And, through and over everything, A sense of glad awakening. —“Renascence” Edna St. Vincent Millay
—For Leslie Henry and Dorothy Quimby, librarians, both, and stewards of our words.
The fog below, the clouds above, the mists between. I remember well the times when that pewter lens Was all this altitude revealed. So I looked, As always, within it for the way beyond.
On that day of unexpected clarities From atop the mountain we could see The whole reach of Penobscot Bay Where the sun could shift its shape across The waters, the islands once so close, So familiar, dispersed like children, The spruce dark mystery no one solves.
One winter a friend and I had paddled out for lunch. There was a cabin crumbling to its cellar. Some logs and blocks, a rotting squirrel. But the shafts of light between the trees Speckled down on everything. We almost spoke. But suddenly the wind came back northeast, And we beat hell for home like frightened prey. Later there was time to wonder what we’d learned. All of that was someone else’s life now long ago.
Once in summer, I made the climb alone, Tracing the very steps she took between The sun and the footfalls of shadows In ghostly firs, as if bracketing a line That quivers between hope and desolation. From there that water that could terrify Seemed quiet as a mirror. It may be The oldest tale: water, stone and wood, The light, the dark, and those who see.
So many years ago I left a cruel interment In the valley of the Carrabassett, a daughter gone, Her hope extinguished by a patch of ice, The dark trees welcoming beneath the stars. Christmas looming. It happens that way.
When I was so alone, I used to listen for the silence Between carols on the radio. Waiting. As if each soul would find the moment there To seek ransom from its captive life. I am guessing that she would understand.
That sunny day atop the mountain, We crouched where she would crouch to contemplate A life as open and as fearsome as the Bay. Lights on the rocks like words, Burning even on the glyphs of lichen.
Tonight the snow is spinning, and we are home In Ohio, almost a universe away. I should know.
I do not need a photograph to see your smile, To feel your hand half around my waist. A night ago I watched you light a little candle. I wanted to say something. I have stories Like candles, but I decided just to watch and wait. I think I know the tricky craft of hopefulness.
“Look one way and the sun is going down, Look the other and the moon is rising.”
“Father, do we go to heaven, Or does it come to us?”
But thinking makes nothing quite so dear As the breaths we share. Tonight they wind above Our shoulders like a prayer. A prayer is a story, too. I believe that she would understand.
To friends both near and far. Leslie and I visited Mt. Battie this autumn past. It was a perch that drew me many times and in different moods and seasons during my nearly 30 years living in New England. The image stayed with me, especially after rereading the plaque bearing the lines of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s famous poem “Renascence.” I went back to that poem, and one of my own began to stir. By November, having visited my mentor Frederick Eckman’s paean to Millay, I realized I had stumbled on the next Advent poem. A curious poem about the hope of the season, perhaps. But aren’t they all?
The first set of quoted lines near the end are from Randall Jarrell’s poem “The Mockingbird.” The second set came from my older Advent poem, “Advent at the Looking Glass River.” They seemed to fit.
The Thursday before Thanksgiving, co-editors Heather Risher and yours truly, Elsa Johnson, got up in the wee hours of the morning and drove to Pittsburgh to attend the Three Rivers Urban Soil Symposium at the Phipps Conservatory. As these things go, the presentations were densely presented, structured to have 4 segments, each segment with three to five speakers giving short presentations on aspects of soils (you didn’t know there were so many, did you) followed by a question and answer period. The structuring topics were: Composting in Urban Soils; Growing Food in Urban Soils; Storm Water and Resilience in Urban Soils; and Urban Habitat, Trees, and Greenspace.
It is hard to take that breadth of material and make a coherent essay out of it. What we present here is more bullet points and notes rather than full-out report.
First Session: Composting in Urban Soils.
Take away-s: Speaker #1, Rick Carr, Compost Production Specialist, Rodale Institute: Twenty one percent of our landfills are food waste. Managed aerobic decomposition is important for soil regeneration. Use the plant as your measure of success.
