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Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Holiday Gift Guide #7 - La Crosse Technology WS-7047U Wireless Rain and Temperature Gauge

The perfect gift for the weather geek in your life. Keep track of all the important weather indicators and information while keeping warm and dry, thanks to the wireless link.

Link: #7 La Crosse Technology WS-7047U Wireless Rain and Temperature Gauge

More gift suggestions in the WelchWrite Store

Don't know what to give? How about an Amazon Gift Certificate!



See also:
#6 Garden Gourmet Composter
#5 Garden House
#4 Muck Chore Boots
#3 A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
#2 The $64 Tomato by William Alexander
#1 Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening

Holiday Gift Guide #6 - Garden Gourmet Composter

I picked up a couple of these at a local composting workshop and they are really well built and easy to assemble. A small door allows easy access to finished compost without disassembling the entire compost pile.

Link: #6 Garden Gourmet Composter

More gift suggestions in the WelchWrite Store


Don't know what to give? How about an Amazon Gift Certificate!


See also:
#5 Garden House
#4 Muck Chore Boots
#3 A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
#2 The $64 Tomato by William Alexander
#1 Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Event: Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants

There is a lot going on at the Theodore Payne Foundation in December. If you are in the LA area, be sure to check out their list of events.
With the holidays just around the corner, now is a great time to invest some creative energy into your gift-giving activities. We're hosting a unique class here on December 2 that will showcase techniques for making a variety of ethnobotanical crafts perfect for the nature lover in your world. Oscar Ortiz teaches. Kids are welcome! See below for more details

Including...
December 2: Ethnobotanical Crafting Class

On November 11, instructor Oscar Ortiz presented a class on the uses of California native plants by the native people. Here's what one student had to say about it: "This was not just a class on native plant uses, but a mini-history of the indigenous people of the LA basin and coastal areas. It indeed put the spiritual beliefs in the context of the natural world, the misconceptions long held by the outside-looking- in point of view of anthropologists and the current activities of the Chumash & Tongva . . ." Another student said: "Better than my expectations! This class was very inspirational . . . "

...and ...

December 9: Pruning for Perky Perennials

As many native plants begin to slow their growth for the cool season, we can break out the shears and get trimming! Learn the ropes of proper pruning and tool care from Dr. Holliday Wagner, TP Nursery Manager and plant ecologist. Please bring your own clean, sharp shears if you have them and discover how to shape your precious perennials so they'll flourish, produce plentiful blooms and keep their vitality.

10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. $15 for members, $25 for nonmembers. Call 818-768-1802 to reserve your space.

$30 for members, $40 for non-members

Please call 818-768-1802 to register.


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Holiday Gift Guide #5 - Garden house

Why should the garden remain in the garden? Here are hundreds of ideas for bringing your garden inside and, even better, blurring the difference between them. Great text and gorgeous photos let your garden house dreams take flight.

Link: Garden House

More gift suggestions in the WelchWrite Store


Don't know what to give? How about an Amazon Gift Certificate!


See also:
#4 Muck Chore Boots
#3 A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
#2 The $64 Tomato by William Alexander
#1 Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening

Monday, November 27, 2006

Holiday Gift Guide #4 - Muck Chore Boots



A perfect gardener gift to get them ready for Spring. As gardeners, we all seem to want to get back in the garden long before the weather makes it easy. These boots keep your feet warm and dry, even on the muddiest Spring day.

Link: Muck Chore Boots

More gift suggestions in the WelchWrite Store


Don't know what to give? How about an Amazon Gift Certificate!


See also:
#3 A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
#2 The $64 Tomato by William Alexander
#1 Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Rube Goldberg meets the container gardener

I just had to pass on this great video find from Garden Rant. I love Rube Goldberg devices and the video sharing sites are a motherload. Of course, with the gardening-related content (ok, so maybe I am stretching that a bit) this seems like a great one to share.

Who Needs a Plant-Sitter Over the Holidays When You've Got One of These?

It's been too long since we've had a garden video.  Enjoy.



(Via Garden Rant.)


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Holiday Gift Guide #3 - History of the World in 6 Glasses

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
2005, Walker & Company, New York

Listen to the Audio Podcast of this review


When I saw this book, by the author of The Victorian Internet and The Turk, at the library I had to check it out. I enjoyed both of these earlier books so much that I regularly recommend them to others. Standage has a way of making history come alive by focusing on one particular aspect. A History of the World in 6 Glasses follows much the same design.

This time Standage explores history using 6 different drinks that have effected civilization in dramatic ways. He begins with beer, discovered in ancient times, but improved repeatedly, becoming safer to drink than the polluted water supplies that surrounded ancient, and not so ancient cities.

Once global shipping improved, Greek wines could begin traveling around the Mediterranean and the world, moving from an expensive drink for royalty to daily ration for everyone in society. Wine developed into a liquid currency that could be easily “spent” and divided, but unlike modern paper money, it could even be consumed when necessary.

Distilled spirits started as a miracle cure, eau de vie or literally “water of life”. They were rediscovered by Europeans, from Arabic sources, as the Dark Ages ebbed. Spirits like Rum created entire economies, eventually acting as one trigger for American Independence.

Then came coffee, “The Great Soberer” and the coffeehouse environment that fomented intellectual growth, great thinking and many of the revolutions that would shake the 18th Century.

Tea, with Britain as its powerhouse and largest consumer forever altered the civilizations of China and other Eastern countries, leading to hundreds of years of foreign control continuing even until this century.

Finally, Standage ends with the effects of Coca-Cola and how it forever changed the global economy.

Throughout “6 Glasses”, I found new information, new incites, new documentation that I had never seen before. While I was familiar with the basic concepts behind these drinks and how they effected society, bringing it all together in one book makes for an engaging and enlightening read.

