other day our sweet 2 year old decided to make a beautiful bouquet of pretty yellow dandelion flowers. She is not quite old enough to really understand what is a weed and a planted flower so we are happy to let her wander around the yard gathering her “beautiful” dandelions while we do the dirty work.
  • Melissa W–Heres an idea: Give the kids a bucket or bag, whatever is easy to hold, and whoever can collect the most unwanted garden/yard items in 10 minutes gets a prize :)
  • Jeremy–Make a game of “HORSE” out of it, like the basket ball game. 1st kid does something, say like pick 10 weeds in 30 seconds. Kids after have to do that. If they don’t complete the task in the set amount of time, they earn a letter, and so on…..
  • Tisha–We split our family up and see who can fill their buckets full of weeks first. My girls LOVED that. I think they loved that we got rained on too. They keep asking to do it again and we shall, the weeds in my parking strip are fierce.
  • Megan–I have always thought that involving kids in the whole growing process is neat. Start by giving them a choice of plant/flower/veggie, etc. they want to plant, then that can be “their” plant to take care of, weed, water (with guidance), and see how it grows and develops. It gives the child purpose and responsibility.

Kids in the Garden…and a GIVEAWAY!!!

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We have a major problem in our garden.  Besides the weeds and general early spring disorganization.  Rocks!  They push through from the other side of the fence, and I kind of hate seeing them all over my garden.  The fence is old and rickety, so the rocks don’t have much trouble sneaking through and making their way into our garden.  This year I decided to do something about it!  I’m paying my kids to pick them up and return them to their home.    When I was a kid my mom told me about when she was a kid…her dad would pay her a penny for every dandelion flower she picked.  Good idea, right?  Grandpa was a smart guy.  I adjusted for inflation (completely nonscientifically), and told them I’d pay them 5 cents for every rock they picked up and took back.  After seeing how many rocks they were collecting in pretty much no time, I retracted my offer and told them I’d pay them 2 cents for every rock.  They were still excited to be earning money (actually, a lot of money), so I didn’t feel bad about going cheap!  I paid $12.90 for today’s load of rocks.  Tomorrow we might go down to 1 cent…

So many rocks! Almost as many as the weeds. Almost.

They come from underneath...

They spill through the broken slat...

They push through!

He was a super star, he collected tons!  And earned a lot more money than I expected.

Even Little Princess got excited about it!  I’m still not sure she even understood that she was earning money, but she collected 135 rocks.

He totally cleaned up!  That would be 18 piles of 20 rocks each.

All rock collecting immediately stopped when they found a potato bug.  Which is trying not to get smashed in between his little fingers.

And look! A potato plant is poking through!! One of the potatoes we missed last year…kind of makes me happy we didn’t get them all.

And now for the GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!

Super Easy!  Just leave a comment with your idea of how to involve kids in yard work or in the garden.

What have you tried?  What have you heard about?  What do you want to try?

The winner will receive a Western Gardens gift certificate for $30!

For additional entries, post a link to this giveaway on Facebook, then leave a comment telling me that you did.

Or blog about this giveaway and link back to this blog, then leave me a comment saying that you did.

Winner will be randomly chosen…the more comments you leave, the better your chances!

Giveaway closes on Wednesday, April 25th at midnight.

Potatoes!

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This is why I didn’t plant potatoes last week.  That would be snow on my flowering pear blossoms!  Luckily this is Utah, and Spring snow doesn’t usually last very long (unless you remember two years ago when it snowed until the end of May…we still shudder at the memory).  So I finally got around to planting my potatoes, and it makes me really happy!  Potatoes are one of our favorite things to grow in our garden.

Potatoes are easy to grow, you just have to know a couple of things.  Start with “seed potatoes” which are potatoes grown specifically for planting.  Don’t plant potatoes you buy from the grocery store, they can carry disease and are usually treated with a chemical to inhibit sprouting.  If I’m going to go to all the trouble of planting, watering, weeding, and caring about my little potato plants, I’m not going to plant something that might be diseased or might now grow well!  I just don’t have time or energy for that.  The potatoes we’re growing this year are Red Pontiacs and Cal Whites.  We’ve also grown All Blues (which are really yummy and expensive to buy from the grocery store) and delicious Yukon Golds.

Regular seed potatoes are 79 cents per pound at Western Gardens.  Fingerlings are $2.49 per pound.

