| Be patient with plants after freeze
Now that the hard freeze is over, I'd like to know what to expect from some of my plants. Will my crape myrtles, whose leaves have turned black, recover this spring? What can I expect from my hydrangeas, hostas and encore azaleas? Despite my best efforts to keep them covered, their leaves have turned limp and mushy. Is there anything I can do to encourage new growth? - Suzanne F. Dear Suzanne: Were there any doubts what this week's column would be about? Unfortunately, you are not alone in questioning what do I do now that we have experienced the extremes of spring gardening (record highs followed by record lows) and what that can do to our landscapes. The good news is that we can recover from this (unlike those who are growing fruit and other agricultural crops), but we must have a little patience.
Sustaining new life
You could hear Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Alan Jaskoski's laugh from a couple of acres away Thursday morning at the Marion County Jail garden.
Work party inmate Brian Finney looked back over his shoulder toward Jaskoski as he hustled a bright orange wheelbarrow out to the huge stack of donated fertilizer he and his crew were going to transfer to a storage container. Senior Deputy Jaskoski is the man who created the prison garden project and continues to manage it.
“He's always that cheerful," Finney said and smiled himself.
In fact, everyone working the Marion County Jail garden, Jaskoski and Marion Polk Food Share garden coordinator Jordan Blake, and the half a dozen inmates in the work party, were cheerful despite the cold. The garden they were creating would provide free, fresh produce for needy families in Marion and Polk County.
Nursery ready to help decorate your yard
Leatham Nursery Home and Garden Center celebrated its grand opening Saturday at 875 E. Chinden Blvd., west of Eagle Road. The landscaping superstore on five acres has been open since March 1. Leatham's features everything from native Idaho plants, specimen trees and shrubs, to colorful annuals and perennials, gardening supplies, pottery, statuary, fountains, yard decor and bird supplies.Leatham Land Leveling was founded in 1965 by Norm and Carol Leatham in Southwest Idaho. Their son, Stan, has been continuing the business for the past 15 years.In addition to the new center, Leatham also offers landscaping services, including residential landscaping and lawn care services, pest control and Christmas lighting, throughout the Treasure Valley.Leatham Nursery is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.
Cote: A hand on the wheel of life
Let's get it out in the open. Miracle-Gro. Rebecca Kolls, Master Gardener and television personality, is paid to tout the stuff. Not that she's obnoxious about it; she doesn't slip the name of the product into every sentence, as in, "The tomato plant is thriving! It's a Miracle . . . Gro." But when she drops by the Rocky newsroom, two bags of the stuff accompany her, like loyal grubby friends. The one-time host of HGTV's Rebecca's Garden could be toting around bags of pig snot, and I wouldn't care. Kolls has informed me that she'll give me tips guaranteed to get my container garden thriving this year. "Gardening is changing," says Kolls, who gardens on 3 1/2 acres in Wisconsin. "The word alone conjures images of long weekends sweating and crossing our fingers that what we plant will grow.
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