Lots of great discoveries around the web this week!

The Drunken Botanist

First up, Amy Stewart launched the website for her new book, The Drunken Botanist. I for one cannot WAIT for the book to drop, but since that’s still a year off, we shall have to console ourselves with the columns she’s been writing for the site. Elegant, botanically-inspired recipes and stories about – what else? Cocktails and spirits. Oh yeah, and plants!

Why are you still here reading? Go on over to The Drunken Botanist and check out her new site.

Organic eggs

Love eggs? Yeah, me too! Only, after having my own free-range birds, there’s no way I can go back to the insipid pale-yellow yolks of the usual supermarket eggs. My search for real, pastured eggs with bright orange yolks that shows the birds have been eating Real Food (you know, bugs and grass) has been a tiresome one, filled with pretenders (“free-range”, “happy hens”) that are only giving lip service to the idea of treating their hens with any manner of dignity.

I’ve found two brands locally that pass the flavor test and are from actual pastured birds who get to squabble and catch flies and generally have a proper good time of things: Vital Farms and Alexandre Kids Farms. No, they’re not cheap ($6-8.50/ dozen), but I would much rather eat fewer good-quality eggs than support places with sad chickens and nutrient-deficient eggs.

Anyway, if you want to know which brands are really doing good by their birds, visit The Organic Egg Scorecard.  For bonus points, check out the Organic Dairy Scorecard. I’ve been so relieved to finally KNOW which brands are worth paying for and which are best avoided if you have a commitment to eating fresh, healthy food from well-kept animals.

Top perennials

Erin of The Impatient Gardener, one of my favorite bloggers (seriously, she is so cute I just want to hug her!) asked me and two other bloggers to share our favorite perennial picks. Of course, whenever someone asks me a question like that, I choose to read it as selecting one of my many favorites, because it is completely impossible to choose just one.

The funniest thing is that the other two bloggers she asked both chose the same plant! No, I’m not spoiling the surprise – you better just get on over there and read the blog post yourself.

Garden eyesores

My latest over at Landscaping Network is about hiding garden eyesores. Every garden has them – those functional but ever-so-unattractive barbecues, air conditioning units, vents and propane tanks. I provide plant suggestions and pro tips for hiding these elements.

Extra credit: Check out Garden Up! by Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet. The book shares designer tips, extensive plant suggestions, and stealthy secrets for making the most of a small space (and that includes hiding unattractive elements).

Free reads

Lastly, I made a supercool discovery the other day on The American Gardener website. You can actually read full issues of their magazine online for free! While I am old-fashioned and still love the experience of a paper magazine, this is a great way of discovering whether you might like to subscribe. (I am going to!)

Reading a digital mag is a little confusing at first, but just click around to figure out how to navigate – it’s not like you can screw anything up. Hint: the button on the very top left is the one to click to view all the issues available to read online, so once you’re done with the current version you can go back and catch up on what you missed.

And if you missed the announcement a while back, Leaf Magazine is also available as a free digital read. It’s a great new magazine for anyone interested in landscape design, so definitely check it out if you haven’t already. Susan Cohan and Rochelle Greayer are the editors, so you know it’s worth your while.

That’s it for this week. Have you read anything cool online? Let me know in the comments below!

Monsanto Trial

The normally non-political Margaret Roach of Martha Stewart Living fame and A Way to Garden has spoken up about the Monsanto trial that starts tomorrow. Why is this important? Because Monsanto’s been genetically engineering seeds for common crops like corn, wheat and alfalfa so that farmers can spray their rows with the herbicide Roundup without killing their crops.

One of the many problems with this (beyond the fact that we’re all eating Roundup every day in our breakfast cereal) is that grassy crops like wheat cross-pollinate very easily. Not only have organic gardeners had their crops contaminated by the GMO strains, but Monsanto’s been suing them for having the Monsanto-trademarked strains of those crops in their fields. Their sheer nerve boggles the mind.

Anyway, Margaret interviews the founder of Fedco Seeds about it, and says in her introduction:

“This is not an easy subject to explain simply, so besides his answers, I’ve gathered some video clips and links that may help you get better informed. At the very least: Skip to the bulleted “to-do” list near the end and DO THEM!”

A-men. If you’re feeling angry and powerless, skip to the end of her post and get involved.

