Blog Edition.  The whole newsletter is here.

 In the News

• A survey of all those "green" products finds that only 2 percent of them are legitimate.  98 percent greenwashing.
  
• The Greener Gardens Act would offer homeowners a tax credit up to $1,000 to turn in their gas-guzzling lawn and garden equipment for machines powered with alternative energy.
• In the Whodathunkit Department:  Rodale reports findings that farmland does a better job cooling air than forests.  That link won’t explain why, though, and I don’t get it.
• "Is fake the new green?" asks this terrific article about artificial turf that includes comprehensive lists of the pros and cons of real v. fake. 

On GardenRant

• Guest Ed Bruske stirred up quite a commotion when he challenged the traditional notion of community gardens.
• Guest Ken Druse ranted about that unsustainable product - peat moss.
• For Earth Day, I reported on the awesome gardens at Ohio’s Governor’s Mansion.

Gardenblogger Out and About

• My whirlwind overnight trip to Pennsylvania included visits to the Rodale Institute, the Rodale publisher, and Burpee’s Open Day event at their Fordhook Farm and Garden.  Two wonderful garden writers - Rosalind Creasy and Graham Rice - gave presentations.
• I spoke to an Elderhostel group visiting the Historic Homes and Gardens of Washington - about urban and sustainable gardening.
  

  

• Coaching clients attended my Open Garden/Plant Giveaway event and took dozens of extra plants off my hands.
• This must be Make New Friends month because I got to hang out with 3 garden writers I hadn’t met before:  Mackenzie Carpenter, Polly Nell Jones and Renee Shepherd. Renee was in town to provide seeds to the Congressional Wives Club’s Big Event (with Michelle Obama in attendance) and Polly made that happen.
• For Earth Day, I hung out with a bunch of sustainable ag types (including three from the Rodale Institute) at the USDA’s People’s Garden.

What’s Next?

One more overnighter in the Philly area, this time to see Chanticleer, the Morris Arboretum, and the Scott Arboretum, plus the personal garden of its horticulturist Andrew Bunting. (I’m prepared to be blissed out.) Then over Memorial Day weekend I’m off to the Garden Blogger Spring Fling in Chicago - more amazing gardens and tons of fun.  And I’m giving a talk on Lawn Alternatives at an American Horticulture Society event. 

Update on the Green the Grounds Campaign 

• Nice write-up about Green the Grounds in the Christian Science Monitor.
• That was followed immediately by a phone call from Maria Shriver’s press secretary, asking that her plans for a veg garden in State Capital Park be included, there being no official governor’s residence in California.  When asked about landscaping practices, he assured me that they’re very green and that their horticulturist would call me with details.  But now it’s been almost a month, so…
• The CSM story also resulted in an interview by Rod Thorson of WLPO radio in Illinois about Green the Grounds.
• Feature story coming soon in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• NBC and CNN anchors have expressed interest in the Green the Ground story, so stay tuned.
• We received a long, fully detailed response from the South Carolina governor’s horticulturist - much appreciated and the results are impressive indeed. 

National Arboretum photo by Afagen.

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Blog edition.  The whole newsletter is here.

In the News

• Michael Pollan’s anti-lawn rant made a comeback on the pages of the New York Times; commenters weighed in.
• New green job opportunity!  Most cities are still sending organic kitchen waste to landfills, but not in British Columbia, where Bin to Curb is operating.
• The Women’s Bean Project.  It’s green, it fights poverty - what’s not to love?
• Got more squash than you can eat?  The online VeggieTrader is here to help you find takers.  (Or you could use a neighborhood Yahoo group - which if you don’t have one, why not?)
• To dispel any doubts that fresh, local foods are IN, there’s a $3 iPhone Locavore app to help you find them.
• Due to drought, Tampa, FL has banned the use of lawn sprinklers.  Another reason to delawn.
• Excellent eco-friendly lawn care advice from the New York Times.
• See the  results of the Great Backyard Bird Count here - including 93,000+ checklists and 619 species, including a new invader.
• Scientific American has the definitive update on Colony Collapse Disorder.

