I was looking at my home’s back steps, constructed of pressure-treated wood, and decided it was time for the annual get-rid-of-the-mildew-and-seal-them program.
For some reason, they aren’t looking as green as they were last year, so the job will be a snap.
Since the summer entertainment season is coming, it might be appropriate to run through deck-cleaning 101 before the arrival of hotter weather, when things dry too …
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ELLENSBURG — Beauty rests here.
And grows.
But you might not know it.
However, if you travel over cliffs, up winding roads, past alfalfa fields and round bends, you reach a place of splendor, where wildflowers spread out like a technicolor Milky Way.
Brilliant ribbons of color cascade down the bluffs: pretty in pink (big-headed clover), whiter shade of pale (cushion phlox), yellow fever (nine-leaf lomatium), purple r …
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If you are a gardener you don’t need to have a Ph.D. in botany, zoology or other related sciences to help make important contributions to scientific research. There are hundreds of ongoing scientific studies concerned with how climate change is affecting farming — and gardening. You can help by gathering raw data from around your home’s landscape. When laypeople help scientists with their research, you become a citizen …
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Blue blooms in our gardens are loved by most of us, but what we call blue flowers are mostly blends of blue and red to one degree or another. Pure blue, sky blue or true blue flowers, as they are called, are uncommon in the natural world. And hybridizers haven’t had much luck in producing this elusive and beautiful color.
The Holy Grail of true blue flowers — the Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis sp.) — actually does ex …
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“I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.” — Ruth Stout
May is a beautiful time in the garden. Everything is coming up green and succulent and stretching toward the sun — flowers, veggies, grass and weeds alike. Gardeners are flexing their muscles and waking up as well, ready to expend some energy setting things in order. Use the momentum of spring to tidy, plant, weed and m …
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For those who enjoy year-round color in the garden, Heuchera (pronounced HEW-kerr-uh) is a great choice.
This is a catch-all name for a group of plants you might have known in your youth as “coral bells” (Heuchera sanguinea) or “alum root” (Heuchera americana).
Offering a dazzling array of year-round foliage color, texture and shapes, Heuchera plants will make a statement in your garden.
It’s hard to think of a plac …
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The recent heavy rains and cold temperatures of March have left many of us pondering if spring would ever come. However, as each day passes the season seems more respectful of the calendar and with that, the pulse of the garden quickens.
April could easily be defined as a “preparation month.” The emphasis of garden activity revolves around the preparing for the rapidly approaching summer season.
Soil preparation — I …
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Sometimes it’s just hard to improve on the best. Such is the case with the Homestead Purple verbena.
For more than 20 years it has stood the test of time as the verbena to which all others are compared. It is still a sea of purple that is dazzling in the spring paired with daffodils, or in front of forsythia or spirea.
You’ll also notice that Homestead Purple is not overcome by disease, and produces hundreds of the lar …
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A complementary color scheme implemented in the garden from late winter to very early spring can be just the jolt you need to get you out of the cold-weather doldrums. I was visiting Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Ga., recently and you would have thought a rock star was there.
Everyone, me included, was gawking and photographing fiery hot orange and yellow tulips partnered with blue/violet pansies and white ornamen …
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Few of us can imagine gardening without the labor of digging. It seems, after all, that this is what you should do, what everyone always does and always has done to make a garden grow. The idea of not tilling the soil seems to go against some deeply ingrained ideas of what horticulture is all about.
Maybe these ideas are linked to ancestral memories going back to the remote reaches of time when generations of peasant …
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HACKENSACK, N.J. — Looking to trade up? If you’ve got $39 million, you might take a gander at Gloria Crest, a 1926 Italianate castle on Englewood, N.J.’s East Hill, which was once occupied by the movie star Gloria Swanson.
The North Woodland Street property, a 28-room, 24,000-square-foot home on 5 acres in Englewood and Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is being sold by owners Edward and Jan Turen. Lovers of historic homes, the …
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In recent years there have been a lot of articles in gardening magazines, newspapers and even entire books written urging homeowners to use native plants in their landscapes.
But why should you bother planting a bunch of wild plants in your landscape when there are so many great plants coming on the market every year that promise to be pest-free?
It seems only logical to choose pest-free plants over natives that insec …
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AKRON, Ohio — Elizabeth Vernon’s canvas is calcium.
Vernon is an egg artist who decoupages Victorian designs onto delicate eggshells. Her gleaming varnished creations bear floral motifs, women’s portraits, nursery-rhyme characters, insect images — any vintage design that strikes her fancy.
This time of year, much of her free time is spent snipping paper images, adhering them carefully to eggshells and engaging in the p …
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DANVILLE, Ky. — Houses look rock-solid, until it’s time to take them apart. But when you have an army of volunteers and a special drill that takes the nails right … More →
There is nothing like a greenhouse ready for spring that makes you forget about the miserable weather outside. Across our greenhouse, I spotted my favorite geraniums as if they were … More →