Remember the old days before television?  No?  Well, maybe you’ve heard stories of how the family would huddle around the radio and listen to the Shadow or the Burns/Allen radio shows.  It was a simpler time. 

I just returned from a seminar on podcasting - the modern version of those good ol’ tdays where people share thoughts and entertainment via audio feeds you can download to your computer or iPod.

So of course the first thing I looked for was a gardening podcast.  I found a North Country Public Radio podcast on gardening co-hosted by Amy Ivy and Martha Foley.  Each episode focuses on a different aspect of gardening.  There are over 300 radios shows posted since 2002 all on our favorite topic.

Have you found a podcast on gardening that you enjoy?  Share it here.

Photo courtesy of Jupiter Images. 

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As the summer sun beats down and the rain continues to fall the weeds appear to flourish more than the vegetables and flowers.

If you are just designing your garden then prepare to prevent with sheets of polypropylene and plenty of mulch (2-4″), but for the rest of us - the back breaking, never ending task of weeding can be arduous.

BBC Gardening, how to be a garden offers a few tips for dealing with weeds in their post entitled Preventing Weeds.

DGS Gardening offers a great resource for correctly identifying and then dealing with weeds specific to your yard.

If you are looking for an organic solution to treating weeds, look no further than the Organic Weed Management Site with tools for identifying and treating weeds without chemicals.

photo courtesy of Growing wisdom.

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I recently read about a woman who created a 5-Senses garden.  I was intrigued and so did a little research on the subject.  Of our five senses, sight is most associated with gardening; the beauty of the flowers, ferns and vegetables that we grow provide a sense of accomplishment and joy.  Sight is also the easiest to accomplish in a five sense garden.  So what about the other senses?

Sound.  Wind chimes, babbling brooks and trickling fountains help add to the ambiance of your five senses garden. 

Feel.  I love lamb’s ears (Wooly Betony).  The soft pedals caressed between your fingers are a wonderful sensation.  What other plants might you consider for the “feel” sense?

Taste.  Obviously herbs would fall into this category. 

Smell.  Lavender, lilacs and roses are the obvious choice.   Any others come to mind? 

Stuart Robinson of Gardening Tips did an excellent job of collecting tips for those interested in creating a 5-Senses Garden in his post “Create Your Own 5 Senses Garden.” 

Other resources you might consider:

Sensory Garden for Kids

Garden of Five Senses - India

Garden for all Five Senses

And of course with any garden you’ll want to remember to feed your plants with the energy drink designed to create extraordinary blossoms: Great Big Plants energy drink.

Have you created a 5-senses garden?  Tell us about it.

Photo courtesy of DCNR.

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Several years ago I decided to forgo the annual trip to my neighborhood store for the purpose of filling my trunk with bags of mulch and order from the neighborhood boy selling truckloads of mulch as a sport fundraiser.  We had recently moved to a new home and I didn’t have a clue how much mulch I would need to adequately cover the 10 large garden beds that had been designed by the previous owner.  “20 yards,” I told him.  The next week an enormous truck backed up my drive to dump a pile as big as you see pictured above.  The neighbors came out to see the mountain, all shaking their heads at my folly.  I used every bit of that mulch but it took weeks of nighttime and weekend shoveling to get the pile to disappear. 

Why do we subject ourselves to the backbreaking effort of refreshing our garden beds with mulch.  Is it really that important?

Well the  National Resources Conservation Service calls mulching one of the “simplest and most beneficial practices you can use in the garden.”

They offer the following benefits to mulching:

• Protects the soil from erosion
• Reduces compaction from the impact of heavy rains
• Conserves moisture, reducing the need for frequent waterings
• Maintains a more even soil temperature
• Prevents weed growth
• Keeps fruits and vegetables clean
• Keeps feet clean, allowing access to garden even when damp
• Provides a “finished” look to the garden

How much is enough?  The NC University published an article on  Mulching Trees and Shrubs  and offered up this little chart to help you determine the amount of mulch you might need.

Amount of Organic Material to Cover 100 Square Feet of Area.

Garden Guides provides a pretty extensive listing of the different types of mulch and offers the pros and cons of each one.  If you are looking for advice on the type of mulch - visit their great Guide on Selecting Mulch. 

Photo courtesy of Angel Garden Center.

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I recently set my computer screen saver to rotate through the photos saved on my computer.  I found myself mesmerized by the garden photos I’d forgotten I had taken over the years; my own garden, hotel gardens, parks, estate gardens.  The romance and the beauty of a beautifully crafted garden is amazing. 

