Welcome!

By popular request, a forum for gardeners in the PNW region!

Hey congratulations guys - you made the big time!

WooHoo!! Maybe we can have ourselves a roundup in the summer!

Yep, a RU sounds good to me.
Carol

Whooeee! Thanks Terry, et al. This is just terrific! Now, if you could just deliver Spring as quickly. LOL

Finally!

Pixey, I am working on a RU. Will post in the RU section and alert everyone here when I get more info ready. Maybe I'll work on that today.

Gwendalou

Thanks to Terry and all the NW posters for pulling this together in short order! Ask and ye shall receive at Dave's. Simply the best, by far.

Gwendalou,
What goes on at a RU? Guess we should have it on the Westside where most people live. Get's too hot on the Eastside anyway.

What goes on? I have only been to one, last summer. We met at Swan Island Dahlia Gardens and looked, bought, looked some more (bought some more ). Then we went to Joann's nearby and had a potluck dinner, viewed her fabulous gardens. Traded plants and jelly/jam we had all brought to swap. It was really fun.

I imagaine it is whatever the group wants to do. I am almost ready to post my RU info. Whew! It took a while to get all this together but now I can't wait to have it happen!

Gwendalou

Okay, RU info is posted in that forum, so you all get over there to take a look!

Gwendalou

Here's a link to that thread. I'm not sure if you started any more though, Gwen.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/570523/

I'm into an RU although I'm not sure I understand what, where, who or how yet. Is there anyone who might be able to hold any plants I buy until I can get a phyto issued? It might be easier for the Canadians to get one phyto instead. Bringing plants down has gotten very, very difficult now.

I might be able to get a venue on this side of the border at my friends backyard exotic plant nursery where I do propagation.

I would be happy to help. I'm sure you'll have lots of other volunteers too! Anything for another gardener who needs MORE PLANTS! LOL

Mgh, yes, that's the thread where the info on the RU is posted.

growin, We certainly can find out who is the person most northern who would be able to hold plants until you can get the permit. Another thing I can do when we get everything going is to ask the nurseries ahead for help getting the permits, if that's something they are able to do.

As far as what, where, who or how, go to that thread mgh posted the link to directly above yours. Basically we'll choose one of the options, pick a date, and then everyone will meet up and we'll go nursery hopping (or on a garden tour if that's what's chosen). We'll all go together in one big group. We can carpool in several cars if people are interested in that. It's very open - you can ride with me or take your own car, whatever you want. We'll go to lunch, if that's what people want, or we can bring picnic lunches and find a nice spot. Some of these nurseries have places we could picnic.

After we're done with the day, we'll head over to either my house (if we choose to come to Whidbey) or to Balvenie's house (if we choose the Snohomish nursery hop - she has just offered that) and have some kind of potluck dinner, relax, talk plants.

If we want, we can bring plants or anything we want to trade. I'm thinking I might make some pretty flower-related cards. Last year we traded jams and jellies too. It's all very open-ended and just meant for everyone to get together and talk plants and gardening and whatever else we want!

Gwendalou

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who made this regional forum possible.

I can't believe we really have PNW forum. When I first subscribed the only person I knew fairly close by was Pebble in Vancouver, WA. So nice to see others from the Pacific NW. We have such varied climates in this region too. MaryE from Baker City has been around quite a long time too.

Congrats PNW gardners! You got your site! Don't forget to keep up with the other forums too!

Hoo-ray!! Okay, I know I'm from California, but I'm from NORTHERN California ~ on the coast, just below the Oregon border! And in the California Gardening forum, most of them are in much warmer areas than I am. My weather is more like what you have, so I'm happy to see the new forum!

Sanna

Welcome, Sanna!! :o)

I love Eureka. Do you still have the Samoa Cookhouse? I have fond memories of that place!

Gwendalou

Hi Gwen, Say my sis and I (msantique) have not subcribed to dave's and cannot get the info on your roundup. So we were wondering if because of that reason we would not be invited? I didn't want to seem cold about it but needed to know. Thanks, Debbie

Gwendalou ~ yes! Still there! Depending in how long it has been since you've been to Eureka, you might see quite a change. Not sprawling, by any means, but in my opinion, it's gotten to be a prettier town. The downtown area, that was hit with the opening of the mall, has been revitalized quite a bit. Lots of changes within the last ten years.

