Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Favorite Holiday Season Plants

For our November 2010 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, we gave away passes to the Brookside Gardens’ Garden of Lights Show. Brookside Gardens’ Garden of Lights is a half-mile walk through a landscape of 940,000 twinkling colorful lights shaped in imaginative displays throughout the gardens. Enjoy the four seasons illuminated as giant summer sunflowers, autumn leaves, winter snowflakes, spring flowers, rain showers, and more. The show runs Friday, November 26, 2010 through Sunday, January 9, 2011 (with the exception of December 24-25 and January 3-6). The hours are 5:30 to 9:00pm, with the last car admitted at 8:30pm. Entry is by car/van and is $20 on Mon-Thurs and $25 on Fri-Sun.

The winners are:

- Alexandria Lippincott of University Park, MD

- Katie Rapp of Gaithersburg MD

- Kristen Menichelli of NE Washington DC

- Cathy Wintermyer of Cheverly, MD

- Patti Pride of NW Washington, DC

Congratulations to all!

The winners submitted their favorite holiday season plant and I have compiled them here:

~ My favorite holiday plant is the cranberry because it fills so many holiday roles. It is delicious; I couldn't imagine Thanksgiving turkey without it. I love to string it with popcorn for the birds outside at the holidays. Its color is simply gorgeous. And it is native to our country, and to the New England region that I love.

~ My favorite holiday plant: Amaryllis -- love those big, gaudy flowers!

~  My favorite holiday flower is the cyclamen—wonderful deep red color (and it is not a poinsettia).

~ My favorite holiday plant is the venerable Christmas cactus because it is like earthbound fireworks--a true celebration of the season in plant form.

~ My favorite holiday plant definitely has to be red poinsettia. I know it can be tacky, and over used at times, but there is definitely something about that plant that immediately makes me think of the holidays. Probably, it has something to do with the poinsettia fundraiser my church growing up in NC would have every year. You knew it was the holidays when those started showing up in every corner, and it was a treat to take them home during the midnight service on Christmas Eve. Now, as a young adult, something about them makes me smile every year, and think of my family who are far away. Living in DC urban suburbs, I'm glad to have some color in the winter, and a plant that looks happy and bright besides my Christmas tree.

So what is YOUR favorite holiday season plant?

Monday, November 29, 2010

Washington Gardener Named to Best Garden Blogs

In all the USNA azalea flap this past week, I neglected to share the great news of being named Blog of the Day at the new Best Garden Blogs web site. BestGardenBlogs.com is the invention of the tireless Anna Flowergardengirl, a North Carolina gardener and blogger extraordinaire. Anna says her goal is to list the best quality garden blog sites. She carefully screens each entry and I can already see I'm in great company!

In other news, I've done a couple guest blogs recently. One was for Behnke Nurseries' revamped blog being edited by Susan Harris of GardenRant fame. My guest blog there is on Container Gardening for Fall/Winter see the link here.

The other recent guest blog was for the Metro DC Lawn and Garden Blog, It is on Collecting and Swapping Seeds and our upcoming Washington Gardener Magazine Seed Exchanges. Read the post here.

BTW, I am always looking for local Mid-Atlantic region gardeners to do guest blogs here at the Washington Gardener Magazine blog on all things related to our area's gardening scene. Drop me a note, if you have a guest blog idea.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Part 2 of Save the USNA Azaleas… and Boxwoods, Daylilies, and Daffodils for that matter!


Since our guest blog post on Sunday by Don Hyatt on the planned destruction of a major portion of the US National Arboretum (USNA) azalea collection, things have gone viral. Uber-viral one might say. The story has been picked up on news sites and local blogs from MSNBC to GardenRant to the Prince of Petworth. It is all the buzz on Yahoo discussion list and Facebook pages. Disbelief and utter outrage being the two most commonly shared reactions. Many think this is a hoax. I can assure you that it is not.

