Mt Baker Garden Club

05/10/2026

10-Perennial-Vegetables you need to plant this summer

There are some vegetables and fruits that you will only plant them once and they will regrow again year by year.

04/25/2026

INVASIVE JUMPING WORMS

Invasive jumping worms (Amynthas agrestis), also known as "crazy worms," have been identified in the Pacific Northwest. These pests destroy soil structure, leaving it with a texture similar to coffee grounds, and are identified by their frantic, snake-like movement and a pale, smooth ring (clitellum) around their bodies.

Key Facts & Management
Behavior: They live near the surface and thrash violently when handled.
Impact: They degrade soil, damage plant roots, and deplete nutrients, harming gardens and forests.
Spread: They spread through infested soil, compost, mulch, and potted plants.
Action: If found, they should be destroyed by placing them in sealed plastic bags, alcohol, or by utilizing solarization.
Reporting: Washington residents can report sightings on the Washington Invasive Species Council website.

Identification Tips
Movement: Thrash or "jump" like snakes.
Appearance: Glossy gray or brown, 1.5 to 8 inches long.
Clitellum: White or light-colored band that is smooth and goes all the way around the body, unlike native worms.
Soil Sign: Surface soil looks like "ground beef" or coffee grounds.

According to the University of Minnesota, these worms are hard to control because their cocoons survive winter. To stop the spread, avoid moving soil or mulch from infested areas.

04/08/2026

03/26/2026

IT'S COMING........

02/15/2026

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!
March 5th at 7pm is the next
Garden Club meeting at the Rome Grange
2821 Mt Baker Highway, Bellingham

01/28/2026

1970. George Harrison stands at the gates of Friar Park, staring at what everyone else calls a catastrophe.
The Victorian mansion is rotting. Grass pushes through floorboards inside. The estate's gardens, once the pride of England, have gone feral. Collapsed greenhouses. Buried grottoes. Pathways strangled by decades of neglect.
He's 27 years old. The Beatles just ended. He could go anywhere, do anything. The world is waiting for his next move.
He buys the wreck and decides to dig in the dirt.
Not as a weekend hobby. As a life. He hires ten gardeners and works alongside them, dawn to midnight, covered in soil. His sister-in-law takes one look at the estate and asks what he's thinking. George doesn't try to explain. He just keeps digging.
His son Dhani grows up watching his father work by moonlight, squinting in the shadows because darkness hides the imperfections that would bother him during the day. The music industry keeps calling. They want albums. Tours. More of George Harrison the Beatle.
He wants to plant trees.
Friar Park isn't just a garden. It's an eccentric's fever dream from the 1890s. Caves. Underground tunnels. A four-acre Alpine rock garden with a scale Matterhorn on top. Garden gnomes everywhere. He photographs himself among them for All Things Must Pass, then goes back to pruning.
When a nurseryman mentions slow sales, George buys one of everything in the shop. When someone offers 800 varieties of maples, he takes them all. His wife Olivia remembers him saying, "It's not my garden, Liv." He sees himself as a custodian. The garden doesn't belong to him. He belongs to it.
By 1980, he publishes his autobiography and dedicates it "to gardeners everywhere." He writes that he's simple. Doesn't want the business full-time. He's a gardener. He plants flowers and watches them grow.
Journalists visit and call it un-rock-star-ish. George doesn't flinch. He'd lived through Beatlemania, screamed into stadiums, changed culture. He found it hollow compared to restoring topiary.
After John Lennon's murder, the gates lock forever. George and Olivia keep working. Not for visitors. For the work itself.
He dies in 2001. The gardens are now considered masterpieces of Victorian landscaping. Olivia still tends them at Friar Park. The estate stays private.
George Harrison chose dirt under his fingernails over applause. And in that choice, he found something the stadiums never gave him. Freedom.

11/21/2025

Who else is thinking about next year's garden?

11/05/2025

At our November meeting tomorrow, November 6th, we will be making holiday wreaths. If you have thought about attending our garden club, now is a good time.
7pm on the first Thursday of the month
At The Rome Grange
2821 Mt Baker Highway Bellingham

11/05/2025

It's that time of year again when we gather to create wreaths at the Rome Grange
November 6th
At 7pm