Pick up “6 Glasses” or any other of Standage’s books and you are sure to enjoy yourself as well as learn something you might never have known.

Other books by Tom Standage


More gift suggestions in the WelchWrite Store


Don't know what to give? How about an Amazon Gift Certificate!


See also:
#2 The $64 Tomato by William Alexander
#1 Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Holiday Gift Guide #2 - The $64 Tomato

Listen to the Review

It is a story as old as America itself. When we dream, we dream big. Big houses, big cars and, in the case of The $64 Tomato, big gardens. In this book, author William Alexander details his love/hate relationship with his garden. I knew I was going to love this book within the first chapter, when I found myself laughing out loud time and time again. Alexander perfectly captures the idealism and absurdity that usually accompany any home improvement project.

I must say that, after my childhood of helping my Grandmother and my Father in the garden and even, reluctantly, maintaining my own small garden plot as a child, I found it a bit ludicrous that anyone would actually set out to "design" a vegetable garden. In my experience, you usually just mark out an area, have the neighbor plow it up and disc it down, lay out some string lines and plant. Aesthetics were rarely, if ever, an issue. Now you bring in experts, test the soil, try exotic new varieties of plants and, so it seems, endure many failures.

While the book is funny, it is also a trifle sad. There is an underlying current of hubris which seems to thrive in the heart of every American. We like to think we can conquer and control anything, even nature itself, when, in reality, we can only hold back nature for short periods of time and even then, only in relatively small areas. It is also a story of having eyes too large for our stomachs. Rows and rows of zucchini that must be given away, if not forced on the neighbors. Yes, we love having fresh food from our very own gardens, but it seems we have no self-control. If "some" is good than "more" must certainly be better.

The $64 Tomato is entertaining and enlightening because it is so true. Anyone with any aspirations to gardening will recognize themselves in its pages. Gardening, like life itself, is about struggle and this book details many struggles with bugs, grass, weeds and neighbors. Even then, I can guess that these were only a small portion of the troubles that occurred in the real garden. Television writers, like my wife, constantly deal with this issue. Just because something happened in real life, often times the viewers will never believe it. I would guess there are more stories that this gardening author has yet to tell.

The saddest part, but one that rings true, is the author's struggle in finding balance between gardening as a task and gardening as a joy. I know that I experience this every day in my own garden and I am sure you do, too. It is a rare gardener who can find joy in pulling weeds time and time again That said, don't let the dandelions get you down. Pour a nice, cool lemonade (preferably made from your own lemons), sit back in your favorite chair and enjoy, if just for a moment, the garden you have created. While I certainly hope you don't spend $64 for each tomato you harvest, this book can make you laugh and give you solace in the knowledge that most gardener's are happily suffering right along with you.

Link: The $64 Tomato by William Alexander

More gift suggestions in the WelchWrite Store


Don't know what to give? How about an Amazon Gift Certificate!


See also:
Welch Family Christmas Cards

Friday, November 24, 2006

Holiday Gift Guide #1 - Southern California Gardening

When we bought the house back in 1997 -- with its 10-year-old gardens, front and back -- I knew I needed a good gardening reference book specific to Southern California. My gardening knowledge from Ohio wouldn't suit me well out here.

I came across this book at a small bookstore in Santa Monica and had to have it. Not only is it chock-full of marvelous information, it has monthly checklists so you can be reminded of the important gardening tasks each month. I have found it unvaluable in maintaining and refurbishing my garden.

My edition of the book is older, but a new version came out just last year. If you are a Southern California gardener, or have a similar Mediterranean climate, I highly recommend this book.

Link: Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening

More gift suggestions in the WelchWrite Store
Don't know what to give? How about an Amazon Gift Certificate!


Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving from WelchWrite.com


Happy Thanksgiving!



Today is Thanksgiving Day here in the US, so from all of us to all of you, Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you are!

Listen to our audio message

Friday, November 17, 2006

End of the Season - Photo-A-Day for Nov. 17, 2006

The leaves of the Japanese Maple are brown but still holding on. It seems to do this every year, with some leaves not falling until the new buds push them off the stem.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Garden Quote

The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.


-George Bernard Shaw, The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God, 1932

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Kind words for A Gardener's Notebook

Carmen Leilani De Jesus, over at Each Day a R/Evolution, has some kind words for myself and A Gardener's Notebook.

We hung out at BarCampLA last weekend and had a great time with all the other geeks.

She says...

"Douglas Welch and I met at one of the Geek Dinners - and he took a lot of photos and presented on Podcasting. Although I didn't attend his presentation, we did have a great conversation that inspired me to re-upload all of my podcasts and record more of them. Douglas is one of the LA Podcasters, and has a kickass garden podcast enjoyed by green thumbs everywhere. Thanks for the inspiration and the "small town" vibe, Douglas!

Thanks Carmen, and I can't wait to hear those podcasts!

Friday, November 10, 2006

"Bewitched" - Photo-A-Day 11/10/06

The last flush of bloom from the Bewitched roses lining our driveway.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Fallen - Photo-A-Day for Nov 4, 2006

Locust leaves in the back garden.

Fall is here, even in Los Angeles. Usually the locust loses all of its leaves at once during the first rain, but without that rain, this year, they coming down a little at a time. They leave this perfect little carpet of yellow under the tree.

You can hear me talking about Fall and more in the latest episode of A Gardener's Notebook podcast.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Fall is Here - November 4, 2006

Listen to the Podcast


Theme Music: The One by The Woodshedders, aka the Hot Club of West Virginia, courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network



I'd love to hear what's going on in your garden. Post your comments here or email them to agn@welchwrite.com.

If you find this podcast helpful, please consider a donation in our tip jar.



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