Bliss writer,Yolanda Elizabet Dinteloord from the Netherlands, recently wrote a post about gardens frozen in time; the spectacular beauty that can be found at the gardens of palace Het Loo (pronounced Het Low) near Apeldoorn. She does a wonderful job of sharing photos of the garden today and over time.  The photos are amazing – take a quick break from your day and visit with Yolanda the palace gardens.  Go ahead, dream a little.

My mother used to tell of how her mom would make her go in the backyard and pick dandelions for supper.  As children we’d cringe with all the appropriate sounding “ewwwww” and then quietly eat whatever vegetable she’d put in front of us.  Anything was more appealing than the thought of eating the weed we associated with white tuffs of seed that we’d blow into the wind. 

But dandelions are in fact amazingly tasty.  Mother Earth News recently published an article by Roger Dorion entitled Wild About Dandelions in which he shared his recipe for Wilted Dandelion Greens Salad.  The first ingredient is bacon – so he had my attention.  According to Roger:“All parts of the dandelion are edible and have medicinal and culinary uses.  It has long been used as a liver tonic and diuretic. In addition, the roots contain inulin and levulin, starchlike substances that may help balance blood sugar, as well as bitter taraxacin, which stimulates digestion.”Read the entire article and check out the recipe. 

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 It’s time once again for the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC, March 29-April 13, 2008.  If you plan to be anywhere near the DC area during this time, take a detour to view the extraordinary, delicate and beautiful cherry blossoms that surround our nation’s capital. 

The history of how the cherry blossom trees came to be in DC goes back almost 100 years and is a story of friendship:

The National Cherry Blossom Festival annually commemorates the 1912 gift to the city of Washington of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and celebrate the continued close relationship between our two peoples.

In a simple ceremony on March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two of these trees on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park. By 1915 the United States government had responded with a gift of flowering dogwood trees to the people of Japan. In 1927, a group of American school children reenacted the initial planting; the first festival was held in 1935, sponsored by civic groups in the nation’s capital.

Three thousand, eight hundred more trees were accepted in 1965 by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson. In 1981 the cycle of giving came full circle. Japanese horticulturalists came to take cuttings from our trees to replace Yoshino cherry trees in Japan which had been destroyed in a flood. With this return gift, the trees again fulfilled their roles as a symbol and agent of friendship.  

Visual and Musical Celebration of the Cherry Blossoms.  Photo courtesy of Georgetown.

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My folks live in Arizona and just recently took the trek down to Tombstone to visit the world’s largest rose bush which was planted in 1885.  Newsletter writer, DK Davis shares thoughts as he views the massive plant:

Perhaps the most unique sight in town is located in the Rose Tree Inn Museum; the world’s largest rosebush. Recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, this petite fleur, is absolutely amazing. Covering more than 8,000 square feet, this white Lady Banksia is a vision to behold when covered in millions of miniature white blossoms. In the afternoon Arizona heat, I was impressed at how cool it was sitting under the beautiful ‘tree’.

Photos courtesy of Picasaweb and Roadside America.

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We talked about growing tomatoes all year long just recently, but I just found a great article in the April edition of Organic Gardening by Jack Staub that talks about specific tomato varieties for your growing season.   One of his first comments is to start  plants indoors while the weather is still too cold.  He also talks about warming the soil by using plastic mulch to provide warmth for your soil which can be the difference between ripe fruit or none.  He says “The warm soil promotes faster growth, which helps plants reach fruiting size with enough time left for the tomatoes to ripen.”

In the article he lists the following varieties:

Short Season:  Early wonder, Gireworks, Glacier, Stupice

Cold Night Season: Bush Beefsteak, Early girl and Yellow Pear

Heat and Drought Tolerant: Green Grape, Heartland, Porter

Heat and Humidity Tolerant: Brandywine Sudduth, Celebrity, Crimson Carmello and Homestead 

Pam Ruch offers a great article on growing the Perfect Tomato that you may want to check out.  Whether you are just getting started or are a tomato-growing pro, you’ll find value in what Pam has to say.  You’ll also find lots of good information in this article on Tomato Growing Tips.

Photo courtesy of VegKitchen.�

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My daughter’s favorite author is Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of Little Princess and the Secret Garden and we just recently began reading the Secret Garden again.  It’s a story that has been made into a movie a variety of times over the years.  My favorite part is when spring hits the garden and the variety of flowering trees, bushes, roses and perennials come to life.  Sure wish that would happen here.  But we just got dumped on with snow I can barely see out the window let alone see the crocuses peaking out from the dirt. 

I was checking out what’s happening over at Cold Climate gardening and discovered that the illustrator for The Secret Garden, Tasha Tudor lives in Vermont and offers tours of her real life garden.  

Do you have a fantasy garden from a book or movie that you’d love to recreate in your own secret garden? 

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