We’ve been a bit lax the past couple of weeks, so here’s an extra-long weekly round-up for your weekend reading pleasure. Stay cool out there!

• Can’t catch rainwater? Try these tips. (via @waterguru2)
• Succulents!
• Why you should hire introverts.
• Chris Heiler has a few suggestions on how to get free PR.
• Advertisers and consumers are getting tired of QR codes. Related.
• How to use elephants to control weeds.
• Learn how to talk to tree guys.
• Brad Johnson on planting weeds for healthy turf.
• Also: Brad’s book is in stores now.
• ASLA releases a guide to designing sustainable sites.
• Above: Why trees are important.

The Fourth of July means different things to everyone. For Brian, who is inherently distrustful of fireworks, the holiday is for grilling out and enjoying the musical stylings of America’s greatest rock and roll band.

And while I certainly love a good cookout, for me, the holiday really centers on blowing stuff up.

For the nerdier more scientific among you, the above video features John A. Conkling, Ph.D., author of “The Chemistry of Pyrotechnics, Basic Principles and Theory.” Here, he outlines the chemistry behind our favorite rockets.

And that’s what’s so wonderful about today, and what’s so worth celebrating. We have the freedom to celebrate our independence in whatever way we choose. Brian gets his Van Halen, I get my Roman candles.

So, however you celebrate today, please have a safe and happy holiday. We’ll be back tomorrow with our regularly scheduled programming.

I’m pulling together my social media presentation for the OPEI annual meeting next week, and I found this TED talk from Seth Godin. In the short video, Godin outlines his thinking on tribes – the groups people organize themselves in. Increasingly, these tribes are online, and involve tools like Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

It’s worth your 15 minutes.

Kansas will headline the 2012 GIE+EXPO. That is all.

About half of our team is on the road this week, covering the California Spring Trials. Two teams of editors and videographers are headed south down Pacific Coast Highway in California, reporting on the latest and greatest plant introductions from major breeders and suppliers.

For the next seven days, they’ll have the newest plant varieties for landscapes, garden centers and home gardens, and breaking news from the world of plants.

You’ll find daily coverage at our main site, and can sign up for our daily enewsletter here. You can also get up-to-the-minute dispatches on Twitter by following Greenhouse Management magazine at @greenhousemag, GM Editor Kristy O’Hara at @GMmagEditor, our new consumer-focused app A Garden Life at @agardenlife and the hashtag #springtrials.

What do you do when you’re proud of a job? Swingle, Lawn, Tree & Landscape Care makes and shares videos.  Here’s a clinic on how its crews removed fallen trees after high winds.