Steaming compost, photo from the Rodale Institute
Speaker #2, Marguerite Manela, Senior Manager of Community Composting and Compost Distribution, NYC Department of Sanitation: Curbside composting works like curbside recycling. Alternatively have sites where food can be dropped off for composting.
Speaker #3, Anthony Stewart, President and Environmental Director, DECO Resources: Useful tool – XRP — an x-ray florescent “ray gun” that measures contaminates in soil.
Speaker #4, Travis Leivo and Laura Todin Codori, vermicomposters, Shadyside Worms and Worm Return: Cold composting is slow, taking up to 2 years. Thermophilic composting is fast – only two weeks.
Heather’s notes: NYC hosted a workshop on dyeing fabric with food scraps. I’d like to see something like that locally. Is anyone else interested?
Second Session: Growing Food in Urban Soils.
Take away-s: Speaker #1, Dr. Kirsten Schwartz, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Director of the Ecological Stewardship Institute, Northern Kentucky University: coming from a social ecological focus. She spoke about contaminated soils, such as with lead and the distance it resides in soil from house being both patchy and widespread. Soil itself is more than what is grown in it. A social ecological focus sees both bio-physical legacies and social legacies, such as farm to fork “doesn’t include us”. Community involvement is complex. One needs to find points of common interest.
Speaker #2, Dr. Patrick Dronan, Associate Professor of Pedology, Penn State University: Wealth is urban. Presented about Hilltop Farm, a planned community that failed and was abandoned and part of which has been converted to a community garden. Common problems of urban soils – compaction (hard pan, clay), high pH, low organic matter, debris, under-farming, and under-funding.
Speaker #3: Adrian Galbraith-Paul, Farm Manager, Heritage Farm: Spoke on Heritage Farm, a baseball field turned to farm lot to teach kids and give food away. Its goal is to be environmentally and economically sustainable using the Korean Natural Farming method to improve fertility, the microbiome and micronutrients: Healthy plants “power” healthy soil and photosynthetic efficiency. Flavor and nutrient density are closely linked. Waste is a resource.
Heritage Farm, image from their website
Speakers #4, Robert Grey, Farm Education and Outreach Coordinator, and Nick Lubecki, Braddock Farms Manager, Grow Pittsburgh: Grow Pittsburgh, founded 2007, to grow food and sell to the neighborhood, a food desert with limited access to fresh vegetables. Provides a work-trade program where participants receive produce for 4 hours of labor. Also has an education outreach/apprentice program. (Note — Seems not unlike Rid-All, in Cleveland).
Heather’s notes: Inclusivity is important. Community engagement and buy-in is key. Some of the speakers mentioned setbacks when creating new programs/gardens without talking to the residents of the community to be “helped.” Having the support of a non-profit organization allows urban garden projects to survive while working towards self-sufficiency.
Third Session: Stormwater and Resilience in Urban Soils.
Take away-s: Speaker #1, Dr. Dustin Herman, Research Scientist, ORISE Research Program with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Evidence of a universal urban soil profile. Urban soils have fewer horizons. What is lost is the B horizon, which is unique to each place. Big equipment determines soil properties (excavation/fill) and changes water infiltration. Pre-urban soil evolved with climate and ecosystem. The convergence theory for urban soils – urban homogenizes heterogeneity. The simple needs of infrastructure and those of complex ecological support are opposites.
Speaker #2, Zinna Scott and Mike Heller, Community Activist and Director of Policy and Outreach, Nine Mile Watershed: Rain gardens built/incorporated into infrastructure were used in the Nine Mile Creek stream restoration, a buried stream/storm sewer.
Rendering from Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority
Speaker #3, Beth Dutton, Senior Group Manager, PWSA: there were 27 one inch rain events in the last decade creating excess stormwater. Green infrastructure is planned that ameliorates this problem. (we assume you know what is meant by green infrastructure – see speaker #2).
Heather’s notes: Urban soil functioning no longer matches the climate and ecosystem. Also, I learned about snakeworms (Amynthas agrestis). I knew that the European earthworm was invasive, but hadn’t realized that their Asian cousins were nearby and causing so much damage. More info here.
Fourth Session: Urban Habitat, Trees, and Greenspace.
