The Old Mill Days Americana festival will return for its 10th year to the picturesque town of Port Gamble on July 3-5. The weekend will offer a new entertaining lumberjack show, chainsaw carving competitions, ice sculptures, entertainment, live music, carnival rides, and food and craft vendors. A fireworks show on the 4th will feature the […]
outdoors
Posted inAround West Sound, Blog
A Real, Old Time Fourth of July in Kingston
For years on the Fourth of July, people have lined Main Street in Kingston with lawn chairs and blankets, and kids have waited with bags ready for the candy to rain down. Even the Kingston ferry pauses out of respect. People who want to be a part of it all pull this show together in […]
Posted inFeatured, Garden
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 inBlog, Community News
North Kitsap Private Gardens Open for Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program June 28
On Sunday, June 28, the Garden Conservancy’s nationwide Open Days Program features six private gardens open to the public for one day only in Indianola, Poulsbo and on Bainbridge Island. Admission to each garden is $7 and benefits the Garden Conservancy. Open Days take place rain or shine, and no reservations are required. Call (888) […]
Posted inBlog, Featured, The Outdoors
Watch for Eurasian Collared-Doves Around West Sound
Eurasian collared-doves are setting some kind of a record when it comes to colonizing North America. They aren’t native to this continent but their numbers stretch from coast to coast. This bird is a native of Europe and parts of Asia. After being introduced to this continent in recent years, their numbers exploded. They are […]
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 […]
Posted inFeatured, Garden
Old Roses, Companions And Pests
Many of the old garden roses (OGRs) we now grow in America came to us by way of Europe. During her brief tenure as Napoleon’s empress (1804-’09), Josephine of France collected more than 200 rose varieties, nearly all that were known in the Western world at that time. The gardens designed by Josephine at Malmaison […]
Posted inFeatured, Garden
All About the Mason Bee
Mason bees are wonderful pollinators that are native to most of North America. They have been doing a magnificent job of pollinating long before the colonists brought in the honeybees from overseas. The mason bee is not a hive-dwelling bee, therefore there is no queen. Simply, groups of males and females emerge in late winter […]
Posted inBlog, The Outdoors
The Health Benefits of Volunteering in the Great Outdoors
Spring is alive in the Puget Sound! Soft, green sprouts of infant saplings are pushing their way through the damp soil, and round buds wait to explode in a firework display of colorful blossoms and new leaves. A myriad of birds gather around the feeders we hang in our yards, and chipmunks and squirrels dash […]