Happy Honeybees

Local journalist Kym Kemp has an interview up with her neighbor, gentle spirit and friend-of-the-bees Dana Bloomer. The interview was a realistic and interesting look at the lives of normal people who keep backyard bees.

I don’t know about you, but I’d love to keep bees someday. For one, I’m a huge fan of raw, unadulterated honey. Ever since I used bee pollen to help cure my seasonal allergies (I mean, what kind of landscaper breaks out into uncontrollable ah-CHOOS at the sight of a plant? That couldn’t go on), I’ve been a fan of hippie honey. Cloudy, unheated, with little chunks of propolis, pollen and wax floating about in it. Divine! What I love best about the interview is that Dana makes the process sound so normal – like something anyone could do.

Anyway, head on over, check out the photos and read the interview.

On a side note, Dr. Mercola talks about why you should never buy supermarket honey. Hint: it’s not honey!

NWF Triumph

I have been so proud all year to serve as one of only 14 landscapers in the United States who is recommended by the National Wildlife Federation. I love the mission of their Certified Wildlife Habitat program, which is to help home gardeners get inspired to create a real habitat for wildlife in their own backyards.

So it was with great shock that I read last week of their decision to partner with Scott’s, a company that I thoroughly disapprove of for their chemical-laden fertilizer and pest control products that cause more harm than good in the garden. Not to mention Scotts’ recent partnership with Monsanto to sell GMO grass seed!

The backlash to this partnership was instantaneous, and in today’s social media landscape, people were able to have their voice heard right away on the company’s Facebook page and via Twitter.

I didn’t think any of us were doing much good beyond drawing attention to a wrong committed by a company we have trusted, but now the NWF has backed off of their partnership with Scott’s. Read Carole’s post-mortem over at Ecosystem Gardening.

I’m relieved that this is over and that the NWF made the right decision in the end. I just really, really wish they’d made the right decision from the beginning. To know that while they were telling me that habitat gardens should be organic and not rely on chemical fertilizers, they were in talks with Scott’s to sell dirty, chemical-laden birdseed under the guise of environmentalism.

I hope there will be some changes at the top of NWF so that I can regain the trust and respect I’ve had in their organization. I truly believe the majority of the individuals working at NWF are good people with a genuine love for their mission, and it is very sad that the bad decisions of the top management has sullied that reputation. I dearly hope they will stand up and be true visionary leaders in the days and months to come.

Squee! Contests!

On a lighter note, anyone want to win some awesome free loot? I probably shouldn’t tell you this, because I’ve entered and I want to win, but Timber Press is giving away a copy of Free-Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom, along with a $50 gift card for chicken gear, a full set of chicken coop plans, and a pound of organic chicken forage blend seeds from Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply.

If I don’t win, I am definitely buying some of that forage seed blend. After reading Jessi’s book (I just reviewed it for The American Gardener Magazine), I’m all inspired to create some spots in my garden just for the chickens to enjoy, with mirrors here and there for them to admire themselves in, dust bath areas, and, yes, some plants just for them. Maybe it will stop them eating all my blueberries. A girl can hope, right? (More about the book in this video.)

Oh, and a second contest – Fiskars is celebrating the 45th anniversary of their often-copied-but-never-matched orange-handled scissors. While I personally am rocking the special-edition purple Fiskars scissors that I found a couple years back (score!), I gotta give props to a classic. Enter here to win a prize package of their scissors – just take a photo of yourself with your orange Fiskars, post it to their Facebook page, and you’ll be entered to win.

That’s all for this week! Have you seen anything cool this week? Let me know by leaving a comment.

. . .or garden extravaganza, as the case may be. This spring, there are a few cool in-person events that you won’t want to miss if you’re in the general region. If you live in. . .

San Diego, CA

Proven Winners is holding an Outdoor Living Extravaganza on March 3rd, a one-day retreat with four speakers, a catered lunch, and goodie bags with tools and toys for all attendees. Steve Asbell went last year and made me madly jealous. Who knows, maybe next year they’ll hold one a little closer to my Humboldt home? Get the details here, and if you’re not in CA, check out their three other locations this year – Grand Rapids, MI, Washington, DC, and Edmonton, AB. Edited to add: Laura Mathews has some great tips on why these types of event are so fun!

