Add Excitement to Your Planters

Planter Season is here! Have you decided how you want to create your planters? Try adding a nontraditional plant for interest, or different colors and textures. Have you ever considered using a tropical plant?

Adding House Plants

Last year I used a spider plant as the center focal point with a white geranium, white lobelia, white bacopa and vinca vine. The spider plant added the height I needed as well as a different texture against the white flowers. An added bonus came when the spider plant put off pups as they hung over the edge of the pot. It created just the interest I was looking for.

This year try your favorite house plant in your planters and see what you can come up with.

TIP: If you want to bring your houseplant into the house after the season, the easiest thing to do is to leave the houseplant in the grower pot that it was purchased in and plant pot and all in your planter. This will allow you to remove the plant easily without worrying about separating the roots from your annuals.

Adding Tropical Plants

My father used a large red leaf banana plant for the edge of his patio with a combo of trailing petunias. By doing so he added a large height item to the patio which created some extra shade to sit under in the height of the summer heat. This combination would also work extremely well near a pool creating a tropical feel.

Getting Ideas

This year I’m thinking about using a tricolor wandering Jew. I haven’t decided what to place around it; however, I think the tricolor (purple, silver and green) leaves flowing over the side of the pot would make a really nice trailing effect.

This time of year there are tons of garden magazines from which to get ideas. You can also find photos online to give you inspiration. One of our favorite places to look is Better Homes and Gardens. Check out their ‘Gallery of Beautiful Container Gardens’ here. Don’t forget Pinterest for ideas too!

If you need a little hands on inspiration, come to The Plant Farm for our Proven Winners weekend on April 19th and 20th with special guest Ron Newble, our Proven Winners representative.

By: Jessica Creach

Got Deer? Tips for a Deer-free (or as close as you can get) Garden

Are you tired of coming out to find your beautiful bulbs with no flowers left? This is happening more and more. However there is good news, there is two way to combat against these crimes against flowers.

1)      On the market there are now several products you spray that detour deer from wanting to eat your plants. They are not harmful to you, your children, other pets, deer or flowers they just give off an odor that the deer wishes to not be around

2)       There are some bulbs that are deer resistant. Deer resistant however does not mean deer won`t touch them, it just mean unless they are really hungry they will avoid them. They are the following:

Allium

Crocus

Dwarf Iris

Early Stardrift

Fritillaraia

Glory of the Snow

Grape Hyacinth

Lily of the Valley

Scilla

Snowdrops

Winter Aconite

Narcissus Or Daffodils

Hyacinth

These sets when combined should help greatly with your problem however if your deer are very hungry nothing will keep them from eating.

Fall Yard Prep…

Never fear! There is still time to prepare your trees before winter sets in. The following guide will help you prepare your yard quickly and efficiently.

 

PRUNING

Pruning is generally performed in the fall. Dead and diseased wood should be removed as clean-up is done. Prior to pruning, determine whether your plant blooms on new wood or old wood. Plants that bloom on old wood should be pruned immediately after blooming (Azalea, Forsythia, Hydrangea, Lilac, Magnolia, and Rhododendron bloom on old wood; all others should bloom on new wood.) If you missed pruning these beauties this year, don’t worry! Just remember to prune them after they finish blooming next spring.

 

 

ROSES

Roses should be pruned and mulched in the fall. Cut canes back to two to four feet long and mulch the bush with leaves or pine needles. On climbers, remove old canes that show no signs of new growth and weak, spindly growth.

 

 

 

 

BORERS

Keep borers from your Aspen, Willow and Birch trees. Bonide Tree & Shrub Care does a great job. It is a once-a-year preventative put on in the fall before the ground freezes. Use 1 ounce of liquid per circumference inch; pour it in a circle around the tree trunk in a systemic drench. There is no spraying involved. It also works great on Maple trees to keep the aphids off of them in the summer.

If you have questions, please give Terrie a call @ The Plant Farm: 509.926.9397

Old Becomes New

By: Jessica Creach

A few months ago I found this awesome item at goodwill, and for $5.99 what a steal so of course I bought it….with no real plan. For the last several months I`ve tried everything with it.

I used it to hold remotes in my living room… It did not work.
I tried it to hold bathroom necessities like hair brushes, hair spray etc. … but it was too big.
I even tried to use it to hold plastic silverware at a gathering we had…They fell through the spaces.

I had basically given up on this beautiful gem and put it in storage until the other day. I was walking by and saw one of those hanging baskets with the moss inside and it hit me, make it a planter! So I went and got some of that coco moss by the foot and line the inside of the container. Then I filled it with soil and picked out the plants.

One thing my mom taught me about planters is to layer. First you pick your height for the center, then you add the middle layers and lastly, if you wish, you add the trailing plants to the outside ring.

After I planted it up I put a little sprinkle of Osmocote on top and watered the plants really well so they would start adjusting to their new living area. When I got done I stepped back and I felt that I had taken something that was basically thrown away and brought it back to something useful and something I could be proud of.

