Sustainable Gardening News

Snowdrops by Anguskirk, taken Feb 7 in Wiltshire, England.

In the News

• This is kinda disappointing: A California study concluded that the energy savings from growing shade trees on the west and south sides homes can reduce homeowners' summertime electric bill by about $25 a year. That's it? Details in ScienceDaily.
• More impressive (to me) is this New York Times report that large parts of the Northern Hemisphere could be cooled by 2 degrees if more sunlight-reflecting crops were planted. Nice to see people thinking outside the box...coz it's getting hot in that old box.
• From NASA, the best plants for cleaning indoor air.
• Urban Apiculture — can you dig it? It's raising bees, ya know. In apartments.
• HuffingtonPost readers sent in photos of their green roofs — check 'em out.
• And here's a very cool Los Angeles prototype for growing food on roofs.

On the Sustainable Gardening Blog

• There's an excellent new video about a really terrible invasive plant — garlic mustard, including how to identify it and then eradicate it. I'm hoping my neighbors are inspired by it to join me in getting rid of the damn stuff.
• Janet's Annuals — Sow 'em Now! reveals some self-sown, easy-but-gorgeous flowering annuals at the Smithsonian garden of Janet Draper.
• Sustainable Gardening in WaPo covers Adrian Higgins' terrific article about the Sustainable Sites Initiative. Definitely worth a read.
• Unraveling the Mysteries of Invasive Worms tries its best — because readers asked and I had to find the answers.

On GardenRant

• Lots of buzz about the White House. First Michele covers some fighting in the food-world over the chef's job. Then I propose Local Picks for White House "Farmer". This photo shows the Rose Garden in 1921.
• Why I Wrote the Green Gardener's Guide is a terrific guest rant by Joe Lamp'l.
• Tracy diSabato-Aust's new book is called "50 High-Impact, Low-Care Plants" — sounds like sustainable plants to me. Here's an interview with Tracy about the book.
• Another guest ranter, photographer Saxon Holt, reports on Sustainable Agriculture.
• There's new evidence that cityfolk need nature.
• And Elizabeth in Buffalo knows a thing or two about ridiculous laws requiring lawn and nothing but lawn.

On Sustainable-Gardening.com

• New contributor Allan Armitage covers the greening of his trial gardens at the University of Georgia in Jumping into Sustainability.
• Pint-Sized Planters Yield Bumper Crops, by Kathy LaLiberte, is crucial reading for me because I'll be growing vegetables in these planters on my sunny deck this season. I'm very excited.
• Kathy also covers How to Make Compost Tea, something I have yet to try. Looks like varsity composting to me.

Winter gardening-like activities

• I trucked down to Richmond, Virginia to attend the terrific "Gardening in an Era of Climate Change" conference at Lewis Ginter Botanic Garden. Hung out with some real characters.
• And Washington Gardener Magazine's 4th Annual Seed Exchange was another meaty winter learning opportunity, with speakers Janet Draper and Cindy Brown.

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