Share my passion for all things gardening!
Mary Lee Gaston Here is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: ‘Lasagna gardening’ yields big harvest. Throughout the summer months, I enjoy meeting with local gardeners and writing profiles of them and their wonderful gardens. Today’s column is a profile of Mary Lee Gaston, who lives in northwest Spokane. She grows an amazing vegetable garden […]
Read moreHere is a link to the feature story I wrote in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Gardening goes undercover. It’s about garden season extension so you can grow salad greens and other veggie crops through the fall and winter. I have been so excited to write about this topic ever since conducting my own little experiment last year. I had […]
Read moreI thought you might be interested to hear how things went in our quest to grow cherries organically this year: We have four producing cherry trees at this time. Two sweet cherries (‘Bing’ and ‘Rainier’) and two pie cherries (‘English Morello’ and ‘Montmorency’). We also have a young ‘Montmorency’ that isn’t producing yet. In the spring, my husband Bill hung […]
Read moreHere is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Knowing culprit keeps tomato problems in check. Since gardeners love to grow tomatoes, and since certain issues can crop up with them, I thought it would be helpful to talk about this today. Hopefully your tomatoes are growing great, though, and you’ll never need this information! If you’re […]
Read moreMy veggie garden is in an area that can occasionally get pretty windy. Most of the crops do just fine but corn is particularly susceptible to the wind. I have to say that there is nothing quite so depressing as having a really great-looking patch of corn one day, then have it all snapped off at ground level and lying […]
Read moreI wanted to do a follow-up to my July 13 post (“Keeping the birds out of the cherries“) so you’d know how things are going. You’ll recall I recently purchased some 2”-wide holographic bird scare ribbon in an attempt to keep birds away from the ripening cherries. Well, it has worked great! While it hasn’t completely kept the robins out of the […]
Read moreHere is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Roses keep giving all summer long. In it, I am pleased to feature Master Gardener Peggy Jeremiah and her beautiful rose garden. You can also read my column below. Boy, can Peggy grow roses! During my visit, I admired how all of her plants were very healthy […]
Read moreHere is a link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review. When creating new landscape, keep long-term plan in mind. This one is a profile of WSU/Spokane County Master Gardener, Jennifer Tiegs. (You can also read my column below.) I wanted to write about her approach to landscaping her new garden. It will help anyone who is either setting […]
Read moreYou might recall I’ve written in the past about how there are some types of stink bugs that cause an awful lot of damage to edible crops like veggies and fruits. (see these posts: Stink bug news and Invasion of the stink bugs) While at Manito Park last week, my husband saw something a bit worrisome to both of us. […]
Read moreDon’t you just love fresh cherries this time of year? I’m crazy about them but, unfortunately, so are the robins, magpies, starlings and sparrows. We have 5 cherry trees and it’s a battle to get any amount of fruit off of them. A couple of years ago, we tried an experiment of covering the trees with huge sheets of floating […]
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