Category Archives: PRACTICE

A Reader’s Post : garden learning – summer 2015

GENERAL INTEREST, PRACTICE

by Daniel Homans

Like so many, once the summer growing season is over I am happy with a single real and lasting takeaway from my annual gardening experience.

This year rather than a strictly botanical lesson, my garden learning was more social in nature. And how very simple. How could I have missed this one? All you need is a bumper crop of your best garden grown tomatoes, a friendly dog and you can become your neighborhood’s new garden rockstar.

The events leading to my learning this year began with a simple walk with my dog Olive. As we set out and passed my tomato garden I plucked a ripe Italian Red Pear and dropped it in my pocket. With no particular plan for my tomato as I reached the outside bounds of my customary walk I encountered one of my “hows-it-going” vaguely familiar neighbors. To my own surprise I pulled my Red Pear from my pocket and extended it declaring “you look like you could use a quality tomato”.

The conversation that followed was pleasant and lighthearted centering on home gardens, juicy tomatoes and Olive. Having experienced this impromptu social success I found my self repeating this routine during my morning and late day dog walks, saluting neighbors familiar, and not so familiar. Over two full months no one refused a tomato and my late summer walks became remarkably upbeat and much longer than in June.

Looking back now with Halloween in sight, I can say with certainty, I have more neighborhood friends than I did this time last year. So take notice, the lesson is simple: tomatoes can be a powerful social wampum.

Italian Red Pear

Never Plant This! — Akebia Quinata

BEAUTY, PASSION, PRACTICE

First in a series of plants we do NOT recommend

by Catherine Feldman

One day, early in my gardening years, I fell in love with a lovely five-leaved vine (akebia quinata) that was growing beautifully up a post in a Botanical Garden. It even had some other charming virtues, being edible for humans, distasteful to deer, shade tolerant. and drought resistant.

Akebia quinata

Above all, it was gorgeous; you can see why I had to have it.  Oh my,  though, what a misguided romance! I am stuck now and forever with this plant that pops up everywhere, especially where a current loved one is planted and struggling to maintain a relationship with me. No luxurious sloth allowed in this relationship, only remorseless vigilience, else I would have an Akebia garden. If it calls out to you, block it!

Plants We Like: Milkweed-Schmilkweed – What Do Those Darn Monarchs Want, Anyway? by Elsa Johnson

POLLINATION, PRACTICE

Elsa Johnson

Monarch_In_May

We constantly hear how the Monarch butterfly population is at risk because they are dependent on milkweed plants for survival.  What does that mean?  Is timing important?

The answer to both questions is … not quite so much for the adult Monarch butterfly as for the Monarch caterpillar.  The caterpillar, the larval stage of the butterfly, MUST have milkweed. It eats nothing else.    

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Adult Monarch butterflies drink only liquid, mostly in the form of nectar that they suck up through a tiny tube (called a proboscis) just under the head. They can get nectar from a variety of flowering sources. To attract adult Monarch butterflies, one need only plant a variety of nectar rich flowers, including the various species of milkweed native to one’s area.  As the non-breeding Monarch’s  – that is,  the migrating population of Monarch’s (as opposed to the breeding stay-at-home population) fly southwest on the migration to Mexico, it is important that they find nectar sources along their route. This should be a variety of flowering plants with staged flowering times to give both stay at home and migrating Monarchs a continuous food source. Milkweed of course should be included in the mix.

It is the stay-at-home breeding population that specifically need milkweed plants. Adult butterflies lay their eggs only on milkweed plants because in the caterpillar stage of their life cycle Monarch’s eat only the leaves of milkweed plants. They can denude a milkweed plant of its leaves (but that’s ok; the leaves will regenerate).

Monarch friendly areas should be not be mowed or cut back until butterflies have migrated from the area (a good reason to practice garden sloth on either a small or large scale).  For large areas, mowing in patches insures that pollinators always have access to undisturbed habitat and can recolonize mowed areas. Avoid the use of herbicides and pesticides.

There are 13 species of milkweed native to Ohio. The most common to the fields of Northeast Ohio is Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).

Asclepias_syriaca_-_Common_Milkweed 2

You can find large stands of this milkweed in the Great Meadow of Forest Hill Park (feel free to take some pods home!). This species can spread aggressively — though for now we are not convinced that is such a bad thing.

The milkweed species are most often found in area nurseries are Swamp Milkweed

( Asclepias incarnata)

swamp milkweed

and Aesclepias tuberosa, with its startling orange flowers.

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Both respond to garden sloth by self- sowing. Interestingly, caterpillars on A. tuberosa have a greater survival rate then on the other milkweeds. 

