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Look what visited our garden this weekend! You are looking at a female Sharp-Shinned hawk. They are the smallest hawks that fly into our yard this time of year. Since we have a bird-feeding station, there are lot of birds flying around which attracts the attention of these hawks as well as Coopers’ hawks and Goshawks. All of them eat […]
Read moreI have a large perennial bed out front that is just brimming with all sorts of cool plants. But something happens to that bed during the winter that I’m not too crazy about. Since we live in a rural area, there are a lot of animals we have to deal with. The big ones like moose and deer are definitely […]
Read moreSpotted Wing Drosophila: Photos courtesy of Beverly Gerdeman, PhD, WSU Research Associate and WSU Whatcom County Extension. Even if you can’t pronounce the name of this dreaded insect, you need to know about this. And especially if you grow fruit trees or berry plants. The Spotted Wing Drosophila (or SWD), Drosophila suzukii, has been found in Spokane. It is very […]
Read moreI know that sounds like a “B” movie, right? It appears local gardeners are having problems with stink bugs eating their vegetable and fruit crops. That is worrisome to me. I think a lot of us grew up thinking stink bugs were those large black beetles. You know the ones that smelled nasty if you stepped on them. It turns […]
Read moreYesterday, a friend of mine was asking what floating row covers are since I mention them frequently in my columns. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to do a post about this topic. That’s because it’s one of my favorite tools for growing a productive vegetable garden. What is floating row cover? Floating row cover is a lightweight, woven fabric. It […]
Read moreAs you know, birds absolutely love to eat cherries. We have a few cherry trees in our little orchard. Every year, it’s a battle to keep them from robbing our harvest. Last year, we covered our trees with huge sheets of floating row cover. Partly to keep the cherry fruit flies from laying their eggs on the cherries. But we […]
Read moreI went on the Spokane in Bloom garden tour a couple of weekends ago. There were some clever ideas that involved garden trellises and I wanted to share with you. The first idea was rose arbors that had been anchored inside of raised beds (see top photo). As you can see, they were just gorgeous and very popular with garden visitors […]
Read moreEven though this was a hot day, we just had soup for dinner. I know that sounds crazy but we have been harvesting a lot of peas lately and I have a terrific pea soup recipe that is so easy to make. The recipe came from the Stoneyfield Farms web site and is called Spring Pea Soup. It’s not a […]
Read moreHere is that potato-parsnip gratin (Potato and Parsnip Dauphinois) recipe that I mentioned in my last post: Potato and Parsnip Dauphinois(A friend of mine gave me this recipe several years ago. I’m not sure where it came from but will let you know if I find out.) 2 lbs. potatoes, thinly sliced1 onion, thinly sliced1 lb. parsnips, thinly sliced2 garlic […]
Read moreYes, this is a garden blog but we grow good stuff to eat, right? As I posted a few minutes ago, we’ve harvested all of our apples. We’re going to use some of them to make chunky applesauce. My dear friend, Marie Cole (of Cole’s Orchard up on Green Bluff) shared this recipe with me last year. It works […]
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