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Staying Warm While Winter Gardening
It’s gettin’ cold out there, yet in my coastal climate, we garden all year round. After getting frostbitten toes one particularly nasty winter, I did some research to figure out how I could work outside even when it is C-H-I-L-L-Y out there! I share my tips in this video: Things mentioned in the video: Toasti-Toes…
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Monday Miscellany: Lime on Rhodies, Xeriscape Gardens and Wicked Bugs!
Don over at Singing Tree Gardens shared some new research with us this time last year – apparently, even though Rhododendrons are acid-loving plants and lime sweetens the soil, they respond very well to the added magnesium in the soil that comes from applying dolomite lime in fall: Adding dolomitic lime around the dripline of…
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Book Review of Plant-Driven Design by Lauren and Scott Ogden
In landscape design, there seems to be a constant gentle friction between gardeners who see a landscape as a setting for plants to shine, and people who come from a more architectural standpoint and see the plants themselves as secondary to the design aims. You can tell from the title, Plant-Driven Design: Creating Gardens That…
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Monday Miscellany: Salamanders and Fall Pruning
If you’ve been paying attention to the blogosphere lately you’ve probably noticed The Great Leaf Debate going on. While reading the pros and cons of leaving fall leaves, I wanted to do a bit of research on salamanders, who often live in fallen leaves. Wouldn’t you know it, one of the first articles I found…
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Fall Leaf Raking: Finding the Middle Ground
All gardeners evolve. There is something about being outside and working hard in nature that inspires learning and growth. The issue of fall leaves is one I’ve been struggling with lately. Last year I wrote about why you shouldn’t let your fall leaves stay, and all of those reasons are still true, but… This year…
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Floppy ‘Autumn Joy’ Sedum
Garden question from JohnOhConnor on YouTube: I have three mature (2ft x 2ft) Autumn Joy in my garden. By mid summer they have flopped over like a large animal had sat down in the middle of the plant. I guess this is normal for the plant or is there anything I can do to prevent…
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Designing a Landscape for Color Blind People
People who are color blind make up about 8% of men and .5% of women, and of those people, the vast majority aren’t actually color blind, it’s more that they see colors differently. Though we think of color blindness as seeing the world in black and white, the most common form of color blindness is…
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Why Gardening Matters
When I was in my late teens, I ended up in the hospital for over a month with lungs that kept collapsing. The glare of the fluorescent lights and the constant beeping and thrumming of the various machines invaded my consciousness, and seeing the great outdoors again after a month of sterility was overwhelming –…
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Monday Miscellany: Pruners, Leaf Litter, and Attracting Pollinators
Was absolutely delighted to get this awesome comment from Heuchera on my Hand Pruner Showdown post comparing the different types of pruning shears: Recently I lost my old Felcos and needed to find a new pair. I had owned a different model, so I decided to research the web to see if the No. 2?s…
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The Evolution of a Gardener: Finding the Middle Ground Between Neat and Natural
Debbie’s post over at Garden of Possibilities was a catalyst for me to really think over an issue I’ve been having a lot lately – the Neat VS Natural debate. It’s not a debate I’ve been having with anyone else, it’s more been an internal struggle. You see, the more I learn about gardening, the…
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Monday Miscellany: Water Conservation, Snootiness in Pruning, and How to Become Popular Using Fruit
Blog Action Day came and went last week, leaving in its wake a number of excellent posts about how to be more eco with your water use. If you’re not in the know about Blog Action Day, every October 15th bloggers of every stripe are invited to post on the same topic, to try to…