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Alan Titchmarsh: don't be frightened of your garden

Alan Titchmarsh: don't be frightened of your garden The Telegraph Take a look at an interesting article we found.

Happy birthday! Plant a tree!

Happy birthday! Plant a tree! L.A. Daily News Take a look at an interesting article we found.

Warm up at colorful orchid and garden shows

Warm up at colorful orchid and garden shows Christian Science Monitor Take a look at an interesting article we found.

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The tulips are blooming, bulbs are planted, the lawn is starting to grow and it's beginning to get a little warmer.

The dreaded weeding is ahead.

So is preparing the soil for veggies.

Maybe starting seeds indoors to get a 30 to 60 day jump in a sunny window.

New experimentation for your tomato patch? Might not kill them like last year.

So much on your to do list this time of year.

Just as the ancient Egyptians must have planned ahead in creating gardens with sycamores, date palms, fig, nut and pomegranate trees planted in rows.

Then there is the question:

To mulch or not to mulch?

"The unmulched garden looks to me like some naked thing which for one reason or another would be better off with a few clothes on.”

That piece of advice from Ruth Stout, master gardener, and author who is all about mulch—that layer of material covering the soil— proven to be one of the most effective methods of preventing the growth of annual weeds.

It also keeps the soil cooler in the heat of the summer and prevents erosion.

Then again, it also provides a cover and breeding place for snails and bugs.

And can cause rot.

Certainly a lot to mulch on.

Not all regions of the country do it the same.

Gardening, that is.

Southerners are passionate about their gardens.

With their long, hot, humid summers, mild winters, lots of rain and sunshine, there is the opportunity to get out those rakes, spades and hoes year round.

A plant that needs full summer sun in Michigan may look like it's baked if it gets full summer sun in Florida.

Care must be taken.

The West has a whole new set of rules.

Words like organic and questions like,"Didn't we have spring already," creep into the conversation.

Then there's the English, those hardy perennials, who are really crazy about their gardens.

Some experts think just crazy.

Author, critic, Victoria Glendinning, born in Sheffield, England:

“Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to. But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough. Too much attention, like too much feeding, and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them.”

We can all grow something, even if it’s keeping a ficus from turning into a stick in your living room.

Gardening is sexy.

Just ask Lady Chatterley.

As avid gardener Mirabel Osler put it in "Gentle Plea for Chaos: The Enchantment of Gardening:"

“There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling.”

And maybe find the "Earth laughing" as Ralph Waldo Emerson suggested.

So tell us, how does your garden grow?

J. Peterman

 

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18 Members’ Opinions
March 10, 2010 12:21 AM
8361 10photoviewsFirst-comFirst-photoHr-1 Triston Cambridge said...

 Some of my fondest memories are walking round the "backs" of Cambridge Colleges England in springtime, epitomized by William Wordsworth
 
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

March 10, 2010 12:44 AM
4224 10photoviews10videoviewsCom-100Com-300Com-500First-comFirst-photoFirst-videoHr-1 RoadYacht said...

it only takes two words, to excite the gardner in many men,and those two words are    JOHN DEERE

March 10, 2010 12:52 AM
First-com darkroom dora said...

Well, my garden is soon going to grow a bottle tree. Quite by chance this morning while browsing the internet I came upon bottle trees. I could hardly believe I have lived my long life to this point and never heard of such. I am totally fascinated. I am going to use all blue bottles of which I already have about 10, and you put them on the ends of upright branches of a dead tree, or you can make a tree out of 4 x 4 lumber but I will prefer a natural tree. You can insert a string of solar lights, putting one bulb in each bottle. These bottle trees are peculiar to the southern United States. Just Google bottle trees and you'll see. Oh, it is going to be perfect!

March 10, 2010 3:49 AM
4080 10photoviewsCom-100Com-300Com-500First-comFirst-photoHr-1Hr-5 Bert said...

My  garden  grows  in  spite  of  me,  not  because  of  me.   Spring  1st  bloomers  pop  up  their  colorful  little  heads,  followed  by  tulips.  My  family  farmer  neighbors  offer  John  Deere  to  assist  in  plots  for  growing  things  to  eat,  think  of  corn,  pole   beans,  squash,  pumpkins,  tomatoes,  and  a  variety  of  peppers.   Funny  how  the  tax  return  will  look:   "Exchanged  one  trust  agreement  &  living   will  for  1/2  day  of  John  Deere  tractoring,  including  gas  &  labor."  The  IRS  throws  their  hands  up  in  the  air,  no  jury  on  planet  earth  would  ever  convince  me   of  tax  evasion,  after  aforementioned  declaration.  Did  I  mention  "tilling  nightcrawler  garden,  adding  horse  manure  and  mulched  straw  for  texture,  in  exchange  for  tutoring  daughter  in  remedial  reading?"   No?  Just  asking..... 

