Park Seed Garden Journal

Calling All Captions, part II.

I need a title please.
Originally uploaded by Park Seed.

Tink here. Hi, hello.
Can you caption this photo?
Just let us know
(post to "Comments" below),
All join in the fun now, let's go!

(Oh dear... sorry, we're also having a poetry contest and I can't seem to get out of meter!)

And if you missed our first Caption jam, check it out. 

Thanks for playing!

A Whole Different Kind of Plastic Plant

CNET is reporting that a bioplastics manufacturing company, Metabolix, has developed a genetically modified switchgrass that contains "significant amounts" of usable bioplastic in the leaves.  Bioplastics are a very good thing, certainly, as plastic is normally made from oil in processes that are not exactly the most earth-friendly.  Considering how quickly switchgrass can grow in the right conditions, it seems to me that this could be a tremendous source of more ecologically friendly plastic. 

On the other side of things, though, I am, as are most gardeners, extremely leery of genetically engineered plants (this is part of why Park Seed carries none).  It's difficult to predict how a new hybrid or non-native plant will behave, much less a plant that is fundamentally different from anything that's come before.  Switchgrass spreads primarily by rhizomes, and any plant that spreads this way can be extremely difficult to control.  I very much doubt that this plastic plant would make any significant widespread problems, but what local damage could commercial farming of it wreak?  Most likely none, and I must be very careful to point out that I have no real reason to believe that this grass could be at all dangerous, and the benefits of further research are obvious (not to mention that the idea of plastics being farmed safely is very, very cool).

[Note:  This blog expresses only the opinion of Thomas Andrews, and not that of Park Seed or related companies.]

Heuchera in the Heat

In the last couple of years we've gotten a lot of requests from customers for Coral Bells that perform better in the hotter summers that many of us have been experiencing.  We're really happy this year to be able to offer two new plants that fit the bill perfectly.  Heuchera 'Southern Comfort' and Heuchera 'Mahogany' are two of the very best heat-tolerant Coral Bells that we've ever seen around here.  Both are products of amazing breeding advances that have been made in recent years.

Heuchera are prized for the full, spectacularly-colored foliage that they bring without too much effort on your part.  They are unusually vigorous plants, growing with full, neat habits that very rarely get straggly or sparse.  They look great in your garden year round, most getting even more beautiful in the cooler weather.  In recent years the red, copper, brown, and yellow colors have become ever more popular as accent plants that can really help everything else in the garden to pop.  They also feature creamy-white blooms on tall stems for part of the year.  They're especially great in border plantings in part shade (depending on zone), or as a neat accent in mixed containers.

National Watermelon Day at Park Seed

August third of every year is National Watermelon Day.  It's a celebration of one of those great fruits that nearly everyone loves.  To me, I don't think any fruit or vegetable is so closely associated with summer as watermelons are.  They're right up there with hot dogs, lemonade, and sunburns earned on the lake.  This year it fell on a Sunday, so we didn't celebrate it in the office until the next day.  Here's David, part of our E-Com department, with a beautiful watermelon he brought from his home garden for the occasion (as if we needed an excuse).  Just another one of the perks of working at Park Seed.

Did you grow watermelons this year?  We would love to see pictures of you and your family enjoying the fruits of your labor!  Send pictures to tandrews@parkseed.com, and we might just post them up here or at Park Seed Memories.

Straw Bale Gardening and Great Tomatoes

A coworker brought this article from The State to my attention earlier this week.  It's about an 83-year-old man in nearby Lexington, South Carolina who has an impressive all-organic tomato farm.  The article was brought to my attention because his favorite tomato, according to the article, is our famous Park's Whopper Tomato.  Seeing that always puts a big smile on my face, of course, but what really interested me about this article is how Mr. Rutland grows his tomatoes.  He doesn't plant them in the ground, as you would probably expect.  Instead, he plants them directly into bales of hay. 

Straw Bale Gardening is a very neat trend that is rapidly gaining popularity across the country, and it's one that I've been interested in for a while now.  In fact, seeing this article reminded me to finish an article that I've been working on for a while on the how-tos of Straw Bale Gardening.  Growing your veggies in a straw bale is great for a lot of reasons.  It's a good solution to inexpensively deal with poor, hard-to-work soil, or just soil with very bad drainage.  It cuts down on weeds and pests, so it makes organic gardening all the easier.  It also makes gardening much easier on the back, especially for elderly or disabled gardeners (though my back certainly doesn't mind a break, either).  Maybe best of all, it's an interesting new way to garden that will pique the curiosity of friends and neighbors. 

Brunnera Spring Yellow Brightens the Shade

Shade gardening can be tough.  One problem that a lot of gardeners have in their shady areas is that they tend to be a little monochromatic.  The flowers are generally less profuse,and the foliage is mostly a dark green.  There are, of course, Hostas that feature different colors, but why limit yourself?  One other option is Brunnera Spring Yellow, new to Park Seed this fall. 

This Brunnera's leaves open pure yellow and keep golden tones, mingled with streaks and speckles of chartreuse and green, throughout the summer.  This foliage piles up in a healthy, full mound of gold about 15 inches high.  The best thing about this interesting shade perennial, though, is the sprays of tiny blue flowers that it acquires in mid-spring.

Brunnera Spring Yellow is hardy all the way to zone 3, so it's a great shady option for more difficult climates.

Calling All Captions!

I need a title, please.
Originally uploaded by Park Seed on Flickr.

Tink here.

Unexpected things happen around cameras.  (Especially our cameras, it seems.)  You can't always predict what may take place when creative-types are around, and happily the camera is there to capture the madness. 

Sure, it starts with dewdrops on pretty strawberries, or sunshine through the backs of Canna leaves, or children laughing in the garden, well... but inevitably someone gets bored waiting around between setups at a photo shoot, and unplanned images like these are the result. 

We'd like to start sharing some of our favorites.  This one was from the My Favorite Time of Year shoot.  This will be the first in our Calling All Captions series. 

What would YOU caption this photo?  Let us know (post to "Comments" below)!  Park Seed employees are welcome to play, this is not a contest, it's just for fun.