I’m giving two talks at the California Flower, Food and Garden Show in Sacramento today and tomorrow: details are linked here. It would be great to meet some of our California readers in person if you plan on being there.
I’ll try to take some photos and share my thoughts about the show on upcoming posts. Maybe I’ll even find my Friday quiz topic lurking there!
A few weeks ago one of our readers, landscape architect Owen Dell, sent me a link to his blog where he takes on rain barrels. It’s a great analysis of the (im)practicalities of rain barrels and it got me to wondering how many of our readers (and my GP colleagues) use these as supplemental sources of irrigation water?
I have two in our back yard that were made from old olive oil containers retrofitted for collecting and dispensing water.… Continue reading this article “Rain barrels”
You certainly had fun with this! Yes, it’s “lucky bamboo,” a name which is completely inappropriate given that it’s not bamboo (but Dracaena sanderiana) and it’s certainly not lucky:
Now “spiral lucky bamboo” is usually dracaena (or as I like to call it “not-bamboo”) that’s been exposed to a unidirectional light source and turned at intervals to create a contorted spiral shape:
These plants, on the other hand, have been cut into straight sections and bound with shiny gold wire in ever increasing lengths so that we have a leaning tower of not-bamboo surrounded by adulating ceramic frogs (good eyes Anne and Jam!). … Continue reading this article “April foolery revisited”
Let’s see if anyone can figure out what this is:
What’s the plant, and what in the world has been done to it?
Answer Monday!
This week I got a complimentary copy of Urban Farm, dedicated to “sustainable city living.” The cover story is Lasagna Giardino – follow this recipe for a lasagna garden that grows perfect plants – Italian or not.
This is not a new idea, but was popularized several years ago as a way of preparing soil for planting. The article relates the steps:
1) Prepare the ground by mowing the lawn
2) Dig up the first 12″ of soil (double digging)
3) Place a layer of “noodles” (paper and cardboard are popular) – the low nutrient material
4) Place a layer of “sauce” (the green material)
5) Repeat as often as you like and “let it cook”
I like the first step of this. … Continue reading this article “Is “lasagna gardening” really worth the effort?”
Great debate on the identity of Friday’s mystery plant! Several of you guessed larch, and this particular one is contorted larch (Larix kaempferi ‘Diane’), a cultivar of Japanese larch:
(As an FYI to a side discussion in the comments, tamarack is the common name for American larch, Larix laricina.)
And the eagle eye award to those of you who saw that YES! WE FINALLY HAVE A SEARCH FUNCTION on the blog! It’s still being tweaked so that the results pages will be a little more sophisticated, but it works.… Continue reading this article “Looks like larch!”
Here’s the mystery plant part for the week:
Now for question number two: there’s something new on the blog this week. Can you find it?
Answers on Monday!
A few days ago I got a question from Cynthia about “potting up.” For those of you for whom this is an unknown phrase (and no, it’s not a euphemism for a certain herbal activity), it refers to the practice of moving plants into ever larger containers. She was wondering if there was any “real science” behind the practice – in other words, why not just start out with a larger container?
Hah! I needed no further encouragement and spent several days collecting and reading decades’ worth of research.… Continue reading this article “Plant containers – does size really matter?”
You were too smart for me this week. Though my husband was convinced that Friday’s photo was not enough to help identify the plant, JRR, Foy, and an unnamed commenter all recognized hellebore:
Always a welcome sight in the spring. And don’t be fooled by those old wives’ tales that hellebores don’t like wood chip mulches. These beauties have been in wood chip mulches all their lives, and not only do they do great, their seedlings do as well.
I finally got a chance to get outside (translation: it stopped raining) and took this photo:
They kind of look like barley grains, but I’m sure you know they’re not! The questions are – what are they and to what plant do they belong?
Answer Monday!