Links:

Milkweed information sheet: monarchjointventure.org 

The  Xerces Society : milkweed seed finder database

Floraofohio.blogspot.com 

Milkweed pods
Milkweed pods

After Blueflags

(Homage to WCW)

We stopped to gather pods

from the milkweed plants

where they grow

in the meadow

amid tall grasses

that wave

as wind blows

and rain falls

and runnels the ground

toward the swale

where we planted blueflags

one spring

in water

with sunflowers beside.

The milkweed pods

are like fat fish

which we pull

from stalks

and carry

in our pockets

and our arms

to the ditch

where our hands grow sticky

with white sap

as we pull apart pods

for the seeds inside

lined up like fish scales

tied to silk threads

which we rend and scatter

so they drift

in wet air

Milkweed gone to seed
Milkweed gone to seed

A Permaculture Solution for Goji Berries by Tom Gibson

PERMACULTURE, PRACTICE

A Permaculture Solution for Goji Berries

Perhaps permaculture’s most memorable adage is “The Problem is the Solution.” Do you have too many slugs?  Maybe the solution is adding ducks which will eat those slugs and turn them into eggs. 

Canadian anemones certainly aren’t as annoying as slugs, but they are extremely aggressive and were crowding out some of my food-producing ground level plants like woodland strawberries and ramps. 

Yet I had mixed emotions about trying to eliminate them. The Canadian anemone’s white flowers attract a variety of pollinators. And their mat of fine surface roots that strangle their plant competitors also provides lush habitat for worms and arthropods. Pull off the “scalp” of living Canadian anemone roots and you’ll find soil that incorporates previously decayed roots, holds moisture and builds a wonderful, crumble-in-the-hand tilth.

Was there a permaculture solution somewhere in that mix? I thought of my goji berry plants, the Asian imports much hyped for their anti-oxidant value, but which, in my garden, had never lived up to their growing potential. Maybe a berry or two in late August, but, instead of the promised September profusion, a quick fade in a location that was sunny, but probably a little too dry.

The goji berry plants have relatively deep roots. Could they possibly thrive in all that rich, moist soil under my Canadian anemones?

Short answer: they have, and how!

goji picture Goji berries growing in a bed of Canadian anemone.

The berries are coming nonstop and provide a great addition to fruit salads.

Companion planting in other mat-like groundcovers would probably produce the same results.  I’ve got another goji berry plant planted in the middle of sweet woodruff, and it’s doing almost as well.

Is it Ripe Yet?……………. by Ann McCulloh

GENERAL INTEREST, PRACTICE

Is It Ripe Yet?

Ann McCulloh

Sensory clues to help decide if it’s time to harvest your produce.
Ann McCulloh

You’ve tended the garden since spring. Improved the soil, planted carefully, weeded, watered, fed, staked, pinched and pruned! Finally it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labors. How do you know when all that home-grown goodness is at its peak? Ready, but not over-the-hill? In a word: ripe?

Judging ripeness is all about the evidence of the senses. There’s certainly science involved: fruits and vegetables can be measured for sugar and water content, acidity and density. But recognizing ripeness is really a learned skill, a dance of anticipation and experience. Here’s where four of our senses (touch, smell, sight and hearing) come into play, before the ultimate test of taste.

Apple: Look for a background skin color skin more yellow than green. Cut into the heart and look for dark brown seeds and cream-colored flesh.

Canteloupe: Look for a yellow tinted skin, a light fragrance, slight softness at the stem end when pressed, and shake to hear seeds sloshing gently inside.

Corn: The silk turns brown, and the kernels are plump.

Dry Beans: Outer shell looks dry, yellow and leathery. Beans slide out easily with the swipe of a thumb and feel hard to the touch.

Eggplant: Firm and rounded, heavy for its size and skin still shiny

Green Beans: Pods should still be slim and smooth, not bumpy

Tomato: Pick when just fully colored and finish ripening indoors in a paper bag. Don’t chill!

Watermelon: Should be heavy for its size, with skin more dull than shiny and a creamy yellow bottom side. A thumped melon should yield a hollow sound.

Winter Squash: The rind will be too hard to puncture with a fingernail, the skin will be dull not glossy.

Zucchini: The smaller the better! Dull skin = hard seeds and spongy texture.

The best advice will take you only so far. Look, feel, sniff, listen, and observe. Then take a bite. Your taste buds will be your best teacher.


Is It Ripe Yet?

