Thanks to everyone who posted a comment to win a copy of Debra Prinzing and David Perry’s fine new book The 50-Mile Bouquet. If you didn’t win, you’re in luck, because we have a guest post coming up from Debra Prinzing soon, and you’ll have another chance to win. Meanwhile, our winner from last week is [...]
Read more in: UncategorizedBody: posted by Holly Scoggins Mosses are soft, green, and tough as nails, as shown in a recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of. […]
Things have been rough at work lately. Test scores have plummetted, students are troubled, many teachers are talking mutiny or early retirement. . […]
Body: Posted by Jeff Gillman Today I want to share something that I’ve been working on recently with Fine Gardening that is really cool! So you kn. […]
Friend of Rant and Chicago radio personality Mike Nowak now has a TV show on Comcast 102, Dig In Chicago, which will debut tomorrow. We love Mike because he blasts away the twee in gardening, is a real journalist willing to take on all kinds of political and environmental issues...
Read more in: UncategorizedI have a feeling I'm going to see some very pretty countryside this week! Here's where I'm headed: April 19, 2012 Lauritzen Gardens Omaha, NE April 21, 2012 1:00 Flower, Garden, and Nature Society of Northwest Arkansas Springdale, AR
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Please welcome photographer David Perry who, along with author Debra Prinzing, has been at work on this book about sustainable cut flowers, The 50 Mile Bouquet, for–well. A loooooong time. Honestly, I can think of few authors who have been as committed to their subject as these two have been. They knew from...
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Ordinarily, I’d be writing about my tulips now. But there are so many noteworthy news stories at the moment for gardeners that a series of links seemed more pressing. Good news for the plastic life! Yale students have found a fungi from the Amazon that can break down polyurethane–even without oxygen,...
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Williams-Sonoma got a little buzz last week when it announced a new line of DIY, homesteading, gardening, chicken-keeping stuff. The line is calledAgrarian, and while it wasn’t quite live when the press hit last week, it’s all up there now. Let’s have a look, shall we? I went straight to the chicken...
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Part 2 of my summary of Thomas Rainer’s talk about designing with native plants at the Lahr Native Plant Symposium. Part 1, covering design, is here. Thomas’s myths about native plants: 1. That native plants are drought-tolerant, requiring less supplemental watering, a notion Thomas calls total ‘hogwash”. Au contraire. In...
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These were taken out of the garage in March and have flower buds about 4-5 inches up. I think all the pots are either Prinses Irene/Passionale, or Black Hero/Orange Princess. If you want to treat hybrid tulips as annuals—and I know that’s not for everyone—this is the easiest way...
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Rant readers, please welcome Ken Druse, one of the few garden writers whose work I find truly exciting. Druse is the author of 17 books about ornamental gardening, including The Natural Shade Garden, Planthropology, and a supremely useful book just released in paperback, Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of...
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Michele’s Friday post will be up soon. In the meantime, are you (those in my zone-ish) enjoying your first species tulips of the season? This is humulis “Persian Pearl,” I love the sharply defined silver and purple, kind of like the panels on a pre-1800s ballgown. There are some...
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” More this. Less this. In a retooling of the Dig.Drop.Done. campaign, which I’ve written about here, it looks like we won’t be seeing the three cartoon-y “ladies” who were central to a bulbs-as-lifestyle marketing narrative. They’ll be dropped, at least for the time being. Are they done? Maybe...
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March is defnitely the cruelest month. I never heard the phrase “mud season” until I moved to upstate New York 20 years ago, but March is it, mud season. Of course, April is no cakewalk, either. I can usually count on there being snow on the ground in Saratoga...
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I really enjoy Kat Kinsman’s playfully broad definition of food reporting on CNN’s Eatocracy site, and she makes me laugh on Twitter. But today, she ventures into the vegetable garden in a delightfully sloppy and inexpert way, with precisely the right message for beginners: Don’t worry if you’re doing it...
Read more in: UncategorizedWow. I think we got more comments on our earthworm post than we've ever had. Clearly you people are into your worms. And our winner, chosen with a little help from a random number generator, is–Janet at The Queen of Seaford. She's already a worm lover, so now we...
Read more in: UncategorizedIt's a bizarrely early spring here in upstate New York. I've never started planting out of doors at the same moment I've started tomato seedlings in the basement, but that's where we are this year. Ready to go! I've been looking at my own garden with something of a...
Read more in: UncategorizedWhat's the point of keeping forced tulips inside when it's 75 out—my patio could use the color. It’s lucky that a greenhouse bursting with perennials in not close at hand, because who knows how crazy I might get this spring. Buffalo is balmy; so are most of the contiguous...
Read more in: UncategorizedSunrise from my house at 7:30. It’s disconcerting to be plunged back into early am darkness as I get ready for work, but it’s even more disconcerting to hear that, far from saving anything, Daylight Saving Time actually increases residential energy use as well as gasoline consumption. I read...
Read more in: UncategorizedI never was a seed starter. There was a nursery near me that for a long time had a fantastic selection of vegetable seedlings. But then the lovely people who owned it sold their house, moved to the South, and only returned in the spring and early summer to...
Read more in: UncategorizedCongrats to Maggie at Slotharium–she wins a copy of the new Sunset book for her haiku: Grandma's edition advised using DDT yet I still keep it Thanks for playing, everybody!
Read more in: UncategorizedThe always stylish and inspiring Ken Druse has just published a new book titled Natural Companions: The Garden Lover's Guide to Plant Combinations. In order to illustrate these happy relationships, Druse collaborated with photographer Ellen Hoverkamp, who turned groups of plants working together at particular moments in particular gardens into...
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Commented on Bless All Parks Big and Small { Wow! What a great daughter! Thank you Grace for looking after me and thank you Allen for the quick response. That was quite a moment... } – Jun 17, 9:38 PM
Commented on Plants we Love to Hate { You are my new best friend. My husband can't understand how passionate I get in my hatred of begonias. } – Jun 17, 8:48 PM
Commented on Plants we Love to Hate { I know what you mean - just want you to know I noticed... } – Jun 17, 6:27 PM
Commented on Plants we Love to Hate { I have one of those too! } – Jun 17, 6:07 PM
Commented on Plants we Love to Hate { I presently war against a few weed species, each of us seeking domination of the yard. Number one is Cardamine oligosperma - spread, herpes-like, by... } – Jun 17, 5:44 PMWe are:
perfect
magazine
gardens.
Gardening
our
asses
off.
Having a
hell of a lot
of fun.
