You may not know this (or maybe you do and don’t know the details), but we put out a monthly Farmington Gardens newsletter for our customers and local gardening community.  The Farmington Gardener is full of gardening tips, ideas, and information, along with details about upcoming events and new products.  The e-mailed version of our newsletter (sent out monthly to Garden Rewards members) also contains hard-to-come-by coupons that are both timely and valuable!  You can also view past editions of our newsletter in our newsletter archives.  Our archived newsletters are exactly the same as those that we e-mail out, but without the attached coupons or lists of specials.  The June edition can be accessed directly at this link.

By now you are hopefully intrigued and want to to find out how to sign up for our monthly mailings and the elusive coupons that they contain.  The answer is simple: we need your email address!  Sending out thousands upon thousands of printed newsletters is simply too cost prohibitive, so a few years back we went all digital and now our monthly newsletter is created in a user friendly PDF format, so that we can simply send our customers a link and let them download and read at their leisure without wasting a lot of paper and resources.  By doing this, we can produce our newsletter monthly (instead of quarterly or yearly) and focus more on useful and informative content than the mind-boggling task and expense of printing, addressing, and mailing hardcopies to everyone.

Our newsletters in our online archives are freely available to anyone and everyone that wants to peruse them, but you need to sign up to receive the emailed version which contains the coupons!  You can sign up in the store, or online at this link.  If you are a current customer and not receiving our mailings, please follow the signup link and resend us your information or contact our store at 503-649-4568 to make sure that we have your current address in our system.  We value the confidence you place in us by sharing your information, and we assure you that we will never share or sell your information to others.  We also know that most people (including ourselves) are sick of the constant stream of junk mail and constant advertisements that seems to clog up all of our mailboxes , so we make it a rule to limit our mailings to just our once-monthly newsletter.

I think I’ve said this before – touring private gardens is a really fun thing to do!  It is always interesting to me to see the way different gardeners use different materials and plant combinations – no two gardens are alike.

Another opportunity for this kind of an excursion is coming up next month:  The Washington County Master Gardener Association is hosting their 2009 Tour of Gardens, and I encourage you to take advantage of the chance to see some master gardener’s home gardens.  They are showcasing seven inspiring gardens with a focus on sustainable gardening practices for both ornamentals and edibles.

Free admission to this tour on Saturday, June 27th, 10 am to 4 pm, rain or shine.  Stop in here to pick up your tour guide.  For more information, call 503-821-1150.

On April 9th, I posted the USDA’s recipe for a DIY non-toxic wood preservative.  I wanted to follow up with the comment that I’ve now tried it myself at home, and found it to be very easy to mix together, and then to apply.  It cost me less than $17 for a gallon of the mix, and it covered probably 200 linear feet of 2×8 boards.  So it goes a long way, soaks in and dries quickly. 

To reinterate:  the mix I used was: mineral spirits, linseed oil, and melted paraffin (please refer to the original post for the complete recipe and directions).  There was some concern about melting the paraffin, so here is how I did it.  You only need to melt 1 ounce, so I put it in a clean tin can from my recycling bin, which I set into a pan of water on medium heat on my stove.  It melts very quickly, so don’t walk away from it.  When melted, I removed it from the heat, and added the linseed oil to the can of paraffin, swooshed it around to blend it, and then added it to a gallon sized container of mineral spirits.  Put the lid on tight and shake.  Done.

 Now we just have to wait 10-20 years to see how it holds up!

These are not your seasonal annuals that we all enjoy in hanging baskets.  Those have their place, to be sure – we love giving and receiving them on Mom’s Day, for example.   And they do provide a lot of color all summer long.  Maybe its just me, but sometimes ‘wintering over’ these hanging baskets can be tricky at the end of the season – sometimes I’m successful and sometimes I’m not.   But I must say, I find the hardy fuchsias to be easier to grow and no less dramatic.  They are easier, in my opinion, because they are grown in the ground, so they are less demanding of water.  They tolerate full sun, but will still bloom well in partial sun.   At the end of the season, you merely cut them down, and the following spring they will burst forth with new growth.   And the varieties of colors and shape of bloom are extraordinary!  Every garden should have at least one.  Fortunately, we have an excellent selection in the store this week!

