Mother Earth's Garden

I got a really cool package in the mail the other day. It was a deck of 50 cards, but it wasn’t like your ordinary deck of cards. The cards I received were P. Allen Smith’s Container Gardens. The deck contains 50 recipes for container gardens you can plant all year round.
I love container gardens, and I love creating gardens for the different seasons. This time of year my attention turns to indoor gardening, which consists mainly of containers in my windowsills.
The Container Gardens Deck shows you some great techniques and ideas for creating potted gardens that will flourish on …read more

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PBS is premiering a new program, The Botany of Desire, on Ocober 28th. The new 2 hour special is based on Michael Pollan’s bestseller by the same name.
The program explores the natural history of four plants: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. At the same time it explores the corresponding human desires that go with those plants: sweetness, beauty, intoxication and controlling nature, all factors that link the plants destinies to our own.

Here’s a preview of the 2 hour special:
The special program starts out in Michael Pollan’s garden, then roams the world, from the potato fields …read more

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I recently had the opportunity to take a look at Reader’s Digest All New Illustrated Guide To Gardening. I have to say, it is a fabulous gardener’s resource! The new revised and updated version is all organic!
This book is definitely an all inclusive how to guide for gardeners. From planting to pruning, and dividing perennials, there are step by step instructions for most of your gardening questions.
The guide includes a fabulous listing of all types of plants, shrubs, and trees. If it grows it’s probably listed. It’s loaded with tips, tricks, and fabulous illustrations.
There are sections on wildlife gardening, …read more

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I told you the other day how much I love Echinacea, so when I saw this new Meringue variety of Echinacea from Heronswood, I had to spotlight it.
These beautiful flowers were developed in Holland by Ari Blom. As they bloom they start from a daisy like appearance, and develop into the pom poms you see pictured above.
I love white and cream colored flowers in the garden. They’re a wonderful addition to help blend all the colors and contrasts.
They’re similar to their purple counterparts in growth habits. They’re not fussy, drought-tolerant and easy to grow in full …read more

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I recently had the opportunity to try out a new mosquito repellent called the Don’t Bite Me(tm) mosquito patch. I decided to give it a try, since I’m always on the look out for a good mosquito repellent without DEET.
The patch seemed to be effective in repelling mosquitos, but right around the time I received the patches our mosquito population dried up with our rainfall totals. We’ve had a very dry July and August, with almost no rainfall. Which also means almost no mosquitos.
My son attracts mosquitos for miles, even when I have none bothering me, he …read more

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