Take away-s: Speaker #1, Dale Hendricks, President, Green Light Plants: Anthropogenic (man-made) charcoal acts like glue and sequesters carbon in the soil long term. Biochar is charcoal made in a low-oxygen environment and is added to soil. U.S. prairies were originally up to 40% pyrolytic – not all fire is destructive. Hardwood makes more char than soft wood. The Stockholm Biochar project is large scale biochar processing, making biochar from food and yard waste.
Speaker #2, Miles Schwartz Sax, Arboretum Director, Connecticut College: The Urban Horticulture Institute (Cornell) — soil conditions outweigh tree selection. First thing to do is a soil assessment. Recommended book – Trees in the Urban Landscape. Soil remediation is a scoop and dump process by which compost is added to soils beyond a trees drip line, not directly under existing trees.
Speaker #3, Stephen W. Miller, Bartlett Tree Experts: Root invigoration helps restore health to existing trees. First do assessment. Then air channeling under the tree is done to loosen soil. Then add nutrients, including biochar.
When we were there, Phipps was in the midst of setting up their Holiday Magic Winter Flower Show and Light Garden. In my (Heather’s) opinion, it’s well worth the visit. Protip: Go on a weeknight after 7:30 pm, and dress warmly so you can enjoy the outdoor garden.
A decade ago, in 2009, I attended the first of what was planned to be ten of such forums/summits, one per year, held in Cleveland’s historic Public Auditorium. On October 16, 2019, I attended the last of these forums. And in between? I fell victim to acute avoidance syndrome. Confession: I’ve been a skeptic about whether these kinds of events are meaningful exercises.
In our present political climate, with so many of those in power nationally, and globally, all but declaring war on environmental science and busily pushing environmental rollbacks of crucial legislation and regulations, it’s refreshing, even hopeful, to learn that Cleveland is one of five international cities named for leadership for its sustainability plan. In a situation where intended failure and deregulation at the national level must be countered at the state level, and/or the city level, it seems Cleveland has been quietly rising to the challenge. A lot has changed since the Cuyahoga River last burned fifty years ago, on June 22, 1969…. (and never since) … (and is now designated officially a Water Trail) … (and yes, you can safely eat the fish that come out of it) … (and no, now you won’t die from industrial contamination if you fall in).
But back to the subject at hand. This Summit asked this question: Are we functioning in a way that is best for all the people? Are we achieving the environmental justice and economic equity that must be at the core of sustainability? The answer is obviously mixed (ten years is not a long time for the ship that is government, which Obama noted in 2008, moves oh-so-slowly, to turn) … but the list of cool stuff happening in Cleveland is long: community gardens/urban hydroponic greenhouse/Rid-All – supplying local food in the urban food desert ; Green Corp/Cleveland Community Canopy Program — planting trees (one of the most important things we can do — did you know that Cleveland has lost half of its tree canopy in the last 50 years?); Upcycle (turning throw-away stuff into new stuff you can use); Bike Cleveland – scooters and bikes for public use; advances in renewable energy (now at 13%); the new Children’s Museum 100% LED … and that’s not half of it. Accomplishments.
All this was the lead up to the morning speakers. The first two were of particular interest to this attendee.
Nik Engineer (The Ellen Macarthur Foundation) led. His topic was The Circular Economy, which he set against the linear economy, giving as an example the lightbulb manufacturers “cartel”, who met in 1920 and redesigned lightbulbs to perform worse. Yep, you read that right. The bulb burned up faster and then you threw it away. They designed in obsolescence, a hallmark of the linear economy. Another example is plastics. By 2050, says Nik Engineer, there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. (Reminder – Cuyahoga County is enacting a plastic bag ban: plan accordingly) (why can’t I remember to actually take my recyclable grocery bags into the store?}
The circular economy designs things to work better. In a circular economy, theoretically, everyone prospers, and damage to the environment is limited (ideally…. parentheses my own). Imagine a circle. At top left put regenerate natural systems for positive effect. At top right put design out waste and pollution. At the bottom of the circle put keeping product materials in use. It seems to me both the linear economy and the circular economy assume unending economic growth, but clearly circular is better because it does less harm, leaves less waste. As the child of depression era socialists, I have reservations about capitalism’s theoretically unending growth, whether linear or circular. Quite possibly you, and my fellow Gardenopolis Cleveland readers/writers/editors, have other opinions.
