What’s Less Hassle than Starting a Garden Club?

Gardens in Old Greenbelt

The obvious answer is that NOT starting a garden club is less hassle than starting one, but my local gardening friends and I want to do SOMETHING. And we’ll only do it if we can avoid having officers, charging dues, hiring speakers and renting space for events. Done that, thanks!

I made a clean break from garden clubs when I moved to a town with NO garden club, but there’s one in the next town over that has meetings with speakers, dues, officers and holiday parties. I’m happy to drive even farther for a speaker I want to hear, and do it frequently.

But what we don’t have in my town are garden tours, or groups of gardeners working to beautify the town or help neighbors learn to garden. For a time we considered becoming a gardening committee within the bureaucracy of our co-op but that bureaucracy quickly proved to be TOO MUCH for people who just want to help people garden and not have to put up with crap to do it.

So we’re going rogue, baby! And informal, super-informal. No dues, officers or regular meetings. We even brag about that on our web page (still in draft):

The Old Greenbelt Gardening Boosters are an informal collection of gardeners who just want to help other people in Old Greenbelt learn to garden. (No dues, no officers, etc.)

We’re meeting soon to brainstorm these ideas for projects in 2020 – none of which will happen unless someone volunteers to take responsibility for them. (Not MY job to make them happen!)

• Self-guided tours or “garden walks”.


• Free garden consultations for lucky winners of drawings.


• Free pruning demonstrations.


• Plan improvements to common areas owned by the co-op.


• Help newcomers identify the plants in their new yards.


• Provide text and images online that answer common questions our neighbors are asking.


• Advocate for gardening and gardeners in Old Greenbelt.


• Promote fun and educational events of nearby garden clubs and public gardens, maybe arranging carpools to them. (Creating socializing opportunities without putting on events ourselves.)

Thanks to New Media

All this is made possible by the availability of free communication, of course. (Thus,  no dues.) We’ll be using a combination of email, Facebook and the local blog I edit.

Other Ideas?

Readers, if you’ve been part of any local gardening group, official club or otherwise, what projects do you recommend for helping teach and energize local gardeners-to-be?

Photos of Our Work

Our group may not be official but already in 2019 we got to work, unofficially of course.

We organized a Garden Walk in early September that rated these three photos in the local paper!

Above, one of our free garden consultations.

Left, we brainstormed about landscape improvements at our co-op offices. On the right, we showed neighbors how to prune overgrown shrubs in a common area.

What’s Less Hassle than Starting a Garden Club? originally appeared on GardenRant on February 13, 2020.

The post What’s Less Hassle than Starting a Garden Club? appeared first on GardenRant.

What’s Less Hassle than Starting a Garden Club?

Gardens in Old Greenbelt

The obvious answer is that NOT starting a garden club is less hassle than starting one, but my local gardening friends and I want to do SOMETHING. And we’ll only do it if we can avoid having officers, charging dues, hiring speakers and renting space for events. Done that, thanks!

I made a clean break from garden clubs when I moved to a town with NO garden club, but there’s one in the next town over that has meetings with speakers, dues, officers and holiday parties. I’m happy to drive even farther for a speaker I want to hear, and do it frequently.

But what we don’t have in my town are garden tours, or groups of gardeners working to beautify the town or help neighbors learn to garden. For a time we considered becoming a gardening committee within the bureaucracy of our co-op but that bureaucracy quickly proved to be TOO MUCH for people who just want to help people garden and not have to put up with crap to do it.

So we’re going rogue, baby! And informal, super-informal. No dues, officers or regular meetings. We even brag about that on our web page (still in draft):

The Old Greenbelt Gardening Boosters are an informal collection of gardeners who just want to help other people in Old Greenbelt learn to garden. (No dues, no officers, etc.)

We’re meeting soon to brainstorm these ideas for projects in 2020 – none of which will happen unless someone volunteers to take responsibility for them. (Not MY job to make them happen!)

• Self-guided tours or “garden walks”.
• Free garden consultations for lucky winners of drawings.
• Free pruning demonstrations.
• Plan improvements to common areas owned by the co-op.
• Help newcomers identify the plants in their new yards.
• Provide text and images online that answer common questions our neighbors are asking.
• Advocate for gardening and gardeners in Old Greenbelt.
• Promote fun and educational events of nearby garden clubs and public gardens, maybe arranging carpools to them. (Creating socializing opportunities without putting on events ourselves.)

Thanks to New Media

All this is made possible by the availability of free communication, of course. (Thus,  no dues.) We’ll be using a combination of email, Facebook and the local blog I edit.

Other Ideas?

Readers, if you’ve been part of any local gardening group, official club or otherwise, what projects do you recommend for helping teach and energize local gardeners-to-be?

Photos of Our Work

Our group may not be official but already in 2019 we got to work, unofficially of course.

We organized a Garden Walk in early September that rated these three photos in the local paper!

Above, one of our free garden consultations.

Left, we brainstormed about landscape improvements at our co-op offices. On the right, we showed neighbors how to prune overgrown shrubs in a common area.

What’s Less Hassle than Starting a Garden Club? originally appeared on GardenRant on February 13, 2020.

The post What’s Less Hassle than Starting a Garden Club? appeared first on GardenRant.

The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant

Rose Cooper a.k.a. Rose Bush judges the contest.

The I-Must-Have-This-Plant contest, that was begun a week ago, has been a huge success. There was not one clinker among 11 entries.

i asked my one and only Rose Bush to be the unbiased judge. I wanted to plant all of these wonderful real and make-believe plants in my Salvisa garden this year after reading the descriptions.

Linus had me early on. We are Comrades in Spurge, it turns out.  Be proud and say it loud: “Submit to this spurge; purge the urge to exclude this spurge.” Here’s to more Allegheny spurges.

I will not be able to resist Teresa’s Ardisia japonica ‘Chrimen’ that grows into “a delightful ankle-high forest…”  I’m going to find one…

I have no idea how Ann Rausch’s Hydrangea ‘Ruby Red Slippers’ escaped notice until now. Where have I been?  I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the “large, cone-shaped blossoms that arrive white and advance to a dazzling ruby red.”

I had to stop for a minute when Beth wrote about “a charming Hazel.” I went out with Hazel one time, but she wasn’t a nut with “twisty-turn stems.” It has been a few years. Bravo for Corylus ‘Contorta’.

I’m in total agreement with Anne Young on the red buckeye. It is a perfectly wonderful small tree that “checks all the boxes.”

Jenny, of course, I want a “darling deciduous coral berry with a dash of pizzazz.”

Diane, you read my mind. I love the tall and elegant daylily ‘Autumn Minaret.’ The more the merrier.

Jennifer, how dare you write about promiscuous plant sluts on the wholesome family-oriented Garden Rant? (I’m glad you did!) Perilla…Oh, my god.  “Thought it’d be a great filler. Now she’s struggling to find her hand tiller.”

My good friend, Guest Ranter and former Jelitto Perennial Seeds colleague had a good one, too.  I feared a revolt if I showed any favoritism. “Growing in cracks… (a damn petunia) gone wild. A dry rocky slope… (or open meadow) can be trialed. Humilis humble…(submissive?) not a chance. Born in North America….. (not England) not France.” I immediately made a note to order seeds of Ruellia humilis from Jelitto.

The Japanese roof iris is one of my all-time favorite go-to perennials. Eric S. rode a sweet wave with the white blooming Iris tectorum ‘Alba’. “Its wide strappy leaf blades continue to grow with clumps forming arching fountains of celery green in places where deeper green foliage add contrast to make them pop.”

