Two tulip photos taken after Madison's early morning thunderstorm.
The vistas here in this land of desert and rock feature deep canyons and striated rock formations. But the most impressive sight is yet to come. At some point next month, the gray floor of the desert will be set ablaze by carpets of wildflowers, in riotous shades of purple, yellow and red.Aficionados maintain that witnessing desert wildflowers is one of the most rewarding experiences in nature. Fall's dramatic leaf color change is guaranteed to happen every year. Desert wildflowers are far less predictable. If good spring rains are lacking, which was largely the case in 2006 and 2007, the flowers don't appear. When nature does cooperate, for two weeks or a month the desert looks as if it has been streaked by a giant paintbrush.
This year is shaping up as one of those lucky years, due to a series of storms that swept California and the Southwest in January, followed by more rain in February. "I'm hoping it's going to be terrific," says Patrick Leary, a professor of plant biology at the College of Southern Nevada, who teaches a course in desert plants. "You suffer and wait and pray for a good year and when that year comes, you have to be out there every available moment. And then it's gone."
Centro Ecológico Akumal (CEA) will offer a sustainability workshop, November 6 – 12, in Akumal, Mexico.
I began volunteering for CEA in 2000, and Akumal is as close to paradise as I’ve ever experienced. Located 60 miles south of Cancun, the shallow, crystal-clear water and sandy beach of Akumal Bay define tropical perfection. Shops for renting snorkel and dive gear are right on the beach. The small, but stunning, Tulum ruins hug the sea 10 minutes south of Akumal, and the jungles hide many, many small sites that you can visit on your own or with a guide. Additionally, local guides can lead exceptional nature walks, and CEA staff give entertaining and educational presentations nightly.
The course will cover alternative technologies for the production of energy, the treatment of wastewater, and the disposal of solid waste. The course will be taught in Spanish, though nearly all of the instructors and students will be bilingual. See more details at http://www.ceakumal.org/sustainability_workshop.html.
Contact Ed Blume (ed@ceakumal.org) for more details on Akumal and tips on how to get there as cheaply as possible.
When a farmer walked into Whole Foods wanting to sell a huge sack of morels, store employee Heather Hilleren watched a futile effort unfold.
The farmer didn't have vendor credentials, and it would have taken two weeks to get them. By then, the freshly picked morels would have spoiled.
ST. FRANCIS: You'd better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle, As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.
GOD: No. What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?
ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.
ST. FRANCIS They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.
Sacramento, Calif., claims more trees per capita than any other city in the world. It's now embarking on a 40-year plan to double the city's tree canopy. The potential benefits of urban forests include lower temperatures, improved air quality and -- perhaps surprisingly-- a calming effect on drivers.
Peter Murphy shares a beautiful VR scene from the Botanic Gardens in Sydney where there was the rare flowering of the Titan Arum.
Susan Fornoff writes about Topher Delaney's healing gardens:
Lavender flanks an antique French urn that serves as a fountain in one corner; lemons climb on the two antique French gates that delineate the garden's three "rooms," each with a terra-cotta colored bench designed by Philippe Starck.There are tomatoes growing; bay, rosemary, a rose bush, nasturtiums, too. Aloe and opuntia elaborate on the medicinal theme, and jasmine surrounds the base of the visual centerpiece, an Italian fountain surrounded by a shelf of Haifa limestone.
"This is very beautiful stone, from Jerusalem," Delaney says. "You see it in very lovely homes; you never see it in a hospital." She looks around. "This is as good as it gets in the most fancy house you could ever find. This is as good as it gets."
Amy Chozick reviews the controversial use of shrub roses (9 million sold last year), cross bred to require little maintenance
he new varieties are controversial, with some long-stem-rose purists saying that even planting them is cheating. Still, shrub roses are now the fastest-growing segment of the rose market, with the nine million plants sold last year accounting for 30% of all rose sales -- double the market share for shrub roses in 2002, according to the American Rose Society."These kinds of numbers are unheard of for roses," says Keith Zary, director of research at wholesale rose distributor Conrad-Pyle, which sold 1.8 million of its "Knock Out" red-rose shrubs in 2003, up from 135,000 in 2000, the year it introduced the variety. Historically, a popular rose wouldn't even hit the half-million mark, he says. At Jackson & Perkins, a nursery based in Medford, Ore., shrub-rose sales are up 6% this year, and the nursery's multicolored "Garden Ease Rose Blankets" -- $39.95 carpets of color that bloom into the fall -- are now one of the company's biggest sellers.
Tim Post on the growing number of backyard prairie gardeners:
One of the 15 Ornamental groves in the gardens of Versailles will be reopened on June 12th.
It marks the latest in a series of American gifts to restore the great creation for Louis XIV of André Le Nôtre and Charles Le Brun. After the second world war John D. Rockefeller gave millions to restore the place, convinced that the chateau and its gardens were of wider than French significance. Americans then responded generously to storm damage in the 1990s, and now the American Friends of Versailles have given $4m and years of voluntary work to help French experts recreate the Bosquet des Trois Fontaines (the Three Fountains Grove).
The June 5, 2004 Economist reviews "A Little History of British Gardening":
NAPOLEON called England a nation of shopkeepers: given the demise of the British high street, it would be more appropriate today to call it a nation of gardeners. The bicentenary of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) this year has spawned a green-fingered fever across a country where gardening is already a national pastime; where more than 15% of the population has a conservatory; where television gardeners are national heart-throbs; and where almost everyone has an opinion on rhododendrons
Late afternoon light.
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