A Grower Perspective

  I realize that I'm pretty easy to please and little things make me happy most of the time.  We were having a little get together at our home this weekend.  As I was sprucing things up, I realized our deck planters were looking pretty sad.  Towards the end of summer I had horribly neglected them and the endless heat of August and September had taken their toll.  I mentioned it to Dave and he kindly cleaned them up and replanted them.  When I came home, I was so happy to see what he had done.  

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I stopped in the Creswell Café yesterday afternoon for a treat of fruit salad.  Paul the owner popped in and we talked about how well his trees, from Pleasant Hill Nursery, were doing.  We talked quite a bit before he choose his six trees, discussing how to plant them, where they were to go and what varieties would be best for the site.  He came here, I went there, Dave delivered the trees and showed him how to remove them from the big pots. 

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 Now is the time to harvest and prune your lavender plants. What a fragrant job! For some folks this is the culmination of a year of growing and the harvest bringing in flowers, which then turn into sachets, bundles, wreaths and oils. For the home gardener it may mean filling the house with bouquets of sweet scent that will last throughout the winter as a reminder of the sunny summer days.

To prune lavender I use two tools, a hand scythe and hand hedge pruners. I harvest the flowers with the scythe and then shape

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If you want to read a great piece about creating stress-relieving outdoor spaces, check out this article in today's (7/23/09) Register-Guard's Home & Garden special section:

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  When is a good time to plant? This is a common question that I am asked by customers and random people at cookouts and dinner parties. Many people think that you only plant in fall or spring. In my experience this isn't the case. I have planted in July and August and the plants have grown and done well. If you plant in summer the key is to water the root ball once every three days to the point of saturation. I usually turn the hose on very low and lay it at the base of the plant and let it run for about an hour. This allows for a deep watering that will sustain the plant through the warm summer days. With a little fastidiousness you can plant when you are inspired and not by the seasons.

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