Delinda's Gardens books and advocacy
  • Home About Delinda
  • Lies That Bind
  • M'TK Sewer Rat: End of an Empire
  • M'TK Sewer Rat: Birth of a Nation
  • Power and Circumstance
  • Something About Maudy
  • Summer Chaos
  • Janette
  • Blog
  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Advocacy
  • Contact Delinda
  • Enchanted Forest Florals/Calico Gardens
  • Road Trips
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Advocacy

2014 Northwest flower and garden show tips and picts by Delinda Mccann

2/8/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
Every year there is something special about The Garden Show.  Sometimes we find a fantastic product like the best garden apron in the world.  


Picture
This is the place to find new ideas for quality tools.  This year my friend Noni found a new hoe that she wants to use to dig holes for dahlias.  Good garden tools are so important.  This particular hoe was manufactured by a company that travels the world looking for ideas for tools in places like Haiti, Ghana and The Congo.

Picture
Picture
Sometimes at the garden show we find inspiration for something we can do on a reasonable scale at home.  I fell in love with the display garden featuring orchids.  I got home to find my orchid blooming.  I moved an African violet under the orchid and voila I had a mini garden show on my windowsill.

Picture
I love the garden sculptures I find.  My best idea for my garden came from a photo of the prayer flags at Dan Hinkley’s garden at Windcliff.  They are the scale I need in my garden.  When the strongest feature in your garden is a plethora of hundred and fifty foot Douglas Firs, you need big artistic accents.   However I couldn’t resist taking a picture of these enthusiastic garden gnomes.  Go Seahawks!


This year my favorite part of the show was the seminars.  Mary Morris gave a wonderful lecture and slide show on the gardens of Cornwall.  This is a part of England I haven’t visited and would dearly love to.  However, I don’t think I am going to hike a six-hundred thirty mile trail along the Cornish coast as Mary has done. 

Mariane Binitti was full of useful information such as soaking delphinium seeds on paper towels for thirty-six hours before planting or just buy delphiniums growing in gallon pots.  I bought delphinium seed this year so was happy for the tip about soaking the seed.

Greg Butler gave us a new term, hortisexual, as in I’m a hortisexual.  I think this refers to what we do as we propagate new plants.  I don’t do much propagating with the exception of my kale, but mostly I just let the kale do it’s thing and I plant the resultant seedlings where I want them.  I may have varieties of kale that nobody else grows but they are happy in my garden.

Cisco Morris had some excellent information about wasps or hornets.  Those buggers that live in the ground or inside the walls of your house and are so savage—kill them.  They are not only aggressive, they will eat the wood on the side of your house and are happy to get into the insulation.  On the other hand, the paper wasps that build the wonderful papery nests are beneficial.  They eat aphids and other soft bodied plant predators.  They don’t get aggressive unless you disturb their nests.  Cisco recommended leaving nests alone if they are outside of an area where people will walk into them.  Of course nests in public areas must be killed because the venom is so toxic.  He also recommended wearing goggles when working around a paper wasp nest because the little buggers can shoot their venom.  Isn’t the information we learn at the garden show fascinating?

I got lots of wonderful ideas like using ladders propped up together as trellises and using ethanol for a flame in a fire pit when only a decorative fire is needed.  We covered the principles of good design and talked about themes in gardens.  I fell in love with a grouping of lavender with artichokes.  Oh And! For your outdoor chair cushions be certain to use an outdoor fabric with an outdoor-specific foam pad.  If your outdoor cushions get rained on they will dry in an hour if you’ve used the right materials.  Otherwise it may take days for them to dry.

1 Comment
Naomi Morrison
2/8/2014 06:08:56 am

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Delinda McCann is a social psychologist, author, avid organic gardener and amateur musician.

    Archives

    November 2021
    October 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012

    Categories

    All
    Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
    Gardening
    Politics
    Social Justice
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly