Author Archive
Saving Geraniums over the Winter
Fall, 2011 Today, before the Seattle area has a frost, I pulled out all of my geraniums and packed them away for the winter. It’s easy. I use a weeding tool with prongs to pull each plant out of the ground, keeping the root systems as intact as possible. I shake off as much [...]
Pruning Your Japanese Laceleaf Maple
Seattle is full of gorgeous Japanese laceleaf maples, Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum.’ They are the maples with an elegant, weeping branching pattern and can be quite valuable in old age if they’ve been well cared for. February is the perfect time to prune a laceleaf maple before it has leafed out. Without leaves, the branching pattern [...]
Favorite Fall Flowers in Our Landscape
Favorite Fall Flowers In Our Landscape By Jan Rodda I call them my Van Gogh bouquets. Brown clay pots, one an antique salt jar, the other an old baked bean pot, are filled with sunflowers, orange dahlias, multi-colored zinnias, and purple asters, with the bright yellow blossoms of Rudbeckia ‘Herbstonne’ dancing above. I’m in heaven [...]
Small Landscape Projects
Over the years, some of the most fun landscape projects for our crew to install have been small projects, two to four days long, that have made a dramatic improvement in the appearance and use of an area for the homeowner. We get a kick out of their excitement and pleasure at having “turned a [...]
A Landscape Habitat for Birds
A pair of goldfinches must be nesting nearby. Several times a day, they light on our little granite water basin for a drink, I stop mid-chore to enjoy their bright yellow presence amid the greens of the foliage around them. They seem to prefer the trickling water from the bamboo spout into the basin more [...]
Landscape Renovation for Aging Boomers
According to the Seattle Times, the average age of homeowners selling their homes and moving into a senior living situation is eighty five years old. Wow! We certainly hope to stay in the home we love as long as possible. So it makes sense to start planning how to make it physically possible as our [...]
Vegetable Garden Fever
On the few gorgeous, sunny days we’ve had in Seattle, I get itchy to start our vegetable garden. And then it snows and I think, “Not yet.” My father-in-law, back in the olden days, always had his peas planted in the ground soon after Washington’s birthday. Rows and rows of peas to feed a big [...]
Landscape Tips for Early Spring
It snowed last night and, despite the sunshine this morning, it feels pretty nippy outside. My Lenten Roses, Helleborus orientalis, are in full bloom in delicious shades of rose pink, snow white, and dark magenta. In warmer, sunnier weather, their blossoms will face the sun. But now they are looking down, burdened by clumps of [...]
Landscape Tips for Winter
Our crew has spent their “down time” this winter upgrading our landscape plantings and putting a new, bright green metal roof on the office. It feels as though improving our grounds and building is a good investment for the future, no matter what happens to the economy. And we get to enjoy the results. If [...]
Rodda Awarded Outstanding Service
Barry Rodda was honored at the annual Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association Convention with the Outstanding Service Award! The award is presented to the person who the industry feels has made significant contributions to the nursery and landscape industry in 2008. He was re-elected to remain the state treasurer for a third term. Barry [...]