liar, liar pants on fire: my seed order, part 2

Since I put this list together 7 years ago but I have now started to favour Kings Seeds (Suffolk Herbs) for my vegetables. I also get many more seeds from clubs and organisations rather than merchants.

Decorative gardens can benefit from growing seedheads for their own sake. Flowers With Seedheads

Foliar feeding does at least some good. First and foremost it makes me, the putative garden expert, think I am doing some good for the plants in my care. If the fertilised plants pick up any extra nutrients so much the better. If they also repay me with a better crop or display then wow!

You may like to “put de lime in de coconut” or “pina coladas in the rain”, but these two products (pictured below), while both made from the flesh of the coconut, are NOT the same.

South Carolina’s thousands of dams are used to establish ponds, lakes, and reservoirs that provide flood management, hydropower, drinking or irrigation water, recreation, and wildlife habitat. For many of us, the dam that helps form our backyard fishing pond supports Saturday afternoon fishing with the kids. To protect the integrity of your dam and the benefits of your pond to you as the pond owner (like that trophy bass habitat!), you should plan to perform regular inspection and maintenance of your dam.

Green and Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum) is sometimes referred to as Goldenstar. It is a native groundcover that grows to four inches tall and does well in dappled shade or morning sun and afternoon shade. It is related to asters and sunflowers. The plant grows like a strawberry with a rosette of leaves and creeping stolons that root at each node and give rise to new rosettes of leaves and flowers.

You know by now that it's always good manners to show up to an event with a little trinket for the host in tow. But if you're feeling stumped about what to bring with you to the next summer get together that's on your calendar, we're here to provide you with a whole new list of ideas that are sure to be well received.

100 Great Plants: From the English newspaper The Telegraph, a list of 100 great garden plants. (An aside: Why don’t our newspapers have garden sections like this one?)The Ambergate Lists: From Ambergate Gardens, Mike and Jean Heger’s nursery in Minnesota, a series of great lists covering topics from plants for deep shade to plants that don’t require frequent division.Vinnie Simeone’s Lists: Vinnie manages historic Planting Fields Arboretum on Long Island, my old stomping grounds, and has taught me many things. His personal website includes links up top to lists as desired as deer-resistant plants and plants for

I HAVE A LOVE-HATE THING GOING WITH MOWING: I always feel it’s a time-waster, but I am also always relieved there’s “mowing to be done” since that means legitimate escape from things like writing the book I have due. Mowing has immediate, tangible results; you cut grass blades, and they look cut. You try to write and, well, sometimes you don’t get any words. So tell me, do you li

I REPEAT MYSELF A LOT, AND HERE I GO AGAIN: Think fall (yes, fall) in early spring, when the urge to shop for for trees and shrubs tugs insistently. Think fall, and think winter, too.

AS I KNOW I have already mentioned (do I sound desperate yet?), I am waiting for things to happen, for sure signs of life as I crawl around the leaf litter these tenaciously cold days, uncovering possibilities. What am I waiting (hoping) for? Things like the fiercely alive, sharpened-looking shoots of hostas.

SO YOU ALREADY HEARD that the secret to making a year-round garden is to think all seasons, all the time. Yes, yes, I know it’s very un-Buddhist to be outside the moment (and believe me, I realize these things as I write my posts and worry about myself). But whether in the “be here now” or not, here’s my next tip: