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 Friday, March 30, 2007
Sara Begg, Executive Editor
Better than Doing Nothing
I'm a bit of a garden lecture junkie. Even if I've seen a speaker and their slides before, I'll often sit through it again just to see what else I can pick up. The speakers who I can't listen to twice or three times however are the super-critical ones. I'm sure you've heard them before, they often show pictures of anonymous lawns strewn with garden ornamentia, wrought iron, and what Tony Avent might refer to as green meatballs (aka shrubs shorn into tight little balls). The idea is to point out what you don't want to accomplish in the garden. Everyone laughs knowingly, "thinking, ha ha, I would NEVER do that in my garden". I guess what bothers me though isn't the mean spirit of it--I'm imbued with my own mean streak that runs rampant from time to time--or that the owner is in the audience, its that like it or not, that gardener is trying and putting time into their garden. Taking care of an outdoor space. And that is something everyone should strive for.
This occurred to me today on my morning walk to work while I hunted for neighborly crocuses and snowdrops in bloom, since mine are all still in green sprout mode. My neighborhood consists of a range of houses and gardens. Big, well-cared-for houses are spread out between a mix of homes ranging from average to ramshackle. The gardens fall into the same range, some are well-planned out and maintained and others are, well, yards that are a total mess---long overgrown, sick shrubs serving as garbage receptacles, weeds as tall as a 3rd grader, and old appliances left to rot. One garden stuck out to me though. Maybe the gardeners don't have a lot of time, but they've given it some thought and planted one lovely pee-gee hydrangea. The rest of the area is mulched over, but free of weeds and garbage. It might not be my style and I might be chomping at the bit to give the owners my extra plants to fill in their huge gaps. But at the end of the day I can appreciate and admire their effort at making our neighborhood a little bit more fun and interesting to walk through.
Read Meg's Blog
Friday, March 30, 2007 1:18:25 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) 
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Monday, March 12, 2007
Sara Begg, Executive Editor
Spring is definitely on the way here in Boston. A new set of colchicum foliage is sprouting in the garden (the first group came up in January and got badly burnt by the cold), yet another reason to grow these pretty pale lavender fall bloomers. They give you green sprouts early. Kind of cheating, I guess, since there'll be no flower until fall, but they still give you that excited spring feeling.
Even with the warmer air blowing through town and the early signs of spring, I still need to seek out explosions of color elsewhere, either in magazines, books, and particularly, on the web. One site that I always go to at this time of year is Annie's Annuals. Annie--who is based in California--sells a riot of color, her plant listing is huge and made up of both common and unusual annuals and perennials, many of them heirloom cottage plants and California natives. The navigation on the site is easy and seductive. I often end up setting up a shopping cart, filling it, and then abandoning it when I realize there is still snow outside my window and shipping from California isn't necessarily the cheapest thing.
We ran a story on Annie a couple of years ago in our July/August 2005 issue. It is worth a read and we'll be uploading it to the site in a couple of days. But for now, here's a short list of Annie's 'Must Haves':
Helianthus 'Giant Sungold'
Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis'
Scabiosa caucasica 'Fama'
Agrostemma githago 'Milas'
Scabiosa atropurpurea 'Black'
Orlaya grandiflora
Nemophila menziesii
Viola 'Etain'
Wahlenbergia spp.
Alonsoa meridonalis 'Apricot'
All are pretty gorgeous, I've seen a few of these in garden action, but I've only grown one myself: Viola 'Etain' . This little charmer costs a little extra but it is definitely worth every penny, with its pale lemon yellow petals edged in a medium purple. Might sound wierd, but it is perfect.
Read Meg's Blog
Monday, March 12, 2007 8:30:05 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Thursday, March 01, 2007
Sara Begg, Executive Editor
The best way to get what you want for your birthday is to ask for it. At work, I requested a transplanting party. The Streptocarpus came from a plant that was originally a leaf cutting done 4 years ago here at Horticulture and the other plant (another type of gesneriad) is Chirita 'Chastity' which I bought a while ago from Logees. It has slender, elegant, pale pink tubes with dark pink streaks. I like the leaves of this plant because they look a bit like fresh, young lettuce--when you stand back five feet and squint your eyes.
Read Meg's blog
Thursday, March 01, 2007 6:02:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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