And The Winner Is….

Sharon Johnson!

Thank you to everyone that entered the drawing for two tickets to the 2013 Boise Garden Tour.

Congratulations Sharon! You can pick up your two tickets at the Idaho Botanical Garden Will Call station before June 23rd. Have a great time and a great garden season. Keep us posted on your Verbascum success!

Everybody else that is checking in today, don’t forget the Boise Garden Tour (June 23, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. rain or shine) will feature 7 unique gardens (including the BLM Firewise Garden) that will fuel inspiration and creativity for your own garden endeavors.

And, be on the lookout for the charismatic Ciscoe Morris during the tour. He is a most enjoyable person and will gladly answer a garden question.

Finally, thank you for dropping by igardendaily and feel free to stay in touch sharing your comments and garden successes/challenges throughout the year. One of the best things about gardening is learning from others!

Boise Garden Tour Springs To Life; Enter To Win Tickets Here

Early summer in Boise, ID is the right time for a garden tour. There has been just enough warm weather to bring out wonderful perennial blooms, well-root the bold tropicals, engage the flower power of annuals and the vegetable gardens are looking most palatable. It is the perfect time to get out and do some walking and talking… I mean strolling and ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ in lovely locales that are sure to please the senses.

Yes, the Boise Garden Tour (June 23, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. rain or shine) is held at the perfect time to enjoy some leisurely outdoor fun. Grab a friend and spend several relaxed hours meandering thru botany-based creativity, maybe packing a camera or journal and visiting with excited garden keepers ready to share their tips. Be prepared to be inspired!

If you have never participated in this local event, (in its 26 years) this is a great year to start. The tour is well-mapped including six homes on Boise’s East End within a 2 mile radius of each other as well as a trip to the Bureau of Land Management’s Firewise garden adjacent to the Idaho Botanical Garden. Now who can’t use a bit more information on firewise plants and planting techniques?

And especially fun this year is a visit from Seattle garden celebrity Ciscoe Morris! He is SO knowledgeable, entertaining and stimulating you can’t dare miss him! And yes, he knows plants well enough to give ideas and advice on growing even here in our dry, hot-summer climate!

Between you and me…don’t miss him on the tour because you’ll be mad afterwards that you have to make a trip all the way to Seattle to see what all the local gardeners are raving about!

Gardening Is Fun; Giveaways are Great!

With the wonderful support of the Idaho Botanical Garden and in the spirit of gardening is fun, social and educational, igardendaily is holding a drawing to give away two tickets to the 2013 Boise Garden Tour on June 23rd.

To enter the igardendaily Garden Tour ticket drawing just leave a comment at the bottom of this post or on the igardendaily FaceBook page post naming your favorite plant (any ornamental or edible) to grow in Southern Idaho. Or, if new to gardening, the plant you are most excited to grow.

Make sure your identity is easily distinguished in case you are the winner! If you want to provide details of why a plant is your favorite, please do! Let’s get some good ‘garden speak’ going!

The ticket giveaway drawing can be entered starting June 5th thru midnight, June 12th. Drawing will be held on June 13 and winner announced June 14th.

The Idaho Botanical Garden is an amazing community resource and the Garden Tour benefits many of its programs throughout the year. For more information on the 2013 Garden Tour call: 208-343-8649 or go to http://www.idahobotanicalgarden.org

Garden Favorite: Spring Greens

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Spring greens are the favorite in the garden at the moment. They have grown into a rich bounty of reds and greens offering up a delicious fresh, light flavor.

Our current “greens” menu consists of butter lettuce, red romaine lettuce, gourmet salad mix from Johnny’s Select Seeds, arugula, kale, and broccoli rabe. French Breakfast radishes are joining the greens with a sweet crunch!

So many salads – some new, some old, but all very tasty!

I’m also trying my hand at preparing the broccoli rabe as it’s own side. I grew a dense container of this cool season edible and although it was beautiful, it probably should have been thinned a bit to produce bigger florets. However, since the leaves are edible, I decided to go for density.

Mixed results in preparing it as a side means I have yet to perfect the cooking method and time. So far, I’ve blanched it for 1-2 minutes, dunked it an ice bath to stop the cooking and then warmed it again in a skillet with some toasty butter and garlic. The result is good flavor but an overcooked texture. I wonder if wilting over steam and then tossing with some warmed butter or olive oil and garlic would provide an enhanced experience? I hope to get another cutting to try again!

How about you? Are you enjoying greens from the garden? What is your favorite harvest so far? Are you an expert chef on brocolli rabe? If so, feel free to share a tip!

Free Contentment Offered at Public Gardens Today

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Go on, cancel your morning….bag your lunch meeting….or change your afternoon plans and get to a public garden. Today is the one day this year you can stroll amongst a treasured public garden of your liking for FREE! Today is National Public Gardens day!

A beautiful Spring day is made into a GREAT Spring day when you grab a friend, lover or family mate and spend a short while in your community’s garden. Or, if traveling, a different community’s garden.

Fresh shades of green every which way, the smell of worked earth and spring blooms and the grandeur of mature plants and trees that have been around much longer than yourself are

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh… RELAXING. Peaceful too.