  On GardenRant

• I’m reading Michele’s Rules for Beginning Veg Gardeners. (Newbie here!)
•  Here she makes the case that growing food isn’t expensive.
• Then she rants about a bill in Congress that could threaten small-time organic growers.
• After a British blogger bashes raised beds, a discussion ensues.
• Our Buffalo Ranter rallies the troops again - this time for an urban garden.  Oh, and also for urban chickens.
• In D.C. the Obamas and other feds are showing organic some love, and Big Chem isn’t happy.
• Don’t miss Jeff Gillman’s Hort Research that Gardeners can Use, 2nd Edition.

On Other Blogs

• Blogger Tom Alexander does NOT shy away from politics.  Here’s his rant about "wingnut" climate-change deniers.
• Joe Lamp’l’s $25 Victory Garden Challenge is getting lots of (well-deserved) attention. Watch episodes here and here.  Press coverage detailed here.

On the Home Front

• I announced the new national media campaign Green the Grounds.org and called on bloggers to post about it on Earth Day.  Supporting Organizations are coming on board and it’s starting to be FUN.
• And in the garden, it’s all about the mulch - about 150 loads of it from my driveway where it was dumped to the beds.
• And I finally met - at least by phone - one of my favorite gardening gurus - Paul James, the Gardener Guy of HGTV fame.  Story coming soon!

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Blog version.  The whole newsletter is right here.

In the News

• Exciting research from Rodale - how no-till agriculture can combat global warming.

• Next, what we gardeners know, that horticulture ALSO combats climate change, according to an article in the U.K.-based publication Horticulture Week.  And food gardening is singled out as extra-helpful because it reduces consumption of meat, which is so resource-intensive to produce.

• What else combats climate change? According to this article [pdf], mycorrhizal fungi. With the addition of our favorite fungi, soils and perennial grasses sequester even more carbon.

• And plant geeks, this is for you:  an evolutionary tree of all plant life.

• Fine Gardening has launched VegetableGardener.com to help us newbie veg-growers get up to speed.

• The UK has a Plan Bee (to save the bees).  Do we? 

On GardenRant  

• Seems that Monsanto is at it again - this time keeping plant scientists from even studying their GMO plants.

• Government getting on the sustainable landscaping train?  Looks like it.  At USDA properties worldwide.

• In Praise of the Bug Man turns us on to a terrific newspaper column with all sorts of resources.

• The World According to Felder Rushing is filled with real-life gardening advice, and amazing photos of his Mississippi garden.

• See the trailer for "Food Fight!"

• The state of Master Gardener Magazine (it needs our support).

    On Sustainable Gardening.com

• Green Dumping Must Stop by our newest contributor and my main gardening guru in the world, Ann Lovejoy.

• Ann also brings us How to Keep your Thirsty Lawn Happy.

• Knock Out Roses, the newest sponsor of the website, the blog and this newsletter, get their own page.  With full disclosure, of course.

• Like Knock Outs in being easy, disease-resistant and long-blooming, but shorter, are ‘Flower Carpet’ Roses. 
  

    My So-Called Second Career, the Update

• My spring garden-coaching article in Organic Gardening Magazine is now on the shelves.  Here’s my blurb about it with another photo by Rob Cardillo for the article.

• And, in fact, spring coaching is going strong, and the coaches of N. America have organized themselves in a cool new way - using Wet Paint.

• With my girl-blogger press badge, I attended a whole day of talks about water management (waaay more interesting than it sounds) and another showing the 10-year transformation of a horticulturist’s garden, both at Brookside Gardens in MD.  Reports with photos are coming soon.
  

• Even girl-bloggers have to pay to get into the Philadelphia Flower Show and attend the Garden Writers event but that’s okay; lots to write about.

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Blog version.  The original version, with off-topic sidebar, is right here. 

In the News

• This is kinda disappointing:  A California study concluded that the energy savings from growing shade trees on the west and south sides homes can reduce homeowners’ summertime electric bill by about $25 a year. That’s it?  Details in ScienceDaily. 
   
• More impressive (to me) is this New York Times report that large parts of the Northern Hemisphere could be cooled by 2 degrees if more sunlight-reflecting crops were planted.  Nice to see people thinking outside the box…coz it’s getting hot in that old box.
   
• From NASA, the best plants for cleaning indoor air.
   
• Urban Apiculture - can you dig it?  It’s raising bees, ya know.  In apartments.
   
