Sustainable Gardening Blog

I’ve watched and loved this show since its debut over 20 years ago, so when a message appeared in my In Box with the all-caps subject "CBS SUNDAY MORNING CALLING" I was psyched. Would my client and I like to appear with Rita Braver in a segment about personal coaching?  You bet your Felcos we would!

And lucky me, the taping would be done at my client’s garden so SHE’D have to make her garden perfect and clean the house.  Good deal! Except that after we’d finished up in her garden Rita says "Hey, let’s all go shoot Susan’s garden!"  Imagine if you will having your garden on national TV on the spur of the moment, having Rita and her crew descend on your home with no warning.  "But my house is dirty," I lamely protested, because Martha Stewart I’m SO NOT. 

But for all my kvetching, here’s the result - Rita sitting on MY FRONT PORCH giving the show’s opening come-on: "Coming up on CBS Sunday Morning, personal coaching is blooming."  I loved it! And the fact that before Rita could sit on my porch the crew had to remove my discarded toilet (charming!) only added a soupcon of cringe to this happy scene.  (Because she’s a pro and SO NICE, she told me her own discarded-toilet-in-public-view story and I felt much better.)  I’m just glad it wasn’t until later that day that I read in her bio about the many hugely famous people she’s interviewed during her illustrious career, or my cringe level could have been crippling.

Many thanks to Kay Meek, who’s been so generous with her garden and her time.  And thanks to the Sunday Morning team for a wonderful experience and for making me look not-terrible in the actual broadcast.  (Kay and I particularly enjoyed being miked by the charming storyteller kneeling in the photo, but enough said about that.) My only regret?  The story aired sooner than we expected and nobody saw it - well, not the hoards of family, friends and readers I’d planned on alerting.  I’m hoping their lawyers will consent to at least a snippet appearing on this humble blog.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE
Good news - a commenter on GardenRant gave us the video - thanks!  It’s
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3108384n

Group photo by CatAnders Photography.

No matter that the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens are waaay off the beaten path in an unfamiliar part of D.C. and it’s easy to get lost on the ugly, fast-paced freeway that takes you there.  But this little oasis, maintained by the National Park Service, was having their very festive Annual Waterlily Festival and the weather was perfect.  For once the day of the festival was not hot and not even humid.  That never happens, so I had to go.

Notice in the bottom right the bad boy of wetlands - purple loosestrife?  Shocked to see it, I asked and was told that the biggest part of park clean-up is the removal of trash - lots of it - and these stray invasives get yanked every year during the volunteer event.  Well, I’m thinking that the job of removing trash from this large body of water could be a pretty yucky gig.  Yucky but rewarding, I’m sure.  Seriously.

That’s Craig Newmark speaking and he ought to know because he’s the brains and the soul behind his amazing lists.  And hearing him say that to Charlie Rose last week evoked some of my fondest memories from the good old days (the late ’60s and ’70s, if you have to ask). He said he’s often asked when he’s going to start making the really big bucks and his response is always: "Once you’re living well and maybe providing for your future, what’s the point in more money?"  So he’ll never go public and submit this culture-changing community service to the demands of Wall Street.  And the guiding principle in the creation and management of Craigslists is to treat people how he’d want to be treated himself.  I’m in love with this man.

And here’s what was all news to me - he’s really political, in the best nonpartisan way.  (By that I mean I didn’t hear him bashing Bush or other Republicans, easy targets though they are.)  No, bashing doesn’t do it for him.  He says the Craigslist communities have taught him that people are basically good and trustworthy and moderate, so he’s working with a group called OneVoice to empower the moderates in Palestine and Isreal.  After all, only 1 or 2 percent of the public are fanatics; they just make a lot more noise than anyone else.  Or in the words of Jon Stewart, we hear more from extremists because moderates have stuff to do.

Other projects he actively supports, presumably with money as well as by promoting them publically, are:

• The Sunlight Foundation, which was formed to "use the revolutionary power of the Internet and new information technology to enable citizens to learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing…Sunlight’s work is committed to helping citizens, journalists and bloggers be their own best watchdogs, both by improving access to existing information and digitizing new information, and by creating new tools and websites to enable all of us to pool our intelligence in new, and yet to be imagined, ways."  Like the popular new slogan says, "Blogs are little First Amendment machines."

• "New Assignment is a non-profit site that tries to spark innovation in journalism by showing that open collaboration over the Internet among reporters, editors and large groups of users can produce high-quality work that serves the public interest, holds up under scrutiny, and builds trust.  A second aim is to figure out how to fund this work through a combination of online donations, micro-payments, traditional fundraising, syndication rights, sponsorships, advertising and any other method that does not compromise the site’s independence or reputation."

He cites other examples of the new, more pro-active media: Meet-up, Media Bistro, Daylife.  They’re part of what he calls the "Sohoblogplex."  It all sounds terribly interesting and I’ll be surfing their innards as soon as I get the chance.

Now here’s the really sticky wicket about all this.  Craigslists themselves are replacing local newspapers as the go-to publisher of classified ads and are clearly hurting these already-beleaguered institutions.  Asked about this, he doesn’t deny the charge but asserts that the near-monopolization (my word) of the media is a bigger problem, coupled with the influence of Wall Street on these now-public companies.  Okay, that’s true but it doesn’t tell us how he feels about hurting newspapers.  I wonder if the answer is that the Sunlight Foundation and New Assignment show his vision for 21st Century journalism, as defined by its essential duties of oversight and public enlightenment.

It’s all pretty revolutionary, again in the best sense.  This career programmer for IBM and a Wall Street firm just wanted to create a community service, like any of us would start a Yahoo group for our neighborhood or for local gardeners. But he had the vision and skills to create something new that’s sweeping the world and helping millions get their needs met.  Call it the Revenge of the Do-Good Nerd.

USED CRAIGSLISTS?
I’m curious about how readers have used this amazing service, so please tell me your stories.  I’ll start:

• It’s how I found the terrific Kansas City design firm that created the GardenRant logo and header.  House of Tears Design responded to a notice I posted on the Seattle List, as did about 20 others.  The others were mostly super-commercial firms in India but at least one other outstanding candidate responded - a design group in Costa Rica.
• Just recently I went List-posting to find help with my new website.  The pitch:  "Barter Garden Coaching for Website Coaching."  The most promising respondent lives 5 minutes away (in this metro area of 3 million people) and was SO on the ball I ended up hiring him for 10 or 15 hours of his time to help me - big-time.  Well, barter was already just about my favorite thing in the whole world, but this experience clenched it.

Update: this terrific story about gardening on the via using Craigslists, via Pam Penick in Austin.

Have I complained mentioned yet that we have deer in our wooded valley this year?  I’m feeling pretty calm about it, assuming as I do that they won’t stick around longer than a week or so - because that’s been their pattern the few times they’ve appeared and because I can’t get my brain around the notion of gardening with deer that don’t go away.  I’ve seen the chronic frustration of the deer-plagued gardener.  I’ve sensed the violence swelling up in the gentlest of animal-huggers.

So let’s just say I feel your pain, deer-plagued gardeners, and I’m having sad feelings about these beauties because I won’t see them this year.  They were scarfed up before they’d really unfolded into their glory.  In the photo above, how about this combo of ‘Frances Williams’ with Celandine poppies and the white blooms of an azalea?

On the right is another winner that’s long gone this year, the Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’, pictured with the blooming Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginiana ‘Pierre").  Sigh.

Now that I GET what the GardenBlogger Bloom Day is all about (finally), I’m enjoying photographing my garden monthly, and showing it off a bit.  But because I love seeing plants in their setting, I’ve taken mostly group shots and longer views.

