BLOG
Langley Fine Gardens Pt. 1 – Early Spring Favorites
| Landscaping & Design
Sky Nursery has always been proud to partner with a rich community of local growers offering high-quality plants raised by and for our Pacific Northwest climate. You can check out ...
USDA Zone Changes – How Does this Affect NW Gardeners?
| Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening, Uncategorized
On November 15, 2023, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued an update to its Hardiness Zone Map, moving the Shoreline/North Seattle area from Zone 8b to 9a. The ...
Camellias – Types & Great Varieties at Sky for 2024
| Landscaping & Design, Uncategorized
The camellia is the acknowledged queen of Seattle's winter gardens. Camellias can grow into regal and commanding twenty-foot shrubs if you give them the room and time, or you can ...
New Rose Varieties – 2024
| Landscaping & Design, Uncategorized
Looking to buy a rose from Sky Nursery? Once a year in February, we receive HUGE deliveries of over 300 rose varieties, including David Austin, Hybrid Tea, Floribunda, Grandiflora, Shrub, ...
Don’t Fear The Fungi
| Garden Science, Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening, Soil Health
By Gina Jones Here Come the Mushrooms With our long hot summers we almost forget what rain feels like! But now along with the fall rains, comes the mushrooms. Several ...
Winter Bird Watching & Care in the Pacific Northwest
| Wildlife in the Garden
One of the greatest joys of a PNW garden in the colder months of the year is getting to observe winter bird species from the coziness of your own home. ...
Sky Staff Favorites for Fall: What Can I Plant Now?
| Landscaping & Design
As things quiet down and we settle in for the wet season ahead, we're taking a little time to share a short list of the perfect fall plants to fill ...
Japanese Maples: Our Favorites for Fall 2022
| Landscaping & Design
Japanese maples are a diverse family of deciduous trees, adored for their beautiful foliage and graceful structure. There is huge variation in height, growth form, leaf shape, foliage coloring, and ...
How to Plant in the Summer (Without Killing Your Plants)
| Natural Gardening
The best transplanting weather is cool and wet, but sometimes there are good reasons to plant during hot and dry weather. In the Pacific Northwest where we regularly experience ...
The Dance of the Veggies P2: Crop Rotation
| Edible Gardening
Many gardeners have heard that crop rotation is a good idea, but there's a lot of confusion out there over how to make it happen. Especially when you're working with ...
The Dance of the Veggies P1: Succession Planting
| Edible Gardening
What is Succession Planting? Simply put, succession planting means growing more than one crop, or growing several rounds of the same crop, in the same space within the same year. ...
Whispers of Spring: Early Flowers to Brighten Gray Days
| Landscaping & Design
As the clouds part and the sun begins to peek through, we can't help but look ahead to the bright blooms and lush greenery of summer. It can be so ...
Seeds at Sky: Local, Organic, Sustainable & Beyond
| Edible Gardening, Garden Science, Natural Gardening
It's time to think about seeds! Here in the Pacific Northwest, many vegetable and summer flower seeds can be sown indoors starting in February to get a jump start on ...
A Gardener’s Winter Solstice
| Natural Gardening, Wildlife in the Garden
On the winter solstice, the northern hemisphere will be at its furthest tilt from the sun. We'll mark our shortest day and longest night of 2021 here in the Pacific ...
Gardening for Dinosaurs: Paleozoic Plants for Today
| Garden Science, Uncategorized
When you think of a classic garden, you might picture an impressionist painting. But let's try turning the clock just a little further back… or, you know, like 300,000,000 years ...
Pumpkin Passion: Delicious Recipes for Sky Squash
| Edible Gardening
Every year in October, a good part of the Sky greenhouse becomes an all out festive fall pumpkin patch! We source organic and sustainably grown pumpkins, gourds, and squash from ...
Plants for a Haunted Halloween Garden
| Landscaping & Design
Some gardens are spooky year round! Bloodgood Japanese Maple Two very special seasons collide in our October gardens. Of course, we're talking about fall planting season, and spooky season! Now ...
