Grab a beer (make sure it's not the good stuff), and put some in a small cup. Sink the cup into the dirt to catch all those slimy slugs that have invaded your roses and tomatoes.
Como Park Zoo Gardens
We’ve been drowning in rain for past month, but the sunshine has poked through the clouds today. Here are some gardening social network websites to help you connect with fellow gardeners. Have fun, and happy growing! Read the rest of this entry »
Starting today, Wednesdays are links day! Every hump day, I’ll share five websites I have bookmarked this week. They might be resources, blogs, catalogs or just plain ol’ inspiration, but these sites will help get your garden growing.
Dakota Garden: This blog offers lots of beautiful garden ideas and inspiration for anyone gardening in a tough, cold climate.
Hometown Seeds: If you have trouble deciding what to grow in your vegetable garden, check out this online seed catalog’s Survival Seed Packs.
Studio G: Landscape designer Rochelle Greayer shares plenty of landscaping ideas, inspiring photos, product reviews, and garden tours on her blog.
The Gardener’s Eden: Garden designer Michaela has a whimsical touch to her writing about horticultural history, products, and recipes.
Freedom Gardens: This online community offers a place for “gardening enthusiasts who are fed up with foreign oil, frequent food miles and high food prices.”
If you want to share some link love, send it to me at: Meagan@thegardeningjournal.com.
Many eager gardeners decide to tackle expansive gardens on their own. While you can save money by not hiring help, you pay for it in extra time spent in the garden. When, eventually, you notice Fido is looking a little pudgy because he hasn’t been walked in a month, you discover your kitchen has become a highly effective science experiment, and you wonder just how many times you can wear the same pair of shorts before they can stand up on their own, it might be a good idea to invest in some time-saving measures for you and your large garden. Here are just a few ideas for saving time in the garden:
Balcony garden design uses the same principles as regular garden design, only on a smaller scale. Patty Brown offers some excellent tips for designing a balcony garden.
The economy has claimed another garden business. Smith & Hawken will close its doors by the end of this year. The business has already shuttered its online operations, and is beginning to liquidate all the goods at its stores. Time to shop!
The folks at notNeutral have seriously cute and perfectly classy garden decor. Originally founded as a one-man design firm, the company applies signature patterns and colors to everything from household goods (barware and dinner plates) to garden decor (plant stakes and candle holders).
notNeutral’s metal filigree-style lanterns splash flickering patterns around for a perfect evening glow. These would be great (in addition to jack-o-lanterns) for a stylish Halloween party.
The garden stakes come in fun shapes (insects and flowers) and colors (magenta and lime). Their snowflake shapes would be perfect to dress up a winter-blah garden.
[photos: notNeutral]
I love it when designers take a simple motif, and turn it into a whole line of fun, cute things. Take the garden decor of J Schatz as an example. They’ve taken the humble egg and turned it into ceramic bird feeders, bird houses and planters. They also offer egg-inspired home decor. The egg style is so sweet and the vibrant colors would be an eye-catching highlight in any garden. These would make a super housewarming gift or wedding present for your favorite gardeners.
[photo by J Schatz]
As we enter the height of summer, a lot of gardeners are preparing for dry, hot weather. What types of plants should you grow to deal with drought? What types of plants do well in a dry place? Check out these articles for some suggestions.
Green gardening: Low on water? These plants don’t mind – This list of plants from The Seattle Times thrives in dry conditions. These drought-tolerant plants are also low maintenance and can look great all season long.
Gardeners go for high and dry planting – High and dry gardens conserve water. These water-wise gardens usually showcase native plants, which offer season-long color and need little maintenance.
Chicago-area gardeners thirst for rain barrels – Demand for rain barrels in many cities has outpaced supply. Gardeners, eager to conserve water and save on their water bills, have snapped them up as quickly as they come in. Makes sense, given how easy they are to install and how much money you can save by using rainwater.
Use ornamental grasses to add special dimension to any garden – During the summer, ornamental grasses can thrive in hot, dry weather. In winter, they offer stand-out structure under the snow.
Water saving garden for summer drought – This brief article offers quick tips to plant a drought-tolerant garden.
10 great garden ideas _ The Chicago Tribune photo gallery isn’t fancy, but it shows a bunch of do-it-yourself garden designs.
Garden is a seedbed for green cosmetics – A hand-tended, German garden provides the raw ingredients for an eco-conscious line of cosmetics touted by Hollywood-types as the bestest make-up evah. Interestingly, the company started focusing on herbal remedies.
Organic garden uses every sustainable trick – This eco-savvy garden shows how sustainable, organic gardening can look fit so seemlessly into conventional landscaped neighborhoods that you would never know it’s “green.”
Back to the garden – Author Michael Pollan suggests we all dig up our yards and garden not just for pleasure, but to sustain us in the “calamity to come.” He believes growing our own food we will make a bigger impact on slowing our destruction of the planet than the smaller things we are already trying.
The incredible, edible front lawn – Through the Edible Estates project, the Rodriguez family received a grant to plant a front-yard garden to feed their entire neighborhood. This is an amazing concept, and I really hope someone will create a foundation to help more people convert their lawns to vegetable gardens.
The New York Times has imaginative photo composites and a detailed article about the future gardens that the city and Friends of The High Line will build on a nearly a mile-and-a-half long, elevated railway in Manhattan. The project is a fascinating mix of old and new, reuse and repurposing. With native plants mingling with hybrids for year-round color and art installations to catch entertain walkers in Chelsea Market, the space looks like a garden designer’s dream.
With more businesses moving overseas leaving aging factories behind, perhaps this is the future of public gardens in urban areas. Unused, but historically significant, commercial structures won’t be destroyed to make way for greenspace; they will be refashioned into gardens that protect both history and the future.
