Photo by White House photographer Chuck Kennedy
Readers: Thanks so much for reading what I've had to say this past year and I promise – well, more of the same but with lots of video. Toward that end, I've been struggling to learn Adobe Premiere Elements 8 all day – and mostly watching it crash my computer. Yes, it seems that there are no video editing programs that work easily for everyone, yet. All this crap had better at least keep my brain cells too busy to waste away.
I'm signing off in deep frustration but not to worry – there's something happy chilling in the fridge. Be safe tonight, and in the new year be healthy and happy.
Soon to be included in LEED certification for buildings and developments of all types, the Sustainable Sites Initiative Draft Guidelines are back for more public comment and better than ever. I’ve already sung the praises of this joint effort of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the U.S. Botanic Gardens, based on its first draft.
Highlights?
Its 5 "Areas of Focus" are:
- Hydrology
- Soiils
- Vegetation
- Materials
- And get this – Human Health and Well-Being
And on the subject of vegetation, it calls for the right plant in the right place, whether the plant is native or "appropriate" nonnative, but also for supporting biodiversity, reducing pesticide use and conserving water. They all encourage the protection and use of existing vegetation – because disturbance has its cost – and the use of trees to lower energy consumption.
This is JUST the kind of holistic approach that we need.
Anne Raver gave Sustainable Sites a very nice mention this week in the New York Times, quoting the good folk at the U.S. Botanic Garden.
Click here to see the report. The deadline for comments is Inauguration Day, so you won’t forget.
Know a gardening project that’s doing something cool for the community? Whether the project is increasing community involvement, beautifying the neighborhood, making sustainable agriculture happen or educating the public about growing, send them this link about the Fiskars Project Orange Thumb Awards. Encouraged to apply are community garden groups, as well as schools, youth groups, community centers, camps, clubs, treatment facilities, etc.
The deadline is February 17.
For your reading pleasure, the Project Orange recipients blog about their projects. There’s a sampling here and all of them listed in the right-hand column.
Full Disclosure: Fiskars is the newest sponsor of "the works" – this blog, the website and the monthly newsletter.
So a big welcome to the folks who’ve been making tools since forever (would you believe 1649?) in a little town in Norway.
Note the absence of "Christmas" colors because really, isn’t there enough red in our lives right now? So I present one of the many lovely sights at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden around the holidays. Sights designed to wow everyone and alienate no one. Light shows at public gardens are great that way.
Here’s wishing all your winters are bright and holidays even brighter.
I went visiting this week, to the garden of Robin at Bumblebee Blog and Examiner.com (about an hour east of me near the Chesapeake Bay) and discovered not one but two blog-post-worthy gardens. On GardenRant I wrote about her stylish kitchen garden, and here I’m hoping to inspire my coaching clients with photos of her four-season foundation garden.
The best thing about this garden – to my eyes – is all the evergreens, plants that are basi
cally forgotten most of the year and certainly when people are excited about gardening, driving to the garden center, and buying what looks good – whatever’s in bloom! You know what that means? Those evergreens don’t get bought, unless the gardener’s been at it a while O
R gotten advice from a professional.
So, what’s here? Framing the front door are two ‘Green Giant’ arborvitaes and some ‘Gulftide’ osmanthus, a nonberrying ‘Harbor Dwarf’ nandina, and , with ‘Encore’ azalea – all evergreen – and some impatiens in front of them.
And in the close-up below, the simple planting along the front of the house farther from the front door, thus not wanting to call attention to itself, are good-old Ilex crenata ‘Compacta’ and ‘Dragon Lady’. Like boxwoods and ‘Otto Luyken’ cherry laurels, also good choices for this northern exposure, they look good every day of the year. Summer brings out the easy-care hostas and ferns in front of them.
Now how hard is that?
Also known as Gardenblogger Bloom Day .jpg)
Here’s a very deliberate combination of beauties that bloom at the same time: 2 lacecap hydrangeas, spirea ‘Anthony Waterer,’ and an assortment of astilbes. There’s also closer-up photo of the hydrangea/astilbe combo over on GardenRant.
My other favorite scene right now has this oakleaf hydrangea as the centerpiece. It’s also gorgeous in the winter, thanks to exfoliating bark.
Sustainability Report
Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed the garden porn as much as I have – and looking through dozens of photos was pretty trippy, I must say. But we’re trying to be informative here, so it’s time to talk turkey.
These lacecap hydrangeas gets nothing from me all year except supplemental water during periods of drought, and the removal of dead flowers – only. Other than that I spare them the Felcos because their spent flowers look good for months and I’d rather keep it around.
The spirea gets a lot less water – it’s a tough, adaptable plant. Pruning-wise, I’ll shear and shape in a week or two after these blooms are done, and be rewarded with a very nice rebloom.
Astilbes are reportedly both thirsty and hungry, which would make them one of the higher-maintenance perennials. But I grow a large variety that bloom just fine with no fertilizer except leafmold mulch every spring. I leave their spent flowers alone unless and until their foliage goes crispy later in the summer, at which point I shear them to the ground. That results in new foliage that looks fine for the season, but no reblooms. I do give astilbes some supplemental water, though not a lot.
In full shade, oakleaf hydrangeas are as close to literally sustainable as any plant in my garden, including the large oaks. It gets nada! It’s indigenous from the Carolinas southward, I believe.
