Sustainable Gardening Blog

Speaking of celebrities, architect Frank Gehry is as famous as architects can be.  Long known by his signature work, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, he’s still wowing the critics and public alike.  Witness L.A.’s Disney Concert Hall, completed in 2003.

Washington, sometimes described as the city that hires the world’s best architects to do their worst work, recently lost its chance at a stunning Gehry building - an addition to the Corcoran Gallery of Art.  The funding suddenly went away and we can only imagine the frustration of artists whose works are so difficult to realize.  Gardeners pretty much have it easy on that score.

Now I wasn’t born yesterday and I like to think I’m reasonably cool around celebrities.  And by D.C. standards I totally AM cool - able to not-stare at the likes of Teddy Kennedy, John McCain, even Hillary and Barack!  But damn, on my short visit to family in Los Angeles the first thing we do is go out for brunch and there’s David Schwimmer in front of us in line for a table.  That’s right, Ross from "Friends" ($1 million per episode) has to wait in line with the rest of us.

Subsequent walks around town and meals at other trendy restaurants yielded no sightings, despite my very best rubber-necking.  But when a family connection landed us in the second row of the "Tonight Show," close enough to garner a handshake with Jay Leno himself, my ear-to-ear grinning was a dead giveaway: Out-of-towner right here!  Honestly, he was 6 feet in front of us giving his monoloque, looking just inches over our heads at the camera.  More silly grinning.  And I’m not even a particular fan of his - well, until now* - or of his guest, Bill Maher.  But to observe the whole production up-close, especially the during-commercial goings-on, was just fascinating.  My only complaint - and you bloggers out there will identify with this - photos weren’t allowed, except for the lucky, ballsy few who asked to have Polaroids taken with Jay himself.  Sorry!

Coming up next - outasight architecture, and even some garden photos.  (Yes, I’ve read online complaints lately about gardenbloggers going off-topic but it’s winter, for chrissake - cut us some slack!)

*No, he didn’t win me over with just the handshake.  It was seeing his preshow outfit (every night) of jeans and a workshirt, and hearing from people who work with him that he’s a good guy.

I met the coolest woman recently - smart, honest, warm and real.  All that on first impression.  When she casually mentioned her job editing a local magazine I naturally (and innocently) asked "Which one?" and then had to suppress my squeals when she said "Washington Home and Garden".  Well then, need a garden writer?

Readers, long story short, I have an assignment for their August issue!  Wish I could tell you the subject but in the long-lead-time world of magazines and books, everything is kept under wraps (I’m learning).  But it’s safe to say it will be outside of the world of plant swaps, folksy garden clubs and park clean-ups that are my usual haunts.  Oh, yeah.  Now it’s luxury gardens of Greater Washington, D.C., here I come.

So friends, readers, lend me your ideas.  What would YOU write about for a decidedly upscale suburban readership, besides garden and plant profiles?    And does anybody know of a similar metro-area home&garden magazine that does a particularly good job?

With snow on the ground, I’ve got the time to let my fingers do the walking (on the keyboard), and learn a thing or two.  And my friend Pam, a gardening newbie and recent convert to the cult of compost, has got me thinking about all things compost, mulch, and leaf mold.  If you’re unfamiliar with the cult of compost, its appeal can be powerful and sudden, so consider yourself warned.  When I was in its thrall I remember thinking about it while lying in bed.  My then-husband didn’t find this at all endearing, by the way.

Anyway, confusion abounds on this subject, despite my years of earnestly explaining the distinctions between these terms.  Mulch can be anything (even recycled rubber tires) that covers the earth but compost - ah, that’s what’s left after organic mulches break down.  I understand the difference and have always thought of compost as soil-like, therefore not a good cover for soil (not a good mulch) because it’s a growing medium and weeds can sprout in it just fine, thank you.  It’ll also erode away in the rain, right?  And it looks like dirt, and some of us don’t like that look.

Now Pam here has researched this subject far beyond my own cursory searches and tells me it’s the decomposition itself that makes mulch so valuable.  It’s the process that’s so damn good for our soil, so it’s best to use organic mulches that break down within a year or less, to maximize the benefits of decomposition.  Her research finally led her to the one person who really nailed it for her - Jeff the Yardener over at GardenerYardener.  Here’s more mulching wisdom from Jeff’s blog:

Lesson learned - making good soil is really not difficult. Lay out
three to four inches of a fine textured organic material and even the
heaviest clay will be transformed in a few years into black loam. By
fine textured we mean chopped leaves, shredded bark, or a one inch mix
of Canadian sphagnum peat and compost. Bark chunks do not do the job.

My own mulch research, such as it was, led to a source that was new to me.  Over at Garden Voices you can search "mulch" and read what the likes of us gardenbloggers have said on the subject, yours truly included.  Man, I hope nobody assumes we know what we’re talking about because, as I’ve proven over my 18 months of blogging, we often don’t.  Clicking on "mulch" in the weird little word illustration in the right sidebar leads to similar results.  (I see that everywhere and really don’t get it.  Is it a substitute for categories?)

Before I stop writing ("The Daily Show" rerun airs in 10 minutes), a bit of gardening humor.  I swear to god that Wikipedia’s entry for mulch shows the photo on the right with this caption:
"Shredded wood used as mulch. This type of mulch is often dyed to improve its appearance in the landscape."  Now if you’re thinking of writing to tell me my disdain for mulches in phony colors is snobbery, you can just go mulch yourself.

It happened last night at a D.C. library, in a meeting room that brought to mind everyone’s favorite prison movies, but no matter.  The subject was flowers and Flower Confidential and the event brought together previously on-line-only buddies - visiting author Amy Stewart, local magazine editor Kathy Jentz*, and yours truly. 