Sanna

Debbie, yes, you would still be more than welcome. We're actually going to do two. One will be at the end of June and another in July. Haven't posted about them in detail as still waiting to find out about one date.

Sanna, it has been YEARS since I've been there. We're talking like 1974 or so.

My brother and his wife lived there in the '80s for a while and really loved it. He was a corporate pilot for I forget the name of the really big employer up there, the paper one.

Gwendalou

Welcome sannajane, I LOVE Eureka! We try to come down there at least once a year. My husbands family must make up half the town. The weather is great and I think you get to have more flowers for a longer blooming period. Not to mention my Mother In Law at 81 is about as frisky as they come and we enjoy doing things together. She retired from the Eureka police department at 72! She was your meter maid for years.
If I had to relocate Eureka would be my choice. I'd love to buy one of the old victorians that you have so many of.

msantique ~ It's Louise!!! Wow!! This is soooo cool. I have worked for the City for 28 years. Yup, I know Louise, and in fact I saw her daughter just yesterday - the one with the miracle baby! It truly is a small world.... I had no idea she's 81 now. She was always so much fun at the City parties and things. Well, thank you for the welcome. Keep in touch if you'd like, and maybe we could say hello in person someday!

Sanna

Hi Sanna, Boy it is a small world - especially finding out you work for the city. Of course I know Louise was pretty public with that job and knew everybody - not to mention they've done specials about her a couple of times on your local TV station. What a kick she is! You saw Laurie. Yes, it would be great to keep in touch and later be able to meet. I'm hoping we get to come down soon. We usually try to come in May because we also swing into Redding and I can't take the heat there after that. Even May is too miserable for me! And all the Eureka flowers look good then too. I first saw (and bought) Spanish Lavendar there. I had never seen it before. It is such a beautiful plant and you guys have it everywhere.
It's a beautiful day here and hubby is out weeding - guess I should be doing the same.
Hooray! Spring really is here!

Linda

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this site and this forum, so please clue me in on this roundup or get-together or whatever. The link was closed as I am not a paid subscriber (yet). Where and when?

I live in south Seattle area and would love to meet up with other gardeners in the area. I moved to this area recently after gardening in Sonoma County CA for many years and am starting to get adjusted to the differences here. This house we bought had some big old rhodies but not too much else, so I have had lots of fun putting in easy stuff and trying new things. Finally some decent weather last couple of days so seeds and bare things are starting to actually grow. I'd love to have people get together here when things develop more, probably not til July or so for best show.

Anyone interested?

Sara in Des Moines

Welcome mesmerel, yes, I found the site locked also so my sis wrote and asked if we were still invited as we just joined and have not subscribed either. We will be able to come and they will be posting the info sometime soon. How long have you been in the area? It will probably be quite a big change for you weather wise for gardening. Your get together sounds fun - I'm interested. Thanks and happy gardening!

Linda

Welcome mesmerel, I'm miss antique's sister Debbie. I'm a transplant from the west side to the sunny east side of the state. Talk about a challange. Good luck keeping up with the slugs,(in a safe form) LOL
Debbie

msantique, I had to look on the map to find Winlock. Thank goodness for the web, in so many ways. I am excited about getting together and meeting other gardeners. I tried two local garden clubs to try to meet people who liked to garden, but the one seemed to be only interested in competition and fancy flower arrangements, and the other seems more interested in garden crafts than actual gardening, but the second one has a couple of nice women (why all women??) so I joined at a cost of $15 per year! But neither group seemed to have anyone interested in food or down-in-the-dirt gardening. I personally like the doing of it, and always want to learn more about how to have better results.

Since we started the beer thing last year and keep up with it as we see depredations, it's really not too bad a problem with slugs. And when I see one if I'm out on a wet day, I quickly slice it in half with my trowel, while apologizing to the poor thing. I feel that a quick death is probably the best one. Yuck!

