We love it when we can pass along a great deal to our customers!  We’ve got a new shipment of Black Gold All Purpose potting soil, regularly $11.99, which we are offering now for $8.99.

Black Gold All Purpose Potting Soil with Controlled Release Fertilizer is a multi-purpose, nutrient-rich mix that’s ideal for all plants, including house plants, patio containers, and hanging baskets.  It is also great for living wreaths and hypertufa planters.  Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss is blended with earthworm castings, forest humus, compost and pumice. Specially formulated to feed up to six months and provide both moisture retention and good drainage.

If you love container gardening, then you know how important it is to start with fresh potting soil – it makes all the difference.  Stock up now while the savings are here – your plants will thank you for such good soil to sink their roots into!

Thanksgiving is coming up in two weeks, which means that Farmington Gardens is about to undergo its yearly holiday transformation!  Besides our regular stock of quality plant material and gardening materials, we are also one of the nation’s largest producers of hand-made Christmas wreaths and garland.  We also carry a large selection of cut and living trees, as well as holiday gifts and decorations.  Starting next week, we will have our hand-made holiday products in stock, with cut trees and other decor coming later next week or the week after.

No time like the present for a little holiday inspiration!  Mary Ludlum will present ideas for easy projects with an earthy garden focus.  After Mary’s cool ideas, you will be itching to pull on your garden clogs, grab your clippers and your imagination and gather the ingredients for centerpieces, wreaths, and gifts.  You too can be the Martha Stewart of your family!

Class:  Great Ideas for Gifts from the Garden

Saturday, November 21,  11 am

This is a free class – call to register at 503-649-4568, or drop us an email at events@farmingtongardens.com.

The tomato season is drawing to a close, I’m sad to say.  But as I always try to look on the bright side, I want to point out that you might have a bonus crop of Green Tomatoes sitting out there.  You will certainly find plenty of advice on how to bring those in and have them ripen for you over the next couple of months, and many of those strategies work pretty well.  However, I would advise you not to sock away ALL of your green bounty, but save a little for tasty green tomato dishes.  Green tomatoes are a fruit all unto their own.  They are full of bright tangy citrus-y flavor, and should be enjoyed for what they are.  Just don’t try to compare them to your favorite ripe tomato; they are a different fruit. 

During our Tomato Festival this year Chef Dan Brophy, from the Oregon Culinary Institute, gave a class on Preserving the Harvest.  One of his recipes, Salsa Verde, was a knock-out.  He had made it with green tomatillos, but he said it also works great for green tomatoes.  I highly recommend you give this one a try!

Salsa Verde

Yield: 3-4 cups

2 lbs                       tomatillos, husked and soaked in warm water  or green tomatoes

1 large                   yellow onion, peeled and diced fine

4 large                   garlic cloves, peeled, smashed and minced

2-4                          jalapeno chilies or to taste

3 Tbsp                   salad oil, canola, soy or olive

½ cup                     lime juice

1 bunch                 cilantro, leaves removed from stem and chopped

2 tsp                       ground cumin

1 tsp                       dried oregano

1 tsp                       Kosher salt

1 tsp                       freshly ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients, except cilantro and spices in a large bowl or pan and mix together.  Place in a 400 degree oven and roast for 20-30 minutes.  Stir once or twice.  Mixture should be fragrant and showing signs of caramelization.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.   Process mixture in a blender or food processor, adding cilantro and remaining spices including salt and pepper.  Cover and chill. Sauce will keep under refrigeration for 3-5 days.

Navigating the multitude of plants and products that we carry can be a daunting task, which is why we bring you our weekly featured selections.  These are the best of the best for the week, and are front and center when you come to the nursery so you don’t have to hunt around for them!

Featured items for October 9th through October 15th:

‘Limelight’ Hydrangea – A new color on an old favorite.

‘Golden Spirit’ Cotinus (Smoke Tree) – A fantastic new variety with brilliant golden foliage!

‘Goldcrest’ Monterey Cypress – Soft foliage, fantastic smell, classic form.

