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- Lots of interesting things going on at Garden Rant last week. First, Susan Harris ran down Thomas Rainer’s 5 Myths about Native Plants: That they are draught-tolerant, weedy, must be arranged in a naturalistic fashion and not in masses, and are more frail than their exotic counterparts (yes, opposing #1). Like many good Garden Rant posts and conversations about natives, this set off a heated debate. Then came Amy Stewart’s little piece on Williams-Sonoma’s new garden-and-backyard-chicken-raising line, Agrarian, which features such items as organic leaf lettuce that is $16.95 per plant. Per plant. Oh, but the shipping is free…? As one commenter asked, “Who are they marketing to? The gullible wealthy hipsters population?” There’s only one answer: Yes.
- More from the wacky world of marketing: A Minnesota advertising agency, in a publicity stunt, recently set up teeny tiny street memorials for dead bugs. I guess we could adapt this strategy to our industry, but—no, let’s not.
- From the New York Times, an article about giant art installations in Mexico City, by reputation if not in reality one of the world’s most polluted cities, that are populated by living plants, and thus also serve to clean the air.
- One of the drawbacks of the mild winter just passed is that we will probably see a lot more bugs. From American Nurseryman, one such example: Ick! A tick!
- Hitting Send for Higher Sales, from Green Profit, is a pretty thorough look at marketing in our industry with email. (At the UGJ we produce enewsletters for customers and find them to be popular and useful to the customer and great for keeping the company top-of-mind. Plus, they’re trackable.)
- Organic Gardening magazine and Safer Brand have launched a new app for iPhone, iPad and Android, called Planting Planner. The free app “lets you get the timing right… Just select what you want to grow, and the app helps you determine when to start your seeds indoors and when to plant outside, based on the frost dates for your GPS location.” Story via Lawn & Garden Retailer magazine.
- I just got a review copy of Niki Jabbour’s “The Year Round Vegetable Gardener” and it’s really good. Here’s an article from the Denver Post about how Jabbour grows food in Nova Scotia 365 days a year. Pretty inspiring.
- “Guerilla Gardening,” like anything else preceded by “guerilla,” (and it’s not, “gorilla,” please, for the love of God, although I suppose gorillas can garden if they want to) is unexpected and hasn’t been approved by the authorities. It’s been a thing for at least a decade, but suddenly seems to be enjoying a little trend buoyancy right now. Greening vacant lots, seed bombs, moss graffiti, environmental issues and social change all play in. Here’s a piece from the Washington Post spotted by tweep @rachbarnhart and a whole big cool site about it sent in by our friends at Rochester’s Greentopia Festival.
- Lots of upstate New York Tree Cities were designated by the Arbor Day Foundation this year—congrats! Also, if you want posters or bookmarks to give out at schools, libraries, you name it, contact Jeremy Sayers at Tree Doctor and he’ll arrange a transfer.
- At SUNY-ESF, the iconic American chestnut tree is struggling to stage a comeback.
- If you’re in the Buffalo area and interested in amping up your social media presence, check out this cool contest.
- Via the NYSNLA’s twitter account: The Village of Fairport may recruit Rochester city employees to help treat trees against emerald ash borer (Democrat and Chronicle).
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