The Cool, Wet, Marine Climate of Ocean Shores: A tiny city, Ocean Shores is only 6 miles long and 2 miles wide. Our general maritime climate is cool, wet, and windy, but along our little peninsula there are enough micro-climate and soil differences that one plant might grow well in one area and not at […]
Calling All Gardeners: Spring is springing. Our ocean plants are pushing up through the cold, wet soil that winter has left us. Bit by bit the days are getting longer. With the sun rising before 7am now, we have just over 12 hours of daylight. Temperatures are warming by fits and starts. Although weather scientists […]
Do You Have Spring Bulbs Breaking Ground? As usual we’ve had a lot of wind and rain this winter, but we’ve also had some early, sunny, relatively warm days too. Have you taken a look outside at the bulb garden you planted last fall? Are your bulbs like mine – already a few inches of […]
Salt in Coastal Gardens: At the end of the Punic Wars (264-146 BC) the Romans destroyed the great Phoenician city of Carthage and burned it to the ground. After a century of war, the Romans wanted to be sure Carthage would never rise again. It was rumored that Rome sowed the entire city with salt […]
House Plants Part 2: We looked at growing plants indoors and noted a few holiday plants: Christmas Cactus, Amaryllis, Anthurium, and Poinsettia. If you had any of these, most should still be doing well, assuming you read their tags and paid attention to specific light, humidity, temperature, and watering needs. I bought the light pink […]
House Plants Part 1: Yes, yes, the holidays are here, in full force. TV commercials are sprinkled with falling snow, the lovely kind. Not the slushy, dirty kind or the cold, frozen kind that creates spinouts or fender benders. And certainly not any kind of snow we are likely to see here at Ocean Shores. […]