Garden Rant

Michele swoons over Capitol Columns at the National Arboretum

Pictures must be taken!  Even without a single bloom in the shot.  (Here's one with cherry blossoms.)  You can just barely tell from here, but the acreage around the columns is meadow, not mowed.

Next, the columns up close.

These columns from the U.S. Capitol were deemed not substantial enough for the larger-than-expected Capitol Dome - it was a big honking design error! The solution was to remove them, which was done in 1954, and they were located here in 1984. 

  This link tells more about them.

Bossy Boots is coming to my Garden~!

In five years, no Ranter has ever seen my garden, but that's about to change.  Michele is working in the D.C. area as I type and will be visiting me on Friday.  Says she's dying to see my garden. 

Which looks like crap. Like most gardens in late June.  Sigh.

"Bossy Boots" is a name recently bestowed on Michele, as you may recall.  I believe the word "cantankerous" was also used.

Look who else has an anniversary

 

In the last post I mentioned the recent 5-year anniversary of a particular green roof and sure, we're all pro-green roof here.  But it reminded me that this very blog went online exactly 5 years ago yesterday.  It was fun in that very first week - back when we used tiny photographs, I notice - and it's still fun.  Thanks to my Sisters in Ranting and thanks to our wonderful readers and commenters!

To celebrate, let's remember the last time the four of us were together - in Chicago last summer, mouthing off while intoxicated - thanks to bartender Mike Nowak here.  Good times!

Photo by Kylee Baumle.

To Barbara Damrosch, "Mwah" and back at ya!

In her article "The Best Gardening Periodicals, Forums and Blogs", Barbara Damrosch recommends two blogs.  First, Kitchen Gardeners International's blog, then:

"The other blog is Garden Rant (www.gardenrant.com ), which gives good information, hosts lively and knowledgeable guest ranters, and is anchored by four outstandingly uppity women, excellent writers all."

That, from the author of the The Garden Primer, the revered go-to source for the growing of food.  We're big fans!  So we're not too uppity to show some gratitude for her very kind words.  Thank you, Barbara!

Now, I'm going to go ponder the possible degrees of uppitiness, up to  "outstandingly" and beyond.  And I wonder if the people we live with would describe that quality we all share in quite the same way.

Mike Nowak serves Mimosas

First, who IS this guy?  Why, it's Mike Nowak, garden writer and Chicago-area radio personality.  And personality he has in spades, as evidenced by his going snark-to-snark and rant-to-rant with three of us on his August 15 radio show.  Listen for yourself.

Then there's the stunt he pulled during our talk to the independent garden center folks - a stunt that at least one of us had no idea was coming.  Imagine this guy barging into the room, interrupting our presentation and pulling out of his handy bartender's bag the following: orange juice, champagne, and cocktail goblets for four!  And proceeding to fix Mimosas for all of us.

Well, now that we've met our match in Mike Nowak, we've invited him to come rant with us and he promises to do just that.

THIS JUST IN:  I learn from Twitter that Mike has a little story online  about this very subject.

Mouse and Trowel Finalists are Up!

Here they are, and we thank GardenRant readers for honoring us in the categories of Best Writing and Blog of the Year.  And thanks again to Colleen for making it all happen.

3 out of 4 newspapers don't bother to cover gardening

They just run an article once a year to say how popular it is.

So we all know that 3 out of 4 Americans are gardening, and that vegetable growing is teh bomb.  Fine, wonderful, in fact. But it would be even better if the popularity of gardening was reflected in media rather than—more and more—missing in action. During our interview, USAToday writer Janice Lloyd told me that she “can’t write about gardening very much,” and as I was checking the paper’s website over the past few days, I noticed there is no regular gardening column. There is regular coverage of pets, tech, fashion, and wine, which is all very well, but I guess gardening is just a once-in-a-while thing.

