Sustainable Gardening Blog

Walking down 16th Street toward the White House I spot one balcony that gives me a grin.  A plant-loving, color-loving, exuberant spirit lives here.

Since I’ve outed myself as an Elderblogger, I might as well share a front-page story about this very blog and yours truly that ran in D.C.’s newspaper for the over-50 set last January.  After a bunch of stuff about local bloggers Gabe Mirkin and his wife (he’s a MD/fitness guru), the writer finally gets to the good stuff. (Me, me, me!)

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In the summer of 2005, as I was eagerly perusing the Internet for gardenblogs, an article in the Washington Post about "elderbloggers" led me to the unrivaled Queen of Elderbloggers, Ronni Bennett. That link outlines her long and illustrious career as a radio and television producer (think Barbara Walters, Matt Lauer, and Ronni’s own ex-husband, a "radio gadfly" over on Sirius, and more).  And this actual journalist is covering the increasingly hot topic of What It’s Really Like to Get Older. 

So what does that have to do with me?  Well, this very blog is listed on Ronni’s long blogroll of the over-50 set (and I didn’t exactly squeek by under the rules, but who’s to know?) and I’m one of her loyal readers and commenters.  Okay, maybe not when she gets all exact and well researched on Medicare Part B.  (I’ll read that stuff when I have to and not before.)  And after I was featured in a D.C. story about bloggers of a certain age, Ronni and I have chatted via email about story ideas. 

Which leads me to the moral of this story:  Don’t suggest a story idea to somebody unless you’re prepared to write about it yourself.  See, when I suggested she critique the new eldersex comedy movie "Boynton Beach Club," she told me she wouldn’t being seeing it til it was out on DVD and how would I like to review it myself?

Now who among us can resist the opportunity to be a guest blogger/reviewer/know-it-all?  Not me!  So my buddy Joell and I headed to the multiplex and the result is now up on Ronni’s outstanding site, Time Goes By.  Stop by and say hello, even if you’re too young to remember "Laugh-In."  (We like younger people just fine; it’s the young and stupid we eviscerate on a regular basis.)

Okay, I lied.  Sedums aren’t the only thing blooming in my garden besides the spirea rebloom.  There’s also these hardy begonias, generic purple aster, and Japanese anemone on the way.  And Readers, can you take another shrub?  (Don’t answer that.) The Lespedeza ‘Gibralter’ is all flowered-up and doing its thing.

This Spirea ‘Anthony Waterer’ is TOTALLY rewarding me for removing its dead flowers in late June or so.  Elsewhere in the garden and going unphotographed, the one that escaped my Felcos has zilch in the rebloom department.  You’d think I’d learn.

And because I never tire of shrub photos, here’s a close-up.  Awfully nice in mid-September when there’s nothing but the sedums making a show in my garden.

What other word to use for it, building homes on the fragile barrier island that is Pawleys Island, South Carolina.  And this is low tide.  So how long can they last?  According to a local developer I happen to know, no problem.  They’re bringing in more sand to build it back up.  Yeah, we humans are all-powerful, all right.

But look how gee-orgeous it is at sunrise.  Or my favorite shot, without the silly house, worth clicking to enlarge.  You might pause for a breath or two and imagine what it sounds like.

For more happy vacation photos, check out the shots of Charleston on my other blog.

*Wikipedia on hubris: "In its modern usage, hubris denotes overconfident pride and arrogance; it is often associated with a lack of knowledge, interest in, and exploration of history, combined with a lack of humility."

Anne Raver waxes poetic in the NYTimes about one of my favorite plants but doesn’t show her readers what it looks like, an omission I’m here to correct.  It’s huge, biennial and very weird.

I had an interesting two-year relationship with one that I brought home from a local plant swap.  Its contributor was the former top hort person at the American Hort Society, so I jumped at the chance to try something she thought was interesting. Thinking back, I may have jumped over several other participants in my lust for this plant - or was it knocked over?  I can’t remember.

My favorite gardenblog photos are those of Kasmira, whose theatrical offerings teach us that Gardeners are Creative People and Gardeners are Fun.  So inspired by her to play with the profile photo, this glam shot from me is intended to show that Gardeners are Capable of Cleaning Up .  Or maybe Gardeners have Indoor Lives, Too.

So I’m curious.  What does your photo - or lack thereof - tell us about you?