Monthly Archive for April, 2009

Bluegrass Hosta Farm … Spring Session

Published
by
Susan Smith-Durisek
on April 26, 2009
in Garden Shops and Hostas
. 0 Comments

Bluegrass Hosta Farm's Postcard

Can you imagine a garden with 850 different kinds of hostas?  Why imagine, when you can actually visit one!

Bluegrass Hosta Farm’s owner Chris Miller opens shop for only a few months each year.  May 1st will start the spring session, where she’ll have about 300 different cultivars for saleat the farm near Georgetown.  She writes: I hope to see many of you this season.  I always look forward to the happy faces of gardeners.  We are an optimistic bunch.  After all, we always await the new spring with high anticipation!! 

Hostas are easy-care shade perennials, with broad, plentiful leaves that present interesting foliage colors and patterns, and tall-stalked spikes of bell-shaped, purple or white blooms that rise above the leaves in summer months.

Click on this Bluegrass Hosta Farm link for more information. 

 

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Down to Earth Plant Sale Goes Native

Published
by
Susan Smith-Durisek
on April 22, 2009
in Events & Expos, General chronological posting and Organizations
. 2 Comments



One of my favorite plant sales is the annual Down to Earth Garden Club’s May event.  There are great native plants at really reasonable prices, and the club uses their profit for donations to local garden-related clubs. 

This year, the sale will be held rain or shine on May 9, 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Woodland Christian Church parking lot, 530 E. High St. in Lexington.  In addition to herbs, vegetables, hostas and iris, the list of some of the perennials that will be available includes Grey Headed Coneflower, Switchgrass ‘Heavy Metal’, Great Blue Lobelia, Small’s penstemon, native columbine, yellow columbine, cranesbill geranium, New England aster, bluestar, wood poppy, wild ginger, downy scullcap, lyre-leaved sage ‘purple knockout’, Carolina allspice, sweet coneflower, purple coneflower, blazing star, spiderwort, purple poppy mallow, tall phlox ‘Eva Cullem’.

Check out the club’s Web-site at www.downtoearthky.org for up-to-date information.

 Member and organizer Jannine Baker writes: In 2008, we raised almost more money than the previous three years combined!  As a result, we donated garden carts and cash totalling $2100 to the following community groups:
Walnut Woods restoration at the Arboretum
Port Royal Neighborhood Assoc for the Roanoke Greenway project
Squires Elementary
Sandersville Elementary
Community Gardens
Floracliff Nature Sanctuary
Women’s Prison Garden Project
Legacy Trail
In addition, we will be using money raised to help us continue to improve and maintain the perennial garden at the Waveland State Historic Site, our club’s ongoing Civic Project.

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Master Gardener Book Looks …

Published
by
Susan Smith-Durisek
on April 17, 2009
in General chronological posting
. 1 Comment
The Iris Family: Natural History and Classification  
by Peter Goldblatt and John C. Manning 

Timber Press      $79.95    290 pages

 

Are you fascinated by irises, and want to learn more?  Here’s one up-to-date and detailed reference you will want to read, to discover just how widespread and complex the plant family called Iridaceae can be, and how classification and order are established using both visible characteristics and contemporary genetics.

The iris family includes not only all varieties of irises, but also other well-known plants like crocus, gladiolus and even freesia.  The authors include all known representatives in the family, along with detailed scientific information about classification, culture and pollination.  Samples from all over the world are included, with detailed descriptions, line illustrations and a section of color photographs.   Goldblatt and Manning are particularly experienced in discovering new species found in South Africa, where they regularly locate new iris finds in the diverse and environmentally threatened Cape ecosystems. 

Irises are monocots, which means that their leaves generally resemble large blades of grass, with parallel vein lines, and long sword-like blades that are the same on both sides.  Ordinarily, the leaves and flowers grow in the rainy season, store energy in the rhizome, bulb or corm during the warm season, and go dormant during dry season.  Our North American irises, for instance, grow and bloom in spring, store energy in summer, then go dormant throughout the winter.  The flowers, which are usually found atop a tall stalk, are colorful and showy, with some requiring special pollinators.  The study of flower-pollinator dynamics alone is fascinating. 

This is not a book for easy reading, nor is it a “how-to” gardening guide.  If you’re new to gardening, you’ll need to learn terminology and know basic plant biology to appreciate its full value.  There is a wealth of information here for iris enthusiasts and botanists, including an identification guide and key, detailed descriptions of plant forms, along with supporting natural history and cultural usage sections.  In addition to the expected plant profiles, the authors have also shared details about chromosome numbers and fragrances for iris family members from Acaste venusta to Zygotritonia praecox, and hundreds inbetween.

Need a break from all that gardening you’ve been doing now that the weather oh-so-perfect? 

Fayette County Master Gardeners have been busy reviewing recently published books that feature gardens, wildlife, birding and even some interior decor.   Check out some of their selections on the  Master Gardener Book Looks …. CLICK HERE to be swept away.

