May Flowers and Gardens Galore

Let’s say you just planted your tomatoes (hooray for night temps above fifty degrees!) and you realized you don’t have enough cages. Let’s also say you told your family you were going to stop at Ace Hardware on the way home from other errands to “see if they have any tomato cages.” And then when you did just that, the front door slid open and there they were, right in front of you—those tomato cages you didn’t really want to hunt to find. In three sizes. 

Because Ace knows what time it is. 

All of downtown does. 

It’s garden time! Let’s get our thumbs a little green, shall we? 

Your Edmonds Gardening Resource

As the old adage goes, you are the average of the people you hang out with the most, and if you hang out with the Edmonds Floretum Garden Club, which is celebrating one hundred years (!!!), you will really know your way around seed packets, starters, shrubs, weeds, extreme temperature survivors, and seasonal varietals. If you attended their annual plant sale on May 6, you certainly know what we’re talking about. And if you didn’t, look for the club around town this month preparing the gorgeous hanging baskets that add color to our streets, check out their blog for planting tips, and keep their events page refreshed to find them at places like their Saturday workshops, the 4th of July Parade, annual plant exchange, and more. 

Did you know the Edmonds Floretum Club also maintains twenty boxes in a local P-Patch? The produce from several of those boxes contributes to the weekly harvest for the Edmonds Food Bank. It doesn’t get much more local than that! 

Downtown In Bloom

Speaking of impressive city stats, here are a few about the people who maintain the hanging baskets the Edmonds Floretum Garden Club puts together:

• There are fifteen City of Edmonds staff members on the Streets and Storm Crew
• These staff members maintain 290 miles of streets, 500 crosswalks, and 25 signalized intersections
• They also tend to the more than 140 baskets with 20,000 plants the Floreum Garden Club selects to fill, thrill, and spill downtown

Next time you see one of these dedicated City employees while you’re doing your rounds around the blocks, be sure to give them a wave. You can also help them by “adopting” a hanging basket or garden corner. Learn more and pick yours here. 

FIELD by Morgan & Moss

Back To Your Garden

If you’re looking for starters for your garden, there are a few sellers at the Edmonds Summer Market who have them waiting for you each Saturday at their booths. You can also get yourself appropriately outfitted to spend time in the sun clipping and weeding with stops into Bench & Board for a Hori Horn garden knife or FIELD for Joyce Chen garden scissors. Care to brush up on what others have done to grow their bounties? Pick a beautiful new coffee table book from Edmonds Bookshop. Your flower clippings won’t be the only show-stoppers in your living room this summer.  

Hoping to add some lavender to your pots or garden? It’s known to help both veggies and flowers thrive because pollinators (aka bumblebees) love to visit it. Plan to spend some time with the wonderful staff at Pelindaba Lavender. They’ll help you find the perfect purple flower for you.   

HouseWares

And, if you’re on the hunt for new receptacles to display the abundance of your outdoor investment, check out HouseWares, the newly-opened Camp Vintage, Driftwood Modern , Crow or Interiors of Edmonds.   

Show Us How Your Garden Grows

We’ll be sharing photos and videos of all the beautiful blooms we’re seeing around downtown, along with spotlights on the shops that can support you on your planting mission, and we hope you’ll do the same! Tag us on social media—@edmondsdowntown on Facebook and Instagram—and we’ll reshare our favorite bounties. 

Now, stop reading and get your gardening on! 

By Whitney Popa, photos by Matt Hulbert

Feature photo of Pelidaba Lavender