San Francisco, CA

February 23rd to the 26th is the 60th Annual Pacific Orchid Exposition, with the theme “A Salute to the Golden Gate”. Since the expo coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge, they’ll have a replica of the bridge made entirely of orchids inside the front entrance, as well as over 150,000 orchids to check out. And the admission fee goes to a good cause, since the orchid society’s pretty keen on saving the rainforests, as you might imagine. Visit their website for the details.

March 21st to the 25th is the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, featuring 20 gorgeous/ intriguing/ rant-worthy display gardens that will get your inspiration flowing, loads of awesome speakers including Fern Richardson, Debra Lee Baldwin, Lorene Edwards Forkner, Jessi Bloom and more. Visit their website for details.

Seattle, WA

This one’s coming up fast, so if you want to go, get a move on and buy your tickets! The Northwest Flower and Garden Show‘s happening from Feb 8th to the 12th, and just like the San Francisco one, has loads of knowledgeable speakers (including new friend Karen Chapman!), display gardens, vendors with cool garden gear, and more.

Succulents! Forget the “Year of the Protestor“, 2011 was the Year of the Succulent. From green roofs to succulent spheres, these low-maintenance, year-round plants have been everywhere. With Debra Lee Baldwin’s classy instruction in her books, we’ve been using succulents in rose gardens, container plantings, and some creative people have even used them as Christmas ornaments.

While succulents had some stiff competition this year from trends like edible ornamentals, vertical gardening, and gardening for wildlife, the fact is that succulents were a big win this year because they’re easy. You can’t kill ‘em, they make great gifts, they’re not too expensive, and if you have friends who garden, you can get into the succulent trend without spending a dime since they root so easily.

Succulent inspiration. . .

It’s with mixed emotions that I look back on what was hot in 2011, because I have a few pet trends that didn’t really take off (I’m particularly keen to see landscape designers embrace the use of natives in creative, NEW types of design).

So what can we learn from this succulent success, if we want to be a trend-setter?

First, be gorgeous. That helps. Native gardeners, I’m talking to you. Let’s be careful to take great photos of our native plants and try to show them in well-designed vignettes rather than looking scruffy in the off season. I’m all for honesty, but you don’t see Angelina Jolie walking around with bedhead and no mascara on, do you? We need to rep-re-SENT!

Second, give people the easy button. Succulents are popular because you buy them, you plant them, you ignore them, they look great. Things like vertical gardening may offer more satisfaction in some ways than a simple succulent planting, but it’s also not as straightforward. I think bloggers like me need to try to share easy ways of dabbling in the depthier trends if we want to see greater innovation in the world.

Third, offer it ready-made as a gift. A local friend Nadine has been selling some gorgeous succulent orbs and planters at our local shop The Garden Gate. Who wouldn’t like one of those as a gift?

Yet trends like edible ornamentals didn’t really take off in the same way – I’ve seen some cute lettuce bowls but nothing truly fresh. Same with planting for wildlife – I’d love to see a native flowering currant in a pretty pot with a little birdie ornament hanging on it to give people the right idea. Native plants as grab-n-go gifts. How cool would that be?

Anyway, congratulations on a well-deserved win, succulents. Your awesomeness couldn’t be touched, at least in 2011.

Stay tuned for my winner-and-loser predictions for 2012 later this week!

Planter at top and first two in the inspiration box are designed by Nadine Freitag. Photo of succulents as Christmas ornaments from Flora Grubb.

Today, I’m totally excited to get to announce that I’m one of the eight new Proven Winners Garden Gurus! I’ll get to have a sneak peek at some of the latest Proven Winners plants (and share photos of them in action), as well as write an article each month for their website. Edited to add: Wow! My article just went up, and it’s the first one to go live on the new site! Check out my introductory post here.

When Proven Winners first contacted me about this opportunity, I was delighted. Obviously I love their selection of both garden favorites and the more unusual plants (Like this wildly cool begonia!) but what I love even more is that they try to give gardeners the tools they need to succeed with their plants.

Some gardening companies can be stingy with the photos or the growing information about their plants – they just don’t make it a priority to help people succeed with growing them. But Proven Winners has tested their varieties so thoroughly that they stand behind their plants, giving advice for novice gardeners and experts alike, so that we can all have a great experience even on our first time growing a new plant.

For instance, check this out: It’s a huge variety of container recipes that are searchable via shade or sun requirements, color schemes, or the style of pot you have.