Longer report to follow, after checking in on Amy’s appearance this afternoon at the U.S. Botanic Gardens, and lunching with my GardenRant partner in crime.

*Heaps of praise to Kathy for making this event happen.  The turn-out was fabulous, despite what passes for Arctic weather in these parts.

This has been long in coming - the airing of my complaints and a call for improvement - and I hope blog-readers will jump into the fray with me.

BLOGGER
Like everyone, I started out with Blogger, until I decided that having categories was worth $50 a year to me and switched to Typepad.  It’s free and easy, so I continue to use it as the Official Blog of my town’s Wildlife Habitat Project, and it’s perfect for that.  I understand the Beta version has included categories, so they’re listening to their customers.  But links still have to be added using HTML, and photos can’t be placed where the writer wants them in a post.  But at least it’s still free - how do they do that, anyway?  Blogger users, what would you like to see changed?  And how’s that Beta version working out for you?

TYPEPAD
It’s my program of choice and I recommend it to everyone, but its excellence only makes its limitations more frustrating.  But first, the plusses:  It’s easy to use without knowing HTML, even in manipulating the photos.  It’s especially easy to personalize designs using Typepad, as this very blog shows.  There are categories so that readers can browse with purpose.  Typepad’s support team responds quickly and expertly to my emails - thank you!  But there are some needed improvements I’ve written to request and been assured they’re in the works but how long does it take, guys?

• It’s impossible to place items in sidebar Lists in the order you wish.  Such a little thing but oh, so important to us humble users.
• The way that comments are displayed, it’s unclear who posted them.  Really, I’ve had complaints!
• Archives by month are only listed for 10 months - why-o-why?  For us old-timers (ha), we have to then show "Full Archives," which list them all.  Duplicative, non?
• Commenters aren’t offered the option to have subsequent comments to the same post emailed to them.
• There’s no way (that I can find) to find a post using search terms, or jump to posts for a certain month and year.  Kinda annoying for us old-timers, with potentially hundreds of posts, to have to scroll through page after page after page…

The folks at Typepadhacks may be Typepad users’ new best friends.  They’re dedicated to improving Typepad’s performance through the application of fixes (widgets) and may have already addressed some of my complaints (and someday I should really figure out how to apply a widget).  Check ‘em out and Hackers, carry on.

WORDPRESS and MOVABLE TYPE
Okay, I get that these are the advanced, total-flexibility version for sophisticated bloggers, but here’s my complaint.  Their promotions tout improved flexibility without warning us that unless we can write in several codes, they actually offer LESS flexibility.  So when GardenRant was in development we tried both these programs - we’re sophisticated, right?? - only to give them up in frustration.  And switching programs and transferring domains and all that crap is a hassle. (Michele, who was in charge of that unpleasant task, probably still has nightmares about it.  I know I would.)  And I know of other nongeeks who thought they were making blogging easier by trading up to these pro-level programs and are sorry they did, so I know the GardenRanters aren’t alone.

Yes, blogging can sometimes bring frustrations, or what I call e-mysteries (in my attempt to make light of them, thereby defusing them of their POWER).  But hey, they still way more user-friendly than PhotoShop.  I’ll spare you the details.

The latest Fine Gardening Magazine arrived and I jumped on it, as always. The story about paths and pavers grabbed my attention because I’ve been looking for good-looking, low-cost materials to recommend.  First, I finally learned what "Crab Orchard" is - the landscapers on HGTV swear by it - it’s a type of sandstone, cheaper and easier to cut than, say, granite.  And I appreciate the good cost information about choices in paving materials, which range from 25 cents a square foot for gravel to $20 for that super-hard granite.  Composites like concrete and aggregate can be super-cheaper, too - as little as $1/sf.  As a fan of concrete pavers myself, I’ll second the notion that they’re worth a try and homemade, they cost about 50 cents each.  That’s not counting the cost of the really cool things you can put in them - like marbles and tiles and real leaf impressions.  Hey, I think I’ll throw a paver-making party as soon as it’s warm enough to make a mess outdoors.  Wanna come?

Now I don’t want to forget to tell you my gravel+slate story - the OUCH.  See how nice they look together in the cover story above?  Fine, just don’t try walking barefoot on that combo because little rocks find their way on top of the hard, hard slate and DO NOT SINK IN when stepped on, and hurt like hell.  Seriously - don’t try it at home.  I’ve seen this dangerous combination recommended a zillion times and it makes me wonder:  Am I the only barefoot gardener left??  Maybe it’s just us Southerners, but I’ve gotta have that full garden experience of feet-on-grass and feet-on-dirt. Gardeners, am I alone?

Moving on, these are my other faves in the February issue:

• How to prune Japanese maples.  If you’re a pruning geek like me, you’ll love this article, with good illustrations and this quote: "The wise gardener learns to appreciate plants for their own attributes and remembers that a good pruner can only reveal beauty, not create it."  Damn right.

• A new pruning saw I absolutely MUST HAVE because it’s so sharp it cuts "like a hot knife through butter".  The Product Review Department features the Silky Pocketboy 130, reportedly well worth the $26 it costs.  It’s available here.

• A really cool article+photo spread about using straight lines and perfect geometric shapes in  lush, modern ways - very Pacific Northwest and gorgeous.

• Stephanie Cohen has gotta be the cutest garden writer on the planet - it’s that smile, so big it makes her eyes disappear.  And it’s not for nothing that she’s called the High Priestess of Perennials, judging by the quality of her perennial update in this issue of FG.