Here’s What’s Happening in October

Saturday, October 1
10:00 am – 3:30 pm – Rain or Shine!
4th Annual Subaru Fall Festival at Greensgrow Farms
Join Subaru and Organic Gardening at Greensgrow Farms for a celebration of fresh, local food, crafts and farm fun! If you are from out of town, get off the beaten tourist path and checkout Greensgrow Farms. If you are local to the area, come discover this Philadelphia treasure with your friends and family! Greensgrow is THE nationally recognized leader urban farming and quite the little gem. Come see how a former galvanized steel plant became a model for urban agriculture. Sample harvest dishes, enjoy various crafts, visit the farmer’s market and bring the kids to partake in loads of children’s activities! The fun stuff includes egg gathering, decorating a T-shirt for your pet, organic gardening workshops, veggie harvesting, making apple cider, adopt-a-pet with Philly Paws, and more.
Sponsored by Subaru of America
Greensgrow Farms
2501 E. Cumberland Street, Philadelphia, PA 19125
Visit their website for more information.

 

Saturday, October 1
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Native Plant Society Seed, Bulb & Plant Sale
Love plants native to the Pacific Northwest region? This is a great sale for you! Vendors will have all the best natives, and some unusual hard-to-find plants too. Plus seeds and bulbs to round out your garden and offer plenty of year round interest and plants that are excellent for bird and butterfly habitat. A tentative list of plants offered for sale is on their website.
Central Puget Sound Chapter, Washington Native Plant Society
Warren G. Magnuson Park, Building 30
Sand Point Way at NE 74th Street, Seattle
Visit their website for more information or call 206-708-4011.

 

Saturday, October 1
5:00 pm
New Starts 9th Annual Gala & Auction
Benefitting Seattle Youth Garden Works
Join Seattle Tilth in celebrating the successful return of Seattle Youth Garden Works! Seattle Youth Garden Works empowers homeless and underserved youth, ages 14-21, through garden-based education and employment. Youth gain gardening knowledge, business expertise and job readiness skills while earning wages. Through one-on-one mentorship we help youth stabilize their housing, secure future employment, and achieve and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Your support through the New Starts Green Gala & Auction will go directly toward helping these youth. Enjoy a delightful meal presented by Pyramid Catering with fresh, local, organic ingredients from Organically Grown. You will have the opportunity to choose from an impressive selection of exciting auction items including regional tours, a boat cruise, celebrity events, remodeling services, spa days, sushi classes, elegant restaurant packages and more. Evening includes silent auction, drinks & hors d’oeuvres, dinner, live auction & dessert dash. Festive attire.
Tickets: $80
Seattle Tilth
Mountaineers Club
7700 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle WA 98115
Visit their website for more information or call 206-633-0451.

 

Sunday, October 2
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
HPSW Fall Bulb Sale
First annual bulb sale! If you loved the Arboretum Foundation’s Bulb Sale, this sale is for you! Organized by bulb expert Bob Lilly, this sale is a great opportunity to get some of the more unusual bulbs for your garden as well as your favorite tulips and narcissus. A list of bulbs available has been posted on the website. 
Hardy Plant Society of Washington
Center for Urban Horticulture
3501 NE 41st Street, Seattle, WA 98105
Visit their website for more information.

 

Saturday, October 8
6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
4th Annual Plant-a-Head for Alzheimer’s
Jenny & Bill at My Garden Nursery have been committed to raising funds for Alzheimer’s research ever since Jenny lost both her parents to the disease, raising over $25,000 towards research into Alzheimer’s. Come enjoy a fun evening of wine, tasty hors d’oeuvres (including Jenny’s famous crab dip) and lots of bidding on items that gardeners love. Plants, trees, gift certificates, gift baskets and a dessert auction can all be yours for great prices – and 100% of the funds raised goes to Alzheimer’s.
Tickets: $15
My Garden Nursery
17414 Bothell Everett Highway, Mill Creek, WA 98012
Visit their website for ticket information or to RSVP to 425-402-1842.

