Tried blending fruit yet? One of the traditional ways to preserve your harvest is to press the fruit into juice and ferment so start Brewing Beer & Cider with Fresh Fruit. Fermenting is one of the oldest food preservation practices because alcohol destroys any harmful bacteria making a safe to...
Taking care of your garden and orchard during the dog days of summer can be stressful. Here are some tips and tricks on Plant Care During Extreme Heat to give your plants the best chance to make it through a heat wave. Water plants deeply, ideally first thing in the...
Here are a few tips for Hot Weather Planting to give your plants the best chance to thrive in the summer or during those hot spring and fall days. 1) When they arrive, soak bare roots in a bucket of water in a shady outdoor area. Let them soak for...
Looking for shade tolerant edible plants to grow on the north side of a fence, building or tall trees? The plants on this list will grow well in at least partial shade. Fruit production will generally be less with more shade. This list of shade tolerant edible plants is a...
If you are looking for a new berry to add to your landscape this Fall, you should really consider Lingonberries. They are known by many names across their native range, including Mountain Cranberry, Cowberry, and Foxberry to name a few. The majority of Lingonberries are wild harvested, not cultivated. In fact,...
This winter in the Pacific Northwest was a good reminder that those low winter temperatures are still possible after a few years of having extremely mild winters. For lovers of subtropical or frost tender plants pushing the envelope on cold hardiness can be a stressful time as you watch the...
So far it’s been a rather mild winter for us here in the Pacific Northwest. The thermometer has rarely dipped below 32 degrees and we’ve been taking advantage of the mild temps by taking care of the many winter tasks and planting tough woody plants in our gardens and around...
Spring shipping 2017 begins Feb 20th. As with all farming we are at the mercy of the weather and the winter of 2016-17 has been challenging. We have seen 2 feet of snow in the nursery and over 1 inch of ice. Greenhouse snow load capacity were tested (no damage thankfully) and...
Planning out Orchard Succession is important because it takes a while for a fruit tree to start bearing, usually about 2 or 3 years for the first fruits, but 4 or 5 years before you really start seeing any significant harvests. With nut trees it takes even longer before you...
Nitrogen Fixing Plants. Do you remember your grade school science teacher telling you about leguminous plants and their amazing nitrogen fixing abilities? It might have seemed like a dull subject at the time, but Nitrogen Fixing Plants are some of the most helpful plants we can incorporate into our gardens,...
