I love living in Seattle…but I’m getting increasingly impatient with the City’s “Building Healthy Soils” propaganda. For years I’ve questioned their recommendation to perpetually amend landscape soil with organic material to no avail. Let’s see what you all think of their “fact sheet” (which you can read here in its entirety). “The best way to improve … Continue reading Building healthy soils?
I’m spending this week in Palm Desert, CA for a little R&R in the sun. In the morning, with my pot o’ Earl Grey, I read the local paper (The Desert Sun). Last Sunday’s paper provided me with an article about an “intelligent water incubator” (all material in quotes was taken from the article). Pieter Hoff, a … Continue reading Another fine product…
Yesterday I got an interesting email about a new product – a Tomato Automator. Briefly, this square, red plastic disk slips around the stem of a tomato plant to suppress weeds and pests. Most intriguingly, we’re told that the color “triggers a natural plant protein that makes tomatoes mature faster and product more fruit.” Given … Continue reading You say tomato, I say phytochrome
Occasionally one of the GPs will blog about a book that’s particulary good – or not. I was given a copy of Ruth Stout’s No-Work Garden Book a few years ago and frankly hadn’t given much more than a passing glance. But last week I thumbed through it and was immediately struck by the quality … Continue reading The No-Work Garden Book
Spring is coming…and soon herbaceous perennials will poking their leaves up through the mulch: Obviously as leaves first emerge they’ll be vertically oriented – but these ones have remained vertical days after emerging. Eventually they’ll become horizontal. But today’s question is – what’s the advantage in remaining vertical? And what’s this phenomenon called? Answer on … Continue reading Friday puzzle
Twas the blog before Christmas… My last chance to post about Christmas trees for another year. I’m always surprised when I troll around the web or do interviews how many myths about Christmas trees still abound. So in the spirit of the season, a little Christmas tree myth-busting. “Good grief. I’ve killed it.” Using a … Continue reading O Tannenbaum!
A few months ago I posted a caution about using old pressure-treated timbers for vegetable gardens (see my Sept. 23 posting). I now routinely get questions about alternatives to these arsenic-laden materials, especially new treated lumber. What’s in the new wood that makes it rot resistant, and is it dangerous? Rather than arsenic, new pressure-treated lumber has … Continue reading Veggie garden safety
“Dabney! No! Wait!” Just kidding. Dabney Blanton, our lovely and talented horticulturist, knows not to prune the Artemisia in the autumn. I imagine most gardeners have experienced a frost or freeze by now [exceptions: our Southern Hemisphere readers (howdy to Jimbo)…or anyone in the deeeeep south]. The perennials here in Blacksburg have taken a couple … Continue reading To Prune Or Not To Prune, That Is The Question…
I’m in love…with arborist wood chips. These are not your beauty barks or other packaged mulches, but the chipped branches and leaves fresh from the tree crews. It’s a great way to keep this resource out of the landfill – and don’t even get me started about using this great mulch material for a “biofuel!” … Continue reading Wonderful wood chips
This month’s issue of the Oregon Association of Nursery’s Digger magazine includes the second part of a two-part article on urban foresters’ perspectives on nursery stock. It was interesting to note that some urban foresters felt they were in a quandary because their specs require removal of burlap from B&B trees, yet many nurseries will … Continue reading The Flap Over Burlap