June 2011
26 posts
1 tag
The Monthly Garden Report for May
It’s official; this is the wettest spring we’ve got on the record books. If you want to find a wetter spring you’ll have to look at the tree rings of some ancient bristlecone pine. It’s been giving me a sense of what the climate was like when these mountain valleys were inundated by a massive lake at the end of the last ice age.
My personal theory for the five-plus inches...
May 2011
32 posts
1 tag
1 tag
Plant Arrangers V. Hoarders
For me, a favorite controversial topic in The Bad-Tempered Gardener is using restraint with plants:
“Strange that greed for clothes (hurray!) or ‘consumer goods’ (what they?) is vilified as ‘consumerism’, but greed for plants is applauded.” (p.17)
“Many people look with private horror at houses full of knickknacks. A garden full of the equivalent leads...
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
1 tag
Review: The Bad Tempered Gardener
If you really have no patience for a review, and only want to know whether The Bad Tempered Gardener is worthwhile, I’ll say this: I read it twice in less than a week, and I took notes. I never take notes. There were so many provocative ideas, notes became a necessity in this ramble through Anne Wareham’s thoughts on the gardening world, its media, its denizens, conventions, trends,...
“Ahh…the lawn. Here’s a trick that has helped: let the lawn grow tall...”
– From my comments on the post “The Garden Is Small.” It’s an idea worth its own post.
1 tag
Why Did You Not Tell Me About This Plant?
Clematis recta ‘Midnight Masquerade’ available through Edelweiss Perennials.
Because surely you blogging, gardening fanatics knew about it. There is no way possible a plant this excellent could exist and you didn’t know about it. So why on earth have I not seen dozens of posts about it? About the color? The fact its tough, long lived, and doesn’t need staking or a lot of...
The Garden Is Small
Maybe it all stems from being 5’3”. When you’re 5’3” you don’t feel short. You don’t really quite fit into petite sized clothing and you don’t feel people are towering over you. It isn’t until you find yourself next to some object that is exactly your height that you become depressed at the thought you’ll be 4’10” by age 65.
...
1 tag
1 tag
Given I post so many of Steve’s photos from his field trips, including the Dicentra uniflora we found last Friday, I figured I should feature his book as well. There aren’t really any good field guides for wildflowers for the Wasatch mountain range. They’re always for bigger regions or somewhere that isn’t Utah but that national publishers figure is close enough, like...
1 tag
Trophy Dandelion
Inspired by a post by James Rousch over on the GardenRant, I bagged this beauty Tuesday that chalks up a not to shabby 118.1 pointer on the PROWD scale.
A: 8 flower heads/buds B: 44.5 cm long C: 49.6 g D: Post rain and 60 degree temps honestly merit only 1 point on the adverse condition scale E: 10 out of 10 for complete extraction F: 5 out of 5 for pulling in this baby bare-handed
