I'm On Gina's 'Virtual Garden Tours'

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Squeee!
I'm a little (ok, a lot) excited.
Gina, over at My Skinny Garden, came up with the awesome idea of hosting what she calls "Virtual Garden Tours" so she and her blog readers could get to know their fellow bloggers and their gardens a little better through a survey and pictures.

And she asked me to participate! :)

It was hard to pick out any pictures that would even get close to showing the scale we garden on, but I think I did ok. Maybe? I wish I'd had some better ones to send (it's hard to keep the pot ghetto and weeds out of the frame and the garden wasn't looking so hot after the mini-drought), but I did my best, and it was quite fun!

So, if you're even a little bit curious or interested, head on over and read (and drool over some fab pics) about a few of your fellow bloggers (including moi!) and their gardens. If you'd like to be part of it, Gina has an email at the bottom of each gardener's tour to contact her.

Thanks again for the invite, Gina. The Tours was a fab idea!
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The Nursery Business Is In A Mess

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Surprise? Not really.

Here's an article recently written by Angela Treadwell-Palmer, President of Plants Nouveau.

The Nursery Business Is In A Mess…

My favorite (and true) comment in the entire article was from Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Farms: “Americans garden with mulch.”
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Mr Bean's Lost Rhodie - Found

Coolio!

Exotic Victorian flower lost 50 years ago is unearthed in English country garden.

"A rare 'lost' species of the plant, thought to have died out 50 years ago, is causing a buzz after being unearthed at a country house in Dorset.

Ray Abraham, discovered the 100-year-old Rhododendron beanianum just two months after taking up his role as head gardener at Minterne House. It is thought to be the only one in existence in the country."

See, gardeners really will save the world.
:)

Happy (lost and found) Growing!
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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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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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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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Community Garden Resistance

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I've been following the story of this proposed community garden for a while.

Rivals Dig in as Public Garden Plan Divides.

I still don't understand the resistance, or rather, I don't understand their reasoning.

"On one side of the fence are those who want to turn a corner of the Hardy Gallagher Reserve into a community garden, with 60 plots leased to people to grow vegetables.

On the other are those who fiercely oppose the alienation of public parkland for a select group. Mr Fraser said opponents were not concerned about the idea of a community garden, rather the suggested location and the fact that 1600 square metres would be fenced off. "

But, later in the article they say - "The reserve has already lost an area to parking, a bocce court and a large children's playground."

That means there have already been sections partitioned off to select groups. So, that statement doesn't hold water.

"Chris Fraser says losing part of the park is untenable given that space in inner city areas is so precious."

Doesn't it make that even more of a reason to use that space for something useful - like letting people grow food? Because, yeah, bocce is more important than sustenance.

Mr Fraser also said, "Vegetable gardens don't look the best when they start to go to seed.''

Ummm, what does that have to do with anything and why is he assuming the plot holders would let them go to seed? Or is that just a nice way of saying 'they won't keep up on maintenance and weed the dang things'?

Negotiating has been going on for 20 months. Do they have any idea how much food these people could have grown in those 20 months?!

The whole round and round is simply maddening. And the resistance seems pointless.
I think they need to think up some better reasons to keep saying no.

Happy (plot) Growing!
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Google Goggles Goes Planty Latin

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Although I'll personally never own the gadget to do it, for those of you that will/do, the idea is awesome!

Struggling to find out the Latin names for plant? Google Goggles may have the answer.

"The Nexus One has an application called Google Goggles, which means that when you point its inbuilt camera at an object and take a picture, it will automatically search the web and come up with the relevant pages. Soon it promises to be able to identify animals, cars and – wouldn't you know it? – plants."

That certain plant in the neighborhood that you covet, want, have to have adore but have no idea what it is? Just point and shoot a pic and voila!
Really, how cool will that be?
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Broken Garden Tools Swapped For 20% Off

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Now this sounds like a great idea!

Community scheme swaps broken garden tools for vouchers

Why don't they do something like that in the US?
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