Planters Punchlines
Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield
March 2012
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March 2012
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Next Meeting
Monday March 26th, 7:00 pm @ The Pitkin Community Center
Speaker: T/B/A
Time to start digging & potting your homegrowns for the PLANT SALE. Check your yard, and neighbor’s – if you strike quickly in the dark they’ll never know what happened. “Official” pots & soil are available from Fred Odell (860.529.6064)
Compostable Matter
By Jim Meehan
By Jim Meehan
Now I think I understand my unusual degree of interest in the plant Datura. It has been stalking me.
Comedian Robins Williams famously has said, “If you remember the '60s, you weren't there.” I actually do remember the sixties. I never doped myself up with the herbaceous, mostly white-flowered poisonous/hallucinogenic plant – or with any other non-prescribed narcotic for that matter. But I did read about its vision-inducing qualities in “The Teachings of Don Juan” – a “must-read” for even the straightest, counter-culture sympathetic, twenty-something in the late 60’s early 70’s. Even the name of the plant, “Sacred Datura” enhanced the mystical ambience of the drug-centric esoterica (fact or fiction?) that author Carlos Castaneda described – way cooler than “Western Jimson weed”, one of its other names, could have.I think Marsha and I saw the flower for the first time on our trip to the Mediterranean Island of Malta in 1997. The plant grows wild on the main archipelago and its companion isle Gozo and is a different variety – “Datura innoxia” or “Downy Thorn Apple” – than its literary southwestern cousin. Although to this untrained eye the dissimilarities would not have been discernible.
I don’t actually remember seeing the white blooming vine nor could I find any photos – but we must have because it immediately popped into my mind several years ago when I was toying with a fictional novelette about the fictional Men’s Garden Club of Malta and its role in the real Great Siege of that island by the Turks in 1565. In my still-to-be-totally-developed plot the members of the MGCoM repel the invading army and armada of the Ottoman Empire and save the day by creatively using their floricultural smarts. And to make that happen I needed a Hitchcockian McGuffin from the plant world to be the horticultural hero. “Tada!. Datura!” The story is still incomplete – a “deus” sans “ex machina”.
Marsha and I came upon some non-fictional Datura two years ago in coastal North Carolina. We were staying in a beachside condo on Emerald Isle – south of the Outer Banks (SOBX on your bumper sticker).
Every morning at around 7:30 a.m. we walked over to an adjacent convenience market to get the daily newspaper. The grounds of the condo are landscaped with a mixture of southern perennials and annuals along the pathways between the units, and a combination of prickly pear cactus and white trumpet-shaped flowers on squash-like vines along the sides of the driving area.
A few evenings into our getaway I noticed that the large white flowers were still wide open well after dark. Then, one day around 10:00 a.m. I noticed that they were closed up.
Marsha, who had observed all of this strange plant behavior days before, opined that they looked to be a form of Datura. The Carolina species turned out to be a dusk to dawn version of the plant -- sort of a "Deadly Nightshift".
"The Datura, or bush moon plant has six-inch or larger white trumpet flowers that open at night and remain open well into the following day... Keep in mind that all parts of this plant are poisonous." (http://www.arhomeandgarden.org/)
Datura, it turns out, are a favorite of the "Night Gardening" movement -- the use of plants that either bloom exclusively at night, or are open during the day but do not release their scent until evening. I shared my discovery with the membership of the real life Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield, which decided, under the direction of Paul Courchaine, to find a location and plant a nocturnal flowerbed somewhere in town. We did and we did, with the cooperation of a Lucky Lou’s restaurant.
Marsha recognized the North Carolina Datura from those we had seen in New Mexico – more specifically several specimens that were decorating various properties in our daughter-in-law and son’s Santa Fe neighborhood. I think we have also seen them in less domestic locations – along hiking trails and in some long deserted Native American cave dwellings, thinking at the time that they were fruitless plants with squash blossoms.
The southwest variety is, I am reasonably certain, Don Juan’s one. And, it turns out, a genus of the plant that was actually discovered by and named after a native of my hometown of Wethersfield Connecticut. The scientific name is “Datura wrightii” and the honorific commemorates the botanist Charles Wright.
Here is the wiki:
“Charles Wright (October 29, 1811 - August 11, 1885) was an American botanist.
“Wright was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, the son of James Wright and Mary née Goodrich. He studied classics and mathematics at Yale, and in October 1835 moved to Natchez, Mississippi to tutor a plantation owner's family. His employer's business failed two years later, and he moved to Texas, working as a land surveyor and teacher. During this time he collected plants for Asa Gray. In 1849 he joined an army expedition through Texas, botanising from Galveston to San Antonio and then on to El Paso. In the spring of 1851 he joined the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. His collections from these two trips form the basis of Gray's Plantae Wrightianae (1852-53).“Between 1853 and 1856 he took part in the Rodgers-Ringgold North Pacific Exploring and Surveying Expedition, collecting plants in Madeira, Cape Verde, Cape Town, Sydney, Hong Kong, the Bonin Islands, Japan and the western side of the Bering Strait. Wright left the expedition at San Francisco in February 1856 and went south to Nicaragua. His collection of plants from Hong Kong was used by George Bentham for his Flora Hongkongensis (1861).
