Home and Garden Roundup for Week of 5/4/2008 - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum

lspichkin · 05-05-2008, 11:08 AM

A weekly roundup of the top stories from the Home & Garden sections of leading newspapers around the country.

The Los Angeles Times Home and Garden Section tells readers what they need to know about the upcoming L.A. Garden Show.

Quote:

"Volunteers have been working feverishly to complete the succulent arrangements. Miniature gardens planted in shining metal trash cans are poised for their premiere, while crews are putting the finishing touches on other demonstration landscapes."

Los Angeles Times

The Miami Herald Gardening Section helps you choose the right plants to thrive in a drought tolerant garden.

Quote:

The South Florida Water Management District is considering making the twice-weekly limits placed on sprinkling your St. Augustine permanent. Workshops discussing the idea wind up at the end of the month.

One way to have your landscape thrive under such restrictions, which are currently in place, is to use drought-tolerant plants.

It's possible to select from a wide range of plants that contribute to the overall beauty of the garden as well as water savings. Think not only of how they can reduce water use, but also how they work to provide structure, shelter, color, habitat and a beautiful picture.

Encephalartos ferox, sometimes called the Zululand cycad -- GEORGIA TASKER/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

The Seattle Post Intelligencer NW Gardens lets readers know about a great online tool for gardeners - a search engine for seeds.

Quote:

editors at the venerable Mother Earth News worked with Google to create a new search engine that searches only current plant and seed catalogs. When cruising the Web for uncommon foodstuffs, an ordinary search is more apt to turn up a Wikipedia article on virtual vegetables than a place to buy actual seeds.

Since Mother Earth's search engine is speed-reading through about 150 catalogs, the odds of finding what you want are pretty darn good. All the big commercial catalogs are included, but so are dozens of small ones that specialize in uncommon edibles and ornamentals.

zoyachubby/Flickr

The Dallas Morning News Home/Gardening section helps you to "Tackle tree problems before storms hit."

Quote:

"Drive around after a particularly vicious spring storm, and you'll likely see tree limbs lying on the ground. You may even see entire trees that high wind has uprooted.

It's too late when a storm hits to protect your tree. But there are clues to look for beforehand that could tell you whether your tree has an Achilles limb."

joiseyshowaa/Flickr

The New York Times Home & Garden section encourages using Moss for a lush, no-care lawn.

Quote:

DAVID BENNER hasn’t watered his lawn since the Kennedy administration. He hasn’t mowed it, either. And it’s doing just fine. On a late-April afternoon, the two-acre property surrounding his ranch house in Bucks County was a carpet of green, uniformly lush and velvety under a canopy of shade trees.

Mr. Benner, 78, a retired professor of ornamental horticulture, is also a longtime practitioner and advocate of what he calls “the moss approach” to lawn maintenance. “Every time I give a lecture, I go into this spiel: get rid of your grass, and grow moss,” he said. “And now it’s finally gaining momentum.”

David Benner on his property in Bucks County -- Jane Therese/The New York Times

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