What's New Here
- New contributor Billy Goodnick provides a fair-and-balanced overview in "Pro's and Con's of Faux Turf" - in his usual lively style.
- Debra Teachout-Teashon declares that "My gardening practices aren't so out there after all!" referring to her life-long devotion to organic gardening.
- C.L. Fornari offers some great "Carefree Perennials" for sustainable gardeners.
Susan with Roger Swain
- Ginny Stibolt, sustainable gardening expert extraordinaire, urges us to "Just Say No to Poisons."
- And back to my contributions, it's the time of year to plant grass seed and How to Start a New Lawn gives you the step-by-step - and why you might want to buy sod instead. There's also info for people whose lawn is thin and getting weedier, who probably need to Overseed the Lawn; and for people with spots, there's Patching your Lawn.
- Poison Ivy Update includes the latest advice from real gardeners, some garden writers and even a famous horticulturist.
- Weeds and Weeding, an overview. Weeds ARE on our minds here in late summer, right? So I've also compiled Weeds in my Garden, a directory with photos.
- Gardeners have no choice but to Deal with Mosquitoes.
- In answer to questions from several coaching clients, I've written Removing Stumps the Safe and Easy Way.
- Container Gardening includes design considerations, planting, care, and plant choices.
- Plants and Design for Screening includes my favorites and recommendations from Scott Aker of the National Arboretum.
What's Sustainable Gardening?
- "Sustainable" typically means not requiring outside inputs, but how does that apply to gardening? Sustainable gardens are more the ideal than the reality because without humans to take care of them, they'd just revert to forest, at least here in the East.
- So we minimize inputs like fertilizer and supplemental water. We use "earth-friendly" practices like improving the soil. We're strictly organic or pretty close to it. And include plants that support wildlife in our gardens.
- On this site and in my garden-coaching, attention is paid to sustaining the gardener, too. Call it low-maintenance gardening but more importantly, it's low-drudgery. It's also gardening for the small of budget, with tips for how to use what you've got, get free plants, et cetera, because this is real gardening for regular people .
- But the focus here is on teaching gardening - the growing of plants for their beauty, for their many positive contributions to the environment, and because homegrown food is just better.
- If there's a commonly accepted axion of sustainable gardeningit's this: Right plant, right place. Very pragmatic, very clogs-on-the-ground. And that's my focus here - on how plants really behave in our gardens and what really works to keep them and the soil they grow in healthy. For more on definitions of "sustainable gardening," see my article on GardenRant and some terrific comments.