-
Best and Worst of 2012: Trends, Colors, Books, Tools, and the Most Popular Articles
2012 was a great year for gardening in many ways – the sustainability movement made for some beautiful, fresh ideas (like the insect habitat art introduced by Flora Grubb) and the continuation of the less-lawn movement gave designers an excuse to go bold with the front yard, skipping the usual lawn-with-foundation-plantings in favor of water…
-
Late-Breaking Halloween News: Defeating Zombies with Garlic and Soap (Not Garlic Soap)
The zombie scourge has been ignored by the media for far too long. Why, I can’t say. The zombie apocalypse has all the makings of a perfect news story – guts, gore, and slavering undead. What more do readers want? So I’m delighted to hear that the trend-sniffing reporters over at HGTV are spreading the…
-
Defeating the Zombie Hordes (With Garlic)
Ever since Plants VS. Zombies came out a few years ago, I’ve been increasingly aware of the effects of the zombie scourge on our landscapes. I mean, you could be enjoying a peaceful afternoon sunning yourself in the garden, and all of a sudden, you hear the ominous sounds of the slavering undead coming closer.…
-
Monday Miscellany: Fearless Color, Purple Shovels, Pinterest and Becoming an Artist
Kicking things off this week, Susan Morrison of the Blue Planet Garden Blog has a fantastic post about her visit to Keeyla Meadows’ garden, and all she learned. Meadows is, of course, the author of Fearless Color Gardens, a book that will help you loosen up, have fun, and personalize your garden to your true…
-
Monday Miscellany: Fig-a-Palooza, Native Cottage-Style Gardens, and Troubleshooting Tomatoes
Some great articles this week! Kicking things off, garden designer Jenny Peterson is celebrating The Week of the Fig. Apparently out in Texas their figs are actually ripe already (oh yeah, they get real live actual sunshine there – that explains it), so she’s got a round-up of some of her fave fig recipes as…
-
Monday Miscellany: Nearly-Free Ebooks, Backyard Chicken Giveaway, and Winter Gardening (It Starts Now)
Kicking things off this week, we have an awesome deal from Algonquin, the publisher behind Wicked Plants and many other faves. They’re practically giving away seven garden and nature-related eBooks, in pretty much any format you prefer. Always wanted to go back and read Amy Stewart’s first book, From the Ground Up? Now’s the time.…
-
Monday Miscellany: Foodie Edition
First up this week is Theresa Loe from Living Homegrown, with an article about Polyface Farm, a place where they’re changing the face of agriculture one acre at a time. Reading this, I’m struck by how lucky we are here in Humboldt to have access to local grass-fed beef and dairy products. I love the…
-
Monday Miscellany: Cool Tools, OMG-Tasty Pie Recipe, Beach’n Terrarium, Designers’ Home Gardens
Quick note – Wednesday’s the last day to enter to win one of three of those elegant black hanging baskets from Discoveries in Gardening. Enter here! Kicking things off this Monday, Erin over at The Impatient Gardener gets into some tool geekery! She reviews tools that I’ve mentioned here and in my reviews in Fine…
-
How to Plant a Hanging Basket With an Angel Moss Liner
Years ago, when I worked at a local independent garden center, one of my favorite winter activities was creating moss baskets to sell. We used loose sphagnum moss to line the baskets, and stuffed the sides and tops with lettuces, annuals and herbs. It was a blast! So when Discoveries in Gardening asked if I’d…
-
P. Allen Smith’s Garden2Blog Event: Sunshine, Southern Punch and Plant Geekery
I’m a humble landscaper in a small college town, so when I got the email inviting me on an all-expenses-paid trip to Little Rock, Arkansas to meet P. Allen Smith and hang with some garden writer peeps at the 2012 Garden2Blog event, I was thrilled to say the least. I’ve never been anywhere besides the…
-
New 2013 Proven Winners Varieties
One of the things I love best about being a garden writer, besides all of the gardening and the writing, is the loot. Getting to try free plants before they’re even out in the nurseries? Yes please! My idea of heaven.