“Asparagus inspires gentle thoughts.”—Charles Lamb (Thanks to the Baker Creek 2013 calendar.)
Merry Thursday! And a warm welcome to all of you new readers out there. I suspect many of you signed up after reading Elizabeth Licata’s Garden Rant post. It contained an excellent recommendation for which I’m grateful, and I hope I can do it justice.
Of the three Red Fox/GreenProfit Young Retailer award, two are New Yorkers: Nicholas Holler, assistant manager at Bennett’s Greenhouses in Hornell, and Matt Smith, COO of Serene Gardens on Grand Island, who is also a brand new CNLP. Serene Gardens is a new business and just joined the New York State Nursery & Landscape Association and Region VI thereof. Congratulations to both of you!
From the Buffalo News : “Foragers head out to the woods for dinner.” Articles about foraging are always tricky to publish, because there tends to be backlash about the dangers of over-harvesting. Nonetheless, this is a good article.
Feel like a road trip? Check out this exhibit at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Tiny Taxonomy. Looks really neat.
Scotts-MiracleGro is investing four million dollars in AeroGrow, a company that makes indoor growing supplies. (The picture’s caption cracked me up: “AeroGrow’s products allow consumers to grow plants indoors,” because, um, I already have plenty of houseplants. A good addition might have been “soil free.”) It will be really interesting to see if this becomes a thing, people growing food indoors, because rumor has it that interior green walls are on the decline, as a trend, because they’re hard to use and can leak (no one likes a water-soaked wall). I haven’t visited one single home with an interior green wall, ever. Have you? But if anyone can take this mainstream, it’s Scott’s, assuming their reputation among the target demographic for such a device isn’t problematic. They should keep their logos off of it, perhaps.
OK, so the abovementioned planter is of a reasonable design, but longtime readers know I have a fascination with really stupid and pointless planters. If you want to see some, revisit this post.
Sort of along the same lines: 3-D printers as making stuff like plastic toy soldiers or miniature models of the Eiffel tower, but here’s something that could be useful. (Via Today’s Garden Center.)
I didn’t want to like this story, because at first glance it seemed to be all about hipper-than-thou Brooklynite would-be rooftop farmers. But it’s actually good. “Selling Seeds That Survive The Harsh Life Of An Urban Garden, ” from Fast Company. And I can’t help myself. I like the packaging. Damn!
ESF’s Don Leopold has produced a series of videos about New York State trees available through YouTube and iTunes U.
Community Composting. I like it, but I wonder how big the market could be. Most people have a little plot of land where they could compost if they wanted to. But condominium developments, apartment buildings, yes. The monthly cost of this particular project—in Rochester—had yet to be established at the time of publication, but presumably it will be low enough to encourage participation but high enough to motivate actual use. Like the gym.
There’s more, much more, but I’m out of time! Working on getting out the newest Upstate Gardeners’ Journal. Still time to advertise! Call me at 585/733-8979.
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