June 2010

Planters Punchlines
Men's Garden Club of Wethersfield
June 2010
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ANNUAL PICNIC - Monday June 28th, 5:30 -8:00 p.m. at the house of President John Swingen, 72 Old Mill Road in Wethersfield. Wives, dates, potential members are cordially invited. The club will supply hot dogs, hamburgers, etc., beer, wine & soda - as well as (the traditional) strawberry shortcake. You are asked to please bring an appetizer, salad or side dish & your own lawn chairs.
A short business meeting to (1) VOTE ON A PROPOSED BYLAWS AMENDMENT TO MAKE THE CLUB MALE-FEMALE NEUTRAL and (2) TO SELECT THE NEW SLATE OF OFFICERS will precede the festivities. Please call President John @ (860) 529-5355 or (860) 817-2181 (cell) to let him know how many people & what you are bringing.

An informal meeting and home garden tour will be held on Monday July 26, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. p.m. at the home of Ed Goracy @ 30 Juniper Lane in Glastonbury. Spouses are cordially invited. Light refreshments will be served. Rain date t/b/d.

The guided bus tour of historic Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford is tentatively scheduled for the week of August 23rd. More details at the picnic. Call John Swingen at (860) 529-5355 or (860) 817-2181 (cell) to reserve your places

Weekly Rose Garden Team Maintenance - Every Saturday 8-10 a.m. Drop in any Saturday throughout the summer to pitch in. If you cannot make Saturday, please drop in and work by yourself or with a friend in the garden at your convenience. Bring your own tools. Questions - Call Anthony Moir @ 563-5476

KUDOS to Tom Gibson and the organizers of and workers at the annual plant sale. Over $1,000 profit and 95% sales spells success. Great job everyone! Now is the time to prepare for next year's sale by digging up and potting some of those small perennials popping up in your garden, or adopting and raising a newborn "plugged" hosta from Fred Odell. (He has a dozen left which he will bring to the picnic.) Plans for easy-to-build winter-over outdoor cloches will be available in the autumn. Come on guys! We are a garden club. We're supposed to get our hands dirty.

Compostable Matter
By Jim Meehan

Dr. Flora: Hello. It's me, Dr. Flora - the "Gorgon of the Garden" - here on your AM dial to preach, teach, and nag about morals, values, and ethics in the garden bed.
Let's go right to our first caller.

Caller1: Hi. This is Samantha.

D.F. Samantha how can I help you?

C1. Dr. Flora. I am a faithful listener and a first time caller and I wanted to personally thank you for changing my life. I listen to you advocate all-natural gardening all the time and I went to tell you that I took your advice and got myself my very own Orgasmic groundskeeper.

D.F. Samantha honey, I think you mean organic

C1. No. I'm sure you said orgasmic. Anyway I found him on the Internet on "Craig's List" under "Adult Landscaping".

D.F. That's not...

C.1 Thor's "Hands On" Orgasmic Services - Medicare Accepted

D.F.

C1. He comes at least five times a week.

D.F. I'm sure he does...

C1. Sometimes two or three times a day.

D.F. This is so wrong in so many different ways.

C1. And he doesn't use chemicals. Chardonnay's not a chemical, right?

D.F. But your yard...

C1. Who cares! I have never been happier.

D.F. Well...

C1. Sorry Dr. Flora. Gotta go. Time for my two o'clock pick-me-up.

D.F. Samantha, wait. I want Thor's phone number...

C1. (A gasp, a moan and the sound of a phone hitting the floor)

D.F. Damn. Next caller.

Caller2: This is Edgar. I grow just one vegetable every year. The same variety each time. I've done it forever - or at least since puberty. I nurture it from a little seedling all winter. Then, when the warm weather begins, I start to expose it to the outside world. It works great every time. But this spring my cucumber just won't harden.

D.F. Edgar. Don't worry. This happens to everybody.

C2. Doctor Flora. You don't understand. I'm famous for my cucumber. It's what I am. I even have a name for him - I mean it. It's the biggest, hardest...

D.F. Calm down Edgar. We are both getting way too excited. Let's take a brief musical intermission while I talk to you off the air, and find out what size problem we really have here.