Dee Cee’s entry for hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canescens) was an impassioned plea for a lovely native that is seldom planted—and should be planted more. “Get ready to brighten up the border or that difficult spot with this cheerful yellow fellow!

Rose said it was a tough call to choose between the top two winners, but the contestants above shouldn’t be disappointed. All of the contestants have earned a catfish dinner with cole slaw and spicy fries at the Family Affair, in Salvisa, KY, whenever you’re passing this way. Let me know. Lunch is on my dime.”

Joe Schmitt is our esteemed runner-up. I don’t know anyone else who could have concocted a hybrid between a Penstemon and a Eucalyptus, but we never had a glimpse inside Joe’s tool shed until he cracked the door open this week. Heaven’s knows what else lurks inside there.

The grand winner was Anne’s “purple prose.” (Her grand prize is a copy of Planting in a Post-Wild World.)  Rose and I blushed at Anne’s audacity to unleash the galloping spearmint, but then we like a good mint julep during the Kentucky Derby weekend, so there are exceptions.  “I can’t walk past my spearmint without stroking his copious emerald, spear-headed leaves to inhale his refreshing, rejuvenating fragrance… He propagates wantonly, spreading his roots wherever he goes…I share a piece of him wherever friends are willing to take him into their beds. It’s hard to imagine a garden without him.”

Only on the Garden Rant.

Congratulations everyone.

The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant originally appeared on GardenRant on February 12, 2020.

The post The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant appeared first on GardenRant.

The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant

Rose Cooper a.k.a. Rose Bush judges the contest.

The I-Must-Have-This-Plant contest, that was begun a week ago, has been a huge success. There was not one clinker among 11 entries.

i asked my one and only Rose Bush to be the unbiased judge. I wanted to plant all of these wonderful real and make-believe plants in my Salvisa garden this year after reading the descriptions.

Linus had me early on. We are Comrades in Spurge, it turns out.  Be proud and say it loud: “Submit to this spurge; purge the urge to exclude this spurge.” Here’s to more Allegheny spurges.

I will not be able to resist Teresa’s Ardisia japonica ‘Chrimen’ that grows into “a delightful ankle-high forest…”  I’m going to find one…

I have no idea how Ann Rausch’s Hydrangea ‘Ruby Red Slippers’ escaped notice until now. Where have I been?  I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the “large, cone-shaped blossoms that arrive white and advance to a dazzling ruby red.”

I had to stop for a minute when Beth wrote about “a charming Hazel.” I went out with Hazel one time, but she wasn’t a nut with “twisty-turn stems.” It has been a few years. Bravo for Corylus ‘Contorta’.

I’m in total agreement with Anne Young on the red buckeye. It is a perfectly wonderful small tree that “checks all the boxes.”

Jenny, of course, I want a “darling deciduous coral berry with a dash of pizzazz.”

Diane, you read my mind. I love the tall and elegant daylily ‘Autumn Minaret.’ The more the merrier.

Jennifer, how dare you write about promiscuous plant sluts on the wholesome family-oriented Garden Rant? (I’m glad you did!) Perilla…Oh, my god.  “Thought it’d be a great filler. Now she’s struggling to find her hand tiller.”

My good friend, Guest Ranter and former Jelitto Perennial Seeds colleague had a good one, too.  I feared a revolt if I showed any favoritism. “Growing in cracks… (a damn petunia) gone wild. A dry rocky slope… (or open meadow) can be trialed. Humilis humble…(submissive?) not a chance. Born in North America….. (not England) not France.” I immediately made a note to order seeds of Ruellia humilis from Jelitto.

The Japanese roof iris is one of my all-time favorite go-to perennials. Eric S. rode a sweet wave with the white blooming Iris tectorum ‘Alba’. “Its wide strappy leaf blades continue to grow with clumps forming arching fountains of celery green in places where deeper green foliage add contrast to make them pop.”

Dee Cee’s entry for hoary puccoon (Lithospermum canescens) was an impassioned plea for a lovely native that is seldom planted—and should be planted more. “Get ready to brighten up the border or that difficult spot with this cheerful yellow fellow!

Rose said it was a tough call to choose between the top two winners, but the contestants above shouldn’t be disappointed. All of the contestants have earned a catfish dinner with cole slaw and spicy fries at the Family Affair, in Salvisa, KY, whenever you’re passing this way. Let me know. Lunch is on my dime.”

Joe Schmitt is our esteemed runner-up. I don’t know anyone else who could have concocted a hybrid between a Penstemon and a Eucalyptus, but we never had a glimpse inside Joe’s tool shed until he cracked the door open this week. Heaven’s knows what else lurks inside there.

The grand winner was Anne’s “purple prose.” (Her grand prize is a copy of Planting in a Post-Wild World.)  Rose and I blushed at Anne’s audacity to unleash the galloping spearmint, but then we like a good mint julep during the Kentucky Derby weekend, so there are exceptions.  “I can’t walk past my spearmint without stroking his copious emerald, spear-headed leaves to inhale his refreshing, rejuvenating fragrance… He propagates wantonly, spreading his roots wherever he goes…I share a piece of him wherever friends are willing to take him into their beds. It’s hard to imagine a garden without him.”

Only on the Garden Rant.

Congratulations everyone.

The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant originally appeared on GardenRant on February 12, 2020.

The post The Winners Are Only on the Garden Rant appeared first on GardenRant.

Marketing to gardening ignorance

I always have books around and these are good ones. I’ll be giving these to the beginning gardeners I know, except for Tom’s, which I’ll keep.

Beginning gardeners in the US are the focus of a variety of persuasive techniques. Last April, I posted about how dubious websites and silly memes try to convince people that they’re not just endangering their plants, they might be killing the world. Unfortunately, these often become viral, as people who have grown up depending on digital information spread this stuff without questioning it too much.

Gardeners who aren’t sure about mulching, garden clean-up, and other interventions would be well advised to put their devices down and go talk to a green industry professional. For the past ten years or so, I’ve been trying to attend the yearly education days put on by our industry group, PlantWNY. Other than some master gardeners and a few longtime garden clubbers, this is mainly attended by the professionals and those in training who need CNLP (Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional) and other credits. It’s a very good event; speakers regularly travel in from all over—I have seen Michael Dirr, Tracy DiSabato-Aust, and many others talk at the event. This year, we benefited from the enthusiasm and knowledge of Susan Martin, who gave fun and insightful presentations on design and plant choice.

I wish more local gardeners came to these. If they had, however, some of them might have been taken aback by Martin’s characterization of the new generation of gardeners. She noted that gardeners coming into nurseries and garden centers for the first time these days come in without the inherited or partial knowledge and experience of their baby boomer predecessors, and you can see in their social media posts, where Japanese beetles might be labeled pollinators and fern spores as pests. They just don’t know.

In my view, the remedy for lack of knowledge is simple. Acquire knowledge, through classes, reading, talking to proven experts, whatever it takes. And then acquire experience. In the world of marketing, it’s a little different. There, one can’t assume that knowledge or the desire to acquire it is present. The strategy? Accept and encourage ignorance. First off, forget about using botanical names or maybe even any name—label plants for what they do, like “yellow flowers all summer in partial shade” or “grows to eight feet with white flowers in spring and orange berries in fall.” The idea is to talk people into gardening by implying they won’t need to know anything. In the trade, this is necessary; I am told would-be clients walk in saying they don’t know anything and don’t want to do anything.