“Between 1856 to 1867 he led a scientific expedition to Cuba. In 1859 he joined Juan Gundlach in the area around Monteverde, and in the winter of 1861-62 they explored together around Cárdenas.
"He is commemorated in the names of a number of plants, including Datura wrightii, the genus Carlowrightia (wrightworts), and in the name of the Grey Flycatcher Empidonax wrightii.”
100 years later and he might have been one of the original members of the Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield too. With the fantasy-inducing specimens that he could have brought to the party our initiation ritual would be a lot more noteworthy. Or maybe he actually did start up such an organization back then. But it was the (18)60s, and no one remembers it.
There's something soothing about seeing an even expanse of green grass that just seems to lower our blood-pressure a bit. And to some people, when that expanse is broken up by something growing where it shouldn't be growing, it also seems to raise it a notch or two.
Weeds are really just one type of plant that we have decided shouldn't be growing in one particular place. Wild orchids growing in Hawaii are considered weeds. It's just your point of view as to what makes a weed a weed. Some weed-type plants are invasive and fast growing.
Their growth habit overtakes our cultivated turf plants, depriving them of food and water. Other weeds are extremely noxious and cause problems for humans if they get close them.
In the lawn, the most common weeds are just a nuisance. Most don't cause skin reactions or breathing difficulties, they just don't look good. What they're also telling us is that the lawn isn't as healthy as it should be. Turfgrasses today are so adept at growing into thick masses, that if maintained properly, weeds are not a problem. It is when the lawn isn't as healthy as it could be that we see weeds becoming a problem for the lawn.
Types of weeds:
Quackgrass and Bentgrass are undesirable perennial grasses that grow as weeds in many lawns. Unfortunately there is no herbicide you can use to kill these two grasses that will not also kill the desirable lawn grasses.
Bentgrass is shallow-rooted. Patches appear as puffy, fine-textured grasses in Kentucky bluegrass lawns. You can remove patches of Bentgrass by cutting the patch out with a hand sod cutter or shovel. Cut down to at least one-inch deep. You will need to reseed the area.
Quackgrass produces many underground stems, called rhizomes, that are almost impossible to remove by digging. Broken pieces of rhizomes left in the soil will sprout to make more
Quackgrass plants. One method of controlling Bentgrass and Quackgrass is to apply a herbicide that contains the active ingredient glyphosate. These herbicides are sold as Round Up or Kleen Up. Be aware that glyphosate kills desirable grasses as well as weeds. Apply the herbicide only on the Bentgrass and Quackgrass patches.
For Bentgrass, apply the herbicide to an area about six inches or so outside the patch of Bentgrass to kill the individual stems which are creeping outwards from the patch, otherwise, these patches will reemerge. Whether Bentgrass or Quackgrass, apply glyphosate in spring or fall when the grasses are actively growing. Wait approximately seven days, then reseed or sod the area. If you decide to till the soil prior to establishment, and see bits of Quackgrass rhizomes coming to the surface, remove these. Or wait two weeks or so until enough new Quackgrass leaves emerge and kill the new plants with a second application of glyphosate.
An alternative method is to mow the lawn-wait 3 — 4 days, then wipe the glyphosate onto the taller growing Quackgrass with a paint brush, sponge mop or applicator. Be sure to read and follow label directions.
Bermuda grass is an annual, fine textured "creeping grass" that grows and spreads rapidly during warm summer months. Getting Rid of It: Due to its rapid and sometimes widespread growth during warm months, Bermuda can quickly take over cool-season grasses while dormant. Herbicides are usually not as effective as simply hand-picking these weeds before they grow out of control.
To help prevent this, you can apply a pre-emergence just prior to its growing season (usually spring time) to prevent the seeds from germinating. However, the other extreme is to apply fluazifopbutyl or glyphosate to kill all of the grass, then reseed over it. This is only suggested if you plan on replanting or renovating your lawn afterwards.
Common chickweed (Stellaria media) is a matted, herbaceous, winter annual broadleaf plant. Chickweed is a prolific spring weed as it thrives under cool, wet conditions. It rarely tolerates hot, dry conditions that occur in late spring or early summer. Other common names for chickweed include starweed, winterweed, satin flower and tongue grass.
Chickweed is more regarded as a weed than as a useful plant, but has a place in folk medicine as a remedy for asthma, constipation, cough, fever and various other ailments. The seed of chickweed is a source of food for birds.