The USNA de-accessioning plan calls for removing undocumented azaleas as well as the removal of the boxwood, daylily, and daffodil collections. According to the USNA: “Long-term plans already exist to remove nearly all of the azaleas of unknown pedigree on the Glenn Dale Hillside (about 20-25% of the total azalea collection) so that they may be replaced with known Glenn Dale azalea introductions massed in large groups for visual impact, and to secure the germplasm holding with multiple plants. The plan now will shift to fast-track removal of azaleas of unknown pedigree so the area is less of a maintenance burden. Most removals are expected to take place in the summer of 2011. The first steps in de-accessioning the National Boxwood Collection are the development of a complete and accurate inventory, communicating the availability of cuttings or rooted cuttings of the plants on the inventory, propagation of plants, and distribution of the resulting plants. Selected plants from the National Boxwood Collection and Perennials Collection will be moved or propagated to form the basis for new plantings elsewhere at the arboretum; for example, near the walled Morrison Garden in the Azalea Collections. This will create a smaller collection footprint that the Gardens Unit will be able to maintain with reduced resources.”

Aaron Cook. president of the Azalea Society of America, reacted: “By anyone’s conservative estimate this is at least 50% of the collection. There is valuable germplasm in this group as can be attested to by some of the foremost azalea breeders in the country… There is no active azalea breeding program going on at the arboretum… As a matter of fact, the last Azalea introduction by the National Arboretum of any significance was ‘Ben Morrison,’ which was selected from the very group of azaleas slated for destruction.” That introduction was in 1972.

The brunt of outrage has been focused on USNA garden unit leader Scott Aker -- some calling for his resignation. Scott is not permitted to reply on the record. All press inquiries are now forwarded to the Arboretum’s interim director Dr. Ramon Jordan so that the USNA message can be coordinated and clear. I spoke to Dr. Jordan twice in the last few days and here are some of the clarifications and facts he wanted to share.

“We were impressed and amazing by the outpouring of responses. I have been reading all the blog postings, comments, and online threads. The emails are streaming in and my Blackberry is on fire. We are grateful for the public’s interest in the USNA and pleased to see how many regard the Arboretum and the azaleas in particular as a national treasure. That tells us that we must have been doing something right to garner such love and loyalty and that Scott Aker’s guidance of the garden directions is indeed praiseworthy.”

“We have heard the responses and are definitely taking a second look at our decisions. There have been some creative solutions proposed and all of them are being considered. I will be reevaluating with all these responses in mind.”

 
“The fact is we did lose the private funding of two gardener positions and addressing this has been a very difficult decision that we had to make. While we still have them (through February 2012), we need to use them, while we can, to catalog and move the plant collections to save what we can. This is a huge loss for us. It is 10% of the USNA staff, but really 30% of the actual gardeners.”

“The USNA has 159 volunteers who gave us 10,000 hours of labor which is equivalent to 6 full-time employees. We’d love to see an expansion of that volunteer program. Truthfully, though, most of our volunteers are retired and they are not able to do much of the tasks that we need in the gardens.”
“Our funding budget is flat – both the congressional contribution and from FONA – in terms of real dollars we are actually losing value every year.”

“This is nothing new – in the past the USNA has had to announce de-accessioning of collections due to severe budget cuts, but the reaction this time has been overwhelming.”

“We do have a challenge in being the only Federally funded arboretum and our mission is research, education and public outreach. We are looking at all funding alternatives. Since we are a Federal agency we are limited in the ways we can do that, but we are allowed to sell plants or plant materials [seeds, germplasm, propagated cuttings]. For example one blog poster suggested auctioning off the plants to raise money and to give them a permanent home. Our Koi auction last fall raised $10,000. FONA has said they are happy to help with a fundraising event of that sort. The problem is this one-time fundraising is not sustainable and in a year or so we’d be back to making the same tough de-accessioning decisions. What we need is a sustaining solution to keep these two garden positions funded ‘permanently.’”


“The abandonment plan some have proposed will just not fly. We are the USNA and we need the ground to be maintained at a level to our standards. We cannot just let a section go to weeds, disease, and invasives. The azaleas require much more high-maintenance care than others have implied. For example, there is regular pruning and spraying for diseases.”


“Arguments can be made for one collection over another and we are open to hear them. Many question why, if the private funding of the two positions for the Asian Valley was what was lost, the other collections must suffer. But we manage the arboretum as a whole and have to evaluate it that way. We created a decision-making matrix and again, it was a difficult process, to choose among factors such as public appeal, plant research potential, industry interest etc. “


“About 75% of the crape myrtles sold in the US come from USNA germplasm, I don’t have the corresponding figure for the azalea collection, but I know it is of value to the horticultural industry and that is one of the constituents that we serve.”

