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February 2009

Here’s What’s Going on in My Neck of the Woods, What Have You Been Up To?

by Fern on February 27, 2009

in General

My garden has been battered by the crazy rain (for Southern California) we’ve been getting over the last couple of months. So I’ve mostly been running damage control. However, there are a few bright spots. My peach tree is in bloom and my apple tree isn’t far behind. I’m also the proud owner of some new gardening boots that are totally ridiculous, but if you can’t look ridiculous when you’re gardening, then when can you?!


Babcock Peach


My new Slogger’s gardening boots. No jokes about my white legs!

What are you doing that’s gardening related? Planning? Seed Sowing? Dreaming?

Happy Friday!

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Dirt du Jour

by Fern on February 26, 2009

in Journal

Fellow Southern Californian and OC Register garden writer Cindy McNatt has started a really beautiful (and useful, but I’m really obsessed with the beautiful design) website and newsletter for gardening addicts called Dirt du Jour.

Dirt du jour is a free daily email and website about gardening that serves a community of passionate plant people in Southern California.

This daily dose of dirt is the brain trust of garden writer Cindy McNatt who has been digging in the daffs for 35 years. Handling the business end is partner Linda Barnes.

Dirt du jour is an ezine, email, eletter and blog tailored to the gardener who wants the heads up about what is new, hip, up and coming, over, on sale and too expensive. Sometimes we offer gardening tips or plant profiles and sometimes we simply ramble on about roses.

It’s a snap to sign up for Dirt du jour. You will receive a helpful email about gardening Monday through Friday plus you can click to visit our website and dig in the compost piles, read book reviews or find our monthly garden guides. You can sign up here.

Some posts that you all might enjoy (among others):

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Easy-To-Care-For Container Ideas

February 25, 2009

I drew up these ideas for for a project I’m working on. I think I am going to end up using the second and fourth ideas. Anyway, I thought I’d post them here too. If nothing else, they might help get your ideas flowing. Click on any of the images to see a larger version. [...]

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Thanks for the Shout-Out Sunset!

February 24, 2009

In the March issue of Sunset Magazine, there is an article called “Blogs We Can’t Live Without.” In it, Sunset was nice enough to mention Life on the Balcony: “This love poem to container gardening and planting in tiny spaces proves that no bare earth is no excuse not to garden.” I’m thrilled to be [...]

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Using Bold Color in Small Gardens

February 24, 2009

A lot of people are intimidated by color. Even more so when the space they are dealing with is small. We’ve all heard the old canard that using bold colors in small spaces will make the room look smaller and cave-like. I am here to tell you: HOGWASH! Bold color used wrong is a design [...]

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20% of Home and Garden at Barnes & Noble

February 23, 2009

I just got an email from Barnes and Noble saying that they are taking 20% off of Home & Garden until the end of the week. Sounds like a great opportunity to stock up on idea books before Spring gets underway. I highly recommend Easy Container Gardening or Bountiful Container. Update – My bad. I [...]

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Transforming a Plain Patio into a Gorgeous Garden

February 23, 2009

Sunset Magazine has a couple of really great ideas for transforming a small space into something really special. The photos alone are worth clicking over: Repeat Shapes Use a Few Bold Plants Chose a Bright Accent Color

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Review of Easy Container Gardens by Pamela Crawford

February 20, 2009

In One Sentence: Easy Container Gardens is a great book for a beginning gardener or someone who wants to create no-fuss containers that are as attractive as they are low-maintenance. After testing out tons and tons of plants grown in containers, author Pamela Crawford has put together a book that features plants that she calls [...]

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Grow Onion Breath on Your Balcony

February 18, 2009

Onions make almost anything taste better, but they do leave that pesky bad breath in their wake. Unfortunately, I don’t have a remedy for onion breath. But I do know how to grow onions in containers. It’s pretty easy, you should definitely give it a try. Just keep a lot of gum or mints with [...]

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Good Reading for a Long Weekend

February 15, 2009

I’m actually in Houston for the weekend, visiting with my brother. I live in California and he lives in Philadelphia and a few times a year we meet for the weekend somewhere in the middle. Anyway, these are some blog posts I really enjoyed reading last week… The New Buzz About Honey Bees and Garden [...]

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