It's a soggy Bloom Day here in Oklahoma. I can't believe I just wrote those words. The last three years have been nothing but drought, but this year is a whole different animal. I hear from my friends in Seattle that they want their cool rainy season back. I promise we'll only use it a little while. From the forecast, I think this will be the last of the rain for several weeks. How about some containers for Bloom Day? Helen Weis from Unique by Design told me to take pictures because I rarely do. I guess I always see my containers in a state of flux, and I am never very pleased with them except at their beginnings and their finale. When Helen visited last week, she also gave me a few pruning tips for containers. Basically, you must prune some things to give other stuff sunlight to grow....

A grasshopper on perennial hibiscus. Grasshoppers . . . . I hate the little beasties. This summer seems a banner year for these dahlia munching menaces. I use organic practices in the garden, and I needed a way to combat grasshoppers without killing bees and butterflies. Maintaining the balance of  things is the garden is so important. Luckily, I have assassin bugs and other natural predators, but I also use Nolo bait to kill young grasshoppers. Nolo bait isn't very effective on adults, but it will stop little, baby grasshoppers in their tracks. This is the brand I buy. I've never received any compensation from them except for disappearing grasshoppers, and that's enough. Here's how it works according to an agricultural information sheet from Colorado State University: "NOLO BAIT may provide suppression of grasshopper and Mormon cricket populations in crop and rangeland. It contains a microsporidial pathogen of grasshoppers. NOLO BAIT...

I was impressed by the size of this hydrangea. Rebecca is planning to remove her front, circular lawnette just beyond the hydrangea. I'm fond of a bit of lawn, but in California, I can see why she might want remove it. There is nothing like visiting the garden of a friend, especially when that friend is one you don't get to hang out with all the time. It was a thrill to finally see Rebecca Sweet's garden a couple of weeks ago while at Garden Bloggers' Fling in San Francisco. I've been traveling for two weeks, and I didn't take my laptop with me to Fling. I decided just to use my ipad. It worked for everything except posting on the blog. I have a complicated password to the blog's dashboard, and I'd forgotten it. Ah, life in 2013. Little touches abound throughout Rebecca's garden. I love how she groups similar...

A week or so ago, I gave a speech on how social media platforms like Pinterest changed the gardener in me. Social media is also always in flux, so I did some research especially for photo sharing services like Picasa/Google+, Photobucket and Flickr. I don't use the last two very often because I am already overstretched social media-wise, but other gardeners certainly can. I think Flickr's platform is beautiful. My Flickr photostream I'm still on Facebook, along with Twitter and Sulia, but Pinterest is one of my favorite ways to unwind after a long day of critical thinking. When pondering Pinterest and how much it has changed since its beginnings, I thought you might like to hear how it influenced my thinking and my garden. I am a writer, speaker and garden coach. One way I've used Pinterest is to send garden coaching clients over to my boards for ideas...