Hours of Operation:
Closed for the season

"Thank heavens for your e-mail. You are the first sign of spring and much appreciated."

--Susan

"Linda, you continue to amaze me and bless me with your very helpful and educational information you impart to your fellow gardeners. Thank you, thank you!"

--Judy Mackey, Sisters, Oregon

2016

Click here to see the archives of gardening tips that dates back to 2007. See years of helpful gardening advice for our cold climate gardeners.

"Thank you for your wonderful newsletters! They are so timely and helpful."

Diane
Bend, Oregon

2016 Gardening Tips

4/6/16 - Get your Lawns in Shape

4/6/16 - Spring Gardening Seminars

4/6/16 - Onion Sets Have Arrived

4/6/16 - Pansy Extravaganza

2/29/16 - Voles / Field Mice Lawn Invasion

2/29/16 - Snow Mold

1/18/16 - Catalogs are Arriving Daily

1/18/16 - We are Always on the Hunt for Anything We Can Plant In

1/18/16 - Need Bulk Products?

Get your Lawns in Shape

Ready - Set - Go ! Time to get those lawns ready for the summer ahead. Mow the lawn to pick up any needles and leaves. Apply fertilizer, 21-7-14 if you have an established lawn or 16-16-16 if your lawn was planted last year. Water, it is a little early to turn on the irrigation so you will want to get out the hoses. Refurbish the bark around your plants.

Small Bark
Bark Nuggets
Compost
3/4 Minus Aggregate, Pea Gravel
River Rock
Native Soil

We are available to load or deliver the above products. Just give us a call at 541-536-2049.

Spring Gardening Seminars

Join OSU Master Gardeners for their spring gardening seminars on Saturday April 16 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds in Redmond.
Choose from 16 classes plus a Garden Market with plants, books, worm castings, landscape products, silent auction and an optional lunch.
I will be teaching a class at 10 a.m. on Cold Climate Gardening and at 1 p.m. I will be teaching a class on Flea Market Gardening. This class will walk you through where to find those garden treasures, what to look for and the process of turning them into garden art.
Register by calling 541-548-6088 or go to gocomga.com. $10 per class (pre-registration) deadline April 9) $15 on event day; $48 day long pass includes 4 classes and lunch.
I would love to see all of you there AND bring along your garden questions !!

Onion Sets Have Arrived

L & S Gardens onion sets

Red, White and Yellow Onion Sets! Onion Sets are here. They come in 100 sets in a package $4.99. Now is a great time to plant potatoes.

We also have Seed Potatoes - Red Norland, Yukon Gold and Burbank Russets $5.25 per bag.

Pansy Extravaganza

Pansy extravaganza!

Pansies on Sale! All of our HARDY PANSIES on sale Friday April 8 and Saturday April 9. Regular $1.99 NOW $1.50.

Lots to choose from. You don't have to worry about our pansies freezing - they will take what Mother Nature sends our way !

Voles / Field Mice Lawn Invasion

In early spring, when the snow finally melts and we are able to get back out into our yards, some of you may be surprised to find trails and burrows in the lawn.

Many of these above ground trails are mistakenly thought to be from moles. Actually in our neck of the woods these trails are made by voles or also referred to as field mice, forging voles tirelessly feeding on the crowns of healthy lawn blades creating small tunnels under the snow pack. Hidden from predators, under snow cover, these trails become a vole super highway leading to their underground burrow. Once the snow starts to melt the trails are easy to see. I couldn't believe the damage the voles had done to our lawn on the north side of the house, trails running everywhere.

As soon as the lawn dries out, rake over the tunnels with a flexible rake. Apply a spring fertilizer such as a 21-7-14 or 16-16-16. The lawn will usually fill back in by mid-June. If you find it necessary to re-seed, wait until the ground temperatures warm up, around the middle of May.

There are several products on the market that you can treat the area with to discourage these critters. I like to use products that contain Castor Oil, either in pellet form or a ready to use liquid. You need dry weather for a couple of days after applying, this includes no irrigation watering.

