Ouch!

This posting over at Stonewerks.net, is an important reminder to tread lightly when dealing with chemicals in your garden.

I try to use as few chemicals as possible. In order of importance, these are my reasons:

• I have a 5-year-old who loves to play in the garden
• I have loads of birds and beneficial insects
• I am too lazy to mix it up and apply it

If you are worried about pesticide exposure, here is a document to assist you:

How to Avoid Pesticide Injury (and what to do if you can't)

and a PDF document:

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE EXPOSED TO PESTICIDES

15 Plants for Long-Lasting Fragrance

A nice listing, with a few pictures, of fragrant plants for all seasons.

From Fine Gardening #88, pp. 68-71

Bluebirds of Paradise

While it is not online, there is an excellent article on Bluebirds in the August issue of Country Living. While we don't have them down here in the San Fernando Valley, I have been lucky enough to view the Mountain Bluebirds up in the San Gabriel Mountains when we were volunteers in the Angeles National Forest.