Top 15 Plants for Dramatic Lighting

Our cover story on Outdoor Lighting in the current issue of Washington Gardener magazine describes the many methods for lighting your garden. One thing that got bumped due to space restrictions was our top 15 listing of plants to highlight with dramatic lighting, so I thought I'd share them here. If you have any of these gorgeous trees and shrubs in your garden, take the time to look at them at different times of day and in different seasons of the year. Consider how they can be spotlighted and showcased for the best effect. Feel free to share (in the comments section) your own choices for plants that deserve spotlighting.

• Thanks to Mark Oxley of Outdoor Illumination for providing many of the plant suggestions on this listing.

The crape myrtles pictured here are at the American University campus near a stretch of turf called "the beach."

• American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)
• Crabapple (Malus spp.)
• Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica)
• Dogwood (Cornus kousa and Cornus florida)
• Golden Rain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata)
• Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (Corylus 'Contorta' )
• Hawthorne (Crataegus oxyacantha)
• Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) and Japanese Laceleaf Maple (Acer palmatum dissectum)
• Japanese Snowbell (Styrax japonicus)
• River Birch (Betula nigra)
• Saucer Magnolia (Magnolia x soulangeana)
• Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.)
• Stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia)
• Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana)
• Weeping Cherry (Prunus subhirtella 'Pendula')
  

Plans for the Weekend

Come in out of the rain Saturday and get your holiday groove on. Washington Gardener Magazine will have a table at the Behnke's Holiday Craft Festival & Open House this Saturday November 15 from 11am-7pm. We will be taking renewals, new subscriptions, gift subscriptions, and selling current/back issues. (Note that this is at their Beltsville, MD location.)
. Visit with OVER 25 Local Crafters & Vendors and discover unique gifts & hand-crafted treasures you’ll want to keep.
. Stroll through greenhouses full of beautiful Behnke Signature Poinsettias and many other colorful holiday plants
. Enter several Door Prize drawings
. Purchase Raffle Tickets. All proceeds to benefit: Autism Speaks / Cure Autism Now.
. Join in Fun Holiday Activities from 4 to 7pm
. And don’t miss a visit with Santa from 4-6pm.
Behnke's will be accepting Toys for Tots donations.

This is a bit early for me to get in the Christmas spirit. (Yes, I did just dare use the C-word.) But I figure I may as well give in at this point. I've already started my holiday shopping at the GreenFestival last weekend and have been perusing cookie recipes in Martha Stewart, so singing carols and hanging the lights are not far behind.

Ode to a Gray Squirrel

Oh, little gray one. I found your lifeless body - stiff and bloated - in back of my gazebo. You and your brethren stole tomatoes, chewed through all my pumpkins, and tore out flower bulbs by the dozens. I wished you ill, but never wished you death.

Oh, furry one, how did you pass on? Was it the stray cats? A neighbor's rat poison? Perhaps a deadly duel with a rival mate? I'll never know, but Chantilly and I will miss your happy-go-lucky antics and flirting tail. RIP, little gray one.

(Out of respect for the deceased, no photos to share today.)

No Need for Low-Cut Blouses, Just Bid

Get your holiday shopping done early at the CHEJ Online Auction and you get to invoke your inner Erin Brockovich at the same time. The Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) provides community groups with the tools, direction, and encouragement they need to prevent harm by keeping dangerous chemicals out of the air, water, food, and consumer products. They have assisted more than 10,000 communities in the past 30 years and will be able to continue with your help.

We have donated a year's subscription to Washington Gardener Magazine to the cause -- bid on it for yourself or as a gift, to access the auction Go Here . The auction will run until December 1, 2008.

Investing in Your Garden

In Saturday's Baltimore Sun, Nancy Taylor Robson wrote about Garden Assets -- ways to do a little work now and get big dividends in the next growing season. In that piece she quotes me and also gives a nice reference to our Seed Exchange that takes place every January at Brookside Gardens. I'm about to start the intense period of Seed Exchange planning and promotion so you'll hear much more about that in coming weeks. I had 200 "save the date" flyers printed to give out at this past weekend's Green Festival and all were gone by the show's end. We definitely had intense interest in that and I expect a sold-out crowd again for our 1/31/09 event.

GreenFestival is Here, at last!!!

Everyone I know is sick and tired of me talking about how great the GreenFestival is -- how it is the only show that does things RIGHT. Like the food - not hockey-puck convention center hamburgers, but instead delicious catered Indian food, vegan mac & cheese, yummy pastries, samples of fair-trade chocolate, and lots more. You won't starve there or hate yourself in the morning. Then there is the fact that they actually compost any food waste and recycle all the paper and other products consumed at the show. Anyone who has worked shows before knows the tremendous amount of waste that one event can generate. The mountains of cardboard boxes, paperwork, food containers, etc. are just shameful in that they are rarely re-used or recycled. Did I mention you can attend for FREE? That's right, you can volunteer, donate books, help an exhibitor, etc. and get in for $0. I could go on, but I'll spare you. Instead I'll share here my top 5 picks for speakers to go see at GreenFest this year:

1. Cradle to Cradle: A World of Good Design ~ William McDonough
2. Greener Gardening ~ Joe Lamp’l, The Joe Gardener Company

3. Urban Vegetable Gardening ~ Ed Bruske, DC Urban Gardeners

4. Demonstration: Apartment-scaled Composting with Worms ~ Lindsay Paige Savoie

5. From Eco-weak to Eco-chic ~ Sylvia Wright, The Wright Scoop

We are in booth #644 - hope to see you there!

