October to November is a great time to plant spring hardy bulbs such as tulips, crocus, daffodils, bulb irises and hyacinths, which provide explosive color during the otherwise dreary months of March and April.

These bulbs need several cold winter months to produce good roots. If you plant too late, in January or February, the bulbs won’t have enough time to produce a strong root system.

Buy the largest bulbs — solid, plump, firm — you can find to get the best blooms. Skip the bulbs in the bargain basement bin, and also avoid ones with soft spots, blemishes or mold. Once purchased, try to plant the bulbs as soon as you can. Otherwise, store them loosely in paper bags in your refrigerator or a cool and dry place.
Make sure you plant the bulbs in a location with good drainage. Most bulbs can’t tolerate wet feet and will rot. Add organic matter (compost or aged manure) to clay soils to improve drainage. Most spring bulbs require at least 5-6 hours of sun. Avoid planting them under large trees, where they won’t get enough sunlight.

Plant according to the size of the bulb. Generally, this means digging a hole about two to three times as deep as the bulb is wide. For small bulbs such as crocuses and snowdrops, dig a hole about 4-6 inches deep. Meanwhile, larger bulbs such as tulips, hyacinths and daffodils will need to be planted about 8 inches deep. Follow the directions on the package if available.

Mix good fertilizer (10-10-10 or bulb fertilizer) into the hole when you plant. A bit of bonemeal or blood meal, which are high in phosphorous, will also help the bulb develop good roots. Fertilize again in the spring when the shoots break through the ground, but don’t fertilize once they have started flowering. After the bulbs are in the ground, soak with water to allow the soil to settle.

In March, we wrote that the Woodland Park Zoo had to cancel the sale of the highly coveted popular Zoo Doo, or compost made from piles of poop from zoo animals, because tests found the piles were contaminated with an herbicide called chlorpyralid. Zoo officials traced the problem to some of the feeds they had been using and officials say they’ve curbed the problem by switching feeds and using a smaller supplier, according to this King 5 report. 

Gardeners who were disappointed by the lack of Zoo Doo earlier this year should be happy to learn that the zoo is making the prized poop available in a drawing this month. There’s less of it to go around, so the lottery will be even more competitive. The zoo is also making available “bedspread,” a composted mulch that’s much like Zoo Doo but contains higher amounts of wood and sawdust. Zoo officials say bedspread is an excellent fertile mulch for perennial beds and woody landscapes such as native gardens, rose beds, shrubs, tree rings or pathways.

To enter the drawing, send an entry card to the zoo from Sept. 11 to 25. The cards will be drawn at random and selected until supplies run out. If you’re selected, the zoo will contact you to pick up your compost piles between Oct. 9 and 25. Here’s how to enter: send one postcard per person (no phone calls) to Zoo Doo, Woodland Park Zoo, 601 N. 59th St., Seattle, WA  98103.  Include your name, day & evening phone numbers, whether you want Zoo Doo or Bedspread, how much you want (from a garbage bag to a pick-up truck load) and when you would like to pick it up. For more information, call the poop line at 206-625-POOP or visit at www.zoo.org.

Fall is the perfect time of year to plant trees, shrubs, perennials and ornamental grasses in the Pacific Northwest. Soils are warm — not too wet or too dry. Rains during this season help keep plants watered, requiring less of your attention. Plants also suffer less stress when you transplant them during the cooler autumn season. 

Check out the free seminars held at Seattle nurseries this month to help you get motivated in your garden through the fall and winter months.

The first seminar, “Fall into Lazy Gardening,” takes place Saturday, Sept. 12, 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Molbak’s, 13625 NE 175th St, Woodinville (425) 483-5000. Learn what to plant this year for less maintenance and more color all year long. Replace fussy, high water-use plants with better behaved trees, shrubs and perennials. Next summer you’ll use less water and enjoy more leisure time. 