And it feels good to find some contentment on a beautiful Spring day. To just be in a spot that somehow makes one feel grounded and optimistic about the world, when so many things can make us feel overwhelmed, dull and discouraged about the world.

So today, go find yourself a little slice of contentment with a visit to a favorite public garden.

For local readers, here are some Spring photos of the Idaho Botanical Garden in Boise that is celebrating National Public Gardens day.

You could be sitting here…

…and gazing at this…

…or this…

…or go for a stroll on a lovely path

…and have this centaurea catch your eye

...next thing you know your at the fabulous new (installed this week) entrance to the Children's garden...

…next thing you know you’re at the fabulous new (installed this week) entrance to the Children’s garden…

A Difficult Start, But Plants & Gardeners Don’t Give in Easily

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April has come and gone and this means we are at mid-Spring. For a quick recap of early Spring I’ll write one word – ‘difficult‘. Difficult for gardeners anyway, (farmers too I’m betting) and who’s been waiting longer or more anxiously for its arrival!

The primary problem with this early Spring (around Boise, ID ) has been the wind, the drought and the freezing. Oh, I said problem? I meant problems – in plural form!

Well sure, it’s not unusual to have some wind and intermittent freezing during early spring but combining these challengers with almost no moisture takes a toll on a garden and of course the garden keeper.

In this part of the Intermountain West we only get an average of 11.5-12 inches of rain per year. So when a month skips its normal rainfall, we notice! That month was March and we missed about an inch of precipitation leaving us with very dry conditions. Statistically, we are 1.66 inches below normal precipitation since the beginning of 2013. It might not sound like a lot, but remember we are talking about a maximum of 12 inches per year. Nothing like the 36 inches of rain our neighbors in the Pacific Northwest experience.

Enough of the stats, just think about this…if you were outside trying to grow beautiful it would be difficult with wind blowing you in every direction every other day. Then the night cold arrives and it is so deep that you are left with no resort but to bow down and try to make it thru till morning. And remember there’s no water as a refresher – just more wind.

Now, that is what it’s been like for all the plants in my garden. Difficult.

Thinking about it from another perspective, it is amazing how many plants don’t give in and survive the challenges day after day. (The same can be said for the motivation of die-hard gardeners I suppose.) So even though the garden has gone through most unfavorable conditions this Spring I have a few highlights to share.

First, korean spice viburnum. A little shrub that I keep in a pot went from this to this in just a couple of days sharing its wonderful fragrance whenever I would pass by.

The one and only ‘Forest Pansy’ redbud (cercis canadensis) tree that survived the winter is surviving spring with its beautiful tiny blooms going from this to this.

The one shower we received in April did make for some very happy tulips! My bright ‘Orange Queens’ really loved the rain and seemed so happy that day!

I was also impressed with tulip ‘Hakuun’, planted in February in a pot and the raised beds. ‘Hakuun’ turned out to be quite a sturdy performer even in difficult conditions. I cut some from the raised bed to enjoy them inside as well.

Tulip ‘Purple Prince’ was happier under the crabapple tree rather than in pots. Here is a shot of its fleeting appearance.

New lily flowering tulips ‘Purple Dream’ in the garden. Too cold for them to fully open but I love their elegant shape.

And for my final highlight – glorious greens! Every die-hard gardener knows a few tricks to deal with unfavorable elements and I was able to overcome my challengers and grow a gorgeous bin of greens.

Arrugula and brocolli rabe went crazy in my steel planter while being protected by floating row cover. Mark one up for the gardenkeeper for not giving in to the difficult early Spring!

How about you? How has your Spring started? A favorable start with many highlights or some difficulties?

To see other gardens and what happened in April join Helen at The Patient Gardener’s Weblog.

Sow what?

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Sow what you like, that’s what!

Early spring is a great time to sow vegetable or flower seeds outside in raised beds or container gardens. Raised beds and/or containers enable the soil to warm faster so you can sow earlier. If you want to double-check that your soil is ready, use a soil or compost thermometer to make sure it is in the germination range of the plants you want to grow.

Lots of people now have raised beds or container gardens for growing food as this has been a popular trend over the last several years. If you happen to be wondering what to do with your raised bed in its second or third year of production, read on. A couple of simple steps and you’ll be on your way to seeding.

The first thing I do with my raised beds each Spring is weed. Weed seeds blow in during late Fall and Winter and these guys always get a headstart on growing so there are always some to pull by the time I arrive on the scene.

Once the weeds are out, I add about 2-3 inches of compost to the top of the bed and work it in with a hand spade. This year I used a bagged product from a local garden store that is being sold as a specific amendment for raised beds. I liked that it is organic, available in a good size (2.2 cubic feet) and contained a balanced ratio of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – the essential nutrients.

Now it’s time to sow or plant or both! In my first bed I placed an obelisk in the middle and sowed sugar snap peas around the base. Then I planted some lettuce starts (picked up at a local nursery) around the outside of the peas.