But those who intend to maintain a garden without a weekly crew are going to have to learn something. I had to. Something’s going to happen in that garden full of foolproof plants and somebody will have to deal with it—probably by doing as little as possible. The more knowledge and experience, you have the less you have to do. It’s a big benefit! I have seen so many frantic Facebook posts with one brown leaf, leggy flowers, minor insect damage, or many other situations when the answer is “cut it off or ignore it.” Knowing the botanical names of plants can also be key.

Get a clue, beginning gardeners. Don’t let others dumb everything down. They may have taken the word “write” out of the garden writers professional organization, but books can still work, extension websites tend to have correct information, and the smart pros at the nursery can help more by giving real names and real info rather than pointing to the pretty yellow flowers.

Marketing to gardening ignorance originally appeared on GardenRant on February 11, 2020.

The post Marketing to gardening ignorance appeared first on GardenRant.

Marketing to gardening ignorance

I always have books around and these are good ones. I’ll be giving these to the beginning gardeners I know, except for Tom’s, which I’ll keep.

Beginning gardeners in the US are the focus of a variety of persuasive techniques. Last April, I posted about how dubious websites and silly memes try to convince people that they’re not just endangering their plants, they might be killing the world. Unfortunately, these often become viral, as people who have grown up depending on digital information spread this stuff without questioning it too much.

Gardeners who aren’t sure about mulching, garden clean-up, and other interventions would be well advised to put their devices down and go talk to a green industry professional. For the past ten years or so, I’ve been trying to attend the yearly education days put on by our industry group, PlantWNY. Other than some master gardeners and a few longtime garden clubbers, this is mainly attended by the professionals and those in training who need CNLP (Certified Nursery and Landscape Professional) and other credits. It’s a very good event; speakers regularly travel in from all over—I have seen Michael Dirr, Tracy DiSabato-Aust, and many others talk at the event. This year, we benefited from the enthusiasm and knowledge of Susan Martin, who gave fun and insightful presentations on design and plant choice.

I wish more local gardeners came to these. If they had, however, some of them might have been taken aback by Martin’s characterization of the new generation of gardeners. She noted that gardeners coming into nurseries and garden centers for the first time these days come in without the inherited or partial knowledge and experience of their baby boomer predecessors, and you can see in their social media posts, where Japanese beetles might be labeled pollinators and fern spores as pests. They just don’t know.

In my view, the remedy for lack of knowledge is simple. Acquire knowledge, through classes, reading, talking to proven experts, whatever it takes. And then acquire experience. In the world of marketing, it’s a little different. There, one can’t assume that knowledge or the desire to acquire it is present. The strategy? Accept and encourage ignorance. First off, forget about using botanical names or maybe even any name—label plants for what they do, like “yellow flowers all summer in partial shade” or “grows to eight feet with white flowers in spring and orange berries in fall.” The idea is to talk people into gardening by implying they won’t need to know anything. In the trade, this is necessary; I am told would-be clients walk in saying they don’t know anything and don’t want to do anything.

But those who intend to maintain a garden without a weekly crew are going to have to learn something. I had to. Something’s going to happen in that garden full of foolproof plants and somebody will have to deal with it—probably by doing as little as possible. The more knowledge and experience, you have the less you have to do. It’s a big benefit! I have seen so many frantic Facebook posts with one brown leaf, leggy flowers, minor insect damage, or many other situations when the answer is “cut it off or ignore it.” Knowing the botanical names of plants can also be key.

Get a clue, beginning gardeners. Don’t let others dumb everything down. They may have taken the word “write” out of the garden writers professional organization, but books can still work, extension websites tend to have correct information, and the smart pros at the nursery can help more by giving real names and real info rather than pointing to the pretty yellow flowers.

Marketing to gardening ignorance originally appeared on GardenRant on February 11, 2020.

The post Marketing to gardening ignorance appeared first on GardenRant.

On the Persistence of Sheared Shrubs

Azaleas as Mother Nature intended.

I’ve held off ranting about the examples of sheared shrubs that I see in my town, but no more. Hey, I’m just agreeing with the experts. I Googled “shearing shrubs” and found:

Both the Arizona Water Authority and the AZ Plant Lady agree that it’s bad, and Maureen Gilmer in the Seattle Times declares “Sheered Shrubs a Travesty:”

If Mother Nature had intended shrubs to be square, she would have created them that way. Yet humans persist in trying to render a free-growing plant into geometric perfection.

So there’s the obvious aesthetic objection – the plants don’t LOOK as good, at least in the eyes of most plant-lovers. Correct pruning not only looks better but is much less work.

Maureen’s mentor taught her that “The shrub should never look as though it’s been pruned….And if done properly, you rarely have to prune at all,” adding that “he knew from 50 years in the field just how much work results when shrubs are sheared rather than pruned.” Exactly!

From the U. Maryland, there’s this advice about Pruning Hedges and Shrubs:

Many folks like the look of sheared plants but they lose their characteristic shapes and lateral buds along the stems are stimulated to produce even more new growth. It can also reduce flowering.

And they show how to do it correctly.

The late, awesome Cass Turnbull, founder of PlantAmnesty, tackles the subject thoroughly in “Don’t Shear: Why Johnny Can’t Prune.” Starting with the point that shearing is “unhealthy for plants” and “subverts plant’s natural beauty,” she goes on to pose an interesting question – why the landscape industry has persisted in the practice of shearing.

The resulting maintenance costs [from shearing], when compared to those of selectively pruned shrubs, are high. This is the case with all pruning art, including pollarding, pleaching, cloud pruning, and espalier. They all require high maintenance, with specific species chosen purposely to create a formal garden or garden element… .

The problem with shearing most plants is that shearing stimulates watersprout regrowth that is unattractive and needs to be re-sheared frequently to keep the plant looking tidy—sometimes as often as eight times a year. But selectively pruned plants need to be pruned only once every one-to-five years.

She asks,

Why does shearing persist even among the larger, more successful companies?  If it is wrong and it costs more, why does it continue to be the industry standard?  Why, why, why?

And this is even after the very best training in correct pruning. The problem is “there is almost an instinctive affinity for shearing in the unenlightened” – because shearing makes the “everything look tidy and under control.”

So what’s needed is better marketing! “Selective pruning could be sold to new customers as an alternative to traditional shearing, saying that it costs less, is better for plant health, uses no carbon emissions (gasoline), and requires no noisy equipment. Selective pruning can be called natural target pruning, fine pruning, or aesthetic pruning. Brag on the company’s horticulturally knowledgeable staff and their ability to use the natural pruning technique. These are things that many customers are already seeking.” Brilliant!

Here are a few of the shrubs I see sheared in my neighborhood.

Forsythia

Forsythias allowed to look natural

The very knowledgeable Ruth Clausen offers great advice in her “How to treat forsythia and other old-fashioned spring shrubs.” The University of Maine has a nice video of how to do it correctly. And GardenRant’s Elizabeth Licata wrote convincingly that “Forsythias need to be free.”

Azaleas

Don’t do this!

I was surprised when my web search turned up some azalea-pruning advice I wrote years ago.

Nandina

This photo of a sheared Nandina at an apartment building near me demonstrates an additional pruning no-no – making the top of the plant wider than the base (thereby limiting light that reaches the base). I should send them Southern Living’s “Pruning 101: How to Prune Nandina” for a healthier plant.

Some Support for Shearing

In fairness, not everyone online bashes shearing. C.L. Fornari writes about “The Beauty of Sheared Shrubs, focusing on the shrubs that can handle it: boxwood, Japanese holly and yews.

But one Florida landscaper’s “Shrub trimming brings that extra something all properties can enjoy,” including “How to maintain a solid green wall,” would drive Cass Turnbull crazy.

