Sustainable Gardening News

In the News

• Great coverage of the growing anti-lawn movement in the New Yorker.
• From Dow, an herbicide lethal enough to survive a cow's guts and produce toxic manure. Wow.
• Kudos to the Missouri Botanical Garden for their plastic pot recycling program [pdf], now winning awards. Started in 1997, the program has kept 300 tons of hort waste out of landfills.
• Treehugger reports some good news about switchgrass — that it improves the soil and is looks promising as a nonfood biofuel. Speaking of fuel, can kudzu be turned into ethanol? How about giant miscanthus? It's proving to yield more biofuel per acre than corn.
• In more plant news, rubber is being produced from dandelions, which may turn out to be THE low-cost alternative to trees.
• While there's still no definitive explanation for the Colony Collapse Disorder of honeybees, bumblebees aren't doing much better, reports Adrian Higgins.
• And the Boston Globe reports the no-surprise news that lead in the soil is putting a crimp on backyard veg gardening. City Farmer has more to say about that, and other contaminants.
• Great story about urban farming in Cuba — improving diets and creating 350,000 jobs.
• Troubled by deer in your garden? Hey, it could be bears — the kind that attacks gardeners.
• Here's a thorough update on weed laws in the news.
• Also on GardenRant, an owner's report about chimneas sparked a meaty discussion of firepits and outdoor fires of all kinds. Tempers rose!

New on Sustainable-Gardening

• Rainyside Gardeners' Debra Teachout-Teashon wrote "My gardening practices aren't so out there after all!"
• Garden Lady C.L. Fornari wrote about her favorite "Carefree Perennials" for sustainable gardeners.
• Florida's Ginny Stibolt urges readers to "Just say no to poisons".
• And back to me, I try to cover the lawn basics for early fall: "How to start a new lawn," "How to overseed a crappy lawn" and "How to patch bare spots." And thanks to Jeff Ball for all his help!
• Poison Ivy Update is all the latest advice, including comments from GardenRant readers.
• Weeds and Weeding is an overview of our Job One this time of year. Then in The Weeds in My Garden I get up close and personal, with photos.

My So-called Second Career

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New articles on OrganicGardener.com:

• Earthworms, those Fertilizing, Rototilling Wonders of the Soil
• Master Composters are Here to Teach
• Easy-Care, High-Impact Hydrangeas
• How to Water your Garden
• Find a Gardening Blog Near You
• Learn to Grow Food Organically and Sustainably

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