By Vanessa Richins

For many of us, gardening season is coming to an end.

The leaves are changing, and the promise of snow looms in the near future.

While you may keep some plants indoors in the house or greenhouse, you anxiously await spring.

Some, though, are a bit more fortunate. They live in the warmer zones where it rarely snows and you can garden for most, if not all, of the year. I used to enjoy that (sigh), since I spent my first 20 years living in Zones 9/10 California.

Back home in Southern California, we would get rainstorms during the winter. Since I lived in the mountains, the wind would blow especially hard and the storm wreaked havoc on the yard. Our banana tree was destroyed this way.

When you have a container garden, it’s important to Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Germany has been leading the way in urban gardening for many years.

They started the current trend of green roofs back in the 1960s.

Michigan State University’s Green Roof Research Program states that “It is estimated that 12% of all flat roofs in that country are green and the German green roof industry is growing 10% to 15% per year”.

Berlin has been pioneering another current trend - urban farming.  Many of the 74,500 local gardens contain edible plants.  The fervor for local gardening began back in the World War 1 and 2 years.

However, Berlin’s senate, faced with the task of balancing a budget ridden with debt, says that some of the gardens may have to be bulldozed in favor of new construction.

Spiegel Online Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

I’ve always enjoyed spending time in the garden.

I listen to my iPod and work the hours away ripping out weeds, watching insects and animals, and just enjoying the beauty around me.

However, often life interferes.

You can find that between work, family, volunteering, church and a host of other activities, time just flies by. One morning you wake up and notice how many weeds have popped up in the garden.

As a potential urban gardener, you might also think that you wouldn’t be able to do as much gardening as you like because of a busy schedule.

A friend lent me his copy of The 20-Minute Vegetable Gardener: Gourmet Gardening for the Rest of Us, by Tom Christopher and Marty Asher. This book proposes to teach you how to have, as the cover proclaims, “the garden of your dreams, without giving up Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Sometimes the only place you have to garden is a windowsill or tabletop.

One way to maximize your potential is to build a glass terrarium.

You can buy premade kits or you can recycle old glass (or plastic) into your own beautiful indoor garden.

The San Francisco Chronicle explains that terrariums have been used for almost 180 years now:

“In her book [The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature], Tovah Martin explains the roots of the terrarium: In 1831, when British surgeon Nathaniel Ward picked a fern, stuck it in a bottle and forgot about it. Several months later, the fern was thriving and grass had sprouted in the enclosed container Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Social media and the Internet changing the world as we know it.

We are able to share information with just one click of the mouse.

I can ask a garden question on Twitter and get answers from around the world within minutes.

It’s amazing.

The Internet is growing at an astonishing rate. New websites pop up every minute. There’s a whole world to be discovered….if you can only find it. Search engines can help, but you don’t always even know what you’re looking for.

Stumble Upon is a social media service that strives to help you find your favorite new websites. You will be directed to random sites based on your stated interests and the recommendations of your friends. I have spent hours just clicking the button and zooming around the Internet.

You sign up for an account with Stumble Upon and check off what kinds of topics and websites you are interested in visiting. There’s a toolbar to be downloaded. Once that is ready, you just start pushing Read the rest of this entry »