Doug Green's Garden

Hey folks - really busy week but not gardening or writing.  My daughter was married last weekend. This week Mayo is away visiting her daughter so I'm batching it.  Enough said. :-)  It's been a busy week catching up and starting to really move the garden around.

I'm looking at the "cascade effect"  this week again.  Before I can move the soil for the new bed, I have to empty the trailer.  Before I can empty the trailer, I have to finish emptying the basement of all the old construction wood etc that's been there for years and years before our time (got that project underway before the wedding)  But before I can do that, I need to....

I'm sure you have this in your life as well.

It all started because Mayo and I decided we had too many projects underway at the same time and too many unfinished ones.  We told each other, "no new projects until we get the old ones done."  Hence the basement cleanup - and the cascade effect.  Before I can get my smaller simpler garden, I need to finish some other projects in the to-do list ahead of it.

But don't tell Mayo but I'm sneaking in 15 minutes here and 15 there to do some perennial plant moving.  Some ugly hemerocallis and garden phlox left the garden last night and were replanted out at the end of our laneway.  They aren't really terrible - just not the ones I want to see in my daily garden.


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Newsletter Publishing and Timing

Moving to every second week so you likely won't hear from me next week.  Right now, it's on a hit and miss basis I'm afraid.  There's a ton going on outside at our place and I have a great many words to get under control on my word processor.

Plus I'm taking the next step in semi-retirement from the garden writing world. Gotta slow 'er down some more, switching gears and confirming my latest mid-life creative crisis. :-)  I wrote about this leap here

If you're interested, you can read about this decision here.



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Insect Identification Rolls On

Some of you don't know about Moni and her amazing insect identification service.  If you can get a good picture of an insect then she can probably identify it.  She's closing in on 1000 insects identified over the past few years and they're all here on this website.



If you have an insect in your garden, the odds are we've identified it already.  But just in case, do take a great picture of it and be prepared to send it in.

The best way you can thank her is to buy her insect identification and control book listed on those pages.

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Saving Your Own Seeds?

Hey - my better half Mayo (who for newcomers is one of North America's experts on heirloom vegetables) wrote the book on doing this in the home garden.

If you're tired of always having to buy your seed - and you can't get the funky varieties you'd like (and that you read about from guys like me) - here's how to do it yourself.

Our windowsill is full of seeds of one kind or other and Mayo just finished shelling the peas and beans for next year's crops.  (we have a golden edible podded pea that's superb)

Check the ebook out here.

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Gardening Wisdom Project

For newcomers - this is where I'm sharing my award winning book on gardening - chapter by chapter - for you to enjoy.  It's full of great gardening tips as well as fun quotes out of my garden book collection of old books.

The first  *two* parts of the chapter on container gardening went up.  Scroll to the bottom of this page.  The links are side-by-side so may appear closer than normal depending on your browser.


Here's the master page - scroll to the bottom for a master list of links.




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You May Want To Read

Guidelines for fall transplanting  how to avoid killing your own plants this fall.


And a new tool review on Fiskars Hand Pruners


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When I reminded you about the Flipboard app on tablet reading last week, I didn't expect my stuff to go viral.  It did.  My readership jumped from just under 700 to just over 30,000 in the week. Very cool


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Where's Doug 

Video - http://www.youtube.com/user/headgardener2u

Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/douggreen/

Amazon and his books  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001HOIY8S

All other reading systems can be found here  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/DougGreen

Bookmark browser or load An Unedited Writer into Flipboard  https://flipboard.com/section/an-unedited-writer-blASMO

Doug Green's Garden - reviews, articles and opinion  http://www.douggreensgarden.com

Perennial Flowers - self-explanatory - http://www.doug-greens-perennials.com

Insect identification http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/insect-identification.html

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A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.
Doug Larson