A Pool Oasis Garden

John Cowen again gives us a glimpse into the work he and his firm are capable of by providing us another professionally designed garden plan. A Pool Oasis Garden is now available in the Plan Section of the site. It includes a detailed plant list and amazing photographs of his work.

There are several more garden plans that will be coming to the site over the next couple months so keep tuned for more inspirational plans to dream about for next spring.

November Gardening Calendar

The November Gardening Calendar is now available in the Plan Section of the site. We looked at the typical things a gardener might need to get done this month and offer a selection of reminders and gardening tips for the month of Novemebr. We will continue to offer these hints and tips for every month so expect the uneventful December calendar in a few weeks. This and all monthly calendars are also available as podcasts on the Garden-Helper.com Podcast directory.

Website Award

We are pleased to announce that we have been entered to receive a World Wide Web Awards Golden Web Award. This prestigious Gold Award represents Web Presence at its best. To achieve this award is truly an honor. There is a two week evaluation period after which time we will be notified if we have met the criteria for the award. Thanks to everyone involved for helping to make Garden-Helper.com such a great place to visit. We hope your efforts and ours will be rewarded.

Cooperative Extension Service Directory

The State Cooperative Extension Service is provided by the USDA and is funded by a mix of federal, state and local money. It involves thousands of people across the nation and funds many interesting research projects.

In addition to being a non-credit education establishment the Cooperative Service is often on the top of every gardeners list of places to call for help as it is staffed by extremely knowldegeable horticulturists.

We have created a list of the main offices within every state including campus location and telephone numbers. If you need a quick number to call and get help in your state or if you want direct contact information for your local county Extension Service then the number listed can point you in the right direction. This is by no means an exhaustive list as there is typically one office per county and we offer only the primary state office.

Podcasts on Garden-Helper.com

The October Gardening Calendar available on the garden-helper.com site is now available as an audio Podcast.

To give it a listen click here. We will podcast the gardening calendar for every month and will be introducing other podcasts in the near future including video podcasts for making some of our recipes and also some helpful gardening hints and tips podcasts.

If you have any ideas for what you would like to see for podcasted gardening content please visit our new forum topic Podcasting Ideas for Garden-Helper.com where we are eager to hear your thoughts.

Look for the Garden-Helper podcast on iTunes, Yahoo! podcasts and several smaller podcasting directories within the next 48 hours.

Updated Book Recommendations

There are new book recommendations in the Shop section for your perusal.

The selections of cookbooks are brought to you by Susan who has a deep love of cooking and she has used all of the books she recommends.

The books on instructional gardening for children have been shared by both our families and we rate them highly.

Finally there are new book recommendations for herb gardening which I believe you may enjoy.

As the colder seasons set upon us this is a great time to start thinking about winter reading. We always recommend Amazon.com as we like to look for used books and save a few bucks.

If you have reading recommendations I have added a forum topic for gardening books. We'd love to hear about what is on your reading list this fall and winter.

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Don't Panic It's Organic

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Invisible Gardener, Andy Lopez is a long-time proponent of Organic Gardening and has quite a following. His website The Invisible Gardener has more information than I will relate right now, but he is the host of Don't Panic It's Organic , a radio talk show about organic gardening, pet care, cleaning and .... well, all things organic. I will be paying a visit to his show on October 22nd as a guest to discuss organic gardening for this time of year.

More information about the show and times is available at The Radio Channels Networks and Live365.com Internet Radio . I personally recommend the second link to Live365.

Andy has been gracious in extending this invite and we will be looking for ways to work together in the near future to further the causes of organic methodologies in gardening.

As details emerge about how we may work together in the future I will be sure to post in the blog.

Landscape Plan for Colonial Revival Home

A new landscape plan has been released on the garden-helper site in the Plan section.

The Colonial Revival Landscape Restoration Plan offers a great example of blending of architectural qualities in the selection of cultivars for a garden plan.

The Colonial Revival architectural style came onto the scene in 1896 and was a popular and romantic reflection on America's pre-industrial past as a time of social harmony, independent work, and prosperity. Colonial Revivalists were interested in recounting and communicating wholesome values, which they believed their colonial ancestors possessed. The buildings they designed and constructed and the landscapes they created were in many ways reflections of this harkening back to simplistic designs. The bold symmetry and elegance in plantings worked together to further impress harmony and prosperity. The Colonial Revival style has been among the most poular in American architecture since it's debut.

There are a number of new garden plans in the works and Landscape Architects and Designers continue to come forward and offer more professionally designed plans to bolster our collection to offer you.

Kind Words

I just wanted to share an email I received this morning. Part of what makes garden-helper.com a success in helping others learn to garden is the community we are building. Every forum post is a potential answer or shared question others may have. Every article submitted and every blog comment adds to the value of what he have to offer.

I am just dropping you a quick email to let you know how much i enjoyed
your website.

I have just started a new job writing articles for a Internet company in
the UK. Recently i have been doing some research on flowers, plants and
flower business, thats when i found your site.
It provided me with the answers i needed about, and it also taught me a
thing or two about gardening which to be honest, was something i knew
little about.

I am probably not the first person your site has helped so i am am
probably not alone in saying
THANKS!!!!

Well to the sender of this mail and to all the others like it we at garden-helper owe you thanks for sharing your ideas, plans and questions with us. We will continue to grow the site and the community and thank you whole heartedly for your support.

Building a Container Water Garden

A new planning article, Building a Pond or Container Water Garden is now available on the garden-helper website. This article details how to construct and populate a water garden.

Help Save Spot!

This was just too funny to ignore. This was received in a mail today and I thought I ought to share it with everyone. Thanks to the prankster!

Hi...we have goldfish and one was found behind the filter in the corner of the tank, and we don't know how long he was back there. It didn't seem to be struggling much but once it was out, it seemed as if he could only move one fin because he was floating on his side and couldn't swim well. Then the other fish started pecking at him so to keep them from hurting him, we pulled out our friend's smaller tank and put him in there. We don't know if he's on his side because something happened internally, but he can move both his fins and is still floating on his side. We're very scared for his safety...please help us save Spot!

October Gardening Calendar

An October gardening calendar is now available on the site. We looked at the typical things a gardener might need to get done this month and decided we ought to offer a selection of reminders and gardening tips for the month of October. We will continue to offer these hints and tips for every month so expect the November calendar in a couple weeks.

We make no assumptions about what day or week you might have a chance to manage your garden chores and only offer a set of suggestions to be taken care of throughout the month. We hope you find the tool useful and look forward to expanding it.

Growing Tarragon

If you are looking for information on growing tarragon look no further than garden-helper.com where we now have information for growing tarragon available.

French tarragon is the concern of this new plant page although the same cultivation requirements exist for Russian tarragon as well. We hope you will share this page with others if you find it useful. Please do not hesitate to join us in the Gardener Forums where you can ask any further questions about tarragon or leave comments about any and all garden related subjects.

Tarragon related recipes are sure to follow soon so be sure to check out our Garden Kitchen Recipes where you will find an ever-growing assortment of wonderful ideas for putting your herbs and other harvests to good use.

Tarragon is one of those tender herbs that somehow manages to lift the dishes it is used in above where they might otherwise be. One dish I love to use it in is chicken salad. Add red grapes, toasted almonds and fresh tarragon and suddenly the lowly chicken salad is fit for a king. We hope you find other good uses for your tarragon. It does well in vinegar so that is always a viable option.

If you grow your tarragon outdoors in the cold climate of the north we'd like to know what you do to manage them as perrenials. Seems here in Vermont they simply don't manage well with the wet ground and suffer root rot.