The Fall Garden Fashion Show
| Landscaping & Design
While spring and summer boast plenty of blooms, one could argue that the real fashion show belongs to autumn. In our Pacific Northwest fall gardens, flowers give way to colorful berries ...
Pest Damage ID Part 3: Who’s destroying my garden?
| Edible Gardening, Natural Gardening, Wildlife in the Garden
Creepy crawlies may come to mind first when we think about garden pests, but birds and mammals can sometimes cause us even more trouble. Damage from smaller critters might look ...
Pest Damage ID Part 2: Who’s Discoloring My Leaves?
| Edible Gardening, Garden Science, Natural Gardening
Pest damage isn't always as obvious as holes in your leaves. In our last pest damage ID post, we covered the most common insect pests that chew or rasp away ...
Celebrate Summer: Inspiration for Garden Gatherings
| Edible Gardening, Natural Gardening
A garden party of any size can be a wonderful way to celebrate the season of abundance. Many of us are yearning for a little jubilation now more than ever, ...
Natural Pest Management for Indoor Plants
| Indoor Gardening
Where there are plants, you can be certain there will be pesky creatures looking to munch on them. Unfortunately for indoor plant parents, this holds true even inside our homes. ...
The Garden Walk: Daily Checklist for a Healthy Garden
| Edible Gardening
I take a walk through my garden every day. I can usually be found out there first thing in the morning on my days off, probably in pajamas, while my ...
Pest Damage ID Part 1: Who’s chewing holes in my leaves?
| Natural Gardening
If you garden long enough, sooner or later some pest is going to break your heart. Maybe your freshly emerged seedlings will be mowed down to the ground, your favorite ...
Bee Or Not a Bee? A Guide to Flying Garden Friends
| Wildlife in the Garden
Gardeners know how important bees are to our gardens and our planet, and most of us welcome the ones we recognize. But for all their popularity, bees remain misunderstood. ...
Pest Prevention: Stop Problems Before They Start
| Natural Gardening, Soil Health
Natural pest prevention is an excellent way to set your garden up for success. If you want to reap the many benefits of ecological pest management, now is the time ...
Gardening with Kids: Sensory Gardens
| Natural Gardening
Engaging all five senses is a fantastic way of inspiring kids to become lifelong gardeners. Last month, we wrote about how to inspire a love of gardening for the kids ...
Harvest Season is Every Season: Don’t Miss These Early Bonus Crops
| Edible Gardening, Natural Gardening
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 ...
Gardening with Kids: How to Grow Lifelong Gardeners
| Natural Gardening
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 ...
Growing Resilience: Garden Planning for a Changing Climate
| Landscaping & Design
Whether we realize it or not, gardeners are already part of the solution when it comes to climate change. In a fast-paced culture that pushes expansion at all costs, the ...
Companion Planting
| Edible Gardening
We get a lot of questions about companion planting at Sky. Many gardeners hope for a straightforward list of compatible plants to make it easy to intercrop their garden beds. ...
What’s a Rootstock? Grafted Fruit Tree Basics
| Edible Gardening
Most of the fruit trees we sell at Sky are grafted, meaning that they are actually a combination of at least two trees! This goes not only for our "combination" ...
Natural Slug & Snail Management
| Natural Gardening, Wildlife in the Garden
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 ...
Words from the Garden: Our Favorite Horticultural Lingo
| Garden Science, Natural Gardening
As you may already know, there is a lot to learn when it comes to gardening: plants, bugs, microclimates, soil conditions, animals, tools, minerals, moisture levels, and so much more! ...
5 Weeds 5 Ways
| Edible Gardening, Natural Gardening
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 ...
Indoor Plants & Pets
| Indoor Gardening
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 ...
Soil Acidity in the PNW
| Natural Gardening, Soil Health
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 ...
New Rose Varieties 2021
| Landscaping & Design
For years, Sky Nursery has offered our customers hundreds of varieties of pre-potted roses, available by early February. Sky has one of the largest rose fields in the Seattle-area, and ...