This Old House offers “5 Design Ideas for Sheared Shrubs that, in my experience, grossly underplays the expense and difficulty of using shrubs for screening. They write that “A beautiful wall of greenery is less expensive to construct than a wall of brick or stone.”

Compared to brick or stone, sure. But I’ve wasted untold bucks on shrubs that failed to provide screening and finally resorted to having wooden screens constructed at a fraction of the cost. And unlike high-maintenance hedges, there’s no upkeep if you use stains rather than paints.

On the Persistence of Sheared Shrubs originally appeared on GardenRant on February 7, 2020.

The post On the Persistence of Sheared Shrubs appeared first on GardenRant.

On the Persistence of Sheared Shrubs

Azaleas as Mother Nature intended.

I’ve held off ranting about the examples of sheared shrubs that I see in my town, but no more. Hey, I’m just agreeing with the experts. I Googled “shearing shrubs” and found:

Both the Arizona Water Authority and the AZ Plant Lady agree that it’s bad, and Maureen Gilmer in the Seattle Times declares “Sheered Shrubs a Travesty:”

If Mother Nature had intended shrubs to be square, she would have created them that way. Yet humans persist in trying to render a free-growing plant into geometric perfection.

So there’s the obvious aesthetic objection – the plants don’t LOOK as good, at least in the eyes of most plant-lovers. Correct pruning not only looks better but is much less work.

Maureen’s mentor taught her that “The shrub should never look as though it’s been pruned….And if done properly, you rarely have to prune at all,” adding that “he knew from 50 years in the field just how much work results when shrubs are sheared rather than pruned.” Exactly!

From the U. Maryland, there’s this advice about Pruning Hedges and Shrubs:

Many folks like the look of sheared plants but they lose their characteristic shapes and lateral buds along the stems are stimulated to produce even more new growth. It can also reduce flowering.

And they show how to do it correctly.

The late, awesome Cass Turnbull, founder of PlantAmnesty, tackles the subject thoroughly in “Don’t Shear: Why Johnny Can’t Prune.” Starting with the point that shearing is “unhealthy for plants” and “subverts plant’s natural beauty,” she goes on to pose an interesting question – why the landscape industry has persisted in the practice of shearing.

The resulting maintenance costs [from shearing], when compared to those of selectively pruned shrubs, are high. This is the case with all pruning art, including pollarding, pleaching, cloud pruning, and espalier. They all require high maintenance, with specific species chosen purposely to create a formal garden or garden element… .

The problem with shearing most plants is that shearing stimulates watersprout regrowth that is unattractive and needs to be re-sheared frequently to keep the plant looking tidy—sometimes as often as eight times a year. But selectively pruned plants need to be pruned only once every one-to-five years.

She asks,

Why does shearing persist even among the larger, more successful companies?  If it is wrong and it costs more, why does it continue to be the industry standard?  Why, why, why?

And this is even after the very best training in correct pruning. The problem is “there is almost an instinctive affinity for shearing in the unenlightened” – because shearing makes the “everything look tidy and under control.”

So what’s needed is better marketing! “Selective pruning could be sold to new customers as an alternative to traditional shearing, saying that it costs less, is better for plant health, uses no carbon emissions (gasoline), and requires no noisy equipment. Selective pruning can be called natural target pruning, fine pruning, or aesthetic pruning. Brag on the company’s horticulturally knowledgeable staff and their ability to use the natural pruning technique. These are things that many customers are already seeking.” Brilliant!

Here are a few of the shrubs I see sheared in my neighborhood.

Forsythia

Forsythias allowed to look natural

The very knowledgeable Ruth Clausen offers great advice in her “How to treat forsythia and other old-fashioned spring shrubs.” The University of Maine has a nice video of how to do it correctly. And GardenRant’s Elizabeth Licata wrote convincingly that “Forsythias need to be free.”

Azaleas

Don’t do this!

I was surprised when my web search turned up some azalea-pruning advice I wrote years ago.

Nandina

This photo of a sheared Nandina at an apartment building near me demonstrates an additional pruning no-no – making the top of the plant wider than the base (thereby limiting light that reaches the base). I should send them Southern Living’s “Pruning 101: How to Prune Nandina” for a healthier plant.

Some Support for Shearing

In fairness, not everyone online bashes shearing. C.L. Fornari writes about “The Beauty of Sheared Shrubs, focusing on the shrubs that can handle it: boxwood, Japanese holly and yews.

But one Florida landscaper’s “Shrub trimming brings that extra something all properties can enjoy,” including “How to maintain a solid green wall,” would drive Cass Turnbull crazy.

This Old House offers “5 Design Ideas for Sheared Shrubs that, in my experience, grossly underplays the expense and difficulty of using shrubs for screening. They write that “A beautiful wall of greenery is less expensive to construct than a wall of brick or stone.”

Compared to brick or stone, sure. But I’ve wasted untold bucks on shrubs that failed to provide screening and finally resorted to having wooden screens constructed at a fraction of the cost. And unlike high-maintenance hedges, there’s no upkeep if you use stains rather than paints.

On the Persistence of Sheared Shrubs originally appeared on GardenRant on February 7, 2020.

The post On the Persistence of Sheared Shrubs appeared first on GardenRant.

The Truth, Nothing Butt the Truth? Forget About It.

 

Allegheny spurge (Pachysandra procumbens) on the High Line in New York City last month.

I have a soft spot for forsaken plants. The Allegheny spurge quickly comes to mind. Pachysandra procumbens should, without hesitation, be planted in more shady gardens.

Do not spurn this spurge.

There are hundreds of worthy plants and seeds, hidden in the shadows, of dozens of 2020 garden catalogs. These shy introverts may be lacking only a little sizzle.

Here’s your chance for an award-winning plant description. All you have to do is write a short, I-must-have-this-plant description about your favorite nowhere-near-loved-enough perennial, tree, shrub or edible plant. Leave your description in the reply box below.

I will judge entries and recognize the best two descriptions here on this post, next Wednesday. The winning entrant will have their choice of one of two grand prizes. The first option is a piece of Pachysandra procumbens ‘Angola’ dug from my garden. I’ll ship a small plant in April. The 2^nd option is a copy of Planting in a Post-Wild World, a book full of provocative design ideas and substantive plant suggestions, written by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West. Author and entomologist Doug Tallamy described the book as the “universal how-to guide” and a “masterful accomplishment.”

Here are a few homework tips before you tackle the first Garden Rant Challenge of 2020.

Keep it short.

I wrote nursery and seed catalog copy for over 35 years. Advertising doctrine once suggested that a good photo might be worth a thousand words. I no longer think the word count part of that analogy holds. My impression is that readers these days seldom take time to read 200 words—for anything. Blame it on Digital Distraction Disorder. I should have focused on photography.

Be as cutesy as you want, but be careful.

In the mid-1980s I offered a tulip variety in the Holbrook Farm and Nursery fall catalog called ‘Clara Butt.’ I dreamed that thousands of customers would plant Ms. Butt in gardens across America. I felt confident that my customers would hang onto every word of my description. If they had, they would claim spring dominion by yelling across the garden fence: “Howdy neighbor…Guess what? Clara Butt’s up!”

Clara Butt did not come up and never caught on.

Don’t get hung up on the whole truth.

Planting in a Post-Wild World authors, Rainer and Wild, tell the truth about Pachysandra procumbens. ‘The Allegheny spurge adopts a conservative growth strategy, focusing on slowly spreading under limited light conditions.” This is code for: pokey in the shade.