• HuffingtonPost readers sent in photos of their green roofs - check ‘em out.
  
  
• And here’s a very cool Los Angeles prototype for growing food on roofs.

   On GardenRant 

• Lots of buzz about the White House.  First Michele covers some fighting in the food-world over the chef’s job. Then I propose Local Picks for White House "Farmer". This photo shows the Rose Garden in 1921.
  
  
• Why I Wrote the Green Gardener’s Guide is a terrific guest rant by Joe Lamp’l.

• Tracy diSabato-Aust’s new book is called "50 High-Impact, Low-Care Plants" - sounds like sustainable plants to me.  Here’s an interview with Tracy about the book.

• Another guest ranter, photographer Saxon Holt, reports on Sustainable Agriculture.

• There’s new evidence that cityfolk need nature.

• And Elizabeth in Buffalo knows a thing or two about ridiculous laws requiring lawn and nothing but lawn.

  On Sustainable-Gardening.com

• New contributor Allan Armitage covers the greening of his trial gardens at the University of Georgia in Jumping into Sustainability.

• Pint-Sized Planters Yield Bumper Crops, by Kathy LaLiberte, is crucial reading for me because I’ll be growing vegetables in these planters on my sunny deck this season.  I’m very excited.

• Kathy also covers How to Make Compost Tea, something I have yet to try.  Looks like varsity composting to me. 

   Winter gardening-like activities

• I trucked down to Richmond, Virginia to attend the terrific "Gardening in an Era of Climate Change" conference at Lewis Ginter Botanic Garden.  Hung out with some real characters.

• And Washington Gardener Magazine’s 4th Annual Seed Exchange was another meaty winter learning opportunity, with speakers Janet Draper and Cindy Brown.   

Snowdrops photo taken February 7 in Wiltshire, England by Anguskirk.

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Blog version.  The whole newsletter with off-topic sidebar is here. 

And Happy Inauguration, everyone!

 In the News

• Annapolis, Maryland has passed a promising new law prohibiting the sale or use of lawn fertilizers that pollute.  Lots of exemptions, but a good start at trying to stop toxic runoff into the Chesapeake Bay.

• Students at LSU have created a lawn-care robot, the fully customizable AgBot. They say the robot is an environmentally-friendly lawn care machine containing a seed dispenser, high-torque auger, fertilizer tank, and remote control capabilities. It’s solar-powered and can move as fast as 6 miles per hour for at least 4 hours.  Via the Weekly Dirt.
  

• Can sustainability go too far?  Read about the  Sustainable Guitar Movement before answering that question.

On GardenRant

• Keeping track of your garden’s blooms - with the humble bar graph.
• What about wrapping evergreens in burlap for the winter?  Lots of opinions in the comments.
  
• Great discussion of the economics of growing your own food.
• Artificial turf isn’t weed-free after all.
• Worm Composter Round-Up
• Can the world be fed without industrial farming practices?
• Can the "organic" label be trusted?  In California, maybe not.
• Contributor Allan Armitage ventures into the Great Native-Plant Debate.

  New on Sustainable-Gardening.com

• We welcome our newest sponsor - Fiskars Tools!
• New contributor Kathy LaLiberte of Gardeners Supply Company offers three meaty articles:  3 Keys to Organic Gardening Success,  the Secrets to Great Soil, or How Fungus Turned my Thumb Green, and Know your Climbers.
• Contributor Jeff Gillman’s first edition of New Hort Research that Gardeners can Use is terrific and will be archived on Sustainable-Gardening, along with his quarterly reports yet to come. 

Out and About and On the Air

• Coming up, join me in Richmond, VA Feb 4-6 for "Gardening in the Era of Climate Change"
• It’s been a big radio month for this gardener.  First I chatted with Ken Druse and Vicki Johnson on "Real Dirt Radio" - about sustainable gardening and GardenRant.
• Next, Joe Lamp’l (joe gardener) interviewed me on his show "Growing a Greener World". 
• And on Louisville NPR’s "HomeGrown Radio" show I talked about blogging with Bob Hill and Jeneen  Wiche.
• Slate.com gave a nice boost to garden-coaching (and this coach).
• At Baltimore’s Mid-Atlantic Nursery Trade Show gardenwriters were feted by Spring Meadow Nursery.
• I’m finally getting the hang of social networking, kinda.  That means I’m on Twitter by myself and as part of GardenRant AND on Facebook, where I rediscovered my college boyfriend! 

