We’ve gotten a fair amount of rain and wind in the Puget Sound recently, and even some snow in the mountains. It may not seem like it, but there’s still plenty to do in the garden.

1. This month is a great time to mulch the vegetable garden. Mulch will help prevent erosion, keep weeds at bay and insulate your plants during the cold weather.

2. Divide perennials such as shasta daisies, asters and rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans).

rudbeckia

3. Fertilize lawns late in the month to keep it green through the winter.

4. There’s still time to plant spring bulbs, such as tulips, daffodils and hyacinths.

5. Cut raspberry canes.

6. Continue to plant or transplant perennials, shrubs and trees. Winter months provide ideal conditions for planting new shrubs and trees.

7. Rake leaves and add them to your compost pile, or use them to mulch your landscape beds. Leaves could be piled two to three inches high; over time, they’ll break down and add nutrients to the soil. Avoid using leaves of trees with diseases, or broadleaf evergreens such as rhododendron and laurel (since they take a long time to break down).

8. Avoid heavily pruning roses now. Wait until late February for major pruning. Protect roses by removing leaves, or letting the roses form seeds, or hips.

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.

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.

Growing herbs indoors or outdoors is one of the most economical benefits of having a garden. Some herbs are no-brainers, like rosemary, Italian parsley, oregano and mint, because they require very little attention and buying sprigs of those herbs can be expensive. Other herbs such as basil and cilantro are a bit more finicky, but not impossible.

oregano

Most herbs require some amount of pinching/pruning to keep them full and happy. Make it a regular part of your harvest and it won’t seem like work at all. I regularly cut back rosemary, mint, parsley and basil as I need it, but sometimes even when I don’t. I want to keep the plants full and bushy.

Rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano and savory can tolerate dry conditions. They’re also great low-maintenance plants for your landscape because they require little water. Basil, lemon balm, dill need a bit more moisture. Mint likes wet soil, and should be planted in containers to prevent them from taking over your garden.

Here are some other tips to growing herbs:

Basil: Likes sun! Pinch out stems to create side shoots, and encourage full, bushy growth. Keep the plants well picked. When flowering starts, pinch off each flowering shoot and the leaf pair directly below. This Oregonian article has a good illustration of where to cut.

Cilantro: Perfect herb for Northwest climates because it doesn’t like hot weather. Cilantro prefers cool but sunny conditions. Too hot and it bolts (flowers). The flowers produce coriander seeds, which are also used in cooking. I seeded some a few weeks after I planted my peas earlier this spring, and have periodically re-seeded it with good success. Great for that guacamole!

Parsley: This herb is easy to grow from seed, but are readily available as starts.

rosemary

Regularly prune parsley and don’t allow them to go to seed. Trim large stems every so often.

Rosemary: A must have in the northwest.  Regularly prune rosemary, cutting off about a quarter or so, to prevent the plant from growing woody. Rosemary loves full sun, and can tolerate dry conditions nicely. In my opinion, you can’t prune rosemary too hard.

There are some great plant sales coming up in the next few weeks. We want to call your attention to two sales in Seattle in early May.

As Master Gardeners, both Andy and I will be volunteering to help the Master Gardener Foundation of King County with its annual plant sale. There’s a huge selection of annuals, perennials, vegetables, trees and more. Many are grown by local master gardeners, while some professional nurseries will also be on hand to sell their goods. Proceeds go toward paying for the Master Gardener clinics, demonstration gardens, youth programs and more. The Master Gardener Plant Sale is May 2-3, 2009 at the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture, 3501 NE 41st St, Seattle. Hours are Saturday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

If you’re into growing vegetables, head to the Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale that same weekend. I’ll be volunteering to help out with this sale, which offers the largest selection of organically and sustainably grown vegetable starts in Seattle. You’ll find over 50 varieties of tomatoes and 20 varieties of peppers, rare and heirloom veggie varieties, an extensive selection of culinary herbs, edible flowers, and drought tolerant perennials. The list of starts includes ‘Fairy Tale’ eggplant, lemon cucumbers, golden midget watermelon, ‘Cajun Delight’ okra, ‘Gypsy’ sweet peppers and much more. Find the lists of items on sale here. The sale is May 2-3, 2009 at Meridian Park in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N. Open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday & Sunday.

If you need help finding the right plant to fit into your Seattle landscape, Ecoyards is here to help. We love assisting clients to find the right perennials, trees, even edible plants, to incorporate into an existing landscape or add to a newly-designed landscape. Email us or give us a call at 206-770-7879.