UPDATE:

Ed's talk did not happen, but the other four did - I went by each for a few seconds each just to check out the crowd and say, "hi!" to the speakers, if I hadn't already seen them that day. All were well attended with folks thirsty for green gardening knowledge. Which reminds me I need to get in gear and send in a speaker proposal for next year's event as soon as they open that up.

Washington Gardener Sheds Light on Your Garden

NEW issue out...

Washington Gardener Sheds Light on Your Garden
– Outdoor Lighting Essentials

At this time of year, gardeners across the DC-area wake up in the dark and get home from work well past dusk. Even though the temperatures may still be pleasant, they cannot enjoy their leisure time in their gardens in the pitch black. From solar fixtures to fire pits, the many options for bringing light into your landscape are outlined in the new November/December ’08 issue cover story of Washington Gardener Magazine.

Washington Gardener Magazine’s November/December 2008 issue is jam-packed full of terrific timely articles for gardeners in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Inside it is:
· Holiday Gifts for Gardeners
· How to Prune Fruiting Trees, Shrubs, and Vines
· 5 Top Tips for Overwintering Tender Bulbs
· Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick
· Is Your Bird Feeder Really a Weed Seeder?
· Emerald Ash Borer: A Serious Threat
· A Daytrip to Tudor Place
· Should You Plant Your Lilies in Fall
· Bringing Nature Home with Doug Tallamy
· HortHappenings: Latest Local Green Industry Events
· Outdoor Lighting Essentials
· And much, much more.

Washington Gardener magazine (http://www.washingtongardener.com/) is the gardening publication specifically for the local metro area — zones 6-7 — Washington DC and its suburbs. Washington Gardener magazine’s basic mission is to help DC area gardens grow better. The magazine is written entirely by local area gardeners. The content of the magazine gives real examples that residents of the greater DC region can use immediately in your own garden.

Washington Gardener is a local, independent, and woman-owned business based in Silver Spring, MD. The publication is dedicated to promoting the best practices for area gardening.

To subscribe to our magazine: Send a check for $20.00 payable to Washington Gardener magazine to: Washington Gardener, 826 Philadelphia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20910 OR click on the “subscription” link at http://www.washingtongardener.com/ to subscribe online using a secure credit card transaction.

MonkeySee, Monkey Do

Being born in the Year of the Monkey 1968, it was a natural thing to hook up with MonkeySee.com for a set of instructional online videos on gardening. This set is on Preparing your Vegetable Garden for Winter. Here is the link:

http://www.monkeysee.com/WashingtonGardener

We filmed all these segments in one long day and you might notice my clothes getting dirtier as the day wears on. You may also note when I've just ingested and sugar or when I sorely need some.

In addition to my clips, Monkeysee.com features three other local gardeners that I know personally and have blogged about before Susan Harris, Ed Bruske, and Mitch Baker. All of these are great to check out -- none are longer than your average TV commercial break.

WHO you gonna call?

The WHOmobile aka White House Organic Farm Project rolled into DC this past weekend. I stopped by to check it out at the Dupont Circle Farmers Market. Yes, the same site, as some loyal blog readers will recall, of our most controversial post to date.

This time it was a bit more feel-good of an event, though I did witness one older gentleman haranguing the WHO crew about just how they were going to have an organic farm on White House property when in this day and age security is such a top concern. Really, is that what it comes down to? If we give up a pesticide-soaked front lawn, the President will suffer bodily harm?!? Are our choices and our thinking really so limited in the 21st Century? Come on. There really is no reason that the same maintenance staff who diligently mows, blows, edges, and sprays the White House lawn can't be employed in more earth-friendly lawn practices, at the very least, and maybe even plant a few rows of edibles as symbol of a more sustainable shift in thinking of the new current White House resident. Count me in as one who thinks we can achieve, if we just believe.

I'm off to vote.

Fall is for Planting

My latest radio interview on WAMU Metro Connections aired last Friday and over the weekend.

Here is the link: Gardening with Kathy Jentz

The only 'gardening' some of us can even contemplate at this time of year involves raking leaves off grass. But Kathy Jentz, editor and publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine, says this is a great time for planting. ...


WAMU: Metro Connection - http://wamu.org/programs/mc/

Little Lost Ladybugs

We wrote recently about the local Ladybug Invasion problems, but it seems certain ladybug species are not doing as well as others. If you guessed those dwindling in number here are the Eastern native ones and that the Western and Asian ones are thriving, you'd get a star from teacher. Seems like all I read about lately is Asian beetle this and imported disease that. Some day it'd be nice to read about an Eastern native plant or bug taking over the West Coast or Asia. Anyone have examples? Or are we Easterners just not made of the conquering stuff?

Back to the lost ladybugs... USDA’s ARS is seeking the public’s help looking for a few special bugs. The researchers are asking people to photograph every ladybug possible and then to send the photos to Cornell Univ. so they can inventory the insects. The scientists are particularly looking for rare species, such as the nine-spotted, two-spotted, and transverse lady beetles. The “Lost Ladybug Project” online allows participants to track and map the ladybug data.

Check out the advice on HOW to photograph your found ladybugs. In particular, they want you to "chill them" so they will be still for their close-up. They say: "Lady beetles can be chilled in a freezer safely for 5 minutes (over six may kill them) and this will quiet them for 2-4 minutes." I don't know about you, but that seems like it could go easily awry. I mean, a kid gets the bugs, pops them in the garage freezer, mom calls him in for dinner, then two days later the bugs are discovered a bit "over-chilled." Here's to hoping people can tell time accurately and that they don't get distracted mid-chilling.

My ladybug photo here was taken without the assistance of chilling, though note that these two they were part of a ladybug release party I attended last year so were pretty groggy, shook up, and hungover at this point when I took the shot.