Then, as Amy points out a few posts back, the New York Times gardening coverage is becoming erratic and, well—strange. (Indoor plant advice in late March?) As many know, their former garden writer Anne Raver is now with Country Gardens, though there does seem to be some occasional vegetable gardening coverage.  Lucky people around DC still have a bastion of gardening coverage to look forward to in the Post, but increasingly around the country, in spite of gardening's supposed popularity, actual reporting on it is a sometimes thing.

As much fun as it is to blog about my own gardening and read the experiences of others, I’m a daily paper reader and I’d like to see more gardening coverage. Here in Buffalo, we’ve proven that most of us are insanely devoted to gardening; we have 16 garden walks in which over a thousand of us open up our gardens to strangers every year, while community gardens and urban farms are spreading throughout the east and west frontiers of the city. Yet, our paper has no staff garden writer.

It’s a rant we ranted often before, but the USAToday article, as affirming as it was, made me want to rant it just once more. 

We love our guest ranters

And to show just how much we love them, we had these badges created for them to display on their own blogs, or to use in some other way we look forward to seeing.  (T-shirts, anyone?)

The GardenRant Guest badge goes to the 30-some garden writers who've come here to vent, inform, and entertain.  So guests, come and get your graphic, which you can have link to your post here (just a suggestion).  

Then, of course, the Top 10 GardenRanter 2009 badge goes to the six guests who most stirred the passions of our readers in the past year, even drawing lurkers out from the shadows in some cases.  (The other Top Rants were by the regulars.) 

So a big shout-out and "Y'all come back!" to the Top GardenRanters of 2009:  Shawna Coronado, Ed Bruske, Joe Lamp'l, Susan Morrison, Maureen Decombe and Ken Druse.

Hottest Garden Rants of 2009

 It's time for our favorite tradition here at GardenRant headquarters - the yearly round-up of Top Rants as determined by the number of comments. 

(We exclude contests because they always get lots of comments - for entirely different reasons.   For the curious, our Hottest Giveaways of 2009 were for a bulb book, for Eco-Tulips,  and a contest for the Best Short Fiction Contest, which drew the most comments of all - 115).

So without further ado, here are Truly the Hottest Rants of 2009, in ascending order:

10. Pollan takes on the Great American Lawn.  In a reprinted New York Times piece, Pollan ranted against the White House Lawn and proposed it be replaced with meadows and farmland.  Not a terribly popular idea, it turns out, though there's lots of support for going organic on that famous patch of turf.

9. Only the Inexperienced are Cynical.  We ranted once again about the poor quality of garden reporting--specifically from writers who are first-time vegetable gardeners, who, because they are naive, spend way too much money and time on their gardens. Then they write pieces informing beginners that growing food is difficult and expensive. Most of our commenters--for once!--agreed with us.  You don't have to spend insane amounts of money or time to have a lovely vegetable garden.  You just have to have some sense of what you're doing.

8. If I want stuffed animals I would go to Toys R Us.  Unsurprisingly, not too many of our commenters (if any) were ready to leap to the defense of the unfortunate habit garden centers have of devoting huge amounts of shelf space to objects that have nothing whatsoever to do with gardening. Most of our readers joined in the rant—and added their own pet peeves. 

7.  The Real Dirt on Peat Moss.  Guest Ken Druse made the case that sphagnum peat moss is "environmentally bankrupt", and almost all the commenters said "thanks for telling us".  

6.  Smith & Hawken is Dead; Long Live Smith & Hawken.  Commenters (mostly) loved Maureen Decombe's fond remembrances of the S&H she knew and loved, and many added their own.

5.  Generation Y - the Future of Gardening or the End?  In this one our guest Susan L. Morrison stirred the pot about generational differences - always a comment-grabber.

4.  Veg-Gardening Not in Current Strategy for DIY Network.  This was Joe Lamp'l's story about DIY cancelling his very timely show, and GardenRant readers love nothing more than bashing stupid television programmers.

3.  Is it time to re-imagine the community garden?.  Guest Ed Bruske made the case for communally run gardens rather than individual plots for growing whatever the plot-renter wants, leading to mentions of Communism, Nazism, hippie values, and at least one "Good Grief!!"

