Garden 'siteseeing' - return visits
Every Thursday or Friday, we leave our own yard chores behind and pay Web visits to gardeners in every corner of the world. Today we're going to drop in on a few of the people who have visited Diggin' It at various times.
Cameron at Defining Your Home Garden lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., a beautiful and garden-friendly area. This week she shows how to get home gardening information organized with a spreadsheet. Something I sorely need! I've tried it before, but never kept it up. (I can take a notebook into the garden, but don't usually tote my laptop outside.)
On trick that I hadn't thought of was embedding a link to the catalog the plant was ordered from. That would be especially handy in winter, when you're dreaming of the next year's garden.
There's also a nice discussion of deer-resistance, which varies from place to place, and the effects that the vagaries of the weather have on growing lavender. Although she says she's lost some lavender plants, you'd never know it from the photo of her garden. Beautiful!
Heading north, JimCharlier practices the Art of Gardening in Buffalo. I'm going to filch from his profile because it describes what you experience better than I can: "I’m no great gardener. I’m no great writer either. I’m not even a good photographer. But I like gardens, I like design, I like to travel and like to share. So here’s some gardens I’ve visited, and when I can, I’ll show how I’ve incorporate what I’ve seen in my garden. A picture is worth a thousand words, so, if you don’t mind, I’ll have more photos and fewer words. If you’re looking for Latin names, plant lists and hardiness zones, this is not the site for you. If you’re looking for inspiration, ideas, and to see gardens you may never have seen, or would like to visit, this site is for you."
Tag along as Jim, an art director, rambles around his neighborhood -- love those old houses -- goes on Buffalo's Garden Walk, visits the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Garden and Amboise, France (where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last three years), and rants about the tomato-eating squirrels in his backyard.
I enjoy dropping by the Naturehills gardening blogs in Nebraska because I always learn something: which spring-flowering bulbs (besides hyacinths) are fragrant, growing currants, black (purple)-leaved sedums (so great for this time of year), and ninebark, a shrub I've never grown.
I especially enjoyed Elisabeth's post about planning a garden that fits your lifestyle. "Think about those lawn and garden tasks that never get done," she advises. "Chances are, they never get done because you hate them. Consider ways of making those tasks easier or making them go away all together."
The Happy Gardener at Garden Grower in Britain doesn't write about her garden as much as offer practical and detailed advice on everything from harvesting leeks and what to do about parsnip problems to where to plant hardy cyclamen.
Although it's a British site, Americans will be comfortable with the recommendations. For instance, the pages on clematis link to both the British Clematis Society and the American Clematis Society.
Be sure to click on cyclamen-flowered daffodil (on the left). What a delightful plant!
And we invite you to return to see what the Monitor's gardening site is up to. In the coming week, you can read about mushroom festivals around the US, fall's first frost, and introducing kids to gardening as well as the latest news in growing.