Squirrels: Garden Friend or Foe?
| Wildlife in the Garden
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 ...
Why Botanical Names Matter
| Natural Gardening
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 ...
Tillandsia: The Amazing Easy-Care Air Plant
| Indoor Gardening
Tillandsias are enjoying a well-deserved surge in popularity lately, but there are still many indoor gardeners who have yet to give this easy, fun, and rewarding houseplant a try. Also ...
Plant Parenting 101: Three Things to Know Before Buying Your First Houseplant
| Indoor Gardening
You've thought about it, you've dreamed about it, you've doodled about it. And now you know it in your heart - you're ready to become a plant parent. That's awesome. ...
Over-Wintering Hummingbirds in the Puget Sound Area
| Natural Gardening
Many gardeners are fascinated by hummingbirds, and for good reason! These tiny garden friends are simultaneously adorable and magnificent, and that's just one of their many captivating contradictions. Anna's Hummingbird ...
Poinsettias: A Little History & A Lot of Tips
| Indoor Gardening
There's no question that people love poinsettias. At Sky alone, we sell over a thousand poinsettias every winter. But for all their popularity, poinsettias remain deeply - and some might ...
Winter Container Favorites to Mix & Match
| Landscaping & Design
After the glorious abundance of summer annual blooms, the options for beautiful winter containers are too often underrated or overlooked. As a result, too many containers miss out on their ...
Caring for Carnivores
| Indoor Gardening
The outdoor gardening season may be winding down, but it's always time for indoor gardening. If you'd like to create your very own little shop of horrors, then this post ...
2020: Lessons in Gardening from the Sky Staff
| Edible Gardening, Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
We hope you have enjoyed and learned a lot from this year's growing season. It has certainly been a unique one, for new & experienced gardeners alike, with lots of ...
Container Japanese Maples: Tips & Tricks from a Pro
| Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
See our favorite maples for Fall 2022! Planting Japanese maples in containers is a great opportunity to add beauty, height & interest to your view, whether it's on a back ...
Dividing Perennials
| Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
Perennials provide us with beautiful foliage and blooms year after year. They don't have to be planted each season, but providing them with the right care helps them thrive and ...
Mushrooms: A Sign of Healthy Soil
| Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
As the fall rain returns, mushrooms tend to pop up in our gardens overnight. And just as abruptly, all kinds of questions and concerns pop up as well. Gardeners want ...
Seed Saving Basics
| Edible Gardening, Natural Gardening
Seed saving is making a comeback! Like other survival skills from home canning to foraging, saving seeds was all but forgotten for a short time, but the practice thriving once ...
Feed Your Soil, Feed Your Plants: build a soil ecosystem
| Edible Gardening, Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
A garden is a living ecosystem that starts with the soil. Each handful of healthy soil contains billions of microscopic fungi, bacteria, and animals that are hard at work transforming organic ...
Pests With Benefits: Give these critters a second chance
| Edible Gardening, Natural Gardening
Just like many garden flora have a reputation as "weeds," certain fauna are often labeled as "garden pests." Some are vehemently accused of damaging our plants or wreaking havoc in ...
Foraged Finds: Safe and Sustainable Foraging
| Edible Gardening, Natural Gardening
Foraging and gardening go hand in hand. Our gardens are where we nurture the plants we most want to have near us at all times, or that need our care ...
Top Houseplant Picks for Your Light Level
| Indoor Gardening
Looking for a new plant to brighten your home or office? As a new or novice indoor gardener, you may have noticed that the amount of information available online can ...
Fertilizer Basics: Gardening 101
| Natural Gardening, Soil Health
Most gardeners have heard that plants need fertilizer. But what kind of fertilizer, how the heck do you use it, and where do you start? Even for experienced gardeners, the options ...
Five Pest-Eating Predatory Insects to Know and Love
| Natural Gardening
Know before you squish - the bugs in your garden just might be helpful predatory insects! Some of these garden friends might look or even act a bit alarming, but ...
