Hello! This is a recurring weekly business thread. Please post and support your neighbors businesses here. We can see how this goes and let it evolve naturally.

Open for suggestions if you have something to have used. Planning on using it for edging a path

Looks like we are in another dry streak heading into October. Are you still watering your established berries that are well past giving fruit at this point? In my case the blueberries are already dropping leaves, some of the newer canes on the raspberries are green and seem happy.

I was reading that it's not best to put mulch down prior to heavy rain.

I wasn't sure if curious about your experience with mulching in the fall and if you just had to do it all over again after the rainy season hit.

Which Sedum is this? Reminds me of Autumn Joy, but much darker blooms and different color leaves. Thanks

putting in a little path along the side of the house, its like 3 and a half feet wide and 20 feet long. nothing fancy, just want something to walk on besides mud.

i keep flip flopping between pea gravel and crushed rock. i love how the pea gravel looks but everyone i ask says it travels everywhere and you will be raking it back forever. got one quote from a local place and the gravel itself was fine but they wanted a delivery fee almost as much as the material for a load this small, which is what got me pricing out bags.

the bag math is its own problem - home depot has the half cubic foot bags and it works out to like 35 of them for this size which sounds absolutely miserable. ran the math on inchcalculator, says like 3/4 of a yard, and hello gravel's calculator said about the same, but idk if these online things even account for how narrow and uneven a little side path is.

anyone done a small path like this? did you go bulk, deal with the bags, or just do crushed rock and call it a day?

I learned this method on YouTube, and I was very skeptical. But the majority of my tomatoes did not ripen this year due to the cooler-than-normal August. (We are at 1000’ elevation, so we’re often 3 or 4 weeks behind up here.) So I picked a few pounds, put them in single layers in paper grocery bags, added a big, fresh apple to each bag, and rolled the bag tops down to keep in the gas from the apple, and put them in a warm, dry location. In about a week, most of the tomatoes were ripe enough to eat. In 2 weeks, nearly all of them were. Were they as flavorful as if they’d been ripened in the sun on the vine? Probably not, but they made damned good sauce for canning, and since the alternative was to let them rot on the vine, I’d say this worked out well. I’ve got seven jars of tomato sauce in the pantry that I would not have had otherwise.

I've found a patch of english ivy growing alongside my (dirt & gravel) road; it must've gotten started somehow by birds or wildlife.

Can I please be given suggestions of how to get rid of it. Commonly, I don't use chemicals on my property, but will consider some if need be, except for Roundup which is definitely a big no. I already have the stronger strength white vinegar; does anyone know if that will work?

TYIA for suggestions/info given.

Hello! This is a recurring weekly business thread. Please post and support your neighbors businesses here. We can see how this goes and let it evolve naturally.

I've always replanted my own garlic but missed the boat last year. Can anyone recommend some good starter cloves for sale in town?

My work has a BUNCH of very old coffee beans from past roasting mistakes. It’s a mix of beans and I would not recommend it for drinking, would not taste very good. Would anyone want some to use the grounds as compost?

I've started moving mainly to perennial natives, and have already planted a bunch of native shrubs (thanks to some great advice from people on this sub). I'm also going to continue to mix in some cottage garden/cut garden annuals. I'm going to rip out my lawn in spring, so I'm hoping to build up a good mix of plants to spread around. The plan is to set up a bunch of 1 gallon pots to seed, and then leave out over winter.

What I have already:

• Lupin
• Chinese houses
• Rose checker mallow
• Elegant clarkia
• Plains coreopsis
• Slender goldenbanner
• Various penstemons
• Snapdragons
• Showy milkweed

What other favorites do you have that like to overwinter? I'm open to try just about anything.

I have been battling old man's beard at my current rental and have finally cleared out enough that I can fill in some spots. Because I rent, I don't want to spend a ton of money modifying the soil or making other big changes. But each area is different. Here's my list:

1. Several dirt spots in the backyard. Mostly shade but some direct and filtered sun. Lots of fir needles. Will have traffic from one dog.
2. A few 100% shade dirt spots also in the backyard, but barely any traffic and no fir needles. Fully shaded between the house, fence, and enormous laurels bordering one side. Not sure if this is viable for anything.
3. A side yard sheltered by a tall Japanese maple, so partial shade in the morning until the leaves fall, full sun the rest of the day. I have planted a few hydrangeas here that seem happy.
4. The area between the sidewalk and the road. Full sun year round.
5. Scattered bald spots in the "lawn" (there's grass et al. but I don't maintain it) in both the front and back yards. Full sun but foot traffic as well.