The next step in potato planting is to cut the seed potatoes into pieces.  Cut them about 1 1/2 inches thick, and make sure each piece has at least two “eyes” which should be just beginning to sprout.  Then they need to heal for a couple of days in a cool area (about 55 degrees) with good ventilation.

Prepare your garden beds.  Or in my case, clear out the weeds from last year.  And the ones from this year.  My favorite part about weeding the beds the other day was how enthusiastic my boys (ages 7 & 4) were about it!  One of them made up a song about killing weeds, and they were entertained for at least an hour.  Who knew it could be that easy?!  When my 7 year old came home from school yesterday, he didn’t ask to play basketball, he asked to dig weeds!  So I let him.  It was glorious.

Next you need to amend your soil.  It’s easy.  All I did was call my husband, ask him to bring home some compost, watch him put the compost where I wanted it, and then watch him mix it in with the soil.  See, nothing to it!  We love Bumper Crop compost, once you try it you’ll never use anything else!  Western Gardens carries it for $11.99 per bag, but if you buy 3 you get 1 free!

Once your soil is ready, dig a shallow trench and place your potatoes about a foot apart.  Cover them with 4-6 inches of soil and give them some water.  Potatoes like full sun, but they’ll tolerate a little bit of shade.  Then just wait for them to grow!  Once the plants get about a foot high, I’ll show you what to do with them next so you don’t get any green tubers!

When you cut your seed potatoes, be sure to get two eyes on each piece.  If your potato is the size of a golf ball of smaller, it doesn’t need to be cut.

This is what they looked like right after I cut them.

This is what my potatoes looked like two days after I cut them.

The sprouts look kind of cool!

When we were preparing our planting beds, we found a couple of potatoes that we missed last year.  One didn’t survive my 4 year old helper, but I stuck the other one back in the ground!

Bumper Crop is awesome stuff!

Two things that make me happy in April: Planting potatoes, obviously, and the fact that we had a few days of flip flop and shorts weather!

Stick your potatoes in your trench in about a foot apart.  {The dirt on the right was mixed with the compost, we hadn’t mixed the dirt on the left yet}

Cover them up, water them, and then (if you have automatic sprinklers), just ignore them for a while!  It will take about 100 days until they’re ready to harvest.  But it’s worth the wait.  Promise.

This was quite possibly my favorite part of planting potatoes!  Watching a 4 year old boy discover his first worm of the year.  Perfect.

Quick Gardening Tips

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Three of the simplest things you can do for success in your garden this year are: mulching, weeding, and keeping the pests out.  Here are a few hints to help you this Spring.

Mulching: To keep down weeds, conserve moisture, and keep fruit crops clean.  Use a six inch layer of straw or other organic material (shredded leaves, grass clippings, etc.) between rows of vegetables.  You can also lay strips of black plastic between plants.

Weeding: Hoe between crops regularly to control weeds and give your vegetables the best chance for success.  Weeds take nutrients from the soil (and thus away from your veggies), and weed roots can crowd out, or even become entangled with your veggie roots.

Pests: A 2 foot chicken wire fence will keep out most four-legged pests, but watch closely for insect pests.  If you do have a problem with pests, no matter how many legs, stop by one of our locations for advice from one of our garden experts.

What is YOUR favorite gardening tip?

Stuff to do with Zucchini

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Add this to the list of things to do with Zucchini besides leaving it on neighbor’s doors steps in the middle of the night.  This is a new recipe that I tried this year and enjoyed.  It helps me get over the winter blues to think about planting the garden, but more to the point thinking about the food that I can eat that comes out of my garden!

Oven “Fried” Zucchini
1 large zucchini
1 egg
1 Tbsp milk
1-1/2 cups potato flakes
2 T butter (1T softened, 1 T melted)
seasoning salt
cayenne pepper
Cover a baking sheet with foil and smear with softened butter.  Slice zucchini into 1/2 inch rounds.  Combine egg and milk in a shallow bowl.  Put potato flakes in a separate shallow bowl.  Dip zucchini slices in egg/milk mixture, then coat with potato flakes.  Place on baking sheet, sprinkle with seasoning salt and lightly with cayenne pepper.  Drizzle with melted butter.  Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes, or until coating is golden brown.  Serve hot.

Garden Salsa

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10-14 roma tomatoes, diced
2 anaheim peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 garden salsa pepper
1/2-1 onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/4 c lemon or lime juice
2 Tbsp brown sugar
salt to taste
1/4 t cumin

Dice tomatoes to preferred size.  Put peppers, onion, garlic, and cilantro in food processor and pulse until all ingredients are desired size.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, let flavors mingle for a few hours before serving.  Keep refrigerated.

