Tag: Winter
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President’s Day is Perfect for Pruning Roses & Blueberries
Willamette Valley, Zone 8b Roses and blueberries are almost ready to burst forth with new spring growth. To get them growing and producing beautiful blooms and berries they both require heavy pruning. To get you cutting with confidence, check out my pruning primer that has how-to steps, links to videos, and OSU Extension documents. The…
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The Perfect Time for Rose & Blueberry Pruning
Willamette Valley, Zone 8b Sunny and 60. Are there three more beautiful words after a long winter? Take advantage of the weather predicted for tomorrow and get your roses and blueberries ready for that first flush of new spring growth. Both plants are require heavy pruning right around President’s Day to ensure a season of…
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Let’s Help our Hummingbirds Through the Cold Snap
🌨After sorting through all the weather alerts and school closures this morning, I sipped my coffee and looked out at the bird feeders. Then my thoughts turned to strategies for helping my hummingbird friends. I made up a fresh batch of nectar, cleaned and replaced the feeders. This time, as suggested by my blogger friend…
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Pruning Season is Upon Us! My Pruning Primer will Get you Cutting with Confidence
Pruning Primer for Fruiting Trees, Shrubs, and Canes Today, I took advantage of the dry-ish weather to get cutting. First, I pruned back and shaped the table grapes. I saved some of the lower cuttings for propagating for a friend. The branches nearest to the ground generally have more natural rooting hormone present. Next up were…
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December Calendar of Garden Tasks and Opportunities
❄Welcome December💙 🍪🍵My favorite December garden activity is wandering around our garden, marveling at all of the life everywhere. The resilient little flowers, shining their faces up at me, the chard tall and proud, a random daikon radish that is now the size of a summer sausage, while hummingbirds zing back and forth from their…
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President’s Day is Perfect for Pruning Roses & Blueberries
Willamette Valley, Zone 8b Roses and blueberries are almost ready to burst forth with new spring growth. To get them growing and producing beautiful blooms and berries they both require heavy pruning. To get you cutting with confidence, check out my pruning primer that has how-to steps, links to videos, and OSU Extension documents. The…
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February Calendar to Get You Ready for Spring and Growing like a Pro!
Spring is…not just around the corner, according to our pal Punxsutawney Phil, we have another full six weeks of winter. Part of me is shaking my fist at winter, but the other part of me says, “More time to get things ready for spring.”🌱🌷💚
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Weekend Tip: Prune Your Trees, Shrubs, & Canes like a Pro
Willamette Valley, Zone 8b Perhaps you can work around the showers🌧, but if you prefer, stay in today with some ☕ and 📚 and get a plan in place for tomorrow. Sunday is looking dry and cold; perfect pruning weather. Skip to the pruning guide. What to Prune December through January February Need some confidence…
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Leverage January for Growing Season Opportunities
January is a month of renewal, dreams, and opportunity. Now that the winter solstice has past and 2023 has arrived, the growing season feels almost touchable. Scan the January Calendar for inspiration to get you ready for spring. 🌱🌷 I would love to hear your plans, dreams, and goals for 2023! Please comment below or…
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Front Yard Makeover — Native Plant Edition: 9 Steps to Planting a Tree
The focal point for our small front yard will be our Vine Maple (Acer circinatum). I wanted a small deciduous native tree; that way we get summer shade and winter light. Vine maples top out about 20 feet tall and about 15 feet wide. (Depending on what source you check.) They have pretty little red…
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Five Tips to Help Hungry Hummingbirds Survive Winter
Yesterday morning I brought out the hummingbird feeder and there was a little female Anna’s Hummingbird hovering near the ant-moat. She flew right up to me and hovered a few feet from my face. “Hungry?” I asked as I offered her the feeder. She went right to work, and even perched while I held it…
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7 Common Mistakes Planting Trees
I have to actively work to keep my backyard from becoming a forest. So when I intentionally plant a healthy young tree and it dies or fails to thrive, I tend to take it personally. Then I try to learn from it. Here are the mistakes I have made or seen first hand.
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Getting Ready for Winter
Wondering about some good ways to tuck your garden into bed for the winter? Check out my new soil health article Garden Winterization Techniques for best practices and tips.
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Super Simple Soil Testing Guide
A beautiful flower peeping from green leaves. A sweet carrot. A fragrant clove of garlic. This is where gardening begins for most of us. In learning about the plants we cultivate, we inevitably end up getting the real dirt. Then as our understanding grows, dirt becomes soil. Soil becomes sand, silt, and clay. Sand, silt,…
Second Breakfast Gardens 