Mark Twain wasn’t tied to the truth. He once said, “Never let the truth stand in the way of a  good story.”

Plant nurseries and seed companies have to pay their light bills. A few plant details, a little storytelling and a good photograph—when coupled well together—will help keep the lights on.

“Stunning floral show” on Pachysandra procumbens ‘Angola’. Photo credit: Plant Delights Nursery.

Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery knows how to let loose with plant descriptions. You know immediately how passionately Tony feels toward the plants he writes about. The full truth may be withheld sometimes, but that’s OK.

Tony found an Allegheny spurge far from the Alleghenies near the gates of the notorious Angola prison in Louisiana. The cultivar is appropriately named ‘Angola’.  Pachysandra procumbens has a natural range over a wide swath of Eastern North America.

Tony writes, “Most Pachysandra procumbens in the trade are from cooler climates, so when we stumbled across this attractive clone near the gates of Louisiana’s Angola Prison in spring 1999, we thought…well, we thought we’d better get the hell out of there, but not without a piece of this attractive heat-loving clone. After six years, this selection had made a stunning 4′ wide clump in our garden. The new foliage on Pachysandra procumbens ‘Angola’ is heavily patterned pewter against the olive-green base color, making an attractive combination. Starting in early March (NC), the patches are adorned with a stunning floral show of masses of sweetly fragrant 4″ tall stalks of white, bottlebrush-like flowers. This is hands down the earliest and best flowering clone of Pachysandra procumbens we’ve ever seen…great when used as a groundcover in the woodland garden.”

I claim pachysandra kinship through my late mother. She was the undisputed queen of homegrown pachysandra growers. Mom rooted cuttings of the common, evergreen Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis) and stuck them in shady spots every chance she got. Mom would try any plant once, but she wasn’t crazy about the Allegheny spurge. (Admittedly, she never grew ‘Angola’.)

“What about the silver-gray mottled leaves in late winter and early spring?” I asked.

“The leaves are not shiny green like my pachysandra,” she said.

“Do you like the little white blooms?”

She rubbed her chin and said, “I guess they’re okay, if you like flowers that resemble a limp bottle cleaner brush, but they are fragrant. I’ll give you that.”

I had an ace in the hole: “But it’s native, mom!”

She answered, “Yeah, right. So is southern blight.”

Do me a favor. Ignore my mom’s comments.

Don’t let the truth, nothing but the truth, get in the way of your good plant descriptions.

Best of luck!

The Truth, Nothing Butt the Truth?  Forget About It. originally appeared on GardenRant on February 5, 2020.

The post The Truth, Nothing Butt the Truth?  Forget About It. appeared first on GardenRant.

The Truth, Nothing Butt the Truth? Forget About It.

 

Allegheny spurge (Pachysandra procumbens) on the High Line in New York City last month.

I have a soft spot for forsaken plants. The Allegheny spurge quickly comes to mind. Pachysandra procumbens should, without hesitation, be planted in more shady gardens.

Do not spurn this spurge.

There are hundreds of worthy plants and seeds, hidden in the shadows, of dozens of 2020 garden catalogs. These shy introverts may be lacking only a little sizzle.

Here’s your chance for an award-winning plant description. All you have to do is write a short, I-must-have-this-plant description about your favorite nowhere-near-loved-enough perennial, tree, shrub or edible plant. Leave your description in the reply box below.

I will judge entries and recognize the best two descriptions here on this post, next Wednesday. The winning entrant will have their choice of one of two grand prizes. The first option is a piece of Pachysandra procumbens ‘Angola’ dug from my garden. I’ll ship a small plant in April. The 2^nd option is a copy of Planting in a Post-Wild World, a book full of provocative design ideas and substantive plant suggestions, written by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West. Author and entomologist Doug Tallamy described the book as the “universal how-to guide” and a “masterful accomplishment.”

Here are a few homework tips before you tackle the first Garden Rant Challenge of 2020.

Keep it short.

I wrote nursery and seed catalog copy for over 35 years. Advertising doctrine once suggested that a good photo might be worth a thousand words. I no longer think the word count part of that analogy holds. My impression is that readers these days seldom take time to read 200 words—for anything. Blame it on Digital Distraction Disorder. I should have focused on photography.

Be as cutesy as you want, but be careful.

In the mid-1980s I offered a tulip variety in the Holbrook Farm and Nursery fall catalog called ‘Clara Butt.’ I dreamed that thousands of customers would plant Ms. Butt in gardens across America. I felt confident that my customers would hang onto every word of my description. If they had, they would claim spring dominion by yelling across the garden fence: “Howdy neighbor…Guess what? Clara Butt’s up!”

Clara Butt did not come up and never caught on.

Don’t get hung up on the whole truth.

Planting in a Post-Wild World authors, Rainer and Wild, tell the truth about Pachysandra procumbens. ‘The Allegheny spurge adopts a conservative growth strategy, focusing on slowly spreading under limited light conditions.” This is code for: pokey in the shade.

Mark Twain wasn’t tied to the truth. He once said, “Never let the truth stand in the way of a  good story.”

Plant nurseries and seed companies have to pay their light bills. A few plant details, a little storytelling and a good photograph—when coupled well together—will help keep the lights on.

“Stunning floral show” on Pachysandra procumbens ‘Angola’. Photo credit: Plant Delights Nursery.

Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery knows how to let loose with plant descriptions. You know immediately how passionately Tony feels toward the plants he writes about. The full truth may be withheld sometimes, but that’s OK.

Tony found an Allegheny spurge far from the Alleghenies near the gates of the notorious Angola prison in Louisiana. The cultivar is appropriately named ‘Angola’.  Pachysandra procumbens has a natural range over a wide swath of Eastern North America.

Tony writes, “Most Pachysandra procumbens in the trade are from cooler climates, so when we stumbled across this attractive clone near the gates of Louisiana’s Angola Prison in spring 1999, we thought…well, we thought we’d better get the hell out of there, but not without a piece of this attractive heat-loving clone. After six years, this selection had made a stunning 4′ wide clump in our garden. The new foliage on Pachysandra procumbens ‘Angola’ is heavily patterned pewter against the olive-green base color, making an attractive combination. Starting in early March (NC), the patches are adorned with a stunning floral show of masses of sweetly fragrant 4″ tall stalks of white, bottlebrush-like flowers. This is hands down the earliest and best flowering clone of Pachysandra procumbens we’ve ever seen…great when used as a groundcover in the woodland garden.”

I claim pachysandra kinship through my late mother. She was the undisputed queen of homegrown pachysandra growers. Mom rooted cuttings of the common, evergreen Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis) and stuck them in shady spots every chance she got. Mom would try any plant once, but she wasn’t crazy about the Allegheny spurge. (Admittedly, she never grew ‘Angola’.)

“What about the silver-gray mottled leaves in late winter and early spring?” I asked.

“The leaves are not shiny green like my pachysandra,” she said.

“Do you like the little white blooms?”

She rubbed her chin and said, “I guess they’re okay, if you like flowers that resemble a limp bottle cleaner brush, but they are fragrant. I’ll give you that.”

I had an ace in the hole: “But it’s native, mom!”

She answered, “Yeah, right. So is southern blight.”

Do me a favor. Ignore my mom’s comments.

Don’t let the truth, nothing but the truth, get in the way of your good plant descriptions.

Best of luck!

The Truth, Nothing Butt the Truth?  Forget About It. originally appeared on GardenRant on February 5, 2020.

The post The Truth, Nothing Butt the Truth?  Forget About It. appeared first on GardenRant.

