"Echoes of Eden" Dayle King Searle

You may have seen these bushes flowering the past few weeks. With their round white flower clusters, it would be easy to assume these plants are related to snowball bushes, but they are not. So what are they?

We spent last weekend in western  and northern Idaho. As we drove along the Payette River, I kept seeing bushes covered with large white flowers. They were growing everywhere--along the river, on the hillsides, even clinging to rocky cliffs. This is what I saw...     Do you know what it is?

Two years ago we  moved our strawberry patch. As we did so, we decided it was an ideal time to test different strawberry varieties and find the "best" one, or at least the best one for our area and our taste. I have come to refer to what followed as The Great Strawberry Challenge.

    Covered in tiny light pink blossoms, purple leafed flowering plums are among the earliest flowering trees in spring.   

Nothing says "summer" quite like the taste of fresh picked berries. Not all berries will grow well in the alkaline soil of southeast Idaho, but with a little TLC, raspberries will do very well here. And NOW is the time to give that TLC.

     Summer may still seem a long way off, but if you want the pleasure of harvesting fresh vegetables from your garden in summer, the time to think about planting is now. At least for some crops. These are plants that will tolerate cold temperatures, and in some cases, will even grow better if planted while the weather is still cool. These plants include: all cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, turnip, etc.) asparagus beets carrots kale lettuce onions (either seeds or sets) peas radish spinach Swiss chard If you can't get to this immediately, don't worry. Any time between now and the middle of May will be fine. After that, you can still plant these vegetables, but they may not do as well as they will if they are planted earlier.

      Everything looks beautiful covered in snow--even when that snow comes in April.