One of the simple joys of gardening is enjoying the wildlife that a garden attracts.  If you would like to see even more butterflies this summer, then choose plants that they  love.  Generally, they like nectar from flowers that have a flat, disc shape on which they can land, but will also love all these:

• Achillea
• Agastache
• Asclepias
• Aster
• Boltonia
• Buddleia
• Calamintha
• Ceratostigma
• Coreopsis
• Dianthus
• Echinacea
• Eupatorium
• Globe Amaranth
• Lavandula
• Liatris
• Marigold
• Monarda
• Nepeta
• Oregano
• Penstemon
• Perovskia
• Phlox
• Rudbeckia
• Scabiosa
• Sedum
• Solidago
• Verbena
• Veronica

 There are principles designers use when creating plant combinations for containers, and their secret is:  these principles are simple enough that even a novice can make good use of them!  Perhaps you’ve heard of thrillers, fillers and spillers?  Every gardening magazine I read lately talks about this formula for success.

• Thrillers ~ These are the eye-catching, architectural element in a mixed collection that adds the drama and pizazz.  I’m talking about those spiky, upright plants – the dracaenas,  phormiums, sedges, blue fescue, Hakonechloa all-gold Japanese forest grass, Imperata ‘Japanese blood grass’, black mondo grass – this list goes on and on.  Lavender could provide that spiky look, in addition to great fragrance and color.  However, don’t limit yourself to grasses; anything dramatic and eye-catching will provide the Thrill.  A single melianthus would give a striking, impressive upper canopy to a container garden, as well as unusual gray-green color in jagged-edged leaves.   For those of you interested in incorporating edibles into your containers, think about a columnar apple tree or small olive, surrounded by lavender and herbs.  Other ideas to consider here:  cordyline, canna, upright junipers, bananas, corkscrew rush.
• Fillers ~ These provide the body of the container garden – the mounding, billowing plants around the central part of the collection.  In a 16″ pot, you would probably want to use three to five small 4″ plants.  Fillers can be anything that is relatively upright and mounding.  Plants that make good fillers:  begonias, plectranthus, cuphea, dusty miller, heliotrope, coleus, osteospermum, caladium, ornamental pepper, lantana, diamond frost euphorbia,  petunia, dahlia, Tagetes gem marigold, callibrachoa (also known as million bells), geranium, and zinnia.  Perennials such as heuchera, fern, and hosta can also make wonderful fillers, so be sure to explore outside the realm of annuals.
• Spillers ~ These delicate plants cascade over the edge of your pot, softening its edges and grounding your garden to the earth.   You could probably use two or three of these, to provide spillage around the perimeter.  Many of the perennial groundcovers work here – lamium, vinca, sedum Angelina, and creeping jenny.  And of course, there are lots of annuals that spill beautifully – nasturtiums, trailing petunias, ipomoea (potato vine), verbena, callibrachoa, and bacopa.  Other very effective spillers:  lotus vine, scaevola, helichrysum (licorice plant),  tradescantia, sweet alyssum, dichondra ‘silver falls’, trailing coleus, verbena,  portulaca, trailing lobelia, torenia, trailing fuchsia,  alternanthera, and creeping wire vine.

When making your plant selections, remember to group plants with similar dispositions.  If you plant a water-loving plant with one that is drought tolerant, you will have less success than if you select all drought tolerant plants for the same container.  Likewise, some plants prefer a shady corner rather than full blazing sun, so grouping like-minded varieties together will ensure your success.  That is one of the great things about container gardens, the ability to create these little microclimates of great plant collections, and placing them exactly where they will thrive. 