The front garden has lots of color - purple coneflowers, Russian sage, and blue echinops, in addition to the hot-hot annuals in the pots (Wave petunias and sweet potato vine).

The curbside garden (called the "hell strip" by some) is looking happy with the commonest perennial there is, the generic garden phlox.  The sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ here is enjoying the one spot in the garden not reachable by deer (oh yeah, we have them this year).

And here’s my sunniest border in the backyard, again with lots of purple coneflower in bloom. On the left is the fabulous spirea ‘Ogon,’ with chartreuse willow-like foliage. Several large hydrangeas still look good a full month after flowering.  In fact, they look good til the dead of winter, bless their hearts.

Yes, but a quickie. Here’s a fascinating story about kitchen garden coaches in the Seattle area, via Ed Bruske on DC Urban Gardener News.  Great idea.  Now I wonder if they’d just stick around to coach me in cooking.

And thanks to all the coaches who’ve contacted me about being included in my Worldwide Directory of Garden Coaches.  The list continues to grow.

Stuart Robinson, the outstanding Australian gardenblogger, has named "14 Garden Bloggers to Watch," based on their entrepreneurship and innovations.  "These are the true movers in our category and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next,"  he says.

Well, I like to keep up with what on-line gardenwriters are up to, too, and I do it by reading Stuart’s Gardening Tips ‘n’ Ideas coz I know he’s keeping up.  So thanks, Stuart, for drawing attention to some cool stuff that some cool people are up to.  Here’s what I learned from the list:

• Now I finally know where those "Green Thumb Sunday" buttons all over the blogosphere came from.  I still don’t know what it is, though, and I especially don’t understand the pay-per-post feature that Stuart complains of.  I read the link; I still don’t get it.  Use third-grade language, please.
• I’ll pass Katrina’s Little Gardeners on to my friends who teach gardening to kids, and check out Mr. Brown Thumb for myself - they’re both new to me.
• Toronto’s Beth Lawrence has a great-looking site and she does podcasts.  Hmm, maybe I can interest her in doing a little gardening video.
• To Marc at Veggie Garden Info and Kenny at Veggie Gardening Tips I have one question:  Where the hell are you?  This has to be my pet peeve about blogs, especially gardening blogs.  It matters where you are.  Why hide such an important bit of information?
• Here’s another puzzler:  How can Doug Welch have low traffic and still have 1,500 subscribers to his feed?  Don’t they count as traffic?  Okay, I’m ignorant on this point, so enlighten me.
• I’m already a fan of Angela, Hanna, Carol, Kathy and Colleen and echo their inclusion on this list.
• And I won’t pretend I wasn’t tickled to be listed myself and all I have to say is Stuart, you’re number one with me, too.  How can I forget your scooping me on the big GardenRant buy-out?  (The cleverest April Fool joke I’ve seen in decades.)

THE AUSSIE’S GOT ME MUSING

• Man, bloggers are SO on top of trends.  While publishers are begging their writers to start blogs and create platforms for themselves, bloggers are THERE, especially the bunch highlighted in this list.  They’ve got platform to spare, and I’m taking notes.

• Stuart’s list is just the latest example of the amazing generosity shown by gardenbloggers to their peers.  Print garden writers tell me it’s the same with them, so maybe it’s something about gardening itself.  And if someday a researcher proves that playing with plants and dirt makes people nicer, I won’t be surprised at all.

$$$, ANYONE?
Just mentioning Stuart’s hilarious reference to a $1.3 million buy-out of GardenRant reminds me of a good idea I once had - to turn garden writing and coaching into a second career, however modest.  And in the year since my employer went out of business and I wrote that piece, nothing has turned out the way I thought it would, but opportunities keep popping up and I keep having fun.  Only thing is, maybe I’m having too much fun.

So for the record, this blogger is for hire as a writer or editor in any medium.  And as much as I’m enjoying the little media whirlwind around me this summer, maybe it’s time I take a page from Jerry Maguire’s football-playing client and start asking people to "Show me the money."

