Projo Garden Blog

June 2007 Archives


Garden game for PC or Mac grows on you

3:31 AM Fri, Jun 29, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Sheila Lennon    Email

Alice Greenfingers is a game of dig, plant, water, wait, box, sell. The downloadable demo -- Windows or Mac -- gives you an hour to decide if it's worth $19.95. There's a full review at JayIsGames. Here's a snippet......

social bookmarking


Floral clock: The scarlet pimpernel closes at 2 p.m.

11:27 PM Tue, Jun 26, 2007 | | Comments (2)
By Sheila Lennon    Email

This seems another remnant of eras where people invented their own pastimes. The very idea of planting a garden whose flowers would tell the gardener -- and perhaps only the gardener knew the code -- that it was lunchtime or......

social bookmarking


Walking tour of funky West End gardens Sunday

1:06 AM Tue, Jun 26, 2007 | | Comments (1)
By Karen Ziner    Email

For all you gardeners and garden-lovers, there is a self-guided walking tour of West End gardens this Sunday from 11 to 1:30 p.m., sponsored by Urban Greens, which aims to provide affordable access to healthy, natural and sustainably produced foods......

social bookmarking


Updated: The garlic is 'scaping! (We made pesto)

9:28 AM Sun, Jun 24, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Sheila Lennon    Email

Most supermarket garlic is softneck garlic, bred for keeping. This is Rocambole, mild hardneck "serpent" garlic that forms a bulb on the end of its curving flower stalk. But I don't want it to "flower" -- it will take......

social bookmarking


The Man from Kew

5:35 PM Fri, Jun 22, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Paula Constantine    Email

I read a lot of stuff in my job as Home and Garden editor. Our news wires stream stories from all over the country, even the world. Places like Texas, California and Florida might have some great garden writing, but......

social bookmarking


URI rose garden is a-blooming

1:24 PM Fri, Jun 22, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Rudolph A. Hempe    Email

Click photo to enlarge it The Chet Clayton Rose Garden at the University of Rhode Island's Kingston Campus is in full bloom. Named after Chester Clayton, a URI Master Gardener who donated the money for the rose garden, the......

social bookmarking


Ask, and they shall grow it for you

4:12 PM Thu, Jun 21, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Sheila Lennon    Email

One of the frustrations of gardening is knowing the plants you want to grow but not knowing where to buy seedlings. (If only we had thought to start them in January!) One small step in the right direction comes from......

social bookmarking


Mesclun greens

2:52 PM Wed, Jun 20, 2007 | | Comments (2)
By Dave Weyermann    Email

Mesclun greens are pretty simple to grow and deliver a gourmet salad in a relatively short time. The ones I grew this year featured seven different types that all grow together because all the seeds are packed together. It......

social bookmarking


Coming up roses

1:07 PM Mon, Jun 18, 2007 | | Comments (1)
By Karen Bordeleau    Email

Click photo to enlarge it. The roses are finally here -- a full two weeks after their usual bloom date -- but worth the wait! The two climbers in the front -- America roses -- were rudely interrupted by......

social bookmarking


Critters pecking at strawberries?

12:45 PM Mon, Jun 18, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Rudolph A. Hempe    Email

We all like strawberries but so do many critters. Birds are prime suspects if the berries have been "pecked" but chipmunks could be guilty too. In either case, netting is just about the only protection. Plastic netting is cheap and......

social bookmarking


Use those rocks -- around strawberries, near tomatoes

12:33 PM Fri, Jun 15, 2007 | | Comments (2)
By Rudolph A. Hempe    Email

The late John Eccleston of North Kingstown, a Narragansett Electric employee who loved to garden, showed me his unique method of growing strawberries many years ago. He gathered good-sized rocks, 8-10 inches in diameter roughly, and arranged them touching one......

social bookmarking


Make a bucket shield to photograph just the flowers

11:03 AM Fri, Jun 15, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Sheila Lennon    Email

The Bucket Method for Photographing Flowers. At Digital Photography School, The following tutorial on how to make and convert a bucket shield to give flowers some protection from the wind and a nice strong background was submitted by our......

social bookmarking


Leaving the garden

1:38 PM Thu, Jun 14, 2007 | | Comments (1)
By Pat Feinstein    Email

It has always been difficult for me to leave my garden whenever I have to take a trip, especially an extended one, during spring, summer or fall. I am leaving for Thailand this week. If the flowers could speak, they......

social bookmarking


Plants prove more competitive with strangers than with siblings

12:20 PM Thu, Jun 14, 2007 | | Comments (1)
By Sheila Lennon    Email

Plants can tell who's who: It's not just animals that can tell siblings from strangers. Interesting but not entirely surprising news in Nature: Telling apart relatives from strangers is crucial in many animal species, helping them to share precious resources......

social bookmarking


The raised bed a month later

9:43 AM Wed, Jun 13, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Sheila Lennon    Email

The raised bed now: Broccoli in the lower left with spinach; the tall leaves are garlic, the light green leaves are lettuce. (See it a month ago.) We used a side dressing of compost before planting, but have not......

social bookmarking


Do you pinch out the first tiny peppers?

