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Make Your Own Hypertufa Container
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Celebrate Spring with Cool-Season Containers
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Variegated Plants Create Drama
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Friendly Ways to Battle Garden Pests
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Enchanting Japanese Maples
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Garden Catalog Collector
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Viburnums are Versatile Shrubs
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Spectacular Spring Bloomers
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10 Perennials Easily Grown from Seed
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Building a Compost Bin
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All About Starting Seeds
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Find the Perfect Tomato
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Lilacs: Time for a Fresh Look
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A Gardener's Checklist for Early Spring
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Design an Engaging Entryway
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15 Deer-Resistant Plants
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Backyard Makeover Game
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Sweetly Scented Tulips
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The Only Shrubs You Need to Grow
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Soil Testing is Worth the Effort
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Video: Make a Straw-Bale Garden
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How to Start a Vegetable Garden
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Perfect Edges for Your Beds and Borders
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How to Grow Raspberries
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Cool-Season Annuals
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Growing A Greener World is Must See TV
2 commentsJoe Lamp'l’s newest, greenest, most ambitious TV adventure is Growing A Greener World, now showing on multiple public television stations around the country. This impeccably produced, lusciously filmed HD video, 30-minute weekly show is a top-notch visual treat, but it’s the content that has me so excited.
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Grocery Gardening - A New Look At Growing Your Own
19 commentsThis new book on growing your own food gets my Cool Green Gardens seal of approval. It not only provides rock-solid information about the science and art of growing your own, but explains how to get their in sustainable style.
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Looking At Green Through Rose Colored Glasses
5 commentsI don’t know about you, but I’m still trying to get my brain around the word green. Who’s to say if a product or service is “eco-friendly” or not? This is part two of my time at the LA Go Green Expo, where I keep my BS-detector on standby.
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Win a copy of Designer Plant Combinations!
170 commentsThis book resonates with me on many levels - visually elegant, clearly and buoyantly written and chock full of down-to-earth plant information. You can win your own copy just by leaving a comment about your own garden combos.
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Could YOU Keep A Straight Face? Coyote Pee Interview
6 commentsWelcome to another fun article and interview from my recent visit to the Garden Writers Association trade exhibit in Raleigh, NC. With my nose for news, I sniffed out this promising product, a predator-pee infused pellet that triggers the natural fears of many garden pests, including deer, woodchucks and mice.
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Why Are You Working So Hard? Blow Up Your Rototiller
16 commentsSkip the soil amendment, toss the slow-release fertilizer, make your rototiller into a sculpture. Sustainable landscaping means responding to what nature gives you. Let's start using plants that are adapted to the soil and climate of your yard.
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Computer-controlled Cauliflower? When Software Meets Spinach
5 commentsWouldn't it be totally cool to be a professional futurist? You'd get a paycheck for predicting what the world will look like in a hundred years, then wait for everyone to die before they can tell...
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Snakes In Your Garden
8 commentsYou’ve probably heard people singing the praises of drip irrigation, which was developed in the early 60s in Israel. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread when it arrived on...
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Irrigation Gizmos and Gadgets - Part I
3 commentsHave you ever looked at the surface of your soil and thought, “Man, that looks dry; I’d better break out the hose”? If so, I envy your moisture-sensing x-ray vision! How else would you explain your super hero ability to know the amount of moisture below the soil just by observing the top 1/16” of crust?
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Part II -- It's Like Road Rage, Only Wetter
19 commentsRoad rage: A motorist's uncontrolled anger usually provoked by the behavior of another driver. The affliction is officially recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. "Water rage," however, is not yet listed. But if it were, I'd probably be the poster child.
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Part I -- When The Well Runs Dry
21 commentsPerhaps it’s just a passing cycle, just a blip. Maybe next year the skies will open up and we’ll all be fine. I’m usually a cockeyed optimist, but not anymore—not when it comes to the big unknowns of climate change.
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Do You Suffer from One-of-Each-itis?
21 commentsFor gardeners, impulse shopping is hard to avoid when everything at the nursery is calling to you. Don't distress. There's a cure for what ails you and it doesn't require the use of pharmaceuticals.
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About this column
Enter the world of sustainable gardening with Billy Goodnick's "Cool Green Gardens" blog. Billy lives in Santa Barbara, CA, and delivers a West Coast perspective on landscape design that will translate into your own backyard. Check out CGG for great ideas on reducing your impact on the environment and creating a landscape that is an extension of your home.Billy Goodnick, a landscape architect, educator and writer, shares the wisdom he has gathered from thirty-five years of retail nursery sales, landscaping, designing and teaching. He'll challenge your assumptions while putting a smile on your face with his off-the-wall humor.
Whether you're seeking to fine-tune your existing garden or are starting with a clean slate, Cool Green Gardens is your go-to resource for sustainable ideas, innovation and inspiration.
