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Join our discussion on edible plants

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Commenter Joanne Rigutto of The Little Homestead (Mulino, Ore.) chimes in with a comment on edible plants and their potential to do double duty as ornamentals: Almost any plant we grow for row crops in food production has potential for ornamental landscaping. I think one of the problems is that we normally don’t think of […]

Will edible plants stay hot at retail nurseries?

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The start of the Great Recession in 2007 brought on a trend that garden centers hadn’t seen in years — edible gardening. Seeds, vegetable starts and fruit trees became big sellers, while ornamentals cooled off. Four years later, the trend is still going, but will it continue? According to Trey Pitsenberger of the Golden Gecko Garden […]

Portrait of a plant patent

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If you have never seen a plant patent application, there’s a lot of detail involved. This application from Terra Nova Nurseries was for a new cultivar of Echinacea, specifically Echinacea spp. ‘TNGD’ which is described in painstaking detail. The patent application was submitted May 11, 2010 and granted Tuesday (Sept. 6), so the process took […]

Ag on film

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Now here is a very cool idea! One of the complaints often stated by those in agriculture is that the general public doesn’t understand agriculture well, if at all. If I had a nickel for every time someone told me, “People buy groceries at the store or plants at the nursery without understanding the process […]

Fall hardy plant sale is this weekend

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Portland Monthly reminds us that the fall version of the twice-yearly Hardy Plant Society of Oregon plant sale is this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 10–11, at the Portland Expo Center (directions; also reachable via MAX). This is a truly huge event for plant lovers — especially those who are into the unique and unusual.

Precautions for growing edibles

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More and more people want to grow their own food, and they are turning to local garden centers for advice on how to do it safely. Oregon State University Extension recently published this helpful article that has information your customers might find empowering. The advice from extension experts includes: Use recommended food preparation techniques with […]

All aboard for the September issue of Digger!

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September is here! That means the Farwest Show is in the books, the days are shorter, football is back, the kids are headed for school, the Halloween candy is almost on store shelves … and, of course, the September issue of Digger is out and available! We have several exciting features in this month’s issue […]

Raised awareness of raised beds

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Edibles have been a hot trend in gardening for the past few years. Homeowners short on money, but eager to garden and looking to stretch their grocery dollar, have been planting victory gardens, either at grade, or in raised beds. In many places, however, city and homeowners association rules have failed to keep up. Many […]

Connecting the dots

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For 33 years, the National Gardening Survey has presented a statistical picture of who the gardening consumer is and where they are going. And according to garden retail analyst Ian Baldwin, who presented his analysis of the results yesterday at the 2011 Farwest Show, the picture has been very clear over the last several years. […]