Posts by Toby Madrone
Pest Prevention: Stop Problems Before They Start
For natural pest prevention, early spring is the time to start!
Read MoreHarvest Season is Every Season: Don’t Miss These Early Bonus Crops
Most of us have been trained to think in terms of linear systems, and new vegetable gardeners often start out trying to garden in a straight line: plant in the spring, water through the summer, harvest in the fall, wait out the winter, then purchase new seeds or seedlings and start over. There’s a lot…
Read MoreGardening with Kids: How to Grow Lifelong Gardeners
If you are a gardener, or even an aspiring gardener, and you have children in your life, you have a wonderful opportunity to pass along your passion for tending the soil to the next generation. Introducing kids to gardening can inspire a lifelong appreciation for the natural world, not to mention helping kids develop healthy…
Read MoreGrowing Resilience: Garden Planning for a Changing Climate
Help your garden thrive in the face of climate change while contributing to community climate resilience.
Read MoreNatural Slug & Snail Management
Ah, springtime in the garden. Bulbs are blooming, bumblebees are buzzing, and mollusks are slowly stirring beneath the mulch. Wait…. what? Slugs and snails — land-based cousins of marine mollusks like clams — are very much part of our garden ecosystems. Like most of the small animals that call our gardens home, they spend the…
Read More5 Weeds 5 Ways
As you prepare your beds for spring planting, you may find yourself yanking out a whole lot of green stuff. From dandelions to shot-weed, uninvited guests proliferate in our gardens before we have even finished sketching out our garden plans. These hardy wild plants earn their unsavory reputations as “weeds” because they tend to shoulder…
Read MoreIndoor Plants & Pets
You may have heard that indoor plants and pets don’t mix. Depending on what you’ve been reading, you might even have given up on the whole idea of house plants for fear of poisoning your fur-babies. While we definitely believe in being cautious about toxic plants, we’d like to offer a more optimistic perspective. Keep…
Read MoreSoil Acidity in the PNW
Have you heard that you need to “sweeten” your soil, that you should check your soil pH, or that your soil might be too acidic? Many gardeners have heard about soil acidity or soil pH, but not many of us really understand what it means. It’s an important topic. No matter what else you do,…
Read MoreSquirrels: Garden Friend or Foe?
Squirrels: adorable backyard wildlife, or pesky garden pest? It’s a hot debate in some gardening circles, and consensus may not come anytime soon. In polls, squirrels top lists of everyone’s favorite urban wildlife… and they also top lists of the most annoying pests. But whether you view squirrels as fluffy friends, problem pests, or admirable…
Read MoreWhy Botanical Names Matter
Have you tangled with botanical names yet in your gardening adventures? Chances are that you have, even if you weren’t aware of it at the time! Whether you’ve planted a Hydrangea, Petunia, or Hosta, you’ve at least brushed shoulders with the world of botanical names. Some gardeners are passionate about botanical names. Others see them…
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