“My key take-away points are that we do have time both for finding funds to replace the two positions and  yes, we can and will re-evaluate the decision to de-accession plants at the U.S. National Arboretum.”


Dr. Jordan will be sending a more detailed responses to my questions after the holiday weekend, so look for a Part 3 next week. Meanwhile, a letter dated November 15 that he wrote to the major stakeholders is posted at the Save the Azaleas web site here.

Next Steps

Since Don Hyatt’s guest blog post went up, a Web site and Facebook page have gone up to marshal support for saving all the azaleas. The local and national plant societies for Boxwood, Daylilies, and Daffodils are also gathering their troops and deciding how to proceed. The Friends of the National Arboretum (FONA) have indicated that they will also be putting together a statement and plan of action and I will announce those updates as they become available.

Dr. Jordan indicates that there is a possibility of a meeting of all stakeholders and the general public with the USNA decision-makers – details TBD.
 
Photo credit for Save the Azaleas blog posts: Don Hyatt

Video Wednesday: Brookside's Garden of Lights Preview



Brookside Gardens’ Garden of Lights is a half-mile walk through a landscape of 940,000 twinkling colorful lights shaped in imaginative displays throughout the gardens. Enjoy the four seasons illuminated as giant summer sunflowers, autumn leaves, winter snowflakes, spring flowers, rain showers, and more. The show runs Friday, November 26, 2010 through Sunday, January 9, 2011 (with the exception of December 24-25 and January 3-6). The hours are 5:30 to 9:00pm, with the last car admitted at 8:30pm. Entry is by car/van and is $20 on Mon-Thurs and $25 on Fri-Sun.

For our November 2010 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, Washington Gardener is giving away passes to the Brookside Gardens’ Garden of Lights Show.
To enter to win a vehicle entry pass* to Brookside’s Garden of Lights Show, send an email to WashingtonGardener@rcn.com by 5:00pm on November 30 with “Lights” in the subject line and tell us your favorite holiday season plant and why. In the body of the email, please also include your full name and mailing address. The pass winners will be announced and notified on December 1.
 
*Entry is by vehicle, then you walk the gardens' light show on foot. You can bring as many people in your vehicle as will fit. Bundle up and don't forget your camera!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Save the Azaleas at the U.S. National Arboretum


GUEST BLOG

by Don Hyatt 

On November 8, 2010, Aaron Cook, the President of the Azalea Society of America, learned that the U.S. National Arboretum in NE Washington, DC, plans to remove the mature azalea display on Mount Hamilton. The Garden Unit Leader at the National Arboretum, Mr. Scott Aker, announced that the azaleas will be cut down in the summer of 2011 and their stumps painted with herbicide. Many of us are upset by this decision.

The azaleas on Mt. Hamilton create one of the prime floral attractions in our Nation’s Capital. The lovely mature azaleas, many of which are over 60 years old, occupy perhaps 3 to 6 acres of the 446-acre Arboretum. There is no space issue. The azaleas are not overgrown or in decline. Working with many volunteers during the past 20 years, Ms. Barbara Bullock, the Azalea Curator, has restored the beauty and health of the collection after years of neglect. The azaleas are among the oldest and most spectacular specimens in the U.S. They are a National Treasure.

Historically, these azaleas are of particular importance to the U.S. National Arboretum since they were developed by its first Director, Benjamin Y. Morrison. They represent the top 2 to 3% of the 50,000 to 75,000 seedlings he raised when developing the famous Glenn Dale Azaleas. Morrison’s colossal breeding project has had no equal, and it produced the first large flowered azaleas hardy in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Below are the three primary reasons Mr. Aker has given via email inquiries regarding the decision to destroy the azalea collection. Following Mr. Aker’s statements are some facts that seem to contradict his reasoning.
1) The azaleas attract too many visitors, and that creates problems

Aker: “I cannot dispute the beauty of the display and its value as an attraction for our visitors. Currently, again in part to diminishing resources, we are now unable to accommodate the crowds of visitors in April and May when the azaleas are in bloom. We have inadequate parking and restroom facilities.”

Fact: The Arboretum has several large parking areas, and for years has provided a shuttle service to get around to the various attractions. The Potomac Valley Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society has held its flower show at the Arboretum during peak azalea time for nearly 40 years. Its members have not observed any difficulties, even in 2010 when the show coincided with the busy Friends of the National Arboretum plant sale.