 

Tuesday, October 11
6:45 pm – 8:30 pm
“Inspiration in the Responsible Garden”
Richie Steffen
Richie Steffen is the curator for the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden where he manages the rare plant collections and heads acquisition of new plants for the garden. Embracing creative elements, plant collections, personality, and climate into the landscape is a recipe for bringing fun back to gardening and adding to our urban environment. See the unusual, the oddities and the plants of obsession inspiring one to love the greenery with which we surround ourselves.
Lake Wilderness Arboretum
Tahoma Junior High School, 25600 Summit-Landsburg Road in Ravensdale
Visit their website for more information or call 425-412-2572.

 

Sunday, October 9
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Fall Foliage Festival
Dunn Gardens
Tour the beautiful grounds of the famed Dunn Gardens during their peak of fall foliage color. It’s their annual thank you to their supporters. Enjoy the serenity of the garden in all its fall glory. Refreshments, conviviality and a silent auction to enjoy.
Tickets: Members – complimentary; Non-members $20 (or purchase a 2012 membership)
Dunn Gardens
13533 Northshire Road NW, Seattle, WA 98177
Visit their website for more information or call 206-362-0933.

 

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011
11:30 am-1:00 pm
Seattle Children’s PlayGarden
Give & Grow Luncheon!
To ensure that as many supporters as possible can attend our most important fundraiser of the year, we are pleased to announce a new date and location for our Give & Grow Luncheon. We hope you will join us to learn how your support will enhance the lives of children with special needs in our community. Would you consider being a Table Captain and/or Sponsor of the luncheon?
Seattle Children’s PlayGarden
The Four Seasons Hotel
99 Union Street, Seattle, WA 98101
Visit their website for more information or call 206-227-5458.

 

Saturday, October 15 – Saturday, October 22
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Fall Foliage Festival
Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden
Celebrate the beauty of fall foliage, take a tour of the spectacular color of the RSBG and hear exciting speakers, including Steve Hootman, Dave De Groot, and Sue Olsen. And of course, a plant sale! Free admission for all.
Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden
2525 South 336th Street, Federal Way, WA 98003
Visit their website for more information or call 253-838-4646.

 

Three fun weekends!
October 15 – 16, 22 – 23 & 29 – 30
11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Swansons Nursery Fall Festival
Loads of family activities and seminars on edible gardening and cooking awaits you for three weekends in October at Swansons Nursery. And you can spend your “Boo Bucks” and earn Holiday Dollars. Free.
Swansons Nursery
9701 15th Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98117
Visit their website for more information or call 206-782-2543.

 

Saturday, October 22
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Fall Sale 2011 at Glass Gardens NW
Browse the gallery and showroom of the fabulous work by Barbara Sanderson, of Glass Gardens NW. Barbara’s exhibit at the garden show is always popular and many show gardens feature her pieces. Her wonderful glass art, including fountains, lighting, mushrooms, fiddlesticks, pumpkins, birds nests, pond floats and vases, are perfect for any home and garden. Find great deals on discounted colors and fall specials.
Silver Stand Studio
4403 Russell Road, Suite 118, Mukilteo, WA 98275
Visit her website at for more information and directions.

 

So as autumn closes in on us, and the leaves turn all hues of red, yellow and burgundy, it’s a great time to get planting and enjoy the beauty of the season. And it also means the Northwest Flower & Garden Show is right around the corner, February 8 – 12, 2012. By then we will all be aching to be inspired by the 22 vibrant show gardens, tempted by cool new plants, art and gear to buy at 350 exhibitors, and excited about the smashing lineup of 120 seminars to help us solve problems and get ready for spring! Bookmark this blog, because I will be posting about our seminar lineup soon! ~ Janet

Design a Garden – Week 5 Soil Base

Savvy gardeners know one vital fact for having a healthy garden with happy plants: It’s the soil.

 

While it may not seem very sexy, the soil base and mulch that is used by the show is an important part of the finished polish of the show gardens. Just as your own garden looks better (and is healthier) with a good compost top dressing, so too our show gardens need to have that finished look. And different products can give a different look to the garden.

 

The garden show has long partnered with Sawdust Supply, providers of mulch, gravel and landscape supplies for the Seattle, Bellevue and Tacoma regions. Founded in 1912, the Sawdust Supply Company’s original mission was to clean out what was considered scrap materials (hog fuel) from local sawmills. In the late 30’s and early 40’s sawdust was delivered to homes as fuel for sawdust burning furnaces.

