Change is good
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We're delighted to learn that Jaime at Greengirl has acquired two outstanding partners, become GREENGIRLS, and expanded the coverage to include field trips, interviews, and all manner of team-blogging shenanigans. Congrats and welcome!
Now how can we get us a cute group photo like that? Being spread out across the continent, it may take a while. (There MAY be a full GardenRant meet-up in Buffalo for their GardenWalk. We have our fingers crossed.)
Thanks to Peter Hoh for the tip.
"We have come to see ourselves as being outside of nature," says Prince Charles in this month's Vanity Fair, and although I'm not a huge fan of his RH, I see plenty of signs of the alienation to which he refers. Not just when it comes to global warming, either, which is the context of this particular interview. I don't have to peruse the glamorous pages of VF to find fear, confusion, ignorance, distaste, even hatred when it comes to the relationship between humans and growing things—often when many of these humans consider themselves gardeners.
If you really want to explore the last bastions of bad garden talk, you have to check out call-in radio shows. We have a couple of them in Western New York. Both hosts are fairly knowledgeable and have good credentials, but their advice can only be as interesting and/or useful as the questions they get. After listening to their shows over a few weekends, I can see where it might be possible for a veteran host of such a program to become utterly jaded. (Many of you may have local radio gardening shows—do you listen?)
On the Saturday show, most callers were adamant that they needed to dig up their tulips immediately after blooming and store them in the basement. One listener was told that her jasmine was an obscure plant and that she would never be able to get rid of the scales infesting it. Listening to the Sunday show, I heard one caller explaining that she had a dead—or at least she was almost sure it was dead—hydrangea plant that she wanted to give to her friend. I'm not sure what advice she thought would help with this.
Finally, at a live appearance at a bookstore I happened to catch, the Saturday host was answering the questions of people who felt they should cut back their ferns to the ground so the plants could survive a summer under a damaged shade canopy, or who wondered whether spraying mouthwash would get rid of aphids.
The sad part of all this is that these people are the ones who actually care enough to tune into a gardening show or attend a live event. These are the gardeners.
For many people attempting to deal with their exterior surroundings, there is a big disconnect. Their yard is something that is happening to them. The domestic landscape is not so much a friend as a really messy, obnoxious roommate you can't kick out, so you just have to live with it and try to impose some modicum of control. (No wonder many who can afford it are simply paving everything over, roofing it, and turning the yard into an extension of the house.)
This is one of the functions of Garden Walk; we're trying to demonstrate how enjoyable gardening can be, even in tiny urban yards. Most of us aren't going to win any prizes; like the Rant manifesto above says, we're gardening our asses off and having fun doing it. I guess we're hoping our visitors during the Walk will too, but now that I've been listening to these shows, I wonder how many others are sitting home nursing grudges against dead plants.
How to bridge the gap, bring nature (and by implication) gardening closer? On both the micro (domestic gardening) and macro (fighting environmental catastrophe) levels, humans will need to feel a bit friendlier toward embryophytes. Sit down with them, spend some time, have a drink—maybe not kill them and then give them away to friends ...
I have not yet read the VF green issue, but the table of contents looks interesting, perhaps worth the purchase of a mag I seldom peruse.
Gardenbloggers are hitting pay dirt -- free stuff! - and here at GardenRant we're happy to share the bounty. We're already lounging about in our free Sloggers, the comfy multi-purpose shoes shown here in four lovely colors, and waiting for it to warm up enough to try them out in the garden. But while we're waiting, it's giveaway time!
COMMENTERS MAKE THE BLOG
Yes, it's time to show our appreciation to the unruly bunch of readers we've come to know through their comments because without them, we'd just be blogging in the wind. Our commenters mix it up with humor, expertise, passion and civility and create the conversation that makes Gardenrant so damn much fun. (Eat your heart out, Hillary.)
So we've tallied our comments over an 8-week period and are happy to award free shoes to our top commenters, with the top spot being won by our new friend Craig, who insists he isn't a horticultural expert:
We'll be emailing the winners instructions for claiming their very own Sloggers (for ladies) or Premium Garden Clogs (for men). Product reviews on their own blogs are, of course, optional.
OUR REVIEWS
Having overpaid more than once for the suddenly trendy Crocs (at $30/pair), I (Susan) like Sloggers' more reasonable $18-22 price tag. And at least the blue pair I received look good enough with jeans to wear outside the house without provoking jeers. I've found them utterly comfortable and fine for all but the most strenuous of gardening tasks, like stand-up digging, that require a stronger shoe. I invite my Gardenrant partners to leave comments with their own reviews.
