After a season of unusual cold and snow, it is a gardener’s joy to see spring shoots promising summer abundance. This year’s annual Gig Harbor Garden Tour offers a rich summer palette of color, natural foliage, manicured pathways and a natural forest. There is a garden for every type of gardener — novice to experienced […]
flowers
Posted inGarden
The Garden Conservancy Open Day Tours
It could be argued that in the Pacific Northwest, gardening-mania far surpasses baseball as the favorite sport. With the help of April showers, June gardens are primped, pruned and ready for ohs! and ahs! as garden tour season begins. Knowledgeable gardeners anticipate The Garden Conservancy Open Days, which grants unprecedented access to private gardens. Open […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
The Ultimate Guide to Water-Wise Gardening
The importance of making water-wise choices has become very apparent with the spread of climate change. It’s becoming more difficult to grow certain crops, maintain landscapes and enjoy various recreational activities as water availability wavers and heat threatens popular crop growing. Across the country, people continue to make garden choices that can help conserve water. […]
Posted inGarden
Small and Beautiful Gardens
I prefer smaller gardens because they can take your breath away as you walk through them. Victorian, shabby chic, perennial beds full of flowers, vignettes, pathways, a rose garden, concrete birdbaths, arbors covered with blooming vines and climbers and a charming porch for entertaining. Containers overflowing with trailing blossoms. Fragrance! Don’t forget the long-blooming mammoth […]
Posted inHome
Rejuvenating the Past
Joanne Peterson and her bernedoodle, Winne, stand in the welcoming front door of her Nantucket-style cottage: a simple, snug home with a shingled exterior built to withstand weather coming in off the inlet. Memories of quintessential waterside cottages flood in when stepping into her living room. Natural materials and an understated architecture with a classic […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
10 Tips for Successful Pollinator Plantings
The colorful posters with a collection of common herbs are a popular social media share. Save the bees, they say; plant these. I’ve been known to peek at those lists and note to myself — I could use a few more hyssop plants in my apiary — but that well-meaning call to action widely misses […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
How to Create a Therapeutic Garden at Home
Therapeutic gardens, typically seen at healthcare facilities, are “designed for use as a component of a treatment, rehabilitation or vocational program… to meet the needs of a specific user or population…to accommodate participant’s goals and to facilitate people-plant interactions, according to the American Horticultural Therapy Association.1 Also defined as enabling gardens, they are used by […]
Posted inGarden
Lisa’s Leaves — An Enchanting Destination
Sitting serenely at the top of a hill with a peek-a-boo view of Sinclair Inlet is the home and business of Lisa and Dave Connelly. Towering trees border the open spaces of the 8-acre property that showcases the picture-book home, orchard, garden, flower beds, greenhouses, trout pond and chicken coop. A journey up the winding […]
Posted inGarden
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 […]