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Sign up for our Garden Miniatures Workshop

[Instagram logo and paper clipped photos from the Instagram website ]

You can now see live updates of our Instagram pictures and garden photos from all our #gardenchat gardeners across the country on our website! It’s such a fun way to share sneak peeks with what everyone is up to.

If you aren’t sure what Instagram is, it’s a fast and easy way to share pictures taken from your phone. Just snap, edit on the spot, and share. The download is free through the App Store. IF you have a blog and want to add this fun widget, there is a terrific tutorial available over at Snap Widget


There is good evidence that certain lifestyle changes can dramatically decrease the risk of disease.  The goal is to eat a healthy diet that contains lots of fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains.  If you do that, you are likely to decrease your intake of fat, especially animal fats.  You’ll also be more likely to stay at a healthy weight.

In celebration of eating healthier, we are carrying abundant crops of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, peppers and melons.  Each has been hand selected by Dave Bushnell as the best-of-the-best plants to offer delicious home grown food unequaled by any nursery around.

Each ingredient from this **FREE** Seared Halibut with Garlic and Herb Compound Butter recipe, aside from the fresh fish, wine, olive & grapeseed oils and butter, are available here at Bushnell’s. They will produce the most full and fat, round and glorious food.

Orange, yellow, red, white and purple!  We’re talking about carrots, not the rainbow.  We’re also giving you a **FREE** recipe from the newly released book The Art of Real Food!

Carrots are one of the most adaptable vegetables.  They are great for flavoring stews, broths & soups and, in the springtime the bright green leaves bring a special delight.

Enjoy your **FREE** recipe.

To order a copy:  The Art of Real Food
Interested in attending the cookbook launch? Click here.

I grew up with a  great big vegetable garden in our back yard. My Mom had me working it religiously during the summer, as we grew copious amounts of cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, corn, raspberries, zucchini and green beans. Late Summer & Fall our kitchen would turn into a factory of sugar, pectin, salt, vinegar, steam, bottles, and boxes. Our pantry cupboards were full of preserved food and I grew up thinking everyone lived the same way.  I was wrong.

So, my hereditary excitement of our April 14th Vegetable Workshop should come as no surprise. We’ll be learning how to select the best, most juicy tomato to serve from your family’s dinner table, along with all the possibilities for the best squash, onions, cucumbers and more in any type or size garden space.

Beyond my excitement for this FREE workshop, there are a few extra things that strengthen the benefits of growing your own food, or purchasing locally grown food.

SAFETY.  Every day we hear still another story about contaminated food. Salmonella, melamine, E. Coli, Listeria, Cyclospera.   Ick.  Then, according to the EPA, over one-billion tons of pesticides are used on food crops every year! Isn’t it about time we begin to take matters into our own backyards?

SAVE MONEY.  A packet of seeds is less than two dollars.  From that packet you can produce more food than you can possibly eat. When (and IF) you get tired of eating fresh vegetables from your garden you can preserve or freeze the rest for the winter.

HEALTH.  The food you will grow in your own garden will be far healthier and packed with more nutrition than anything you could buy in the store.

EXERCISE.  Studies show gardening for one hour can burn upwards of 400 calories. Try that out at the gym! Gardening involves walking, stretching, lifting and bending.

BEAUTY. Vegetable gardens are a beautiful thing. A vegetable garden will add color, texture, smell and life to your yard or balcony.

MENTAL HEALTH.  There is something about gazing on a beautiful and bountiful garden. The activity of working the garden can be immensely calming while the splendor you have created can lift the spirit. A vegetable garden can also lend a more spiritual link to life itself. Not only are you participating in the miracle of growth and the changing of the seasons, you will also become intimately linked to the process of nurturing your own life.

LEARN. The more you know, the more you want to know. While fun, gardening can also be quite challenging. Insects or diseases in your plants will drive you to find out how to keep your garden healthy. Research on wind and sun patterns, growing conditions, suitable plants and vegetables you might never have heard of will drive you to fill your head with new knowledge.

Have fun!

Additional Local Resources:
Foothills Farmers’ Market & Placer County Farmer’s Market Schedules

Placer County Real Food Cookbook: how to eat locally 52 weeks of the year

PlacerGROWN: advocating and promoting local agriculture producers & products

Saturday and Sunday
April 14–15, 2012
11:00 am — 2:00 pm

Bush­nell Gar­dens Nurs­ery is the stun­ning set­ting where 10 local Placer County artists will dis­play their work Sat­ur­day and Sun­day, April 14 — 15, 2011.

