It’s summertime, and the weather is beautiful.  We are also expecting a bout of 90° weather this week, which means water, water, water!  At these high temperatures, water disappears from our soil quickly.  In fact, we can lose a quarter inch of water per day just to evaporation and plant sweat (transpiration) in the hotter parts of summer.  This doesn’t even take into account the amount of water that the soil and plants needs to metabolize and maintain healthy biological function.  Young plants and improperly located plants are especially prone to damage in the summer months as the temperature rises, so be diligent in your watering so that they can make it through and live to grow another season.

The main thing to do is to keep an eye on things through summer.  Automated sprinkler systems are good for keeping a regular watering schedule, but they cannot adjust themselves for high heat or suffering plants.  The only way to make sure that your plants are getting enough water is to go out and visually assess the situation.  If they are wilting or burning, then they most likely need more water.  On the hottest days, young plants can die in a matter of hours if the moisture runs out.

How much is enough you ask?  This depends on a lot of variables, but the sign of “enough” water is a garden full of healthy plants.  Your plants will determine what is enough, and you will need to provide accordingly.  This means that you may have to use a lot more water at times to keep things alive, and a one-schedule-fits-all-seasons watering schedule probably won’t cut it.  Many people use the 1″ a week rule for their watering needs, which is a good place to start, but is often not sufficient when it gets really warm.

So now that you’re all cringing at the thought of your upcoming water bill, there are some things that you can do to lessen the impact of summer irrigation.  The first thing to do is realize that our soil is very dense, and absorbs water at a hideously slow rate, especially when it is dry.  Clay soil may only be able to absorb 1/10″ of water over the course of an hour, and it absorbs water in horizontal layers before absorbing vertically.  This means that your water initially goes out and not down, soaking the soil over a large area but to a very shallow depth.  This also means that a lot of the excess water just runs off or evaporates before it has a chance to get into the soil.

Traditional watering practices (hose or sprinkler) are horribly inefficient in that they provide water at a rate far greater than the soil can absorb, making the top of the soil look wet momentarily, but really only watering superficially.  The best way to water in our area is with drip irrigation or soaker hoses, as they are far more water efficient and work better with our soil’s naturally slow infiltration rates.  In areas like lawns where these methods aren’t practical, replace your existing sprinkler heads with lower flow heads and run for longer periods of time.  This way you can still use the same amount (or less) of water, but provide it at a slower pace that the soil can handle.

Other things you can do to maximize your watering efficiency include mulching, soil amendment, and choosing more drought tolerant plants.  Mulch (bark, compost, etc) helps protect the soil moisture and moderate temperatures.  Amending your soil with organic material will greatly increase the water infiltration rate, and will make the soil moisture more accessible to your thirsty plants.  Choosing more drought tolerant plants means that you might not even have to water certain areas of the yard if you group them together.

The last, and one of the most asked questions we get right now, is why are lawns turning brown?  It’s the heat, plain and simple.  Our lawn grasses here are cool season types, which means that they are happiest below 65-70 degrees, and prefer the cooler spring and fall seasons.  When the temperature starts rising, they are ready to go dormant until it cools down again.  Despite many people’s assumptions, no amount of fertilizer will help this situation; it would be like feeding your Maple trees in fall to keep them from losing their foliage as it gets cold.  The only way to keep this from happening is to maintain a healthy lawn environment and keep watering consistently as soon as it starts getting warm in spring.  By the time you see the summer browning, there really isn’t much that you can do besides apply obscene amounts of water in hopes of getting a little bit of green back, which may not be really worth the trouble.  Don’t worry though, as soon as September rolls around and the weather cools, your lawn will magically spring back to life.  When this happens, you need to fertilize, aerate, de-thatch, and all of those other good maintenance practices that will strengthen your lawn and make it better prepared for next summer.

So do your plants a favor, and keep an eye on them during these warm months.  They’ll thank you by flourishing and growing beautifully for years to come!

