According to author Richard Louv, children today are suffering from nature deficit disorder, a disconnection with the world beyond the interiors of their homes and classrooms.

In his book, Last Child in the Woods, Louv presents documented and anecdotal evidence of NDD and its consequences.

In the book, a fourth grader in San Francisco said he prefers playing indoors because that's where all the outlets are.

So what are the reasons Louv sets forth for the prevalence of NDD.

Time is a big factor. When two parents are working outside the home, spare time is a precious commodity. In modern urban and suburban families, free time tends to be filled with programmed activities such as the endless rush to soccer practices, piano lessons, martial arts classes and the like.

Studies cited in the book point to the benefit of allowing children not only the time to spend exploring outdoors but also the freedom in deciding how to spend it. Louv says building a tree house in a woodsy area with his boyhood pals was an experience that evoked so many positive feelings, he is sorry more kids do nott have similar opportunities today.

You might think that gardeners, by their very earthy natures, would not gravitate to the high tech world of personal
computers. That certainly is true of some.

I won't name names but all of us know gardeners who wear their computer aversions as proudly as their master gardener name badges. But knowing how inquisitive and seeking these folks are, I can't help lamenting about all of the wonderful, easy to find free information that are missing by choosing not to log on.

Luckily, master gardener David Sojourner is not one of them. He showed a rapt audience how a computer can be a useful tool for creating and maintaining garden journals and records, for gathering gardening information and for using software for garden design and other topics.

I've always done most of my garden research with good ole Google. But David, who has been working with personal computers since the 1980s, said a single source search engine like Google will miss up to 71 percent of the best sites.

Multi-source search engines such as dogpile.com and mamma.com sift through other search engines for pertinent sites. And then there are some specific search engines for garden-related information that we should all add to our Favorites or Bookmark lists:

gardeningsearchengine.com

gardenbreak.com

search.gardenweb.com

For free landscape design software and ideas, he recommends Better Homes & Gardens at

http://www.bhg.com/bhg/gardening/index.jhtml

gardendesigner.com

lowes.com

hgtv.com

Garden designs from Garden Gate magazine at gardengatemagazine.com/extra/indes.php

A website that talks to you so you learn how to pronounce the scientific names of plants is
taunton.com/finegardening/ and click on the pronunciation guide under resources.

A computer is a wondrous tool for a curious person. You can check out any trivial or monumental fact with a couple of keystrokes.

I can't get out of my mind a statement made by author Sharon Lovejoy when she spoke recently in Memphis.
She said she gave up doing interior decorating work in favor of gardening because she would rather be around people who are inquisitive rather than acquisitive.

Amen, Sharon, but let's make exceptions for the urge to acquire plants!

The talented members of Cordova Garden Club put on a terrific flower show Sept. 9 at the home of their president
Darlene Glissen.

Darlene's home was glistening with colorful arrangements including the one she made for the dining room table. It had lots of white roses as well as artichokes, cabbages and asparagus.

One of the most stunning designs, created by Dorothy Hirsh, was placed above the kitchen sink. It featured a teepee of bamboo sticks with a gorgeous red double hibiscus at the center.

The hibsicus is not hardy and Hirsh usually plants a new one every year.

Gwen Faller, a member of the Bartlett Garden Club who visited the show, said she winters a similar double hibiscus with coral coloration in her garage all winter. She just gives it a little water about once a month. (Another friend of mine does the same thing with a mandevilla. It is now in its third year and looking great.)

Not only did Darlene's home look great, but so did her garden. The typical suburban space has been transformed with paths, arbors, well-chosen plants and a great curly willow as the focal point.

This is a hard-working garden club that also has a lot of fun.

Hi Chris.

A few questions: I've always had beautiful elephant ears, but this year they were pretty pitiful. We divided them two years ago, and although they weren't as big last year as they'd been previously, we expected them to flourish this year. We were so disappointed to see these limp plants instead. I know it's been dry, but we've watered faithfully.

Second question is about my upright elephant ears, which are magnificient. Do I have to lift them, or can I mulch heavily instead? I'm seeing conflicting reports on the Web. AND--if I leave them in the ground, will they be as lush next year as they are now?

Next question: Do you have suggestions for an inexpensive greenhouse, some place I can store my tropicals over the winter? Or do you know if anyone rents greenhouse space?

Finally, have we changed to Zone 8?

Thanks!

