useful stuff for holiday giving to gardeners, 2017

For those who are looking to buy a home for the first time, the feat can seem like quite the hurdle. With housing prices and interest rates still high, and a competitive market, it’s tough out there! And the number of first-time home buyers are dropping, too, because of those high prices—according to personal finance site WalletHub, 26% off home purchases were made by first-time home buyers in 2022, down from 34% the previous year.

If you have always wanted to know about the world of different Types of Dragonfly in the Garden, then this post is a must-read!

Peace is not just the absence of war it can be a reflection of a personal inner tranquility. To many gardeners peace may be a state of harmony with nature. It is a theme of several ‘hard landscape’ projects and sculptural works as shown by the selection of Peace gardens below.

Nothing says Christmas more than a poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima). Did you know that December 12th is known as National Poinsettia Day? Plant breeders have developed a wide range of colors in hues of white, purple, orange, and pink, but red poinsettias continue to be the most traditional color of the holiday season.

Our South Carolina water resources help producers grow the crops we eat, supply drinking water when we turn on the tap, and support industry and our outdoor lifestyle. It is important to recognize how we use water in our community so that we can each do our part to help conserve this important resource. Do you know who is the biggest user of water in South Carolina? It may not be who you think.

Start by considering what healthy eating means and what eating patterns are like for you during ‘non-holiday’ times. Referring to basics – use MyPlate to guide balancing and choosing from food groups and the US Dietary Guidelines for general health. Our plates should contain proportionately more plant-based foods – vegetables, whole grains, and fruit, and then lean dairy and protein sources. Focus on consuming nutrient-dense foods while decreasing foods high in sodium, sugar, and fat

Start a new holiday tradition with your family this year by making orange pomander balls. They can be hung on your Christmas tree as ornaments, attached to garlands, or used in a holiday centerpiece with live greenery. These delicious-smelling, clove-studded oranges will fill your home with a festive spicy fragrance.

His garden was not so far away from where I live, and were he here to welcome spring this year, I suspect that he, too, would be hoping for the best while poking about in the dirt as he cleaned up the beds.Every spring since then, in memory of Geoffrey Charlesworth, and of all the garden’s great creatures who haven’t made it to the newest season, I make a tradition of sharing a poem of his: “Why Did My Plant Die?”more about geoffrey charlesworth‘WHY DID MY PLANT DIE?’ is just one piece of the wisd

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE CONIFER, the “beautiful one” to your eye? I could only narrow my list down to 10, plant-mad person that I am, but with hints of the winter landscape in the cooler air, I’m thinking of just how important evergreens are. And not just to me. Coniferous trees and shrubs also provide important winter shelter for birds, and many small mammals depend on their seed, as do various bird species. Conifers’ value as nesting spots is another reason to plant more.

I’ve been open as part of their Open Days scheme for 15 years (hard to believe) and even before all that am proud to have introduced the Conservancy to what has become a signature project, the John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden (which was part of my “beat” when I was garden editor of “Newsday” on Long Island). Later I visited and covered many of their other projects in the pages of “Newsday” and then “Martha Stewart Living.” Read all about it–along with details of extra goodies like plant sales and guest lectures at this year’s open garden days at my place.And join me in saying a giant thank you to the Conservancy for all they have done for American gardens and gardeners.

“Vote for the Dinner Party,” the headline on Pollan’s story reads, says, and then the subhed: “Is this the year that the food movement finally enters politics?” It’s pegged to the looming vote on Prop 37, the California Ballot Initiative on the labeling of genetically modified food (which as Pollan points out is not some new invention, but something Americans have been eating for 18 years).  But it goes much farther, because as he says:“What is at stake this time around is not just the fate of genetically modified crops but the public’s confidence in the industrial food chain.” A must read (which will appear in print in the Sunday Times magazine).more on prop 37, with an infographicWANT TO READ MORE about Prop 37, and particularly about what companies support labeling and don’t–a shocking list, if you haven’t s

“The Northern cardinal–male version–is about as red as a bird comes, so no wonder that it turns up on Christmas cards,” says Ellen Blackstone, my friend at the public-radio show BirdNote, the repeat guest for our series of bird-themed Q&As.In the story that follows, Ellen provided me with green links to audio files from BirdNote’s archive that you won’t want to miss; click them. Information on how to hea