Garden siteseeing in the US

Garden blogs well worth a visit

Welcome to Diggin’ It’s weekly trip to garden sites. Since last week’s virtual garden visits were to Australia, India, Norway, and Sweden, this week we’ll stay in the United States, checking in with gardeners in California, Maryland, Mississippi, and Indiana.

Out on the West Coast, Pomona Belvedere, a lover of plants and books, combines gardening and nature in Tulips in the Woods . This California gardener often grows old-fashioned plants that you don't see much anymore. She battles gophers, admits to killing every gardenia she's ever owned, and enjoys native plants as well as heirlooms.

On the East Coast, Christa maintains Calendula and Concrete, “organic gardening on the edge of Washington, D.C.” The Maryland gardener chats about the joys of Freecycle and giving away unwanted crape myrtles to someone in her area who was willing to dig them up from her yard.

This sort of sharing by gardeners has always gone on, but the Internet makes it much easier to find someone who can use what you don’t want.

I enjoyed seeing Christa’s heirloom veggies, especially the “fish peppers,” possibly so named because they went well with fish dishes. The variegated foliage makes them quite ornamental as well as edible.

Eve owns three cats and a dog and does her Gardening on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Did you know that there’s a plant with the common name cashmere bouquet? The tale is that the soap got its name from the plant. It could have been the other way around, though. These things are hard to track down sometimes. It doesn’t really matter. It’s an interesting-looking plant.

So is the succulent known as basketball plant. I look at a photo of it and think, I’d love to grow one of those. Not that I have a good spot for one, you understand. It’s just one of those plants that’s intriguing. I have whole lists of them – I suspect plenty of others do, too. I call mine the Someday List. Someday I'll have just the right conditions, the time, the money ... and will actually be able to find the plant. It's fun to dream.

In May Dreams Garden Carol talks about the [guilty] pleasures of mowing the lawn, even on the 25th cutting of the season. Not a PC topic these days, but this Indiana gardener doesn’t care. Among other reasons, she embraces her inner mower because she likes the exercise, combined with the thinking time that mindless work such as mowing gives you.

If you want to giggle, or at least grin real big, don’t miss her July 4 post on You Might Be A Garden Geek If… It has links to previous holiday versions, which are all cute, and, for me at least, hit way too close too home!)

Here’s No. 1 on the Fourth of July You Might Be A Garden Geek If...: When you go to buy fireworks, you are naturally inclined to get those with names like Blue Palm, Morning Glories, or anything that ends in "Fountain."

Our siteseeing time is up for this week. Next Thursday’s garden sites will all be in Canada. Join us then.