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Nectar Plants for the Hummingbirds to Enjoy
If you’ve been following my series on Planting to Attract Birds, you may already have a few plants in mind to attract hummingbirds to your garden. Who wouldn’t want to bring that energy and life into their garden? Even though I’m a landscaper and get to see hummingbirds every day, they never lose their magic…
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Smaller Plants to Attract Birds – a Few Favorites
We’ve covered my favorite trees and larger shrubs to attract birds; now I want to talk about some of the smaller plants to bring the birds and hummingbirds flying to your garden. These are just a few of my favorites to use as a starting point – there are so many gorgeous small shrubs, perennials,…
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Shrubs to Attract Birds – Planting for Year-Round Berries and Habitats
Now that we’ve talked about trees to attract birds, and how to attract birds using feeders and birdbaths, I want to get on to some of my very favorite shrubs. From the rich purple berries of Callicarpa to the hanging clusters on Leycesteria, I’ve chosen my top five shrubs to plant for the birds: Berberis…
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Trees to Attract Birds: New Stars and Old Favorites
We talked earlier this week about how to attract birds using feeders and water. Since we’re all plant geeks here, I’m dying to share some of my favorite trees for the Pacific Northwest to attract birds. Do remember that any tree that has fruit or berries is going to be messy, so you should place…
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The Winter-Interest Secret Most Gardeners Forget: or How to Attract Birds
Winter interest is the Holy Grail for us gardeners, and we spend an inordinate amount of time planning out which cool foliage plant or winter bloomer we’ll tuck in. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a sucker for that year-round interest too – but there is another source of excitement during the darker months – birds!…
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An Old Stereotype, or a Shining Example? My Tribute to Older Gardeners
I keep hearing it around the internet – an indignant exhaustion with the stereotype of gardeners as elderly ladies, puttering about their rose gardens with flowered gloves on. Maybe the sensitivity comes from the fact that most gardeners are in the over-40 crowd, and don’t want to be prematurely aged by their passion. I can…
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February Garden Maintenance for the Pacific Northwest
February feels like the eye of the storm for us gardeners – there’s just enough time between the winter pruning rush and the flurry of spring to take a deep breath, and begin thinking back on what worked especially well last year and what projects we might like to tackle this year. Most of my…
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Backyard Chickens – Five Reasons You MUST Try Them, and Two Reasons Why Not
1. They make charming pets! I love their happy little chortles when they see us, and if you want them to love you forever, a bit of leftover rice or lettuce goes down a treat. They’re great gardening companions, too. Esther, above, likes to stay close when I’m digging so she can have first crack…
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In Other Words: Winter Pruning Guides from Around the Web
I’ve found some wonderful tutorials on pruning in the last few weeks, with easy-to-understand photos and step by step advice. Pruning can be intimidating for beginners, but these guides break it down and have an encouraging tone – they don’t make things more complicated than they have to be. Here are the articles I’ve liked…
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Stupid Thorns, Tasty Berries: How To Prune Raspberries (It’s Easy)
So every time I open up my pruning book to the raspberry page, I get deep unhappy furrows in my brow. Raspberries are a simple plant. Why do they have to make it so complicated? There’s the summer-fruiting kind (with a short fruiting season), which fruit best on one year old wood. Ideally with these,…
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Braving the Thorns Part 2: Pruning Your Dormant Rose
Rose pruning is such a satisfying task – you go from a tangled icky mass with thorns everywhere to a lovely clean set of sturdy stems – yet too many people are intimidated by their roses. There’s no need to be shy! The worst thing you can do is not tackle them at all, since…