Get Growing - Archives for: November 2007

A Gardening Blog

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

Posted by Sue Kidd @ 10:08:49 am

Hey urbanites with itty bitty patios. Sick of that sickly little palm tree stashed in the corner of your living room, right next to the halogen lamp?

Have I got a book for ya.

"Down & Dirty" takes newbie gardeners through the baby steps of how-to small-space gardening. Container herb gardens, recycled container gardens and dinosaur gardens seem to be the easiest projects in the book. There's a great section on dividing plants, which is great for all you good-hearted peeps who want to share your garden love with yer fellow apartment dwellers.

The book, by Ellen Zachos, comes with pretty pictures and detailed how-to directions. A great starter garden book for any fledgling green thumber on your Xmas list.

Book cover here:

Categories: Garden books

Hey people, what are you planting?

Posted by Sue Kidd @ 09:49:13 am

So the ground isn't quite frozen (yet). Is anyone harvesting now or planting anything? Tell us.

We want to be garden voyeurs -- our own gardens are wilted, limp and gone (except for a tiny amount of rosemary I have left, ha).

So what are you growing?

Categories: Dilemmas, Fix my yard!

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

Veggie gardening: it's not just for summer anymore

Posted by Sue Kidd @ 02:38:41 pm

Veggies in December? From your garden? For real? Uh huh.

The sixth edition of "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening" is in stores now. The book, from Sasquatch, tells you all you need to know to grow a nearly year-round vegetable garden. Much of the book is based on an Oregon climate, but there's much for South Sound gardeners to learn from the techniques outlined in Steve Solomon's book.

Solomon gets a bit preachy, especially when he criticizes a neighbor's sloppy garden (the neighbor sounds like about half the gardeners I know -- well intentioned, but not good with follow-through). But the information is a solid resource for anyone who wants to eat homegrown fresh veggies – even in the dark of winter.

Categories: Garden books

Get Growing

Craig Sailor is the Arts & Entertainment editor at The News Tribune. Last year he planted his first vegetable garden. Focusing on unusual varieties, “Freak of Nature” returns for 2008 with a new crop of uncommon vegetables and flowers. This year he’ll try yin yang beans, giant pumpkins, blue poppies and mutant sunflowers. He gardens at his North End Tacoma home and sneaks seeds in to his mother’s garden at Willapa Bay when she’s not looking. .

Sue Kidd is the Lifestyle Editor at The News Tribune. She is a devoted vegetable gardener, but otherwise a tragic mess at growing just about anything else. Her current obsessions are growing tomatoes on a trellis and trying to convince all her South Hill neighbors to ditch the chemicals and go green in the garden (they are very suspicious of her). She’ll blog about garden gadgets, the latest garden trends and her current garden disasters. She is also the ringleader for the Home&Garden section, so e-mail her with thoughts/rants/questions/bizarre observations. sue.kidd@thenewstribune.com. Use it.

Contact us at Sue.Kidd@thenewstribune.com Craig.Sailor@thenewstribune.com

More gardening blogs:

Greengirl
"Starting seeds, dreading weeds."

You Grow Girl
"Gardening for the people."

Between Plow and Wood
"Meditations on farming, nature, food, art, sustainability, the environment and rural living."

Downtown Tomatoes
"A gardening club for the rest of us."