Here's some product information on Sloggers and Premium Garden Clogs.
I barely understand what any of this means, so forgive me for quoting directly from the UK Wiggly Wigglers website:
"I am really pleased to have gone on to be awarded a Nuffield Scholarship, specifically the Alan and Anne Beckett Award for an entrepeneur or innovator. Started by Lord Nuffield 60 years ago, Nuffield scholarships aim to encourage study on a subject of personal interest, with a view to communicating the findings to the wider farming and rural community. For more details please take a look at www.nuffieldscholar.org.uk.
My own chosen field of study is based around exploring the benefits that the new generation of internet technologies can bring to farming and the wider rural business scene. To follow my progress please check out the Wiggly Blog where you can read what I've been up to or send me feedback."
OK. Whatever. We asked Heather for clarification, and she explained:
"The idea is that you travel the world in search of valuable opportunities and ideas for rural business - especially farming. 19 scholarships have been awarded in the UK this year and many more in Australia, and a couple in Ireland and Canada too. My topic is Social Media and web 2.0. I think this new consumer generated media brings real opportunity to small business with a story. Essentially Seth Godin explains in his way exactly what I think here. The great thing about farming and the countryside is that the story that folk have to tell is SOOO good, if these people can get a hold of the technology I think it would reduce advertising spend and allow transparency, honesty and genuine good sense to prevail rather than spin."
But let's just make it clear that:
from the adjacent photo of aforesaid Ranter on a recent visit to the Wiggly Farm.Seriously, though. We are totally ready for your Internet technology/rural business/organico/wormy/hedgerow thing. Whatever it is. We're totally behind it, and you can bet we'll be voting for the Wiggly Podcast at the Mouse & Trowel Awards.
And seriously, girlfriend. Where DID you get that dress?
In addition to the torrents of early spring (more snow than rain so far), I suspect many of you are similarly bombarded with emails and catalogs for both this season's plants and next season's bulbs.
I must get an email flyer from Park Seed every other day, and one from High Country Gardens every week. It's puzzling because I never order from either of these companies. I do like to check out the Park offerings because, well—they're crazy!
They seem to be inventing a new hybrid every week, each one more lurid and more overloaded with full, shaggy double flowers than the next. I'm going to need a pair of sunglasses to view their ads if this keeps up. The words "huge" "dramatic," and "magnificent" are key.
Michael Pollan compares the catalogs for Wayside and White Flower Farms in Second Nature, commenting that Wayside's "blooms press forward from their pages provocatively, many of them bursting free of their frames, almost as if from a bodice." But the flyers from Park (Wayside's parent company), make those images look subtle and demure.
I'm vividly reminded of the danger of doubles every spring when I pull my Obdam double daffs out of the mud, and place them in a long-necked vase for support (after spraying them off). I expect to stake a six-foot-high Oriental lily, but I'm not about to make mini-stakes for all my double bulbs and perennials. Of course, many of these Park doubles are completely unrecognizable from the original cultivars, but keep in mind that they all flower for at least 12 weeks. I'm tempted to order some just to see if they're as insane as the pictures.
Now, on to the new Brent and Becky's catalog. We here at the Rant love B&B's, but it gave me pause when, in Susan's recent interview, Brent Heath described their new policy of packaging their offerings into "combos." In the new catalog, these are called "mixtures." Fine, but I don't like it that the mixes are "possibly unlabeled." I guess I'd trust a mixture from this company more than most others, but I still want the names.
It's good to have the catalog—in a few weeks I can compare the images within to the reality outside, as Kim did recently.
In a few weeks. Seems like I've been saying that for weeks.
"Elizabeth Hurley's big, fat, not-so-green wedding," reads the headline and suddenly we know that producing a carbon footprint is a source of shame. Even Al Gore is taking some hits in the area of house size, another brand new hot button. Green weddings are the subject of this Reuters report.
Martha Stewart.com has undergone a "complete renovation," according to its press release. And because
her PR firm has the good sense to alert bloggers to the news, here we are with a brief review of the site, now conveniently organized by "lifestyle interest," including Gardening.
First, it's attractive and easy to navigate. Contentwise, it's a compilation of articles that presumably were first published in Martha's magazine. I read the ones that I feel qualified to critique and can report that they're well worth a look. Good information, good presentation. I only have one question for Martha's gardening editor: Do all trees and shrubs and perennials really need to be fertilized every spring? The ones in my own garden look pretty damn good with just a fresh layer of leafmold mulch in the spring. I save money and the Chesapeake Bay gets a break.
And one more question. Why is it that the article called Rose Basics, which talks a lot about watering, doesn't mention the number one issue in rose maintenance -- spraying?
