Daily Inspiration

A good reminder for the season!

Daily Inspiration

Fern Leaf Yarrow

Achillea x 'Moonshine'

The stunning contrast of colors makes this a great pick for any sunny area in your garden. Yarrow is an extremely easy to grow and easy to care for perennial (and it's hardy to -40 degrees)! It's foliage reaches 12" tall, and flowers to 24". It's canary-yellow flowers are used often to cut and dry for bouquets.

Daily Inspiration

David Austin Rose

'L.D. Braithwaite'

(auscrim)

I can't wait until this rose opens up a little more! They are gorgeous when they first come out, but, oh my, an English rose in full, open bloom...there is nothing like it! 

L.D. Braithwate is a nice size rose at 4.5' tall and 4' wide, providing lots of color and structure. It has a delicate rose fragrance and is very free flowering. 

Daily Inspiration

Coreopsis

'Sunburst'

We have so many beautiful, blooming plants out in the nursery right now! It just reminds me of how important it is to view your garden with a critical eye during each season. By doing this, you will be able to tell which areas need a little work. Whether you need more plants that provide color in the fall, more early spring interest, a different texture in a spot during the summer, or plants that give some much needed winter structure and color, they are all easy to fix! Visit us during each season to see just what that season offers! 

Daily Inspiration

Echinacea

purpurea

'Hot Summer'

These really catch my eye both in the nursery and in landscapes! They are great for butterfly gardens, blooming all summer up until frost, and grow 24-30" tall and 18-24" wide...talk about big bang for your buck!

Daily Inspiration

Caryopteris

clandonensis

'Gold Giant'

The combination of true-blue flowers against delicate, golden-yellow foliage makes for a very striking plant! 'Gold Giant' blooms from June-September and does a great job attracting butterflies! It gets 36-48" tall and 36" wide. 

Daily Inspiration

Plant yourself some salad!

(Lactuca Sativa 'Gourmet Salad Blend')

I love the look of salad greens-even tucked into flower pots for texture and color accents. 

Daily Inspiration

Gaillardia

'Fanfare'

You can't beat this! We have been enjoying these blooms since June (and they bloom all the way through October) on a compact (18"x18") plant! 

Daily Inspiration

Garlic!

We just got 25 lbs. of beautiful 'Italian Pearl' garlic in! Just the sight of it makes me want to go cook something!

Daily Inspiration

Tried another recipe out of the new Farmer's Almanac cookbook today!

Carrot Cake with Creamy Pineapple Filling...

It has three layers of carrot-pineapple cake goodness, with two layers of sweet-pineapple-buttery gooeyness, and a generous layer of smooth-cream cheesy-orange frosting! And I can't forget about the sprinkle of toasted walnuts on top!

I am thinking this cookbook is a keeper! 

Daily Inspiration

Leucanthemum

superbum

'Lacrosse'

I love this daisy because of its compact nature. Though I love the regular, taller daisies ('Becky'), sometimes I find myself needing a pop of white in a plant of smaller stature. 'Lacrosse' only gets 10 in. tall and 20 in. wide. It's in its full glory right now- blooming since June and continuing on through October! Tough as nails too--hardy to -30 degrees!

Save the Date!

Daily Inspiration

We think you should be inspired to come to our 'Creating with Fall Bulbs' seminar tomorrow (at 10am!) because we are cooking some very yummy treats for you right this very moment!

Proof is in the picture!

Haha! I got to be the lucky one not in the picture! Someone has to take it! :)

Daily Inspiration

These are just a few of the huge load of beautiful fall plants we unloaded this morning... 

Daily Inspiration

How about this for beautiful foliage?

Heuchera

'Obsidian'

This zone 4 perennial is the perfect choice for pot accents or your shady flower beds. It gets 10" tall and 16" wide. The wonderful thing about this particular plant is that its color does NOT fade! I currently have one in a pot with a red sedge grass, 'Lacinato' kale, and a 'Red Rover' mum, and I LOVE it!

Daily Inspiration

If you have extra apples laying around, you should try this recipe out! 

It's a recipe out of the new Farmers Almanac Cookbook we just got in at the store- Upside Down Apple Pie! There are a lot more great sounding recipes in the book!

I couldn't just stop at an apple pie though! I really wanted to try out the Praline syrup I put up a few weeks ago (recipe from Balls Blue Book Guide to Preserving)..

...with it I made some Praline Pecan Sticky Buns (my own adaption from a recipe found in Sur La Table's The Art & Soul of Baking)

Now, I am in desperate need of some exercise! :)

Daily Inspiration

This is what Miracle Grow does to mom's plants at home...

Keep in mind this is a 16" planter that now measures 6' across!

The plants have taken over not only the pillar it sits on, but also the chairs on either side of it! 

Amazing!

