In the News
- MonkeySee.com launched in beta, and that link takes you to my video about Sustainable Gardening. I'm hoping that lots of regular homeowners stumble upon it and find out how easy it is to give up the chemical warfare and high maintenance in their gardens.
- Good news! The much-anticipated guidelines for sustainable landscaping were released by the Sustainable Sites Initiative. As I wrote in my review, these folks are doing a great job, and their work should have a huge impact on development in the U.S. The 107-page report is here, and your comments are solicited — until January 11, '08. Kudos to the American Society of Landscape Architects, the U.S. Botanical Gardens, and the Johnson Wildlife Center.
- Organic lawn care is on trial in that most public of spots — the National Mall in D.C. More kudos — to SafeLawns.org and the National Park Service. Read more about it here.
- Organic nursery practices are growing, big-time. Read all about it in the San Francisco Chronicle. The story's by GardenRanter Amy Stewart.
- The New York Times gave readers some helpful guidance on organic foods, especially about which ones matter the most.
- Less helpfully, the Times published this piece about converting yard waste to biomass energy.
From the Blogs
More Super-Sustainable Plants
Acuba Japonica is extremely drought-tolerant, can take full shade, and is evergreen. Want more? Okay, it grows fast and can be propagated easily from cuttings.
Carex is an very useful but underused plant group — evergreen ornamental grasses for shade. There are even native and nonnative species to choose from.
On the Home Front
- What started as a sod reduction campaign gathered steam and just wouldn't stop and now there's no sod at all on my property. This is huge! And I'm not really anti-lawn, just anti-synthetic lawn. Honestly, I've always hated lawn care and from now on it's MOW NO MORE for me. Next season I'll have full reports about what's replacing all that lawn.
- I've been spending about 2 hours every day removing sod, regrading, moving plants — having a blast! But all those hours seem too darn quiet, so I'm getting myself an iPod, the kind that's also a clip-on for your shirt — perfect for gardeners.
- I showed off the color in my garden for the October and November GardenBlogger Bloom Days.
More New Stuff on Sustainable-Gardening
- I've compiled what I hope is the best current thinking about Compost, but did I succeed? Send me your additions, corrections and all manner of feedback. It's also being posted on the DC Urban Gardeners website, with some local information added. Compost is THE most asked-about subject on the local gardening listservs I participate in, so people want and need to know. Here's my compost page.
- Design is a new section on the site, with links to my favorite design idea sources, and another new feature I call Cool Combos. They're what we call garden porn.
- Viburnum nudum 'Winterthur' is getting awfully popular, but if you want berries, be sure to read the terrific discussion on DavesGarden. It's linked on that page.
- The ground cover Liriope is a mixed blessing , depending on which species you use and where you put it. Follow that link to read more, and consider yourself warned.
- Easy Recordkeeping is a new Tip with Teeth. If "garden journals" turn you off, this is the alternative — minimal recordkeeping. (Aren't garden journals these days blogs, anyway?)
- The RSS Feed is here — because you asked for one. Here's the link to subscribe. And please let me know if you have any trouble with it.
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Susan is also blogging at GardenRant.
