I hosted a family dinner party the other evening, and since it was one of those hot, hot days, I planned a menu of cold salads.  I was fortunate to be able to harvest much of the menu from the garden:  a green bean salad with Julia Child’s vinaigrette dressing; a big tossed salad; cold grilled chicken; and pickled beets.  Many of my dinner guests that evening have very discerning palates, so it was interesting to me that the beets were the hit of the night.  I thought I’d pass along the recipe for those of you who love pickled veggies – it was easy to make and yummy.  Thank you to the Food Network’s website for the recipe!

Pickled Beets

• roasted beets, recipe follows
• 1 large red onion, frenched (not being sure just what ‘frenched’ meant, I cut onion in half, and sliced in long thin strips)
• 1 cup tarragon wine vinegar (I used a fruity pomegranate vinegar instead)
• 1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Remove the skin from the roasted beets and slice thinly.  Arrange in 1 quart jars or deep bowl alternating layers with the onion.  In a small pot boil the rest of the ingredients and pour over the beets.  Tightly lid the jars (or cover the bowl) and place in the refrigerator for 3-7 days before serving (I made mine in the morning, and served that night, and it was still awesome).

Roasted Beets:

• 6 medium beets, cleaned with 1 inch stem remaining
• 2 large shallots, peeled
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl toss all of the ingredients.  Place into a foil pouch and roast in the oven for 40 minutes.

Many people think their gardens peak in the spring, and then it is all downhill – what a mistake!  If you are finding your own garden lacking the color you would like to see in August, come take the stroll I just took here:  there is still so much color to be found!  When plants are in bloom is the perfect time to make a few additions for the late summer garden.  Here are some of the highlights I found on my walkabout today and believe me, there were dozens more.  We would be happy to help you find the right plant for the right place in your garden.

We have room for one more person at our make-your-own willow furniture class next Saturday, June 26th.  This all-day class will run 10 am – 4pm, at which point you will take home a finished piece of furniture you made yourself!   You can select from six projects: the garden bench (photo), garden chair, plant trough, trellis, fern stand, or end table.  See previous blog post for all the pictures.

Registration fee: $10

Materials and Instruction fee: $125, payable to The Willow Station on day of workshop.

As I said, there is only one spot left, so call to register if you want it!  This will be a fun class for the DIYer!

What a great way to start the day – on this beautiful morning, I just picked 20 pounds of gorgeous organically grown greens from our demo garden -

• 3 lbs lacinato kale
• 8 lbs red Russian kale
• 3 lbs cilantro
• 6 lbs Swiss chard

(I just picked the larger outer leaves, leaving the plant rooted and intact.  We will be able to harvest several more times before it will be time to pull out and replant. 

This harvest is heading over to the Sunshine Pantry today, so that local families can share the bounty.  If you too have a surplus of harvest in your garden, we invite you to bring your extras here Sundays and Wednesdays from 10:30 – noon.  We will have volunteers here to collect it and transport it to community agencies for distribution.  This is is our Plant a Row for the Hungry program – last year our generous donors brought in over 6000 pounds of produce – what a force for good in our community.

Today is our first drop-off day for Plant a Row, so stop on by with your extras this morning.  And if you are in need of more veggie starts, we can help with that too!

**Please note that the previously posted hours were incorrect.  We apologize for any inconvenience!**

To make it easier to drop by after work, and to get a jump start on weekend projects, we are expanding our hours as follows:

• Sunday through Thursday 9am to 6pm
• Friday 9am to 7 pm
• Saturday 8am to 7pm

Hope to see you here soon!