Pears

A sensory investigation

Thump a melon for its sound

Feel the cabbage fill and round

Sniff the peach for its perfume

Rub the grape, dispel its bloom

Heft a gourd and tug it loose

Bite the apple, savor juice…

_Ann McCulloh 2010

cucumbers

The Aging Gardener Laments September

POETRY, PRACTICE

elsa messy garden

The Aging Gardener Laments September

Lord   Lord   What a mess the garden is   There is not

a modicum of order here   (and me …supposed to

set a good example )  I’ve hacked back that

promiscuous bitch ‘Pamina’   all her skirt

foliage I’ve ripped away   (and some of her

children too )   (Murderer!)   I’ve beaten into

submission the overly exuberant ‘Rozanne’

(Back… back! You beast! )  Goldfinch lay waste

the ripe sunflowers   A dozen different insects

are pillaging sedum   agastache   and anything

else that dares remain in bloom    A few beans still

hang from utterly leafless plants   like limp tinsel or

draped dregs from a party that’s gone on too long…

none of us straggling home in good shape

elsa messy 2

Plants We Like: Pycnanthemum or Mountain Mint

BEAUTY, PERMACULTURE, POLLINATION, PRACTICE

DETA-246

Pycnanthemum muticum or mountain mint is one of my new favorite perennial plants. Not only does it have a sweet white-pink flower, the leaves and stems have an almost icy appearance. It is lighting up one of the darker spots of a shady forest area in my front yard. I am planning to add lots more of it (plant gluttony, again) throughout that area. Although it is not supposed to do well in deep shade, rather preferring full sun to part shade, I am going to experiment a bit to see how deep into the shade it will thrive. Already now, on the edge of sun and shade, it is doing a good job of lighting up the area. It is native to the US in zones 4-8. It’s height and spread is from 1-3 feet. It blooms from July to September. It tolerates some dryness and attracts butterflies and bees. It is not bothered by insects or deer. It can be used to make tea and may be used as insect repellant when rubbed on the skin. So many virtues!DETA-246

Permaculture Success…and Failure

PERMACULTURE, PRACTICE

Permaculture Success….and Failure

Three years ago, I and five other permaculturists (including GARDENOPOLIS Cleveland co-editor Ann McCulloh) built a Hugelkultur in my back yard. The name comes from the German “Hügelkultur” or “hill culture” and consists of a 5-foot+ pile of logs and branches covered with soil. Ideally, over time, a Hugelkultur evolves like this:

HugelkulturRaisedBed

In theory, Hugelkulturs offer gardeners multiple benefits. One can simultaneously (1) recycle logs from downed trees; (2) increase gardening surface area; (3) create a sun trap to extend the growing season; and (4) extract water and nutrients from the decaying trees and, thus, eliminate the need for watering.

I’ve had to make adjustments to my Hugelkultur. My first installation of (conventional) top soil contained too much sand. Rain and snow melt quickly eroded much of it away. I then replaced the soil with a sturdier mixture of clay fill and compost, which has stayed in place.

And some plants seem to love their whole Hugelkultur experience!  Here’s an exuberant horse radish that seems to be burrowing deep into the decaying wood’s nutrients and water.


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But I’ve had failures, too. Here’s a dried out (and barely recognizable) kale plant that couldn’t survive the drought and my three week absence from Cleveland.  

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Maybe its root didn’t go deep enough to tap the underlying moisture or maybe, as Ann suggests, it, like all brassicas, just didn’t relate to the heavily fungal soil created by decaying wood.  Since my basil (of course, a non-brassica) did well —-just a few feet away, not especially deep-rooted–I’m inclined to accept the latter explanation.

Margaret Ransohoff’s Late Summer Garden

PASSION, PRACTICE

The first in a series on intriguing gardens and their gardeners. 

Margaret’s late summer garden is a feast of exuberant color and form created with a mix of annuals and perennials: take a look at the flowers and foliage, and Margaret, herself, dressed as one of her favorite creatures, a butterfly.

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Most striking in the above photo are the giant castor bean plants, grown this year from seeds of last year’s planting.  See also, dahlias from tubers and cardoon at lower left.

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Cutting garden of dahlias from tubers and zinnias from seed.

Margaret’s container arrangements show an exceptional sense of color and form.

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Above container with canna, New Guinea impatiens, verbena and portulaca, surrounded by Gardenmeister fuchsia, petunias and annual blue lobelia.

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The pot on the pedastal has canna, verbena and calibrachoa. It is surrounded by darmera peltata, hydrangea, blue cardinal flower (lobelia siphilitica).

She defines space and creates structure in the late summer with annuals, canna and zinnias.

Cannas and zinnias

Watch for further posts on Margaret’s garden in other seasons.