I can’t think of a single gardener who wouldn’t want to plant a vegetable garden that could grow anywhere–without soil—and never needed weeding.

When something sounds too good to be true, in most cases it means watch out for all the pitfalls. Gardeners are used to hearing claims for plants, products and tools that sound perfect, but end up being a big disappointment.

But Joel Karsten’s new book may be an exception. “Straw Bale Gardens” (Cool Springs Press, 2013) promises to be The breakthrough method for growing vegetables anywhere, earlier and with no weeding.

He practically guarantees gardeners can get big yields and grow 100 percent organic anywhere. As proof, he suggests planting in straw bales on balconies or driveways. No soil required.

“You plant your garden directly in bales of straw. Add some water, fertilizer and sunshine (not necessarily in that order) and your garden will explode with beautiful wholesome produce. No tilling, no cultivating, no weeding,” he writes in the Introduction.

A happy couple of Red-shafted Northern Flickers took just a week to create this impressive nest.

I was away in Gillette, Wyo., giving the keynote presentation at the Native Plants Speaker’s Series when I called home to check in.

John brought me up-to-date on what was happening at the homestead and before ending the call he said, “I have something to show you in the backyard when you get home.”

My imagination was set in motion, but I wasn’t prepared for what was about to unfold.

A pair of Red-shafted Northern Flickers was preparing a nest in our neighbor’s old cottonwood tree.

It was our incredible good fortune this happy couple decided to build the nest within direct eyesight of our office window.

Over the course of a week, we watched the pair share the construction duty. Each took turns pecking at the tree with long, curved bills and discarding the wood chips on the ground below.

One of these days it’s going to stop snowing so we can start gardening. If you’re a gardener in the Rocky Mountain region, you know how challenging gardening can be. After all, it was 60 degrees yesterday and 29 degrees today. That’s a shock to plants and gardeners alike.

What gardener couldn’t use a little help this season?

Here are some of my top tips for Mountain Region gardeners from my Creative Ideas Team blog.

Easy Gardening Tips for how to:

Beat annoying aphids
Recycle grass clippings
Plant containers on the cheap

5 Tips for Personalizing your Garden:

Plant something new
Let plants be plants
Plant a kitchen garden
Think small
Replant a hanging basket

Regional Gardening Calender

45 timely tips for what to do in your garden, from March through December.

5 Bulbs for Spring Color

If your garden is lacking spring color, you need to make a list of these spring-blooming bulbs that are perfect for fall planting.

Attention, Gardeners! Science needs you to join the army of citizens advancing the body of scientific knowledge.

Citizen scientists are the extra eyes researchers need to help look for nine-spotted ladybugs, note the first tulips in spring or keep watch for endangered arboreal toads. They partner with scientists to provide valuable data that helps answer real-world questions.

Volunteers can join any number of organized efforts to use their backyard living laboratories to observe plants, insects, birds or other animals and report their findings. Researchers say citizen scientist initiatives help identify signs of climate change, track migrating species and monitor the health of animals and the environment.

Whether you prefer to watch birds or bees, monitor blooming plants or count the spots on ladybugs, there’s a science project waiting for you.

For example, citizen scientists in Boulder are helping real scientists at the University of Colorado gather data on bees for a program called “The Bees’ Needs.”

New gardening books are published every year, but this crop is especially fruitful.

If you need inspiration to help you add more vegetables to your family’s menu, look no farther than this new cookbook from the folks at the Baker Creek Seed Company. The cookbook, written by Jere and Emilee Gettle with Adeena Sussman, is a natural follow up to the Gettle’s first book called “The Heirloom Life Gardener.” If you didn’t grow up enjoying Grandma Nellie’s Garden Soup, don’t fret. Her recipe for homemade vegetable soup is included in the new collection of more than 125 recipes in “The Baker Creek Vegan Cookbook” (2012, Hyperion).