Even if you don’t use the exact plants they suggest, you can get inspiration on what types of foliage or flower colors go with Pretty Much Picasso supertunias, for example, or apricot Diascia. (I can tell you when I first saw Pretty Much Picasso, I knew I wanted it, but it’s so crazy I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it. This kind of stuff helps!)

Then, they publish these idea books which you can download for free, which are full of planting inspiration and guidance. And articles about topics ranging from why it’s OK to fail in the garden to how to go all True Blood with gothy dark plants.

What other company takes the time to equip gardeners in this way?

So I’m thrilled to be able to contribute to the new Proven Winners blog in the coming months. And I’m in good company! Here are the other seven ladies who will be joining me as Proven Winners Garden Gurus:

Carolyn Binder of Cowlick Cottage Farm
Jenny Peterson of Jenny Peterson Garden Design
Amanda Thomsen of Kiss my Aster
Dee Nash of Red Dirt Ramblings
Laura Mathews of Punk Rock Gardens
Niki Jabbour of Year Round Veggie Gardener
Jean Ann Van Krevelen of Gardener to Farmer

I’ll keep you updated about any new posts that go live over there. Thanks for celebrating this with me! I can’t wait to test out some of their new-and-cool varieties in the coming year.

I’m always on the lookout for really special gift ideas for gardeners, because we sure get stuck with a lot of decorative-but-mostly-useless trowels (I mean, does anyone even use trowels anymore? I’m a hori-hori girl myself!).

So when Easy Canvas Prints offered me (and you!) a free canvas print to try out, I immediately saw the potential.

I mean, what gardener wouldn’t LOVE to have that perfect summer day in the garden immortalized to look at all winter long? Don’t we all have a favorite photo or two that we want to get around to printing and framing?

While large-scale photo prints are nice, there’s something about having an actual canvas print that makes the whole production seem so classy and permanent. Like a real piece of art.

The process of ordering is fast: When you’re designing a canvas, you just have to find a clear digital photo (they have software that will crop it for you), choose what size canvas you want, and then choose what to do with the wrap-around bits on the side – either wrap the photo around the sides, or color the edges black. Since I don’t actually have a frame yet and just intend to hang my canvas print as-is, I chose for the edges to be colored black (I also thought it would be a good test of their printers, to see whether the black parts ended up perfectly aligned or not).

After ordering, I waited impatiently for it to arrive. And it was exactly what I hoped for. . . Clear, crisp quality, true-to-life colors, and yep, the black edges were perfectly placed!

Here’s the photo I used:

And here’s the finished canvas:

Impressive, right? I love how rich the colors turned out.

Want to win one for yourself or to give as a gift? Easy Canvas Prints has offered up a free 8″ x 10″ canvas print to one lucky winner. Just comment below for your chance to win!

EDIT: Jennifer P. won! Congrats, Jennifer!

If you want to get started turning your photos into canvas right away, they’re running a deal where if you “like” them on Facebook, you get 50% off your order and free shipping, which brings it into the realm of a reasonable gift for your mom, grandma, or garden club president.

Contest fine print: Easy Canvas Prints can only ship within the contiguous United States, and can’t ship to a P.O. box. I’ll randomly pick a winner on December 7th, 2011. Good luck!

Jack out in Oklahoma read about my native evergreen huckleberry, Vaccinium ovatum, and wondered whether it might grow in his area:

“Will this actually grow in Oklahoma City area? Or is it a borderline plant for our state?
Thank you,
Jack”

Jack, a little poking around online at the USDA website shows that the evergreen huckleberry native to my area is not native to Oklahoma – not even close. Its range seems to be California and the Pacific Northwest, and it tends to grow in forested regions.

While I love evergreen huckleberry and consider it a staple plant  in landscaping for the Pacific Northwest – it’s tough, needs little supplemental water, feeds local birds and provides habitat, is evergreen, and provides edible fruit for either humans or birds to eat – most of those qualities are due to the fact that it grows native here.

In Oklahoma, I would wager a guess that it would need supplemental water, you’d need to jolly it along and baby it, and the local birds wouldn’t be used to using it as a food or habitat plant, so the only birds you’ll attract with it will be generalist species like robins, which aren’t hard to attract to your garden in other ways.

