Guest Post by Ginny Stibolt When we write online, who’s actually reading and what are we trying to accomplish? Articles for magazines (and maybe even newspapers) are easier to target, because we know the demographics of the readers. When we write in cyberspace, we have no idea who’s reading, except for those who respond. We’ve [...]
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Garden Rant on July 3, 2012 at 7:00 am This post has 18 responses.
I’ve been in Portland for two months, living the good life as visiting faculty at Portland State University and occupying a swell apartment provided to me by Tin House. I’m home now, but I’m nowhere near caught up. Anyway, there are four books on my desk that I...
Read more in: Books, CRRRITIC
Posted by
Amy Stewart on June 13, 2012 at 6:30 am This post has 7 responses.
We have winners! Two of them! Anne wins the hose-end sprayer and Lindsay wins the hose. (I’ve sent emails to both of you, so you should know who you are.) Thanks, everybody, for indulging a little Dramm fabulousness.
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Amy Stewart on June 13, 2012 at 4:28 am This post has Comments Off.
You don’t have to be a gardener or a even Democrat to love Michelle Obama’s first book – American Grown, the Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across American – like I do. Caring about the health of our kids and of the land helps, though....
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Posted by
Susan Harris on June 5, 2012 at 2:10 pm This post has 3 responses.
Finally. We’ve moved over to a platform that gives us more flexibility, more options, and goes a bit beyond our former traditional blog set-up. We’ve got pages that focus on science, growing food, drinks, reviews, videos, and more. We think we’ve got a more dynamic look, and we’ve got...
Read more in: Everybody's a Critic
Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on June 4, 2012 at 3:59 pm This post has 45 responses.
Walking through an exhibit made to look like an old house filled with the characters and stories and artifacts from a book I wrote…that is a weird experience. And I realize that it sounds like shameless self-promotion to talk about it, but–it must be talked about. It’s happening at...
Read more in: But is it Art?
Posted by
Amy Stewart on May 30, 2012 at 4:25 am This post has 15 responses.
GardenRant welcomes “guest ranters” who want to take over our little piece of cyberspace for the day. Whether you’re in the plant industry or just an ordinary gardener with an axe to grind, you’re invited. Because GardenRant is read by garden writers, editors, publishers, and other garden bloggers, it’s...
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Garden Rant on May 13, 2012 at 6:53 pm This post has Comments Off.
Y’all welcome Friend of Rant William Alexander, with this interesting horticultural report: It seems like I’d just barely picked the apples from my 4-tree orchard at my home in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley last fall when a freak October snowstorm come through, the foot of wet, heavy snow clinging...
Read more in: , Eat This, Guest Rants
Posted by
Amy Stewart on May 9, 2012 at 4:50 am This post has 9 responses.
Guest post by Allen Bush Catalpas are seldom planted anymore. Mike Dirr notes these relics in his Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs: “Ever ask the local nursery for a catalpa? Chances are it has none to offer. Southern catalpa and related species nearly qualify for dinosaur status in the landscape world.”...
Read more in: Guest Rants, It's the Plants, Darling
Posted by
Susan Harris on May 8, 2012 at 4:20 am This post has 24 responses.
Please welcome Debra Prinzing, author of The 50 Mile Bouquet, a documentary-style book that takes a fascinating and in-depth look at local, not global, flower-growing. We’re giving another copy away, but you’re going to have to work for it–Debra asks you to post a photo of one of your own bouquets online...
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Amy Stewart on April 26, 2012 at 4:22 am This post has 16 responses.
This just in: as part of Algonquin’s monthly round of $1.99 ebook deals, you can get Lucinda Fleeson’s WAKING UP IN EDEN for $1.99 in any of a number of ebook formats. This deal is only good through April 22–sorry, I’m late getting the word out about this one–but it’s another great...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on April 19, 2012 at 1:41 pm This post has 4 responses.
If you're not one of the 80,000 people already reading Leaf Magazine (after just one issue) then why the hell not? It's a free e-magazine, available right here. The new Spring 2012 issue, at 142 pages, is gorgeous and inspiring, full of the kind of garden design photography and...
Read more in: , Designs, Tricks, and Schemes, Everybody's a Critic
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Susan Harris on April 3, 2012 at 6:00 am This post has 12 responses.
So several years ago, I wrote this book about worms. There were no such books on worms at the time–in other words, there was no sort of narrative natural history that told the story of worms and earthworm science and the role that worms have played in ecology and...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on March 21, 2012 at 5:06 am This post has 192 responses.
Here's another guest post from Friend of Rant, professor of veterinary medicine, and master gardener James K. Roush, who blogs at Garden Musings. Hark to his tale of frustration with QR codes and questionable, albeit tempting, spring bulbs.—Elizabeth I was out running errands around town yesterday and, entering a...
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Posted by
Elizabeth Licata on March 15, 2012 at 5:00 am This post has 15 responses.
Who could resist? The Chicken Encyclopedia goes to Lisa Beckman for her totally charming chicken story. Thanks for playing, everybody! This isn't about our chickens but rather my neighbors who also raise meat goats. Just the other day she came home to frantic children because one of the...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on March 14, 2012 at 1:04 pm This post has 8 responses.
I'm thrilled to see that Algonquin has chosen Carrie Brown's beautiful novel Rose's Garden for their second round of $1.99 ebook promotions. This is a gorgeous book about a man left to cope with his wife's garden after her death. It's a sweet and tender love story, and she...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on March 14, 2012 at 9:22 am This post has 2 responses.
Well, why not? Our favorite garden professor, Jeff Gillman, tells you how. Well. Not how. I'm pretty sure you know how. He'll tell you why, though! These and other amazing bits of information can be found in his clever and highly useful new book Decoding Gardening Advice, written with...
Read more in: Books, Unusually Clever People
Posted by
Amy Stewart on March 14, 2012 at 5:06 am This post has 12 responses.
This just in from Publishers Weekly: Home Depot has announced they will no longer sell books. It may be that you never bought a book at Home Depot. Last time I looked, they sold an array of how-to books on home improvement and gardening, some of which were fairly...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on March 7, 2012 at 1:21 pm This post has 23 responses.
If you keep chickens, you probably already have a book or two by Gail Damerow. She's the author of The Chicken Health Handbook, which is the What To Expect When You're Expecting of chicken-raising. It is incredibly detailed, sometimes terrifying, and yet it is the first book we bought...
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Posted by
Amy Stewart on March 7, 2012 at 4:43 am This post has 48 responses.
This week, The New York Times ran a piece suggesting that tensions in Iran and Syria may soon bring us $5 a gallon gasoline. Nothing any of us can do about that. Frankly, over the last four years since the start of the Great Recession, it's hard not to...
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Posted by
Michele Owens on March 2, 2012 at 6:24 am This post has 17 responses.