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It’s been delivered, and is archived here, with full sidebar.   Below are the parts that are new to this blog.  

In the News

• Join the Campaign to Green the White House - it sure needs it!  Plus, here’s more about Greening the White House - the Clinton Years, and what  Obama has said on the topic.

• All about organic Christmas trees, and a new certification - Naturally Grown - in the NY Times.
  And here’s Fine Gardening on the subject of organic Christmas trees.

• Retailers in Tampa, Fla., might have to take nitrogen-enriched fertilizers off the shelves in the summer, according to the St. Petersburg Times.  Great news, and hat tip to the Daily Dirt.

• Community gardens not only provide healthy food, exercise, and green spaces for city residents; new research proves that they also revitalize neighborhoods and increase home values. For more information about this study, go to: Real Estate Economics .  Hat tip to the National Gardening Association.

• Via Garden Design Magazine, the greenest mower on the planet - the Neuton!

On GardenRant:

• Vermicomposting with the Worm Girl.
  

• How I decide what to research by U. Minnesota horticulturist Jeff Gillman.

• Potting soil - to re-use, to sterilize?  All explored here on "The Potting Soil Puzzlement". Turns out almost everyone breaks the rules!
  

• Science-Based Gardening Making a Comeback? elicited some great comments about  amending soil when planting trees, and whether eggshells really deter slugs. 
  

• For indoor gardeners, there’s the Top Five Reasons Houseplants Die, and Top Ten Houseplants by our Buffalo correspondent.

• Rick Darke Loves Grasses gives just an introduction to this highly opinionated advocate for both native plants AND ornamental grasses. More coming from Rick soon!

New on Sustainable-Gardening.com

• Our newest contributor is Professor Jeff Gillman of the University of Minnesota Department of Horticulture.  He’ll be reporting quarterly on Hot Topics in Hort Research.  He’s also contributed an article about Hardy, Disease-Resistant Roses, and one about No-Till Gardening.

• Professor Linda Chalker-Scott covers the controversial topic of Wood Chips as Mulch.

• How to attract butterflies gives the real dirt about those high-maintenance feeders, and what plants really work.

• Finally, a summary of the delawning projects in my very own Maryland garden.  

The Roving Garden Writer/Blogger

• Who says there’s nothing for gardeners to do in the winter?  Why, in the past month alone I’ve attended seminars at Scott Arboretum and Brookside Gardens, heard the irrepressible Rick Darke speak at the National Arboretum, toured  pointesettia growing facilities at Homestead Gardens, and joined in seasonal festivities at the American Horticultural Society headquarters at River Farm in Northern VIrginia.

On the Home Front

• This month I acquired my very own vermicomposting operation, and my garden was assessed for the possible addition of a rain barrel by AquaBarrel owner Barry Chenkin himself.  No decision yet.

• And with some mild days for gardening I’m planting freebie bulbs and raking.  Always with the raking - from about 45 deciduous trees.

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The latest newsletter has been delivered and is archived in full here, with off-topic sidebar. Below are the bits that are new to this blog.

In the News 

• Swiss ethicists consider the feelings of plants.  No kidding.  It’s the GMO argument.

• Bottles made from plants?  What will they think of next? The EarthBottle is from the ag guys at Clemson U., a "natural polymer-fiber bottle that’s recyclable, biodegradable, petroleum-free and stronger, lighter than glass."  The potential to replace plastic is huge! (Hat tip to Project Green Industry.)
  

• The Economist opines on the coming greening of gardening, especially in response to global climate change.

• Also via Project Green Industry, nursery websites like this one in Massachusetts are touting their sustainability efforts.  Good idea!
  

 
Lawn Alternatives Going Mainstream?

Lawnless gardens are all together on one page:   theory and practice, examples across the U.S., stories of meadows, contrary opinions, and where to go for more info.  Here are just some of the new articles about this hot topic:

• Two gorgeous lawnless native gardens by Pennsylvania designer Larry Weaner.

• California designer Michelle Derviss’s cool minimalist lawnless design.

