NatureFind: how to find public parks, campsites, and gardens by zip code

As a follow-up to my prior post (heirloom gardener: Green Hour: how to find public parks, campsites, and gardens by zip code), the creators of Green Hour sent me the link to their updated website, NatureFind, with even more features, including integration with Google Maps:

http://www.nwf.org/naturefind

Green Hour: how to find public parks, campsites, and gardens by zip code

I learned of Green Hour, a great online resource, on The Homeschooler's Guide to the Galaxy blog. On this website, you can type in your zip code and find all of the closest public parks, campsites, and gardens. I tried my zip code out and saw all of my favorite places, as well as some that I'll now have to explore. Check it out:

http://www.naturefind.com/greenhour/

View from Federal Twist: Thinking about Gardens: The ThinkinGardens website

View from Federal Twist: Thinking about Gardens: The ThinkinGardens website from the U.K.:

"The ThinkinGardens website is one source of extremely varied, highly opinionated, well written, and knowledgeable writing on gardens. It treats gardens seriously, and as worthy of the same kind of critical analysis as literature, music, and art."

The Most Influential Garden Bloggers

Bumblebee Blog has a very interesting post on the most influential garden bloggers. I read the post with great interest because what is influential or inspiring is so personal. I was nodding my head as she walked through many of the most popular and familiar gardening blogs, so it got me thinking about which garden bloggers have been most influential to me? Here were the top three that came to mind:

1. Gardening Gone Wild: A group effort, Gardening Gone Wild inspires by their posts and encourages me to thoughtfully contribute to their monthly Garden Bloggers' Design Workshop. I love participating in these workshops and reading about how other bloggers approach gardening topics and design issues. Some of my best and most popular posts have been contributions to these workshops.

2. May Dreams Garden: Shortly after I started reading gardening blogs, I noticed this regular post called Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. I'm a little slow, so it took me a while that this was the brainchild of Carol over at May Dreams Garden. Perhaps more than any other garden blogging activity, this really brings the garden blogging community together to share what is blooming in their garden on the fifteenth of every month. Since I started adding my own Bloom Day posts last year, I haven't missed a month.

3. Gardening Tips 'N' Ideas/Blotanical: Both websites are managed by Stuart in Australia and have been influential to me by opening up my eyes to the many gardening blogs throughout the world that I would never have found on my own.

More Gardening Project Ideas: 10 Inventions From the Garden Shed

If you like to make things for your garden, check out this post, "10 Inventions From the Garden Shed" from Gardening Tips 'N' Ideas. Stuart writes: "Well, it seems that gardeners are no slouches either when it comes to inventing 'stuff' - stuff that might save you money, make a gardening task seem more enjoyable, or turn unwanted resources into a masterpiece. The level of genius required is not mensa-like but it does seem that these individuals have the ability to see outside the box." I was flattered to see that my humble planting square made the list. Thank you Stuart!

In Praise of Blotanical: Where Garden Blogs Bloom

There are many places on the find gardening blogs: the broadest Google searches, the more narrow Technorati blog-only searches, and to numerous gardening-specific websites. Of all of these, I find that the best by gardeners and for gardeners is Blotanical. They have all sorts of ways of presenting blogs by popularity, location, etc. Recently, they even announced their first-ever Blotanical Awards.

Warning: one could spend countless hours looking at these blogs which might take away from family, gardening, blogging and all other responsibilities.

Times Online (UK): 51 Glorious Garden Websites

As an admirer of English gardens, I enjoy reading English gardening magazines, online newspaper articles, and blogs. Recently, Jane Owen, an editor of the Times Online gardening section, posted a list of "51 glorious garden websites." Seeing that most of these were from the UK, they were almost entirely new to me. A particularly inspiring set of websites which I never would have found on my own was the following:

Individual designers whose work I know and recommend
30 Cleve West - brilliant, subtle, sculptural work which has won many Chelsea golds. http://www.clevewest.com/
31 James Alexander Sinclair - highly original designs on new and historic sites plus one of the most entertaining blogs in the business. http://www.blackpitts.co.uk/
32 Andy Sturgeon - regular Chelsea medalist. Modern designs and planting. http://www.andysturgeon.com/
33 Ann-Marie Powell - one of the great underestimated creative forces in the garden works whose practical designs addresses all the senses. http://www.ann-mariepowell.com/mainmenu.html
34 Diarmuid Gavin - iconoclastic designs from the garden world’s wild boy. http://www.diarmuidgavindesigns.co.uk/
35 Tom Stuart-Smith - Statesman of the landscape world with elegance has the default position of his designs. http://www.tomstuartsmith.co.uk/
36 Phillippa May - new kid on the block. Landscape architect already transforming private estates in the north of England. http://www.phillippamaydesign.co.uk/
37 Bunny Guinness - excellent practical designs particularly for family gardens. Outstanding planting. http://www.bunnyguinness.com/

Pronouncing Latin Plant Names

It's amazing how kids pick up vocabulary. Some friends and I were remarking how our kids' vocabularies have expanded through reading, but since some of the words they are learning are more often read than heard, there are gaps in their pronunciation. This got me to thinking about my botanical Latin. I know most of the Latin names for the plants I grow, but mostly through reading countless books and articles about gardening. My pronunciation of some of the words is more than iffy.

As I was thinking about this the new listing of courses offered at the The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) arrived in the mail (http://www.nybg.org/edu/cont_ed_cat.php). This September, they are offering a four week course on botanical Latin for professional and amateur gardeners. This course is aimed at teaching pronunciation and the root meaning of the words.

If you can't make it to NYBG, I also found a wonderful feature of the Fine Gardening website (http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pguide/pronunciation-guide-to-botanical-latin.aspx) which makes available a pronunciation guide for plants included in recent issues of the magazine. This was the only site I found that says the words for you. So, like our children, I'll be brushing up on my pronunciation too.

Cultural Landscape Foundation

Every Thursday, the New York Times has a Home & Garden section, which is usually more home than garden. Today, there is an interesting article on the Cultural Landscape Foundation "which draws attention to historically important natural features and designed landscapes" :

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/garden/29garden.html?_r=1&ref=garden&oref=slogin

"This year [the Cultural Landscape Foundation] worked with the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film...to commission photographers known for very different kinds of work to record a dozen of the landscapes..." The photo exhibit will start in Rochester, New York, and then travel around the country to "various botanical gardens, museums and historic sites."

For more information on the Cultural Landscape Foundation:

http://www.tclf.org/

For more information on the George Eastman House and the exhibit:

http://www.eastmanhouse.org/