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The GTS membership is growing!

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Ok, so we’ve had a number of people in the last week or so requesting to sign up for Green Thumb Sunday.

I believe that I’ve only got one more request siting in my mailbox for a person who’s waiting to be added to the blogroll. I’ll be getting to that person shortly.

Green Thumb Sunday is growing weekly. Every week there must be 10 or so people that contact me requesting to join. Not all of them seem to get back to me to tell me they’ve added the blogroll to their site though.

If you’ve added the blogroll to your site but forgot to let me know please leave a comment in this post and I’ll visit your site and add you to the list if everything checks out ok. We’re always happy to have more gardener and nature lovers on the list.

I haven’t been the best lately about getting around to visit all the participating sites. I do hope you’ll forgive me for that. I’ve been so ill for the last few months, and I earn my living off the internet so more often than not I’m slowly puttering away at the build up of work that I have and that doesn’t leave me much time to visit websites – even though I really would like to do that!

I hope to rectify my lack of visiting member sites very soon!

I do hope that the majority of you are taking the time to try to visit some if not all of the GTS websites each Sunday or through the week? That is, after all, why I created Green Thumb Sunday. So we could visit garden and nature related sites, see what other people are doing in their gardens, perhaps get some ideas of our own, and to share information about plants and techniques. You might even make some great friends too!

Just like me, I know that everyone can’t get around to the sites every week, but do try. There’s nothing better than writing a post about something close to your heart, or perhaps about a problem that you are having and getting a response from others that may be able to help.

Now, if you decide to join the blogroll and meme after reading this post I may not be able to add your site in time for tomorrows Green Thumb Sunday postings … but take the time to make your own GTS post, and visit some of the sites on the Green Thumb Sunday blogroll so that the other members will know that you’re part of our little club.

Enjoy!






Sign up for Home Depots Garden club emails

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I know that many of my readers have gardens, or plants growing on their balconies and patios. I’ll even go so far as to bet that you get some of your plants and lawn and garden supplies at Home Depot.

If you click on the image that I’ve listed above, you can sign up for Home Depots Garden Club newsletters.

When you sign up for the Garden Club you’ll get information about exclusive offers and receive coupons for items that you might purchase for your garden. Who doesn’t love exclusive deals? I know I love ’em!

You’ll also get gardening news, gardening tips, regional reports and a whole lot more.

I love the idea of getting additional gardening tips, but I’m interested in signing up mainly for the exclusive deals and coupon savings. Check it out for yourself. 🙂

Helpful gardening tips

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Here’s a a few handy gardening tips that you might find useful, particularly if you are new to gardening:

1. Do your homework. Visit public gardens, read magazines and books.

2. Amend the soil for success. Lighten clay loam soil with compost.

3. Design for surprise: place some curves in your design or interesting nooks that visitors to your garden have to enter to see what magically beautiful plant you have growing there.

4. If you inherit a garden: Wait a season to see what comes up. You may destroy something you want to save. We were lucky to have purchased our house in June. I was able to watch what grew that year and used the following winter to plan out my new garden.

5. Smart plant picks. Purchase plants that are drought tolerant or said to be easy to care for if you don’t want to spend too much time in the garden watering and pruning.

The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs

6. Mass appeal. Plant large areas with one flower in one color, such as purple phlox. You can always tell who’s a beginning gardener because they plant one of each plant. masses of three to five or more plants planted together in the garden bed make a much more satisfying display.

7. A wild prairie garden can be work until it gets established. If you want a natural looking garden find out what plants are native to your area and use them abundantly.

8. Japanese-style garden do’s. For dimension, build hills and cover them with moss.

9. Time-saving trick. Plant hosta around the base of trees and you won’t have to trim around them.

10. Get the kids to help. Most kids like helping in the garden. You may still end up doing more work than they do, but it’s a way to spend some quality time with them and also a way to get them outside.

11. Sure-fire critter repeller – build a fence with a gate if you want to keep out skunks, who don’t climb but can dig just fine) and other pets that might frequent your garden. Gates and fences don’t stop all critters but a fence might deter a few of them.

The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals

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