Astoria, Oregon

June 07, 2025

Waterwise Gardening - a book review

Waterwise Gardening: Everything You Need To Know About Efficient Watering to Grow a Healthy Yard by Richard Restuccia Published by Rizzoli, 2025 I would guess that watering is the major issue that most gardeners grapple with, especially novice gardeners. I know from working at the nursery that the majority of questions and issues we get stem from either watering too much or not watering enough. Many people in our area have sprinkler systems and I'm sure that can be a good thing if used properly but I feel that they primarily keep the lawns green but fall short for landscape plants. Especially when it comes to trees and larger plants, the timing and amounts are not satisfactory for many plants. I often hear people say that their sprinklers are set to come on every day - yikes! And there are those who did not water because it "rained" when it actually drizzled. The best thing to do in this situation is to have a xeric garden but that would mean sacrificing favorite plant...

Paul, Cindy and I drove to the coast today. It was a rainy start but cleared up soon and turned out to be a sunny but cold and windy day. Our first stop was Astoria where we stopped at the Maritime Museum then had lunch at Baked Alaska. We regretted that we did not have time to do and see everything. They loved Astoria and hope to return on a future trip and spend a night and an entire day here.

The maritime museum was fascinating and I feel like I learned quite a bit about the shipping trade as well as the geographical features of the Columbia River. I especially enjoyed reading about the trade routes and the items that we ship (and receive) to and from other countries. There was so much to see and read about here that we simply did not have time to view it all. Oh, and the gift shop was pretty fabulous too!