Musical intermission: Lady Gaga sings, "Inch by inch"

D.F. (Heavy breathing) Some problems just cannot be handled over the airwaves. Sometimes Dr. Flora has to make a personal house call. (Squeaky voice) BY-EEE! See you tomorrow. Or maybe not. Eat your heart out Samantha!

The More Things Change...

In 1928 the Wethersfield Town Plan Commission hired Herbert S. Swan, City Planner, New York to prepare a "Plan of A Residence Suburb" to guide the city in its transition from a "semi-rural" community to "one of Hartford's densely-built suburbs".

One chapter of the recommendation dealt with "The Amenities of a Residence Suburb" - "this vague, intangible collective quality that impresses each neighborhood with its own distinctive personality is know as 'amenity'."

According to the report, two of the eight key contributors to "amenity" are "Garden Clubs" and "House Plantings".

"Many communities have found that the organization of a garden club, which interests itself especially in the cultivation of flowers, shrubs, and trees is of considerable value in stimulating the development of an attractive community.

"A popular slogan among nurserymen is that a house is not a home until it is planted...There is always a tremendous difference between the two - one dreary and bleak because barren of all vegetation; the other rich in its attractive foliage and color with the finished appearance that comes from beautiful plantings.

"Although many owners will, of course, do everything possible to enhance the appearance of their own grounds, the lack of proper teamplay among the numerous home-owners in a district makes the ultimate neighborhood result unsatisfactory and inharmonious.

"Wethersfield might well profit from the experience of other communities by starting an organization which will have as its chief function the distribution of information relative to different plants and shrubs suited to its climate and soil and the encouragement of individuals in planting their grounds properly.

"Second only in importance to the design and execution of the dwelling is the treatment of its site.

"Since the services of a professional landscape architect are beyond the means of the average small house owner, a few principals can be outlined to aid in obtaining better planting effects around the small house.

"...grass, trees, shrubs, and flowers...when discriminately chosen and arranged with nicety and refinement make for attractiveness and character, obtainable by no other means.

"If the best effect is to be gotten, most of the plant materials should be of varieties that tend to be neutral in both tone and color, and the habit of growth should be horizontal rather than vertical. It is only by means of such material that well-rounded silhouettes can be achieved. Vertical plant materials or plants of striking color should be sparingly used, but have a place where emphasis or accent is desired, as, for instance, around the doors and corners of a house.

"Some of these things may be considered as comparatively small matters in the plan of a community. And yet it is numerous small things, none of which taken by itself may be of outstanding importance, that make a city what it is."

(All quotations from "Plan of A Residence Suburb - Wethersfield, Connecticut; Town Plan Commission; 1928; Herbert S. Swan, City Planner, New York")

Death by Mint Oil: Natural Pesticides
By GWENDOLYN BOUNDS (Wall Street Journal 7/30/09)

This summer, the pests around my house are dying of more natural causes.

One colony of wasps on my deck got neutralized by shots of mint oil. The cabbageworms shredding my broccoli plants were done in by an ingredient culled from seeds of trees native to India. And I annihilated several fire-ant compounds by enticing them to eat bait packed with a soil-dwelling bacterium that fried their tiny nervous systems.

Natural alternatives are available to kill aphids, cabbage loopers, carpenter ants and other pests.

Surprisingly, none of these products were hard to find. Increasingly, well-known insecticide manufacturers, retailers and even professional pest-control services are rolling out solutions derived from natural materials like animals, plants, bacteria and minerals, many of them considered potentially safer to humans, pets and the environment than their synthetic-chemical counterparts. Fueling the move is increased governmental scrutiny over what pesticides we spray in and around our homes, as well as a bid to satisfy more health-conscious consumers-especially women, who typically dictate household pest-solution purchases.

Targets include everything from carpenter ants and mosquitoes to the slugs, caterpillars and mites that feast on fruit trees and vegetable plants. For instance, Terminix, a large professional pest-control company and division of Memphis, Tenn.-based ServiceMaster Co., is introducing its first consumer product called SafeShield. The $9.99 indoor insecticide spray contains active ingredients thyme oil and "geraniol," a substance found in geranium, rose, lemon and other plants.

