wanted to leave the carrots to overwinter, but we’re having twins in late winter & I don’t trust that I’ll have the bandwidth to do any gardening next year! I did leave a patch of carrots that were extremely tiny just in case they decide to get big over winter.

Any suggestions on what to do with these? We are thinking tomato soup. This year was a fabulous harvest from 6 plants. I did not pick all the orange grape tomatoes- those produced an insane level of fruit.

felt like summer was just over and a bit surprised to see Yuletide camellia already blooming. In the meantime lantana and hibiscus are still in flower. What an interesting time of the year 😊

Help! This hydrangea has been growing on our property for years and years. Ultimately, a potted bush had been left under it (for a few years) and crowded it out in the search for sunlight. We’ve since removed the bush (obviously), but I have no idea on what to do to revive this hydrangea.

It has NEVER been pruned or taken care of- it’s at my grandparent’s house who have recently passed away. I would love nothing more than to have a step by step “save the hydrangea” game plan… even if I have to whack it back a ways. The old wood is unsightly and splitting in some areas.

My PNW native wildflower cottage garden is finally coming together.
These plants have held up to this summer's drought really well, I only had to spot water a couple plants in August. My garden is mostly full sun-part sun with well draining soil. My hope is to inspire someone to plant a few of our hardy, showy natives! The pics are in chronological order from May through August.

Check when your county's conservation district native plant sale is. They usually have really good deals!

1. Royal Jacob's ladder (Polemonium carneum)
2. Oregon Iris (Iris tenax)
3. Oregon sunshine
4. Western Red Columbine, Oregon sunshine, beach strawberry, common camas
5. Columbia Lily (Lilium columbianum)
6. Lance leaf coreopsis, Penstemon yenustus, showy fleabane, western yarrow, big leaf lupine, graceful cinquefoil, California poppy
7. Large flower collomia, Giant red paintbrush (Castilleja miniata)
8. Oregon sunshine, California poppy, Wilcox's penstemon
9. Rose Checkermallow
10. Meadow Checkermallow
11. Ookow, Oregon sunshine, lance leaf coreopsis, Oregon geranium
12. Showy fleabane, Oregon sunshine, giant red paintbrush, lance leaf coreopsis
13. Giant red paintbrush, self heal, large flower collomia, Clarkia lindleyi
14. Harebell (Campanula rotunditolia), showy fleabane, puget gumweed, lance leaf coreopsis
15. Showy tarweed, prairie smoke
16. Blanket flower
17. Clarkia lindleyi
18. Canada goldenrod
19. Common sneezeweed
20. Douglas' aster

I'm looking to get started on a bunch of natives this fall (obviously will need stratification). I'll do as many as I can in milk cartons outdoors, but I only have a few, so can't do them all like that. I'm not going to do any direct sowing. I have a bunch of seed tray flats that I was thinking of doing a bunch as well. Planning on covering the seed and soil with grit to protect from rain and birds, but I'm not sure if slugs will still be an issue if these are on the ground? I figure slugs are the biggest enemy to any outdoor starts.

Any other recommendations or advice for non-direct sow of natives?

Was just scrolling through YouTube and found this little gardening channel. Looks to be a local DIY channel that's just getting started. Just wanted to share if anyone was interested.

I wonder if anyone has a point of view on harvesting saffron flowers. I have about 15 bulbs in a planter and last two years, I have let it be. This year, I got two flowers today and more buds are forming. Online search says stigmas should be removed the same day for quality but I am not sure if I will destroy the whole flower if I pluck the stigmas :)

Living in brynmar skyway in South Seattle, almost all of my yard is glacial sand. I've been composting and mixing old sand/soil into the compost when pulling old plants and digging holes for new ones and now I have a large sandy compost pile.

Will the sand ever be part of healthy soil? Is it just making my compost hydro-phobic? Should I start a sandpile and keep it out of the compost?

Thanks

Does anyone have experience growing this plant in our region?

How did it do for you? And what did you think of the fruit itself

We are in the process of redesigning our garden bed area. We moved in last year but we told that these cedar beds lasted about 10-15 years! The previous owners put down a weed barrier and 1/4- gravel, but the weeds are rampant (same in our prior yard!). So we wondered, perhaps there is an alternative we should consider?

We have dogs and no major trees. The beds will be cedar again. Pros of gravel— occasional poo pick up is easy, good drainage, relatively cheap.

Considering the following:
- Refresh 1/4- after re-installing weed barrier
- Bark chips (weed resistant, easy to refresh)
- Decomposed granite (think bocce court)
- Crushed hazelnuts
- Grass

Any thoughts on which has worked best for you? Weeds are inevitable, but hopefully not a constant!

Highly neglected (i did water them when it was super hot), barely staked, 1st year garden. 4 plants. Omg now what? I already have a freezer full and pasta sauce out my ears!

Hello, I'm planning on starting a small garden & greenhouse. I'm trying to find a good local place to buy my seeds from & if possible companion? Plant seeds too. Any information and directions to recourses that keep it easy would be very appreciated.

I'm pretty much a newbie gardener that's getting a bit more interested in growing different things. I have a bunch of little artichoke seedlings/starts that just started popping up over the ground over the last week that I seeded into the ground a few weeks back.

Would it be better for me to pull these little guys up and transplant them into a pot for the winter that I can keep in my house, or just leave them be in the ground? I for the life of me cannot remember the variety, but I'm like 80% certain they are Taylor Artichokes.

Thanks for any advice!

I planted these in my South facing seattle garden about a month ago. They get sun and shade throughout the day. They don't look great but I'm wondering if this is normal w/ the change in temperature?

I have some dahlias in pots which are clearly finished blooming. Can I lift the tubers now and cut off the foliage before overwintering in the garage or do I really have to wait for the foliage to die off on its own? I’m sick of looking at them !

I planted these flowers and a bunch of the stems are bent in half, I'm not sure why. Should I cut the bent ones? Anyone know what happened?

This is my first year and I'm really happy with how things have gone! The soil here in Grays Harbor can be pretty channeling to work with as well as the amount of rain and wind we have, but it's been super fun just throwing some seeds out and seeing what works. Very excited to see how the next few years of developing it goes.