Once you know the conditions you are planting for (sun and moisture), you can begin the design process.  First to consider is color.  There are many ways to go here; some  love a monochromatic color scheme, with shades of one color.  Others prefer the energetic pizazz of using opposites on the color wheel:  blue and orange; red and green; yellow and purple.  Analagous color schemes use colors adjacent on the color wheel: reds and oranges; reds and purples; yellows and oranges.  Next to consider is texture.  Using a combination of fine-textured leaves, larger leaves, spiky, shiny, flat, fuzzy, serrated, smooth — the textural options are practically endless.  You wouldn’t want to use too many textures in one collection, but an assortment provides an interesting visual balance. 

A nice finishing touch for container gardens is to mulch the surface with something complementary to the design.  Rock, shredded bark,  moss – any of these hold in moisture and give an extra polish to your masterpiece.

Container gardens are easy to make and fun to create – let your imagination run wild!

This time of year makes me a little dizzy with choices.  I walk around the store, taking in the explosion of color, texture  and fragrance, and I get Plant Lust.  I would love to take home many of these plants, but of course there are space limitations.  After that dizziness though, I just feel gratitude for the mild climate we are blessed with, enabling us to grow such a diverse assortment of plant material.  We are so lucky.    Sometimes pondering about gardening tends me toward the philosophical - what a wonderful and mystical partnership with Mother Nature, trying to live lightly and in harmony.  It is a goal never fully achieved, but one we strive toward.

My morning stroll around the store this morning was invigorating and inspiring; we are still stocked with an excellent vegetable selection, with more arriving almost daily.  We have colorful hanging baskets, both for sun and shade, as well as familiar and new basket stuffers for those interested in creating their own.  A new shipment of perky gerbera daisies arrived just this morning,  and there are bright Amstel begonias that are spectacular.  And speaking of begonias – did you know there is a begonia that thrives in full sun?  Begonia Bonfire is here in hanging baskets, and are a brilliant red-orange.  It looks like all of the summer blooming perennials are in as well.  In the shade house, too many choices:  hardy fuchsias, heuchera, hydrangea, hosta ferns and much more.   The roses are fully leafed out and setting buds, and the dogwoods are still blooming their little hearts out.   The Japanese maples are fully leafed out now too, so it is a great time to see their colors and textures.   And finally, there is still a great assortment of fruit trees and berries and grapes. 

Isn’t this a great time of year?!

Thank you for all of the interest in our classes and workshops – we are off to a great start already this season!  Our new brochure outlining the summer and fall schedule is ready for you to pick up the next time you are here; or you are welcome to download it here.  We have a wide variety of topics which will be covered over the course of the next several months – everything from new plants;  flower arranging; creating children’s gardens;  succulents; eating seasonally from your garden; fall container gardens; green wall art, and much more.   They all sound interesting!

Most of these are free classes, however the workshops may have a small fee.  Since our classroom space is limited, we ask you to please call and register for these classes, so that we might anticipate the interest in the topic.  Occasionally we have had such an overwhelming interest in a given topic that we have scheduled a second session to accommodate everyone.

We hope you find something interesting in our class schedule – see you soon!

The Deciduous Azaleas are in the midst of a spectacular blooming season at the moment!  We got some really good pictures the other day of the different varieties we carry, and thought you might want to take a look.

The warmer weather has really accelerated plant growth and development, and we are well on our way to the late spring and summer blooming season.  We will now also be adding plants with interesting foliage to the “What’s Blooming” feature, as some plants have amazing seasonal foliage that deserves a closer look!

Probably not, given this gorgeous spring weather!  

I love love love adding blue to my garden — I think any color scheme is enhanced by the addition of blue.  Yellows and oranges look even more cheery, reds look richer, even the greens seem more verdant and lush.   We often get asked which flowers have blue blooms, so here is a list to get you started on your quest for a little more blue ~

• Hydrangea
• Perennial geranium
• Delphinium
• Brunnera
• Grape hyacinth
• Clematis
• Dwarf plumbago
• Bellflower
• Salvia
• Balloon flower
• Aster
• Morning glory
• Iris