2.  Where the $@*% is the Army of Gardeners?  Get off your Duffs and Make a Difference!  None of our own posts about lawn reform were as heated as Shawna Coronado's all-out rant telling us to grow food, not turfgrass.  Again the Nazi label was flung into the fray. 

1.  What's Invasive?  People Telling People what they Can't Plant in their Yards. We ranted that paranoia about invasives is getting out of control when we're being chided for allowing long-time country naturalizers like the orange roadside daylily or flag iris breathing space in our yards.  We unleashed a firestorm of pro-fear and anti-fear forces.  This is clearly a huge issue in our readers' minds, one that probably deserves more exploration.

Final Word
Did you notice that 6 of the 10 Hottest Rants were written by guest bloggers?  We sure noticed, and we thank our awesome gardenblogging friends for helping us make GardenRant a place that stirs the pot.  And keep those guest posts coming, y'all.

Photo credits:  Top,  from the S&H website, middle by Joe Lamp'l, and lower by Michele Owens.

Horticulture Mag Reads Blogs

And managing editor Patty Craft lists 20 of them as top blogs in this month's issue. I was happy to see most of my own favorites among them but quite a few that are new to me.  (So are these "top" or Patty's own discoveries?  I think the list is a nice mix.) 

Among the discoveries, A Chef in the Garden, Caribbean Garden, and the intriguingly named Sin City to Slaterville. 

And Dirt Therapy is one I need to investigate a bit because Patty describes the blogger as a "Northwest Alabama no-mow fan," yet prominently displayed on the blog is this: "Trust TruGreen [with link] for your lawn care needs."  The very same TruGreen that used to be called ChemLawn - and from what I hear from their customers, hasn't changed a bit.  So what gives?

More Blogs, Please
So what do you think of the list, what blogs would you add to it, and do you think the descriptions fit?  ("Edgy, entertaining and informative" is exactly what GardenRant is intended to be so thanks, Patty!)

Gardenbloggers on WowoWow.com

WowoWow is a woman-owned and -run website with lots of high-powered women at the helm (Lily Tomlin, Lesley Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg, Marlo Thomas, etc) but until now there was no sign of gardening on the site.  Well, that was then and this is 2009 and they're getting into gardening, y'all! 

First up is a round-up of "renowned" gardenbloggers - we love that! - all answering short tip-type questions.  Now I was afraid my tip-type answers would be overly simplistic but with all of us answering the same questions, it was just fun.  Pals Shirley Bovshow and Pam Penick are among the seven.  

Next up - guest posts, and my first offering is about the anti-lawn movement.

OMG, Wicked Plants is the cover story.

On "CBS Sunday Morning", and I'll report on it shortly.  Started at 9 Eastern, Amy's segment will be at about 9:05. 

Well, it was long and meaty and Martha Teichner did a great job.  And Amy's a star.

Hope they put it online.

Wicked Plants and Amy on "CBS Sunday Morning"

This Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern - unless some really big news breaks between now and then, of course. 

Notice a couple of on-topic stories on their website right now - one about the legalization of medical marijuana and another about Project Laundry List, the outdoor-laundry-drying campaign.  

Catch Amy and the Professors in Parade

Here's Amy's how-to turn in America's Sunday magazine, called "Get a Beautiful Garden Now".  It's full of tips and myth-busters from two of our favorite hort profs - Jeff Gillman and Linda Chalker-Scott.  Now let's discuss among ourselves.

- A gardening friend actually cornered me at the July 4th Parade to express her shock that the article recommends up to 6 inches of coarse mulch around vegetables, so I promised to ask about the research behind that one.

- Protecting young fruit from pests by stapling plastic bags or hosiery around each one is easy?

- And Amy, serious kudos to whoever's handling publicity for your book!

Wicked Plants on NPR

Say, did you hear Amy's segment on NPR's Morning Edition this am? If not, here it is. I love the closing music: one of my faves.