Here’s my call to experienced gardeners everywhere to hang out their shingle and get listed as gardening coaches.  I mention it here so it’ll be included in my "Coaching" category for researchers of the garden coaching phenomenon (oh, yeah, we’re thinking big).

And here’s a coaching story:  "The Making of a Gardener."

It’s been just over a year since I joined with Amy Stewart and Michele Owens to launch GardenRant, a venture I’ve called the most fun I’ve ever had with my clothes on.  Elizabeth Licata joined us in January and it’s  definitely been a case of the more the merrier.  We try to cover the larger issues involved in gardening, like global warming and pesticide use, plus the gardening media and anything fun that remotely relates to the topic.  And I do mean remotely, though in our own way we do stay on topic.

So how does a team blog relate to the individual blogs of the team members?  Good question, one we’re all wondering about.  What to post where, when to cross-post - oy, the questions!

So here’s how it’s shaken out.  The posts with the broadest appeal I’ve published on the Rant, all basically on topic, and here at Takoma Gardener I’ve commented on my favorite plants from time to time, reported on my gardening projects, and gone off-topic at will, especially during the dead of winter.  So, I end up putting my best stuff on the Rant and poor ‘ole Takoma Gardener gets whatever pops into my mind once or twice a week.  (Bad blogger!!)  And how are my friends and family supposed to follow my writing when so much of it is mixed in with three other Ranters and lots of guests?  Coz you know how it is with non-blog-readers - ya gotta make it easy for them or it just won’t happen.

Finally, my point.  I’ve created a new feature in the right sidebar - "My GardenRant Articles." There you’ll find links and brief descriptions of almost all of my articles on the Rant, plus links to articles by guest writers I’ve solicited and sometimes edited.  Sometimes heavily edited, between you and me, though thankfully sometimes not at all.

Anyhoo, for my personal support team, there it is - no more searching!  And for editors looking for an urban or ecogardening columnist or editor, take a look.

Now you’d think that having a personal blog and working on a team blog would be enough, but you’d be thinking wrong.  A year ago I started a blog for the DC Master Gardeners that’s now morphed into DC Urban Gardener News, and I’m happy to report that it’s now a team blog, too!  Seriously, yaaaay!  Not only does DC Urban Gardener president (and former Washington Post writer) Ed Bruske contribute frequently, but  we even have guests, lots of them, and the blog may be on its way to serving a real community service - the voice of green activism.  And just as importantly, it’s waaay more fun as a team project.

And then there’s Wild Wild Takoma, the "official blog" of Takoma Park’s community wildlife habitat drive, and the news there isn’t so bright - not another soul has contributed to it.  The drive to become certified as wildlife habitat community is a joint project of all sorts of groups, but apparently there’s not a blogger in the bunch.  Well, the blog still earns us points toward certification, and because we’re using the free services of Blogger, what the hell.  And as soon as the National Wildlife Federation awards us community certification - the first in the state, mind you - that blog is history.

That’s it for blogs; now what about my websites? Well, there’s DC Urban Gardeners, The Gardening Coach, and a new gardening information site I’m launching, finally, this month.  No link yet, but soon - maybe next week.  (Do they always take longer than we think they will?)

Photos:  Top, one of the best front-yard gardens in my neighborhood.  Bottom, proof that gardeners love July 4th parades is this gathering of gardening buddies at Takoma’s parade this morning.  (And I must say, a fabulous one, with steel bands, lots of kids, our share of politicians, even political theater.  Gotta love it.)  On the left is Judy Tiger, premier gardening organizer in Washington, D.C.  In the center are Ed Bruske and his daughter Leila, whose idea it was to find a parade to watch.  Smart girl.  On the right is Kathy Jentz, editor/publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine.  Across the street from us was Mike Welsh, Takoma Park’s City Gardener and a Maryland Master Gardener.