By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

An ode to the juicy persimmon.  Found on the Local Ecologist's blog.  Includes this mouth-watering photo  and Mu Chi's Persimmons, a poem by Gary Snyder.

Here are a few lines from the poem:

And now, to these overripe persimmons
from Mike and Barbara’s orchard.
Napkin in hand,
I bend over the sink
suck the sweet orange goop

To read the entire poem, see the Local Ecologist's blog.

On the Life on the Balcony blog, Fern waxes poetic about her favorite seed company, Botanical Interests.

She gives the company 5 stars, 2 thumbs up, and needed 800 words to extoll all its virtues.  See why she likes it.

(We share her enthusiasm, incidentally.)

On the Sustainable Garden Blog, Susan Harris reports on the seminar on lawn alternatives she attended at The Scott Arboretum and shows several examples of those alternatives.

Carex morrowii, shown below, is one of them.  Looking at this graceful, romantic image, you have to wonder why so many people still prefer lawns.