Six Steps to Mowing the Perfect Lawn

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It might look good immediately after mowing, but it could be killing your lawn.

Before the invention of the mower, bluegrass (the prevalent turf in the Salt Lake Valley) grew long blades full of chlorophyll which captured the energy of the sun and provided energy to the grass.  Mowing the lawn too short reduces the amount of chlorophyll exposed to the sun, increases the amount of water needed for the lawn because of evaporation from un-shaded soil, and generally stresses the plant.  Cutting the lawn too short isn’t healthy for the plants and will look worse in the long run.

Here are six steps to help you keep your lawn looking great all season long:

  1. Never cut more than 1/3 of the turfgrass blades off at any given mowing.  This reduces plant stress.
  2. Set the mower as high as you can bring yourself to do.  Mow no less often than usual.  This will develop into the uniform look you want, just at a higher level.
  3. The longer the turfgrass blades are above the ground, the longer the roots can develop below the surface.  This allows better water absorption and reduces potential water stress.
  4. Less stressed turfgrass can better resist damage from fungus and insects.
  5. Mowing your turfgrass shorter first thing in the spring to remove overwintered dead tissue is OK.  Raise the blade height over several cuttings to get to the preferred height.  Mowing the last time of the year at a lower level is a good step to remove tissues that would otherwise die anyway, reducing the potential for fungus damage.
  6. Apply water correctly.

Keeping your lawn a little longer will help keep it healthy, lush, and free of disease.  If you have questions, please feel free to stop by and visit any of our expert gardeners at Western Gardens—and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook.

I Love Raspberries

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There is almost nothing better than snagging a few delicious raspberries while strolling through my garden.  I grow red everbearing raspberries, (but there are a number of varieties that do very well here in Utah).  Everbearing produce two crops on the same canes, one in the fall of the first year, the second in the summer of the following year.

Our area is perfect for raspberries because they need a winter chill and a lingering springtime with slowly warming temperatures.  Which is why the famous Bear Lake Raspberries are so tasty.  However, you don’t have to live in Bear Lake Valley to grow delicious berries.  (Even in warmer zones, light shade and heavy mulch will keep the ground cooler.  Rich, slightly acidic soil around pH 6-6.5 is ideal.)

To get started, plant the bare-root stock in the spring.  Set red and yellow raspberries 2.5-3 feet apart, in rows spaced 6-10 feet apart.  Plant black and purple raspberries in slightly raised mounds 2-3 feet apart in rows 6-8 feet apart (they will develop into clumps of canes).  Mulch plantings to discourage weed growth and keep the soil moist.  Water is needed most during flowering and fruiting.  Fertilize at bloom time.

Red and yellow raspberries are produced on erect plants with long straight canes; they can grow as freestanding shrubs, but are tidier and easier to manage if trained on trellis or hedgerow (pairs of parallel wires strung 3 feet and 5 feet above the ground along either side of a row of plants).

Summer-bearing varieties should produce three to five canes in the first year.  Don’t be shy about pulling out any canes that grow more than a foot away from the trellis or row.  In early spring cut the canes back to 4-5 feet tall.  When growth resumes, new canes will appear all around the parent plant and between the rows.  After the original canes bear fruit, cut them to the ground.  Select the best 5-12 new canes and tie them to the support (they will bear next summer); cut the remaining canes to the ground.  Everbearing red and yellow varieties fruit in the first autumn on the top of a cane, then again in the second summer on the lower two-thirds of the cane.  Cut off the upper portion of the cane after the first harvest; cut out the cane entirely after the second harvest.

Black and purple berries are produced on clump-forming plants with arcing canes.  No support is needed.  In the first summer, force branching by heading back new canes to 2-2.5 feet.  In early spring, remove all the weak or broken canes.  Leave 6-8 canes in each hill and shorten the side branches to 8-12 inches.  The side branches will bear fruit in late summer.  After harvesting, cut to the ground all canes that have fruited and cut back all new canes as described for the first summer’s growth.

Keeping your raspberries free of disease and small pests is really quite easy, be sure to stop by Western Garden Center to talk to one of our skilled gardeners to learn more about keeping your plants strong and healthy.

Oh, and don’t forget to let us know when you’re harvesting your yummy raspberries, we’d love a taste!

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