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Planting a Vegetable Garden? Use Reliable Advice …

Published
by
Susan Smith-Durisek
on April 11, 2009
in General chronological posting
. 0 Comments

UK College of Agriculture Publication from the Cooperative Extension Service

Home Vegetable Gardening

Are you new to the world of vegetable gardening, and looking for some good, basic advice for when, how, what and where to plant?  Make sure you find information from reliable sources.  Tried and true, UK’s College of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service has some great publications available which will answer many of your questions, as well as suggest a few more ideas you might not have considered yet.   Based on solid, practical experience, as well as experimentally-based research, you’ll find pages with charts for planting dates, planning suggestions, help in identifying and dealing with pest and disease problems, soil testing, and a host of other issues; an ‘Asparagus through Watermelon’ listing of possible vegetable crops are profiled.  Click on this link: Home Vegetable Gardening (Publication ID128) for the publication on-line, or call you local county Extension office.  A Gardener’s Toolbox series on topics of interests is offered by the Fayette County Cooperative Extension service.  Another new on-line resource for your growing questions is eXtension, an eMail-oriented service for you to connect with eXperts from a collaboratiion of Land Grant colleges, who will answer your questions promptly.

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Cyberspace Garden Adventures

Published
by
Susan Smith-Durisek
on April 9, 2009
in General chronological posting
. 0 Comments

This past Saturday’s Inside/Out featured some interesting garden spots for vacation visits.  A new sort of discovery, looking at a garden’s bird’s-eye layout, can be a  fast and fun cyber-adventure, revealing features you just can’t see from the ground.  Take The Arboretum on Alumni Drive, for instance.  If you download Google Earth at earth.google.com, and enter the coordinates 38 00 50.00N, 84 30 19.40W  in the search bar, you may be surprised at the pattern revealed in The Arboretum’s pathways.  Next try 34 04 34.28N, 118 28 28.65W, which is the Getty Center near Los Angeles, California; clicking on the little blue squares will open photos submitted by viewers. Also in the area, at 34 02 43.34N, 118 33 52.83W is the Getty Villa.  Here’s more about the Getty complex, which was part of Saturday’s feature that was cut for space:

The Getty   getty.edu    The Getty Center  1200 Getty Center Drive  Los Angeles CA  90049  310-440-7300:  The Getty Villa     17985 Pacific Coast Highway   Malabu CA  90265  310-440-7300The Getty has two very different faces overlooking the Pacific Ocean in southern California.  At the Cente, is a future-gazing sleek, contemporary landscape designed around a canyon about a decade ago by artist Robert Irwin; another at the Villa, employing the peristyle and reflecting pool architectural tradition looks back in time with a nod toward ancient Rome.  Each suits its setting well, ruled by interests in art, architecture and design collections set in motion by J. Paul Getty and his belief in the civilizing force of art.  You can discover what a chadar, or sort of stone-step waterfall looks like, trace a path through a floating azalea maze, or catch the scent of wormwood, mint and oregano in sunny Roman gardens.   

 You can also try flying around the globe to the gardens at Versailles - France, that is by entering coordinates  48 48 09.20N, 2 07 06.53E.   Dole’s garden in Hawaii, at  21 31 29.79N, 158 02 14.71W is amazing, too.    What interesting garden views can you find? Add a comment, and share them for others to enjoy.

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Yard Care Pros Need to Share the Road …

Published
by
Susan Smith-Durisek
on April 1, 2009
in General chronological posting
. 0 Comments

Yard Care Pros … Parking No-Nos   

The grass is getting greener, and the lawncare crews are back on the road.  It’s hard to miss the classic truck and trailer set-up when the Mow, Sow, Blow & Go Pros pull into your neighborhood.  Sure, there is a lot to appreciate about the services they provide in maintaining a tidy lawn and landscape look.  But more and more often, it seems that these long-length rigs take advantage of any parking spot - legal or not - and end up blocking the roadway and driveway access, with the initial justification  ”We’re just here for a few minutes” ready for objectors, along with a follow-up  ”There’s really not another close space” retort.   When the rigs are parked at street corners, it’s just plain dangerous trying to get through the one open lane while keeping an eye out for workers wearing ear-phones and mowers veering into the street.  Along with the spring robins and first blooming bleeding-hearts, just today, I saw the first offender of the season without leaving my home.  There’s a good reason for parking only on one side of the road on narrow city lanes, because when cars are parked on both curbs, school buses and emergency vehicles can’t get through.  LFUCG’s LexPark says the lawn care folks have to follow the rules, just like anyone else; they don’t have special priveledges.  Signs were clearly posted, and there was plenty of space on the side of the street where parking is allowed.  So come on, lawn care pros … turn over a new leaf, and get more responsible in sharing the road this year.  Sow some courtesy along with that grass seed, and who knows, perhaps you’ll pick up a few more customers instead of alienating the neighborhood. 

 Have you noticed the same phenomenon happening in your area?  Share a comment to sound off, and send photos.  Are you a lawn-care pro who cares?  Send in your stories, too.

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