In this episode Nick Gitts, owner of Swan Island Dahilas, answers all of my burning dahlia care questions. Swan Island Dahlias is a 40 acre dahlia farm located in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and they grow over 360 varieties of dahlias and Nick has been running the farm since 1975.
Read MoreEpisode 36: Attracting Beneficial Insects & Pollinators
In this episode we talk about growing flowers specifically to attract beneficial insects to your garden. This topic ties a lot of things together. Growing flowers, organic pest management, and pollination for your veggies.
Read MoreEpisode 30: Planning Your Annual Cut Flower Garden, Part 2
Sweet peas
Welcome back to part two of our series on cut flowers. Last week we talked about annual flowers that can be direct seeded in your garden, and this week we're focusing on annual flowers that do better as transplants.
Read MoreEpisode 29: Planning Your Annual Cut Flower Garden, Part 1
There are many similarities between growing annual vegetables and annual flowers. Just like a vegetable garden, a great annual cut flower garden takes a little planning. This week we discuss general planting considerations and take a look at some of our favorite and most reliable direct seeded annual flowers for cutting.
Read MorePlanning Your Annual Cut Flower Garden
All photos by Hilary Dahl
Getting excited about growing a colorful cutting garden is pretty easy this time of year. Seed catalogues spark our imaginations with romantic descriptions and colorful images of summer. Growing a cutting garden can be easy, is bound to be beautiful and can provide a very important resource for your vegetable garden. Flowers attract pollinating and other beneficial insects to the garden, so by planting an array of flowers in the yard you are contributing to the biological diversity of your neighborhood.
Read MorePlanning for Spring: Beneficial Flowers
Bumblebee on scabiosa
Flowers add to any garden by providing beautiful color, shapes, textures, and scents. Besides aesthetic value, flowers can be also be edible, medicinal, and perhaps most importantly, they can be beneficial for the rest of the plants in your garden.
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