For you Do It Yourselfers (aka DIYers), this is going to be fun!  If you’ve been to the annual garden shows, you’ve seen The Willow Station vendors selling their unique, handmade willow furniture.  And you may have noticed it is not inexpensive – which you would expect from a quality product made by hand.

We have arranged for Brian Phillips, from The Willow Station, to give a workshop here for those who would enjoy the process of building their own piece.  Just select from the six options below, and Brian will bring in all the materials you will need to build it in one day.  You are guaranteed to take home your finished product!

There is a $10 registration fee for this workshop: call us at 503-649-4568 or email at events@farmingtongardens.com.  There is a materials fee of $125, payable to The Willow Station at the time of the workshop.  Space will be limited for this class, so let us know if we can save you a space!

Items that would be useful to bring:

• sack lunch
• gloves
• clippers
• knee pads
• an adventurous spirit

Consider making a piece of furniture this summer – made from a renewable material which is environmentally friendly, practical, comfortable, durable, and stylish.  When properly cared for, willow furniture can last for years and grow more beautiful with the passing of time.

We have a sample bench on display in the store, so you can see the quality and size in person.  Pick up our informative workshop brochure while you are here.

 Remember that KPTV segment taped here recently?  Well, it aired yesterday and if you missed it, you can still catch it online: http://www.kptv.com/video/23281739/index.html.

Marinda shared lots of great information about why Japanese maples are perfect for just about any garden.  And with over 50 varieties to choose from, we can help you find one that’s just right for your garden.

Who says rugs have to be boring?  I love these new rugs we have in the store - fun designs, great color, incredible functionality.  These machine washable accent rugs are perfect for indoors or outdoors; they are fade resistant, quick drying, can be thrown in the washing machine and dryer with ease.  And to top it off, 35% of the fiber used is recycled post-consumer PET plastic, which you would NEVER know by how soft and comfy they are. 

News flash:  lots of new veggies arrived this morning.  This is a great week to plant out some transplants, with the cooler, wetter weather that has been forecast.  You should still protect the warm season crops – tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers, squashes.

This class is part of our May mid-week series – if you are free to join us Wednesday, May 19th at 11 am.  Beat the weekend crowds and learn how easy it is to grow blueberries.  This is a wonderful landscape shrub – it is interesting in every season, and gives you fruit as a bonus.  They are resistant to most pests and diseases, and so are quite low-maintenance.  Celina will share all her tips for growing these wonderful fruits.

This is a free class – please call us to register at 503-649-4568, or email us at events@farmingtongardens.com, and let us know how many will be attending.  Hope to see you here!

As you know, we grow dozens and dozens of varieties of gorgeous Japanese maples – they are some of our favorites!  You will find them here in several sizes, all the way up to beautiful specimen sizes.  We have never offered them as one-gallons until this year – you asked for it, and we are happy to bring them to you!  Look for the tiered wooden plant stands in the vicinity of the larger Japanese maples.

As you might imagine, we give lots of tender loving care to our plants, and our Japanese maples especially benefit from attention, especially at these smaller sizes.  Our advice for these one-gallon sizes is to be very vigilant with your watering.  They are used to daily watering here, and they will not be happy if allowed to dry out.  They will thrive best if planted out into the garden, or potted up into a larger pot, where they will more protected from drying out.

For those of you interested in creating your own bonsai, or just interested in the affordability of these smaller sizes, this is a great opportunity to start your own Japanese maple collection!

After the long, cold winter we experience, everyone is always eager to get some fresh color out in the garden, onto the patio and next to the front door.  Container gardens are the perfect solution to creating something fun, new and seasonal.  One of the things I especially like about container gardens is that you don’t have to make a long-term commitment to it as you do with your main garden.  You can experiment with colors and textures – you can be bolder and more outrageous than perhaps you’d want to be elsewhere.  You can try new plants introductions and new combinations. 

You have permission to push your creativity with a container garden!

Clare Argast will share her tips for creating abundant and colorful container gardens for spring.  She loves working with plant combinations, so this will be a great class!  This is part of our May mid-week class series – avoid the crowd during the busy season, and visit Farmington Gardens during the week.

This is a free class – please call and register:  503-649-4568, or email us at events@farmingtongardens.com, and tell us how many will be attending.

On AM Northwest, Channel 2, we demonstrated how to make a fantastic salsa garden in one of our large Mike Darcy high-fired containers.  This will look great in a sunny spot in your garden  – and best of all, you will have the fun of harvesting all the fresh, LOCAL ingredients for the best salsa you’ve ever tasted!  These plants are small now, but in two months’ time they will bearing fruit.

This is a fun project to do with your children; if they aren’t salsa lovers, come up with a theme just right for them:  a Jack and the Beanstalk garden – a circle of corn stalks with beans climbing up them; or a strawberry shortcake garden, full of great Oregon berries. 

You get the idea. 

To see our demonstration of the salsa garden, go to:  http://www.katu.com/amnw/segments/91709319.html.  Contents of the garden:

• 1 patio tomato
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 1 sweet red bell pepper
• several cilantro starts
• Walla Walla onion seedlings scattered around

Today is Earth Day – when we focus our attention on this beautiful place we call Home.  It is a fragile planet, as we are learning - a complex  blend of interconnected systems - and it is becoming more apparent all the time that man’s touch has been a damaging one.  I think most would agree that, over the years, humans have been rather selfish and near-sighted about how we use our natural resources, and that those practices are not sustainable over the long haul.