 

A lot has changed since then! Now Sawdust Supply is one of the largest regional suppliers of all kinds of landscaping products, including gravel, rock, and sand, playchips, planting soils, composts and mulches. They can do custom mixes, deliver, and even have a blower service.

 

One of the first things the production team has to orchestrate during move-in at the show is delivery of the sawdust and mulch that the garden creators will use. Full semi’s unload near the garden floor, and frenzy of front loaders delivers product to the 20+ show garden sites. (When I go to the Washington State Convention Center during move-in, I pray I don’t get run over, or buried with a load a mulch. These guys don’t stop for anyone!)

 

Curley Winebrenner and Kate Kurtz of Sawdust Supply have selected three of their popular products for our next Design a Garden voting. If you want to check these great products yourself, they are open from 7 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday.

 

Each time there’s a new vote, you can enter our “All That Jazz” grand prize drawing. Here’s what we’re voting on this week, until September 29:

 

Beauti-Gro™ is the perfect soil conditioner or mulch for gardens and general landscaping. Made with composted steer manure and bark, Beauti-Gro™ is rich in nutrients, evenly textured with a natural dark color, and smells like a forest floor. Coarser textured than GroCo™ and SteerCo™, it is often more appealing as mulch, to top dress your garden soil, than the finer textured composted products.

 

GroCo™:  A dark, rich, natural compost product that your soil will love. This is a perfect soil amendment for the environmentally conscious gardener that wants great results. Made from composted biosolids and fir-hemlock sawdust, this product is an endlessly renewable resource, full of macro and micro nutrients that will help your plants to thrive. The fine texture of this compost is perfect for blending into your soil to break up clay, provide nutrients, and help retain moisture like a sponge.

 

SteerCo™: Mature compost product that is a perfect soil conditioner. A cattle manure, fir-hemlock sawdust mix compost, with urea nitrogen added to stimulate plant growth. The fine texture of this compost is perfect for blending into your soil, to break up clay, and help soil retain moisture.

 

So what type of soil do you want in “your” garden at next February’s Northwest Flower & Garden Show. It’s so easy to vote – just clink on the link and it takes you to our voting page. ~ Janet

Garden Show Welcomes New Exhibitors

 The planning is in full swing for the 2012 Northwest Flower & Garden Show, and that means many new exhibitors are signing up to show off their wares at the second largest garden show in the country – and the show with the greatest variety, depth and quality of any garden show. With over 350 exhibitors, all carefully screened to bring only the finest in garden and nature-related products, the show has long had a great reputation for its fabulous shopping. I should know – my Visa card has been smokin’ hot at every garden show for the past 23 years. I have art or pottery from the show in nearly every room in my house, and beloved garden art pieces around my garden. Not to mention loads of cool tools, beautiful jewelry, excellent plants… you get the picture.

 

I recently checked with Linda Knudsen, Exhibits Manager, to hear what new exhibitors she has lined up. True to form, she gave me a very long list! But I have pared it down to a few of the highlights, and will bring you more later.

 

GET DRESSED

Designer Linda Lee of Whidbey Woolies uses the finest in alpaca wool to create unique hats. Each hat is knitted by hand using select Alpaca fiber from “the boys” – her own herd of 3 Alpacas (one named “Ciscoe” after you-know-who). They are carefully crafted and then felted to create the finished hat. This makes them amazingly water resistent, and perfect for Northwest weather. Linda originally started working with wool, but switched to Alpaca when she realized how fabulously soft – with no itchiness – it could be. It is warm, lightweight, and durable, and people who cannot wear sheep’s wool can wear alpaca.

 

Since 1994 artist and designer Suzanne de la Torre has created handmade sweaters, beanies and knitwear that were originally only carried in the finest boutiques across the US. Now she sells them herself at juried arts fairs, and will be at the garden show for the first time. These are vibrant and cozy sweaters, in colors of the rainbow. They are hand-made and one-of-a-kind, with buttons of shell, horn, abalone, wood and glass.

