Yesterday I took these shots – of a modest group of plants that nevertheless look stunning in mid-January – as I was walking through my back yard and into the woods. First you see the boulder stairs that lead from my basement door down into my garden.
Then the two mosses above (names, anyone?) adorn the path through the woods. I've written before about this wonderful woodland that my property sits on the edge of, but continue to marvel over it – even after 25 years of walking through it. Yep, after living in eight different places around metro D.C., I found my spot and decided to stay put.
Winter's a lot more beautiful with the right architecture and some river birches, don't ya think? Like this view of the Mall side of the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. (Still, I believe, our hottest tourist attraction.) I was passing by the other day on my way to the Iranian Film Festival going on at the Sackler Museum. To complete the Southwest Asian experience, I took in the Falmana: Book of Omens tour while I was there. All free, of course – like almost all museums in D.C.
I've posted a different view over on GardenRant.
.jpg)
I've instituted a new feature over on my blogging gig that pays the mortgage, and the cool thing is that plant profiles there include the wisdom of actual experts working at the garden center. In this case, the beloved gardening educator Gene Sumi weighed in on just how sustainable – or not – winterberry holly really is. For you fans of Latin, we're talking about Ilex verticillata.
Blog edition. The whole newsletter is here.
Urban Gardening on the Web
Sustainable Gardening on the Web
My So-Called Second Career
I'm pretty excited about the garden-related trips I'll be taking this year. First to Long Island to visit Suzy Bales with a day trip to the NY Botanic Garden in the spring. And I wouldn't miss the super-fun Blogger Meet-up in Buffalo. Then the GardenRanters are talking to garden centers at their shinding in Chicago. I'm also pondering a trip to the Boston area, and still undecided on going to Dallas for the Garden Writers conference.
Round-ups are Fun
In the Garden.jpg)
Before/after clearing snow from an 'Ogon' spirea.
This is what a holiday card from a lawn reform activist looks like – in this case from Tom Engelman of the Grassroots Program in California. Attached was this extra message: that his patch of Buffalograss in Santa Monica had received no watering during December-January at all, and only every two weeks or so the rest of the year.
So I wrote to ask about this organic colorant – like what's up with that? And Tom wrote back:
Personally, I'm good with the brief (60-90 day) seasonal changes to my Buffalograss (around the rocks). However, I used the colorant as a teaching tool because 95% of folks in the West want year round green. So I want to show how to have your cake while turning off the water/mower for a few months. The picture shows a test of two organic colorants — one lighter and one darker. One was from this company. I'm still hunting down the ingredients for the other colorant but remember it being certified 'organic' by a California nursery chain.
NOW here's my question: If it's true that "95% of the folks in the West want year-round green," somebody needs to tell them they're in the ARID WEST, for crissakes. Time to change some norms.
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.