‘Efanthia’ Euphorbia (Spurge) – Unbelievable fall and winter color, and very durable.

‘Wild Watermelon’ Salvia – Did we mention that the color is pretty wild?  A bit of brightness for upcoming cloudy days.

Northwest Best Fall and Winter Lawn Food – It’s got what lawns crave.  Enough said.

We’re planning a party to celebrate the wonderful generosity of all you donors for Plant a Row for the Hungry.  There are over forty of you who’ve given so graciously of your time and bounty this season.  (And 14 of you brought in over 100 pounds each!  That is amazing.)  To date, we’ve collectively harvested  5600 pounds of gorgeous, homegrown fruits and veggies, which we in turn have taken to the Sunshine Pantry in Beaverton.  The need has been greater than ever this year, and I am told the produce is much sought after, flying off their shelves.

For all of you who’ve schlepped in here so faithfully every Sunday with your boxes and bags of veggies and fruits, we invite you to a Harvest Celebration.  Come and meet Sharon Straus, the founder and director of Sunshine Pantry, who would like to thank you for your efforts.  She will share with you some of the work they are doing at the Pantry, and what the future holds for them.    Enjoy a glass of wine and hors d’oeuvres while meeting other gardeners.

What:             Harvest Celebration for all  Plant a Row for the Hungry  Donors

When:            Sunday, October 18, 2 pm

Where:           Farmington Gardens

RSVP:             by Oct. 14 – call Linda at 503-649-4568, or email events@farmingtongardens.com

Thank you, donors, for all your efforts this year!  We hope you can tear yourselves away from your gardens to attend this celebration, so we can thank you in person.

Well, Mike Darcy has decided he’d like to share the stage with another plant ‘expert’ this year – so he’s asked his good friend, Kym Pokorny, to join in on the fun.  As you no doubt know, Kym writes regularly for the Oregonian’s Home and Garden weekly, and for their new glossy magazine, Homes+Gardens Northwest, a great local resource for seasonal ideas.  It should be fun to see these two friends on a stage with microphones…you never know what might happen.  And the weather will be cool and lovely – no sticky humid evening this time!

Mike and Kym will be sharing some of their favorite plants with us tomorrow night – they will talk about why they like them, how they use them, etc.  Should be fun.  Afterwards, they will be available to shop around – sometimes its great to pick the brain of plant geeks (oops, I mean experts) —  they will send you  home with tons of ideas.

Tickets are still available for Saturday’s benefit for P.E.O. -  $25 presale (call 503-292-2144), or $30 at the door.  Doors open at 6 pm.  There will be Barefoot Wines, beer,  seasonal hors d’oeuvres, silent auction, free parting gifts….a perfect evening!  We hope you can join us!

There is nothing like the dog days of summer to make us all feel a little parched and dry.  At some point it becomes difficult if not impossible to keep the lawn green, despite our best efforts.  Our perennials bloom spectacularly, but in the heat they often don’t last as long as we’d like.  And sometimes we can feel a little stressed about making sure we water everything adequately, especially during these triple-digit days.  Okay, I believe global warming is for real!

Nothing is more soothing and inviting in the summer garden than a simple water feature.  And the great part is, they come in many variations:  

• ponds.  These can be an elegant design element in a garden, with plants and rocks tucked around the edges, and perhaps koi gliding just under the surface.  The reflection on the surface of a pond is especially restful, and seems to expand the space, as well as make it seem more intimate.
• bird baths.  These simple structures provide that same reflective quality but on a smaller scale, and have the added benefit of attracting  interesting birdlife to your garden.
• fountains.  The attraction here is the sound of falling water that can help mask street noises or neighbors.  The shimmer of moving water in a fountain is mesmerizing on a hot day.

So if you are feeling a little parched these days, perhaps you’re ready to add one of these water features to your garden.  Here are some cooling images – a picture’s worth a thousand words!

We had a great class here Sunday on do-it-yourself landscape design.  Ann Nickerson was here to repeat the class she gave last month on the same topic.  We had 50 heat-resistant folks turn out to glean every bit of information they could. 