This pairing should workout nicely for Spring/early Summer and when danger of frost has passed I’ll place a tomato plant in the middle spot underneath the obelisk and then use the obelisk as a support for the tomato as it grows. When the hot weather arrives, the lettuce can be replaced with peppers, basil and other herbs.

Well that didn’t take long! The peas (planted last week) have started to sprout!

I’ve also been sowing arugula, broccoli rabe, beets, kale and a salad mix in some other raised beds. As you may have guessed, I really enjoy eating homegrown greens.

And in another 6 weeks or so…we’ll be full on into what I claim is our “salad season” meaning most dinners consist of single entrée that is some type of salad that can be eaten as a meal. Think taco salad, grilled kale caesar salad, chinese chicken salad, greek salad, etc… Of course, I’ll get some groans and moans from my kids but they eventually come around to eating fresh! (I’ll share a couple of yummy salad recipes in May.)

How about you? Do you grow in raised beds? If so, what do you like to sow? Have you ever tried grow bags as a container?

Flower and Garden Shows: What’s Not To Like!

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I had the opportunity a few weeks back to leave Winter behind and head to Seattle for a sneak peek of Spring at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. Oh what fun it was!

Not only did I get to spend some time with a great friend but together we enjoyed fantasy gardening at its best, ascertained advice, tricks, and tips from well-known garden gurus and walked aisles of plants, garden decor, bulbs, seeds, tools, growing aids, and other garden related products. Afterwards, we wrapped up the evenings with a little fantasy shopping (think flagship Nordstroms), some vino and fresh Foodie creations in a beautiful city… so tell me, what’s not to like!

Fantasy Fuels the Imagination – The gardens at garden shows are decadent. Whether it be plant combinations, interesting hardscape materials, furniture, lighting, water features or in many cases, all of the above, they present an outdoor setting that is completely perfect – just waiting for human presence. This is very alluring to the gardener’s soul and you can’t help but begin to think about how a bit of “the fantasy garden” can be transported to your outdoor area.

Of course, I know gardens of great magnitude can be expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to maintain. (I didn’t just stick my hands in the dirt for the first time yesterday, you know!) But these artful canvases are for exploring possibilities and just like any worthwhile passion, it is fun and exhilarating to spend time thinking BIG without boundaries and opening up to undiscovered possibilities. To me, this helps fuel the inspiration for makings changes in your garden and evolving as a gardener and even an individual.

Here are some shots of my favorite “fantasy gardens” all based on movies as the show was celebrating its 25th Anniversary and the theme was Silver Screen takes root…Gardens Go Hollywood.

Audrey’s Roman Holiday

Audrey’s Roman Holiday

California Dreamin’

Pillow Talk

Backyard Box Office

A Hobbit’s New Zealand Garden

IP Man

On the Road to Oz

Have A Seat and Learn Something New - O.K. say you have absorbed so much fantasy that although you live in a dry climate, you’re dreaming of creating a tropical garden and hiring a garden boy named Tatoo, it might be time to check out a garden seminar. The NWFG show offers a robust line up of seminars each day, featuring some of the gardening industry’s best-known experts.

This year I caught Helen Yoest on “Gardening with Confidence, Adding Your Style,” Ciscoe Morris on “Turning Your Garden Into A Wildlife Sanctuary: Attracting Birds and Butterflies” and Robin Stockwell on “Succulent Survival” in the Pacific Northwest.

Whew! A lot of great information and such badly self-written notes! Seriously, each seminar provided me with more knowledge on plants as well as new ideas to evolve my garden. I especially enjoyed Ciscoe Morris ( garden Superstar of Washington) as he injects a great deal of humor in his interactions and offers so much happy energy to the crowd. I was even lucky enough to pick up a copy of his book “Ask Ciscoe” and get it autographed. My new plant list for attracting hummingbirds to my garden is pretty cool too. And Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ you’re at the top!

Oh My! The Marketplace! – This part of a show can’t be missed and this is where after resting a bit in the seminar, you turn on the stored energy! It’s time to scour the hundreds of plants and garden accoutrements selecting your own personal “must haves” for the coming season. Here’s a small sample of some of the treasures I spotted. I even brought some of them home!

The Wrap Up: Garden shows are a grand event where one gets to see endless forms of creativity, learn about the latest trends, hear about the greatest plants, rub elbows with garden experts and experience the energy of a group of people who are excited about life and growing it! So really, what’s not to like?!

For Local Readers:

A little encouragement here to get to the upcoming Boise Flower And Garden Show being held this weekend at Boise Center starting Friday, March 22 – Sunday March 24. You can see the full line up of activities here. All of the fun you’ve just read about along with wrapping it up with some vino and fresh food (my favorites Fork or Red Feather) in a beautiful city can be yours this weekend!

Seasonal Celebrations at Gardens Eye View

Today I’m joining Donna@Gardens Eye View and her Seasonal Celebrations meme. One of the ways I celebrate the arrival of Spring is by attending at least one Flower and Garden Show. They provide just the right amount of celebration as the season begins to bring out my gardening best! Check out Donna’s blog to see how other folks celebrate the arrival of Spring.

igardendaily

For those that need a regular dose of garden speak, garden envy and garden variety…