It’s taken me a while to get that I’m challenged when trying to talk, observe, and photograph in unison. This is not entirely new to my, uhm, imaginative brain style. But since my concussion, I’m further along on the continuum. Recently, one of my brain therapist said, “well, when you have a really disorganized brain style…”
Say what! I don’t think she meant that as compliment. I mean, who decided that straight-line thinking is the right way, and a more firework fanciful way of thinking is the wrong way. Hmmph.
Last week, I was not on top of my plant identity game. I wish to rectify that problem post haste, if you don’t count the week I waited to do it. And now that I’ve got it straight, I feel it’s only fair to tell you: Scleranthus uniflorus is a terrific groundcover, and quite possibly, you need it.
It’s been quite exciting, watching new planter boxes go up all around me. For a couple of weeks it seemed every day’s dog-walk yielded a new development. Then came the plants, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, strawberries, lettuces, kale…no wonder I’d come home hungry. Now that we’re almost in June (!) things are starting to settle down and I’m having fun watching things grow…
This post is personal, because in this busy brain of mine, all things are connected, and though I mean to write about gardening, I need to write this first. You may stop reading now.
Last summer a small group of Portland garden bloggers played host to 80+ bloggers from around the world. It was a wonderful opportunity to show off our city and its amazing gardening community. In that group were the publisher and editor of my two favorite gardening/plant/horticulture publications, Jim Peterson of Garden Design and Lorene Edwards Forkner of Pacific Horticulture.
That event was the first time I’d met Jim and Valerie Peterson, of (the new) Garden Design Magazine. They were sponsors of the event and graciously donated magazines for the attendees. I was a subscriber to the old Garden Design but completely unprepared for just how fabulous the new magazine is, in fact I hesitate to even call it a magazine, it’s so much more than that (both Garden Design and Pacific Horticulture end up on my bookshelf, so I’m calling them books).
Something Jim said in passing has stuck with me, that it’s all about the experiences, that’s what we remember, the connections we make with fellow human beings. Gardening can be a rather solitary activity but through blogging, facebook groups, local garden clubs, and focused “in-person” meeting opportunities we make these valuable connections. Since publications like Garden Design and Pacific Horticulture help to introduce us to each other, and take us to gardens we might not have the chance to visit in person, I think they play a huge part in our shared experiences. (more…)
Before blogs there were books. Or maybe I should say, before I read so many blogs I read a lot more books.
I have mixed emotions when I look at the 3 nooks where I keep my unread garden-related books. There is excitement and anticipation, I can tell you when, where, and why I purchased each title (or put them on my wishlist, from which they were purchased for me, by others). There is also a little guilt and regret, why haven’t I read them already! I must read them!
My biz partner Patricia equates plant propagation with visiting a nursery… “buying plants, that’s propagation right?” Well truth be told that’s pretty much how I do it too. After all it’s a plant lust mission to support our contributing nurseries, a JOB requirement!
My most successful (nonshoping) propagating experience thus far can be attributed to Mother Nature. Those plants that are supposed to be wicked reseeders? I rarely experience that side of their personality, perhaps due to my propensity for tidiness (I really do try to let them linger and go to seed). The exception is Euphorbia rigida, seedlings actually appeared! I’ve moved many of them around the garden, but love how these five plants placed themselves just so along the sidewalk and pathway in front of our house.
On the short list of ways I enjoy spending my time, and money, traveling comes right after buying plants. Or maybe they should be equal, because while traveling I can buy plants?
Wherever I venture I make a point of visiting neighborhoods. Walking up and down streets and seeing how the residents garden (or don’t) tells me a lot about an area. My most recent explorations took place in the Bay Area of California, a climate that sends me into plant lust overload. Seeing a garden like the one pictured below is escapism at its best!
However it is one thing to lust over something you cannot have, it’s another when you discover a new obsession that just might be in your growing zone. Let me back up a bit…
