Garden Rant

Championing natives—worldwide

You may remember that I posted on British gardening celeb Monty Don’s Around the World in 80 Gardens show, complaining that it was not available in the U.S. It’s still not, and we still don’t have anything close to this show, in terms of its thoughtful survey of indigenous gardens throughout the world.

Turns out, Don had an epiphany of sorts after doing the series—not a terribly surprising one. This is what he says in a recent interview with the Daily Mail: "Gardening with indigenous plants and working with nature by tweaking it is so much more interesting than imposing on to the natural world,” and then: "The interesting gardens are related to geographical/historical/ personal context.”

Not so surprising or shocking, right? Yet, many in Don’s audience are not quite ready to fall in line with his newfound (perhaps not so newfound—I don’t know his regular show) love of natives.

I love this headline : Yew must be joking! Growers' fury at Monty Don's call to use only British plants. Ha. I can feel the pain of those who were outraged, like Dr Mark Johnstone, a lecturer at Myerscough College, Preston, in Britain, who says: "I'm amazed someone as high profile as Monty Don should recommend sticking to native British plants. He is confusing biodiversity and native plants. Plants and trees are used for social, economic and environmental reasons." And this is my favorite quote in the article (from a garden center owner, natch): “The vast array of non-native plants available in Britain is something that we are recognized for and that has given us our identity." As paradoxical as it sounds, it’s absolutely true. The English border is known as a desirable gardening style throughout the world; yet, many of the plants that compose it are by no means native to Britain.

So? So nothing. I look at natives as a challenge and as an opportunity, though I’ll never be 100% native or even close. But I love the passion that someone like Monty Don brings to this cause. If only we had a gardening personality on this side of the pond who could proselytize as well. Or at least, could we please air this show here?!

MonkeySee Videos are Up!

by Susan
Last spring a new how-to video website asked me to write and appear in a gardening video and suggested the topic "how to create and take care of a garden."  Sure, coming right up, I said.  Then it sank in that this would be no simple show-and-tell, that I'd have to figure out what to say on this huge subject in 10 short clips.  So readers and critics, forgive me for simplifying.  In other words, be kind, y'all. 

I call the video Sustainable Gardening because the type of garden I talk about is the eco-friendly, low-maintenance kind that I'm always going on about.  All 10 clips are here on my page. 

Other initial offerings in gardening include:

• Ed Bruske on composting (the clip on kitchen scraps is my favorite)
  
• Mitch Baker on planting a tree and planting up a container.
• Amy Stuart (not Stewart) on herbs

Don't miss the companion article below about the line-up of experts on board and the topics they'll cover.

Nude gardening in Happy Valley

Want more readers?  Here's how to get yourself on CNN!  From their site:

Gardener bares it all
Happy Valley, Oregon residents are not so happy with a neighbor who likes to garden in the nude.  Affiliate KGW reports.

And here's the link.  No, you don't have to clear the kids from the room but they do make you watch a commercial first.

This Week in Garden News

In case you missed it, check out Ketzel Levine's Morning Edition story on xeriscaping .  On her blog she thanks listeners for "helping me get a story on the air about xeriscaping." What made it difficult to convince NPR?  Did the topic seem to obscure or not obscure enough? I can hardly think of more newsworthy plant story than the ripping out of lawns.  I only wish she'd been able to cover the ridiculous battles between gardeners and homeowners associations, code enforcers, etc. That's the real news story.

The San Francisco Chronicle explores the question of peat vs. coir. Would you, could you, with a coir brick?

Do you MySpace?  Did you know they have a garden page and many gardening groups?  Do you care?

A hospital in the UK bans flowers, claiming that "There is evidence to show that flowers in vases that are not effectively maintained can pose an infection risk" and "This decision has been made as part of an ongoing effort to keep our wards clean and tidy."  Yes, with staph infections and resistant strains of pneumonia and TB floating around, untidy flower bouquets are the biggest problem.  Hospitals are thinking about banning Crocs too, claiming that they create static electricity.  Next up:  bans on tin foil, which may interfere with the hospital's navigational equipment, and stethoscopes, which have been known to transmit signals from outer space.  As long as they're keeping up with the latest science, that's all we care about.

Need to grow a lot of plants indoors, but don't have much space? Check out the GI Grow. Tucks away easily in a closet or behind a false wall.  There's even one for sale on eBay for three grand.

And speaking of eBay, the most expensive plant for sale on the giant auction site right now is a 15 foot Japanese maple listed for $15,000.  Unfortunately, there's no pictures.  Oh, and you gotta dig it up yourself.  Another pricey plant of note: the Laelia anceps 'Queen of the Valley' orchid is up to $255 with four days remaining.

Would you, could you, for $255?  What's the most you've paid for a plant?  What's the most you would pay?

And now we include with another brilliant horticulture video from YouTube a newsreel about Botanicalls. Wouldn't you like to get a polite phone call from your plants when they need water? 

"Hi, this is your ivy calling.  Would it be too much trouble..."

A Shout-Out to Ketzel Levine

NPR junkies know that Portland garden writer Ketzel Levine has been reporting on gardens and plants for some time now.  This morning she contributed a piece on gardens and climate change that included an interview with Tony Avent and a profile of one plant that's doing much better in the Portland area thanks to climate change--hebe.  (the flowering shrub, not the goddess of youth pictured here.)