Fact: The Arboretum received $9 million in Federal stimulus funds as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. That money has been put toward the renovation of the Administration building and includes adding more public restrooms. That facility is closed now but should reopen within the next 18 months.

2) Because the Asian Valley Exhibit lost private funding, the Arboretum will remove several other collections

Aker: “Recently, we learned that a donor that has supported two gardener positions on our staff will no longer be providing that support, and the loss of this staff has resulted in the need to deaccession collections. We will be deaccessioning our National Boxwood Collection and the co-located Perennial Collections as well as the Glenn Dale Hillside portion of the Azalea Collection.”

Fact: Neither of the privately funded positions involved the Azaleas, Boxwoods, or Perennials. There is no reason to eliminate federally funded positions in order to replace those private gardeners. Mr. Aker makes the staffing decisions, and Ms. Bullock continues to be the only person assigned to the 20-acre azalea collection. The physical removal those large azaleas will incur additional expenses. Denuding the hillside will increase the risk of erosion.

3) The azaleas are not well documented

Aker: “We do not have documentation for any of the plants on the Glenn Dale Hillside. Although Morrison's breeding records do exist, no labels have been found attached to any plant so that we can know its provenance beyond conjecture.”

Fact: Ms. Bullock and volunteers have been making excellent progress on plant identification. Many of the original Glenn Dale varieties have been positively identified on the hillside. They have used plant records, Morrison’s notes, registration data, and comparisons with known forms. Even unnamed plants whose parentage may never be identified still have merit and can be introduced. The striking bicolor azalea ‘Ben Morrison’ is one of those unknown plants. It was named by another Arboretum Director, the late Dr. John Creech, to honor the original hybridizer.

An irrevocable decision such as cutting down the Glenn Dale Azaleas would not likely have been made if the Arboretum had considered its ramifications. Originally, the Arboretum had an Advisory Board that provided expert advice to its leadership, but that group was dissolved in 1994. You can still advise USDA officials of your concerns:

1. Dr. Judith St. John, Deputy Administrator, National Program Staff, 5601 Sunnyside Ave., Beltsville, MD 20705 Phone: 301-504-6252 Fax: 301-504-4663
Email: Judy.stjohn@ars.usda.gov

2. Dr. Joseph Spence, Beltsville Area Director, 10300 Baltimore Blvd. Bldg. 003, BARC-West, Room 223, Beltsville, MD 20702 Phone: 301-504-6078 Fax: 301-504-5863
Email: Joseph.Spence@ars.usda.gov

3. Dr. Ramon Jordan, Interim Director, U.S. National Arboretum, 3501 New York Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002 Phone: 202-245-4539 Fax: 202-245-4574
Email: Ramon.Jordan@ars.usda.gov

Guest Blogger Don Hyatt is a retired teacher and avid gardener. Don is recognized as a national authority on azaleas and rhododendrons and has served on the national boards of both the Azalea Society of America (ASA) and the American Rhododendron Society (ARS). He can be contacted at Don@donaldhyatt.com or at http://www.donaldhyatt.com/about.html.


UPDATE:

Part 2 is now up at: http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2010/11/part-2-of-save-usna-azaleas-and.html

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Video Wednesday: How to Clean & Preserve Garden Tools



I'll be sharing a video each Wednesday, starting off with some older ones I've made. Then, when I've run out of all those, I figure it will force me to finally get on the stick and produce some new ones. This one is another MonkeySee.com production. It is about How to Clean & Preserve Garden Tools for Winter. Enjoy!

BTW, you may have to wait a few seconds for the video to load while listening to a brief MonkeySee.com sponsor commercial. If the above viewer screen, does not work, you can go to MonkeySee.com to watch it here.

Here are links to the previous Video Wednesday clips:

~ Winterize a Vegetable Garden - the Last Harvest

~ Save Seeds Before Winter

~ How to Winterize Your Vegetable Garden

~ Sow a Cover Crop & Mulch Before Winter

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Washington Gardener Enews Nov 2010: Plants for the Holiday Season

-

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
~ Plants for the Holiday Season
~ Magazine Excerpt: Easy-to-Grow Garlic
~ Reader Contest: Passes to Brookside Gardens winter lights show
~ Washington Gardener's Recent Blog Post Highlights
~ Spotlights Special: Ornamental Kale ‘Glamour Red’
~ Mid-Atlantic Garden To-Do List
~ Upcoming Local Garden Events
~ Washington Gardener Magazine Back Issue Sale!
and much more...