March 10, 2010 4:03 AM
4080 10photoviewsCom-100Com-300Com-500First-comFirst-photoHr-1Hr-5 Bert said...

REMEMBER  Tennessee  Williams'  "The  Glass  Menagerie?"    Jonquils  were  the  flower  that  the  girl  couldn't  seem  to  get  enough  of.    In  my  perfect  world,  scripted  out  to  perfection,  nobody  will  have  to  wait  for  their  "gentleman  caller."   everyone  will  find someone  to  get  them through  the  night,  even  if  it's  a  frog,   complete  with  warts.   "Lonely"  needs  to   be  made  an  eradicated  state  of  existence,  everyone  needs  and  deserves  SOMEONE.  In  Japan,  they  make  a  torso  of  cloth  stuffed  with  padding,  wiich  has  an  arm,  so  the  single  person  can  sleep  next   to  their  own  "soul  mate,"  his  or  her   arm   extended  around  them,  protecting  them  from  demons  in  the  night,  fortifying  them  from  existential  demons,  which  would  irrationally  argue  that  life  is  meaningless.....

March 10, 2010 4:59 AM
1177 Com-100Com-300Com-500First-comHr-1Hr-10Hr-5 JALOPKIN said...

My favorite Garden Impliment is Fernando Linares ... He keeps everything looking like a man with a fresh haircut, and clean ... The stuff that grows ... edible, medicinal, or decorative ... all prospers, and the lone Bocce Court forever looks brand new ....... He is paid only a meager sum, but he has other Patrons that he cares for also ... and he eats here almost every nite of the week, so he does well ... He jumped at the opportunity to make this most recent move with us, and got himself three hundred miles closer to his Native Mexico ... and he transplanted all the special projects and others of his children from the beds, boxes and cauldrons ... as gently as a Stork carrying a Baby ... Two weeks after the initial move, Fernando came to me out in the Shop, smiling broadly and mildly excited and said, "Jeffe, we don gah no Roo Rah !!!"  I was fog-brained with concentration trying to replace some barely visible Check-Balls in a rebuilt QuadraJet Carburetor, so I told him not to worry about it and go to Walgreens and see if they don't have some ... "Si Jeffe" he shoots back at me while simultaneously turning and taking two Giant Steps toward the Side Door ... Fernando stopped as his foot landed, turned to me with a look on his face that told me neither one of us understood what just happened, made a slight waving motion with his hand, still down by his side, and turned back toward the door carrying on both sides of an Instant Replay with himself ....... Two days later, sitting down with a lubricative libation for the joints, and punching up Fox News on the Remote ... it dawned on me that what Fernando had said was that, in all the Plants/Trees/Shrubs that he transplanted from Houston down here to the Coastal Bend, none were suffering any Root Rot or damage from being plucked up and transported three hundred miles, in the freezing weather biting all of us at the time  ....... I suddenly felt a little bit like Kay Kyser, and set upon watching the News .......

March 10, 2010 6:24 AM
Com-100Com-300Com-500First-comHr-1Hr-5 Julia Masi said...

I raise butterflies as a hobby.  So I only plant flowers with petals that my butterflies can camouflage within the petals. 

March 10, 2010 6:33 AM
7421 10photoviews10videoviewsFirst-comFirst-photoFirst-reviewFirst-videoHr-1 Tommy Typical said...

My tulips are indeed bursting through the ground and then there will be a host of flowering plants following them to entertain the hummingbirds and the butterflies, but for me the sunflower is the most majestic and symbolic for moi; casually awaiting its turn and bursting forth like a bright sunny day. It is so like a big smiling face saying "every little thing's gonna be alright. 

March 10, 2010 8:38 AM
2452 10photoviewsFirst-comFirst-photoHr-1Hr-5 Kristina said...

It's all about change.

The dormant ground offering up that inimitable spring green just when it seems nothing will look alive again. A new bloom volunteering where nothing would grow last year.

To those who think living in a place where the weather is always "perfect" ... trust me, even relentless sunshine can get boring!

March 10, 2010 8:51 AM
1198 10photoviews10videoviewsCom-100Com-300Com-500First-comFirst-photoFirst-videoHr-1Hr-10Hr-5 Doc Nolan said...

