Design

I'm thinking again about what you really need to know to become a better gardener (and maybe what I mean is a good garden steward). I love learning more about plants and gardening (that's what makes it fun) and the images with Thomas Jefferson's quote at the end of my wildlife gardening talks reflect that (hmm, notice the rabbit!) I mused about this some months ago , largely because one of our local extension offices was offering a class for the public on 'home horticulture' that was a less-intensive version of our SC Master Gardener program. But I had a significant 'stirring-the-pot' experience this morning looking over Ann Lovejoy's excellent book 'Organic Garden Design School' -- she wonderfully describes what my gardening companion and I have bumbled into doing in our formerly large grassy expanse. We've created our garden landscape not from a horticultural perspective but an ecological one, and our garden landscape has been inspire...

Ed, from Slow Cook , asked bloggers to post about starting a vegetable garden recently, in a post forwarded to me by a gardening friend (CEN). This is a topic I'm totally keen on . At the Garden where I work, we're having an event next weekend to promote vegetable gardening, with the tagline of 'Building Community, Growing Vegetables.' Those of us who enjoy growing vegetables know the joy of harvesting and eating from the garden, whether it's a couple of tomato plants or a series of raised beds or an expansive 'kitchen garden' -- and we're keen on promoting it to others. The first season in my 'main' vegetable garden My first vegetable garden as an 'adult' was modest. We'd just put in a fence (for our old boy, our dog Chessie), who wasn't prone to roam, anyway, but we sprung for picket fence in the most visible areas. I planted snow peas -- and this was just the beginning. My previous forays involved trying to plant onions in ...

I think this is maybe the question that I really had in mind (in my post yesterday). A question like that, though, makes it seem like all you need is the short list of topics or the top Ten list. Isn't learning about plants, gardening and the natural world (anything you're interested in, for that matter) a lifetime (or continuing) pursuit? I like to end presentations about wildlife gardening, or gardening with native plants, or vegetable gardening with this quote from Thomas Jefferson. It's often quoted, as it deserves to be.