Engineer was followed by Michael Waas, of Terracycle, a for profit global company that collects and repurposes difficult-to-recycle waste. This was such a good follow-up to the Circular Economy, as the very first thing Waas mentioned was that waste does not exist in nature; output and input are circular. But oil, via the products made out of it, changes that. They are extremely convenient, but they are undisposable, and thus are the largest component of linear economy waste. Only burial or burning gets ‘rid’ of plastics; both with unacceptable consequences.
Upcycling takes them and makes other products, preferably with direct community involvement. The example he gave was ‘the milkman model’ : the product (the bottle) is an asset to the milkman in and of itself. …as opposed to the ubiquitous single use plastics (that are filling up the seas), which are valuable to no one once they’ve been used and pitched. Waas acknowledges that scaling a circular economy is hugely challenging. There are no easy solutions to finding a balance (plastic waste vs. benefits of plastic), and the extractive industries essentially don’t fit into the circular economy. Note that word: essentially.
Other speakers followed (Dr. Richard Zinke, on inequity reduction; India Birdsong on transportation; Michael Shank on communication/conflict resolution) but these were the two who spoke to me.
The afternoon was devoted to breakout groups addressing many finely tuned issues.
This summit gave me perspective and hope. I remembered working for a planning and architecture firm downtown, in 1985, right out of graduate school (landscape architecture), driving the desolate decaying mid-town corridor, collecting data for a study, trying to envision a future for it.
Gardenopolis Cleveland’s editors are looking forward to tomorrow’s event: Sustainable Cleveland’s 2019 Summit. Every year, 500+ community and business leaders, government officials, students, and residents work together to help transform Cleveland into a “green city on a blue lake.”
Sustainable Cleveland launched in 2009, and on Wednesday they will celebrate 10 years of progress and build their future.
The one-day Summit at Cleveland Public Auditorium will start at 8am and last until 5pm, followed by an evening reception. The Summit will include remarks from Mayor Frank Jackson, keynote presentations, recognition and awards, facilitated discussions on key priorities going forward, and much more. Sustainable Cleveland will:
Celebrate Cleveland’s progress in sustainability and share stories of collaboration and action inspired through the SC2019 initiative
Recognize individuals, organizations, and businesses leading by example to advance sustainability in Cleveland
Feature keynote presentations focused on taking climate action, transportation equity, and creating a circular economy
Advance Cleveland Climate Action Plan priorities that depend on the whole community, such as reaching 100% renewable electricity, access to trees and green space, sustainable transportation, clean water, and waste
A brief summary follows of the talk by the keynote speaker at the 2019 pollinator symposium — Larry Weaner: Breaking the Rules / Ecological Landscape for Small Scale Residential Properties.
The biggest take-away from Larry Weaner’s talk for this Gardenopolis writer/editor was the difference, as he saw it, between traditional landscape design – which he described as seeing the garden as separate plants in ‘designs’ — and a contemporary response of seeing the landscape as an ecology, as an evolving restoration. That traditional garden scale, says Weaner, doesn’t work, and, indeed, many of his examples were of large scale projects, though the process is workable at any scale, as one picture of his own backyard patio showed.
What is meant by seeing a landscape as an ecology? Such an approach begins with native flora because one needs native flora (supplying food, water, cover) to attract native fauna – no; not talking about our backyard deer. Rather, he gave the example of putting a stick over water to draw in dragonflies, an example that begins to bring an awareness of nature’s micro-scale natural complexity and inter-connectedness. Within this context, however, he stipulates that the client’s level of comfort – he calls it ‘happiness’—with this concept, dictates how far to push. It is a different kind of order, one that by its very nature changes over time.
This is a key point: Natural compositions do not remain stable over time.
An aside here – what garden designer/artist/architect does not have a client or clients who expect their landscape to remain static, like a living room that’s been decorated and expected to forever remain just-so?