I don’t know about you, but I know I could do more to walk a little lighter and leave less of a mark.  Sure, I drive a hybrid car, and have replaced most of my light bulbs with compact fluorescents.  On this day, I want to step out of my complacency and challenge myself, and maybe you too, to kick it up a notch and do more.  There are lots more daily things that we all can be doing that can have a big impact ~ here’s a few to think about:

• Pay attention to water usage.  Water issues will become huge in the years to come, as our population increases.
• Combine your errands into one trip to save gas and time.
• Resolve to walk or ride your bike more.  This one is a two-fer: you reduce your carbon footprint AND your waistline.
• Eat locally produced food.  Better yet, grow some of your own – we can help you with this one!  Food transportation accounts for over a billion miles driven annually.
• Recycle.  Oregonians are pretty good about this one, but there’s always room for improvement.
• Reduce.  Use less.  Simple as that.
• Re-use.  Re-purpose old items into new ones with new uses.  This is where your creativity and whimsy can kick in.  Have you heard of Cracked Pots?  They are a group of  local artists who create new pieces using recycled and found objects.  A fantastic idea.
• Compost your yard debris. Reduce the waste you send to the landfill by turning it into black gold for your garden.  Metro has all the answers on how to do it (http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=553/level=2), or catch our soils and composting class here in June.
• Use ‘green’ cleaning products, which are less toxic to the environment.
• Garden as organically as possible.  The fewer chemicals you apply, either as fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide, the better for the planet.  Strive to create a balanced garden system that will naturally renew itself.  We are here to help you with that! 
• The above are all suggestions for things we can do at the micro level.  At the macro level, we all need to get involved more with our political process.  Let your elected representatives know how you feel about issues involving water, agriculture, food safety, natural resources, parks and recreation — the list is long.  Let them know you care, and they will have the political will to do what is right – for our grandchildren.

Happy Earth Day!

As you may remember, KPTV was here recently to tape a segment for their Better Portland program.  To watch this fun segment, and learn some tips for creating a dramatic container garden of your own, click here:  http://www.kptv.com/video/23211924/index.html

I’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating — raised beds give you the Cadillac of vegetable gardens.  Obviously, you can grow vegetables in the ground, or in containers, and they will do just fine.  But raised beds offer so many advantages:  the soil warms up and dries out faster than in the ground, enabling you to plant sooner.  When the autumn rains come, the garden likewise stays a little drier than it would in the ground, enabling your garden to thrive longer in the season.

The soil structure is usually better in a raised bed as well – because you are not walking on it, the soil doesn’t suffer from compaction.  This allows your plants to send roots down more deeply, enabling you to plant a little closer together than you would otherwise.

I am often asked about which material to use to construct a new raised bed.  I advise against using pressure treated wood or railroad ties, as they leach toxic chemicals into the soil and could compromise your crop.  We have built our new vegetable beds here at Farmington Gardens out of concrete building bricks, and they work great for that purpose – they are wide enough to also provide a place to sit while tending the garden.  If you want an economical alternative to cedar boards, you can use fir and treat them yourself with this non-toxic wood preservative.  I found this recipe last year, which is recommended by USDA to safely preserve wood for several years.  I used it myself on my new beds at home – I mixed up the recipe and painted it on fir boards prior to building the beds.  I must say I am a fan – they look great, the water beads up on them, so I have confidence they will last for a long time – the USDA claims they will last 20 years.  I’ll keep you posted on that one!

Nontoxic Preservative for Untreated Wood

•  1 ounce paraffin wax
• 3 cups exterior varnish or 1.5 cups boiled l inseed oil
• Enough solvent (mineral spirits, paint thinner, or turpentine at room temp) to make a total volume of 1 full gallon

In a double boiler, melt paraffin.  (Never heat paraffin over a direct flame!)  Away from the heat, vigorously stir the solvent, then slowly pour in the melted paraffin.  Add the varnish or linseed oil and continue to stir thoroughly.  Apply by dipping the untreated lumber into the mixture for 3 minutes, or by applying a heavy coat.  The wood can be painted when thoroughly dry, if you wish.

Some may think we’re a little crazy about tomatoes here at Farmington Gardens – we have our annual tomato festival in September, where you can sample dozens and dozens of varieties; plus we pride ourselves on the best selection of tomato plants in the metro area.  Last year was particularly crazy – we offered over 120 different types of tomatoes! 

So, in our continuing effort to help you grow the best tomatoes you’ve ever tasted, right from your own backyard - we will have Celina here to talk about her favorites and how she likes to grow them.  We’ll have a list of the tomato festival favorites to help you narrow your search for the best tasting tomato.  We’ll even share some of our favorite tomato festival recipes which we’ve collected over the years.

This class is part of our special May mid-week class series.  Avoid the weekend crowds and visit us during the week!  Moms with children are welcome – we especially love to help young families learn the joys of gardening together.

This is a free class, but we’d love for your to register.  Call us at 503-649-4568, or email events@farmingtongardens.