Meantime, St. Louis-based Senoret Chemical Co. is expanding its line of Terro brand ant- and bug-bait products using a mineral containing the element boron, which is generally considered low in toxicity to humans and animals. And Lititz, Pa.-based Woodstream Corp. last year bolstered its Safer product line with an organic mosquito- and tick-control concentrate made in part from chrysanthemum flowers.

The biggest bellwether came earlier this year when lawn and garden giant Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., Marysville, Ohio, introduced a seven-product "EcoSense" line under its home pest-defense Ortho brand sold in major retailers such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Included in the EcoSense arsenal: an indoor insect-killer spray made from soybean oil and an insecticidal soap for vegetables and plants. EcoSense is on track to meet or exceed sales expectations, the company says.

"There are consumers who want a more natural product lineup," says Jeff Garascia, Scotts senior vice president of global research and development. "A few years ago, we decided that even though the performance didn't meet our traditional products, we would push through anyway.
Now we are starting to see efficacy there."

Efficacy is tantamount to survival. Manufacturers know there's often disconnect between what consumers say we want (natural products) and what we really want (dead bugs, now!). Plus, pests can transmit illnesses such as West Nile virus and Lyme disease that can be more harmful than some potential side effects from pesticides. S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., for instance, launched a Raid "Earth Options" product in 2006, then discontinued it the next year due to low consumer acceptance. Spectrum Brands Inc. offers a lemon-eucalyptus version of its Cutter mosquito repellent without DEET (a common chemical repellent) but says it doesn't sell very well.

Still, the category continues to draw investment dollars. Next year, Spectrum plans to launch a natural indoor bug killer to go along with its Hot Shot and Spectricide insecticides. "There's just a lot of movement out there now to use safer chemicals," says Jay Matthews, a business director at Spectrum.

Meantime, sales of organic and natural products in the past 18 months have risen 30% to 40% at the Web site DoMyOwnPestControl.com, run by P&M Solutions LLC in Norcross, Ga.

Best-selling natural items include "MotherEarth D," a powder made of diatomaceous earth (ground fossils) that triggers dehydration and death in bugs, as well as an "EcoExempt IC-2" spray made from botanical oils such as spearmint and rosemary. The latter targets a wide range of pests from mosquitoes to bedbugs.

Even the $6.6 billion professional pest-control industry, where efficacy directly affects profit margins, is adopting more natural alternatives. For instance, Mesa, Ariz.-based Bulwark Exterminating LLC, which operates 11 branches in eight states, uses only botanical sprays and boric-acid products (also derived from boron) whenever customers request all-natural solutions and often includes them as part of an overall treatment plan even when they don't.

"About 35% of people who call now ask us, 'Will this hurt my kid or dog?'_" says Bulwark founder Adam Seever. One customer, Carol Kidd, lives in a rural suburb of Phoenix and recently rang Bulwark to cancel her service because she was experiencing hormone imbalances and had read pesticides might be a contributing factor. Bulwark instead switched her to an all-natural service, employing botanical oils and boric-acid bait around her foundation instead of a synthetic solution, and didn't raise her $44-a-month price.

"I've seen no excess insects since switching," 39-year-old Ms. Kidd says, "and I've got bugs in the yard around my chicken coop, but not on my patio or in my house."

The Environmental Protection Agency registers pesticides-an umbrella term for products that kill insects, fungi and weeds-for use in the U.S. The agency says general health issues from exposure to pesticides may range from simple skin or eye irritation to hormonal and endocrine disruption, cancer and other illnesses.

For instance, a study published in 2000 in the Journal of the American Medical Association with research from Stanford University found that in-home use of insect-killing chemicals was associated with a 70% increased risk of Parkinson's disease, compared with no use of pesticides.

And in April, the EPA said it will intensify evaluation of spot-on pesticide products used in pet flea and tick control due to increases in reported problems ranging from skin irritation to seizures and death of the animals. Some of the active ingredients also are found in household insecticides.

Over the years, the EPA has banned some insecticides considered too risky from use in the home market, such as diazinon and chlorpyrifos. It also now maintains a list of active ingredients used in what it dubs "minimum risk" pesticides. "It's a pretty good bet it's a safe product if it's on that list," says John Kepner with Beyond Pesticides, a not-for-profit group based in Washington, D.C.