Monday, November 15, 2010

A Cherry-Pink Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Sharing a new acquisition for this month's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. It is Chrysanthemum 'Sozan' -- an anemone mum that is a bright, cherry-pink. It is tall and flops, but looks good trailing from a hanging basket. I won two of these plants at the raflle during the Friends of Brookside Garden's annual meeting a few weekends ago. As it is only semi-hardy to our region, they may not survive and I'll just enjoy them for their beauty this season. Since I have two plants, I'll try planting them in two different spots and see how they winter over.

Also blooming away still in the November garden are: Meidiland and Mutabilis roses, Sheffield Pink mums, impatiens, petunias, zinnias, Encore azaleas, Montauk daisies, nemesia, geraniums, many grasses, and tons of drying hydrangea heads.

What is blooming in your garden right now?

Saturday, November 13, 2010

No Room to Garden? Use Your Truck or Barge or Bathtub

Seriously, if I hear one more person say to me, "I don't have room to garden," I'll go Norman Bates on them. You have room, you are just to lazy to go and find it. Rent a community garden plot. Ask a relative/friend/colleague for a patch of their earth. Explore unused spaces like roofs/window ledges/front steps. I've seen gardens in stored canoes hanging down restaurant walls, in unused bathtubs, on office parking lot islands. "No space" is flat out no excuse.

In the category of found garden spaces comes a new documentary from the guys behind King Corn. Truck Farm! is about literally a farm planted on a truckbed. They use greenroof materials to install the base layers and the rest is just basic gardening -- good soil, plant seeds, water, park in a sunny spot. Truly meals on wheels -- Genius!

Last week, I caught a screening of Truck Farm! and a discussion with the filmmakers at the Smithsonian as part of the Resident Associates program. The film is more than just the truck planting, thank goodness, it is about the urban farming trend in general and how growing our own food is bringing new life to emply places in our inner cities. Other inventive urban farm examples in the docu include gardens on a barge, over a baseball field, in an apartment lobby window, and on top of a Brooklyn factory roof. The filmmakers commented that after completing their work many more urban farms in even more inventive spots have come to their attention and more are taking root every day.

So I say it again: "no space" is no excuse. Where will you grow your garden?

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Video Wednesday: Sow a Cover Crop & Mulch Before Winter



I'll be sharing a video each Wednesday, starting off with some older ones I've made. Then, when I've run out of all those, I figure it will force me to finally get on the stick and produce some new ones. This one is another MonkeySee.com production. It is about Sowing a Cover Crop and Mulching Before Winter. Enjoy!

BTW, you may have to wait a few seconds for the video to load while listening to a brief MonkeySee.com sponsor commercial. If the above viewer, does not work, you can go to MonkeySee.com to watch it here.
 
Here are links to the previous Video Wednesday clips:

~ Winterize a Vegetable Garden - the Last Harvest

~ Save Seeds Before Winter

~ How to Winterize Your Vegetable Garden

Monday, November 08, 2010

Garden Communicators Lunch Connections

Clint Albin, Cheval Force Opp, and I chatted in Dallas, TX, at the recent Garden Writers Assn meeting about how few times we all see each other in person in our own city, so I put out a open invite for Garden Communicators (speakers, bloggers, writers, photographers, editors, etc.) in the greater DC-Baltimore region to join us for lunch. Ten of us gathered at Vicino's* and chatted up a storm.

While mostly white, female, and middle-aged, the 10 of us were from a range of backgrounds and garden communication outlets -- from big city newspaper reporters to hobby bloggers to garden center employees. We definitely spanned the spectrum of hort industry interests.

We had an "introduce yourself" round and then a "brag/share/challenges" round. It was great to hear what projects met with success and what are coming on the horizon from talented local communicators.

Most of the "challenges" expressed were in making the connections between what consumers actually grow or, more likely, do NOT grow, and what garden centers sell, what we write about, what public gardens display and teach, etc. We can be doing a much better job of coordinating our messages and giving garden consumers news that they can actually use.

