Color Of The Year

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Pantone's color of the year pick: Turquoise.
Ok, ick.
Accent color, yes - all over your house, yard and body?
Like I said, ick.
I would have been happier if they'd picked Oyster Gray.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the color itself. I actually adore turquoise. A pot or chair here and there in the garden to perk things up. Cool. New 'Caribbean' cookware for the kitchen. Cool. A nice delicate piece of jewelry. Also cool.
But, you know what ends up happening with this 'color of the year' thing. We'll be staring at it every time we turn a head - or a corner.
~Sigh~
Ick.

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Back To Getting Their Hands Dirty

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Kudos to Marianne Taylor and Janet Crowther!

"[Both] decided to change the course of their lives last year and began teaching classes in organic, native and drought-tolerant gardening.
Taylor and Crowther teach classes in what they call "dirt therapy."
The idea, the women say, is to help people realize gardening can be fun, healthful and appetizing."

Full article here: 2 Gardeners Find New Lives In 'Dirt Therapy'

How lucky are they to be doing, and teaching about, something they love?
Although, as always, I wish all the garden teaching going on were free, (yes, I totally understand that's never going happen) their classes are pretty cheap.

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And cross your fingers that they vote yes! NY can always use more community gardens...

Gardeners Look To Reap New Contract

"After a successful first year, Plattsburgh Community Garden organizers are looking to secure another contract with the city.

The Plattsburgh City Common Council will vote next Thursday on whether the Community Garden can continue operating for another two years."

Happy (returning to the earth) Growing!
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Titchmarsh's 'Frightened Of Gardening' Trend

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What is the DEAL with this?!
Alan Titchmarsh seems to be on a roll. Granted, he isn't one of my favorites, so I probably wouldn't have much good to say to begin with, but I wish he'd get over this 'people are frightened' thing!

Way back on January 25th, I posted about his article : British Society Is Frightened Of Gardening.

Well, here he is, at it again, with a new article today: Alan Titchmarsh: Don't Be frightened Of Your Garden.

Seriously, get over this idea that people are 'frightened', Alan. Try moving on to a topic that might be helpful!

Happy (non-frightened) Growing!
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Coleus - First Color

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The coleus I sowed on February 1 are starting to show their first colors:



This one is from a packet that I bought. I usually harvest and save my own in the fall, but for some reason I didn't do it last fall. I'm not sure if it was because it got too cold too quickly or I simply forgot. Both reasons are equally likely.

I'll probably end up with a dozen or so plants to spread around the shade garden and containers. With the trees having to be removed every few years, the amount of shade in my yard is shrinking quickly. The last, a large maple that got hit by lightning last summer and a tornado a few years ago, may have to come down this summer.

I'm glad I whined about not seeing much of the flock of robins that stayed around all winter - maybe they heard me since they've been showing themselves a lot more lately. Ok, so it has nothing to do with me, they're more interested in searching the mulch pile for bugs. That pile is apparently heating up pretty well as it's the only thing for miles that's almost bare of snow.



And some sad news - I think there's a hole in the liner of the bottom pond. Argh! I'm so mad!
That'll be something to deal with come June.

Happy (coleus) Growing!
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Blotanical Lists Are Back

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At least for . . right this second.
:)
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I'm expecting there might still be a few more bumps.
Happy reading!

Stuart Speaks

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Rather, he tweets!
For those of you who don't do the tweet thing and want to be kept up-to-date:

(5 hours ago) "Finally into the backend of Blotanical. Should hopefully see the lists back up by the end of the day.

(3 hours ago) Blotanical lists are now up in temp mode. I shall continue watching them to ensure they stay up. Will let you know when they are A-Ok

(2 hours ago) It looks as though I'm going to need to split the lists again. With 50+ new blogs waiting to be added the lists are too demanding on space

(30 minutes ago) Obvious memory problems with Blotanical lists. Bear with me people, I'll get to it tomorrow night. Off to bed soon. Enuff for today - soz."

It looks like things are moving along (I'm getting a 404 for the lists right now). We just need to be patient a while longer.
Moving all that info to new servers is quite a technical challenge, to say the least, and bumps along the way are to be expected.
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Using Reusables

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Colleen Vanderlinden, of In The Garden Online, Mouse & Trowel Awards and book (plus numerous articles) fame, has an interesting new article up at her About.com site - Colleen's Organic gardening Blog - "Reusing items For Seed Starting".

Whew! She's a busy girl.

She's included links in the article for some wonderful posts by some fellow bloggers, including me (yay!) who reuse ordinary items for seed starting.

The amount of waste that we humans generate is astonishing.
Any little bit we can do to reduce it deserves a kudos. I saw a picture of some large aluminum cans painted, planted and attached to a wall that was gorgeous and something I might try this year. You wouldn't think something like that would look too nice, but it looked much like carefully arranged attractive garden art.

We have to start somewhere, why not with starting seeds this spring?
If you get a second, check out the article and see if there's something listed that you might like to give a try.

What are you going to reuse for your garden/gardening this year?

Happy (reusable) Growing!
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The Tuesday Chuckle

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Quit hogging the bowl!



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Buried

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Here it is the 28th of February and I'm more than glad to see its backside slide out the door.
This heavy wet snow is awful and it's still falling. Roofs are collapsing.
I can't imagine how much this would have added up to if it was the fluffy stuff.

My Winter Sown jugs are under there . . . somewhere! I think I'll hold off on doing any more until some of this melts. At least they're nice and cozy three foot down.



Awww, he looks so forlorn -



That black spot behind the shrubs in the back left - that's our mailbox.



But, it does make for some pretty pictures. It's very quiet out there and kind of eerie.







How are things where you are?

Happy (think spring) Growing!
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