Climate Change and Invasive Plants

“Fasten your horticultural seatbelts.”  That was the gist of what Dr. Bethany Bradley told me when I interviewed her for my podcast last month.  Dr. Bradley is an invasion ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  She studies how ecosystems react to human-driven changes, in particular the interaction of invasive species (primarily plants) and climate change.  Her point was that as serious as the impact of invasive plants have been on our natural areas to date, climate change is likely to bring far more profound problems.

That shouldn’t be surprising.  Invasive cheatgrass has already increased the violence and frequency of wildfires in the American West; flourishing during wet seasons, it produces lots of biomass which dries to serve as fuel during droughts.  Japanese stiltgrass could theoretically have a similar sort of effect in the East.

Another too-common woodland invasive, Japanese barberry, still sold in Connecticut nurseries (By Opioła Jerzy (Poland) – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=791935)

Climate change enhances the impact of existing invasive plants by disrupting ecosystems that may already be struggling.   A warming climate can impair the growth of cold-adapted native plants, opening opportunities for further infiltration by the current crop of invasives.  What’s more, according to Dr. Bradley, it may also help to transform exotic plants that have been non-invasive up to this point into more aggressive spreaders.  That’s because a large proportion of the foreign plants introduced into northern gardens come from warmer regions where the species diversity is greater and so the plant hunting is richer.  Such southerners may have been held in check by a cooler climate when introduced into northern regions of North America.  As the climate warms, however, that brake will be released.

Gardeners, who are responsible for introducing a disproportionate share of invasive plants, can, according to Dr. Bradley, play a role in ameliorating this situation.  If we began to cultivate native plant species from our own southern regions, we could assist in what is likely to become a natural process, the migration of the southern native flora northward.  Essentially, we would be spreading the seeds of a healthier ecosystem adaptation.  Our focus on such southern species could also cause local nurseries in the north to stock such plants.  That could lead even ecologically unconcerned gardeners to take them home and unwittingly do their part.

Climate Change and Invasive Plants originally appeared on GardenRant on February 3, 2020.

The post Climate Change and Invasive Plants appeared first on GardenRant.

Climate Change and Invasive Plants

“Fasten your horticultural seatbelts.”  That was the gist of what Dr. Bethany Bradley told me when I interviewed her for my podcast last month.  Dr. Bradley is an invasion ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  She studies how ecosystems react to human-driven changes, in particular the interaction of invasive species (primarily plants) and climate change.  Her point was that as serious as the impact of invasive plants have been on our natural areas to date, climate change is likely to bring far more profound problems.

That shouldn’t be surprising.  Invasive cheatgrass has already increased the violence and frequency of wildfires in the American West; flourishing during wet seasons, it produces lots of biomass which dries to serve as fuel during droughts.  Japanese stiltgrass could theoretically have a similar sort of effect in the East.

Another too-common woodland invasive, Japanese barberry, still sold in Connecticut nurseries (By Opioła Jerzy (Poland) – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=791935)

Climate change enhances the impact of existing invasive plants by disrupting ecosystems that may already be struggling.   A warming climate can impair the growth of cold-adapted native plants, opening opportunities for further infiltration by the current crop of invasives.  What’s more, according to Dr. Bradley, it may also help to transform exotic plants that have been non-invasive up to this point into more aggressive spreaders.  That’s because a large proportion of the foreign plants introduced into northern gardens come from warmer regions where the species diversity is greater and so the plant hunting is richer.  Such southerners may have been held in check by a cooler climate when introduced into northern regions of North America.  As the climate warms, however, that brake will be released.

Gardeners, who are responsible for introducing a disproportionate share of invasive plants, can, according to Dr. Bradley, play a role in ameliorating this situation.  If we began to cultivate native plant species from our own southern regions, we could assist in what is likely to become a natural process, the migration of the southern native flora northward.  Essentially, we would be spreading the seeds of a healthier ecosystem adaptation.  Our focus on such southern species could also cause local nurseries in the north to stock such plants.  That could lead even ecologically unconcerned gardeners to take them home and unwittingly do their part.

Climate Change and Invasive Plants originally appeared on GardenRant on February 3, 2020.

The post Climate Change and Invasive Plants appeared first on GardenRant.

There’s a Thing Called the World’s Largest Gardening Lesson

Time for some international news!

From the Kuwaiti Times we learn about a “gardening lesson” hosted by HGTV (so they’re everywhere now?) at which 286 participants attended and were “taught the essentials of growing their own organic produce.” The lesson also “debunked myths surrounding gardening in Kuwait, helping to inspire residents to get their hands dirty all year round.”

So first, I wonder about those gardening myths, which seem to include one about Kuwaitis not being able to garden all year round.” But what else?

The turn-out for the event and the fact that some waited for over an hour is also cited as showing “the great interest of the local community in gardening and planting.” Okay, cool.

Guinness

The teacher for the event (Alzainah Al-Babtain), who created the PlantNMore website and Instagram account, declared it “an honor to be involved in this historic event.” Which raises the question – was the whole point to break a “record” and get some press for HGTV?  Coz it worked!

And how did they DO that? By inviting an “official adjudicator from Guinness World Records” to attend and “verify the attempt and present a certificate to the organizers.” The official declared that “I can confirm that a new world record has indeed been set today and that Kuwait is Officially Amazing.”

So Guinness isn’t just confirming the breaking of ridiculous records but also gets to name whole countries as “amazing”!

HGTV

From the Kuwaiti Times we also learn that the channel we call HgTV and love to rant about is “the Middle East’s leading home and garden channel,” with such “globally popular home improvement and transformation shows as “Property Brothers,” “House Hunters” and “Flip or Flop.” The same crappy, nongardening shows as here!

There’s a Thing Called the World’s Largest Gardening Lesson originally appeared on GardenRant on January 31, 2020.

The post There’s a Thing Called the World’s Largest Gardening Lesson appeared first on GardenRant.

There’s a Thing Called the World’s Largest Gardening Lesson

Time for some international news!

From the Kuwaiti Times we learn about a “gardening lesson” hosted by HGTV (so they’re everywhere now?) at which 286 participants attended and were “taught the essentials of growing their own organic produce.” The lesson also “debunked myths surrounding gardening in Kuwait, helping to inspire residents to get their hands dirty all year round.”

So first, I wonder about those gardening myths, which seem to include one about Kuwaitis not being able to garden all year round.” But what else?

The turn-out for the event and the fact that some waited for over an hour is also cited as showing “the great interest of the local community in gardening and planting.” Okay, cool.

Guinness

The teacher for the event (Alzainah Al-Babtain), who created the PlantNMore website and Instagram account, declared it “an honor to be involved in this historic event.” Which raises the question – was the whole point to break a “record” and get some press for HGTV?  Coz it worked!

And how did they DO that? By inviting an “official adjudicator from Guinness World Records” to attend and “verify the attempt and present a certificate to the organizers.” The official declared that “I can confirm that a new world record has indeed been set today and that Kuwait is Officially Amazing.”

So Guinness isn’t just confirming the breaking of ridiculous records but also gets to name whole countries as “amazing”!

HGTV

From the Kuwaiti Times we also learn that the channel we call HgTV and love to rant about is “the Middle East’s leading home and garden channel,” with such “globally popular home improvement and transformation shows as “Property Brothers,” “House Hunters” and “Flip or Flop.” The same crappy, nongardening shows as here!

There’s a Thing Called the World’s Largest Gardening Lesson originally appeared on GardenRant on January 31, 2020.

The post There’s a Thing Called the World’s Largest Gardening Lesson appeared first on GardenRant.

