Mike Darcy

About Mike Darcy

Mike Darcy is the host of “In the Garden with Mike Darcy,” a radio program airing at 9 a.m. Saturdays on KXL 101 FM in Portland. He can be reached at itgmikedarcy@comcast.net.

Positive indications for 2021

By Mike Darcy — Posted March 23, 2021

One year ago, on March 6, 2020, Plant Nerd Night was held for the 19th consecutive year with more than 500 attendees. Little did we know that the following week COVID-19 restrictions would begin, and Plant Nerd Night suddenly had the dubious distinction of being the last large in-person consumer gardening event that year. Gone […]

COVID-19 year two

By Mike Darcy — Posted January 25, 2021

The year 2020 probably instigated more changes in the physical way in which a garden center operates than any other year in history. Not only were there devasting forest fires resulting in hazardous air quality conditions and causing some garden centers to close, but COVID-19 also arrived. I cannot ever recall anything disrupting the workplace […]

A gardener’s optimism has no limits

By Mike Darcy — Posted November 24, 2020

Resilient is a good word to use to describe Diana and Colby Lamb. Resilience is defined as spirit, hardiness, toughness, strength, buoyancy, and resistance. On September 8 at 12:15 a.m., there was a banging on the door of their Gates, Oregon house. It was a Marion County sheriff’s deputy telling them that there had been […]

COVID-19 lessons from plant societies

By Mike Darcy — Posted September 29, 2020

In this unprecedented period of a COVID-19 pandemic, several forest fires with lingering air pollution, and a very dry summer that has stressed all our plants, garden centers have also had to make many adjustments to retain their current customer base. On top of that, they also need to attract new customers. Some garden centers […]

Gardening interest enters full bloom

By Mike Darcy — Posted July 29, 2020

In my last column (June 2020), I wrote about some of the many changes that garden centers have had to make during the COVID-19 pandemic. The good news is that it appears that most garden centers managed to adapt to these new requirements. Since the COVID-19 situation is not abating, an appropriate follow-up would be […]

Seeding the need to garden

By Mike Darcy — Posted May 26, 2020

Nothing about the spring 2020 garden season has been ordinary. From March onward, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many facets of the garden industry in ways no one could have predicted. Six months ago, if you had described a scene where shoppers and workers were wearing masks and standing six feet apart, no one would […]

Up, down and all around

By Mike Darcy — Posted March 27, 2020

Sometimes popular phrases never really disappear. They just go dormant and then come back again. We might refer to them as being recycled, but I prefer using the word “dormant” since this is a garden column. The phrase “up, down and all around” was commonly used in garden training sessions in the 1970s and 1980s, […]

Gleams of an extended garden season

By Mike Darcy — Posted January 23, 2020

Former Portland Rose Society President Rich Baer sent me a photo that he took this past Thanksgiving from his garden. It was a bouquet of roses. I have lived in the Portland area for many years and it is not often I’ve thought of picking a full bouquet of roses at the end of November! […]

Knowing your customers

By Mike Darcy — Posted November 22, 2019

“Location, location, location.” I have often heard that those three words are paramount for any brick-and-mortar retail business. I do not dispute their importance. Location matters for garden centers, too, but I think that three other words have greater importance: “Know your customers.” Knowing your customers — where they are coming from and what kinds of […]

My Farwest Show favorites

By Mike Darcy — Posted September 26, 2019

There are many reasons that I regularly attend the Farwest Show. One is for the social connection to others in the horticulture industry. There is camaraderie among garden people that I rarely see in other organizations, and it is hard to explain until you are part of it. I believe that social interactions are extremely […]