Also- I have been nursing a sick, sad, anemic-looking cucumber vine all summer in my planter box with nary a fruit...well, guess what I found yesterday???

A cucumber!!! Woo hoo! :)

Daily Inspiration

I don't quite know what has gotten into me this fall- I have been so inspired to grab hold of the harvest season that it has landed me with a wide assortment of canned produce. With the sun starting to go down earlier, I have been completely content to sit and crack walnuts, peel apples, or puree peaches. Right now I am dealing with tomatoes...lots and lots of them! So far I have put up a bunch of salsa and roasted romas. This is my first time actually canning tomatoes-they usually just end up in the freezer. I got both recipes from Balls Blue Book Guide to Preserving though-so they should be good (I hope)!

If any of you have a killer canned salsa recipe...do share!



Daily Inspiration

BULBS!

Our first load of bulbs have arrived (the rest due in on Monday)! We are thick in preparations for our 'Creating with Fall Bulbs' seminar slated for next Saturday at 10am, so it was extra exciting when we received these this morning!

These went straight into my office to be planted in one of my beds in the next couple evenings!

Narcissus 'Ice Follies' and Tulip 'Queen of Night'

Daily Inspiration

Raised beds done right.

Raised beds are all the rage right now! There are so many great styles out there, but to tell you the truth, I get a bit overwhelmed about where to start. Should you use pressure treated wood, un-pressure treated, 2x10s, 2x10s stacked, 2x8s, bricks, stones, resin...the list goes on and on. We came across this easy and efficient raised bed style (pictured above) when on our nursery tour in Seattle in July. The owners of one of the nurseries lived right there at their business sight, so they allowed us to tour their own personal garden space. It is such fun to get a glimpse of how other people do things! 

To be honest, I would normally dismiss any plan that had pvc pipe in it, but I just love how this style looks! I think painting the pvc black or dark gray would amp it up, but leaving it white looked charming as well! 

Daily Inspiration

We are going to talk foliage today...

Euphorbia 

amygdeloides

'Ruby Glow'

Don't you just love those red stems? The new foliage comes out bright red and morphs into a green, then almost to so-dark-of-a-green that it's black (in a good way :) It gets 10-12" tall and 18" wide, making it perfect for rock gardens, pots, or border planting. It can tolerate some shade, but it won't color up as brilliantly as it does in full sun. Working with foliage is almost more fun for me then with flowers. I love seeing contrasting foliage textures and colors!

Take this picture for example- everything is technically "green" (I see green, gold, and blue), but it is still beautiful and interesting to look at!

(image from http://www.penick.net/digging/?cat=98)

Daily Inspiration

Sedum

'Autumn Joy'

This is one of our fall favorites. There are several different varieties of sedum, but this is, without a doubt, our favorite. Not only is it hardy to -40 degrees and drought tolerant, but it is also deer resistant AND attracts butterflies! It is a beautiful green mound (18-30" tall and wide) throughout the summer and puts out masses of salmon pink blooms in the late summer through fall which deepen to a rusty red.

Oh, and the plant behind the sedum is a 'Diablo' Ninebark. The sedum pops when planted in front of the dark red background the ninebark provides!

Daily Inspiration

Yesterday was spent deep in the beauty of the Eagle Cap mountains. Saying that it was beautiful is a grotesque understatement. The beauty of this place rivals that of any 'civilized' campground (i.e. campground where your spot butts right up to someone elses'). What you find when you are willing to go far enough, is untouched beauty. It is how the wilderness should look and how it has always looked...from the beginning. We had perfect weather- sunny and warm with a crisp edge to it. Typical of fall in the mountains. I just wish I had brought a better camera! As it were, I had to settle for my phone-issued model (though I don't claim to be any sort of photographer...I just snap pictures and what I get is what I get! oh well)!

The asters and indian paintbrush were in wild bloom!

Daily Inspiration

I think it goes without saying that Miracle Grow really does work...

These are a couple of the Adopt-a-Pot pots (if you can even see the pots!) So many have asked us how they can get their plants to perform that good... Miracle Grow! Miracle Grow EVERY WEEK!!!

Be watching for our fall plant transition! Soon these pots will be full of ornamental cabbage, kale, and mums! Not quite as dramatic as potato vine that grows right out into the street, but a refreshing seasonal change!

Daily Inspiration

It's time for fall pots!

I couldn't help myself yesterday. I just had to have this new pot....everyone needs a new pot in the fall...right? 

Well, I think so! The plant combo looks even better in real life! A red sedge, 'Obsidian' Heuchera, mum, and Lacinato Kale gives you the red, blue, green, and gold that you need in every garden design! 

Love it!

Daily Inspiration

Tree Rose

'Electric Blanket'

We love this tree rose! I can see its bright pink blooms shining away from the entrance of the nursery! Tree roses are an easy-keeper; all they require is for you to maintain their current shape-(meaning a couple trimmings a year).