She also announced the launch of a new plant blog on NPR's website.  Check out Talking Plants here, and you can also go here to listen to the hebe story. 

Ketzel's already wondering whether the Native Plant Police are going to jump on her for promoting the merits of a non-native shrub.  Are tedious tirades forthcoming?  And if so, will they comply with the polite but firm rules for discussion aimed at keeping diatribes, vulgarities, and personal vendettas out of the NPR blogosphere? 

That's right, people. Keep it clean over at NPR.  If you've got something filthy, vile, or indecent to say, save it for GardenRant.

Edible Estates and the Foti Family

This just in from Treehugger TV-- a short video on the Edible Estates project and the Foti family. More in our ongoing discussion about--well, ripping out the lawn, for starters.

And when you're done with that, check out Treehugger's radio interview with Ed Begley, Jr.

 

Garden discourse high and low

"We have come to see ourselves as being outside of nature," says Prince Charles in this month's Vanity Fair, and although I'm not a huge fan of his RH, I see plenty of signs of the alienation to which he refers. Not just when it comes to global warming, either, which is the context of this particular interview. I don't have to peruse the glamorous pages of VF to find fear, confusion, ignorance, distaste, even hatred when it comes to the relationship between humans and growing things—often when many of these humans consider themselves gardeners.

If you really want to explore the last bastions of bad garden talk, you have to check out call-in radio shows. We have a couple of them in Western New York. Both hosts are fairly knowledgeable and have good credentials, but their advice can only be as interesting and/or useful as the questions they get. After listening to their shows over a few weekends, I can see where it might be possible for a veteran host of such a program to become utterly jaded. (Many of you may have local radio gardening shows—do you listen?)

On the Saturday show, most callers were adamant that they needed to dig up their tulips immediately after blooming and store them in the basement. One listener was told that her jasmine was an obscure plant and that she would never be able to get rid of the scales infesting it. Listening to the Sunday show, I heard one caller explaining that she had a dead—or at least she was almost sure it was dead—hydrangea plant that she wanted to give to her friend. I'm not sure what advice she thought would help with this.

Finally, at a live appearance at a bookstore I happened to catch, the Saturday host was answering the questions of people who felt they should cut back their ferns to the ground so the plants could survive a summer under a damaged shade canopy, or who wondered whether spraying mouthwash would get rid of aphids.

The sad part of all this is that these people are the ones who actually care enough to tune into a gardening show or attend a live event. These are the gardeners.

For many people attempting to deal with their exterior surroundings, there is a big disconnect. Their yard is something that is happening to them. The domestic landscape is not so much a friend as a really messy, obnoxious roommate you can't kick out, so you just have to live with it and try to impose some modicum of control. (No wonder many who can afford it are simply paving everything over, roofing it, and turning the yard into an extension of the house.)

This is one of the functions of Garden Walk; we're trying to demonstrate how enjoyable gardening can be, even in tiny urban yards. Most of us aren't going to win any prizes; like the Rant manifesto above says, we're gardening our asses off and having fun doing it. I guess we're hoping our visitors during the Walk will too, but now that I've been listening to these shows, I wonder how many others are sitting home nursing grudges against dead plants.

How to bridge the gap, bring nature (and by implication) gardening closer? On both the micro (domestic gardening) and macro (fighting environmental catastrophe) levels, humans will need to feel a bit friendlier toward embryophytes. Sit down with them, spend some time, have a drink—maybe not kill them and then give them away to friends ...

I have not yet read the VF green issue, but the table of contents looks interesting, perhaps worth the purchase of a mag I seldom peruse.

Rant on the Radio

A few months ago, I had a chance to do a live radio broadcast from the Santa Fe Farmers Market with Bob Ross, landscape architect, garden design consultant, and host of KSFR's "Gardens, Food, and Santa Fe."  (Well, actually, I was live, and he was live, but the show just aired last week.)

After we spent some time talking about earthworms and the cut flower industry (hey, I gotta sell books), we got down to business:  Garden blogging!  It was a fun discussion, and if you'd like to hear it yourself, it's available online now.  Check it out--it's the October 21 broadcast.

More on Garden Podcasts

Check out my story in Saturday's San Francisco Chronicle about the Wiggly Wigglers podcast.  You can also find out about other garden podcasts, including the super-cool Geek.Farm.Life.

Podcasters: Let's Hear From You!

We've been covering crazy Internet garden videos and garden TV for a while, but now it's time to get into garden-related podcasts.  I'm working on a newspaper article on the subject, and after I wrap that up there will be some expanded garden podcast coverage here on GardenRant.

So if you're listening to anything on the Internet--whether it's a podcast you subscribe to through iTunes or a re-broadcast of a radio program that's available on the Internet--post a comment and let us know about it.  Be sure to tell us where to find it and why you like it.

And remember:  No boring Weekly Garden Tips!  Any podcasts that begin, "Hi, I'm Jim, and I'm here this week with Linda to talk about easy container gardens" could cause us to toss our iPod in the compost pile and cover it with a layer of chicken manure, and then where would we be?

Instead, we're looking for the interesting, the unusual, the quirky, and--of course--the rebellious--in garden podcasts.  And we define "garden" broadly to include horticulture, natural science, farming, rural life, floriculture, and anything else that might involve getting a little dirt under the fingernails.

Your nominations, please!