Enjoy strolling through the curves and spi­rals of our land­scaped nurs­ery while art cap­tures the power of nature and her pas­sion into mul­ti­ple artist medi­ums. Tal­ented works from local artists from the Annual Art Trek Stu­dio will be on-site dis­play­ing their work in our charm­ing Nurs­ery & Gar­den Shoppe. The group offers impres­sive multi media, thought pro­vok­ing art. Peri­od­i­cally, through­out the week­end, you can enjoy watch­ing artists work­ing on pieces live.

This is an invit­ing way to find poten­tial inspi­ra­tion from our gar­dens and art place­ment to take into your own home and gar­dens. This exhi­bi­tion is open from 11:00 am — 2:00 pm both Sat­ur­day & Sun­day, April 14–15, 2012. The entrance is free and open to the public.

In an increas­ingly health-conscious world, the nutri­tional facts of veg­eta­bles, are impor­tant. Grow­ing your own vegetables, their ver­sa­til­ity and value in the kitchen is rarely matched.  In this work­shop we will be bring­ing you a menu of vegetable plants, that we have researched, tested and pro­cured for over 30-years, to help you make the best selec­tions for your home veg­etable gardens.

Want to know the best most juicy tomato that is firm to cut?  We’ll tell you.

What about pep­pers?  Who wants the pep­per that can pack a punch with­out the heat?  Adversely, who wants to know what pep­per will rip the taste buds right off your tongue and have you beg­ging for your mother?  We’ll dish that secret too.

What? The culi­nary aspects of an onion?  We eat them almost every­day and wouldn’t it be tremen­dous know­ing the best vari­ety to have when prepar­ing your family’s favorite for meal? We’ve got the list, checked it twice.

What about sweet corn, green beans, cucum­bers, melon’s, let­tuce, squash?  We’ll cover those too.

Bring a notepad & pen­cil to make your veg­etable plant­ing list dur­ing the work­shop, jot down our vegetable grow­ing tricks & tips, and leave with your gar­den lay­out & design. We’ll salt & pep­per our con­clu­sion teach­ing you how to max­i­mize home and gar­den­ing fun, explo­ration and success.

Please dress weather appro­pri­ate the day of the work­shop, and, bring a chair if you have one.

Sat­ur­day, April 14, 2012

Click to attend the 10:00 am Veg­etable Gar­den Series

Note: email con­fir­ma­tions are sent out with-in a 24-hour time frame.

Yard Face-lift: remov­ing over­whelm from your major Land­scape Renovation

Whether you are plan­ning on a small or large yard face-lift, begin­ning is often hard­est.  If any of these ques­tions popped into your mind:

1. Where do I start?

2. What CAN I and CAN’T I DO at a rea­son­able cost?

3. What are the most cost-effective meth­ods with the most sus­tain­able results?

4. What do dif­fer­ent things cost?

5. How do I budget?

6. What about irri­ga­tion, drain­ing and transplanting?

…then this, along with sav­ing you a sig­nif­i­cant amount of money, is a MUST attend workshop.

Join us as we share how to make some sense of minor or major face-lift projects you might be plan­ning. We will also be dish­ing out tips on how to buy so you don’t over spend or get taken for a ride with some­thing that won’t work in the long run.

Our work­shops fill fast and we are lim­ited to 50 per ses­sion. Please dress weather appro­pri­ate the day of the work­shop and bring a chair if you have one.

Sat­ur­day, March 10, 2012

Click to attend the 10:00 am Land­scape workshop

Click to attend the 1:00 pm Land­scape workshop

Note: email con­fir­ma­tions are sent out with-in a 24-hour time frame.

EUPHORBIA AMY EFANTHIA

…an outstanding choice for any landscape garden, their only requirement is excellent drainage. They even tolerate dry, poor soils. Light requirements vary, most will perform admirably in full sun or partial shade.Little, if any, maintenance is necessary with Euphorbias. If the plants become ‘leggy’, a hard pruning (cutting to within 3 to 6 inches from the ground) will result in a much denser, tightly branched, symmetrical plant and can be done any time of the year.

Looking to create a landscape border that gives the immediate impression of a mature, well-established planting, this is perfect. This perennial, with green foliage and fall color provides interest in the garden over the long winter with foliage that turns a stunning purple in fall. We did say perfect.

We have them for sale $14.98.

Category: Perennial
Family: Euphorbiaceae (Spurges)
Origin: Garden Origin
Variegated Foliage: Yes
Flower Color: Yellow
Bloomtime: Spring
Synonyms: [E. ‘Helena, Hort.]
Parentage: (Euphorbia amygdaloides x E. x martinii)
Height: 1 foot
Width: 1–2 feet
Exposure: Full Sun
Irrigation (H2O Info): Medium Water Needs
Winter Hardiness: < 0 °F