Improve Your Home and Garden
Every year about this time, I begin to think over what I want to do to prepare my garden for the winter, and also what I want to plant next year. In fact, the fall is my favorite time in the garden because I get to spend most of my time thinking about what I [...]
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Fish Pond with water plants and decking Here are some tips for caring for your pond now that it’s summer… Be mindful of how and what you are feeding your fish. We’ve had a lot of customers with green water lately. Many of their problems can be traced to the type of food they’re using [...]
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Its late summer and your container garden is not looking very good. The summer heat has taken its toll and some of the plants have stopped flowering. You could pull all of the plants out and replant the entire flower pot or you can rejuvenate the container garden using only a few new plants and leaving [...]
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In this bumpy economy, many people have turned to home remodeling and improvements rather than moving. Combining the practicality of a greenhouse and the charm of a sunroom, home conservatories are becoming a popular choice for homeowners seeking to update and improve their living space. History of Conservatories Conservatories were born when northern European explorers [...]
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Throughout North America, many gardens are graced with wildlife including beautiful blue birds. In some regions they are very common and in others they are rare finds. Some like the Indigo Bunting or Eastern Bluebird, are vibrant blue while others are on the grey side of blue. In either case, these jewels brighten up any [...]
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If you spend a lot of time outdoors in your backyard and love the smell of a wood-burning fireplace, why not consider building your own brick fire pit? Fire pits are a great place to entertain family and friends and the cost of building your own fire pit is very reasonable. You can select just [...]
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Okay, I could have named this the top ten bird twitterers or tweeters or simply bird tweets. The possibilities were endless with this one. But with birding or bird watching being ranked as one of the top hobbies right behind gardening, I thought it would be interesting to find out how many people are tweeting [...]
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We could literally fill our website with the horror stories we’ve heard of local trade contractor let-downs. It’s a heart-breaking reality, but there are contractors out there who would shamelessly waste your hard earned dollars with shoddy workmanship. Instead, we’d rather share a hot tip on this great website with you! Originally posted 2010-08-02 08:00:31. [...]
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The largest sustainable lifestyle event in the Pacific Northwest returns for its fifth year to the Portland Expo Center. Find earth friendly products for you, your Northwest home & garden and your budget. From cutting edge solar technologies and eco-chic fashion to better energy efficiency for you home and sustainable outdoor living, if it’s green [...]
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Let’s Eat Edible Native Plants By Barbara Simonson Many people are becoming much more aware of the native plants that grow in their areas. But have you given any thought to the native plants that we can eat? Let’s sit down with a cup of tea made of dried wild strawberry leaves sweetened with honey [...]
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Container Gardening Combinations for Flower Pots I love container gardening but the usual plant combinations seen in magazines do not interest me and make for boring flower pots…in my opinion. Sure, they are colorful, but they lack that personalized touch for which I look. Maybe it’s that plant pots with annuals seem like a waste. Maybe it’s [...]
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Lawn To prevent grub damage in your lawn, apply insecticides containing halofenozide or imidacloprid. Or, wait until August to apply curative controls if there is a problem. Do not try to control crabgrass in your lawn after mid-July with post-emergence herbicide. It is often too large to control well. Live with it until it dies [...]
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Bluebirds across North America have declined at an alarming rate through the loss of their favorite winter food supply – the Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). Dan Hartmann, a horticulturist and nurseryman, who specializes in growing native North American plant species, explains that the principle cause of the Winterberry’s decline, and subsequently bluebird decline, is
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It was rather interesting to scan the garden catalogs last spring and notice the variety of plants that I think of as “out of the ordinary” plants. Of course, the unusual always attracts attention
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The Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) is a migratory songbird that will spend three of the four seasons of the year in our backyards. They winter in the southeastern United States, as well as Mexico and Central America. By definition, it has a gray body, a black top of the head and a brown patch under [...]
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Spring and Summer Gardening Tips The weather is improving and we’re all spending more time outdoors. Here are some helpful tips for your yard and garden for the late spring and summer months…
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Creating a garden that attracts birds is a relatively simple task. It consists of supplying them with three basic elements: food, cover, and water. Most homeowners start with, and sometimes end with, putting out a bird feeder with cheap bird seed. Then they wonder why only a few species of birds show up, why the [...]
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Gardeners in seaside locations encounter a unique set of challenges, including salty spray; drying winds; sandy soil that may lack nutrients; and (in Zones 5-6) cold winter weather. Salt can be damaging in a variety of ways. It stunts plant growth and can sear foliage. The damaging effects of salt cannot be neutralized with chemicals [...]
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