slow down and really look (videos); 8 earliest shrubs; win garden tour tickets     

I am in a rush. Stupid, right? Here I live in a rural hamlet, and it couldn't be quieter -- but like everyone, I get into hurry-mode, missing the best stuff that's only seen when being still. So even now, in the busy run-up to my May 10 open garden day (details below), I'm finding some stillness -- inspired by an amateur filmmaker's work I'm so glad I happened upon.

john dunstan: seeing beauty in unexpected places

John Dunstan's videos show us the intimate moments in "perhaps the last place you would imagine finding interesting nature," he says: Jersey City, where he has lived since 1983. That's where John watched a raven try to sidle up to a snowy owl, and where he is taught endless science lessons by a diversity of insects in his backyard. Watch his inspiring videos.

learn by visiting: win nationwide garden-tour tickets

"How did you learn to garden?" People ask me that all the time. At first I learned from books, and catalogs, and then from mentors. And then I started to learn from people who visited my garden. No kidding. From total strangers. More on that, and the Garden Conservancy Open Days program, plus a chance to win tickets to private gardens (like Ruth Bancroft's, above, or mine!), all here.   

8 extra-early shrubs (besides forsythia!)

Local forsythia finally opened last week, but even if they hadn't, I'd already be well into my spring-flowering shrub lineup, happily surrounded by delicate blossoms, including fragrant ones. My eight best (including coming-soon quince, below, and winter-hazel, up top), with a slideshow.