Make every meal a special event by bringing the garden to the table. Serve your favorite dishes made from homegrown ingredients. Then allow guests to add their own herbal seasonings right from the garden or container. Start by growing the ingredients for your favorite recipes and beverages. Consider those, like tomatoes, that taste best fresh […]
plants
Posted inGarden
Ambergardens Provides Food for Body and Soul
Life’s journeys are unpredictable. People’s interests and talents steer them down a path that may seem pretty clear, but life will always offer up some crossroads and detours to spice things up. Laura Ambers Pittman-Hewitt started out on an artistic path, studying music and visual arts in college. The economic realities of the early ’80s […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
What West Sound Landowners Need to Know About Noxious Weeds
As a gardener and homeowner, I consider myself a steward of the environment, and with that comes the responsibility of choosing plants for my home landscape that are not invasive or noxious. Noxious weeds are non-native plants that were introduced in the State of Washington by individuals who planted them as ornamentals, and they now […]
Posted inGarden
Garden Capers
Some homes nestle quietly into their surroundings and appear as if they have been there for centuries. Tudor-style architecture is neither particularly rare nor common in the Northwest, and occasionally one stumbles upon a home that simply speaks to the heart. Such is the case with the stone-fronted, half-timber-style Fox Island home owned by Jerome […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
Why Does the Northwest Need Rain Gardens?
Here in the Pacific Northwest, we all love looking at the mountains and ocean, lakes and creeks, our huge evergreen trees and silvery sagebrush, and the vast fields and endless horizons stretching out both east and west of the mountains. That is why we live here, why we call the Northwest region home. Out here, […]
Posted inGarden
Winter Kitchen Gardens
“Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself?” ~ Henry David Thoreau Ever since people stopped wandering and put down roots, there has been a special place set aside from which they cultivated herbs, flowers, vegetables and fruit for the stuff of daily life. As our […]
Posted inGarden
Sustainable Rose Growing
Sustainable growing means different things to different people. In organic gardening and farming, a sustainable growing system minimizes what enters and leaves the system, using only what is sustainable to the environment. Beyond that, sustainability is a local concept. For example, collecting water in rain barrels is considered sustainable in Western Washington but not in […]
Posted inPeople & Places
Morrison Gravel — 70 Years of Success
In marking 70 years in business in 2016, Morrison Gravel is an example of a company that has evolved adroitly with the needs of Kitsap County. Through the years, it has diversified from a gravel pit to a full-service gardenscape supplier. The Morrison family moved to Port Orchard from Idaho in 1944. When World War […]
Posted inPeople & Places
The Belfair Community Trail System
The Belfair community might soon be recognized as one of the best places in the state to take a nature hike. A trail system currently runs through the Theler Wetlands on a 5-mile loop connecting the wetlands to the Belfair State Park, and now there is a new plan to extend the trail. It would […]