other people's wwws: Garden History Girl

historic preservation and gardening... if you are looking for an intersection, here's one. Check out the links too.

other people's wwws: Name that Native

I recently discovered this very interesting blog from Stefan Bloodworth, the curator of Sarah Duke Garden's Bloomquist Garden of Native Plants.  I plan to follow along and polish my ID skills as each new list comes out. I also like that he has linked each plant to the USDA database.

other people's wwws: Ellis Hollow

So a few months ago I thought I had come up with a completely cool and mostly original idea: to scan picked flowers and put the images on this blog....and then of course I realized that:

a. I need to stop thinking about what would be cool and just scan some damn flowers ...that is the point of blogging yes? instant content generation!?  sheesh..... will get to that soon, maybe before the 'obedient plant' peaks next month...those spikes would make a great scan.

b. MORE importantly, I was just browsing through one of my favorite garden blogs Ellis Hollow and realized that I probably got the idea from this site-- Great posts, great pictures, great ideas. Enjoy.

other people's wwws: Monticello

Over the past week I noticed several garden related stories about Monticello. First, was the NY Times' piece on  the work being done to interpret the landscape there.....the always excellent Anne Raver explains that there's more to these gardens than a postcard picture. 

On Sunday I came across another reference to Monticello, this time from Pepperdine professor Wade Graham in a McClatchy op-ed piece. It made me think about those palladian windows that are so common in McMansions nowadays....

And lastly,  I just opened my mid-summer email from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. They are helping out with an heirloom tomato tasting at Monticello later on this summer. It sounds like a good enough reason to go....if I could just find a weekend to get away from my own garden. Of course with this heat and lack of rain, I may need to seek out someone else's tomatoes.  

other people's wwws: A Way to Garden

Question
If you start to type "A way to ......."  in the Google magic-bar machine, do you know what is the second most popular proffer?

Answer
A Way to Garden, a horticultural universe / garden blog created by Margaret Roach. She is the former garden editor for 'Martha Stewart Living.'  Bookmark, check!   That google-rank should clue you in as to how wonderful it really is... oh, and the third most popular offering is "a way to get on myspace at school."

other people's wwws: UNC's North Carolina Collection- flower postcards

Here's an interesting  link.  The picture above is of the W.A. Hanchey & Son Canna Farm (ca. 1940-60). Enjoy browsing the subject index too...

other people's wwws: Garden Rant

Who doesn't want to read from experts, especially when those experts are irreverent, funny, well-connected, and super consistent with their useful and entertaining posts?

  It's hot outside, so take your 3pm tea or beer or whatever in front of the air conditioner and enjoy Garden Rant.

other people's wwws: Randy and Meg's Garden Paradise

Randy Emmitt is from  Rougemont, NC and is the  blogger / photographer / handyman behind Randy and Meg's Garden Paradise.  

His photographs of flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, and other works of Nature set the blogger-bar pretty durn high. I stumbled on his site as a link from a link and was psyched to find piedmont plots on his list of other blogs that he follows.... keep up the good work Randy!

other people's wwws: Carl Sandburg Home and Connemara Farms

Last summer my family made a pilgrimage to the Carl Sandburg Home, a National Historic Site in Flat Rock, NC. We spent the whole time outside enjoying the trails, gardens, and farm buildings, but if we had had the whole day, we would have gone inside a wonderful house museum to learn more about Carl Sanburg (1878-1967).

At the Carl Sandburg Home, you can  learn a lot about his work as a  Lincoln biographer, poet, folklorist, journalist, songwriter, labor organizer, ...( *maybe one reason a lot of folks don't appreciate the Sandburg legacy as much today, is because it is hard to describe exactly "what he did."). 

Visitors can learn about  his wife Paula, and her acclaimed goat herd. The  descendents of these animals are still kept on the farm. Her dairy operation was nationally famous; the picture to the right is from the National Park Service's online exhibit about the Carl Sanburg Home, which has tons more images and information about the site in case you cannot make the drive in person.

other people's wwws: Bluebird Meadows

I love this blog. As farmers, flower merchants, builders, bloggers, CSA providers, and etc.,  this couple (Alice and Stuart) are busy enough that I wouldn’t fault them if they didn’t post for weeks on end. But they seem to find the time to post observations from the great outdoors and lots of beautiful pictures. Some of my favorite shots come from their stall at the Durham Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings. Two other things I like about the Bluebird Meadows blog are the rotating blogroll (I am always aiming to keep piedmont plots in the top five of the most recently updated), and the masthead picture which changes every few weeks or months. I may have to copy those two ideas.

other people's wwws: Gene's Garden

I bet there are thousands of garden blogs out there but Gene's Garden out of Hampton, VA is on my shortlist of bookmarks.  Cheers Gene and keep up the good work!

other people's wwws: Liberated Gardener

If you have lived around Durham long enough, you've probably heard of Frank Hyman. He is a writer, landscape designer, horticulturalist, political activist turned politician turned political analyst, artist.....I'm probably leaving something out.

This is a good month to check out his blog, Liberated Gardener, as he and his wife are traveling in France and blogging about it.

other people's wwws: Human Flower Project

I am not sure when I discovered this website but it is one of my favorite gardening blogs / repositories of garden stories, pictures, etc.

I am epecially eager to read whenever Allen Bush contributes.....as he did today.

other people's wwws

Today is the first installment of what I hope will be a regular Tuesday post for piedmont plots. Every week I will share a blog or a website with my regular readers in mind (I think there’s enough of you that we could all pile into my minivan).

 I do have a few trusty bookmarks that I check daily and those sites will eventually get featured. But I may also be guilty of a knee-jerk decision to post a link to a site I have only visited once (like today’s offering). So this  isn’t meant to be an endorsement or an advertisement….just a weekly pause to share something interesting.

Today, I stumbled across the blog for the let’s color project, a global beautification initiative sponsored by Delux Paints. Even though it is not centered on ornamental horticulture, it is all about color… And what green thumb/flower geek  doesn’t like color? Or maybe, in this case, colour…..