Snow Mold

The winter of 2015-2016 is almost over. Along with it drifting into the past, it is leaving brown lawns with many bleached patches of matted, crusty grass. The patches are symptoms of a disease called snow mold. This disease is caused by cold tolerant fungi that attack grass under the cover of snow.

Snow mold is most severe during winters, such as we had this year, with intense snowfall and long periods of snow cover. Even though the air temperatures were cold, the ground under the snow was a bit warmer, allowing enough moisture for snow mold fungi to grow and infect grass blades. As temperatures rise in March the symptoms will become visible as thick blankets of gray or pink crusty patches.

What can you do once the snow has melted and you can visually see the snow mold damage? Once the lawn has started to dry out, use a flexible rake to lift the grass blades so that they will air dry. Do NOT rake when the grass is real wet, this can cause more damage. Once you have the lawn raked you will want to apply a spring fertilizer. I suggest a fertilizer reading 21-7-14. If you have many spots you may want to consider re-seeding these areas once we have temperatures above freezing, usually mid to late May.

If you have any gardening questions please email me at linda@lsgardens.com.

Catalogs are Arriving Daily

As I sit at my desk and all I see as I look out the window is snow and more snow, yes it is still winter but, "I'm ready to garden".

This season's crop of seed and plant catalogs is stacked in a neat pile right beside me on my desk, plus a few beside my favorite chair. These catalogs and the prospect of spring and summer in the near future is what gives me hope of warm weather and seed planting time arriving soon. I think of the book "The Night Before Christmas", remember the part where they have visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. I think this can describe us gardeners only with visions of fruits, vegetables and flowers being planted and harvested.

You have to look at these catalogs as part fiction because many of the offerings are definitely not hardy for our growing season with the sporadic freezes we get throughout the summer (but we can dream).

When you pick up that pen to place your order you want to choose the crops with the shortest growing time. If you compare varieties of carrots or peas, you will find that they differ in days to harvest. There again, go with the shortest time.

In all of my years gardening in south Deschutes County, this past summer was the best. My vegetable garden just kept producing (way too much zucchini). I have to remember that five zucchini plants is probably too many.

If you choose to buy your plants already growing in containers and ready to pop in the ground look the plants over carefully before you leave the nursery. You do not want to take insects and diseases to your greenhouse or garden plot. Do not buy on impulse. I see this done every day. Your garden has to be ready. You may need to add additional garden soil. You want good composted soil. I don't like to add raw manure just before planting because you are going to get weeds. If using raw manures, till it into your garden plot the fall before or early, early spring so that the weeds have a chance to sprout and be removed before planting. Till the soil or dig it by hand. You want a nice fluffy soil, not hard and compacted.

We are Always on the Hunt for Anything We Can Plant In

During the winter months most Gardeners would be just thinking about spring and making plans for hanging baskets, patio plantings and new garden ideas. Me, I'm on the hunt for old vintage/antique/junky containers that will hold a plant. My favorite things to plant in are the old metal galvanized buckets. Buckets and pots of all sizes.

Last week (my husband Sonny and our son Brad) hit a gold mine of containers. True they had to travel over the mountain and down many roads to collect them but we now have 124 more buckets to add to the nursery pot house. Whoops - I guess with pot now being legal in Oregon I should rename that building. If you want to learn more about planting in old containers check out my Coming Events page on my website www.lsgardens.com .You will see a full schedule of planned classes for 2016. This class and one more will be taught at the Redmond Fairgrounds in April. You can be sure I will have lots of information and ideas to share.

Need Bulk Products?

L & S Gardens

Even though we are closed for the season, we are just a phone call away if you need bark, compost, fill dirt or aggregate. Call us at 541-536-2049 to set up a time. Maybe wait until the snow melts.

Gardening Tips Archives:

L & S Gardens
“28 Years in Business and Still Growing”
linda@lsgardens.com

Oregon Department of Agriculture
Inspection Report
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No plant pests or pathogens.
Best nursery in Central Oregon!”