Now’s the time to get started in your fall garden. While it’s viable to find starts at the local farmer’s market or the nearby hardware store, nothing is more rewarding than starting your entire garden from seed. What You Need for Seed-Starting Since there’s a little bit before your seeds absolutely need to be started, […]
Garden
Many interesting and delightful gardens abound in our area — how fun to glimpse into a gardener’s back yard (or even front yard). Enjoy gardens from Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, Bremerton, Central Kitsap, and the North end of Kitsap including Bainbridge Island. These articles are only a sample of what we have in West Sound Magazine each issue — subscribe to the print version today to see all of what we have to offer!
Posted inGardeners Corner
Plant Alliums This Fall to Add Variety and Beauty to Your Garden
Take your garden to new heights with alliums. This ornamental member of the onion family provides welcome color as spring bulbs fade and before summer perennials fill our gardens with colorful blooms. Most people have seen pictures of the giant allium but there are many other options of flower sizes and heights suitable for any […]
Posted inGarden
A Dazzling Duck and a Triumph for Conservation
As is typical with many things in life, when it comes to birds, people gravitate toward the ones with visual beauty. While birders are thrilled to see a drab-looking rarity, nonbirders get excited about birds that look the best. Not surprising, colorful birds are the ones that turn the most heads. The most visually stunning […]
Posted inGarden
Time for Edible Flowers
We’ve had a very chilly spring! I just can’t wait for my garden to start blooming. I’m thinking we are five to six weeks behind because we’ve had so little sunshine. I will pick beautiful bouquets, have garden tours, and host some very needed and deserved dinner parties on my welcoming front porch. I’ll continue […]
Posted inGarden
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, […]
Posted inGarden
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 […]
Posted inGardeners Corner
Plants with Intriguing Animal Names
“Now, Roy and Joy had often dozed, through their weekly class in botany; I’m afraid they were wrongly inclined to think that botany meant monotony. But the sight botanic they now beheld- would have awakened a sleeping possum! For every plant had an animal name and a living animal blossom!” ~ “The Animal Garden” by […]
Posted inGarden
A Garden of Floral Design Delights
The advantage of living on a golf course is in the “borrowed” backdrop for a garden’s landscape, along with beautiful, established trees to frame the vista. Toby and Tom Mason moved to McCormick Woods six years ago. Their location on the 4th hole offers a lovely long view across the green to a pond. Both […]
Posted inGarden
Aromatherapy Garden Borders
Borders usually run along a pathway, a wall, a hedge or a lawn edge. My favorite plants for borders are very fragrant, including evening-scented varieties. I love strolling pathways in the moonlight and smelling the gorgeous mood-settling aromas from wall flowers, stock, tobacco plants, primroses, lilacs, jasmine, roses, alliums, dianthus and datura. Lavender is always […]