Monty, Monty, Monty

Cue the swelling music, and then …

Huge!
Magnificent!
Spectacular!
Astonishing!
Extraaaooordinary!

Count on hearing those superlatives and more over the course of Monty Don’s three-part American Gardens, which aired on the BBC earlier this month and can be seen stateside here and on other sites. A book is on the way.

As Don states in the intro to each hour-long episode, he’s trying to define the American garden, though doubting from the outset that this is possible. The first hour is devoted to the Northeast and (some) Midwest, the second to the South, the third to the West.

A longtime garden presenter (Gardener’s World in the UK) and writer, Don sticks mainly to large public gardens, some well-known private gardens, and a couple community gardens. In my view, this dooms the entire mission. Is it possible for places like Longwood, Chanticleer, Lurie, and Lotusland to represent American gardening practice? While I’d agree that many US gardeners gain education and inspiration from these destination beauty spots, the sites themselves, in their near-perfection and studied showmanship (as Don states repeatedly), say very little about how we garden—those of us who do.

Still, what was Don to do? Take a tour of average gardens in average neighborhoods? He’d likely lose his audience for this show and jeopardize his other gigs. Maybe best for us to sit back and enjoy Don’s journey, which is full of luscious videography of desert gardens, wildflower meadows, tropical jungles, and stately European-inspired formal landscapes. An elementary school garden and a Bronx community garden are nods to ordinary gardening. I do admit that prairie meadows are intrinsic to our recent focus on native plants and that many US gardeners are warming up to the wonderful world of cacti, which are showcased in the immaculate desert gardens. But these spaces do not define what we’re trying to do in our gardens, if such a thing is possible; they never could.

It gets interesting when Don breaks into gentle criticism, calling Longwood “a circus,” and wondering about the long fenceless expanses that characterize suburbia. Mind you, he hardly mentions the L word, choosing instead to speculate that a lack of fences might represent our yearnings for neighborliness and community. Ha. There are also a few words (very few) about water use when discussing the estates and golf courses of Palm Springs. That said, Don’s undoubted knowledge and expertise inform every visit, so it’s possible to learn more about even the most well-known properties.

At the end of the third episode (spoiler), Don decides to go for it: “I came to the conclusion that the American garden was one that was characterized by an attitude: the pioneering, bold spirit of trying new things, and pushing outwards.”

That’s a safe thing to say. I have to wonder what would happen if Don accompanied garden bloggers on a couple of their Flings, which focus mainly on private gardens, many not professionally designed (as almost everything Don saw is). I think he would have come a lot closer to a working definition.

Strangely, Don’s discussion with Adam Gopnik in Central Park rang the truest. No one area dominates or defines it. No rhyme, no reason, just cool stuff.

Monty, Monty, Monty originally appeared on GardenRant on January 29, 2020.

The post Monty, Monty, Monty appeared first on GardenRant.

Monty, Monty, Monty

Cue the swelling music, and then …

Huge!
Magnificent!
Spectacular!
Astonishing!
Extraaaooordinary!

Count on hearing those superlatives and more over the course of Monty Don’s three-part American Gardens, which aired on the BBC earlier this month and can be seen stateside here and on other sites. A book is on the way.

As Don states in the intro to each hour-long episode, he’s trying to define the American garden, though doubting from the outset that this is possible. The first hour is devoted to the Northeast and (some) Midwest, the second to the South, the third to the West.

A longtime garden presenter (Gardener’s World in the UK) and writer, Don sticks mainly to large public gardens, some well-known private gardens, and a couple community gardens. In my view, this dooms the entire mission. Is it possible for places like Longwood, Chanticleer, Lurie, and Lotusland to represent American gardening practice? While I’d agree that many US gardeners gain education and inspiration from these destination beauty spots, the sites themselves, in their near-perfection and studied showmanship (as Don states repeatedly), say very little about how we garden—those of us who do.

Still, what was Don to do? Take a tour of average gardens in average neighborhoods? He’d likely lose his audience for this show and jeopardize his other gigs. Maybe best for us to sit back and enjoy Don’s journey, which is full of luscious videography of desert gardens, wildflower meadows, tropical jungles, and stately European-inspired formal landscapes. An elementary school garden and a Bronx community garden are nods to ordinary gardening. I do admit that prairie meadows are intrinsic to our recent focus on native plants and that many US gardeners are warming up to the wonderful world of cacti, which are showcased in the immaculate desert gardens. But these spaces do not define what we’re trying to do in our gardens, if such a thing is possible; they never could.

It gets interesting when Don breaks into gentle criticism, calling Longwood “a circus,” and wondering about the long fenceless expanses that characterize suburbia. Mind you, he hardly mentions the L word, choosing instead to speculate that a lack of fences might represent our yearnings for neighborliness and community. Ha. There are also a few words (very few) about water use when discussing the estates and golf courses of Palm Springs. That said, Don’s undoubted knowledge and expertise inform every visit, so it’s possible to learn more about even the most well-known properties.

At the end of the third episode (spoiler), Don decides to go for it: “I came to the conclusion that the American garden was one that was characterized by an attitude: the pioneering, bold spirit of trying new things, and pushing outwards.”

That’s a safe thing to say. I have to wonder what would happen if Don accompanied garden bloggers on a couple of their Flings, which focus mainly on private gardens, many not professionally designed (as almost everything Don saw is). I think he would have come a lot closer to a working definition.

Strangely, Don’s discussion with Adam Gopnik in Central Park rang the truest. No one area dominates or defines it. No rhyme, no reason, just cool stuff.

Monty, Monty, Monty originally appeared on GardenRant on January 29, 2020.

The post Monty, Monty, Monty appeared first on GardenRant.

Great Courses with Linda and Melinda

I was researching a blog post about my local library, digging deep into its online resources, and came upon something I associate with a high price tag –  Great Courses. Yes, if your library system, like mine (but not others in the DC area) subscribes to it, there’s lots on offer there for free (though not all courses). The courses claim to offer “unlimited video learning with world’s greatest professors.” Oh boy.

Eager to see if they deigned to cover gardening, I scrolled to the  Hobby and Leisure category and, along with photography and dog training, found some actual gardening courses and experienced a gasp of anxiety over the possibility that they’d hired a know-nothing to do the job. (Memories of bad information from “experts” on “content mills” never seem to fade.)

But oh no, Great Courses is legit! Their two gardening teachers are none other than Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott and Melinda Myers, and I couldn’t have chosen better myself. They’re both up-to-date on the best, evidenced-based gardening know-how, and great good communicators, too.

Having now watched a few lectures, I was impressed with the company’s high production values, too, including great graphics (possibly the best graphics I’ve ever seen illustrating pruning – a task not easy to demonstrate).

Linda’s “Science of Gardening”

This course should be required viewing – for Master Gardeners, garden communicators, and most of all, anyone who’s ever portrayed plants or products in a black and white, binary way. (You probably don’t know who you are.)

Linda’s chapter on “Weeding out the  Myths” could be especially impactful if the right people watched it – with an open mind. Which is required if you already have strong feelings one way or the other about permaculture, glyphosate or native plants.

On the great native/nonnative plant debate, Linda challenges the claims of native-plant superiority and argues against mandates requiring their use in landscapes (as opposed to in ecological restoration projects). She has a great list of things that benefit wildlife even more than focusing on plant origin, in her view – like creating vertical structures, and reducing the amount of highly managed lawns.

Melinda’s Courses

Melinda has four Great Courses so far: on food gardening, container gardening, “Make your Trees and Shrubs Thrive,” and “Your Best Garden and Landscape in 6 Lessons.”

