Author Archives: Colleen Miko

About Colleen Miko

Colleen Miko is a certified professional horticulturist with 20 years experience in landscape design who has designed award winning gardens for the NW Flower & Garden Show as well as HGTV’s “Landscaper’s Challenge”. Colleen is freelance garden writer and speaker.

Easy Home-Grown Sprouts

Posted on March 17, 2021 by Colleen Miko

Sprouts are nutritious and add crunch, texture and flair to dishes. If you love sprouts, you’ll know that finding them at even the best stocked grocery store is difficult. Delicate and perishable, when available, they tend to come in plastic … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Vegetable Gardening | Tagged growing alfalfa and bean sprouts, growing salad sprouts, growing sprouting seeds, kitchen seed sprouting, salad seed sprouting germinators, using kitchen seed sprouting trays | 2 Comments

Let It All Soak In: A Rain Garden Webinar (free!)

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Colleen Miko

Let it All Soak In: A Rain Garden Webinar – April 13, 2021 at 6:30 pm A stunning landscape feature and stormwater device all in one! Rain gardens are a unique way to protect your local creek, lake or shoreline … Continue reading →

Posted in Natural Yard Care | Tagged bioretention, natural yard care techniques, rain garden, rain garden webinar, Zoom webinar by Colleen Miko | Leave a comment

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE: Fresh AIR

Posted on February 27, 2021 by Colleen Miko

Sometimes I forget that I am blessed with options and get caught up in self-imposed, rigid ways of doing and being. To counter this, I have decided to be an “Artist-in-Residence” this month. You may be familiar with these programs. … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Inspiration, Misc, Uncategorized | Tagged Artist-in-Residence, Artist-in-Residency, Artists Retreat at Home, Self-made Artist Retreat | Leave a comment

10 THINGS THIS GARDENER IS THANKFUL FOR

Posted on January 9, 2021 by Colleen Miko

Since the start of the new year I’ve been pondering a few of my many blessings… 1. Friends who visit my garden and don’t see any weeds 2. The song of wind in the trees 3. Kneepads and gloves 4. … Continue reading →

Posted in Misc, Nature, Uncategorized | Tagged 'Jelena' Witch Hazel, Garden blessings, garden gratitude, Happy New Year, Syrphid fly, Things to be thankful for | Leave a comment

CYA (Cover Your Actinomycetes*)

Posted on November 23, 2020 by Colleen Miko

*Actinomycete–filamentous bacteria that give healthy soil its characteristic “earthy” smell. I just got around to covering my empty vegetable beds to safeguard my soil. Quite often I miss the late summer/early fall window to put out cover crop seed and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized, Vegetable Gardening | Tagged Cover vegetable beds, Forget to cover crop?, Overwinter vegetable bed, Prevent weeds in vegetable bed, Protect soil from erosion, Soil protection, Too late to cover crop? | Leave a comment

Prettiest Mulch EVER!

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Colleen Miko

And not just pretty mulch, but FREE mulch. Easy mulch. Nature’s mulch. How I love the bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) trees along my driveway! Looking up into the canopy at any time of the year brings on a rush of … Continue reading →

Posted in Nature, Uncategorized, Viva Verde | Tagged benefits of leaf mulch, Bigleaf maple mulch, easy mulch, free mulch, leaf mulch | Leave a comment

THANK YOU, CLASS ATTENDEES!

Posted on November 13, 2020 by Colleen Miko

Thanks a bunch to those of you who joined me for my zoom class “It’s all in the Design: The Low-Maintenance Garden” last week. I hope that my 5 key concepts for designing a landscape that won’t run your life … Continue reading →

Posted in Design Inspiration, Garden Events, Local Interest | Tagged Class to create low maintenance garden, Classes by Colleen Miko, Landscape Design Class, Low Maintenance Design Class, Low maintenance garden design lcass, WSU Kitsap Master Gardener Class, Zoom webinar by Colleen Miko | 2 Comments

Reminder: LANDSCAPE DESIGN CLASS NOVEMBER 4, 2020

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Colleen Miko

We all say we want one, but what is a low-maintenance garden anyway? In this one hour class on Zoom, Colleen will share 5 key concepts for designing a landscape that won’t run your life. Looking to make your existing … Continue reading →

Ghosts in the Salal

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Colleen Miko

It all started for me when my neighbor, with glee, presented the animated salal leaf she found while gardening. My first thought: “How funny! My second thought, “What insect did this?” I ran through scenarios in my mind: a variety … Continue reading →

Posted in Call me Segmented: Arthropoda & Insecta, Garden Pests, Invaluable Invertebrates, Misc, Nature, Uncategorized | Tagged abiotic factor, biotic factor, Insect damage to leaves, leafcutter bee damage, Loopers and inchworms, Plant mysteries, root weevil damage, Salal leaf diseases, Salal leaf face, Salal leaf pests, sawfly larvae | Leave a comment

LANDSCAPE DESIGN CLASS NOVEMBER 4, 2020

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Colleen Miko