Drunken Botanist; grafted tomatoes; Cornell’s weed garden

Good day! I skipped last week because I didn’t have enough to bother you with. Not so today. Today I plan on being especially bothersome.

I was going to feature parts of this enewsletter, Landscape Insider, but there was too much good in it. Plant shortages, garden tourism, kid stuff…The most interesting bit is at the end: “Thrive, Ball Horticultural’s landscape magazine, will now be available in the iTunes store to be downloaded on iPads. The company hopes this addresses the growing demand for education delivered on field sales tools (like iPads and tablets) for landscape account managers, and that it will be useful for “on the go” sales presentations. Ball’s Flourish, a fully interactive idea book for Garden Centers, is also now available in the iTunes store to download to an iPad. Check it out here.”If you have access to an iPad and a few minutes, have a look. I’m curious to know if you think they would be useful tools in your business. They’re cool to look at, that’s for sure. Ball never fails to impress me.
If you are interested in advertising in the July-August UGJ, email, call or text me: 585-733-8979.
I was in Buffalo two evenings last week for an actual party and then a book talk that was better than most parties to celebrate Amy Stewart’s “The Drunken Botanist.” The book is just great, and Amy is a wonderful speaker, and did I mention there were cocktails? Yeah, good ones. If you are interested in a little background on Amy you can read about her poison garden here and her cocktail garden here. Here’s the recipe that started it all.

From the New York Times: Unexpected Décor – Ebony Spleenwort is about a fern that grows where nothing else will.

Also from the Times, Greedy Gardeners, an op-ed that argues “the urban agricultural movement has gone a step too far.”
And lastly, In Defense of Grafting Tomatoes from Ann Raver. With instructions! Is this a thing yet?

Here is a really extensive, heartwarming piece from The Batavian about the Yunker family, Elba farmers who count among their considerable holdings and sponsors Batavia Turf. (Pictured are Bernice and Carl, heads of the family.)

From Today’s Garden Center: Burpee Delivers Food And Plants To Needy Communities. (There’s a video at the other end of that link that I won’t embed here.) Rochester has something like this, I think, in the works too.
Natures abhors a vacuum. Since plants will grow on roadsides whether we want them or not, might as well plant deliberately. Here’s a piece about managing roadsides as habitats.
From the Cornell Chronicle, an invitation to check out their “Garden of Weedin’.” Looks really cool. I’m always wondering what certain weeds are—seeing labeled even once or twice would be quite helpful.

Same source: Researcher to study, develop public “healing spaces” that will focus on healing aspects of the human-nature interaction in the wake of disaster. (via Landscape Management).
The National Garden Festival in Buffalo just announced its ambitious 2013 schedule. Wow!