 

 

GET ART 

Jill Mayberg is a mixed-media artist living in the Pacific Northwest. Her paintings are created using cut cotton rag paper which is glued to canvas and then painted in acrylics and oil pastels. Her daily walk along the Columbia River with her dog, Morton, and her latte, gets her charged up and ready to start on her paintings each day. She’s influenced by many diverse things, such as animals, nature, cityscapes, patterns, edibles, water, Kandinsky, aboriginal art, Louise Bourgeois and the images that cross her daily path. She loves whimsey and celebrating the fun stuff in life. She was recently awarded a $7500 Artist Trust Fellowship. 

 

Nj Searcy Metal, from Amado, Arizona, works in steel with ceramic or stone elements, getting inspiration from the forms and colors of the desert and the the people of the Southwest. Found treasures and repurposed items are incorporated into the pieces. She has a collection of indoor and outdoor metal pieces, including bird baths, tables, coffee tables, mirrors, and screens, adorned with elements of nature such as leaves and flowers.

 

Kathleen Jones, from Newberg, Oregon, draws inspiration for her oil paintings from nature and hiking throughout the Pacific Northwest. Having worked in many different media before, including pottery, photography, landscape and floral design, she is now most at home working with oil painting, creating beautiful art that is reflected in the environment around her.

 

Meredith Macleod, of Clinton, Washington, spent 15 years designing and manufacturing art tiles, and was ready for a change. An artist’s retreat with long-time friends was the inspiration behind Stubborn Twig Design. Now she’s ‘branched out’ with her greeting card company, and her pieces can be matted and framed as well, bringing the outdoors inside.  Meredith’s work celebrates her “feathered friends,” a sense of belonging (to a flock), evoking a feeling of home (nesting) and celebrating adventure (migration), all with images appropriate for most any occasion. She has truly created a company that’s “for the birds.”

 

Diane Culhane is a Northwesterner through and through. She lives in a West Seattle home, built in 1910, and works out of her studio in Ballard. A professional artist and educator, she has taught for the Bellevue School District, Seattle Pacific University, and Bellevue Arts Museum and currently directs and owns the Kelsey Creek Fine Art School for children. Diane received her BFA from the University of Utah and her Master’s Degree from Seattle University. Now she delights in telling stories and creating new worlds through her paintings.

 

There’s something magical about dragonflies. They flit into your gardens, with shimmering iridescence, only to disappear just as quickly. If you love dragonflies, now you can enjoy them in your garden on a more permanent basis, with the beautiful stones and mosaics from Dragonfly Rocks. Dragonfly Rocks are a unique form of garden art that adds glistening movement to your garden. Created by Northwest artist Carol Deutsch, they combine natural stone and glass inlays to create dragonflies, butterflies, hummingbirds and more.

 

GET PLANTING 

Vee Garden is a new company, founded by Del Webber, formed when there was such enthusiastic response to their show at the Bellevue International Sculpture Exhibit. Del was part of the ‘back-to-the-land’ movement in the early 70’s, buying 160 acres if Minnesota. He had diverse interests over the years, and developed a passion for making things better. That is how is hit upon the design of his attractive and functional planters. They create unique containers perfect for growing food in limited space, especially urban environments.

 

OBC Northwest was established in 1954 as a textile bag company called Oregon Bag Company. By 1980 they had expanded into horticulture, and today the company is one of the largest companies producing horticultural supplies, including containers, shade cloth, labels, pruning supplies, wire baskets, and many more quality products, including the best-selling flower pouches, all the rage now for vertical gardening.

 

Scarecrow’s Pride is a locally-produced, all natural, organic cow manure for garden fertilizer. But it’s not just any cow manure. It comes from the ‘ladies’ of Krainick Dairy in Enumclaw, a herd that is BST-free, fed Washington grown alfalfa and spent grain from some of Washington’s finest craft breweries, and sleep on a canvas-covered mattresses filled with shredded recycled tires. These are some contented cows. Scarecrow’s Pride can be used for improving organic matter in the soil, improving soil aeration and increasing water retention.

 

These are just a few of the many new exhibitors that will be appearing at the 2012 Northwest Flower & Garden Show, to be held February 8 – 12 at the beautiful Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. We welcome them all, and are excited to have you at the show! ~ Janet

Design a Garden – Week 4 Plant Groups

 

With the Pacific Northwest having an unseasonably warm September ( it’s about time!) it seems appropriate that the winner of the voting for the song was the Beatles “Here Comes the Sun.”

