Gardening with Kids: Sensory Gardens

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 in your life. Now, we’re delving into how to create a children’s sensory garden! We’ve even included ideas for plants and projects to help kids…

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Harvest 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…

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Gardening 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…

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Natural 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…

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Words from the Garden: Our Favorite Horticultural Lingo

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! Once one part of the puzzle becomes clear, you may realize you’ve opened up an entirely new can of worms to be explored. When it…

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5 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…

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Soil Acidity in the PNW

hydrangea blossoms of violet, purple and green

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,…

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Why 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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2020: Lessons in Gardening from the Sky Staff

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 opportunities for growth. Take a look below for some wisdom, laughs, and observations from the Sky garden folk you know and love. Here’s what they…

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