Gardening Websites And Blogs I Love To Visit Often

Toss of crocs and gardening
tools on orange background.

Quilt fabric
by Dan Morris
for RJR

Gardening Fabric

Blooming Writer
Garden Rant
Deborahsilver
Carolyns Shade Gardens
Ozarks Gardens
Square Foot Gardening
FourSeason Farm
P.Allen Smith
Karens Garden Adventures
The Helpful Gardener
Garden Web
Plant Care
National Gardening
Home And Garden
Kids Gardening
Rockwood Gardens

Photo Monticello Garden

We sold over $25,879. worth of our
little plants right from our driveway in a
matter of about six weeks--

To forget how to dig the earth and tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
-Gandhi-

"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it brings."
-W.E. Johns,- The Passing Show (1937)

It's easy to bring beautiful spring colors in your home.
All you have to do is force branches from your favorite bush.

Here is an excellent article on this topic from the Horticulture Dept of Washington University.

Article

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Green Houses
American Classic Green Houses
BC Greenhouses

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I found this article on Maintening Container Gardening on The National Gardening Association site
Follow them and you will have fabulous flowers pots on your patio.
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Employees of USDA-Agriculture Research Service in Urbana, Illinois teamed up with the University of Illinois to establish a unique Peoples Garden this year. The garden was named 'Three Sisters' because we grew variations of the three main agricultural crops of some Native Americans: maize, beans and squash. The garden produced sweet corn, which has been improved in multiple, significant ways by the University of Illinois. We also grew 14 cultivars of edamame developed in Urbana by retired USDA-ARS plant breeder Richard Bernard. In addition to green beans, we also cultivated several types of pumpkins, recognizing Illinois grows 95% of the nation's pumpkins used in processing.

pumkins picture and story

Plant a Row for the Hungry
by Jeff Lowenfels

It was a cold night in Washington, D.C., and I was heading back to the hotel when a man approached me. He asked if I would give him some money so he could get something to eat. I'd read the signs: "Don't give money to panhandlers." So I shook my head and kept walking.

I wasn't prepared for a reply, but with resignation, he said, "I really am homeless and I really am hungry! You can come with me and watch me eat!" But I kept on walking.
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The incident bothered me for the rest of the week. I had money in my pocket and it wouldn't have killed me to hand over a buck or two even if he had been lying. On a frigid, cold night, no less, I assumed the worst of a fellow human being.

Flying back to Anchorage, I couldn't help thinking of him. I tried to rationalize my failure to help by assuming government agencies, churches and charities were there to feed him. Besides, you're not supposed to give money to panhandlers.

Somewhere over Seattle, I started to write my weekly garden column for The Anchorage Daily News. Out of the blue, I came up with an idea. Bean's Cafe, the soup kitchen in Anchorage, feeds hundreds of hungry Alaskans every day. Why not try to get all my readers to plant one row in their gardens dedicated to Bean's? Dedicate a row and take it down to Bean's. Clean and simple.

We didn't keep records back then, but the idea began to take off. Folks would fax me or call when they took something in. Those who only grew flowers donated them. Food for the spirit. And salve for my conscience.

In 1995, the Garden Writers Association of America held their annual convention in Anchorage and after learning of Anchorage's program, Plant a Row for Bean's became Plant a Row for the Hungry . The original idea was to have every member of the Garden Writers Association of America write or talk about planting a row for the hungry sometime during the month of April.
Plant a Row for the Hungry

As more and more people started working with the Plant a Row concept, new variations cropped up, if you will pardon the pun. Many companies gave free seed to customers and displayed the logo, which also appeared in national gardening publications.

Row markers with the Plant a Row logo were distributed to gardeners to set apart their 'Row for the Hungry.'
Garden editor Joan Jackson, backed by The San Jose Mercury News and California's nearly year-round growing season, raised more than 30,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables her first year, and showed GWAA how the program could really work. Texas fruit farms donated food to their local food bank after being inspired by Plant a Row. Today the program continues to thrive and grow.

I am stunned that millions of Americans are threatened by hunger. If every gardener in America--and we're 70 million strong--plants one row for the hungry, we can make quite a dent in the number of neighbors who don't have enough to eat. Maybe then I will stop feeling guilty about abandoning a hungry man I could have helped.

NOTE: Jeff Lowenfels has the longest running garden column in the United States.

Get involved! Make a donation or learn how to start your own Plant a Row (PAR) camplaign by contacting the Garden Writers Association. Thank you!

Plant a Row for the Hungry

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Sleepy Hollow Bird House. Part of our Classic Series, this intricately carved bird house with its many details will attract your feathered friends. It will allow them to roost in style. Includes bracket for easy mounting.

BirdHouse