All the Dirt on Gardening

Gardeners appreciate plants but there are also gadgets, gifts you can buy, make, or put together with a little creativity. Everyone who loves plants would appreciate a gardening workshop, trade show or a garden tour. There is a free native garden tour of the California Bay Area in April at www.goingnativegardentour.org. The April historic garden tour in Virginia is around $25 at www.vagardenweek.org/tickets.htm. Tulsa Garden Center’s late-May tour is in Chelsea ($3300 www.tulsagardencenter.com). Tickets to the Oklahoma City Home and Garden Show January 15-17 are under $10 at www.oklahomacityhomeshow.com. Whether you shop at local suppliers, mail order or online, there are flowers, herbs, vegetables and woody stemmed plants for every budget. Stringer Nursery in Tulsa has 2010 seeds that could be put into a package with seed starting soil, and pots. Spring flowering bulbs are on sale from online retailers. A bag of tulip, daffodil or hyacinth bulbs with a coupon for help with planting wo...

BUILD AN ISLAND OUT OF BOTTLES AND LIVE ON IT On the green living blog, ECOBLE there is a fascinating story about a man in Mexico who built his idea of paradise on 250,000 recycled plastic bottles. Richie Sowa built it first in 1998, but Spiral Island was destroyed by a hurricane. The island is classified as a ship, so it is allowed to float in Mexico's waters. On September 7, 2007 the new Spiral Islander social network utility was opened to the public. Click here to see the blog entry and the video that accompanies the story. NANCY SZERLAG RECOMMENDS GARDENING MAGAZINES Master Gardener, Nancy Szerlag, writes a garden column for the Detroit News . Since my column this week is about gifts for gardeners, I was curious about her recommendations. Her suggestions are magazines and completely different from mine, so I will list them for you. The link above is to the entire column so you can get more details about the magazines. - Chicagoland Gardening (866) 806-1498, www.chicagolandga...