Skip to content
Elisabeth C. Miller Library

Archives: Garden Tips

Gardening tips and suggestions.

Garden Tip #166

Kitchen Garden from Great Britain is the only magazine devoted to growing fruits and vegetables. The glossy monthly magazine includes growing tips from readers, articles on growing techniques and new cultivars, plus a monthly feature on small-scale chicken rearing. Subscribe for a mere $55.00 dollars a year at their website, or read it for free at the Miller Library.

Garden Tip #98

Test your soil for Ph and nutrients before your next planting project. Our county extension service no longer tests soil. Soils and Soil Testing Information from the Miller Library has a list of places to send samples and how to collect them.

After you have your soil test analysis with its recommendations for 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre, use these handy conversion tables to convert that to your 100 square foot P-patch. Fifty other tables and formulas will help you convert just about anything you might need for the garden, including how much potting soil you will need to fill those 10″ flower pots. Conversion Tables, Formulas and Suggested Guidelines for Horticultural Use from the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Garden Tip #104

Daylily resources:

  • Daylilies for the Garden by Graeme Grosvenor (Timber, 1999) reveals all about care and culture, botany and describes hundreds of daylily cultivars with color photos.
  • The Puget Sound Daylily Club meets four times a year and maintains display gardens at the Ballard Locks and the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden. Members receive a newsletter. To join contact Gary Fanthorpe, 17933 Brittany Drive SW, Normandy Park, WA 98166
    thefuzzies@comcast.net
  • The American Hemerocallis Society reports the following daylilies are the most popular among members of the Northwest region: STRAWBERRY CANDY, CANADIAN BORDER PATROL and BETTY WARREN WOODS

Garden Tip #418

Alpine and rock garden plants are so cute with their pin-cushion growth habit and tiny, jewel-like flowers. The best way to try growing these specialty plants is in a container. Stone or hypertufa troughs are traditional, but any sturdy pot about 12″ deep with a hole in the bottom will do. The critical element for success is very well draining potting medium. Mix in plenty of pumice, perlite or gravel into bagged potting soil. Most alpine plants prefer full sun, but there are species for every light condition. Creating and Planting Garden Troughs by Rex Murfitt and Joyce Fingerut is a great book to get started with trough gardening.

Garden Tip #158

With foliage plants all the rage these days and drought tolerance a must, consider adding a few succulents to your garden. A new book by Yvonne Cave called Succulents for the Contemporary Garden (Timber Press, 2003) highlights many beautiful succulents that can grow outside in well draining soil. If you want to learn more about the wonderful world of cacti and succulents join a society: The Cascade Cactus and Succulent Society of Washington state meets once a month, usually at the Center for Urban Horticulture. Contact president Karen Summers, (206)365-0315 for details on joining, or go to their website. Also consider joining the Cactus and Succulent Society of America, which publishes an excellent bimonthly glossy magazine. Contact Mindy Fusaro, CSSA Treasurer, PO Box 2615, Pahrump, NV 89041-2615, (775)751-1320.

Garden Tip #110

By July it’s basil season again. If basil transplants are sulking it could be because they were planted too early in the season. This annual herb resents chilly night temperatures. If they don’t perk up with warm sunny weather just try again with new transplants. Plant basil in full sun in fertile, well drained soil. Pinch out the growing tips to encourage branching.

Garden Tip #109

Add old fashioned charm to your garden with hollyhocks (Alcea rosea). These stately and edible flowers grow up to seven feet tall in shades of red, pink, yellow and white. Technically biennial (growing leaves the first season, flowering the next summer, setting seed then dying), hollyhocks can be coaxed to flower a few more seasons if stopped from going to seed. The down side to growing hollyhocks is the potential for their leaves to look tattered from rust disease and weevil holes. Never mind – just plant them at the back of the boarder where only their flowers will show.

Here is a source for hollyhock seeds in single colors, plus growing information, pictures, history and lore.

Garden Tip #96

Ready for a truly drought tolerant garden? Plant hardy cactus and succulents. The only requirement for these plants is perfect drainage. Hardy succulents can die of rot in our winter wet. Overcome that challenge by building raised beds and mixing plenty of gravel and sand into the planting hole. The book Cacti and Other Succulents by Keith Grantham and Paul Klaassen (Timber press, $34.95) reports the following plants are good candidates for growing outside in the Pacific Northwest:

  • Cacti
    • Echinocereus triglochidiatus (hedgehog cactus)
    • Opuntia humifusa (prickly pear cactus)
    • Coryphantha vivipara (pincushion cactus)
  • Succulents
    • Delosperma cooperi (ice plant)
    • Calyptridium umbellatum (pussypaws)
    • Yucca
    • Agave paryi
    • Lewisia cotyledon
    • Sedum
    • Sempervivum.

Garden Tip #30

Urban gardeners can do their part to conserve natural resources and restore the environment. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service has adapted agricultural practices in a new online publication called Backyard Conservation. Ten “chapters” with detailed instructions show how to build a backyard pond or wetland, how to promote wildlife and how to manage nutrients to prevent pollution of lakes and streams.