But still, 
there's lots of good information here, including a piece about the New England Wildflower Society and their Garden in the Woods, and quite a bit about the growing of vegetables.
So let's pull back that curtain and look behind the scenes of Martha Stewart Garden. Turns out the writer is Andrew Beckman - landscape architect, Longwood Gardens-trained professional gardener, and Martha's own personal gardener. So if you like the way Martha's garden looks - and how could you not? - these articles just might help you bring a little Marthaness into your own humble garden. Or take a look at this pdf about Beckman's own garden for more inspiration. Beckman and his partner also run a cool little nursery in Hudson, New York called Loomis Creek. Their website reveals:
Our goal is to grow, sell, and showcase distinctive, cutting-edge garden plants to adventurous gardeners. Our nursery is in a peaceful garden setting and demonstration borders and containers promote an artful and ecologically sound approach to gardening and home improvement. We are avid plantsmen, hands-on gardeners, and educators and strive to provide expert knowledge and advice to our customers.
...all of which gives me a sudden urge to visit Hudson, New York as soon as possible. But it also makes me wonder why Martha's garden pages don't include a little "About the Editor" link so readers can find more than his name and mug shot. I had to leave the site and Google him to find this. Sure, he's a nice-looking guy, but discerning readers want to know a writer's qualifications (or in the case of About.com, the lack thereof.)
Striking scupture on the streets of Oslo. Somehow I'd find it more convincing, though, if it weren't the easy sentimental choice in that fist, but instead something more sophisticated--a plant that announced that the fist is not a poseur but a real gardener.
My whole act is backward-looking. I'm constantly trying to move towards a pre-engineered past, towards an earthier time when people not only cooked their own food, they had pleasure of growing it, too--a time when people understood the soil and animals and their own animal natures, too. To me, we've forgotten as much as a culture as we've learned. And I fret constantly about the things our amnesia has wrought, everything from global warming to suburban sprawl.
I'm only like this because my parents' generation made me this way, those arrogant, ignorant people who loved progress no matter how ugly--and loved it particularly if it was ugly. That post-World War II generation whose great gifts to us were the highway overpass, the office park and the mall, the gated cul-de-sac and seas of asphalt stretching as far as the eye can see.
In the meantime, of course, I consider Google and wikipedia more essential than indoor plumbing. I never miss a day of celebrity-mocking at Go Fug Yourself. I watch "Ugly Betty" on my laptop, not on TV--my kids are still awake while it's on TV, and I don't plan to introduce them to the concept of sex-change operations for a few more years. In other words, I am a true hypocrite who loves the modern world and just doesn't admit it often enough.
And that's why I was so cheered this week to pick up Plants for the Future: A Gardener's Wishbook, something I'd found on sale for $7 at a small country bookstore. Though the book begins with a wonderfully clear-headed explanation of plant genetics, it was not written by a botanist, but by a professor emeritus of mathematics at UC Boulder, Jerome Malitz.
Last year, I attended an apple harvest dinner. Everyone at the dinner was an apple farmer (except for me; I have only one apple tree but I got invited because the idea was mine and it was one that I shouted out wildly and drunkenly at another party until someone agreed to do it.)
Anyway, everyone at the apple harvest dinner was a local apple farmer, and everyone brought some kind of dish made from apples. There was an apple-and-chicken thing, there was a fantastic spanikopita with sliced apples, there were apple salads, apple desserts, an apple and butternut squash soup, and a whole range of apple-based drinks. (Apple ice wine was the clear winner; try it even if you think you don't like sweet dessert wine.)
The growers also brought apples straight from their orchards. Someone pulled out a pocket knife and started slicing, and pretty soon we were tasting and comparing. The same variety of apple grown in a different part of the county tasted surprisingly different. Hell, the same apple picked from the northern side of the tree tasted different. There were tart, crunchy apples; apples with a dazzling floral perfume; sweet baking apples; and crisp light-as-air apples.
So there I was thinking: Apples. Pretty darn good. Something for everyone. What's not to like?
But all that changed when I learned about Grapple, "the grape-flavored apple."