Forget ‘proper spacing’, said Weaner. Forgo mulch – which has no value at all for animals — in favor of suppressing weeds with dense planting. Allow natural succession. Plants go – if you allow them – where they want to grow. Knowing this one can use targeted disturbance to achieve design by removal. Notice where and how each plant grows. There is a learning curve: one plant teaches you about many. Species can be planted as seed sources that will find their own places to grow – and not necessarily where you planted them. Weaner stresses habitat fidelity over imposed design – use plants that have traditionally grown together.
Become aware of micro habitats in site design. There are plants that Weaner calls ‘generalists’, and then there are ‘specialists.’ Knowing the levels of disturbance, for example, offers opportunity to use plants like cardinal flower whose seeds will migrate to disturbed areas. This is ‘design’ that allows the landscape to be a series of evolving compositions, multi-layered evolving composition, over time.
Go ahead. Break the rules.
After lunch I attended a breakout session lead by John Barber, who spoke on planting native plants for birds. Want birds? Here’s what to do: provide clean and safe water; plant native trees and shrubs; never use insecticides (95% of birds feed their chicks insects) or rodenticides (hawks eat rodents — you end up killing the hawk also); and never ever let your cats outside.
Further, bird feeders, says Barber, have no real positive impact on birds, and winter survival is not actually improved by winter feeding. Additionally, the foods you are providing may have a large carbon footprints. Feeders also may concentrate birds unnaturally, making it easier to spread diseases. Additionally, feeders bring blue jays and grackles. Both are baby bird predators of cup nests birds.
Instead of bird feeders, plant native plants. They have co-evolved with native birds, are adapted to the environment, are more nutritious, and, once established, require less maintenance. Birds have highest nesting success when at least 70% of the plants in a landscape are native. In the fall avoid the nursery and landscape maintenance model of landscape care—i.e., early fall cleanup. Leave plants up longer; leave some litter, logs, and bare earth.
And finally, did you know that Virginia creeper won’t make berries unless it climbs? — Neither did I.
The last speaker I heard was Susan Carpenter, Senior Outreach Specialist at the Wisconsin Native Plant Garden, who spoke on creating and maintaining Pollinator habitat. This was a dense fast talk and I was not able to get much of it down on paper. She said, however, that it is all accessible on line at https://go.wisc.edu//pg8340.
Sorry not to report on Przemek Walczak’s talk Restoring Bell’s Woodland, or Sam Droege’s talk Native Bees: Protecting our Urban Pollinators. I was obliged to miss these.
There are a bunch of weedy plants that people regularly ask me to identify, but one of the odder ones is the Broad-leaved Helleborine Orchid, aka Epipactis helleborine. It’s a European import that is incredibly hardy and tough. It often pops up in heavy, compacted soils near driveways and sidewalks. It’s very tenacious, coming back again and again after repeated weedings. Frustrated gardeners might be justified in naming it “Orchid from Hell.”
Epipactis as many first encounter it
Orchids have a reputation for being exotic, rare or finicky. The opposite is true of many of them, especially when they are growing in conditions that are similar to their native habitat. Broadleaf Helleborine is widespread across much of Europe, Asia and northern Africa, so this thing is very adaptable! In North America, it is an introduced species and widely naturalized mostly in the Northeastern United States, eastern Canada and the Great Lakes Region.
Many orchids have strategies for getting pollinated and reproducing that seem almost devious if not deviant. This one is no exception. It entices several species of wasp to visit its flowers with intoxicating nectar. If no wasps show up after a few days, the flower can twist around and pollinate itself. Ideally, you have spotted it by then and cut the flowers for a kitchen table bouquet. (It is rather pretty in an understated way.)
Epipactis blooms between July and September in Northeast Ohio.
If the flowers are pollinated, hundreds of tiny seeds result. Yes, that brownish haze on my palm in this photo contains many dozen Epipactis seeds.
