“Why do you love what you do?” This was a question posed last month at the annual conference of the Eastern Region of the International Plant Propagators Societyin the Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania. The joyful reply came from Joe LaMent (a fellow whose name in no way fits his personality) when he said, “I’m hooked on [...]
Read more in: Guest Rants, Unusually Clever People
Body: Posted by Bert CreggLast week I posted about some horticultural disasters I witnessed in the Czech Republic. This week the chamber of horrors. […]
Biodiverse Lawn by Coalition Member Thomas Christopher Like other members of this group, I believe that the contemporary model of lawn has got to go.. […]
Body: Posted by Linda Chalker-Scott If you've been following us for a while, you might remember a post from August 2009 when I got cranky about a pot. […]
Next up in our ongoing “Get a Job” series is the delightful Emma Alpaugh, senior publicist at Timber Press. Here she is looking surprisingly unharried. Don’t let that fool you! What do you do for a living? I am Senior Publicist at Timber Press, a Portland, Oregon, publisher of...
Read more in: Get a Job, Shut Up and Dig
Somehow or other, this time of year I always come across the olde leaves-in-borders debate: To remove them now or wait until spring (or never, letting them decompose slowly)? This year it started innocently enough with a blog post for a garden center about what parts of my garden...
Read more in: Shut Up and Dig
Ever dream of quitting your day job and pursuing your passion for plants? Do what you love and the money will follow, that sort of thing? Well. We here at GardenRant World Headquarters know quite a few people who have done just that. So we called them up...
Read more in: Get a Job, Shut Up and Dig
Marijuana’s Going Legal Hard to believe, but America’s long prohibition against marijuana may be coming to an end, at least in places like Colorado and Washington State, both of which voted this week to legalize pot. And that’s for recreation, not for any medical purpose, real or phony. In...
Read more in: Books, It's the Plants, Darling
image via Shutterstock Another giveaway, another winner, chosen at random–and the planter box goes to Caitlin, who plans to pass it on to her mother who gardens in heavy clay. Thanks, people!
Read more in: Taking Your Gardening DollarEbooks rarely go on sale, but this month two of mine are available through special promotions if you want them: For the month of November only, pick up Flower Confidential for $1.99 as an ebook at Apple, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Kobo, Google, and Amazon. Wicked Bugs...
Read more in: Taking Your Gardening Dollar
Ranter James Rousch recently lamented that Garden Literature is going Up in Smoke, based on his count of 87 pot-growing books currently on offer at the local Barnes and Noble. I recently read one of them myself (to review, I swear!) – the excellent Supercharged from Timber Press, which...
Read more in: Books, Unusually Clever People
Michele’s recent post about walking in the woods made me miss my own woodland path just a bit – the one that started IN my garden, the one I walked for 26 years. But then I looked around at the woods near me now and, as I boasted on...
Read more in: Grab Bagimage via Shutterstock. We have winners! Chosen at random by asking my uncle Walter to pick a number, the winners are: David for the Clarington Forge rubber rake, and Geri for the new book THE ROOTS OF MY OBSESSION. Thanks for playing, everybody!
Read more in: Taking Your Gardening Dollar, Uncategorized
This snazzy pair of planter boxes arrived on my doorstep for review a couple months ago, just as I was getting ready to build a new garden that called for some planter boxes. (You can check out the details from the manufacturer here, but if you actually want to...
Read more in: Shut Up and Dig, Taking Your Gardening Dollar
The Fedco Trees catalog has arrived, and once again I find myself failing to pay any attention to my children and job. The Fedco catalog is not just informative, it’s entertaining, and so are the hundreds of different fruit trees it offers. I prefer ordering fruit trees from catalogs...
Read more in: Eat This, Feed Me, Taking Your Gardening Dollar
They’ll be staying there, too, because I don’t think H. Sandy is going to let me plant them for a few days. A minor complaint, to be sure, in the face of all the gloomy prognostications I have been hearing and reading over the weekend (best wishes and good...
Read more in: Shut Up and Dig
I’ve had Henry, a big handsome alpha dog, for the last two years. People say he’s badly trained. I’m not sure. Like the other members of my household, Henry definitely has a will of his own and yanks me around sometimes on the leash, but I often find him...
Read more in: Real Gardens
The Osage orange tree doesn’t have a large following but I have become a big fan. I love its beautiful, glossy green foliage and its yellow stained wood. And there’s something even more irresistibly loveable about the misshapen, softball-sized pale green fruit that looks like an alien’s brain. The...
Read more in: Guest Rants, It's the Plants, Darling
Timber Press managed to do the impossible and get thirty gardeners to each stop what they were doing all at once and sit down and write something about why they garden. The result is this little essay collection, THE ROOTS OF MY OBSESSION: Thirty Great Gardeners Reveal Why...
Read more in: Shut Up and Dig, Unusually Clever People
Everyone loves the Smithsonian museums on D.C.’s National Mall, but gardener-tourists also love their gardens. Here’s a sampling from mid-October, when I particularly admired (and will copy!) their use of annuals. By email, the Smithsonian’s supervisory horticulturist Jonathan Kavelier told me that “These plantings also include Amaranthus and Cuphea,...
Read more in: It's the Plants, Darling, Real Gardens
Hey, if you’re in the area, stop in and see me at the Howard County Library. I’ll be talking about Wicked Bugs and Wicked Plants on Wednesday, and they’d like you to register in advance here. I’m also headed to Longwood Gardens on Sunday, but they tell me that...
Read more in: Shut Up and Dig
Regardless of whatever Pantone has decided, I declare orange to be the color of 2013. It needs to be, because I somehow ordered 500 orange/orange-red tulips. Maybe more—hard to say how some of the multi-colored species types will turn out. Let’s see—we have Prinses Irene, Orange Princess, Christmas...
Read more in: It's the Plants, Darling
Hey, guess what? The classic SQUARE FOOT GARDENING is available as an ebook this month for $2.99. Each month Amazon lists 100 ebooks priced at $3.99 or less, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see some garden books featured there. This one apparently sells for around $20 normally...
Read more in: Shut Up and Dig, Taking Your Gardening Dollar
Commented on Kale-a-Rama makes me Wonder: Is Veganism the Next Big Thing? { When I look at the healthiest people on the planet vs. their local cuisine, it appears that the ones that live the longest to the... } – May 20, 4:18 PM
Commented on Kale-a-Rama makes me Wonder: Is Veganism the Next Big Thing? { I'm a fan of the NYTimes food critic Mark Bittman, and he's just put out a part-vegan diet/cookbook (advocating eating vegan before 6pm for health... } – May 20, 11:32 AM
Commented on Kale-a-Rama makes me Wonder: Is Veganism the Next Big Thing? { Kevin, Well said. Also read The Vegetarian Myths by Lierre Keith, whose health was permanently damaged by her determination to stick to a vegan diet... } – May 20, 1:40 AM
Commented on Roses redux { Susan - Years ago, I read somewhere (maybe Organic Gardening magazine; can't remember) to plant peonies near your roses to curb Japanese beetles. I tried... } – May 19, 11:11 PM
Commented on OG Mag on Wildlife-Friendly Gardens: What's Wrong with this Picture? { It is unfortunate that a very good article is being overshadowed by the "cat" issue. Sometimes we have to save our criticism for another time... } – May 19, 10:00 PMWe are:
perfect
magazine
gardens.
Gardening
our
asses
off.
Having a
hell of a lot
of fun.
