Robin, Author at Bumblebee Blog

February 14th, 2008

For me, there’s nothing like seeing the real thing to learn about plants.

That’s one of the reasons I make visiting botanical gardens, parks and flower shows a high priority when it comes to travel and my free time. Aside from the enjoyment of being outdoors or seeing all the wonderful new combinations, I can see the three-dimensional version of the plants in a natural setting. I can see their real size and color. I can smell, touch and feel the plant.

When I look at the flowers and plants in magazines and catalogs all seem to run together after a while. The photographers make them all just lovely. And how can you really judge color or size in print? Forget about smell.

When I’m visiting a park or garden I will sometimes photograph a particularly striking arrangement with the plan for making a similar arrangement at home or just to add to my photographic idea book.

Here’s an example. On the left is a container arrangement I saw at the Dixon House and Gardens in Memphis last May. I was particularly taken by the holly, primroses and parsley packed into the beautiful pot. The unusual shape of the holly made a dramatic statement in the container arrangement and added some vertical interest.

On the right is a version of the same arrangement I made at home with flowers I found at the local garden center, including a sky pencil holly and some miniature petunias. I didn’t have the fabulous container they had at the Dixon gardens, so a simple terra cotta container had to do.

Could I have gotten such an arrangement idea from a book? Sure. But by actually seeing and copying an existing arrangement, I had a much better idea of the outcome to expect.

I haven’t had nearly the same success with packages of plants sold to create specific effects. White Flower Farm has some spectacular arrangement collections and photographs that make me salivate. They are drop-dead gorgeous. Still, I’m not buying them anymore though because I can never recreate the same effect in my garden. It’s frustrating to spend a lot of money on plants and then be disappointed in the outcome. I’ll save my money for seeds, fabulous pots and plants I can be confident will do well here at Bumblebee.

Of course, not all of the arrangements here at Bumblebee are copies. But I think copycat gardening is a good strategy for learning about plants until you’re ready to fly solo.

Bzzzz February 13th, 2008

I’m amused by the near breathless excitement some garden bloggers have when talking about their compost.

I expect poetry and songs next. Aw, shoot. Let me go first.

When I compare thee to a summer’s day Your fragrance is of fields of hay And in my fingers I feel your wealth And to my flowers…

What rhymes with wealth? Oh yeah. Health.

And to my flowers you give health.

Okay, all kidding aside, I love compost too. That love doesn’t lean toward the romantic side so much as the greedy side. I want more, MORE, MORE!

So it was with some interest in reading Joe Lamp’l’s (not a typo – his name is Lamp’l) book The Green Gardener’s Guide that I have been tossing perfectly good compost materials in the trash.

Lamp’l says I can also compost vacuum cleaner bag dust and even the bag, paper towels and rolls, coffee grounds and filters, cotton and wool rags, dryer lint, hair and fur. Hah! Finally a use for all that loose dog hair! You can also compost newspapers, although it’s best to shred them.

I know that most newspapers are now printed with soy-based ink, so they are fairly safe composting material. What I’m a bit leery of is his assertion that you can compost clean office paper. Does that mean clean as in there are no jelly donut stains on them? Or clean as in not having been printed on?

I still have to print out reams and reams of statistical output to write reports. I always use both sides of the paper. But still, I have a good amount of paper waste as a result. Is it safe to shred and compost paper that has been printed with laser or inkjet toner? Given my desire for a healthy and mostly organic garden, is it safe to introduce these into the mix?

I have tried some searching and found an interesting, if not authoritative, exchange over at Gardenweb.

What do you think? To compost or not to compost? Any experts out there?

Posted In: Gardening

Tags: composting

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