Home and Garden Roundup for Week of 6/2/2008 - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum

lspichkin · 06-03-2008, 12:05 PM

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

The Los Angeles Times informs readers about the Guerilla Gardening movement.

Quote:

"Scott is a guerrilla gardener, a member of a burgeoning movement of green enthusiasts who plant without approval on land that's not theirs. In London, Berlin, Miami, San Francisco and Southern California, these free-range tillers are sowing a new kind of flower power. In nighttime planting parties or solo "seed bombing" runs, they aim to turn neglected public space and vacant lots into floral or food outposts.

Part beautification, part eco-activism, part social outlet, the activity has been fueled by Internet gardening blogs and sites such as GuerrillaGardening.org, where before-and-after photos of the latest "troop digs" inspire 45,000 visitors a month to make derelict soil bloom."

Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times

The Miami Herald helps readers to get their compost mix just right, while avoiding the dreaded visits from vermin.

Quote:

To avoid attracting rats, do not put meat scraps, fat, bones, grease or dairy products in your compost pile. These do attract animals and can create nuisance odors.

Kitchen wastes such as vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and paper filters, and crushed eggshells may be added to the pile. Other things to add to your composter are grass clippings and fallen leaves.

A.HUNSBERGER/UF/IFAS

The Seattle Post Intelligencer NW Gardens helps readers with their questions about shade and how it affects the success of their garden.

Quote:

Shade perplexes gardeners, because it comes in many forms. Shade may be cast by houses, fences, condo buildings or even a couple of trees. Selecting the best plants for those circumstances means first understanding shade in all its different guises.

We know hostas grow well in shade, but hostas are nothing in winter, not even bare stems. Shrubs that grow well in whatever shade we have, and provide some color and texture -- maybe even a flower or two -- that's what we need.

Monrovia -- Aucuba 'Picturata'

The Dallas Morning News Home/Gardening section gives us a list of "10 plants that thrive in summer heat."

Quote:

It's not too late to fill your garden with color that will last through the sultry summer season. That's the word from a green-thumb who knows this area well: Kim Fogarty, manager of Blooming Colors Nursery and Landscaping in Grapevine.

"These are what I consider staple plants," Kim says. "They can all handle the full, hot sun."

Evans Caglage/DMN -- Pink Skullcap

The New York Times considers the question of time and what it means to both the gardener and the garden.

Quote:

There is no question that time has shaped, and will continue to shape, my garden. Time tells me that I will never have allées of anything, that copper beeches need many years to mature, bluebells spread slowly, peonies can take seasons to flower, even lavender is slow to produce bushes the size of the ones in Emma’s borders. At some point in life, you realize that certain avenues are closed to you. If you haven’t become a doctor or a ballerina, you probably never will.

Matt Collins

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search