Inside a nature-forward Indianola home.
Debbie Teashon
A garden writer, author, garden speaker, and award-winning photographer, Debbie Teashon's career spans many decades. Her speaking engagements include the Northwest Flower & Garden Festival, Tacoma Home & Garden Show, and at garden clubs across the Northwest. She's been a guest on Garden Time television show in Oregon, and radio programs such as Gardening with Ciscoe on 97.3 FM KIRO radio, and Poppy Tucker's Louisiana Eats on NPR. Online since 1998, Teashon's web site Rainy Side Gardeners (rainyside.com) focuses on regional gardening west of the Cascades. Her articles and photographs appear in local, national, and international magazines, and newspapers. Gardening most of her adult life, she is always on the hunt for new varieties of plant material, or creating new container designs using beautiful pottery or repurposed items.
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West Sound Nurseries
Spring is here, which means it’s time to go on a journey around West Sound exploring our unique and wonderful garden nurseries — time to find the spring bloomers that lift the late-season garden. Let me take you on a hop-and-shop journey into the nursery wilds of greenhouses and plant jungles around the area. The […]
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Hellebores — Winter Garden Jewels
Brr, it’s cold outside. Take heart — the days are becoming longer and the winter flower phenomenon is hellebore season, brought to you by the genus Helleborus. Commonly called hellebores, Oriental hellebores, Lenten rose or Christmas rose, whatever you call them, they put on their best finery — fancy flowers and evergreen foliage during […]
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Notable Native Ferns
Ferns are some of the earliest forms of plant life found on the planet. Fossil records date back to about 500 million years. About 300 million years ago, ferns dominated swamp forests, where they became the coal deposits that we mine for energy today. Even the family they are classified under — Pteridophytes — sounds […]
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The Botanical Wonders of the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium
On the other side of the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium entry gates, you step into another world of exotic plants and animals. Or should it be said you step into many parts of the world in one location? For people who love plants, the place is mostly about the gardens. Inside a botanical wonderland, […]
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Salvias — Sage Beauty in the Garden
For those who want an abundance of bloom for the summer-to-fall season but prefer not to plant annuals every year, perennial salvias are a Northwest garden’s friend. Not that long ago, except for the bedding plant salvia splendens and the culinary S. officinalis, it was hard to find many cultivated salvias for ornamental use. That’s […]
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Allium’s Ornamental Stars
Nature did not create all flowers equal when it came to fragrance. When you view a flower, you instinctively want to bury your nose in it to get a whiff of its scent. Alliums will give you that, just not the sweet aroma you hope for when you do a sniff test. Ornamental alliums may […]
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The Wonderful World of Garden Books
The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition Author Peter Wohlleben “As a rule, friendships that extend to looking after stumps can be established only in undisturbed forests.” Trees equipped with warning systems? Forests with a vast communication network underground? Is there a couple-centuries-old stump being kept alive with the help from surrounding trees? If […]
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Rhododendrons, Here We Come
The new year is an exciting time for Northwest rhododendron fans — it marks the beginning of the flowering season for these popular, well-loved shrubs. Even non-gardeners can recognize rhododendrons. What comes to mind when thinking about a rhododendron? For many people, it’s a large truss comprised of many blossoms. The evergreen leaves will be […]