As a pruning geek and shrub advocate, I homed in on her tree and shrub lectures and was thrilled to learn a few new things about pruning. And having followed Melinda’s teachings in print and YouTube over the years, I don’t doubt her advice one bit.

A fun part of watching Melinda’s videos was recognizing photos of some of the gardens I’ve seen with her, as part of garden blogging or writing events over the years in various cities. Like the garden in Buffalo above. (Right, Elizabeth?).

More Great Courses I Want to Take

The company soon found me and sent me their fancy print brochure, in which I found a few off-topic courses I’d like to take:

• What Makes Music so Powerful and Stirring?


• Writing Creative Nonfiction


• Gain Strength and Flexibility at Any Age


• Improve your Writing by Rediscovering the Lost Art of Crafting Sentences


• Master the Art of Moving Meditation and Improve your Physical Fitness and Mental Well-Being

The Cost of Great Courses

Here’s where I’m honestly confused because the cost seems to vary between free (if they’re available through your local library) to $16 on sale to a full price of over $500 per course. For example, “Science of Gardening” is on sale now for just $25, the “regular” price of $234.95 having been crossed out. Or you can subscribe to “Great Courses Plus” for $49.95 monthly or $360 annually. Or just use the free 14-day trial to binge-watch quickly or start paying, for more.

What it’s Like to be a Great Courses Professor

Just curious, I asked what it was like to work with Great Courses. Linda wrote:

I really enjoyed working with the Great Courses staff. They recruit lectures..and they don’t tell you who recommended you. So that’s rather intriguing. Normally it’s faculty with academic teaching, so it’s interesting that they found me. I am apparently the first faculty from WSU invited to do a production.

They built me a great set and I worked with two content editors to make sure that all the demos and props were just right. I can’t say enough about the professional quality of the production.

They are located in Chantilly, VA and that’s where their studios are (part of The Learning Company). Field filming was obviously as local as possible. They pay all travel and expenses, and then you collect royalties every year, just like with books.

And from Melinda:

The first two were shot in Virginia just outside Washington DC where Great Courses are headquartered. We worked on two properties owned by employees – one large and one small as well as a botanical garden and garden center.

The next two were shot in WI with the production company I use for Melinda’s Garden Moment TV. This was much easier, as I could create, monitor and tend the gardens throughout the season. Most of the food gardening video was shot at my place, as well as the trees and shrub planting. Since I regularly produce video in the area, it was easier to find nearby locations where I could shoot other demonstrations.

This was a long term goal for me – track and demonstrate gardening and landscaping planting and care throughout the season/year to help gardeners understand gardening concepts for greater success and satisfaction.

 

Great Courses with Linda and Melinda originally appeared on GardenRant on January 24, 2020.

The post Great Courses with Linda and Melinda appeared first on GardenRant.

Great Courses with Linda and Melinda

I was researching a blog post about my local library, digging deep into its online resources, and came upon something I associate with a high price tag –  Great Courses. Yes, if your library system, like mine (but not others in the DC area) subscribes to it, there’s lots on offer there for free (though not all courses). The courses claim to offer “unlimited video learning with world’s greatest professors.” Oh boy.

Eager to see if they deigned to cover gardening, I scrolled to the  Hobby and Leisure category and, along with photography and dog training, found some actual gardening courses and experienced a gasp of anxiety over the possibility that they’d hired a know-nothing to do the job. (Memories of bad information from “experts” on “content mills” never seem to fade.)

But oh no, Great Courses is legit! Their two gardening teachers are none other than Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott and Melinda Myers, and I couldn’t have chosen better myself. They’re both up-to-date on the best, evidenced-based gardening know-how, and great good communicators, too.

Having now watched a few lectures, I was impressed with the company’s high production values, too, including great graphics (possibly the best graphics I’ve ever seen illustrating pruning – a task not easy to demonstrate).

Linda’s “Science of Gardening”

This course should be required viewing – for Master Gardeners, garden communicators, and most of all, anyone who’s ever portrayed plants or products in a black and white, binary way. (You probably don’t know who you are.)

Linda’s chapter on “Weeding out the  Myths” could be especially impactful if the right people watched it – with an open mind. Which is required if you already have strong feelings one way or the other about permaculture, glyphosate or native plants.

On the great native/nonnative plant debate, Linda challenges the claims of native-plant superiority and argues against mandates requiring their use in landscapes (as opposed to in ecological restoration projects). She has a great list of things that benefit wildlife even more than focusing on plant origin, in her view – like creating vertical structures, and reducing the amount of highly managed lawns.

Melinda’s Courses

Melinda has four Great Courses so far: on food gardening, container gardening, “Make your Trees and Shrubs Thrive,” and “Your Best Garden and Landscape in 6 Lessons.”

As a pruning geek and shrub advocate, I homed in on her tree and shrub lectures and was thrilled to learn a few new things about pruning. And having followed Melinda’s teachings in print and YouTube over the years, I don’t doubt her advice one bit.

A fun part of watching Melinda’s videos was recognizing photos of some of the gardens I’ve seen with her, as part of garden blogging or writing events over the years in various cities. Like the garden in Buffalo above. (Right, Elizabeth?).

More Great Courses I Want to Take

The company soon found me and sent me their fancy print brochure, in which I found a few off-topic courses I’d like to take:

• What Makes Music so Powerful and Stirring?
• Writing Creative Nonfiction
• Gain Strength and Flexibility at Any Age
• Improve your Writing by Rediscovering the Lost Art of Crafting Sentences
• Master the Art of Moving Meditation and Improve your Physical Fitness and Mental Well-Being

The Cost of Great Courses

Here’s where I’m honestly confused because the cost seems to vary between free (if they’re available through your local library) to $16 on sale to a full price of over $500 per course. For example, “Science of Gardening” is on sale now for just $25, the “regular” price of $234.95 having been crossed out. Or you can subscribe to “Great Courses Plus” for $49.95 monthly or $360 annually. Or just use the free 14-day trial to binge-watch quickly or start paying, for more.

What it’s Like to be a Great Courses Professor

Just curious, I asked what it was like to work with Great Courses. Linda wrote:

I really enjoyed working with the Great Courses staff. They recruit lectures..and they don’t tell you who recommended you. So that’s rather intriguing. Normally it’s faculty with academic teaching, so it’s interesting that they found me. I am apparently the first faculty from WSU invited to do a production.

They built me a great set and I worked with two content editors to make sure that all the demos and props were just right. I can’t say enough about the professional quality of the production.

They are located in Chantilly, VA and that’s where their studios are (part of The Learning Company). Field filming was obviously as local as possible. They pay all travel and expenses, and then you collect royalties every year, just like with books.

And from Melinda:

The first two were shot in Virginia just outside Washington DC where Great Courses are headquartered. We worked on two properties owned by employees – one large and one small as well as a botanical garden and garden center.

The next two were shot in WI with the production company I use for Melinda’s Garden Moment TV. This was much easier, as I could create, monitor and tend the gardens throughout the season. Most of the food gardening video was shot at my place, as well as the trees and shrub planting. Since I regularly produce video in the area, it was easier to find nearby locations where I could shoot other demonstrations.

This was a long term goal for me – track and demonstrate gardening and landscaping planting and care throughout the season/year to help gardeners understand gardening concepts for greater success and satisfaction.

 

Great Courses with Linda and Melinda originally appeared on GardenRant on January 24, 2020.

The post Great Courses with Linda and Melinda appeared first on GardenRant.