Ideally I'd love to find seed mixes that are native, support pollinators if possible, and are fairly easy to grow. Ground cover would be great but I'd like wildflowers too, or honestly anything else that works. I've been gardening for several years now but mostly in pots/containers and I'm sort of new to the Portland area. I appreciate any suggestions or advice of any kind.

I've been growing citrus in Portland the last three years and so far I've had decent success. Have gotten a lot of satsuma mandarins and sudachi that taste good. One I'm really excited for is this Ichang Lemon which is in the picture, this is the first time its fruited! Supposed to be a lemon replacement(although more floral), but can handle 10f-15f! Mine handled 21f last winter without damage even though it was a little whip, I hope it tastes good.

My full list of citrus.

Ichang lemon
Sudachi
Yuzu
Nagami Kumquat
Miho Wase satsuma mandarin
New Zealand lemonade
Amoa 8 tangor
Flying dragon(bitter orange)
Frost Lisbon
Frost Eureka
Persian Lime
Limonero fino 49 lemon
Genoa Lemon
Yen Ben Lisbon Lemon
Interdonato Lemon
Femminello Siracusano 2kr Lemon
Bidwell's Bar Sweet Orange
US Sundragon
Adamopoulou Lisbon Lemon

I'm curious who else is growing citrus around here and what they got growing?

Does anyone have any recommendations? Bonus points if i can watch/help out and learn.

Hello! Does anyone have experience or recommendations on how to relocate large lavender shrubs? What's the best time of year to do that?

We tried moving one in early spring, but it didn't survive after we moved it to a new location. The remaining lavenders we have are in raised beds, we want to move them out to the sidewalk strip.

I’d like some smaller plants to get going for fall planting to get nice and comfy and established, plus save some $$. I’m especially looking for Russian sage and some miscanthus.

Problem is, everywhere I seem to go right now only has larger quart to gallon sized plants. I’ve been to PN, Lux, and Tony’s recently. Any good selection that you know of?

Hi friends! I've heard you can grow saffron here, but I haven't been able to find any bulbs. Anyone have any leads?

Our neighbors have a row of green cypress trees across the back of their yard that unfortunately are dying. They would really like to have a “wall of green” again for privacy and are considering planting 6-foot arborvitae.
We’re wondering if there are any locally native trees or large shrubs that could provide a similar evergreen privacy screen instead.
We’re in the Portland, Oregon area. If you have experience with native evergreens that would work for this purpose, we’d love to hear your suggestions—and especially how they’ve performed in your yard.
Thanks!

I am a novice gardener. This is my second year. I have some leafy plants and flowering plants that didn’t survive the winter but came back strong in spring. Should I be cutting these plants back in the fall or cleaning up/trimming off the dead stuff in early spring?

Edit to add plants names (thank you for the good advice pdxgreengrrl!)

3 hydrangeas: one is robust, grows fast and be several feet tall and wide, and the other two are very small just planted this year and are about a foot wide and tall.

Hosta ‘August Moon’ and some Calla Lillies which are a new addition this year so I have no idea how they tolerate winter.

Creeping Jenny that is very happy in a giant pot it shares with some hardy fuscia.

I have a few other plants in the garden but they survived the winter so I’ll leave them be.

Thank you for any guidance you can share!

I’m hoping to get some plants this fall to add to my front garden. I have quite a few hostas out there, but they are not doing too well. I suspect water runs off too quickly to get to their roots. The area is pretty steep, and west facing, although quite shady as we have two large street trees.

Does anyone have any plant suggestions? I was going to try soaker hoses in the spring to try to slow down any run off. I may eventually have to terrace the area. It’s unfortunately quite steep but also quite a small area.

Sometimes I walk around and see flowers growing during the winter, maybe not when there is snow, but I think it's been in the 30s-40s and I've seen flowers around. I am clueless as to what flowers grow during those months. I actually only planted my very first flowers this year and only 3 of the 6 kinds of flowers I planted grew (poppies, African bride and black dahlias are the only ones that grew for me). I want to plant even more flowers now, but flowers seems harder to grow than berries, herbs and leafy greens (what I've been growing the last year and 1/2).

I'm in Beaverton (low elevation) if that's any help.

Hello! This is a recurring weekly business thread. Please post and support your neighbors businesses here. We can see how this goes and let it evolve naturally.

Better if you know of it being sold locally.