Too late! My hand with Epipactis seeds
At which point the battle is basically lost for the season, since the dust like seeds are dispersed by any light breeze! Orchid seeds often require a partner to germinate, in the form of a specific soil fungus. In the case of Epipactis, most any one of a dozen different fungi will do. Once a seed germinates, it creates a radiating cluster of hardy but breakable roots about 6-8” deep in the soil. The roots have lots of little growing points that can create new shoots if they remain in the soil after the gardener’s industrious digging.
Deep and determined roots.
The recommended control methods are repeated pulling to exhaust the root, or deep and thorough digging. Herbicide sprays can work, but take several applications, with mixed success. Thank goodness this orchid pest is rarely so prolific as to threaten or outcompete desirable plants! In Northeast Ohio gardens its mostly a perennial annoyance, but it probably has a negative impact on native landscapes. Epipactis helleborine has been declared invasive in Wisconsin, where Door County has seen significant populations. Best to eradicate or at least control the spread of this diabolically persistent little orchid!
A few weeks ago I was fortunate to join Master Gardeners and others in an all day seminar at Secrest Arboretum, entitled “How Plants Mate”. Needless to say it attracted a good crowd.
Jason Veil with Hydrangea quercifolia
We spent a lot of time indoors at the new tech- savvy center getting the low down on the intricacies of stamens and pistils and bracts and the myriad mechanisms of mating in the plant kingdom. At the end we saw plant parts exposed under the microscope—imagine an eight -foot high pistil, glistening on the screen…a huge ovary—well you get the idea.
Aesculus pavia under microscope
But even without the in depth explanations this was a beautiful day in the arboretum, where restorations after the tornado have been highly successful.
Abelia mosanenesis Fragrant abelia
This lovely space is only an hour and a half away, and is season by season full of a large variety of carefully curated shrubs, trees, perennials. Our hosts were the Curator, Jason Veil, and Ann Chanon, ANR educator in Lorain County and an authority on buckeyes.
Ann Chanon with Aesculus x carnea ‘Fort McNair’
I hope this little article will tempt you to take out your botany textbook and delve into the many wonders in your garden that are just below the surface.
Exbury hybrid azalea Rhododendron ‘Golden Pom Pom’Rhododendron ‘Gibralter’ Exbury hybrid azaleaCornus alternifolia (white “petals” are bracts, small “true” flowers are in center)Developing fruit of P. suffruticosaPaeonia suffruticosa Tree PeonyDeutziaAlchemilla mollis with rain dropsCornus alternifoliaBaptisia ‘Purple Smoke’Vaccinium corymbosumEnkianthus campanulatusCercis canadensis ‘Royal White’Deutzia gracilisChionanthus virginicusAesculus hippocastanum ‘Baumannii’Iris sibirica “Caesar’s Brother”Calycanthus ‘Hartlage Wine’ hybrid sweetshrubPhotinia villosa, large specimen
GardenWalk Cleveland Heights featured a successful pilot project: 11 36 sq.ft. pollinator pocket gardens on Langton Road. The gardens combine a steady flow of blooms, low maintenance, (relative!) deer resistance, and attractiveness to pollinating insects. The goal was to enhance both immediate neighborhood attractiveness and community spirit.
Those goals appear to have been realized. Madeleine Macklin, the Langton resident who helped lead the effort, conducted an informal survey of those homeowners who participated. She reported: “Many of the people walking in the neighborhood often stop to chat about the beauty of our street. Some just give ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs.’ But I am often told that their stress, depression, anxiety levels have gone down from sharing, and experiencing the beautiful flowering plants on our street.”
The design component of this project: each homeowner had a voice in individual site selection. The challenge was, for the sake of visual unification, to find a not too broad range of mostly native plants that were adaptable to a quite broad range of growing conditions, and were visually showy. Almost everyone received one or more hibiscus moscheutos, with its spectacular dinner plate style blooms.
The next step will be to raise enough additional funding to extend the pollinator pocket project to other streets in the Noble Neighborhood. Green Paradigm Partners, which conceived and executed the project, is discussing expansion of the project with key scientific partners and foundations.
Photos are courtesy of Laura Dempsey. More of Laura’s work can be found on her website, ldempsey.com. She is open to new clients and opportunities.