We have been urging caution over the past few months when planting tender vegetables and annuals, as historically we can get frost and cold tomato-killing weather into May.  We also promised that we’d let you know when it was time to plant, and we would have a great selection when that time came…  So, without further delay…  It’s time to plant!

Our average last frost date is towards the end of April or Early May depending on where you live, and the “safe” first planting date is usually in mid-May.  Well, here we are nearing Mid-May, with no frost in sight, so it’s pretty safe to say that we are out of the woods now as far as frost goes**.  So, get out and plant up your vegetable gardens with warm weather loving tomatoes, peppers, corn, cucumbers, and beans and start your flowerbeds off on their path to summer glory with impatiens, petunias, and geraniums.  We are fully stocked with everything you need to make this year’s garden a huge success, and we are here to answer your questions and assist in any way we can!

**In Oregon, “out of the woods” is not always able to be guaranteed (some of us practically live in the woods), so keep an eye on the weather for the next few weeks, especially those who live at higher elevations or in outlying areas.  It is highly unlikely that we will get anywhere near freezing, but stranger things have happened around here (look at the past winter for reference).  If it looks like we are going to have that once-in-a-blue-moon cold snap, take measures to protect your tender plants, like covering or wrapping.

We’ve been having some pretty chilly nights still – and to top it off, I’ve heard that our spring will be unseasonably cooler than normal till June.  That is going to make growing any of the warm-season crops especially challenging this year.  Darn.  I’m talking about tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers, squashes, and eggplant.  Fortunately, all of these are good candidates for using our Gardeneer Season Starters.  These early season plant protectors are pyramid-shaped and water-filled — they surround the plant, absorbing heat from the sun during the day, and giving it off during the night.  Think of it as a blanket for your favorite veggies!  You are able to plant up to six weeks earlier with this protection, which also means you HARVEST weeks earlier too.   Take good care of them and they will last several seasons.  We have one on display here – come in and feel how much warmer it is inside!

The weather is warm… at least for today.  We are having some of the first nice weather of spring, and it’s great to see so many familiar faces and new acquaintances back at the nursery after the winter break!  With the nice spring weather though also comes a caution.  Notice how that word is red, in bold italics and underlined?  That’s because we desperately want to save you from major heartache and despair later in the season.  So here it is, here is our caution.

Despite the warmer weather, it will almost certainly get cold and rainy again here and there. We probably won’t see ice storms or snow (you never know in Oregon though), but frost is a very real threat until the first half of May.  We are getting many requests for tender summer vegetables like tomatoes and peppers, and also requests for summer annuals.  It is simply too early for these frost sensitive plants to be outside, and their chance of thriving or even surviving is very limited.  The soil is just too cold, and a hard frost will probably wipe these plants out with no chance of recovery.

We are currently carrying limited numbers of these plants for those who are really adventurous and like to gamble or have warm indoor spaces to grow them on for a few weeks.  For everyone else, please be patient for at least a few more weeks before setting your warm season annuals and vegetables outside in the garden unprotected.  We will still have a great selection (actually, we will have a better selection when it is appropriate to plant), and you won’t have to go through the heartache of losing your plants to a late season frost.  Besides, you really won’t be gaining anything from planting now.  Tomatoes won’t even think about growing until the soil warms up, and by the time it does you are better off putting in new plants that have just come from a warm greenhouse and are actively growing.

While it’s still too cold for the cold-sensitive annuals and vegetables outside, this is still a great time to plant trees, shrubs and perennials.  There are also many cool season garden crops that can be grown now, that won’t have trouble getting through a few colder days.  We understand the itch that gardeners all over the area are feeling right now (all of us here love to garden as well), but we’ve also been doing this for a long time, and have seen firsthand why patience is needed at this point in the season.  Don’t worry though;  before you know it, our gardens will once again be overflowing with bushels of fresh produce!