Planters Punchlines
Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield
April 2013
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Monthly Meeting - Monday April 22 @ 7:00 p.m.
@ Wethersfield Community Center.
Final planning for the Plant Sale. “Official” pots and labels for donated plants
will be available. Stuff envelopes for
mailings.
Annual Plant Sale - May 11 (Rain Date May 18)
This is our major fundraiser. CRITICAL NEED - Club
members are asked to contribute “home grown” perennials to the sale. If you do not have your own plants to donate
– seek them out from friends, neighbors or relatives.
Plants being donated should be split and potted as soon
as possible in order to allow them time to develop in the pot and look good for
the sale. Please label all plants. Contact Fred Odell (860.529.6064) for
official pots, potting soil, and plant labels.
Uncover the Weston Rose Garden
Date TO BE DECIDED
Weed, spread composted manure and prune. BYO tools & thorn-proof gloves. Regular maintenance will begin at a date t/b/d. Anyone interested in joining this
elite group of gardeners and learning more about rose gardening while
contributing to our town is welcome – regulars, part-timers, or drop-ins.
Compostable Matter
By Jim Meehan
By Jim Meehan
A very good
friend of Marsha and me gave us a painted wooden plaque of Saint Isidro –
patron saint of farmers. I’m not sure if
it is due to the fact that she thinks that I am a gardener and therefore an
ardent emulator of the green-thumbed holy man’s way of life. Or if she knows the truth about my
horticultural skills and knowledge and therefore realizes that I need all of
the help that I can get – earthly and otherwise.
Saints are in
the news lately – what with the newly ordained Pope Francis, a name chosen in
honor of another and more well known nature-oriented man of God – so I probably
owe it to myself to look a little more closely at the miracle-grower that hangs
in two places (more about that later) in our family room.
Wikipedia (one
of the principal religious sources of the 21st century) reports, “Isidore [or Isidro] was born to very poor parents in
Madrid [Spain], in about the year 1070. He was in the service of the wealthy
Madrileño landowner Juan de Vargas on a farm in the city's vicinity. Juan de
Vargas would later make him bailiff of his entire estate of Lower Caramanca.
Every morning
before going to work, Isidore was accustomed to hearing Mass at one of the
churches in Madrid. One day, his fellow labourers complained to their master
that Isidore was always late for work in the morning. Upon investigation, so
runs the legend, the master found Isidore at prayer whilst an angel was doing
the ploughing for him.
On another
occasion, his master saw an angel ploughing on either side of him, so that
Isidore's work was equal to that of three of his fellow labourers. Isidore is
also said to have brought back to life his master's deceased daughter, and to
have caused a fountain of fresh water to burst from the dry earth to quench his
master's thirst.”
It also says
on the back of our recently gifted wooden tablet “one winter, when food was scarce, Isidro
came across some starving birds and fed them most of the corn he was carrying
to the mill. Miraculously, when he
reached the mill, the sack was full and rendered twice as much as usual.”
Okay, so other
than the poverty, indentured servitude, daily attendance at Mass, raising
people from the dead, and creating water fountains from dry earth – this pretty
much sounds like the story of my life. I
do have help with my yard work.
There is
Marsha of course – plus Mario and his father (the guys who “spring clean” my
yard), and Jason (the organic lawn care guy).
But as much good as they do, it doesn’t seem right to count them as
heavenly messengers – so the handyman angels are probably out also. I also have had several similar situations to
Isidro’s corn bag incident – except it was sunflower seeds and each time I
resolved the issue by running down to Ocean State Job Lots and laying out
significant cash for a fifty-pound bag of black oily bird food.
Isidro was canonized by Pope Gregory VX on
March 12 (the day before my birth date) but his holy day is celebrated in
mid-May, so another similarity bites the dust.
This wooden
plaque and one other image that Marsha and I have of Saint Isidro are from New
Mexico and are what are called “santos” – paintings or carvings of saints done
by local folk artists called “santeros”.
This style of painting originated in the southwest in the 1600s to
decorate the churches and homes in place of the more classic Spanish
Renaissance “fine art” that was felt by the unsophisticated southwesterners to
be too stiff, too formal and too unrealistic to serve as objects of religious
devotion. The almost total lack of
formal artistic training, limitations in tools and materials, and the people’s
rural traditions give the santos an almost exotic appearance – at least to us
folks who learned about art from an introductory class on European painters.
The other St.