Here's a story that made me think about change—even upheaval—in the garden. In this month's Horticulture, Irish gardening celebrity Helen Dillon writes "The Great Unclutter," which starts out "Imagine buying every plant you fancy for 36 years. Imagine planting all those plants in the same three-quarter-acre garden. Add a motley collection of containers, numerous seats, intriguing bits of mossy stone that might come of use, statues, bits of collapsed trellis, and assorted presents from friends, which you don't like to throw away…"
You get the idea. Certainly, not many of us can say we've been adding to our gardens for 36 years, but regardless of how long we've been at it, the cumulative effect is similar. Unless you're paying attention, you can wind up with a discombobulated mess. Dillon writes about wanting to be a creator, not a curator, and describes the total destruction of her front garden, which three years ago went from various paved areas and plantings to a large granite area surrounded by birches, bulbs, and perennials. In 2000, her back garden went from lawn to a limestone canal surrounded by plants. (I think most of these changes are reflected on the website images, but not in the website essay. It's a bit confusing.) The fresh start seems to have worked for Dillon; her garden is called one of the best small gardens in the world. She managed to keep many of her plants by moving them into completely different configurations, or even propagating them, but she also relates going from a collection of fifty roses to less than fifteen.
I don't know how it is with these "small" gardens and their photography, but on the website, the Dillon property looks gigantic. Nonetheless, she seems someone I'd emulate if I could: gorgeous, wild-looking borders, bursting with flowers, combined with dramatic hardscaping. How does one ruthlessly edit a garden, much less start over from scratch? That must take enormous initiative and determination. (And cash—that goes without saying when you're a gardener.)
In her old garden, Dillon did what we all do (though with a more salubrious climate); she added this element one year, that element the next, and planted many different plants at many different times. Thus, a garden is accumulated rather than planned. Certainly, mine is an accumulation—the result of countless additions and deletions to the garden that existed before.
I always buy plants as a collector/curator. There is a huge disconnect between the passion to consume and the reality of gardening. And I have the dead and long-forgotten plants to prove it. God forbid that I would ever make a list of plants I've lost over eight years of gardening—simply because I had no business buying them in the first place.
A painter or an architect thinks nothing of ripping up a sketch, pulling out a clean white sheet or painting over a canvas, and starting again. It's not so easy in a garden; even the feeblest shrub or most rampant groundcover seems to cry out, "Love me; keep me alive!"
This gardening season I'm resolving to be more of a creator and less of a curator.
Man, wouldn't it get our attention to see Tony Soprano driving a sky-blue Prius on his way to whack somebody? Well, we won't hold our breath. But Sundance Channel is developing a new series called THE GREEN, starring none other than Robert Redford. And Discovery Channel is rebranding their Home Channel as PlanetGreen, "the first-ever 24-hour television network dedicated solely to green lifestyle programming," according to their press release. PlanetGreen will cover ecotourism, organic living, and "home greening." They've also announced plans to make their headquarters, practically next door to me in Silver Spring, Maryland, a carbon-neutral building. Let's hope that while they're at it they take out their uninspired and very thirsty landscaping and replace it with something a little more eco-friendly. (A favorite rant subject of another local gardening columnist. See, I'm not the only snarly eco-gardener in town.)
Now on to HGTV, the network we love to rant about. But this time they've gone and done something we approve of, like launching a new show called "Red, Hot, and Green". It's a full hour devoted to green design and starring "eco-stylist" Danny Seo and "green enthusiastic" Carter Oosterhouse, "America's Handyman." Here's Carter but do check out his website for more evidence of the assets he brings to this show. I, for one, won't miss a single episode. I won't even make fun of him if he gets some of his gardening facts wrong. Yes, he's that gorgeous.
So you'd better believe I'll be reviewing "Red, Hot, and Green" when it debuts in 2008 but until then, let's look at two features on HGTV's current line-up:
Dream Home Giveaways are a popular yearly event on HGTV and I love the way Ecorazzi describes
them: "It's a fun time, but also a perfect example of unsustainable home building and excessive space." Exactly, because however beautiful the homes may be, we never forget these are mansions, more distinctive than McMansions but mansions nonetheless. But guess what - their next giveaway is a "green home," so we can't wait to see how they pull this off. Or fail to, like the New York Times features about green vacation homes that conveniently ignore the fact that there's nothing green about a second home. But I give HGTV credit for trying and hope to see the square footage figure on their website, buried among the cheerful descriptions of solar panels and low-flush toilets.
On a totally bright note, I'm happy to learn that "Living with Ed", a new show about uber-environmentalist Ed Begley and his wife,
is successful enough to be called a hit on their website and be renewed for a second season. Check out the website for yourself, but here's what I've learned about Landscaping with Ed: There's a white picket fence made out of recycled plastic milk jugs around what's frequently called a small house, lots of drought-tolerant plants, and a long list of plants that produce actual food. And their gardener seems like a pretty cool guy, too, and has lots to say himself.
