Every summer, our Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) explodes into a beautiful display of purple flowers, and just as its name promises, it becomes a magnet for butterflies. It’s an incredible sight to see them fluttering around, and it’s easy to understand why this plant is so popular. The pollinators certainly love it. However, as we’ve learned more about gardening responsibly here in the Pacific Northwest, we’ve come to understand the complicated nature of this beautiful […]
As gardeners in the Pacific Northwest (specifically Zone 8b), we know that our growing conditions can be unique. Finding advice tailored to our cool summers and mild, wet winters is key to a successful harvest. That’s why I always recommend the Edible Gardens Workshop Series from the Pierce County Conservation District. If you live in the area and haven’t checked this program out, you are truly missing out on a wealth of local gardening knowledge. […]
Here in the Pacific Northwest, the shift from summer to fall can feel incredibly abrupt. One moment we’re harvesting daily, and the next, the familiar wet and windy weather has returned, and the trees are rushing to shed their colorful leaves. It’s a clear signal that the busy season of growing, harvesting, and canning is over. While it can feel a bit sad to say goodbye to the garden, this is a vital and […]
With about 4 weeks left before last frost date, I can actually start to plant some things outside. So we start with Peas. First ones are Spring Magnolia Tendril and Springs Blush Tendril, both from Baker Creek (www.rareseeds.com). This year I decided to try to be more formal with the garden layout instead of making notes on pieces of paper that usually get lost, wet, dirty, etc. I have found that Google Drawings lets me […]
Sourdough has long seemed like an unobtainable goal for me on the bread front. It seemed like a lot of work from babysitting the starter, the long rises and the scoring of the dough, etc. Decided to try it and see if we could be successful. The starter for the first loaf came from a freeze dried culture for the starter. It worked great and produced a very active starter (some days it blew the […]
With the shorter, colder days ahead, here’s some Ciabatta bread we made today! I was intrigued and challenged with the article by William Rubel in the most recent edition of Mother Earth News (December 2019/January 2020). I had always wanted to try making Ciabatta but was always a little intimidated by the end product. After all it looked like something that must be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. I was pleasantly surprised, the recipe […]
It’s that time of year again! The spiders are out in full force. I managed to get a couple of shots of one right outside the window!
The busy summer continues here in the Pacific Northwest. As other parts of the US are winding down in the garden department we are just now going strong with harvesting. Things have been crazy here this summer with more varieties of plants to try but more pest pressure than we have had in years past. The leaf miner battle with the spinach, chard and beets has been a battle of wills for sure. Next year […]
The last month in the garden has been eventful with everything really starting to grow and put on fruit. Really excited about all of the different varieties of tomatoes and peppers we are growing. There will be some surprises since we have no idea what the volunteer tomatoes actually are and some look really exotic at this point. There have also been some failures since the leaf miners destroyed my spinach and swiss chard and […]
First baby radishes from the garden yesterday! They are very tasty, can’t wait for all the ways we will use the crop this year! #Radishes #Gardening #PNW
