2010 Mouse & Trowel Awards

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Nominations are now open for the 2010 Mouse & Trowel Awards!
I hope you've all been thinking hard!

Here are this years categories (in case you're still thinking):

Best Writing

Best Photography

Best Blog Design

Post of the Year

Garden Blog of the Year

Best New Garden Blog (blog in which the first post was published on or after 1/1/09)

Best Gardenblogger to Follow on Twitter

Best Urban Gardening Blog

Best Rural Gardening/Farming Blog

Best Indoor Gardening Blog

Best Garden Design Blog

Best Container Gardening Blog

Best Blog About Growing Food

Best Blog by a Company


And here are Colleen's instructions:
Nominate up to five blogs in each category. Please include the URL of the blog or post you are nominating. One nomination form per person, please!

Nominations are open until midnight, 4/30/10.

Easy enough, eh? So, get em all lined up and get on over there to nominate your favorites!
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WinterSown Sprouts

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Even after 7 years of Winter Sowing, I'm still amazed, every single spring, with those first ambitious sprouts. It has been freezing or below every night for the last week, 30's F during the day, and yet, here they are!
I'm doing the happy dance!

These two are always expected to be the first to win the race:

Poppies


and Bachelor Buttons


This is what they looked like a few short weeks ago:


If you don't know what Winter Sowing is, you can get more info from here, WinterSown.org, and here, GardenWeb's WS Forum. There is still plenty of time to give it a try if your still getting pretty cool weather, especially with annuals. Go for it!

Happy (first WS sprouts) Growing!
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Live Eagle Cam

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This is very cool: Bald Eagle Nest Cam in Virginia

Eaglets are scheduled to be banded Wednesday, March 31 at 9:00 a.m. EDT. Follow the events in person at Norfolk Botanical Garden, or online on Eagle Cam.

I hope y'all can be on tomorrow to see it!
Pass the word. Quick! lol.
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Tiny Terrarium

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This is what we did with our Sunday.
My oldest daughter is moving out of her old apartment and thought she'd be nice and change out all the blown bulbs, most of which were already blown out when they got there, so I figured now would be a good time to try out something I've been wanting to do for a long time.

The hubs followed the directions (found here) to hollow out the bulbs.
OK, he mostly followed them as our bulbs were a little different.

Only one had the kaolin in it and came clean and clear, so that one got used for the terrarium.





The rest were acid etched and will never come clear, so those got to be the rooting vases. I found the ornament hanger at the dollar store after Christmas for 10 cents (I'd had grand plans of hand painting some Christmas ornaments for next years gifts, but never found any on clearance) But, it worked perfect for this.



I'm really happy with the way these turned out!
And we got to break things, which is very therapeutic.

There are many, many different styles and sizes of glass and plastic objects you can use for terrariums. Use your imagination! Or, just look around the internet - people have used some cool stuff. Salvage stores are sometimes treasure troves. You just have to look around and think outside the box a little. The next time you spy something odd, clear and empty that you think is really cool but don't know what to do with . . .

Happy (tiny terrarium) Growing!
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