The Greeks held high regard for basil (Ocimum basilicum), and named the herb Vasilikos (pronounced vah-see-lee-KOHS), which means king. In India, basil is favored as a sacred herb. Throughout the centuries, the plant was considered the herb of love, yet on the other hand, it represented hatred for your enemies. Superstitious assertions had witches using […]
horticulture
Posted inFeatured, Garden
Get The Dirt — On Home Gardening
Fall Harvesting September and October are a time for pause and reflection and also new beginnings. It’s a time to celebrate the bounty in our gardens and to harvest and preserve fruits, vegetables and herbs for later enjoyment. If you have extra produce, remember to take it to local food banks for others to enjoy. […]
Posted inFeatured, People & Places
Buck Lake Native Plant Garden — A Place to Learn Abundantly
In 2005, Hansville Master Gardeners Roland Malan, Susan Harrington and Sheri Kiley, along with landscape architects Mary Booth and Patrick Leuner, met with county parks staff and presented a plan to steward and beautify a very neglected, weed-infested, abandoned motocross dirt bike track into a native plant garden for all visitors to enjoy. The plan […]
Posted inBlog, Featured, Gardeners Corner
How to Plant a Perennial Fall Container
Containers packed with plants provide garden pizzazz. Even though this blog and video are about containers for fall to winter enjoyment, they are actually planted up in mid to late summer. Plants often live happily in containers for anywhere from five to seven years. The methods shown in this video can be applied to containers […]
Posted inFeatured, Garden
Summertime Roses
Midsummer Evaluation By now you have been enjoying your rose blooms and perennials so it’s time to take a critical look at how the garden has progressed. Did you arrange the placement of your plants so the plant heights are pleasing to your eye? Sometimes plant tags give general size dimensions that are not always […]
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It’s All About Community — Bay Hay and Feed
If you can’t find what you’re looking for at Bay Hay and Feed on Bainbridge Island, the chances are you don’t need it. And, after inquiring, if it’s not on hand, just ask — and it’s possible it will soon be carried in stock. In 1979, Howard Block and Ce-Ann Parker purchased a piece of […]
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Community Education Opportunities
Organic Gardening for Year-Round Harvests This is a hands-on class taught by Master Gardeners to help you create an organic backyard vegetable garden, with an emphasis on extending the growing season and food crops to harvest fall through early spring. Learn the principles of organic gardening with a focus on soils, composting, locally appropriate techniques […]
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New Plant Introductions
What keeps you interested in plants? Is it spring fever, compelling you to run to your favorite garden center and pick out whatever catches your eye in the moment? Or do you carefully lay out a plan, following your garden designer’s directions or hunting down plants you saw in a magazine? Do you love the […]
Posted inFeatured, Garden
Carpeting the Garden in Living Green
A favorite look in many gardens is flagstone surrounded by a carpet of ground covers. Providing interesting textures and colors, the shortest of the short such as creeping thyme, Corsican mint, Irish and Scotch moss, and others cover the soil as they crawl over and furnish a cohesive element in the garden. These plants provide […]