Need some new ideas for your spring and summer containers? How about unique pottery ideas? Check out my recent Gettin' Dirty segment on WFAA's Good Morning Texas show! The beautiful handmade pottery is complements of Redenta's Garden Center in Dallas, Tx.

Heads up folks, Sunset Magazine is hosting a photo contest for a chance to win a copy of the book "The 20-Minute Gardener".

To win a copy of the book, you just need to take these easy steps:

1. Like Sunset on Facebook: facebook.com/sunsetmagazine

2. Between now and May 20th, post your photos to the Sunset facebook page with the hashtag #20minutegardener

On Tuesday May 21st, Sunset editors will select the five most inspiring spring garden photos and winners will be announced via facebook. In addition to winning a copy of The 20-Minute Gardener, contest winners will be featured on the Sunset facebook page, Sunset’s blog, and westphoria.sunset.com.

Always looking for a good excuse to take more plant photos...as if I didn't have enough already!

Ok people, cool new plant alert! The new 'Black Diamond' series of crape myrtles is to die for. It's been a while since I wanted to plant a crape myrtle in my garden, but this is a must have. The 'Black Diamond' series comes in five bloom colors, all with the deepest of almost-black foliage.

The 'Pure White' is definitely going in my garden. I'll be writing a more detailed feature about the series in the Sept./Oct. issue of Neil Sperry's Gardens Magazine, so keep you're eye out! You can see the other colors available at www.blackdiamondblooms.com

'Black Diamond Pure White' photo courtesy J Berry Nursery

This is a guest post from Phil Nauta, author of a book I reviewed last year called 'Building Soils Naturally.' He teaches organic gardening at his website, Smiling Gardener

There’s a saying in permaculture circles: “everything gardens.”

What this means is that nothing in nature works on its own, including us.Instead of controlling everything in our organic gardens, we can get better results if we sit back and let other organisms do some of the work for us. First, we can start by observing existing patterns in our gardens, and placing our garden elements accordingly. This can be something as simple as aligning beds perpendicular to the slope so that we have less work to do flattening them out to avoid runoff and erosion, or making paths in shapes that reflect where we naturally walk in the garden instead of aligning them on an imaginary grid. We might notice that garter snakes like to hang out in the rock pile near the shed. Instead of tidying it up, we might plant our salad greens nearby, where the snakes can snack on any slugs that want to make a meal of our precious lettuce. We can also avoid a lot of weeding just by planting dense polycultures instead of single rows, or by encouraging some spreading ground covers in our perennial beds. Then plants do the weeding for us by physically and chemically dissuading competitors. This approach changes us from owners, managers, and sole employees, responsible for everything in our gardens, into relationship guides whose main job is to nudge the garden’s natural processes gently in a direction that meets our needs.

Know Your Friends.

If we start to view all of the organisms in our gardens as potential allies, rather than enemies, we can find ways to use their energy for our own benefit. Some of our most important allies are the smallest ones: the microbes! No ruler can rule without the consent of the governed, nor can we grow healthy plants without the cooperation of soil bacteria and fungi. Just by spraying your vegetable garden regularly with aerated compost tea and/or effective microorganisms, inoculating with mycorrhizal fungus, and mulching to keep your microbes fat and happy, you can vastly increase your garden’s output. We can also make friends with some of our biggest garden organisms: the trees. In hot, dry climates, a single tree can contribute huge amounts of water to the herbaceous plant layer by drawing it up from the subsoil. Or just choosing to “leave the leaves” instead of raking can also keep plenty of organic matter within your system so you don’t have to go out and collect or purchase more. In temperate coniferous climates, it can be trickier to negotiate our relationship with the big firs and cedars that want to shade our gardens and reclaim them as forest. But if we keep a clear delineation between forest zone and garden zone, these trees will provide us with a neighboring ecosystem that includes mosquito-catching frogs, soil-filtered well water, and many diverse beneficial insects.

When to Intervene.

Every time we intervene in an ecosystem, it takes more work for us to maintain the altered patterns. But we need to control some aspects of our systems if we want to keep them growing fruits, veggies, and flowers for us instead of returning to the local wild ecology. How much work this will take depends on where and when we choose to intervene. The guiding principle is to make our changes wherever the least effort produces the greatest result. In caring for soil, for example, this means that getting a lab test to see exactly which nutrients are lacking will save us a lot of effort, because we can apply just the right amount of only those nutrients instead of pounding the soil with amendments in hopes that one of them will help. Adding nutrients at the right time, when the microbes become active in spring, can multiply their effect compared to adding them during the dry heat of summer or the cold inactivity of winter. We can also apply this to the human side of gardening. By sharing garden work with friends and neighbors, helping each other out when it’s most needed, we multiply our efforts and turn toil into play. This kind of garden advice takes a bit more thought to apply than simple formulas like “use beer to drown your slugs,” though straightforward solutions like that certainly have their uses. But in the long term it saves us a lot of effort, creates beautiful, healthy gardens, and puts us in a better frame of mind each time we head to the garden to hang out with our friends.

Do you try to let nature do some work for you? Or do you like to keep things more tidy and structured? Let me know below, or feel free to ask questions about anything I mentioned...