“Vertical Vegetable Gardening” is a Living Free Guide (2012, Alpha Books) that adds to the body of creative ideas for using every square inch of gardening space. Chris McLaughlin has gleaned ideas from gardeners across the country for the best ways to grow vegetables vertically.This user-friendly how-to guide is organized into four parts that make it easy to find information. While beginning gardeners may want to delve into The Basics: Soil and Seed, experienced gardeners might turn right to Vegetables and Fruit that Enjoy Growing Up.

What if we had a drought and the lawn didn’t notice?

It’s time to rethink how to use water in the landscape.

Because of the continuing drought, gardeners in the Denver metro area will have twice-a-week lawn watering restrictions starting April 1–no fooling.

Along with these restrictions will be higher water bills for using more water on other parts of the landscape, too.

I remember the summer of 2002 and how difficult it was to keep the garden going with limited irrigation. It was fortunate I had already removed a good deal of lawn the summer before, replacing with low-water perennial flowers, shrubs and bulbs.

I’ve dusted off some of the water conservation tactics I used the last time we had Stage 2 drought restrictions and plan to rely on them again this summer. Here are some of my top tips for gardening in a drought:

Lawn Watering

Welcome to Spring 2013.

Today is the first day of spring, according to the calendar.

But seasoned gardeners around these parts know it won’t feel like spring for a few more weeks.

The morning temperatures are still quite chilly and there’s always the threat of a late spring snowstorm to keep us on our toes.

But it was a hot fall day when I spotted this garden gnome in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this month.

The gnome is just one piece of art featured along Hosier Lane, a long alley in the city that’s famous for the urban art that covers its walls from top to bottom.

Of course the little guy caught my eye. Can you find his little mouse friend in the painting?

Obviously there’s at least one gardener-artist down under with a silly sense of humor.

Happy Fourth Anniversary to WesternGardeners.com!

It was February 24, 2009, when I hit the “publish” button on my first gardening blog post.

I wrote a short post about the predicted drought conditions in the West, with the headline: Warmer, Drier Forecast is Daunting!

It seems like I could have written that headline yesterday, too.

Over the last four years I’ve written a lot about conserving water in our landscapes from planting water-wise flowers, trees and shrubs, to ways to use water more efficiently in the garden.

Those tips are even more relevant today.

Of the 449 posts I’ve written, I’ve been surprised by the one that’s been most popular: my simple recipe for Pickled Jalapeno Peppers. That one post continues to draw hundreds of gardeners looking for ways to use their home-grown jalapenos.

The new gardening catalog from Territorial Seed Company is about twice the size of other seed catalogs.

I’ve written about Territorial Seed Company in the past and have placed orders with them. But the company’s garden seed, plants and supply catalog for spring 2013 is something special.

This catalog is huge and features 240 new gardening products for 2013.

Territorial Seed, located in Cottage Grove, Ore., was the first mail order catalog to offer the Mighty ‘Mato grafted tomatoes after trialing them in its gardens.

Gardeners responded to the superhero status of the Mighty ‘Mato and Territorial Seed sold out most varieties last season. The double variety (‘Sungold’ and ‘Sweet Million’) was especially popular with gardeners who wanted to grow two flavorful cherry tomatoes on one plant.

Grafted vegetables are included in the 2013 catalog including grafted peppers. One eggplant variety, ‘Rosa Bianca’ is also in the catalog.

All the grafted vegetables are grafted by hand.

Jung Seeds & Plants, based in Randolph, Wis., is a is a family-owned business that has offered gardeners quality products since 1907.

The annual Jung Seeds & Plants home gardening catalog is one I always look forward to reading.

This catalog features, vegetables and flowers, seeds and bulbs, fruit and all kinds of gardening supplies. It is loaded with great gardening gear from cover to cover.

It’s also entertaining to read all of the descriptions. I’d love to meet whoever wrote the description for the ‘Super Freak Hybrid’ pumpkins or the ‘Red Warty Thing’ winter squash.

Every page is loaded with clever narratives about the company’s vast amount of offerings.

Family owned and operated for 106 years, Jung’s searches for the kinds of seeds and plants that gardeners like to grow.

There are plenty of old favorites, Jung Exclusives, Jung Top Picks and new introductions, too.