You wouldn’t know it’s April, given the snow and cold weather we’ve been having lately. Despite that, daffodils and forsythia are strutting their stuff, tulips are poking through the cold ground, cherry blossoms are in full bloom, and we just noticed some blooming trillium deep in the woods of Schmitz Park in West Seattle.

Now is a good time to walk around your yard and give your landscape a good once-over: What plants are going well and where? What plants should be moved so they thrive better? Could you add a paver patio or walkway to your landscape to make it easier for people to move through it, or add interest to your landscape?

Here’s what else you can do in the garden this month:

1. Finish cleaning your garden by pulling weeds while they’re still young.

2. Plant annual seeds of asters, cosmos, marigolds, zinnias.

3. Plant cool season crops such as peas, lettuce, radish, and broccoli through seeds or transplants.

4. Fertilize raspberries with ammonium sulfate to lower the soil pH, just as bud swell begins. Apply about 3/4 to 1 pound of ammonium sulfate per 100 feet of row. Give blueberries a spring application of a balanced fertilizer such as 5-10-10.

5. April is Arbor Month so it’s a good time to plant trees. The second Wednesday of the month, or April 8 this year, is the official Arbor Day in Washington state.

6. Plant strawberries, which you should be able to find bare-rooted in most nurseries this time of year. Give strawberries a sunny spot and good drainage and they’ll produce for you for three to five years. Weed the bed, work in a good amount of compost or manure and about 4 pounds of 5-10-10 fertilizer per 100 square feet.

7. Shear winter flowering heather after it blooms.

8. Prune forsythia once it is done flowering.

The weekend brought a fair amount of snow to the lowland areas of the Puget Sound, but there was still enough breaks of sunshine and warmth to think about starting your vegetable garden.

This is a great time to plant some cool season crops, or vegetable plants that are best suited for cooler temperatures, an average of 50 to 65 degree F. Cool season crops include beets, lettuce, collards, radish, peas, leeks and spinach and others. They’re grown in the spring or fall, and often don’t thrive during the warmer summer months (they’ll bolt, which means they’ll go to flower, leaving you with a bitter crop).

By contrast, warm season crops shouldn’t be planted until later because those crops require warmer temperatures to thrive. These crops includes tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, squash and corn. In the Puget Sound, warm season crops generally shouldn’t be planted until mid-May. If planted too early in soil that is cold and damp, these seeds won’t grow well and may not set fruit for a long while.

I recommend growing vegetables in raised beds, wherever possible. Your bed could be as simple as a large mounded pile of soil, or as fancy as one made from cedar boards or, as pictured to the left, made from RomanStack blocks. Raised beds help drain water better and warms the soil up quicker so that you can extend your planting season. It helps keep weeds out of the bed, and prevents your soil from becoming too compacted from excess foot traffic. Ecoyards has made several lovely raised beds for clients, including the one pictured at left.

The soil in my cedar raised beds is much warmer than elsewhere in my landscape, so I went out this afternoon, added organic matter to the beds (compost and a little alfalfa meal) and dug it into the soil. I was ready to plant. I planted peas (‘Cascadia’ and ‘Sugar Snap’) spinach (‘Olympia),  radishes and a gourmet blend of lettuce from seed. I also transplanted some collards and broccoli that I picked up at Swanson’s Nursery.

Here are some cool-season crops that you can start outdoors from seed: radish, swiss chard, beets, mustard greens, onions, parsnips and spinach. Here are the cool-season crops that do best when started indoors and transplanted (or you can pick up vegetable starts at a local nursery): cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts and celery.

Western Washington University Extension has some great resources for all aspects of gardening.

There’s an old saying in the Northwest that says you should  plant peas by President’s Day. But if you haven’t gotten around to it, March is a great time to do it. (April is fine, too, but by then try to plant virus-resistant varieties. Peas grown in warmer weather are susceptible to pea enation, a virus transmitted by aphids that appear once the weather warms up).

Peas are a cool season crop that, for me, signals the start of the active vegetable gardening season. They thrive in the Northwest — provided they get sun and are planted in well-drained soil.

Sugar snap peas are a given in my garden. I like “Cascadia” snap peas, an enation-resistant variety developed at Oregon State University.  (Read more here). The peas grow on short vines and produce thick, juicy, sweet pods. “Sugar Snap” is another favorite variety of mine, but since they grow 6 feet tall, they need a strong trellis system. The pods are especially sweet and taste great plucked right off the vine. (Territorial Seed Co. in sells both varieties, and their packets can be found at most Northwest nurseries.

Read more about growing your own peas and beans here.