Our vegetable starts are ready to go home with you and be planted in your garden! We have tomatoes, onions, lettuces, peppers, cucumber, squash and spinach. Stop by the nursery this Friday or Saturday and get your garden started.
In our effort to interact/network with other businesses, Josh and I traveled south to Cottage Grove to visit Sustainable Agricultural Technologies, Inc. They specialize in vermicomposting (worm compost) and compost tea systems. Our friend, Michelle, works there and invited us down to see what was going on and see how we could use this in our business. The owner Bruce Elliott used to build destruction proof mailboxes. He grew tired of all the angry people calling to complain about the people who were smashing mailboxes and moved on to something new. Interested in vermicomposting, (worm composting) he called a guy in the San Juan Islands who built a worm bin called a worm wigwam
Now is a good time to prune and deadhead Rhododendrons. After the plants have finished blooming, deadhead the spent blossoms and prune the plant, if necessary. It’s also a good time to fertilize them too.
We're getting lots of calls and drop-in visitors with questions about damaged/sickly plants in their landscape. Just a few moments ago, we had a gal drop by this morning with branches from a dead plant. Let us put your minds at ease: You did not kill your plant. It is not your fault. Remember, we had a very tough winter with three days of subfreezing temps. It was very hard on all but the hardiest of plants.
Today is the day to add some structure to your garden. It is January and a good time to get in the larger plants that you may have forgotten about or neglected to plant in the fall. By structure in your garden I mean the larger plants that have a year round presence. If you are lacking a bit of piazza in your garden and notice it this month it may mean you need a few more plants that look great year round. It’s a sunny, balmy day here in Pleasant Hill, Oregon and a good day to pick out a few evergreens or maples or sweet osmanthus. A rhododendron or two will add this element, the evergreen leaves and the buds that are appearing now and a lighter green dimension to the plant, almost like an ornament, or how about some brilliant nandina, with the red foliage lighting up the green backdrop. If you are inclined to add more edible plants how about a blueberry or three, some blueberries you will find are evergreen and some of the deciduous varieties have brilliant stem colors in shades of red and bright green. A visit to a nursery will give you some ideas if you don’t already have one and you are welcome here to poke around in the ‘off season’ to fill up a place in your garden that needs a little January kick. We look forward to seeing you.
PHN Growers Blog 
