Ask A Master Gardener: Check out these garden catalogs

Published 4:00 pm Tuesday, January 7, 2003

Question: We must not be on the right mailing lists as we have not received any gardening catalogs. Can you provide us with some addresses?

Answer: A good place to start is a website called Cyndi’s Catalog of Garden Catalogs at: http://www.qnet.com/~johnsonj/. This site is advertised as the home gardener’s one stop to find all the mail order gardening catalogs in the United States and Canada – over 2,000 of them. Check here first to find the company and see its ratings for quality, service, price and list of varieties. This site also has additional links to specialty gardening, general garden advice and other directories. This is truly one of those sites that won’t be easy to leave once you start browsing through catalog after catalog filled with pages of tantalizing plants to grow this year.

Another great website called Backyard Gardener.com, located at: http://backyardgardener.com/shed/. This site provides a wealth of garden catalog information on a multitude of topics including everything from water gardening to deer control. One can easily spend hours once you enter this site just visiting all of the different links!

Question: We are thinking about selling our home in a another year and are debating as to how much landscaping to do. Should we invest in developing a landscape with ornamentals or just concentrate on having a nice lawn?

Answer: Landscaping definitely increases property market value. A recent study in Virginia estimates that an attractive landscape increases the value of a home by an average of 7.5 percent, and reduces the time on the market by five to six weeks. The Wall Street Journal reported that landscape investments are recovered fully, and sometimes doubled, by the increased home value.

Good landscaping also increases community appeal. Parks and street trees have been found to be second only to education in residents’ perceived value of municipal services offered. Psychologist Rachel Kaplan found trees, well-landscaped grounds and places for taking walks to be among the most important factors considered when individuals chose a place to live. And on a final note, landscaping reduces crime. In a California study, landscaped areas were relatively graffiti free, while open, non-landscaped areas were graffiti targets. Well-planned and maintained landscapes are seen as safer than non- maintained plantings.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For answers to local gardening questions, contact Master Gardener Rachel Gana at 642-8723 or e-mail her at: baiter1@pacifier.com.