For example, we seem to all be covering food gardening extensively, yet there is still an outreach problem for the general public. They find it daunting and costly. Furthermore, once folks do go to the effort to grow it, then what? We need to complete the loop for them.

There were grumblings about social media and the demise of many local news outlets. It didn't take long for the conversation to turn to a notably absent local garden writer (directly invited, but no response) and his unkind words regarding a nearby public garden many of us adore. We mourned the recent death of one of Robin Ripley's chickens and thrilled to Cheval's road trip stories. Some of the communicators shared their "what-I-told-my-boss-so-I-could-attend-this-lunch" tales. Others comments on the direction GWA is headed and whether it was serving its membership's needs. Thankfully, the Cooks Source debacle did not rear its ugly head and we all were headed home or back to the office to digest our meals in peace.

We'll be doing this again. Likely timing will be early January at MANTS in Baltimore, MD.

*The well-worn East Silver Spring, MD neighborhood, family, Italian eatery -- great food, good service, low prices -- 10 of us ate and ate and it came to under $95! Hey, any restaurant that gives us free aps and dessert has my loyalty.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

People, Plots, and Plants of DC - Part 3: Temple Gardens and Kalorama Community Gardens

Profiling Community Gardens Across the City


Temple Gardens and Kalorama Community Gardens

Guest Blog by Susi Baranano

Temple Gardens can be found behind the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple on 15th and S Street, in Ward 2. The Temple Gardens was established in 1990 and gets its name from the Masonic Temple because it is on ¼ acre of their land. There are 70 plots available to DC residents who do not have a garden space at their residence. DC Department of Recreation laid down the original plots in the spring of 1990 and DC Urban Forestry Administration provided the woodchips for the walkways.

Poppy Path, Lavender Lane, East and West Boulevard are the names the gardeners have given to the woodchip walkways dividing the plots. Chard and chili peppers stand tall in one plot, green and red peppers in another, spearmint and rosemary in another. Squash grows on the ground. Tomatoes are still on the vine. Morning glories wrap the fence. A boot filled with plants sits in the corner of another.

Kalorama Community Gardens is located on the corner of Kalorama Park, a 3-acre park located where 19th,Street, Kalorama Road and Columbia Road intersect in Ward 1. Kalorama, which means “beautiful view” in Greek, was once an estate. Like nearly all estates in DC, it was subdivided into smaller lots, of which the Park is one of them. Kalorama Park was once federal land, but in 1971 it was transferred to DC.
Alongside the Kalorama Gardens are hedges that date back to the original Kalorama estate. Robins and sparrows hide and perch in the hedges, and eat insects among the 19 plots. A water line to the garden is the source for the garden. Each spring area residents can enter a lottery for a plot that will be theirs for up to 5 years as long as they live in the area.

The Park sits on a little hill, surrounded by tall apartment buildings that look down on it. This little park has it all: Benches lining the walkways, the Kalorama Community Center with yellow slides and red swings for children to play, a dog park, oval grass plot and padlocked garden plot.

Searching for people, plants and plots!!! Contribute to this new guest blog series about DC’s community gardens, contact me at susigbf@yahoo.com.

Read Part 1 of the People, Plots, and Plants of DC series on the Whitehaven Community Garden and Melvin Hazen Community Garden at:
http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2010/08/people-plots-and-plants-of-dc.html.

Read Part 2 of the People, Plots, and Plants of DC series on the Newark Street Community Gardens  and the Frances Community Garden at:
http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2010/10/people-plots-and-plants-of-dc-part-2.html

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Video Wednesday: Winterize a Vegetable Garden - the Last Harvest



I'll be sharing a video each Wednesday, starting off with some older ones I've made. Then, when I've run out of all those, I figure it will force me to finally get on the stick and produce some new ones. This one is another MonkeySee.com production. It is about Collecting Your Last Harvest in preparation for putting your vegetable garden to bed for winter. Enjoy!

BTW, you may have to wait a few seconds for the video to load while listening to a brief MonkeySee.com sponsor commercial. If the above viewer, does not work, you can go to MonkeySee.com to watch it here.

Featured Post

Gifts for Gardeners ~ Gardening Gifts ~ Cool Gardening Gift Ideas

Today is Amazon Prime Day, so I thought I'd again share the garden products I use almost every day. These are the tried-and-true w...