“Shrink Your Lawn, Grow Your Garden” takes place Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 to 11 a.m. at Swansons Nursery, 9701 15th Ave NW, Seattle (206) 782-2543. Tired of spending time, money and effort to maintain your lawn? Want to add color to your landscape and invite wildlife into your yard? Learn how to convert some or all of your lawn into a beautiful landscape featuring native plants and attractive perennials. You’ll be amazed how your newly converted landscape will be packed with birds and keep pests in check.

“Jazz Up Your Garden with a Fall Makeover ” takes place Saturday, Sept. 26, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Sky Nursery, 18528 Aurora Ave N. (206) 546-4851. Learn how to have beauty every month of the year. This seminar will include garden design, plant selection and proper planting techniques. Fall is a great time to renovate your garden.  

If you’ve been interested in learning to how build a rain garden, the city of Bothell is hosting two free rain garden workshops on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 7-9 p.m. or  Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m. to noon at the Bothell Police Community Room (18410 101st Ave. NE, Bothell). No registration is necessary.

What are rain gardens? They’re simply shallow depressions in the soil landscaped with perennial flowers and native vegetation that soak up rainwater and slow the flow of runoff into our lakes, streams and other water bodies.

Why is this important? Rain gardens, along with other tools such as rainwater harvesting, compost-amended soils among others, can help filter out pollutants such as grease, pesticides, oils, fertilizers and others before they flow into storm drains and then drain untreated into our waters. Residents can create a rain garden on their property and divert the stormwater from their roof, driveway, or sidewalk to this garden. Another benefit of doing so is to slow the flow of runoff and help prevent flooding, while also increasing the amount of water that seeps into the ground and recharges local groundwater.

Here’s a comprehensive booklet on rain gardens by Washington State University Pierce County Extension. And a brochure on rain gardens and how to build one.

Every year, thousands of pounds of fruit fall to the ground and rot. Homeowners who grow apples, plums, cherries, pears or other fruit often find that they can’t keep up with their fruit harvest, and they can only give away so much of their bounty to neighbors and co-workers.

The Seattle Times has a good story in today’s newspaper about a volunteer group called City Fruit that helps homeowners deal with the overabundance of fruit growing on their trees. City Fruit offers an added twist — helping homeowners better care for their fruit trees, including how to deal with worms, proper pruning and other tree tips. The Times writes:

City Fruit goes beyond harvesting by offering homeowners instruction in pruning, pest control and harvesting as well as workshops in canning or jam making. The organization also hopes to create a neighborhood network so that anyone seeking harvesting help or workshop information can consult its Web site for citywide options…

There are plenty of groups in Seattle that help homeowners harvest fruit and deliver them to food banks, so there’s no excuse for letting those juicy apples or pears fall to the ground and rot. Solid Ground, a nonprofit in Fremont, for example, runs the Community Fruit Tree Harvest. The group posts a list of food banks and other programs that will accept fruit in 2009 (PDF).  You can sign up as a volunteer to scout neighborhood fruit trees that can potentially be harvested, provide storage for fruit or picking buckets or be “on call” to harvest fruit in your neighborhood.  You can also organize your own harvest party and donate your fruit by calling Seattle Tilth’s Garden hotline at 206-633-0224 or email help@gardenhotline.org).

1. This is the month to enjoy the fruits of your labor in the garden. You get to harvest ripe vegetables, including tomatoes, zucchini, beans, cucumbers, and potatoes.

'sweet success' cucumber ready to be picked

2. Fertilize strawberries after harvesting for good fruit production next spring.

3. Feed, water, deadhead annuals. Continue to deadhead (remove spent flowers) on roses, Shasta daisies, coneflowers, cosmos and other plants. Lavender that has finished blooming can be cut back by about one-third.

4. Don’t forget to deep water trees and plants in containers during stretches of hot weather. August is typically a dry month with little rainfall. Plants in containers tend to dry out faster and need more water, so keep careful watch over them.