Clover: A perennial weed that blooms from spring to autumn, attracts bees. Lawns once were loaded with clover and was a good source of nitrogen.
Crabgrass is a warm season annual grass which grows best in the heat of midsummer when
desirable lawn grasses are often semi-dormant and offer little or no competition. Crabgrass over winters as seed, comes up about mid-May or later, and is killed by the first hard frost in fall.
Crabgrass grows best in full sun. It does not grow in shady places. Crabgrass can be controlled in a number of ways, but the best defense against crabgrass is a thick vigorously growing lawn that is mowed no closer than 2-1/2" for cool season grasses.
Fertilize the lawn in late summer or fall and again in spring to develop a dense, healthy stand of grass. Fertilized bluegrass does not go into midsummer dormancy as soon as unfertilized bluegrass. Pre-emergent applications made when soil temperature are still below 60 are the best prevention. Not recommended for areas where new grass seed is going to be planted during the first half of the growing season. Pre emergent applications lose their effectiveness if the lawn is raked or disturbed during the first half of the growing season.
Post emergence crabgrass herbicides are now available. These are products that are applied after the crabgrass seed has sprouted. The herbicide (ACCLAIM) gives excellent crabgrass control with one application. This product should be applied when crabgrass is in the 3 — 4 leaf stage of development.
Dallis grass is a perennial grass with light-green color. Dallis is easily identified by its long seed-heads that protrude from the top. Dallis tends to thrive in wet areas with lots of heat, and grows in circles out from the center of the weed. Try to improve the drainage of your lawn to take dampness away from the areas were they grow. Additionally, allow the top of the soil to partially dry between each watering to help retain the water only in the root area. Apply pre-emergence fertilizers ( usually in the late-spring ) to prevent seed germination and growth.
Once weeds are established, pull them by hand and make sure you get the roots as well. After pulling, reseed the area with the desired grass.
Dandelions: Broadleaf weed. Best treated during active growing cycle with a spot treatment. If you use a dry granular form of weed killer or a weed and feed type of fertilizer, apply it to wet grass and weeds. The weed control material must stick to the leaves of the weed plants to be effective. If you spray a liquid, apply it only on a calm day so material will not drift onto desirable plants.
Remember, broadleaf weed killers are broadleaf plant killers. They do not, for example, differentiate between dandelions and tomato plants. Apply them only to weeds in the lawn. Be careful not to get the material onto desirable plants in your yard. Read and follow all label directions.
Ground ivy is hard to control because you can't pull it out easily in lawns and many commercial broadleaf lawn weed killers have little or no effect on it. The most common active ingredient in granular and liquid broadleaf lawn weed killers is 2,4-D, but 2,4-D has little effect on ground ivy. Another common active ingredient, MCPP, or, mecoprop, also has little effect on ground ivy. Dicamba is an active ingredient that does control ground ivy. Dicamba is also called Banvel.
There are several lawn weed killer products available that contain dicamba. Most of them also contain 2,4-D and MCPP. However, you may still need to make repeat applications with dicamba-containing products to completely control ground ivy. Ground ivy spreads via creeping stems that propagate new plants.
Moss does not develop in healthy lawns. Lack of fertility, soil compaction, poor drainage, shade and poor soil aeration are the most common cause of moss in lawns. Moss is not directly harmful to grass, but moves into bare spots in the lawn as the grass thins out. Lime has often been suggested for moss control. Lime will raise the soil pH but will do little or nothing to prevent moss growth. The fact that the soil is acidic has little to do with the growth of moss. In fact, we see moss growing on limestone and concrete. If your lawn area is moist and shady, you will have difficulty controlling moss because you have an ideal environment for moss growth.
Moss is often troublesome in spring when temperature are cool and soil moisture high.
Mushrooms, also called toadstools or puffballs, are fruiting bodies of soil fungi. They appear in lawns during wet weather in spring and summer. Mushrooms live on organic matter such as roots, stumps and boards in the soil. Most don't harm the lawn but are unsightly. Mushrooms that grow in arcs or circles of dark green grass are called fairy rings. The arcs or rings enlarge from 3" — 2' each season as the fungi grows outward. The fairy ring fungus may interfere with water flow through the soil and stress the lawn.
There is no chemical control for mushrooms. Time is the best cure. Once the buried wood has completely decayed the mushrooms will disappear. Break mushrooms with a garden rake or lawn mower for temporary control. This helps to dry the mushrooms and reduces the risk of children eating them. Control individual mushrooms by removing the organic matter. Dig up and remove the wood. Fill and reseed, or sod, as needed.
Nimblewill: A warm-season perennial found throughout North America east of the Rockies. Invades cool-season grasses by seed or stems. It has shallow roots.
Thick sod reduces the opportunity for it to take hold, however, in thin areas, or surrounding garden beds, it can quickly spread into lawn areas. Remove the plants by pulling out by hand.