Today, the most commonly used synthetic residential insecticides fall into a broad category called pyrethroids-common names include permethrin, cypermethrin and tetramethrin-which are essentially juiced up, longer-lasting human-made versions of the natural chrysanthemum "pyrethrins" used in some natural products. Both affect an insect's central nervous system; both can be harmful to aquatic life and honeybees. The EPA will re-evaluate pyrethroids' and natural pyrethrins' risks starting next year.

To be sure, natural products can trigger health concerns as well. Citric sprays, for instance, can hurt the eyes, and there have been questions about the safety of inhaling powders made from diatomaceous earth or boric-acid powders, Mr. Kepner of Beyond Pesticides notes. "There are plenty of things from nature that can hurt us-like nicotine."

In general, though, the EPA says biopesticides are usually "inherently less toxic" than conventional pesticides and decompose more quickly, thereby resulting in lower exposures and largely avoiding pollution problems caused by conventional pesticides. What's more, the agency says, they often primarily harm only target pests, which can help protect beneficial bugs and other animals.

Generally, my own pest issues have disappeared using only natural products. One exception: carpenter ants, likely a byproduct of multiple firewood piles around the property and a recent roof leak (the ants like moisture). To wage war, I carefully applied a tiny bit of a synthetic pyrethroid dust inside crevices around my ceiling beams where no children or pets could reach-and where the bugs had left traces of activity. (At the time, I didn't have the botanical version on hand.) Elsewhere, I've used all natural controls, including a mint and herbal oil spray along the backyard foundation where my dog roams and MotherEarth's and Terro's boric-acid bait near woodpiles and the front door where I saw ants marching. So far, it's working pretty well.

One day, however, my dog Dolly got free from her fence and gobbled up a mouthful of the boric-acid bait. Panicked, I called a pet poison control hotline (800-213-6680) and was told not to worry, that the active ingredient was "very safe" with low concern for toxicity, and Dolly would be fine. That was the most compelling sales pitch for naturals yet.

Garlic Mustard is an Invasive Plant in Connecticut and Michigan. In Michigan it also is the basis of a competitive sport. (Melissa Block on National Public Radio)

It's high season for garlic mustard, an invasive weed that spreads like crazy. And that means it's also high season for garlic mustard pulls around the country - groups of volunteers heading out to parks and woods to get rid of the plants. Jason Frenzel is coordinating a garlic mustard Weed-Out Day tomorrow in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And he joins us now.

BLOCK: And how much garlic mustard do you think you'll be pulling there?

Mr. FRENZEL: It's a bit of a competition in the southern tier of the state, so we try not to give up too much information. We've already pulled a good six or 7,000 pounds and we hope to double that.

BLOCK: Wow.

Mr. FRENZEL: But we're in competition with the western side of the state and we kind of want to keep our lips tight a little bit.

BLOCK: I didn't know this was a competitive sport.
(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FRENZEL: No, it's fun.

BLOCK: Well, what does garlic mustard look like?

Mr. FRENZEL: Once it bolts, it gets about three to four feet tall. The leaves are roughly triangular with teeth on them, about one inch to two inches in width - in length, and then at the top of that is a seed stalk. The flowers are white, four petals, pretty easy to discern at this point in the year.

BLOCK: And is it the kind of thing that spreads so widely that a lot of folks listening to this probably have some in their backyard?

Mr. FRENZEL: Absolutely. There are accounts of it in about half of the states of the U.S. as far as Alaska, Georgia and Maine.

BLOCK: Now, why is garlic mustard considered to be such a problem?

Mr. FRENZEL: It doesn't have natural competitors or very few natural competitors. It was brought here by European settlers in the 1800s and the natural competitors are the diseases that would live on it and the things that predate the plant weren't brought with it or they don't survive here. And so it takes off and it lives on its own and it can outcompete other things because of those lack of predators.

And then also, as opposed to most of our native wildflowers, it stays green underneath the snow, so it has a competitive advantage early, early in the spring, so when the snow melts it just starts going well before our native wildflowers come up out of the ground.

BLOCK: Uh-huh. So when you go out this weekend for the weed-out, what are the techniques? What do you tell folks about how to get rid of garlic mustard?

Mr. FRENZEL: It's like weeding your garden but out in the woods. It's actually really fun and you commune with nature. You grab it by its root collar, right above the soil, and jiggle that root a little bit so that you can pull out the whole root. And then at this point, because the flowers are well in bloom and some of the seed pods are starting to develop, we remove it from the site.

