Gardening Blog

Have you ever wondered what you’re houseplants are thinking? Well, thanks to this cool gadget, your houseplant can now tweet. By using Twitter, your houseplant will communicate with you via the Internet.   The Botanicalls DIY Plant Twitter Kit easily translates all dialect of ‘houseplant’ to English.

So how does it work? The original breakthrough was made when the chief scientist at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) was trying to communicate with a patch of catnip by using a super computer.

“I CAN HAZ TWITTER?” said the plant. This confused the scientist, but his granddaughter was able to figure out that the plant wanted to Tweet!  Plant who tweet don’t have much to say, but they do request that you water them and thank you once you have.

Fact or fiction? Who knows, but this fun toy is perfect for a techie gardener who is feeling stir crazy during the long winter months!

Now that my garden is fast asleep, I fulfill my gardening urges by sorting through my garden photos.  We all admire plants for their colourful blooms and interesting foliage, but what about their other unique attributes.

Take curls for example. I found these two examples of plants with curls in my garden photos, but I know there are many other plants that showcase these curly tendrils. Of course I admire the plant’s ”whole package’, but sometimes it’s fun to focus on one interesting aspect. So today, it’s all about curls!

Yucca tendrils

Pumpkin tendrils

It’s not often that gardening is chosen as a topic to be portrayed in main stream media. That’s why I was thrilled to watch this video clip from Saturday Night Live. Christopher Walken stars in this short comedy sketch. He’s the host of a fictional gardening show ‘Indoor Gardening Tips from a Man Who is Very Scared of Plants.’ To help ease his fear of plants, he glues googly eyes on all his houseplants. If you’re in the mood for a chuckle, I highly recommend you watch this video clip!

A look back at a few photos from the 2008 Annual Mum Show

The 89th Annual Mum Show recently took place in Hamilton this past week. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to enjoy the artistic splendor. If it was anything like last year, then I really missed out. Not only does the event showcase new varieties and traditional favourites, the creativity involved in designing elaborate displays filled with mums is impressive. Last year’s show included water features, gazing balls, and other artistic installations strategically placed amoung the thousands of potted chrysanthemums.

Aside from the sheer beauty of the Mum Show, another thing I love about the show is the smell. There’s something about the smell of mums that I love. I don’t know if it’s just me, but the smell of mums is irresistible.

This past Sunday, we were enjoying a quiet family breakfast, when all of a sudden we heard two chainsaws rev up. Now it was almost nine o’clock, but seriously – it was SUNDAY morning!

Apparently our neighbor was having a tree removed. I didn’t think arborists worked on Sunday, but obviously these guys do. Aside from being slightly annoyed at our traquil morning begin interupted, I couldn’t help but admire the grace and agility of the aborist clamoring up the tree. The tree is question was a Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima). It hadn’t been in good shape – several main branches were dying and it had barely sprouted any leaves this spring. From the time the two man crew started, it took them two hours to cut the tree down. One man was in the tree cutting the branches off it sections, and the other was on the ground, cutting up the branches into smaller pieces.

I had to take an aboricultre class in school and we did several field trips where we had to climb (or attempt) a tree using all the gear. Let me tell you – it’s TOUGH! I really admire how easy they make it look. Not only do they have to make sure they’ve got a safe roosting spot in the tree, but they also have to wield a chainsaw and direct the falling branches to a safe location below. I’m impressed …. even if it was Sunday morning!