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Highlights and Lowlights from the 2011 San Francisco Garden Show
Just got back from the San Francisco Garden Show, and man has it ever expanded since the last time I went (in the old Fort Mason days). I scored some cool swag, met so many amazing movers and shakers in the garden world (and everyone was so SWEET!), and got to make both horrified and…
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Celebrating Vertical Gardening with Garden Up!
Two of my favorite bloggers, Rebecca Sweet and Susan Morrison, have just released a book on vertical gardening called Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces. When I heard they were writing it I was so excited, because gaining height without adding width is a design challenge that is present in so…
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Monday Miscellany: Book Review Excitement
Loads of exciting book-related things happening lately, from new entries to the Five Books meme, to book launch parties for The Edible Front Yard and Garden Up!, plus our friends over at Garden Rant becoming regulars at Kirkus Reviews! Starting us off, I want to share a garden book review blog called Gardening by the…
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Amy and Gen Tropicanna the Garden: a Giveaway!
***Giveaway below*** Outside of the garden, I’m attracted to cool, subdued colors, like purples, blues, blacks and greys. But lately, in the garden? Give me some color! Wild, exuberant color, that shocks the eyes and cheers the soul. So when the kind folks out at Tesselaar Plants offered to send Amy Stewart and I some…
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Monday Miscellany: Garden Photography Edition
With spring on the way, there’s nothing more important for me than actually capturing it all in photos. Not only for the pure enjoyment of looking back on it all, but also for practical reasons. How vexing is it when in August, you wish to plant a shrub in a bare spot, but can’t recall…
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Golden Conifers Brighten Up Winter
With the winter doldrums in full force, I went to my local rhododendron nursery the other day to pick up spring color for a few jobs. Usually, I’m blown away by the blooming rhodies or the summer-flowering heathers. But this visit, what really struck me was the conifers. Specifically, the golden conifers. They just looked…
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Color Echoes: Variegated Dwarf Weigela and Clifford Moor Red Catchfly
These two plants are easy to grow and take little care to look their best. Variegated Dwarf Weigela, Weigela florida ‘Variegata Nana’, is a sturdy shrub to about 4′ tall and wide. It loses its leaves in winter, but comes back with fresh growth and masses of flowers each spring. Clifford Moor Red Catchfly, Silene…
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Monday Miscellany: Garden Video Edition
YouTube’s always been cool for us gardeners. Where else can you find gardening tutorials, product reviews, and adorable animal videos all in one place? This week, I’ve got a few favorites to share. Billy Goodnick, the Garden Wise Guy, cheers us up with his adorable music video about getting rid of lawns. Yes, people, I…
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Plants to Love: Gaultheria mucronata or Prickly Heath
Like the barely-fragrant Stinking Hellebore, Gaultheria (formerly Pernettya) mucronata has been given a somewhat undeserved and unfortunate common name, probably by some delicate-skinned maiden who’d never heard of gardening gloves.
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The Fiskars UpRoot Weeder: An Organic Way of Getting Dandelions Out of Your Lawn and Garden
When I heard about this tool, I knew I had to have one. As an organic gardener, I find it extremely hard to keep dandelions out of the lawn. The herbicides that can be used in lawns are so nasty that I can’t bring myself to use them. But the constant up and down, bending…
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Using Color Echoes to Work Edibles Into Your Landscape
Ivette Soler’s new book, The Edible Front Yard, tackles the question of how to incorporate edibles and veggies into your landscape without having the whole thing look messy, or rigidly planned like a farm. How do you do that? She explains: The successful edible front garden all comes down to the right plant in the…