February 2004

They listen: "Thanks for your interest. I've added a RSS feed for our gardening content. It is located at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/rss/gardening.rss You can also visit http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/rss/ for more information about other RSS feeds we offer. Mike Mike Thompson Online Developer, Seattle Post-Intelligencer" This is a newspaper that features two columnists, Anne Lovejoy and Marty Wingate, who [...]

I wrote this essay several years ago after the winter of 1993-1994 and I dig it out to reread every winter in which I feel I'm suffering excessively. Of course, no matter how bad your winter is, someone else can top you, so I don't promote this as the worst cabin fever anyone ever had, [...]

Okay, I have my own definition of progressive. A progressive newspaper in my book is one that has five garden columnists and has RSS feeds available for their site. Unfortunately, the garden columnists are bundled in with the rest of the Lifestyles section, so there would be a lot of non-gardening stuff in there. Yep, [...]

I don't keep consistently good garden records, but one detail I have tracked faithfully since I planted my first flower, is the date of the first bloom around here. For you Southerners who have things blooming throughout the winter, I'm talking about the first visible bloom, when the snow has melted enough for me to [...]

Someone once commented to my brothers that I was an organized person. My brothers exchanged looks that said "Are you talking about one of MY sisters?" No, I'm not oganized. Sometimes I'm good at planning, or coordinating things, but I am not organized. If I ever had a filing cabinet, I would never waste my [...]

I was at Syndic8 looking for any gardening feeds I might have missed, and discovered that Garden Gate magazine has a weblog! Way to go! It looks good, too. Regrettably, it seems to be only for their tips, which I was already getting as an RSS feed. But they get five gold stars for being [...]

Any gardener who hasn't read Thoreau's book Faith in a Seed should hie her/himself to the library. It is one of those read a bit, think a bit, read some more books, and now is the time to read it. I'm in the thick of seed sowing now, trying to keep up with my schedule [...]

Sandy of Pollenatrix posts about all the lovely things she is growing inside. Scroll down the blog for some photos of her orchids. A wonderful balm of color to snow-overloaded eyes. It's almost as good as going into Lowe's greenhouse. (Yes, most of my thrills are cheap thrills.)

This article doesn't tell you all you need to grow a magnolia in Idaho, but it does give you an idea of some of the factors to consider.