Itoh peonies are a cross between herbaceous and tree peonies – they die down to the ground in winter and have the beautiful foliage of tree peonies.  They produce exceptionally large and beautiful blooms, but the plant itself stays compact and smaller than the herbaceous types.  Now is the time to shop for one for your garden, because many of them are in bloom now, so you can confirm the colors!  Here are a couple we have in good supply:

As you make your purchases this spring, don’t overlook the surest way to give your plants the healthy start they deserve:  be sure to grab a box or bag of E.B. Stone Organics Sure Start, a starter fertilizer we recommend you apply at planting time.  It is a 100% natural, organic fertilizer blended with humic acid and beneficial soil microbes, including mycorrhizae.  These organisms enhance the absorption of nutrients as well as promoting drought resistance and the reduction of transplant shock.  Sure Start will provide long-lasting soil health and plant success. 

If you are going to invest your time, back muscles, and money on new plants for your yard, make sure they have the best possible chance for success!

Did you catch the recent study that finds that exposure to pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables may double a child’s risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?  This makes sense to me, because we’ve all seen the cases of ADHD jump to unheard of numbers in recent years, which coincides with the rise of agri-business practices.   We’ve wondered why – maybe now we have answers.  (The American Academy of Pediatrics Journal has the full report of this latest research.)

With food safety issues at the forefront in the news lately, common sense is telling us:  if we have a sunny place in our yard, we should be growing some of our own fruits and vegetables.  The new dwarf varieties of fruit trees take up minimal space, and can provide your family with tasty fruit.  And of course we all know that home-grown veggies are a great way to get your kids loving healthy foods!  So for the health and safety of your families, try growing some of your own.  Start small, but start.  We can help.

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

Our April Newsletter is now available in our newsletter archives!  Our April edition is full of gardening tips and advice, and has information on lots of upcoming events at Farmington Gardens.

For those of you that may not know, we publish a monthly newsletter, The Farmington Gardener, that is full of timely gardening tips, informational articles, store news and events, and absolutely awesome coupons!

Garden Rewards members who have given us their e-mail address (which we keep in the strictest confidence and never share or sell to anyone else) automatically receive our monthly newsletter.  The mailed version has coupons and sales information, but the archived version does not.  If you are a Garden Rewards member and are not getting our newsletter (and would like to), please let us know so that we can update your information.  If you aren’t a member and would like to sign up to receive the newsletter with coupons and sale information, signing up is easy!

 Grape vines are one of my favorite things in my backyard.  They offer fruit, shade, interesting textures, and fall color.  Think outside the box when it comes to how to grow one; you don’t need to grow them in long rows in fields like a vintner.  They do very well in any sunny location: outside a garage wall, climbing up an arbor over a deck or terrace, or creating a living fence line.  Just be aware that they are a vigorous vine and need sturdy support.

Folks can sometimes be intimidated with a plant that requires annual pruning.  I have found the pruning graphics in the Sunset Western Garden book to be all I need for success, so be sure to check that resource.

Here are the varieties that will do well in our area and that we currently have in stock:

• Catawba – a seeded red grape which is very sweet, crisp and juicy; great for eating fresh and makes a pretty pink wine
• Chardonnay – the french grape used in many superior white wines; very hardy and productive
• Concord – tough skinned, seeded, highly aromatic and flavorful; great for juicing
• Himrod – seedless,sweet, delicious, golden-yellow fruit in large clusters; great for juice or eating fresh
• Lakemont – largest, tightest clusters of any seedless; yellow-green fruit with excellent flavor; great fresh eating
• Niagra – large, amber, sweeet, juicy, strong flavor; AKA ‘white Concord’; makes a great arbor vine.
• Pinot Gris – great wine grape, grows great in Oregon
• Suffolk Red – firm, bright red with spicy sweet flavor; medium to large clusters of excellent quality
• Vanessa Seedless – loose clusters of deep red, oval, seedless berries
• White Riesling – aromatic, lively flavor; one of the hardiest white wine grapes for our region

Each year, we usually have a few fun birds’ nests we all enjoy watching here at Farmington Gardens.  This week we are being entertained by a hummingbird family!  Mind you, this nest is only a couple of inches wide – sorry I couldn’t get a shot with Mama there tending her brood, but that would be too much to hope for.

So keep your eyes open here – there’s more going on than just plants!