Re-purposing old stuff for new things is a great way to make your own style mark in your home. Look around your house, I’ll bet you’ll find something that you can make new. If not, visit your local thrift store. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover the diamond in the rough like I did.

Is it too late to plant Tomatoes?

Can you still plant tomatoes????? The answer is yes, yes, absolutely yes!  Tomatoes love hot weather (which I guess we are still waiting for) but they also like the soil to be warm. We are just now getting to the point where the soil is warm enough to successfully plant everything. You can plant Tomatoes sooner but the plants will not do much until the soil warms up.

If you bought tomatoes plants and did not have time to plant them and now they are huge or the only tomatoes plants in the garden center are long don’t worry, – – – plant them. If given the choice between a short tomato plant or a long tomato plant I always choose the bigger one. I dig a ditch and plant the tomato plant on its side and cover it up to the top portion of the leaves. The long part that you buried will turn into roots and make a stronger plant.

Before I started my Urban Garden I used to plant all the leftovers from the greenhouse into the field. I paid my way through college by raising a truck garden full of overgrown vegetable plants. I was always the last guy to plant because there was never time until the busy shipping season was over. Most years I never planted a garden until after Memorial Day

The really tough decision is deciding what kind of tomatoes you want to grow. There are the big ones, medium size, and of course the little cherry tomatoes. One of the most popular ones for our area is a medium size Early Girl. I love Sweet 100’s cherry tomato. It is like eating candy off of the plant. The little yellow Sun Sugars are even better than the red Sweet 100’s.

This year I planted my raised beds on May 29th. When I was looking for a Sun Sugar I found a big gallon multi branched plant and put it in an Yellow Tomatoes Cage. I’m looking forward to grazing a few tomatoes off the vine as I’m out there picking some slicing cucumbers for lunch. I think I’m going to plant my strawberry patch today. There are some big plants in the greenhouse with strawberries on them already. I’ll be eating berries before the guys in Greenbluff even get their signs up.

If you have been procrastinating about planting or replanting now is definitely a great time.

Alan Creach ~ Spokane’s Urban Gardener

The Plant Farm & Creach Greenhouse Owner

Primroses Add Easy Color… Try ‘Em… You’ll Like ‘Em

By: Alan Creach

As winter is beginning to lose its grip, people have begun looking for ways to brighten up their yards and window sills. Primroses have been the plant of choice during the cold days of February and March. With their bright yellows, brilliant reds, and all the other vibrant colors, Primroses provide the widest color range of available flowers during the late winter and early spring.

Inexpensive: (on sale now at The Plant Farm for $0.99 each)

Their relatively low cost make it very affordable to build nice pots, planters and arrangements without breaking the bank.

Easy to Grow:

Primroses are very easy to grow and can provide color for weeks to come if they are placed in the right conditions. During this time of the year most people treat primroses as a house plant and place them on the window sill in a brightly lit exposure. This works really well as long as the area is a little cool.

Later as the weather moderates you can take those same primroses and plant them in planters and pots to cheer up the porch, put them in the garden when the freezing weather is nearly past.

Cool Weather Lovers:

One thing to remember, Primroses are lovers of cool temperatures so don’t place them in an area where there is a lot of heat. By the time consumers have seen primroses in the store they have gone through 20 weeks of growing, this is through a wide range of temperatures. During the final days of finishing, the growers have hardened and cooled the crop down to a temperature of 45 degree days and 35 degree nights. Primroses can tolerate some freezing, but since their leaves are so thin there may be some visible damage if the temperatures fall very far below 28 degrees.

All in all this is a very easy plant for the average gardener to grow and brings a welcome splash of color when we need it the most. You should try a few!

Valentine’s Traditions

By: Cathy Creach

Quickly approaching is Valentine’s Day! I LOVE Valentine’s Day – planning small gifts for each of my family. The anticipation of sharing with them my love is a blessing to me. I not only get something for my husband, but I also put together small gift baskets for each of my kids. I suppose the desire to share with my kids comes from my mother. One year after moving to Spokane from Tulsa, I received a Valentine’s box with homemade cookies. The tradition has been carried on to my own children who live at home and away.

{This week I have mailed two boxes to the “away” kids… one to Oklahoma and one to New York.}

I just have to finish working on the local kids.

Can you keep a secret? Sshhh… don’t tell Alan. This year I have different plans for him. I read this article about 14 days and thought it would be cool! Except when I started planning it, I decided that 7 days was long enough. This reminds me of when we were in college. Our college group at church did a secret saint and drew names. My roommate drew Alan’s name so of course I talked her into exchanging names with me. It was so fun to give him gifts as a secret saint and then act jealous when he told me about it. I must have done a good job at acting, because when I told him that I was his secret saint he didn’t believe me.

So far this year he has gotten… chocolate, a coffee gift card and fruit. He once again is trying to make me jealous, and I am playing along. I think he is on to me, but I’ll keep the act up.

What will you do for your loved one’s this year! It is never too late to start a loving tradition of giving!