Garden Rant

What's Happening

Sustainable Gardening News August ’09

GardenRant edition.  The whole newsletter is available here.

In the News

• Researchers at the USDA think they might have found a
  fungus that'll solve  the national kudzu problem. It works SO fast that if you spray kudzu in the
  morning it'll show signs of damage by mid-afternoon. It's called
  Myrothecium and here's more on the story.
• Window
  boxes are the new allotment gardens, says the National
  Trust in the UK.
• SPIN farming to transform
  cities?  Suddenly I'm seeing it everywhere.

  Found on the
Web

• Got pests? Better than
  switching to organic is switching
  to trouble-free plants – or using companion planting to control pests.
  Makes more sense than the simplistic organic-good/inorganic-bad mentality. 
  
  
• And here's a perfect
  example of that mentality.  In the first comment to a round-up
  of reasons to hate Monsanto is the recommendation to use something
  "natural" rather than Roundup.  Because if it's natural it's safe, right? Like hemlock and nicotine.  
  
• Tom Christopher recommends
  a new book about drip
  irrigation and implores us to get on board and save BIG on
  water.
• Danger! Whole campus
  being sprayed for "general insects". Really, really  stupid. 
  
• Looks like the vegan diet
  is the most sustainable, and organic
  gardening with no animal inputs is catching on.
• More reasons to lay off
  the products?  Read Rodale's
  round-up of pesticides that end up in our bodies, including those in garden
  products.
• 75
  things you can compost that you didn't think you could, by Colleen in her
  new gig at Discovery's Planet Green.
  

  On the Sustainable Gardening
Blog

• The Best
  Lawn Care "Tips" Ever are by Paul Tukey for the Daily Green.
• In praise of doublefile
  viburnums, gorgeous and beloved by cedar
  waxwings.  

 

Green the Grounds Update

• Terrific news out of Frankfort, KY.  First Lady Jane Bashear started
  a veg garden recently and in reading the news about it I discovered her plans
  for greening the mansion – starting with grounds keeping.  "Today, using
  fuel-efficient equipment, water conservation, native plants, fewer chemicals,
  and soil nutrients.  Future – organic solutions and plantings to reduce the
  mansion's footprint."   Well alrighty, let's find out
  more!
• Great coverage of a great governor's garden in Harrisburg in the Pittsburgh
  Post-Gazette and the Philadelphia
  Inquirer thanks to reporter
  Mackenzie Carpenter.

Posted by Susan Harris on August 8, 2009 at 5:34 am, in the category What's Happening.