For those of you who just don’t want to deal with designing your own garden, and would like some professional assistance designing and/or installing your landscaping, just a friendly reminder that Farmington Gardens offers those services.  Included in the fee is a discount on plants purchased for the plans.   Stop by and pick up an informational brochure, or speak with Ron Phillips about your design needs.  Ron has done some great landscapes and would love to work with you in creating the garden you’ve always wanted.

We apologize for any inconvenience that our website outages yesterday afternoon may have caused, and everything is back up and running today.  Our web hosting service had a major issue at their California data center yesterday, which has since been resolved and will hopefully not occur again.  If you found a page or file to be unreachable or missing yesterday, it should be back up today.  Again, we apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your patience!

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.

We’ve all heard of birth stones – precious gems signifying each month of the year, and which always make great gifts.  Fine Gardening has a list of birth flowers, which in our opinion is even better for gift giving!!  There is nothing better than a flowering perennial that blooms a-fresh every year, truly a gift that keeps on giving.  For all those upcoming birthdays or anniversaries, here is the calendar of flowers:

• January ~ Dianthus.  Common names include carnation, pinks, sweet William, divine flower.  Known as the flower of love, these are one of the oldest cultivated flower.  Carnations are great for cutting and are even edible when grown organically.
• February ~ Iris.  This includes the old-fashioned favorites, bearded iris, as well as Japanese or Siberian iris.  Iris are grown from rhizomes, much like bulbs; they clump and multiply beautifully, and create a tall vertical presence in the garden.  They also come in a wide variety of colors.
• March ~ Narcissus.  Common name is daffodil.  These are the perfect perennial, as they provide early color in the garden.  Planting bulbs in the fall is the most economical way to go, and also to get the  best selection of unusual varieties.  In the spring, potted and blooming plants are usually available for transplanting into the garden for instant color.
• April ~ Daisies.  This is a large category, including marguerites, painted daisies, and Shasta daisies.  These garden favorites make a great statement in a mixed bed, filling in gaps, and providing continuity between the bloom times of other plants.  Daisies have a long bloom time, and of course are great for cutting.
• May ~  Convallaria majalis.  Common name is Lily of the Valley.    These sweet-smelling, dainty, shade-loving plants are a true harbinger of spring, and are sold on the streets of France on May Day. They are poisonous, so choose their location carefully.
• June ~ Rose.  Roses have been the subject of art and literature for centuries, and are a definite favorite here in the City of Roses.  We are blessed with a climate which roses love, and with the wide variety of colors and growing habits (miniatures to hybrid teas to climbing beauties), there is a rose for every gardener.  With minimal care, roses will give you years of beautiful bouquets.
• July ~ Delphinium.  Common name is larkspur.  Delphiniums grow 3-4 feet tall, and are a definite must-have for the back of the border garden.  They create tall, blue towers of color.   Delphiniums are toxic, so site them with care; however, their dramatic effect is worth the effort.
• August ~ Gladiola.  Tall, spiky glads come in a wide variety of colors, and are wonderful for cutting.  They are easy to grow.
• September ~ Aster.  Star-shaped asters are beautiful in the late summer and fall garden, when other flowers are slowing down.  Butterflies love the open-faced aster – another good reason to include them in your garden design.
• October ~ Calendula.  Common name is pot marigold.  Calendula was named Herb of the Year in 2008 by the Herb Society of America.  It is an edible, medicinal herb that is a wonderful addition to an herb garden or your edible garden. 
• November ~ Chrysanthemum.  Grown as a landscape plant, these are great for the fall garden, having a much softer and more natural form that those grown for florists.  Mums are photoperiodic, meaning they bloom in response to shorter days and longer nights.
• December ~ Narcissus Paperwhite.  With a little planning, you can have blooming, fragrant flowers indoors in December.  Grow them in a container – easy!

The next time you need a gift for a loved one, don’t overlook the potential of their own birth flower!