Gardening In The Grove
by Bill Valuch

Welcome to our new column all about you and your gardens. The idea for this column came about after years of questions and gardening tips being exchanged amongst my myself, our customers, local nursery owners and visitors from far away places.

Let me take a moment to introduce myself. My wife Rosemary and I have had the privilege of owning and operating Miss Trawick’s Garden Shop located in "the little red house" just below the Red House Café. Over the past five years I have had countless conversations with visitors to our shop about their successes and failures in the garden both here in Pacific Grove and through out the good old U.S.A. We are truly the envy of many a gardener out of our area.

I will never claim to an expert on anything, especially gardening but I am a lover of plants and gardening and have studied horticulture on and off for many years. Having plants, soils and gardening products in our shop provides me with constant input from the industry experts but I feel the collective experience from you the readers will prove to be far more valuable.

Enough about me. This is going to be a column about you in which we will exchange information about new plants and old-time favorites. You are encouraged to ask questions and provide answers to our readership. Your tried and true gardening tips can be shared by all in our "Tip of the Month" feature. I will conduct local interviews with gardeners, landscapers, nursery owners and clubs in an effort to bring up-to-date information that we can all use.

Do you have a favorite drought- or deer-tolerant plant? How about that simple environmentally friendly method you use to control pests? Know of a great gardening book that would be useful to others? The list goes on and the point of this column is to share your wealth of gardening knowledge with others.

So let’s get started! Please email your tips, questions, suggestions and favorites to me so we can begin the sharing process. The next column is going to feature drought-tolerant plants that do well in our area. Send me your favorites with a brief description and I will begin to include them in the space available. I will also be choosing the "Tips of the Month" and posting a question or two. I look forward to hearing from you!

Email your input to: misstrawicks@sbcglobal.net or submit them in writing and drop them by our shop at 664 Lighthouse Ave, Pacific Grove.