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In-depth plant profiles, disease identification, and pest management for Western Washington.
Most people think supporting pollinators means keeping honeybees. But the native solitary bees doing the heaviest work in your spring garden have been here all along. A practical guide to mason bee habitat, lifecycle, and management for the Puget Sound region.
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The claim that wood chips rob soil nitrogen is one of horticulture's most persistent myths. Here is what actually happens at the mulch-soil interface, when the concern is real, and why chips are a net gain for your garden.
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You've probably seen a mulch volcano and helped create one. Here's what that pile is doing to your tree, and how to mulch correctly for the soil under your feet.
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Copper fungicide is one of the few organic materials that works against both fungal and bacterial pathogens. Here is what it controls in the Puget Sound landscape, when to spray it, and the real constraints you need to respect.
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The most effective pest and disease treatments happen when your trees look dead. Here is what to spray, when to spray it, and why the timing window matters.
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Disease-resistant crabapples that stay clean from April bloom through October fruit drop. Organized by size, with pollination data and the native Pacific crabapple.
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Disease resistance, not chill hours, determines which apple trees produce fruit in the Puget Sound lowlands. Nine varieties that need no spray program, plus rootstock and pollination guidance.
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You already have one. That is the starting point for most conversations about Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) in Western Washington. It sits in your front yard, lines your street, anchors the...
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A native evergreen that screens, fixes nitrogen, and asks for almost nothing in return. Privacy, wind protection, and soil improvement in one fast-growing package.
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Thick silken webs in your cherry or crabapple every spring are tent caterpillars. Learn the three species in the Puget Sound region, why outbreaks crash on their own, when intervention actually helps, and why doing nothing is usually the strongest long-term play.
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Gray mold (Botrytis cinerea) infects 200+ species and thrives in Puget Sound's cool, wet springs. Identification on fruit, flowers, and vegetables; the wetness-duration infection model; cultural controls that outperform sprays; and the fungicide resistance story reshaping professional programs.
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Apple scab is the most reliable fungal disease on any Malus in the Puget Sound lowlands. Identification, the Mills table, cultivar resistance ratings, fall sanitation, and protectant vs. kickback spray timing for Western Washington fruit growers and landscapers.
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Bronze birch borer kills stressed birches from the canopy down, and understanding the delay between drought stress and visible damage is the key to saving trees that can still be saved. GDD timing, resistance chemistry, treatment thresholds, and species substitution for the Puget Sound lowlands.
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How to prune young trees for storm resistance, structural integrity, and decades of trouble-free growth in Western Washington.
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Walk through any Western Washington neighborhood in early spring, and you'll spot the evidence: trees that look like they've been given blunt haircuts, their canopies reduced to stumpy branches with...
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Two years ago, your contractor promised you the big Douglas-fir would be fine. The tree had shaded your house for forty years, and the remodel was necessary. You watched them work around it. No major...
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You step outside the morning after a cold snap in January and stop cold. A vertical crack runs down the trunk of your maple or cherry, splitting the bark from somewhere high up and descending several...
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You walk into your local nursery in the Puget Sound region and find a 15-gallon Douglas-fir or Japanese maple. The tag reads "ready to plant." You load it into your truck, dig a hole in your yard,...
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You can eliminate most tree problems before you plant a single sapling. Match the tree to the site, and you won't spend the next twenty years fighting with dead branches, structural failure, or roots...
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Soil temperature, not the calendar, determines when seeds germinate and roots establish. Learn to measure it, interpret it, and use it to plant vegetables at the right time in the Puget Sound region.
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National spring lawn advice assumes winter dormancy. Puget Sound lawns skip that step. Here is what to do about moss, compaction, and clay soil damage instead.
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Your grape variety determines your pruning method. Learn spur pruning vs. cane pruning, wet-climate timing to prevent trunk disease, and a variety-by-variety reference table for the Puget Sound lowlands.
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Clematis confusion starts the moment you bring one home. You've got a beautiful vine covered in flowers, and then someone tells you to prune it. Cut it back hard? Light prune? Wait until next year?...
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Growing degree days are the accumulated heat units that drive every biological event in your landscape. HortGuide uses base 32°F for maritime climates. This guide explains the calculation, the conversion methodology, source data, and how to read the season tracker.
Read more →One p or two? The abbreviations sp. and spp. after a genus name mean different things. Learn the distinction, the Latin behind it, and how to read them on nursery tags, lab reports, and pesticide labels.
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Every nursery tag carries four layers of naming. One of them predicts how the plant will perform in your yard. Learn to decode species, cultivar, trade name, and patent so you buy exactly what you intend.
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If you track four numbers through the year, you can predict when your fruit trees will break dormancy, when the soil is warm enough to plant, whether your season is running ahead or behind, and how much solar energy your landscape is actually receiving.
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Most Puget Sound gardeners think they have clay. They are usually wrong. Learn how to identify your actual soil series, test texture and drainage in your yard, and manage for what you have instead of what you assume.
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You're looking at a street tree in Seattle or Tacoma that should be thriving. Instead, the canopy is thin, the leaves turned color six weeks early, and the tree drops branches every other year. The...
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