BLOCK: Remove it from the site and then where does it go?

Mr. FRENZEL: Well, in Ann Arbor, we have a really nice properly functioning municipal compost system which will break down any of the seeds and turn them into compost. And so we send all of our invasives to the compost facility, but I would not recommend that in a backyard scenario. And so in other municipalities around the country, it's wiser to put it in the trash.

BLOCK: In other words, if you're doing it in your backyard, it might just sprout again?

Mr. FRENZEL: It certainly will. But once it's got good flowers on that, that flower head will rise back up to the sun and the root reserves that are still just sitting there will lead it to produce fruit just (unintelligible) outside of the dirt. It's an amazingly competitive plant.

BLOCK: Well, it sounds tempting. I mean, garlic mustard, sounds like there should be something you could do with it in the kitchen.

Mr. FRENZEL: Exactly, and that's the reason it was brought here by the European settlers. People eat both the leaves and the root. I've made garlic mustard pesto and garlic mustard chutney, which both use both of those components of the plant. It's rather bitter. If you like bitter greens, if you like really bitter greens, it's good in the salad. Must people cut it with more traditional vegetables, but it's a really good substitute for mustards as well as for garlic in a lot of recipes.

BLOCK: Well, Jason, good luck this weekend.

Mr. FRENZEL: Thanks so much.

Good Herbs to Tend in Pots By STEPHEN ORR (NY Times)

Q. I want to grow herbs in pots this summer. Which ones should do well?

A. Good idea, but first let's discuss what you mean by "herbs." Horticulturally speaking, this group of plants is hard to define. The Herb Society of America describes it on its Web site (herbsociety.org) as plants that "are valued for their flavor, fragrance, medicinal and healthful qualities, economic and industrial uses, pesticidal properties, and coloring materials (dyes)."

That covers a lot of plants. But because I imagine that you want to use your herbs for cooking,
we'll concentrate on the culinary variety.

All cooking herbs like regular water and good sun, and most don't need any fertilizer. Too rich a soil, in fact, can yield leaves that lack the all-important flavor of their essential oils.

But some kitchen herbs have different requirements, so it's helpful to divide them into groups: annual, hardy perennial and tender perennial.

Annual herbs, like basil, cilantro (a k a coriander) and dill, are among the easiest to grow but live only one season before flowering and going to seed. Even though they love the sun, most bloom more quickly as the weather becomes hot, so it is good to plant them early and to snip the flowers to prolong leaf production.

Unlike perennial plants with woody stems, annual herbs tend to need more water. Put them in a pot at least 18 inches in diameter - the larger mass ensures that you won't have to irrigate as much.

For something more unexpected, try chervil, a French favorite with a subtle taste blending the best notes of French tarragon and parsley (two hardy perennials). Or scatter a few seeds of dark-leaved perilla - the Japanese call it shiso - which is as decorative as a coleus and has a flavor similar to that of basil.

Once these annuals bloom, they scatter seeds with abandon. Next year you may get a bumper crop in and out of your pots, so be prepared for early spring weeding.

Hardy perennial herbs (as well as some shorter-lived biennials, which last only a couple of seasons) are more forgiving when it comes to water. Most of them come through the winter in the New York area reliably, depending on the severity of the season. Mint, parsley, English thyme, rosemary, sage, chive, French tarragon, winter savory, salad burnet, oregano and its near twin, marjoram, all grow well in smaller to medium pots.

If you have larger pots, you might also try a striking species like fennel, which produces an anise scent, or the statuesque lovage or angelica, both of which grow four to six feet tall before blooming.

And don't forget a pot of fragrant lavender - added sparingly, it can flavor baked goods.
Certain valuable perennial herbs are too tender for cold winters but can be brought indoors as houseplants and placed outside in spring. A small pot of bay laurel, for example, is worth the effort: fresh bay leaves have a superior taste to those bought dried in the store.

Tea lovers may enjoy other tender perennials, like pineapple sage, rose geranium and lemon verbena, which not only flower beautifully but also grow large in one summer.

Horti-Culture Corner

"It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird of paradise"
Mark Twain