Nimblewill sets seeds in early fall; then lay dormant until next spring. Once it takes hold there is no selective control for removing it from the lawn. Must use a non-selective herbicide that will kill all plants, then reseed area.
Broadleaf plantain is a common broadleaf weed in lawns. See treatment and description for dandelions.
Wood sorrel: Also called yellow oxalis, sheep sorrel and yellow sourgrass. It is found in open woods, prairies, ravines, stream banks, and lawns.
Common wood sorrel is a plant from the Oxalis genus. It flowers for a few months during the spring, with small white flowers with pink streaks. Red/violet flowers occur, but rarely. The binomial name is Oxalis acetosella, because of its sour taste.
Free Food (or If You Can’t Beat Them, Eat them)
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/freefood.htm
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/freefood.htm
PLANT / EDIBLE PART / PREPARATION / (WARNING)
Borage / leaves and flowers / in salads, cook leaves with cabbage or soups
Chickweed / foliage / in salads or sautéed in a little oil with a splash of soy sauce
Cleavers / seeds, leaves and stems / cook young shoots as a spinach,roast seeds and grind for a coffee
Common Sorrel / leaves in salads / (WARNING)not too much as the oxalic acid they contain can be toxic
Dandelion / all parts / young leaves in salads,flowers to make wine,roots dried, roasted and ground for caffine-free 'coffee' or sautéed in oil
Fat Hen / leaves and seeds / cook leaves as a spinach,eat seeds as a whole grain or grind into a flour/(WARNING) can be toxic in large amounts, cooking reduces the potency.
Ground-elder / all parts/ young leaves in salads or cooked as a spinach,roots dried and ground into a flour.
Hairy Bittercress / leaves/have a Rocket-like flavour / in salads
Stinging Nettle / young shoots and leaves / cook as a spinach, as soup, infused as herbal tea – (WARNING) do not eat mature, flowering plants, they can cause kidney damage.
Sheep's Sorrel / leaves have a sharp flavour, become more sour as they mature / in salads
Smooth Sow Thistle / leaves are not prickly / in salads
Spear Thistle / flowerheads /strip out base of flowerhead and steam lightly or eat raw
Thale Cress / leaves have a mustard flavor / in salads
Wild Garlic (Ramsons) / all parts / leaves in salads or cooked as a spinach, use bulbs as for cultivated garlic
Wood Sorrel / leaves have a tangy flavour / leaves in salads or cooked as a spinach – (WARNING) contains oxalic acid so should not be consumed in quantity, avoid with gastric inflammation or kidney stones
Weeding isn’t easy, but with the right tools you can make quicker progress and avoid aches and pains. Good tools also help ensure you pull the entire root, which is important in making sure the weeds don’t grow back. Weeding tools are essential if you don’t want to spray herbicides in your yard and garden, and they’re just as effective—if not more so—and not to mention safer.
Weeding tools come in two basic styles, short handled and long handled, and many different designs. Use short-handled tools for working on your knees in small, closely planted areas. Use long-handled tools as you walk through larger areas.
Short-handled weeding tools
Cape Cod weeder: has a narrow hooked blade that fits into tight spaces
asparagus knife: has a long narrow blade with a v-shaped tip for prying up individual weeds, especially in the lawn or groundcovers
trowel: handheld shallow shovel with either a wide or narrow blade that can lift weeds from under their roots without disturbing other plants
hori-hori knife: sharp-bladed knife originally used by bonsai enthusiasts in Japan to collect specimens from stony mountain soil. Also useful for transplanting, digging and pruning.
onion hoe (hand hoe, rock garden hoe): a short-handled version of a draw hoe. Used for precision weeding between closely grown plants.
Long-handled weeding tools
stirrup hoe (Dutch hoe, scuffle hoe): has a stirrup-like head that is sharp on both edges. It cuts weeding time because it works in a push-pull motion, covering a lot of ground quickly.
draw hoe: has a sharp-edged rectangular head that uproots and chops weeds as the gardener pulls it toward him
collinear hoe: has a long and narrow rectangular blade that sweeps the soil, something like a razor blade.
Cobrahead
Weed Hound
Fiskars UpRoot
Was $39.95 NOW $24.95
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Lifetime Guarantee
This is the golf driver with a built-in grass trimmer, ideal for surreptitiously improving one's lie. Destined for use by friendly foursomes that often find themselves in the rough, the club looks like an oversized driver that fits into any golf bag, yet a simple flick of a button on its plastic bottom flips open the club's bottom to reveal a single-string trimmer. Requiring only the semblance of a square stance and proper grip for operation, two thumb buttons built into the handle activate the trimmer for a quick clearing of obstructive grass. Requires six AA batteries. 39" L. (1 lb.)
Horti-Culture Corner
"Weeds Never Die."
- Danish Proverb
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