Pat Munts

Spokane

Freelance Columnist at The Spokesman-Review

Garden and write in the hot, dry and cold Inland Northwest

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Articles

Gardening: Garden Expo perfect chance to add to your (or Mom’s) landscape

1 month ago | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

OK, gardeners, get out your wagons, carts and wallets. The 24th annual Garden Expo is Saturday at the Spokane Community College campus. This is a sale not to be missed. The Expo will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Parking and admission are free. This year ’s Expo will feature more than 350 vendors offering a wide selection of plants and garden -related crafts, including garden art, wind chimes, planters, garden furniture, iron works and a wealth of other goodies.
Gardening: Master Gardener Foundation kicks off plant sale season

1 month ago | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

Now that our gardens are sprouting, it’s time to look ahead to the annual plant sales. First up is the Spokane County Master Gardener Foundation Garden Fair on April 25-26, followed by Garden Expo on May 10 and the Friends of Manito Plant Sale on June 7. The Spokane County Master Gardener Foundation Garden Fair is at the WSU Spokane County Extension Office, 222 N. Havana St.The sale is noon to 6 p.m. April 25 and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. April 26.
Gardening: Unusual orchids galore at annual floral show this weekend

1 month ago | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

Orchids have been surrounded by mystery and intrigue for centuries. In the 1800s, European collectors would fund expensive plant hunting expeditions around the world just to say they had a plant that their rivals didn’t. Even today, orchid collectors continue to search for new varieties on all the continents except Antarctica. With over 30,000 species already named, collectors still want to find plants no one else has.
Gardening: Early bloomers herald spring’s arrival

2 months ago | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

My heart sang a couple of weeks ago when my patch of white snowdrops appeared at the edge of a snow bank. A week later, my winter aconite with its bright yellow flowers found their way out of the ground. That means spring has sprung. For me, the appearance of these early blooming bulbs lifts my spirit like nothing else after a long, drab winter. Their color brightens the dormant landscape and heralds the beginning of the garden season.
Gardening: Finding flavor and healing in growing and using herbs

2 months ago | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

“Sometimes convenience breeds complacency. If every herb is readily available to us without the need to learn its lifecycle, walk the trails or till the fields, then its far too easy to think of them as nothing more than ingredients.”In his new book, “Herbs in Every Season” (Timber Press), Bevin Cohen goes beyond a list of herbs and how to grow them to include seeking out wild plants and trees and the holistic joy found in searching for them.
Gardening: Best way to improve soil is to add compost

2 months ago | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

I recently got a question from a reader about where to get good soil and compost. Part of her request was for “organic” soil and compost. The Spokane region is home to a wide variety of soils depending on the underlying geology and your proximity to the Missoula flood channels. South of Spokane on the Palouse, we find the wind-blown Palouse loess, a fine-grained soil that supports the irrigation-free grain crops. Spokane’s South Hill has a lot of clay that has weathered out of the basalt.
Gardening: A new seed-starting hack

2 months ago | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

The last weekend of February, I made my annual pilgrimage to the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival in downtown Seattle. Traveling over Snoqualmie Pass was uneventful courtesy of our dry winter and seeing the early spring green lifted my spirits. The NWFGF is one of the country’s largest annual gardens shows and features display gardens, a huge market for anything related to gardening that I always check out for unusual plants I can’t find in Spokane.
Gardening: Using our landscapes as a bridge to the natural world

Mar 6, 2025 | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

The research supporting the importance of home gardens that incorporate elements of biodiversity and sustainability is growing rapidly. More studies show that planting your garden to support native plants, insects and animals has a multiplier effect on the habitat beyond your garden. When native habitat-friendly gardens can cluster together, a whole neighborhood becomes a haven where nature can thrive.
Choose plants according to your garden's growing season

Feb 27, 2025 | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

By the time you read this, we will be experiencing our first taste of spring temperatures. Just don’t get too excited. Regardless, it’s time to start planning your spring gardens. The choices in the market are endless for seeds and plants. Here are my guidelines for choosing plants that will work in our region. First, in what USDA hardiness zone do they prefer to grow?
Gardening: Work smarter, not harder, with these gardening tools

Feb 20, 2025 | spokesman.com | Pat Munts

I braved the cold last week to survey the state of my tool rack and assess how useful some of my tools are that make gardening easier. Here are several of my unusual but valuable ones when a challenging job presents itself:First up is a repurposed dry wall saw I use for sawing roots in the dirt. Made by Shark, the Rockeater Drywall Saw is about a foot long with a 6-inch blade and lightweight enough to be flexible when needed unlike a hori hori knife.