All the Dirt on Gardening

Brithish writer, Catherine Horwood has several books to her credit: "Worst Fashions: What We Shouldn't Have Worn . . . But Did", "Keeping Up Appearances: Fashion and Class Between the Wars", "Potted History: The Story of Plants in the Home", "Gardening Women", and now "Women and Their Gardens: A History from the Elizabethan Era to Today" According to the Introduction Horwood, from a family of gardeners, thought she hated gardening as a child. but the difficulty was actually that her mother and aunt talked about gardening as intellectuals. Now she and her mother enjoy walking through their gardens together, talking about plants. Horwood is a social historian and honorary research fellow at the University of London, a visiting fellow at Yale, the Suffolk representative of the NGS and a gardener in north London. In addition to maintaining a roof garden she is designing a half-acre plot behind her 16th-century house in Suffolk, the f...

Get out and enjoy one or several of these upcoming Oklahoma events. March 31 - April 7 Muskogee Art Guild Judged Show and sale Arrowhead Mall. 918-478-3318. Artist reception April 7. Apr 13 & 14 Spring Fest Garden Market and Festival, Tulsa Garden Center, 2435 S Peoria 918-746-5141. Plant vendors, crafts, food, music, gardening advice. 9 to 4 Fri and 9 to 8 Sat April 14 Muskogee Drew and Linda Edmondson Grand Marshals for Azalea Festival Parade 11 downtown. Fun Run at 8 that morning. 918-684-6302 April 14 Muskogee, Chili Cook-Off, Okmulgee at 4th ST, 12 to 5. April 14, Brookside, Herb Day , 41St and Peoria. Plants, wine, crafts. 9 to 5 April 19 Tahlequah, Earth Day Plant Exchange, Tahlequah Public Library, 918-456-2581. Bring plants to trade. 5:30 to 8. April 21 , Muskogee, Farmer’s Market opens. Free trees. Earth Day celebration, plants, produce, flowers, food. 8 to noon April 21 Sand Springs, Herbal Affair Festival , 918-245-5082. 100 vendors - plants, gard...

This indestructible little plant is terrific ground cover for dry shade, rock garden, creeks and other difficult spots. Native from New Jersey to Iowa, Arkansas to Georgia, Whorled Stonecrop, Sedum ternatum, just needs to be weeded in the spring to keep it growing and spreading. All native plants replace lawns on Sustainable Gardening Available from Northcreek Nurseries and Pine Ridge Gardens . Love sedums? Check out this site for more ideas - Sedum Photos dot net www.wildgingerfarm.com Sedum Larinum Park Venero Gardens www.venerogardens.com The one I bought from Pine Ridge is Larinem Park which is supposed to be hardy to 40 below F, and have more bee attracting flowers than the other varieties.

Jack in the Pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, is a problem free choice for a damp shady spot in your woodland garden, if you live anyplace in USDA cold hardiness zones 4 to 9. Native to Eastern North America, Arkansas, Missouri and eastern Oklahoma also claim it as a native. Its other names include Bog onion, Brown dragon, Indian turnip, Wake robin and Wild turnip Its mature height is a foot or two(some say 4-feet) and it's gorgeous flowers bloom in late spring, April to May. The spadix, or Jack), is a spike of tiny, green to purple flowers and the spathe or pulpit. A hood grows and extends over the top. Two large green leaves (1-1.5' long), with three leaflets grow upward from a single stalk and provide shade for the flower. The flowering plants start out life as males and as the clump grows, the plants become hermaphroditic with male flowers on upper part and female on lower part. The colony disappears over the summer, becoming dormant. When mature, plants will produce clusters o...

Fascinating - A group of people are working to preserve trees bent down to be used by Native Americans as wayfaring markers 300 years ago. Called Indian marker trees or trail trees, small trees were pegged onto the ground to indicate low water creek crossings, trails, and landmarks such as Pikes Peak. In TX, 4 marker trees have been identified. In GA, Mountain Stewards has developed a database of 1,850 marker trees in 39 states. The age of the trees are confirmed before the trees are added. An IL group, Great lakes Trail Marker Tree Society published a book, "Native American Trail Marker Trees" that describes 30-years of documenting and photographing these trees. Dennis Downes drove hundreds of thousands of miles researching the information. In CO, the bent ponderosa pines at Florissant Fossil Beds national Monument point to Pikes Peak, 8-miles ahead.

Asheville NC journalist, Nan Chase's book, "Eat Your Yard" has been out since 2010 so I'm a little late to the party in writing about it. Since she lives in zone 7 - same as northeast Oklahoma's zone - I was especially interested in seeing her recommendations. "The edible yard combines beauty and practicality: beautiful form in the garden with bounteous crops to eat fresh or preserve for year-round enjoyment," says Chase in the introduction. She does not recommend ripping out the lawn to plant zucchini but suggests that we add some productive and beautiful trees, shrubs, vines, herbs and wildflowers that provide edibles for our tables and kitchens. Plus, there are recipes for the suggested plants so we can enjoy them out of season. The first chapter, Favorite Fruits, covers apples with a German Pancake recipe, landscape highlights, edible highlights, where it grows best, how to grow it and hardiness zones. I've had trouble finding a good apple varie...

Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, LA (www.longuevue.com), now a museum and public garden, was designed in 1935-42 as the home for Edgar Bloom Stern and Edith Rosenwald Sulzberger Stern. Both were important philanthropists: Edgar was a cotton broker, and banker and Edith was heiress to the Sears-Roebuck fortune.   The gardens at Longue Vue, ten minutes from Bourbon ST and downtown New Orleans, provide visitors with an opportunity to tour 14 separate garden rooms including an Azalea Walk, Yellow Garden, Canal Garden, Walled Garden, Spanish Court, Wild Garden and Discovery Garden. Two women were integral to the beauty of the estate you can see at Longue Vue: The 8-acre landscape and the 22,000 square-foot residential interior were designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman and the landscape plan was implemented with the help of Caroline Dormon. Shipman (1869-1950), who designed 600 gardens, was known for creating pictures as an artist would, but using plants instead of ...