In case no one has told you, you shoult not be planting standard Impatiens this year...even if you find them at a garden center or, heaven forbid a big box store. Why? Because there's a devastating fungal disease that has been a problem globally for Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana) for the past several years and it's now got a strong foothold in The U.S. Downy mildew, or Impatiens downy mildew has decimated this shade garden favorite...and there's no cure. The more folks keep planting them right now, the faster the problem will progress.

What to look for? First, look for stunted growth, pale light green leaves, leaf and flower drop and then eventual stem collapse. The disease spreads quickly so infected plants must be removed and distroyed. Don't compost these plants as you'll most likely not be able to destroy the pathogen in home compost. Also, the organism produces spores that can persist in the soil...so if you have it this year, you should not be planting Impatiens in the same bed next year.

Last year, suppliers were still stating they felt they could produce a clean supply, but honestly the disease just has too strong a foothold on the species at this point. It's already been spotted in Texas.

Is this a bummer? Yep. BUT, there are a ton of other beautiful plants you can use in your shady garden. Currently, the disease does not effect New Guinea Impatiens or SunPatiens. Personally, I'll be happy to see Dallasites be forced to try something new!

If you have shade and needs some color, give some of these shade performers a try:

• Lemon Lollipop
• Coleus
• Crossandra
• Angel and Rex Begonias
• Farfugium
• Browallia
• Jatropha
• Abutilon
• Lamium
• Heuchera
• Brunfelsia
• New Guinea Impatiens
• SunPatiens
• Ferns
• Hellebore
• Tiarella
• Upright Fuchsia
• "indoor" Tropicals are great for shade containers

Last week I had the pleasure of doing an interview with Ken Druse of Ken Druse's Real Dirt blog and podcast. It's a really interesting podcast that covers all sorts of gardening topics and gardening experts for both home gardeners and industry folk like myself. We chatted about gardening trends, how to get people interested in gardening and some of the challenges about perception in the industry. If you'd like to listen you can head over to Ken's blog HERE.

Al little about Ken...he has been called a "gardening superstar." With sixteen books to his credit, frequent television appearances, regular articles for leading national newspapers and magazines, and now with his Podcast, he is one of the nation's leading voices of natural gardening. His groundbreaking book, "The Natural Garden," initiated a design movement that continues to grow in popularity today. Check it out!

Spring has definitely sprung around these parts! I thought I'd give you a sampling of some of the plants blooming around my garden. Enjoy!

OK PEOPLE, Dallas is planning to increase it's aerial spraying program this year. I find this not only unwarranted but reprehensible. The chemicals they will yet again be raining down upon us are not necessary...if they'd just focus on prevention. But see this mosquito problem is one that we the people can get control of ourselves, if we just put forth the tiniest effort. All it takes is a few handfuls of a natrial larvicide to do the job. And guess what? Now's the time you need to be planning for prevetion. While we've had a few cold snaps, we've also had a lot of warm days. The Fleas are already hatched out and jumping. Mosquitoes won't be far behind.

Bt (Bacillius thuriengensis var. israelensis) also known as Thuricide (liquid form) or Mosquito Bits, is my not so secret weapon to having no mosquito problems in my yard. This naturally occuring bacteria is fatal only to larvae and caterpillars. The species included in this product is particularly effective against Mosqutio larvae (and fungus gnats). All you have to do is sprinkle a few handfuls of the bits under your foundation shrubs, any landscape beds with automated irrigation or that you water regularly, drain boxes, low spots in the yard and even gutters. I do this about three times per year. Timing depends on the weather. If it's warm early, I'll put out my first application in April, if it's not then early May. Then again in June and July. If you have ponds, birdbaths or live on a creek, purchase the floating dunk form and just pitch one, or a piece of one in the standing water.

The Bt attacks the Mosquito larvae and kills them before they even have a chance to hatch. This bacteria is safe for children, pets, birds and fish. It's the most non-toxic and most effective treatment for dealing with Mosqitoes (Hello, Dallas?)

Quit over-watering your lawns and quit watering them over-night. Highland Park, Preston Hollow and Park Cities...you are major culprits. I know this, because I've personally inspected many of your irrigation systems...I know how much and how often you're watering. That's why you have so many fungal problems and decline in your St. Augustine and on all those Indian Hawthornes and Azaleas. I'm not saying it's all your fault..but realize many of you have maintenance companies that are setting your irrigation improperly. If you need help figuring out how much and when to water, please drop me a line! But, I know plenty of you Lakewood and East Dallas Hipster residents that are just as over-generous with your watering. So no one is off the hook here!

If neighbors, or neighborhoods, got together on prevention we could make a huge dent in the city's Mosqiuto population. Make a deal with your neighbors...if you live on a creek, each one of you should get together and buy a 4 or 6 pack of the mosquito dunks. Once per month from April or May - July or August, just pitch one out the back door into the creek. You'll be AMAZED at the results! Do you have a housebound or elderly neighbor? How about buying a pack for them and dropping it off, or better yet, apply the bits or dunks in their yard/creek for them?

See that big jug in the photo? (from Summit Chemical btw) It will cost you around $12-$13 bucks. Maybe less. Last summer I used about 20%-25% of the container and saw about 3 mosquitoes total on my property. Seriously people, why leave this in the hands of the city when they will only spend way too much of our money on an ineffective and toxic treatment? Spend a few bucks, knock on your neighbor's door, and let's prevent this problem before it even gets started...