 

Between now and September 15 you can vote on plant groups to be used in the garden. The garden show is partnering with Swansons Nursery as the plant supplier for our “Here Comes the Sun” garden. Many thanks to Brad Siebe, President and General Manager of Swansons, for helping me find all the plants. The show garden is being designed by Lloyd Glasscock of Looking Glass Design.

 

To vote, just go to the voting page on our website.   And each time you vote, enter to win our “All That Jazz” grand prize – 2 nights lodging, 4 tickets to the show, $250 cash to spend at the show and more! (One vote per email address, and we now accept Canadian votes! Increase your odds of winning by voting each time we have a new category.)

 

DESIGN A GARDEN PLANT GROUPS

 

Plants commonly associated with the Pacific Northwest, such as:

Mahonia x media nervosa
Mahonia media “Charity”
Vaccinium glauco-album
Helleborus “Merlin”
Helleborus “Silver Dollar”
Rhododendron sino-falconari
Rhododendron “Ebony Pearl”

 

 

Plants commonly associated with the temperate areas of the West Coast, such as:

Carex tenuiculmis “Cappuccino”
Stipa tenuissima “Pony Tails”
Ceanothus griseus horizontalis “Diamond Heights”
Viburnam davidii
Berberis thunbergii ‘Concorde”
Nandini “Tuscan Flair”

 

 

 

Plants commonly associated with the British Isles, such as:

Carex oshim “Everest”
Festuca glauca “Elijah Blue”
Callum vulgaris “Red Star”
Callus vulgaris “H.E. Beale”
Heuchera “Obsidian”
Lavendula “Violet Intrigue”
Chamaecyparis lawsonia “Barry’s Silver”
Buxus sempervirons “True Dwarf”

 

 

(Note: Plants pictured are those in Swanson’s Nursery right now and might not be available in early February during the garden show. Actual plants used in the show garden will be similar to those listed.)

 

 If you haven’t been to Swansons Nursery lately, they have added huge new greenhouses which make shopping a pleasure no matter what the weather. They have incredible selection – and right now is their huge Fall Sale! I just picked up some awesome Berberis “Concorde” (the purplest Barberry I have seen) and some “Sunshine Blue” and “Patriot” blueberries – all at 40% off! Who hoo! (Now I have to figure out a way to get them on my expense report. After all, I was working, right?) – Janet

Design a Garden – Week 3 Voting Begins

The Beatles and Led Zeppelin were victorious in the second week of voting for the garden show’s Design a Garden – a show garden designed by our website readers. It was very close – they only won by 1% of the vote!

 

Now designer Lloyd Glasscock of Looking Glass Design  has had the tough job of selecting four songs that could serve as the inspiration for the garden at the 2012 Northwest Flower & Garden Show. Two songs by the Beatles, and two songs by Led Zeppelin. They are:

“Twist & Shout” by the Beatles

“Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles

“Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin

“Misty Mountain Hop” by Led Zeppelin

To vote just go to our website, click on the link to vote, and go to the bottom of the page.

 

When you vote, be sure to enter our “All That Jazz” Grand Prize contest. Here’s what you can win:

• Two nights lodging at the beautiful Seattle Sheraton Hotel between February 7 – 12, 2012.
• Four tickets to the 2012 Northwest Flower & Garden Show, good for any day.
• $50 Cheesecake Factory gift certificate – located right across the street.
• $10 Tully’s gift certificate – located in the Convention Center.
• Two parking passes at the Washington State Convention Center (a $48 value).
• PLUS $250 CASH to spend at the show – shop over 350 high-quality garden-related exhibitors!

There’s no purchase necessary, and you do not have to enter the contest to vote in the “Design a Garden.”

 

After the song is chosen on September 8, the design process really begins. Decisions such as the plant groupings from Swansons Nursery, hardscapes for patio and retaining walls with stone from Marenakos Rock Center, and mulching materials from Sawdust Supply will all be voted on, along with beautiful containers, garden art and outdoor furniture, also from Swansons.

 

Get your votes in for your favorite song between now and September 8! Remember, you can enter the grand prize contest every time we have a new design element up for a vote. That’s 11 times to enter, so up your odds at winning by voting every time. Odds of winning if you don’t vote? Zero, zip, nada! – Janet