So your vegetable plants are growing luscious and green and are producing a fair amount of flowers, but for some reason you’re not getting fruit set. No pumpkins, squash, ears of corn or tomatoes. What’s going on? A key problem is pollination. Your plant either hasn’t been pollinated at all, or has been insufficiently pollinated.

Cucumbers, melons and squash have both male and female blossoms on the same plant (with the exception of some varieties). The female blossom must be pollinated by the male ones in order for fruit to set; only the female blossoms produce fruit. The first blossoms you’ll see are male (they have thin straight stems), to be followed by the female (usually further out on the vine, larger and have an undeveloped fruit at their base — it looks like a little bulbous thing). These plants rely on bees to pollinate. Bees do such important work in our vegetable gardens, so try to avoid insecticides where possible and plant flowers throughout to invite them into your garden. (See our earlier post on bee-friendly gardens).

If you have a lot of blossoms but no fruit, you can wait for the bees to do their thing, or you can take matters into your own hands. Here’s some advice from the Spokane County WSU extension program:

To hand pollinate vine crops, locate the male blossoms.  Break off several from the plant and peel back the petals.  Note the pollen on the inside of the blossom.  Gently push the pollen into the female blossoms with a paintbrush, a feather, or the male blossom itself.  This should insure a good crop.

There are a lot of great gardens to check out this Saturday at the Rainier Valley garden tour. It takes place Saturday, August 22, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $7 per person.

The tour includes highlights such as the Brandon Street Orchard, a former blackberry-ridden dumping ground has been turned into an urban oasis with plenty of fruit for all of the neighbors, and the Angel Morgan P-Patch & Sitting Park,. a year-round, multicultural, wheelchair-accessible garden with espalier fruit trees, berry patch, rock garden.

Learn about different kinds of cistern systems, how they work, and what cistern makes sense for you. Find out more about  honey bees from an expert, and see an example of good “dogscaping,” landscaping that takes into account your dog’s paths and lifestyle.

For anyone who has watched a tree being cut down in their neighborhood and bemoaned the loss of tree canopy, new regulations are underway in the city of Seattle to tighten the rules around tree-cutting. The exact specifics haven’t been ironed out yet — like whether a permit is required to cut down a tree — but the Seattle City Council passed two measures earlier this month that provide some measure of protection for trees. (Both the Seattle Times and seattlepi.com covered the issue).

One resolution asks the city’s planning department to come up with tree-cutting rules by May 2010. Currently, private property owners can cut down three trees without having to get a permit. The rules may consider fines for improper tree-cutting and incentives for keeping trees intact during development. The second ordinance establishes an Urban Forestry Commission that includes scientists, a developer and tree advocates.

We’ve had an unusually fair amount of sun and hot weather this summer in the Pacific Northwest, and my vegetables have survived solely because they’ve been on a drip irrigation system. Drip irrigation systems are a must for the lazy gardener, which I clearly am. I set the automated timer and forget about it; the plants get watered in the early morning every few days like clockwork. It’s made a huge difference in how the vegetables in my garden have fared. The tomatoes and pumpkins (pictured to the right) that are in the part of the garden where I have established a drip system are doing great; the potatoes that aren’t on the drip system, however, are struggling this season because of my neglect.

A drip system applies water slowly and directly to a plant’s roots. It not only saves time, but reduces soil erosion, water use, fertilizer and pesticide runoff and water loss due to evaporation. It also decreases diseases such as powdery mildew.

I’m not going to lie and say setting up a system is easy breezy. It takes a fair amount of planning and design (and at least one or two trips back to the hardware store). But once you get it installed, you’ll find that you can’t live without it. Start with a small system if you’re unsure of how to proceed, or buy a ready-to-go kit (like this Raindrip kit sold at Lowe’s) that has all the components you’ll need. One brand, Rainbird, has a helpful Web site with instruction booklets to help you decide what parts you need, how much hose you need and so on. The folks at our TruValue Hardware in West Seattle were helpful with answering questions; so check with your local hardware store for advice.