Aphids: Natural Pest Management
| Natural Gardening
Aphids are one of those ubiquitous pests that every gardener has to contend with. A handful of aphids won’t cause much damage, but their lightning-fast reproduction rates and tendency to ...
The Rhododendrons of Chimacum Woods: Grower Feature
| Natural Gardening
Perhaps no other shrub is as ubiquitous to the northwest landscape as rhododendrons. They have been planted for decades in our yards, with some of them growing into small trees. ...
New Fruit & Berry Varieties for 2020
| Edible Gardening
What could be better than harvesting your own fresh fruit in its season, right off the tree, bush, or vine? Nothing beats scooping up a bowl full of ice cream ...
Hot Weather, Cool Veggies
| Edible Gardening
We've written before about the basics of summer planting for fall and winter harvest, as well as vegetables that can be planted as late as September for harvest through the ...
Grow Herbs Indoors this Winter
| Edible Gardening
Growing herbs indoors is a fun and convenient way to have fresh herbs on-hand for cooking. They also look beautiful and smell wonderful. For those without outdoor growing space, growing ...
Success with Florist Cyclamen
| Natural Gardening
There's nothing else quite like florist cyclamen. These winter blooms are showy, festive, often fragrant, & blooming in their full glory when most other flowers have called it quits. Once ...
Four Easy Ways to Preserve the Harvest
| Edible Gardening
Preserving the harvest doesn't have to be time-consuming or complicated. Now that the harvest season is here, it's time to stock up for winter. Try these simple methods to enjoy ...
5 Vegetables You Can Harvest All Winter Long
| Edible Gardening
Have you noticed that hint of an autumn chill in the air? The days are getting shorter, but the vegetable planting season isn't over yet! If you've been limiting your ...
How to Create a Butterfly Garden
| Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
Butterfly gardens are becoming more and more popular, and for good reason! Besides being stunningly beautiful, butterflies are excellent pollinators and an important link in local food chains. Butterflies and ...
Jump Start Your Veggie Garden: Tips for a Chilly Spring
| Edible Gardening
This spring is off to a slow start so far. Between the snow, wind, and hail, what's a vegetable gardener to do? But despite it all, spring is trying its best ...
Food Forest Gardening: 5 reasons to give it a try
| Edible Gardening, Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
Instead of fighting a constant battle with Mother Nature in our food gardens, why not follow her lead? After all, natural forests have been happily providing for animals and humans ...
Garden Resolutions: plan ahead for a bountiful year
| Natural Gardening
What are your garden resolutions for the new year? Spring will be here before we know it. No matter the size of your garden or your personal style, January is ...
Dormant Sprays for Fruit Trees: prevent pest problems now
| Edible Gardening, Natural Gardening
Summer fruit may not be the first thing on our minds in the winter, but dormant sprays are key to managing disease and insect problems. Gardeners often ask us for ...
6 Winter Care Tips for Indoor Plants
| Indoor Gardening
Winter is a perfect time for gardeners to focus on their indoor plants. Not only is it a great way to keep our green thumbs in shape and brighten our ...
Mulch for the Fall Garden
| Natural Gardening
We talk a lot about mulch around here. Here’s what we mean by that, and why fall is the perfect time to mulch your garden. What the heck is “mulch” ...
Six weeds that reveal soil secrets
| Natural Gardening, Soil Health
Weeds can tell you a lot about your soil conditions, so don’t pull the messengers! At least not before you hear what they have to say. Just like the ornamental ...
Powdery Mildew: All-Natural Management
| Edible Gardening, Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
If there's one disease that always seems to cause Northwest gardeners headaches, it's powdery mildew. With all the humid weather this year, we're seeing quite a bit of it. What's ...
Five Secrets of Ecological Pest Management
| Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening, Soil Health
As we come into prime pest season, we're seeing a lot of concerns about insect damage here at Sky. Whether we gardeners have leaf miners in our beet leaves, ...
Create a Water Bowl Garden
| Landscaping & Design, Natural Gardening
By Gretchen Brevoort It begins with water Perhaps it started because I grew up near a river, or maybe because the ocean has always been so close to my home. ...