Common-sense veg-growing in Oprah's magazine

Pick up the June issue and you'll notice a familiar face - our own Michele O urging us to "forget the myth of the $20 tomato".  Her practical and passionate approach is laid out in these simple steps:

1.  Pick a spot, any sunny spot, for your garden.
2.  Dig once.
3.  Be bold and panoramic in your planting.
4.  Water, weed, and pluck the fruits of your labor.

And just one more quote:  "Of course, there are many 400-page guides on the bookstore shelves that make it sound as if a vegetable garden has to be managed with the same precision as a graded college chemistry lab.  Ignore them."

But wait, what about this blurb about Michele from the Contributor page: "Owens is writing a book, Eat the Yard, (Rodale), to be published in 2010."  I think we can safely assume that Eat the Yard will be anything BUT another 400-page guide detailing with anal-compulsive precision what MUST be done.  I read the book proposal and here's a prediction:  It'll be a great read. 

The Wicked Ms. Stewart in the NY Times

Catch an inside look at the life and poisonous garden of our Amy in today's New York Times. 
The slide show reveals the bargain-priced Victorian she and Scott found, her attic library, and my fave, Amy playing with her chickens.

And the caption to the lead photo here actually begins, "WICKED Amy Stewart."  Sure, she has her moments but what Ranter doesn't?

Here's the story. 

Mackenzie Carpenter gets gardenblogging

As a feature writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Mackenzie Carpenter has to cover politics but for pure enjoyment she gets to also cover gardening.  And lucky readers get her highly entertaining feature about garden blogs in today's edition.  It describes blogs as livelier, perkier and more passionate than other garden writing.  Filled with gossip and even attitude-changing crusades, garden blogs aren't "staid or semi-promotional" like garden writing so often is.  Lord knows we try.

Here at GardenRant headquarters we thank Mackenzie for her awesome piece and kind words about this blog, and urge her to comment when she gets the itch because she definitely has things to say.

Garden Coaching in Organic Gardening Magazine, Finally

Man, talk about lead time - a whole year.  Garden photog extraordinaire Rob Cardillo spent hours shooting my garden last April and in September I delivered the text about springtime garden-coaching and voila - it's in my hands and on the stands!  And looking good.  Here's one of Rob's cool shots that didn't make it into the mag.

And the folks in the garden coaching world are mighty grateful to Organic Gardening for the great publicity - I'm already hearing from other coaches who subscribe, and they're a happy bunch. 

Why the Bloggies suck

There is a category for gossip, but not for gardening. When I looked at this year’s ballot, and saw the relatively small number of categories—small, when you consider that it is an international competition with potentially millions of eligible winners—at first I just shrugged. Who am I to quibble, who is Garden Rant to quibble, with its measly thousand-plus visits a day? Sure, we try, but we’re no Dooce, Heather, or Waiterrant.

But it is precisely because I am infinitesimal in the larger scheme of things that I quibble, and quibble loudly. Didn’t blogs come to be precisely for this reason, to give individual, quirky, and measly—but interesting—voices a place for expression on the interwebs? Should the amount of times Britney is mentioned be considered more important than talking about how we might possible impede the planet from dissolving into a fetid puddle? (Though it’s not an event you can really gossip about, and anyway there won’t be any blogs around to do it.)

If there are categories for food, entertainment, sports, and, yes, gossip, then I contend that there ought to be one for nature or the environment (gardening could and probably should be folded into one of those). So there. My rant about the Bloggies concludes, but not without thanks to our friends Colleen/In the Garden Online, who created the Mousies for us garden bloggers, and Carol/May Dreams Gardens, who nominated Garden Rant for a Bloggie under “group blog.” You can too. If you do go there, watch out: the site has a rather irksome sideways scroll. Also: you do NOT have to vote for 3 blogs in each category; the rule is 3 different blogs total for the whole contest (i.e., 1 in politics, 1 in group, 1 in food.)