Yes, let's do something fun in the summer months at my place. I'll post another thread later on to follow up. And thanks for the welcome!

Hello mesmerel and Everybody, I am new to this site too. (Actually, I have been skulking around in here for a couple of weeks, figuring out how this works.) Is this what to do? Just jump in?

How did you find the garden clubs? I'd like to join one in the SeaTac area, if there is one, although I'm no garden expert!

Mesmerel, the garden clubs here are the same - flower arranging and having speakers talk about things I'm not interested in (bamboo recently).

I'd love to find a group in my immediate area who would like to take turns gardening at each other's houses. That would be fun and would lead to plant trading and such. I also like going to nurseries, garden tours, etc.

Shune, one way to find garden clubs is to look in your local paper under the calendar section.

Balvenie and I are almost ready to post on the upcoming RUs that the two of us are planning. It's great to see that some of the rest of you will be planning some get-togethers as well!

Gwendalou

Welcome Shune, Yep you got it! Jump right in, and if you have a question start a new thread or find one that pertains to your question. Belive me I'm as far from a pro as they get. In fact compared to what I read in here these guys are way out ahead of me.
Debbie

Hi mesmerel, I'm glad you could find Winlock on the map cause I never even know from year to year what phone book to tell people we're in. I'm actually closer to the next little town and the county line and we use to change in the phone books. LOL I belonged to our garden club but don't remember how I found out about it - possibly a friend I took painting classes with. It was great and I think we did go to some of the members homes. I think being so far out in the country maybe these women stuck to more of the basics - and they were all older ladies also. I really enjoyed them but with working I sort of got away from it. I suppose I should go back. I did a google search for garden clubs and came up with this - don't know know if it will help.
Welcome Shune - hopefully it will help you find a garden club too or someone who may know who you could contact. I did the search for SeaTac.
http://www.highlinegarden.org/links_resources.shtml

Here's one that is probably better if you're looking to join a garden club. It is the WSFGC, Washington State Federation Of Garden Clubs website. There is a statewide map to click on and more.

http://www.wagardenclubs.org/membership.htm

msantique, Thanks for the link to Highline Garden. Actually, I have been to that site before, long ago. They have added a lot more info to it. From time to time, I visit that garden. I helped dig a few plants out of Elda's old garden for the move. That was a few years ago. I just stopped by there on Tuesday to check out what was in bloom. I love spring.

Hi Shune,
Yes, welcome! I'm senior to you on this site by about a week, but I feel at home already. And we're practically neighbors! Do you get to garden where you are, and if so, for how long? I ask because for years I was so frustrated living where I could not garden very much at all. Containers are OK, but no sun was a real challenge for me. But I learned so much about shade gardening then.

I love the suggestion someone wrote about gardening at each other's houses. I used to have a friend I could do that with. It was great! I would drive a bit (to Seattle or West Seattle? to Puyallup?) to hook up with another gardener who would like to do that. I've been having so much fun being outside these last few weeks that I'm sort of running out of things to do, perish the thought.

I'm very glad to have found a PNW forum. I'm also new (though I've been lurking for sometime) and thought I'd say a quick hello! Be prepared for some pretty novice questions out of me. I was good with gardening as a kid in California (my grandmother had a great garden that I loved to help with), but most of my adult life has been up here in Oregon and I am pretty sure I left my green thumb behind... :(

My current saga - how to get a fig to grow in the PNW. Ugh!

Heather

Welcome Heather, I've been gardening for years but never as interested as I have been the past ten years or so. I can't remember the names of my flowers and there is no ryme or reason to my madness but I do love it. Debbie

mesmerel, We went to Ocean Shores for the weekend so this is the first chance I have had to answer you. (The weather was great!) Yes, I am able to garden where I am. I have lived here several years. I got the gardening bug from my Grandmother when I was pretty young. But until the last few years it was "yard work" and I did not enjoy it that much. Plus my lot is fairly large, on a slope & hardpan. (Hard work!) I have been enjoying it more since I started calling it "gardening" and not pressuring myself as much to get it all done and make everything perfect. Or maybe I should say, I've come to terms with the fact that it's a work in progress and always will be. :^)