The great miscellaneous post

Hello Dirt du jour readers! I am on the road until August 24 so no newsletter for more than a week.

I did put together a super-duper post that could keep you occupied for a while if you read it really, really slowly.

Until then,

If you have seen the PBS documentary about A Man Named Pearl, or Pearl Fryar the incredible topiary artist from South Carolina, then maybe you’d like to meet him at Quail Botanical Gardens on August 23.

Los Angeles residents can reduce their green waste and learn all about composting through the city sanitation department’s workshops at Griffith Park. Plus, with valid ID, buy compost and worm bins on the super cheap.

Since a big El Nino is brewing in the southern hemisphere you might get ready by looking into the free Rainwater Harvest Program if you live in the LA neighborhoods of Jefferson, Sawtelle and Mar Vista, but all Los Angeles residents are encouraged to apply.

Everybody else panic.

The all-organic Tanaka Farms in Irvine is hosting watermelon tours Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.  $13 per person includes a wagon ride around the farm, tasting of fresh-picked organic produce, plus pick your own watermelon to take home. 

Hard Truths from Jim McCausland at Fresh Dirt…

Tree topping is usually evil, always expensive, rarely effective, and dependably ugly

Sometimes unlimited money just allows tasteless gardeners to fully express themselves

Sometimes big box stores sell great plants you really want for shockingly low prices

Hard Truths from Sharon Cohoon at Fresh Dirt…

You’ll never get to grow everything you’re curious about in one short lifetime

Wild gardening ideas—like painting your block wall a dark red—usually turn out to be the best ones.  But finding the courage to try them out never gets easier

If you can’t kill a snail with your bare hands, you’re not a gardener

Hard Truths by Steve Aitken at Fine Gardening…

Plants die. Sometimes it’s your fault; sometimes it isn’t

“No maintenance” is just a figure of speech

You should stop pruning while your tree still has a few branches

Hard Truths from Cindy McNatt at Dirt du jour…

The more you spend on a plant the less likely it will live

Zone recommendations are only for sissies

Gardening is all about soil. The plants are the easy part.