Month: September 2022

Vintage Pacific NW: We’re revisiting some of our favorite stories from some of our favorite former magazine contributors. Check back each week for timeless classics focusing on food, fitness, gardening and more.

Originally published Dec. 24, 2000
By Valerie Easton, former Natural Gardener writer

THINK HOW WE ADMIRE the golden autumn foliage of birch trees and witch hazel. The flame red of maples is stunning, but it is the burnished yellows that I covet for my own garden. While autumn works its magic, remember it is possible to warm up the garden all year with yellow and golden foliage, in solids or patterns of variegation.

The predominant color in any garden, no matter how flowery, is always green. This must be why yellow is endlessly useful — it is such a perfect contrast to green. How better to brighten and lighten the deep richness of yew, fir, camellia, rhododendron and

I try not to make excuses so I’m just going to tell the truth: everything in my garden is dead. The drought was fierce and I was sick, distracted. I couldn’t bear to look at it but I’m trying to look now.

It feels like sitting in a crypt. I’ve pulled up a damp chair and I am surrounded by skeletons, the limbs of my perennials dried, bent and snapped. The hydrangea’s flowers have turned to ghostly brown lace too soon, drooping leaves turned almost black like prayer flags. There is copper, rust and blood; piles of viburnum leaves dropped early in fright. The penstemon looks as if it has been set alight then frozen, its orange flames still and hellish. When the rains finally came, too late, the parched snails came out of hiding and ate everything that was left. Talk about overkill.

There’s a lot of information out there—including on this site—listing garden tasks to complete in a particular month, or ahead of a certain season. And while there are always jobs you can do now to make your life easier in the future, some gardening experts say that when it comes to a pre-winter cleanup, less is more. Here’s what to know.

The case for taking a hands-off approach to fall gardening

The reason for doing minimal fall gardening work is similar to the one behind No Mow Mayand starting a “bee lawn”: Looking out for your local birds and pollinators. First, this is because some perennials’ seed heads are a source of food for birds over the winter.

And, as a whole, garden matter and leaf piles serve as a winter habitat for several species of bees, butterflies, and other

Updated: September 15, 2022 Published: September 15, 2022

One of the reasons people still cling to chemical fertilizers is because they go to work quickly. Organic fertilizers, on the other hand, usually take time for the microbes to break it down. Sometimes this can take months. This is why now is the time to apply such things to your soils so that they can benefit next year’s crops.

There are several ways to do this. The first assumes all was well this year and your plants thrived and didn’t show nutrient deficiencies. You can probably forgo a soil test for nutrients. Apply an inch or two of compost or vermicompost to the surface of all of your containers and on your garden beds. You can do it now, even though there are plants still performing.

This can be followed with an application of mulch (once enough leaves

SRG applied to build 76 single-family townhomes on the site at 8373 W. Chinden Blvd.

The townhomes would be three bedrooms and two stories tall, spread out across a mix of four-plex and six-plex buildings. There are three different floor plans with the largest measuring 1,887 square feet, then 1,754 square feet, and 1,674 square feet.

“The difference in total square footage, building location and price creates variation for customers’ budget and layout preferences,” the application letter said. “The variation in unit depth also creates character on the Craftsman/Farmhouse building elevations. A variety in color schemes and cladding will create further unit distinctions.”

The application said a “central common space amenity” will be included. For parking, there would be two garage spaces for each unit. And there would be 38 total on-street guest parking spaces.

“The rear loaded garages for each unit are accessible from the service driveways, creating a

A project launched this month as Australia’s “first large-scale solar garden” could be one of many to pop up around the country in the next five years.

A five-hectare paddock on a farm in Grong Grongan hour west of Wagga Wagga, has been earmarked as the site for a 1.5MW “solar garden” that includes “plots” that can be purchased by residents throughout New South Wales.

It’s a concept similar to community gardening, where people who don’t have a back yard can still garden by buying or renting a plot in a communal area.

Haystacks Solar Garden is being built by a not-for-profit organization Community Power Agency (CPA), Pingala Co-opand Komo Energy with support from other organisations, and funded by the NSW Government’s Regional Community Energy Fund.

It’s technically not the first solar garden to pop up in

The City of Philadelphia inadvertently destroyed tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of future beer, and officials are sorry to have killed your buzz.

On Wednesday morning, the smell of fresh-cut grass lingered around the well-kept garden lot next to Philadelphia Brewing Co. But the freshly cut lot was not scattered with weeds — it contained precious hops that were being grown to produce the brewery’s seasonal “Harvest From the Hood“beer.

Brewery co-owner Nancy Barton had arrived at the Frankford Avenue site the day before to a distressed employee saying the hop garden had been laid to waste just a month before the beer was scheduled to yield.

And the culprit was not vandals or invasive pests — but city cleaning crews with the Community Life Improvement Program.

“We thought the lanternflies would take them out, but no, it was the city,” Barton said.

» READ MORE: West

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners.

Project Details:

Locations: Hyogo, Japan

Architects: Atsushi Kawanishi Architects

Builders: Kohatsu

Structural Engineer: Jun Yanagimuro Structural Design

Landscape Designs: 3Leaves Garden Office

Lighting Designs: DAIKO

Footprints: 1400 square feet

From the Architects: “This is a house that connects two gardens in a surrounding environment and three gardens inside the interior. In the front garden, where the neighbors’ children play, they do DIY projects and make firewood. From the south garden where the wind is blowing, Osaka Airport and Osaka’s city center can be seen far away. The inside of the third garden is a buffer that connects the outside garden with the interior. The lower flat roof hangs above the connecting section. The gardens gradually divide the residence and create harmony for the environment both at home and from

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A large investment — and plenty of jobs — are coming to the Richmond area thanks to an innovative agricultural technology company.

Governor Glenn Youngkin has announced that Plenty Unlimited, Inc. will be investing $300 million to build the world’s largest indoor vertical farming facility at Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield County.

According to a release from Governor Youngkin, Plenty has developed the world’s most advanced indoor farm, which efficiently and sustainably grows fresh produce year-round on grow towers that stand over 30 feet tall. The facility will be the first of its kind on the east coast.