• A Chicago gardener creates a cottage garden where her front lawn used to be. 

What to do with those leaves

• Slate weighs in on the great leaf debate. 

• An article about an New York horticulturist’s advice about leaves yields some great comments. And here’s his article in Fine Gardening about leaves, in which he encourages less raking.

More new stuff on Sustainable-Gardening.com

• Scott Arboretum Curator Andrew Bunting writes about "Peat-Free Potting Soil"

• And Liz Haegele, another Scott expert, covers Kitchen and Apartment Composting.
  

• New contributor Joe Lamp’l (joe gardener) offers "To Mow or Not to Mow" - a fun comparison of Joe’s own lawn with a "wise Master Gardener’s" conversion to all-Mondo grass - very cool!  Also, the case for Grasscycling - going bagless for the environment.   And about Integrated Pest Management or IPM.

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Blog version.  The complete version, as mailed, is archived here.

Hot Topics

• Help the federal Ag. Department search for the lost ladybugs.

• Californians have to take their water very seriously.

• I asked for reactions to the controversial notion of banning of leaf-blowers, gas-powered or otherwise, and readers had plenty. 

• Then there’s the hot topic of - outdoor fires, even if they’re in those cool-looking firepits all the designers are installing.  Maybe not such a good idea after all?

• Organic Lawn Care advocate Paul Tukey gives us an update on the National Mall demo site, and the details of switching to organic for a healthier AND better-looking lawn.

• The Great Wood Chip Debate attracted comments from at least one nationally recognized experts and possibly more.

• There’s a bit of controversy in the U.K. over the not-strictly-organic approach of the new host of the popular TV show "Gardener’s World".

• Creeping perennials as lawn replacement  are thoroughly explored, with lots of product reviews.
  

• Hummingbird feeders - can you handle the commitment?  Readers recommend their best hummer-attracting plants.
  

• More on going lawnless, this time from California writer Amy Stewart, and readers offer plant suggestions from other regions.

Photo:  Meeting "Top Hort Guy" and Writer Allan Armitage in Portland.

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The September issue is out, and archived here with the sidebar.  Some bits that are new to this blog are:

In the News

• The EPA finally issued its new emission standards for mowers and blowers, as reported here.

• Still more reports of lawn wars, this time in Ottawa.  Oh, and this one in Lansdale, PA.

• The NY Times shows us a sustainable landscape, and reactions to it differ.

• Great update in the Chicago Tribune on plastics in the ag and hort industries, only about 1% of which are recycled (versus 25% or more in the beverage industry).  Lots of encouraging signs at the end of that article, though.

On the Blogs

• GardenRant had a meaty debate about street trees.  First, the con position from our California contributor, then the pro-street-tree position from Buffalo.

• Gardeners weigh in on the term "invasive" and what information they really need about plants.

• Gardeners tell wonderful stories (in the comments) about their favorite wildlife encounters in the garden.

• Golf, will it ever be green?

• Another hot discussion of faux lawn, after learning that celebrity environmentalist Ed Begley has one.

• Great reports of hummingbird-attracting plants in the comments, and feeder instructions galore.

New on Sustainable-Gardening

• It’s time for some VINES.  Like crossvine, a great American native, or American wisteria, the better behaved alternative to the Asian types.  Plus, climbing hydrangeas, and hardy kiwi vine.

• Check out Stuart Robinson on "Using Rubber Mulch in the Garden".

• Lise Mahnke in Denver explains the "7 Principles of Xeriscaping".  She also contributed "How to make your own solitary beehouse".

• New contributor Billy Goodnick provides a fair-and-balanced overview in "Pro’s and Con’s of Faux Turf" - in his usual lively style.

My So-called Second Career

• On the writing front, I delivered my first article to the nice folks at Organic Gardening  Mag - scheduled for April of ‘09 - about spring garden coaching.  And I have another coaching story in the works for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. 

• I talked about urban and sustainable gardening to an Elderhostel group visiting D.C. and they were great - living up to the many good things I’ve heard about them. 

• Next up - the speaking gig Amy Stewart and I have in Portland, Oregon this week at the Garden Writers Association annual meeting.  The topic we’ve been asked to cover is "Blogging Success Stories"

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