Jenny

Jenny, As many Memphians know Elephant Ears (Colocasia) have proven to be hardy in our gardens, especially if they are in a protected area of your garden. However, the Alocasia tends to be more tender than the Colocasia thus needing more care when considering what to do with them during the winter months. At the Dixon Gallery and Gardens we have often potted the Alocasia in 3 to 5 gallon pots and 'planted' the pots in the ground for the growing season. When fall arrives we simply pop the pot out of the ground and stored it in a cool area (55 degrees) during the winter, watering it slightly once a month until growing season returns. This process can also be used for caladium, however i would let the caladiums remain dry all winter instead of watering them once a month.
Remember, after lifting the pots in the fall, to allow the leaves to die back then cut them off before storing.

Ellen LeBlond

Hi Chris - A curious thing happened this year to my young coral bark Japanese maple tree, and I am wondering if any of your expert contacts could help me understand it. Maybe this has happened to others as well.

This tree has been doing fine in my garden for 3-4 years, but this summer it has developed a most uncharacteristic weeping habit.

The new growth is long and flimsy so that the branches droop, although the leaves are healthy and I do not see any evidence of insects or disease.

The only clue I have is that this was the first year we used a new irrigation system, so it has probably received more water than in previous years, despite our lack of rain.

I am not sure what to do to get it back to looking like it should. Can you help?

Thanks,
Robyn Cox

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It's fun to get your hands dirty especially when you can do it with other people who love gardening.

I joined a group of a dozen or so volunteers who meet weekly to re-pot plants at Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Two of them, Emelia Miekicki and Virginia Kletner, had told me how much they learn while they are volunteering so I decided to join in.

We spent the morning transplanting seedlings such as wild columbine and foamflowers from tiny pots into slightly bigger ones. Eventually the plants will grow big and strong and be sold at the Dixon's annual wildflower sale in next April.

Lorie Emens, horticulturist at the Dixon, first gave us a lesson in "how to plant, the Lorie method."

Plants should be transplanted if, when you turn them out of the pot into the palm of your hand, you can see their roots on the outside of the soil. This is before the roots start circling the inside of the pot and become " root-bound."

Gardeners should avoid waiting until a plant is root-bound to transplant it because cutting through the roots, as you must do to replant it, is stressful to the plant.

First dampen the potting soil so it is wet enough to clump together when squeezed but not enough that water drips out of it.

The new pots should be just one size up or about 2 inches larger than the original.

The soil should be added in thirds. The first third should be packed firmly into the bottom of the new pot. This keeps the soil from running out the bottom when the pot is watered.

The second third should be added around the plant's roots and gently firmed to hold the plant in an upright position.

The final third is then added to the top of the pot and gently tapped down.

The plant should always be positioned so the new soil is the same level as the soil in the original pot.

These guidellines also work for adding several plants to container gardens.

That's the way to pronounce those little "trees in a tray,'' Fred Nowak told members of the Memphis Horticultural Society about recently.

Fred's enthusiasm for the miniature trees of the Orient was so infectious I actually thought of buying one. But then I remembered how I'm not so keen on plants that need a lot of grooming and care. And somehow giving trees fertilizer to keep them healthy but then pruning them back to keep them small seems counter-intuitive to me.

I don't have the patience to carefully wrap wire around the limbs so they can be coaxed into a position nature didn't intend for them to take.

But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the art form, and it is art because the owner of the tree "sculpts" an entirely new creation from nature's raw materials. It's amazing how bonsai enthusiasts can make a relatively yonng tree look old, weathered and/or contorted.

Bonsai can be an expensive hobby as evidenced by Fred's slide of a rare five-needle pine bonsai priced at $25,000. But he takes a more affordable approach. He might splurge on a great nursery-grown tree now and then, but he also gets great pleasure in turning a $5.95 basic juniper into a cascading bonsai with his careful training and pruning.

He also grows potential bonsais from seeds and cuttings.

His own collection has been edited down from 40 trees to 30. One or two were lost to spider mites that inflicted fatal damage before he noticed them. Others were under or over-watered. Every gardener worth his gloves kills a few plants along their way to learning what they should have done differently.

Fred loves working with the trees in his bonsai garden, a space outlined with tables that put the trees at a level where they can be easily viewed and groomed.

When he's out there, hours pass before he knows it. And isn't that what happens to all of us when we are doing something we love?