CLIMATOLOGIST ANDRE JORDAN (a.k.a. the Mad Garden Doodler of South Dakota) has proclaimed: It’s coming to get us! In his return to regular doodling activity after a holiday spent ramping up his booming junk business, he recaps the chaos I know I’m feeling over here, where “winter” apparently can mean just about anything (or nothing). How are you all faring?
doodle by andre: it’s coming to get us
can scotts really be a partner to the environment?
ITRY TO KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT about specific companies and their products, except to recommend ones that I find useful or exemplary. Nothing good to say? I usually stay silent. But not today. Reading news of Scotts Miracle-Gro’s new partnership with the National Wildlife Federation—talk about strange, or shall we say deadly, bedfellows?—has gotten the better side of my good manners. How the partners in this greenwashing of an environmental villain plan to spin the reality that the manufacture and use of toxic chemicals can in any way be seen as a boon to wildlife, I do not know. [Read more...]
what zone are you? a new usda hardiness map
HALF THE NATION’S 80 million gardeners will find themselves officially declared a half-zone warmer today, when the United States Department of Agriculture launches the first update since 1990 to its Plant Hardiness Zone Map. No, the new map is not technically a confirmation of a trend toward global warming, the agency says—a different set of data is used in it than in those longer-range calculations—but it is a more accurate picture of growing conditions across America, particularly in tricky areas such as mountainous ones that may have been rated too cold or two warm in previous versions. We have ever-more sophisticated computers to thank for enabling scientists to capture the more accurate take on things. [Read more...]
beet of my heart: 3 root grex from alan kapuler
IGOT SHUT OUT LAST YEAR after I read about the beet called Three Root Grex in the Fedco Seed catalog and added the item to my list too late—sold out! This year I made sure to order fast, but in the meantime I’ve dreamed of the beet—or shall I say beets, since it’s a group of three colors from the same parents—craving it more because of the delay in satisfaction. Turns out the wait paid off, because along the way I got a lesson in botany; a re-introduction to the wild wonderfulness that is Dr. Alan M. Kapuler, who bred it; an unexpected source for more tempting seed-catalog listings than I have ever seen compiled in one place; and finally—yes!—I got my seed. Meet the new beet (above), and other Beta vulgaris I have loved. [Read more...]
seed-shopping tactics (plus a podcast)
I‘M WORKING ON RESTRAINT over here, trying not to order every single thing I scribbled on catalog covers and Post-it’s I stuck all over them the last two weeks as I browsed hungrily on the first pass. It’s a good time to review my seed-catalog shopping “rules” (not too strict, just practical, hopefully–about how to decide what to give your precious vegetable-garden space to this year), perhaps while you stream this week’s podcast on the subject, or get it from iTunes? (Doodle by Andre Jordan, who comes back from an extended junking trip this week to doodle anew!)
margaret roach’s 2012 events calendar
THE 2012 EVENTS CALENDAR features more open garden days than ever (May, June and August); more workshops than before (including writing workshops with my sister, Marion!); lectures I’m co-organizing that feature garden-writing stars like Page Dickey and Ken Druse, and talks I’m giving as far afield as Maryland, Vermont and more. Hope to see you here, there and everywhere. The scoop: [Read more...]
a new take on full-moon gardening
I WAITED TO SHOW YOU the art of French photographer Laurent Laveder until the full moon this morning, which seemed the right timing to admire the work of a man who likes to make magic with it. Laveder has been doing astrophotography since the last appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1986, including playful images like the one above. A distinct take on gardening by the phases of the moon, no? (Image copyright Laurent Laveder; more can be seen at PixHeaven, where you can purchase photos, or on his website, where I particularly love the section called Nuit, or Night.)











