Maybe they thought she needed mulch?

If I woke up one morning and found 37 "used" Christmas trees stacked neatly in my backyard one morning I'd think; "SCORE!" I'd start figuring out how I could make a rustic bench and table or maybe some small trellises out of the branches and trunks and some mulch. Well honestly I'd be annoyed at first but once my brain kicked in I'd see the benefit of someone dropping off 37 Christmas trees in my backyard.

But Carol Lopez (of Allentown, PA) is different-she called the police and they told her to move them out back and the city would pick them up free of charge. But at least she had a sense of humor about it all.

(themorningcall)

"Google For Gardeners" Updated

In case you're not familiar with it "Google For Gardeners" is a customized Google Search Engine for gardeners looking for information. The key word is "information" I'm selecting sites/blogs/forums/groups that have the information people are gardening need. I got tired of weeding through lots of search results for items for sale when I was looking up plant information so I joined Google Co-op and started Google For Gardeners and started adding all of the sites I had bookmarked, so I could search them all at once and find the growing information I was looking for, it now searches 169 sites. As far as I know it's the only Google Custom Search Engine of it's kind. Although I hear some others are in the works. :)

Thanks to the bloggers that e-mailed me suggestions of sites to add. If you have a suggestion feel free to let me know and I'll see about adding it. I'll add any gardening forum/group as long as you don't have to sign up/pay to be able to read the threads. If you have a gardening blog/website let me know and I'll see about add it. I'm especially looking for sites about Organic Gardening, Plant Propagation and sites specifically about one Genus. Feel free to use it, bookmark it, link it etc. While I started Google For Gardeners it belongs to everyone who has their hands in some dirt and is looking for information. There's a search box for it on the right hand side of this blog and all the way at the bottom. You can search from there or from the home page. Either way your results will be displayed on the Google. Don't confuse the GFG's search box with the box that only searches my blogs, they're two independent things. One searches three blogs the other searches 169 sites as of today.

Here's what got added this round:

forum.poppies.org
www.mhhe.com
foodhsare.net
www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/
www.arborday.org
www.aspca.org
www.serpin.org
www.cnhp.colostate.edu/rareplants/
www.dec.state.ny.us
nmrareplants.unm.edu
heritage.nv.gov
www.dcr.state.va.us
www.cnps.org
www.calflora.org
www.dnr.wa.gov
www.pfaf.org
www.naturalheritage.com
eppcapps.ky.gov
www.srs.fs.usda.gov
www.idahonativeplants.org
oregonstate.edu
www.mainenaturalareas.org
www.bbg.org
www.mediterraneangardensociety.org
www.cs.cmu.edu
exploraculture.blogspot.com
coopext.colostate.edu
www.cdc.gov
www.ncsu.edu
www.irises.org
www.mums.org
www.gesneriadsociety.org
www.nargs.org
www.begonias.org
daffodilusa.org
www.pacificbulbsociety.org
www.fritillaria.org.uk
www.cyclamen.org
www.huntington.org

Tips For The Garden Blogger

Sometimes you take for granted what you know or you think you know. And I guess you figure since you know about it everyone else must know about it also-especially if the information is "outdated."

I came to that realization today when I was looking at my stats on the FeedBurner dashboard. I noticed several hits to my blog from GirlGoneGardening. Curiosity got the better of me so I checked and I saw that she was blogging about part of my Death Of The Garden Journal post.

So I'm going to share and old tip that saves me time and energy. If you have the Google Toolbar in your browser and you're blogging with Blogger if you press the button I highlighted in the picture attached to this entry a new window will open where a new post entry will automatically be started about the page/website/blog that you are currently on complete with links to whatever it is you're looking at and you can blog about whatever it is you're blogging about.

Keep in mind that if you're not signed into Blogger it will prompt you to do so. But if you're already signed it will be pretty much automatic and you just enter what you want to post.
(note: this does not take screen captures like the one above.)

Her post also prompted me to show my feedflares. If you look directly bellow this post you will see a series of words that may be alien to you. I only had them available on my blog's feed but because of GGG I decided to allow them to show here. Most of them are for social bookmarking sites that are all the rage now and if you are part of one (I'm on Netscape) you can use them. I also turned on the "blog this" feedflare that works just like the button above if you don't have it installed in your browser.

Feedflares are a good way to add interactivity to your blog posts. Go add them now.