All the Dirt on Gardening

The leaves of native Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) were added to snuff to make people sneeze in order to expel evil spirits and prevent hay fever.   (Bless you!) Another common name is Swamp Sunflower because they multiply and take over moist meadows and damp woodlands. Linnaeus named them Helen’s Flower in a fanciful association with Helen of Troy’s tears that no one understands. Bittersweet and Bitterweed are other common names for the same plant. Overall, there are 40 Helenium species that are cold hardy in zones 3 to 8. Some are annuals and others are perennial herbs. All of them form clumps in damp but not wet soil. The species sizes range from 2 feet to 5 feet tall. Tall varieties may have to be staked at the end of the season unless they are pruned mid-summer. Like their close relatives, asters and sunflowers, Helenium’s flowers are daisy-like rays of petals.   Heleniums bloom from late summer until frost with flower colors of yellow, orange, brown and reds...

Humor, insight, and several decades of gardening, garden writing and developing a fine sense of irony come together in Tom Powell's latest book, "Aphid in My Eye: Adventures in the Orchid Trade" published by Mackey Books. Tom and Betty Powell lived plants in and around New York City. Now that Betty is gone, Tom's tribute to their endearing story is recorded. Betsy West provided the illustrations for their tales in the world of orchid growing and showing. While the book will be of interest to orchid lovers it will also be well loved by anyone who enjoys laughing at the plant industry's foibles and follies. Plus, it is a love story about two people who found each other and lived well together. The American Orchid Society said, "The best part of this rated-very-G booklet is Powell’s take on the "big regional orchid society" or Metropolitan Northern Tier Orchid Society (MNTOS). Anyone who has ever associated with the Byzantine politics and fief...

Roger Doiron says that if ten percent of the lawn space in the US were converted to vegetable, fruit, herb and nectar plants, everyone in the country could have fresh local produce and by extension, perhaps, improved health. Dioron's site, Kitchen Gardens International at http://kgi.org/  provides ongoing conversations and help that could make it possible if more potential gardeners could be recruited. The Kitchen Gardening 101 tab under the Education drop down menu gives new gardeners enough information to get started. I wholeheartedly agree with the advice to start small and make a plan though I rarely plan anything myself. If you'd like to hear Dioron, his TED talk is at http://kgi.org/education  too. Definitely brows the Blog link http://kgi.org/blogs  for dozens of useful articles. The Deep Middle was all about converting lawn to garden this morning and is the source for my sending you to Kitchen Gardens International. http://deepmiddle.blogspot.com/201...

If you want your home or patio to look its best, plants can contribute a lot. With the prediction that 2013 spring and summer are going to be very similar to the past two, gardeners need some new ideas. What we need is plants to replace the water-lovers, the older plants, and the plants that thrived in pre-drought conditions. The difference between caring for your former plants and the drought tolerant ones is that you have to be sure to add enough compost that the soil drains well. Most drought-tolerant plants cannot thrive in wet dirt. Here are some selections to consider when looking for lower-maintenance, heat-tolerant plants that need about an inch of water a week. Echinacea or Coneflowers are perennials that can be started from seed or purchased as plants. There are dozens of colors, flower shapes and heights to choose from. A few of the newer series include Let’s Boogie (plants only), Sombrero (plants only) and the All-America Selection PowWow Wild Berry that can be ...

 Muriel Howorth, founder of the Atomic Gardening Society, was a woman we wish we had personally known. Now we know about her because of the efforts of the author of the blog, "Garden History Girl". You can enjoy the most recent post at   http://gardenhistorygirl.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-on-atomic-gardens.html Howorth is the subject of a new article in the British Journal of the History of Science that you can read at https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2mfa2lmy9ZERnVhU3hSbm1LUUk/edit?usp=sharing with the compliments of the Journal and the author, Paige Johnson (nanotechnology researcher at the University of Tulsa). Johnson's earlier writing about Howorth can be read at http://gardenhistorygirl.blogspot.com/2010/12/atomic-gardens.html Another article was written about atomic seeds last year, "Strange and Beautiful Seeds from the Atom" by Nicola Twilley in the online blog Edible Geography at http://www.ediblegeography.com/strange-and-beautiful-seeds-fr...

Munchkin Nursery and Gardens specializes in solving the question of what to plant in shady spots whether you need something for around a single tree or want to build a bed of plants from the groundcover up. They have an email newsletter you can sign up for, a blog called "Shade Solutions", and, of course, a catalog to shop. Here's the website link   http://www.munchkinnursery.com . You can browse through the plants, use their online comparison chart to make purchasing decisions, and even enter your price point into the system to find things you can afford. Just to see how that price thingy worked, I entered price $5 to $10 and it showed one plant I could purchase for $10 - Virginia Bluebells. When I did an item browse though there were several $10 plants so maybe that feature has not been perfected yet. On the left side of Shop Online there is a link, "Plants and Prices: Prices Short List" that you can click to download There are lots of $10 plan...

Relentlessly resourceful Neil Sperry posted a link to the Texas A & M Extension service Fruit and Nut Resource. Go to http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/  and research what you need to know to succeed. If you would like to subscribe to the fruit and nut grower's blog, go to http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/feed/