David Speer

pick of the crop: get ready for Earth Day

Written on April 21, 2010 at 10:55 am , by David Speer

Here are some reading selections to get you ready for Earth Day.

The Chicago Tribune points out that one way to celebrate Earth Day is by eating leftovers.

The Chronicle Herald in Nova Scotia urges everyone to go for a bike ride, take a walk, or learn to garden for Earth Day.

And what better way to celebrate Mother Earth, than to plant a garden for kids.

In this English class, all the world’s a garden.

Sometimes the Earth can provide it’s own solutions, as when earthworms become a big help in the garden.

In an item not related to Earth Day, it looks like pruning in the wrong place could turn out to be a felony.

tulip get-together

Written on April 20, 2010 at 11:35 am , by David Speer

Garden manager Sandra Gerdes has some eye-popping tulip-and-other-stuff combinations going right now in the Better Homes and Gardens® Test Garden in Des Moines. What’s great about these is each has an “I could do this” quality. Let’s look at just a few of them.

Here, she’s staged the pink and white tulip ‘Ballade’ in front of a clump of ‘Geranium’ daffodils. The pink of the tulips jumps while their white petal tips and yellow centers blend with the colors of the narcissus.

This spectacular grouping catches everyone’s eye. ‘Gold Heart’ bleeding hearts pair with ‘Apricot Impression’ tulips for a blaze of color.

‘Apricot Impression’ figures heavily in this combination too. This time the tulips – just a foot or so away from the previous pairing – join up with their ‘Pink Impression’ cousins and the new-grown foliage of an early hosta.

This ‘Fringed Elegance’ tulip keeps complementary company with ‘Jack Frost’ brunnera. The tulip’s long, springy stem holds the lemon-sorbet blossom above the blue of the brunnera, waving at garden visitors to “look at me.”

One of the Better Homes and Gardens garden editors’ new spring favorites is this ‘Henry Hudson’ tulip. Here, Sandra has paired the tulip that holds orange-red blossoms only inches above its leaves with the low-growing groundcover ajuga.

pick of the crop: pets are gardeners too

Written on April 5, 2010 at 1:59 pm , by David Speer

Your pets will probably be accompanying you back to the garden this spring. The ASPCA has these tips to remind us that it takes just a little thought to create a pet-safe space. While you’re at it, take a look at our slideshow: 20 tips for gardening with dogs.

The Summit Daily News defines 15 common gardening terms.

The Daily Green asks, “What do beginning gardeners need to know most?” Their answers are here.

A little game of hide-and-seek in the garden can add a lot to your landscape’s design.

The LAist suggests seven things you can do to celebrate National Garden Month.

And the DIS Unplugged blog takes us behind the scenes at the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival.

First blooms in our Test Garden

Written on April 5, 2010 at 9:31 am , by David Speer

Sandra Gerdes, manager of the Better Homes and Gardens® Test Garden, got some great pictures of this year’s first blooms.

Chionodoxa and Narcissus ‘Little Gem’ are small flowering bulbs that grow only 5 inches tall, but they bloom so bright that a mass planting gives a real color splash in the early spring. They make a super combo — one of the earliest to bloom in the Test Garden – because they grow to about the same height and bloom at same time.

Hellebore ‘Golden Sunshine’ is one of several new hellebore varieties that Sandra planted last year.  This one really glows in the spring sunshine.

Hellebore ‘Pink Frost’ is another new one in the Test Garden. This one displays dusty rose flowers and stems.

Hellebore ‘Ivory Prince’, with it’s toothed foliage, has been in the Test Garden for a few years now and just keeps getting better. Sandra says hellebore flowers last two months or more in our garden.

Iris reticulata ‘Clairette’ with Scilla sibirica make an intense blue duet in the garden. This petite pair grow only 4-5 inches tall.

Sandra says, “Oooh-la-la! My favorite viola this year.”

This cheery little wonder — Viola ‘Penny Mickey’ — never fails to bring a smile to the gardener’s face.

Violas ‘Penny Orange’, ‘Penny Peach Jump Up’, and ‘Penny Orange Jump Up’ combine to make a bright, juicy-colored combination. Sandra says violas make a great carpet under larger bulbs like narcissus and tulips in the early spring garden.

‘Stressa’ is a Kaufmanniana type tulip with early flowers in red and gold.

These bright white flowers of Hyacinth ‘L’Innocence’ push up through rose canes and lamb’s ear in the Test Garden. And they smell wonderful.

Narcissus ‘Replete’ — a double daffodil — holds up blossoms that are fluffy and full of petals.

Narcissus ‘Cassata’ — a split corona type daffodil — produces blossoms that have a cup the color of lemon chiffon. The cups split open and lay flat against white petals.  They are usually the first of the Test Garden’s large daffodils to open.

Pick of the Crop: Spring, season of joy and tears

Written on March 29, 2010 at 10:38 am , by David Speer

The photo at left is the result of my pushing the season – trying to make it be spring in Iowa before it was really ready to be. I may have unplugged the heated birdbath one day too early.

Also pushing the season is my good friend The Planting Queen. And although she’s talking about going naked in the garden, it’s got nothing to do about the “topless in the garden” debate going on in Colorado. (Google it if you want to know more. I got 617,000 results for “Colorado topless gardening”) I’ve been trying to avoid the topic, but Deb’s blog forced me into talking about it. Honest.

The birds in my yard didn’t have to wait long for the birdbath to thaw today, so they didn’t suffer too much. But the BBC says the cold winter was very hard on songbirds in the UK.

USA Today is ready for spring, too.

But the Irish Times carries a humorous column (at least it think she was being funny) about too much blue-sky thinking about gardening. Just keep in mind that she’s right about some gardening projects ending in tears.

And then there’s that big seasonal to-do at Macy’s that lets us know that the season of joy is once again upon us. No, not the Thanksgiving Day parade.

pick of the crop: gardening is fun

Written on March 25, 2010 at 10:39 am , by David Speer

See, extension folks do have a sense of humor.

But this item is not funny at all. I agree with UK gardener Henrietta Hudson that the plant thieves who have repeatedly targeted her garden are “sick in the head.”

This comes under my category of ‘places you didn’t expect to find garden stories.’ But the JewishJournal.com has a very thoughtful way of using your garden to connect to your religion.

I do expect to find this kind of helpful garden article in the Christian Science Monitor because I do every week. Enjoy.

The Geffrye Museum in London uses its art collection to examine the role of plants and flowers in the home over the past 400 years or so. And here’s a link to a slide show of selected works in the exhibition.

I admire people who stand up in public and admit they made a mistake in the garden. It’s OK to make mistakes when you’re gardening. I once said, and still believe, that you’re not a real gardener until you’ve killed 100 plants. Or 1,000. Or 1,000,000. Just garden.

Debra Lee Baldwin reflects, ahem, on gardening and April Fools jokes.