Not only will you not see me making fun of the show; I'm making a note to catch it in reruns. (Favorite Ed Begley role - hairdresser boyfriend to the mother on "Six Feet Under.") I'm especially hoping to see him riding his nifty stationary bike, hooked up so that it recharges the home's batteries as he's peddling. In 10 minutes he can produce enough electricity to toast two slices of bread! (Actually, that's kinda depressing, like working your butt off and learning you've just burned a grand total of 50 calories.)
Hat tip to and Ecorazzi for all the eco-TV news.
Well, duh on me. This week I've been researching Lilium longflorum (Easter lily) to find out what, if anything, might be happening to cause the loss of fragrance I'd noticed in the plants so ubiquitous now in supermarkets. (I wonder what they do with the leftovers on Easter Monday?) But all I found were warnings about pet poisoning. Every part of of a lily is deadly to cats, apparently, with even the smallest nibble of a leaf causing kidney failure and subsequent death. We're not talking About.com either—this was in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and other major dailies, with reputable vets and the ASPCA as sources. As Easter lilies are one of the biggest flower crops in the U.S. (11 million a year), that's a lot of sick animals.
I've been growing lilies for eight years and living with cats for over ten, and I had never heard this—or noticed it. Other gardeners seem to be as unaware of this deadliness as I was, as this quote from Claire Span's Alameda Garden demonstrates: "And I'm not the only one who loves them. My cat Linus greeted me today with his white mustache dyed orange from the lilly's pollen. Apparently he finds the scent irresistable too." A long string of posts on the Yahoo lily group gives additional anecdotal evidence that cats and lilies can co-exist.
But just as I've discussed before (in reference to humans), there is a long list of plants that can harm pets, including azalea, oleander, tulips, hyacinths, yew, our old friend castor bean, and many others. Lilies aren't on the human list; the lily bulb is often prepared in various ways and eaten. (Not by me, not at $20 a pop for the more rarified Orienpets.)
I often have lilies in the house—either my own or store-bought—and my cat's never suffered for it, or been seen eating them. Cats are highly variable creatures; some are inveterate plant eaters, while others don't go near them. I never buy the longiflorum anyway; too much sacrificial baggage, and they're not hardy here, as almost all other lilies are.
Before I get off this, I must also comment that on Friday one of our local right-wing talk radio guys was going on and on about Easter lilies and pets—but if he had heard about the safe lawn event Susan just wrote about, he would have denounced all the participants as crazy hippies. This is s station where lawn companies (that dispense all kinds of chemicals) advertise year-round.
More unambiguously documented is the alarming news that another harbinger of spring (one that doesn't need to be forced), the magnolia tree, is in very serious danger. Although only about fifteen cultivars of magnolia are used in domestic plantings, there are over 200 wild magnolias and 131 of these (most found in Asia) are threatened with extinction. I received this news via a press release from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, which also reports that conservation efforts are now underway under the direction of the Global Trees Campaign. I've never seen a magnolia in the wild, but I've long appreciated the beauty of the domestic magnolias that do so well in urban areas like Buffalo. The trees are losing ground to farming, woodcutting, "horticultural demand," and the medicinal plant trade. And if the trees are endangered, the forests are endangered, like so many others worldwide.
I feel somewhat out of touch with nature on this holiday weekend. The magnolia news simply documents more threats to habitats of trees and plants everywhere. Closer to home, bitter weather prohibits getting in touch with the soil. In a few weeks, all this will change. Well, the big issues won't change, but I'll be back in the garden—finally.
James van Sweden: The Artful Garden: Creative Inspiration for Landscape Design
Stephen Orr: Tomorrow's Garden: Design and Inspiration for a New Age of Sustainable Gardening
Scott Ogden: Plant-Driven Design: Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Place, and Spirit
Jeff Gillman: The Truth About Organic Gardening: Benefits, Drawbacks, and the Bottom Line
Jeff Gillman: The Truth About Garden Remedies: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why
Fritz Haeg: Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, First Edition
Sue Reed: Energy-Wise Landscape Design: A New Approach for Your Home and Garden
Janet Loughrey: Saratoga in Bloom: 150 Years of Glorious Gardens
Jeff Goodell: How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix Earth's Climate
Sydney Eddison: Gardening for a Lifetime: How to Garden Wiser as You Grow Older
John Greenlee: The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn
Suzy Bales: Garden Bouquets and Beyond: Creating Wreaths, Garlands, and More in Every Garden Season
Jeff Gillman: How Trees Die: The Past, Present, and Future of our Forests
Dell: Sustainable Landscaping For Dummies (For Dummies (Home & Garden))
Amy Stewart: Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
Julie Moir Messervy: Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love
Amy Stewart: Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful
Amy Stewart: From the Ground Up: The Story of A First Garden
