Here's the Winner!

The winner of the garden stool is Rachel (with the yahoo e-mail address). I've e-mailed Rachel to get her mailing address. If for some reason I don't hear from her, I will draw another name.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Update 12/17: I didn't hear back from Rachel, so I randomly drew another name. The new winner is greenTXmom. I've sent an e-mail asking for her mailing address. Hopefully, I'll hear back soon!

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Garden Stool Giveaway Ends Tomorrow

There's still time to enter the garden stool giveaway! Just leave a comment with your name and e-mail address on this post. The giveaway ends tomorrow (Monday) at noon PST. I'll post the winner's name tomorrow night.

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Another Great Gift Idea for Gardeners--The SF Flower & Garden Show

The people who took over the SF Flower & Garden Show this year seem to be bringing some really fresh thinking to the operation and so far at least, it's looking very promising. For starters, they're offering advance ticket purchases--I mean, really advance ticket purchases! Which means you can wrap up tickets for the perfect Hannukah gift or stocking stuffer right now. That's brilliant!

And here's the second bit of good news. The prices are fantastic. An advance puchased adult ticket gives you entrance to all five days of the show for only $16. I can't recall exactly what prices were this past year, but this seems like a steal. Because the show is now in San Mateo, an entrance ticket that's good for all five days gives me that much more incentive to keep going back.

Check out the show's web site, where they've already posted the schedule of seminars. This show is shaping up to be something really promising.

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Win a Great Gift for the Gardener in Your Life (or for You!)

Just in time for the holidays, I'm giving away this garden stool/tool tote (tools not included) to one lucky winner. The stool, courtesy of FortePromo.com, seems very sturdy and is rated to hold up to 200 lbs., and the detachable tote is water-resistant.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post with your name and e-mail address. You can enter multiple times, but only one entry per day. I'll hold the random drawing next Monday morning (Dec. 14) and post the winner. I will ship the product to arrive by Christmas time. (Sorry, I can only ship within the United States.)

Good luck!

Update 12/14: This giveaway is now officially closed to additional entries. I will post the winner of the random drawing later tonight.

The Green Shoots of Autumn

I'm not so sure I see any "green shoots" in the economy like Ben Bernanke claims to see, but one of the rewards of autumn weeding is uncovering the green shoots of spring-flowering bulbs.

So far I've exposed the first tender tips of the hyacinths as well as countless slender spikes of freesias and dutch and german irises. I never have one of those moments of discovering bulb shoots buried among the weeds when I don't relive that scene from The Secret Garden (by Frances Hodgson Burnett) when Mary experiences her own gardener's epiphany. It's always wondrous, and a fitting reward for pulling weeds on a cold, damp day.

The Native Bees of 2010

If, like me, you're more than ready to close the books on 2009 and start planning the new year, you might want to check out this beautiful 2010 calendar benefitting the Great Sunflower Project (sponsored by San Francisco State University):


The calendars are $14 (including shipping) and must be ordered online by Monday, November 30. Calendars will be shipped to arrive by the holidays. Click here for more information and order form.

I Finally Reported the World's Ugliest Tree

Today I finally made the call I've been intending to make for a couple years. I called the City of Alameda to ask them to evaluate the world's ugliest tree, which just happens to be in front of my house.

I really began to pay attention to this tree a couple years ago when I was taking an arboriculture class and had to do a tree report. For convenience sake, I did the report on this tree and believe me, there was plenty to report on. Poor branch structure, included bark, some old damage to the trunk (probably from a car clipping it), and to be brutally frank, just a general state of ugliness. The pictures here are from that report I did in late 2006. Time has not improved the situation. If anything, it's worse because there are now a couple obviously dead branches.

It'll be interesting to see how the city decides to handle this problem. I realize budgets are beyond tight and removing the tree and replacing it may not be affordable. But I would so love to see this thing gone and some tree with real potential put in its place. The city has recently updated its master tree plan and when I checked it, I found the report made the following recommendations for new/replacement tree plantings on my street:

• Silver linden
• Various American and hybrid elms
• New Zealand Christmas tree
• Chinese pistache 'Keith Davey'
• Scarlet oak

Any of those would be a vast improvement over the current tree, but the last three options on the list would really give some great fall color.

But I shouldn't get my hopes up. If the city decides that removal isn't a priority or in the budget, then the world's ugliest tree and I may still have a long future together.