Plus, while I do like that I can eat the berries, if I were considering planting a non-native plant specifically to eat the berries, evergreen huckleberry would not be my first choice. The berries are small and hard to pick, plus are kind of sour and are only good with hefty quantities of sugar.

So while evergreen huckleberry is cold-hardy in Oklahoma City (it’s hardy to Zones 6-8 and Oklahoma City is in zone 7), I would not personally plant it there.

Instead, call up your local agricultural extension agent (should be in the county section of the phone book), a local nursery, or your local native plant society, and ask them for suggestions for native shrubs that will grow well in your area. Tell them about the specific attributes that attracted you to evergreen huckleberry, and ask them about berrying plants for your region.

That way, you can get a shrub that’s well-adapted to your region, will attract your local birds, and will perform well without undue coddling and care.

Here are some resources for gardening with Oklahoma natives:

Oklahoma Plant Suggestions from PlantNative.org

Wild Things Nursery

Woody Plants of Oklahoma

Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens

Gardening is an intensely regional activity, and while national plant campaigns for things like daylilies might have you believe otherwise, the best information about which plants to pick is always going to come from people in your own region, and as close to your own home as possible.

I’m absolutely elated to have my first feature article in this month’s Fine Gardening magazine. It’s about four quick design fixes that homeowners can make in order to have a more beautiful garden with minimal effort.

There are five sets of “before and after” photos of gardens that I’ve worked on and designed, so each of the concepts has photos showing exactly what to do to get the same effect in your own garden.

Just to give you an idea of how long it takes to go from concept to article, I first talked about this article idea with Fine Gardening editors in October of 2009. I wrote the article in 2010/11, and editor Danielle Sherry visited early this year to take photos of the gardens, and tour a few other Humboldt gardens (just for fun!).

This kind of extensive planning and preparation is why I love Fine Gardening magazine so much. That, and the fact that they do their own photography for the articles, so the articles and the photographs always work together seamlessly. It was an absolute blast to work with them, and the entire magazine is always top-notch.

It’s not too late to get your own copy, as this is the December issue. You can subscribe here!

Great week in the landscape design world! Bloggers (and fellow members of the Garden Designers Roundtable) Susan Cohan and Rochelle Greayer are launching Leaf Magazine today. It’s like an outdoor Apartment Therapy in magazine form – delicious photos, fresh ideas, and some of the leading voices in landscape design and outdoor living.

From the press release, here’s what’s in their first issue:

Yarn Bombs in Seattle – Ideas for a front porch update – What to wear as the weather cools – Apples…history, recipes and more – A garden Before and After project in Long Beach, CA – A seasonal cocktail video – Creating warmth outside in autumn – A Moroccan inspired garden in Silver Lake – Inspiration from an island in Norway… and much more.

Best of all, it’s a free digital publication, so go, get your copy now.

Next up, the lovely Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet, authors of Garden Up!, are featured in the latest episode of Growing a Greener World. My local station doesn’t carry it, but you can watch the episode online right here.

I loved getting to see Susan and Rebecca share their tips for designing in small spaces, using vertical elements and design tricks to make a small space appear more spacious.

Last for today, Landscaping Network shares some great tricks for using color in the landscape. Featured with the article is a fantastic color wheel, with an inspiration board and some ideas about the emotional cues offered by each color.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s round-up! Let me know in the comments if you’ve seen anything cool around the web lately.

Had the honor recently of participating in a local event, Pastels on the Plaza, which pairs artists and local businesses for a morning of fun, debauchery, and pastel chalk up one’s snoot. All in the name of charity, of course.

Each business purchases a sidewalk square on Arcata’s plaza, and our artists come up with an original drawing to represent our business, and in four hours or so, actually draw it on the sidewalk square.

Yes – the drawing on the left? Was done in FOUR HOURS on the freaking sidewalk using dusty pastel chalk, people.  Can you imagine???

Getting to walk around and see all the artists at work, as well as check out their pastels when they’re finished, is beyond inspiring. Our well-known local artists like Duane Flatmo, Linda Parkinson, Joan Dunning, and Alan Sanborn all had squares, but what makes me the happiest to see is all the currently-unknown artists who create absolutely brilliant work under such demanding circumstances.

My artist wrote a blog post about the 2011 Pastels on the Plaza Event, so if you’re keen to see some of the best work of the day, head on over. And thanks for a fantastic square, Trev!