a harvest of garden links from my recent travels

LET’S BE HONEST: WE ALL WEB-SURF, RIGHT? What better diversion is there while waiting until (what hopefully was) the last significant snow melts? The map of where I’ve been lately has pushpins inserted at a hodgepodge of pitstops, but that’s the fun: the ricochet that landed me a design for a great compost bin, a handsome cabbage relative, and a new way to think about deer resistance (above)—among other treasures—all in one chaotic, captivating click-stream. My recent indulgences:

The Deer’s Delicate Palate: We all wonder (often in loud expletives when something has been chewed) what it is that deer won’t eat. I loved this online tool created at Rutgers University Extension (based on observations in northern New Jersey) that rates things from “Rarely Damaged” to “Frequently Severely Damaged” (above) in a five-point scale that seems more sensible to me that saying anything’s “deerproof.” We could all benefit from this kind of thinking, a sort of risk-assessment philosophy of planting in the presence of these beasts. (You know me; I don’t. I gave up and got a deer fence.)

Compost-Bin Envy: I have never met Ryan Boren, one of the lead developers (read: software engineer) for WordPress, the platform I so love and that this site is built on. Who knew that Boren is also adept with wood-working tools and built himself a composter-to-covet at the Texas home he shares with his growing family and some mighty cute goats. The “after” shot of his three-stage compost bin is here; the detail shots here.

An Old Friend, Overplanted: I happened on an old friend with a new(ish) website: Tom Fischer, formerly of Horticulture magazine and more recently chief editor at Timber Press, the Oregon-based gardening-and-related-topics publisher, is

plants gardening composting Cabbage garden Harvest state Texas state Oregon state New Jersey