11:17 AM Tue, Jun 12, 2007 | | Comments (6)
By Sheila Lennon    Email

Sweet pepper plant with tiny peppers grows next to a short white pea fence. Nasturtium, basil and snow peas can be seen behind it. (My husband made cutworm collars of sheet metal and rivets!) Our newest garden blogger, Rudi......

social bookmarking


Save that rain!

3:07 PM Mon, Jun 11, 2007 | | Comments (2)
By Rudolph A. Hempe    Email

I just purchased two rain barrels and am amazed how fast they fill up from my down spouts. I have a modest-sized ranch house but during a recent light rainstorm even this small roof collected enough water to provide a......

social bookmarking


Welcome Rudi!

5:01 PM Fri, Jun 08, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Paula Constantine    Email

You've probably just read the previous couple of postings by the newest contributor to projo Garden Blog, Rudi Hempe. I don't think I've ever been at East Farm when he wasn't there, or wasn't expected soon. Any question the team......

social bookmarking


Karen 1, Deer 0

2:13 PM Fri, Jun 08, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Karen Bordeleau    Email

Many gardeners have been beset by deer -- lovely animals that they are -- who spend too much of their time lunching in our yards. So, since Bambi and her bambinos literally deflowered my gardens of all impatiens and verbena......

social bookmarking


Aug. 11: URI Vegetable Garden open house

1:37 PM Fri, Jun 08, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Rudolph A. Hempe    Email

The Demonstration Vegetable Garden at URI's East Farm campus will host an open house on August 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine This 5,000-sq.-ft. garden is operated by URI Master Gardeners who are always trying out......

social bookmarking


July 14-15: URI Master Gardener garden tour

1:33 AM Fri, Jun 08, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Rudolph A. Hempe    Email

The "Gardening with the Masters" garden tour, sponsored every two years by URI Master Gardeners, will be held July 14 and 15. More than 30 gardens are included in the tour which will go on rain or shine. Tickets are......

social bookmarking


My taste in mulch changes through the years

1:26 PM Thu, Jun 07, 2007 | | Comments (6)
By Pat Feinstein    Email

Organic mulches keep the soil moist and cool. Mulching helps making the task of weeding a bit easier. I have used quite a few truckloads and countless bags of mulch over the years. Now, I try to do ‘spot mulching’......

social bookmarking


Hanging catnip

2:15 PM Wed, Jun 06, 2007 | | Comments (4)
By Sheila Lennon    Email

All my attempts to grow catnip in the garden have been foiled by my cats, who just can't wait. So last year I grew it in a hanging basket, which worked beautifully, since Max and Miles couldn't reach it.......

social bookmarking


Don't be too nice to tomatoes

5:28 PM Tue, Jun 05, 2007 | | Comments (2)
By Paula Constantine    Email

Budding tomato growers out there may be tempted to throw fertilizer at their young plants, hoping to get bigger plants and more fruits. But adding too much high-nitrogen fertilizer to the vegetable garden will just get you brutish, healthy green......

social bookmarking


The sculpture in Pat Feinstein's front garden: The history of 'Hope and the 3 Children'

2:01 AM Sun, Jun 03, 2007 | | Comments (4)
By Pat Feinstein    Email

The original Hope and the 3 Children in 1993. Once upon a time, there was a huge tree, supposedly 57 years old, at the corner of my front yard. I later learned that it actually came from three red......

social bookmarking


Tree stump's metamorphosis proves a street show supreme

2:00 AM Sun, Jun 03, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Sheila Lennon    Email

Here's the Journal's 1993 story about the sculpture in guest garden-blogger Pat Feinstein's front yard in Providence. Her blog post today about the traffic-stopping wooden children and how they are now, with photos: The sculpture in Pat Feinstein's front garden:......

social bookmarking


Where the wild plants are

5:40 PM Fri, Jun 01, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Paula Constantine    Email

I heard something interesting once. If you see a plant leafing or flowering really early in the season, it's bound to be a non-native species, getting the jump on its local neighbors in the race for resources and growing space.......

social bookmarking


Hooray for iris

1:31 AM Fri, Jun 01, 2007 | | Write a comment
By Pat Feinstein    Email

I, too, am grateful to my Irises. Most of mine are of the bearded species. I have a good quantity of Siberian Iris in my backyard, but only a few Dutch Iris in the front. I hope to add......

social bookmarking