With increasing interest in reducing monocultural swaths of turf, summer water consumption, and the drudgery of mowing, many people are eliminating part or all of their lawns. We did this at home some years ago and can attest to the tangible benefit of reduced water bills during our dry summer months. The question I often … Continue reading How to get rid of your lawn
Mulch is always an interesting point of discussion as well as the topic of several past GP posts. But I honestly can’t recall if we’ve covered dyed mulch, and can’t search the site, so here goes. I recently received a request for information from Debbie Dillon, a fine Urban Horticulturist with Virginia Cooperative Extension. She … Continue reading Is Black The New Brown?
One of the gardening topics I’ve researched extensively is the use of landscape mulches. (You can read a literature review I did a few years ago here.) So I was more than a little frustrated to see one of the worst mulching techniques – sheet mulching – extolled in the book Gaia’s Garden (pp. 85-90). … Continue reading Permaculture – more concerns
As with last week, this past week and weekend were largely occupied by my role as a faculty advisor for the MSU Horticulture club. This weekend was our annual Spring Show and Plant Sale. Each year our undergraduates commandeer the Horticulture department’s conservatory, bring in a boatload of plants, pavers, turf and mulch and design … Continue reading Selling dawn redwood
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!