Here in Humboldt County, it's time to plant warm-season vegetables like tomatoes, zucchini and more. But some of us don't have a plot of land to work, and sometimes, there's not enough cash to buy a pot. I mean, have you seen the cost of pots these … [Continue reading]
Why are most garden hoses so ugly? It's as though twenty years ago, hose manufacturers decided to pick the most glaringly obvious shade of minty green for all their hoses, and never revisited that decision despite having ample reason to do so. I … [Continue reading]
I don't do many clothing reviews here on North Coast Gardening because most clothes made specifically for gardening are either not my style (I only like floral when it's thorny and goth), or the manufacturers are so busy thinking about the stereotype … [Continue reading]
Quick note - Wednesday's the last day to enter to win one of three of those elegant black hanging baskets from Discoveries in Gardening. Enter here! Kicking things off this Monday, Erin over at The Impatient Gardener gets into some tool geekery! … [Continue reading]
Years ago, when I worked at a local independent garden center, one of my favorite winter activities was creating moss baskets to sell. We used loose sphagnum moss to line the baskets, and stuffed the sides and tops with lettuces, annuals and herbs. … [Continue reading]
I'll admit it: I'm bad with containers. I love planting them, placing them and admiring them. What I'm not so great at is watering them. So when Eartheasy offered to send me one of these stylish triangular Triolife planters to test out, I wasn't … [Continue reading]
I'm a humble landscaper in a small college town, so when I got the email inviting me on an all-expenses-paid trip to Little Rock, Arkansas to meet P. Allen Smith and hang with some garden writer peeps at the 2012 Garden2Blog event, I was thrilled to … [Continue reading]
A month ago when I visited San Francisco, Sunset Publishing invited me (and a number of other garden writers) over to breakfast. Never one to turn down either free food or a garden tour, I accepted with glee, and ate as much of their fresh, delicious … [Continue reading]
One of the things I love best about being a garden writer, besides all of the gardening and the writing, is the loot. Getting to try free plants before they're even out in the nurseries? Yes please! My idea of heaven. … [Continue reading]
Every year or two, some horticultural marketing team gets a buzzing insect in its collective shorts about Gen X and Y and how we aren't gardening enough. The subtext is that gardening is a boomer activity and that at some scary date in the future, we … [Continue reading]
While I've been a professional gardener for, gosh, 16 years, one area of gardening that I have never felt very confident is in vegetable gardening. When I bought my own home a few years back, I finally began growing vegetables on my own plot of … [Continue reading]