Sustainable Gardening News - March 2008

    
In the News

• Growing food is all over the news, as seen in this summary.
• Are we unintentionally doping our plants every time we water them? Check out this report about PharmaWater.
• The New Yorker challenges simple carbon-footprint-per-mile calculations.
• Hey, who defines what's a "sustainable plant," anyway?  The nursery folks weigh in.
• Shearing roses works?  Radical notion, but check it out.
• How do the candidates compare on green issues?
• And check out the cool Sunflower Project.
  

On the Blogs

• When Good People Use Roundup laments how hard it is to be strictly anything. It asks: In these particular situations, what else would work?
• My first ever (blush) soil test is the story of the test, the results, and the question: Can I still brag about my soil?
• There were two meaty dissections of native plant ideology on GardenRant.  First Michael Pollan confirmed that he's still Against Nativism. Then Amy Stewart got sucked into the debate, asking if a grove of redwoods is really the best use of her tiny yard, and a lively discussion ensued.
  
• Yet another reason to use compost is its side effect of sequestering carbon.
• Confused about invasive plants?  Ask THIS guy to figure it all out - John Peter Thompson
  

What's New on Sustainable-Gardening

• What Carries a Garden extols the virtues of the lowliest of all garden "tools" - containers for hauling.

• Soil Tests are EASY, so why don't we use them? Even doing them the right way is easy.
  

• Footwear in the Garden covers what I really wear, and what different choices in footwear other gardeners make, however inexplicably.

In My Garden

• Virgin veggie-grower vows to do better next year recounts the seed-choosing dilemma, and how on earth to get them in the ground with the right amount of soil on top and my back intact.

My So-Called Second Career

• The coaching biz is HOT, thanks to a wave of publicity in the Associated Press, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek and the Washington Post.  Maybe this doing-what-you-love thing could actually work.

• I'm shocked to report that I'm doing a bit of public speaking.  It began with talks to college writing students about "Writing and Publishing on the Web" and has morphed into a full with-digital projection show given at DC's public libraries.  Coming soon - taking it professional through the DC Historical Society's Writer Series.  Gulp.
  

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Contact me via email: susan@sustainable-gardening.com