101 Ways to Celebrate
National Garden Month

More Ways to Celebrate

In Your Community »
Plan and Plant »
Dig Deeper and Branch Out
It's About Good Food »
New Techniques
and Timely To-Do's »

Dig Deeper and Branch Out

  • Plan to grow this year's gifts (e.g. herbal teas or vinegars, dried flower arrangements, wreaths, homemade jam, pesto).
  • Just sit in your garden and quietly observe the activities of wildlife and insects for half an hour.
  • Take a class in botanical illustration.
  • Learn about the seed-saving movement and save some seeds from your garden to share and replant. For a primer on seed saving, click here.
  • Learn about houseplants that clean the air, and introduce them to your home or workplace. Click here for a brief article on the topic.
  • Start a garden journal.
  • Join a botanical garden and take some classes. Find one near you via the Web site of the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta.
  • Learn about rooftop gardening and "greenroofing." Click here for an introduction to greenroofing.
  • Delve into a gardening style or technique you've always wanted to try, such as topiary, bonsai, or water gardening. Water gardening basics can be found by clicking here.
  • Become an informed consumer by learning about invasive plants.
  • Go on a sniffing tour of your neighborhood when bloom is at its peak, and try to match an aroma in the air to a specific flower.
  • Press flowers and frame two-dimensional bouquets for gifts.
  • Go on a bug safari; learn the names and habits of 5 invertebrates (e.g., insects, spiders, slugs, sowbugs, centipedes) that frequent your garden. Click here to identify these creatures.
  • Set up various types of bird feeders stocked with different foods and a birdbath, and see who they attract. For bird feeder basics, click here.
  • Join a Master Gardener's program. Find one in your area by clicking here.
  • Learn some basic botanical Latin.
  • Learn how to take stunning photos of your plants and gardens. Click here for some guidance.
  • Take an armchair garden tour: Spend a few hours in the bookstore poring over gardening books.

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