JENNY’S GARDEN TIPS: Mid-summer garden perk ups

As this strangest year keeps plodding along, our gardens beginning to wane a bit in this mid-summer heat. Vegetables and flowers may be yielding a bumper crop, but your garden may not look as picture perfect as you imagined it to be. Plants are maturing, setting their fruit and seed, or even looking a bit worn. Foliage may begin to yellow; flowers start to slow down and sometimes plants just die. If your garden has any of these symptoms, here are a few perk up tips to keep it looking great the rest of the summer.

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JENNY’S GARDEN TIPS: Five Benefits of Gardening and How to Add Year-Round Color Too!

Jenny Uglow, British biographer, historian, critic and publisher has a quote that is so appropriate for our times right now - “We may think that we are nurturing our garden, but of course it’s our garden that is nurturing us.” We are spending a lot of time at home right now and when we give our gardens some attention, they can add to our well-being in this time of great stress and fear.

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JENNY’S GARDEN TIPS: Plant the Seeds Indoors, reap the rewards

We are all optimistic that the soil that we have in our gardens will do the job we ask of it – grow beautiful, healthy plants.  But really most soils in Seattle don’t provide the basic nutrients for growth.  As plants grow, they need to absorb nutrients and leave the soil less fertile or heavy rains wash them away.  By applying fertilizer, you are putting back the lost nutrients to ensure that your produce and flowers will be bountiful in the future.

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JENNY’S GARDEN TIPS: Now is the time to fertilize your lawn!

We are all optimistic that the soil that we have in our gardens will do the job we ask of it – grow beautiful, healthy plants.  But really most soils in Seattle don’t provide the basic nutrients for growth.  As plants grow, they need to absorb nutrients and leave the soil less fertile or heavy rains wash them away.  By applying fertilizer, you are putting back the lost nutrients to ensure that your produce and flowers will be bountiful in the future.

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JENNY’S GARDEN TIPS: Aggh! What fertilizer do I buy?

We are all optimistic that the soil that we have in our gardens will do the job we ask of it – grow beautiful, healthy plants.  But really most soils in Seattle don’t provide the basic nutrients for growth.  As plants grow, they need to absorb nutrients and leave the soil less fertile or heavy rains wash them away.  By applying fertilizer, you are putting back the lost nutrients to ensure that your produce and flowers will be bountiful in the future.

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JENNY’S GARDEN TIPS: What to Plan for Impact in 2018

WHAT TO PLANT FOR IMPACT IN 2018

by Jenny Mandt, Owner, Garden Coaching Solutions

“In a bulb there is a flower, in a seed an apple tree…” is a song about planting today to reap the rewards tomorrow. Why not plant something now that will make your garden shine next year? With a little planning, digging, and effort the results will be worth it. First thing is to check out your soil. Is it a hard as a rock, sandy, grey and lifeless looking? This should be corrected before you plant anything. New or divided plants, shrubs or trees will need fertile, well-draining soil in order to thrive. Adding soil building compost can really boost nutrition in lifeless soil.

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How to Put Together a Beautiful Garden Container

by Jenny Mandt, Owner, Garden
Coaching Solutions

I love this quote: Half the interest of a garden is in the constant exercise of the imagination”. ~Mrs. C. W. Earle. It is also so pertinent to this month’s topic – container gardening. There are many choices you can put into that new, shiny ceramic pot that you just got as a gift or purchased at a store.

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