Hmmm.... I never thought -- while hiking through the Texas forests -- of the ground being covered in 'mulch'.  I think of it as 'duff'.  As for keeping the weeds down, don't count on on pine needles and oak leaves to keep the briars from coming up.  Now that I know 'mulch' is good for keeping ANNUAL weeds down, I know why poison ivy seems unaffected... it's the most perennial of perennials I can think of 'on the fly'.... Yes, mulch "provides a cover and breeding place for snails and bugs. And can cause rot."  Now I lay me down to sleep... with spiders and ants and rolly-pollies and chiggers and ... well you get the idea.  (Oh, and let's not forget the ticks!)  I hate to think what the forests would look like if all those dead leaves did NOT rot...dang, I'd never find a tent peg long enough to anchor my tarp through hundreds of feet of 'good as new' dead leaves and pine needles.  Sort of like plastic: eternal.  Rotting is good.  It makes stuff turn into dirt.  Dirt is good, too.  It covers up the rock.  Asteroids don't have dirt (or oak trees or pine trees).  Not good places to go camping....

March 10, 2010 9:04 AM
Com-100Com-300Com-500First-comHr-1 bebe said...

I am so ashamed to say that I love winter--- I like the quiet, the isolation, the sense that everyone is hibernating.
 
That being said I must embrace spring because it's not going to stop.......

March 10, 2010 9:32 AM
Com-100Com-300Com-500First-comHr-1 bebe said...

DORA-- We live down south & two of our friends have bottle trees- they are beautiful. Good luck!
 
JULIA-- get out of here!!! Butterflies??? That is so cool......

March 10, 2010 10:04 AM
186 10photoviews10videoviewsCom-100Com-300Com-500First-comFirst-photoFirst-videoHr-1Hr-5 Jonathan Isles said...

Gardens... BAH. We waited until JUNE of last year before we planted our garden up in our mountain home. The little green shoots were coming up and we were so full of hope. And then it hailed on us in waves or four hours. I could watch each new massive wall of falling ice as it crested the valley opposite our house, marching toward the garden with the implacable patience of a chopping block.

That was the last straw, and now we are making preparations to move onto our boat, the Valhalla. I can see her mast out the window right now, beckoning. She says "Come inside my salon, heft your three pound hammer and cold chisel again, and remove the paneling around the forward windows... Come, thou hale and muscle-sore lad."

I hammered old epoxy and plywood out of the Valhalla for three hours yesterday. I don't think I've got three hours more left in my hands, arms, and shoulders today.

BUT IT BEATS GARDENING.

March 10, 2010 10:11 AM
1558 10photoviewsCom-100Com-300Com-500First-comFirst-photoHr-1Hr-10Hr-5 Kindlee said...

"In vacant or in pensive mood..." I love "The Daffodils" by Wordsworth!
Each season brings to me both a love for that season and a desire for the next one. I appreciate and anticipate changes, in nature and in our lives, as each one has a beauty and a promise all its own.  
It was finally warm enough yesterday to venture outside, for an early spring clean-up and survey of the yard.
Poking around amongst the winter grays and browns, what a cheery sight met my eyes! My daffodils are suddenly 6 inches high! The purple crocuses are in bloom at my feet! The irises are beginning to send their green swords to the sky! It's time to put in the sugar snap peas, tout suite!
While weeding and slug hunting and working at various other gardening chores, I'm always reminded of Kipling's "The Glory of the Garden." Here's just a part...
 
"Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.
For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You will find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all....
 
Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:--"Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade,
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives
 
There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick,
There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick.
But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done,
For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one."

March 10, 2010 10:31 AM
First-com BongoBern said...

My great-aunt had a huge rose garden and vegetable garden separated by a small brook (yes it was bubbling) crossed by a small arched footbridge. I was only 2 years old but I remember the smell of those roses as if I had just left. I've never enjoyed gardening, but I enjoy other people's gardens. Keep up the good work you tillers of the soil!

March 10, 2010 10:54 AM
186 10photoviews10videoviewsCom-100Com-300Com-500First-comFirst-photoFirst-videoHr-1Hr-5 Jonathan Isles said...

Update: and my Navigator's Ruler is, indeed, as right as rain. A pity, really, since the ruler's on sale and I could dollar-cost-average my way into two or three of them and feel pretty smug. Sigh...

March 10, 2010 10:55 AM
186 10photoviews10videoviewsCom-100Com-300Com-500First-comFirst-photoFirst-videoHr-1Hr-5 Jonathan Isles said...

That was a non sequitur, wasn't it... Sorry, I posted a relevant photo last night.

March 10, 2010 11:10 AM
8361 10photoviewsFirst-comFirst-photoHr-1 Triston Cambridge said...

 Spring fever in Texas is driving the highway when the large SUV in front of you slams on it's brakes, out pours the excited Mom and endless steps of children, the Mom grabs the smallest child and places it in the middle of a patch of Bluebonnets, then proceeds to take endless photographs, oblivious to all around.

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