This just in: SUCCULENTS!

Civic Center planting by Sloat Garden Center

As part of SF Mayor Newsom's initiative to make urban spaces more sustainable, Sloat Garden Center was invited to create a low-water planter in the Civic Center. Sloat Assistant Manager Mike DiTota (from our 3rd Avenue store) and Sloat Custom Creation Design Jennie Strobel truly created a work of art. Photos above. View the city's press release on the event here.

Grow your Own vegetables

New shipments of edibles just arrived. Stop in!

Love this picture!

Students at Neil Cummins School in Corte Madera harvest vegetables (the school recently received a Sloat Garden Center garden grant).

Early spring color in our nurseries...yum!

In our stores this week: color!

NYT Article: Urban Composting: A New Can of Worms

Urban Composting: A New Can of Worms

The New York Times

By MIREYA NAVARRO

(Sloat Garden Center carries the composter cited in this article. Read on....)

ON a recent Saturday afternoon, Stephanie Stern and her husband poured 1,000 wriggling red worms from a brown bag into a plastic bin outside their bathroom, looked down and hoped for the best.

If things went well, the worms, already burrowing into their bed of shredded newspapers, would soon be eating three pounds of food scraps a week, reducing the couple’s trash and producing fertilizer for their plants.

Read the rest of the article here

Article in SF Chronicle: Bare-root berry plants will sweeten your summer

Bare-root berry plants will sweeten your summer

Sophia Markoulakis, Special to The Chronicle
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

If January's warm weather didn't prompt you to get out and start poking around in the garden, then maybe the prospect of saving a considerable amount of money will. I'm talking about bare-root plants, those often-packaged deciduous bundles that cost twice as much during other times of the year when not in their dormant state. So pick your space wisely, prep the soil and get shopping.

Strawberries
The fact that a single bare-root plant costs less than a basket of pesticide-laden strawberries at the supermarket is almost comical. According to "The Edible Garden," (Sunset Publishing, 2005), strawberries are among the easiest edibles to grow but do require well-drained, rich organic soil with a pH no higher than 6.5, light feeding after harvest and consistent watering.

Avoid planting in areas where strawberries, tomatoes, raspberries, potatoes, peppers or eggplants have been planted in the past three years to lessen your chances of verticillium wilt (this applies to raspberries and blackberries as well).

The most commonly found varieties are June-bearing, which produce one crop of big berries in early summer, and ever-bearing, which produce several crops of smaller fruit throughout the summer. Both perform well in the Bay Area.

Read the full article here....

Congratulations!

Congratulations are in order for Sloat Blvd staff member Helen Winkler. She recently passed the exam to become a Certified Arborist. Way to go Helen!!!

Early Spring Custom Planters 3

More Early Spring Custom Planters

Early Spring Custom Planters!!

Our garden design department

Spring is just around the corner and it’s time to plan. Call our Garden Design Department for a garden evaluation or consultation and let us help you form specific, personalized garden plans! We now offer one hour consultations, design packages and custom design plans for every budget and need. Information can be found here.

Winter color and texture

Photos taken at our 3rd Avenue and Kentfield stores last week....

Have you checked out the Winter Orchid Festival?