Isidro that we have has been with Marsha and me for about fifteen years. It was the first santo that we purchased in
Taos during one of our earliest vacations in northern New Mexico. The santero is Lydia Garcia. We now have several of her works, and had the
opportunity to meet her in person a few years ago. Her Virgin of Guadalupe
santo painted on a "Hormel Spam" container is probably our favorite
southwestern collectible.
As soon as we
saw it we both immediately liked Lydia’s
St. Isidro image – which on some days looks to me like a bearded
seventies rock singer with an angelic backup group – but we had no idea of who
Isidro was. Fortunately the gallery that
sold Lydia’s artwork had an encyclopedia of saints. We were doing quite a bit of work with our
landscaping at that time and I was just beginning to feel somewhat like a
plantsman – or at least more like a grower of plants than like an arrow-riddled
martyr, or some of the other choices – so we opted for the hirsute, holy
horticulturalist. (Or at least we think
we got the right guy. Lydia’s endearing
handwritten inscription on the back of the wooden, disc reads “SAN ISDRIO: PRAy
foR ME, I want to grow in my GOD.”)
In any event
– misspelled or not – the religious icon seems to have worked. Our landscape, which has incrementally become
shadier and shadier over the years, has – on balance – flourished with the
assortment of shade-tolerant and shade-loving perennials that Marsha and I
selected, planted, nurtured and cared for.
Until last year that is – when, a combination of elm disease and ferocious
storms necessitated the removal of basically all of the shadow-causing trees
from our property – with the result that by mid-summer our formerly green and
flowerful gardens looked more like holding areas for overcooked Frito corn
chips.
So this annum
it is back to ground zero – out with the sun-phobic shrubs and in with the
lovers of light.
In New
Mexican Catholic culture when a saint, as represented by his or her santo, is
asked for a favor and makes good on it then the image is displayed in a place
of honor in the house. When he fails to
deliver the icon is relegated to the back of the junk drawer.
Fortunately
our new godly garden guardian (unlike Lydia’s representation) has a smiling
bright orange sun painted in the upper right corner, looking over the shoulder
of St. Isidro like a hopeful religious emoticon. This gives Marsha and me hope that, while our
older pious plant padre may have finally lost his mojo, the new sunlit saint
will lead us to success in our upcoming adventure in heliocentric
horticulture. So for now both santos
will remain proudly on display in our family room.
And if that
doesn’t work there is always Saint Fiacre – the Irish patron saint of growing
food and medicinal plants. Or St.
Werenfrid, an English Benedictine missionary who is the patron saint of
vegetable gardens. Or even St. Patrick
who apparently is the patron saint of organic gardening. And probably many more otherworldly
agricultural advocates.
Or Marsha and
I could just talk to some accomplished earthly gardeners and rely on our own
experience. As it says in Hezekiah 6:1,
"God helps those who help themselves!"
Actually it doesn’t really say that. In fact the book of Hezekiah isn’t even a
book of the bible.
Still, taking
it into our own hands is pretty much what the ancient New Mexican santeros did
when they realized that the fine-art icons of their Spanish conquistadors
really were not working at all for them – a down-to-earth solution to a
down-to-earth problem. And that may well
be what all of this gardening stuff is all about anyway.
Grow Your Own Cutting Garden
for Beautiful Flower Vases All Summer
for Beautiful Flower Vases All Summer
By Mike Hunter – sudbury.patch.com
Often
gardeners plant wonderful beds of flowers but find it painful to think of
cutting them and bringing the beauty of their garden indoors. The solution for
this problem is the traditional cutting garden, which always looks like it’s
been hacked up and is usually the better for it.
The cutting
garden, located in a sunny but not prominent location, is for the very
utilitarian purpose of providing a succession of seasonal blooms for floral
arrangements to decorate the rooms of the house.
Our cutting
garden is an area about 3 feet wide x 12 feet long (about two rototiller widths)
and is located near the back of the property. As the best cutting flowers are
annuals, I start the garden new each year and vary the contents depending on
the color schemes that are in vogue for the year. Because these flowers are
annuals, cutting them often is helpful, and even necessary if you want to keep
them blooming until late September.
Also, the
flowers have a habit of self-seeding, so often there are “surprises” that
spring up (they’re welcome and encouraged to bring on their best blooms).
This year
we’ve gone with a bright, brilliant color scheme, and the plants we used are
mixed colors of: Asters; Bachelor’s Buttons; Blue Ageratums; California
Poppies; Carnations; Cosmos; Marigolds (dwarf and giant); Nasturtiums (dwarf);
Sweet Peas, and lots of Zinnias (dwarf – Lilliputian, medium and giant).
Usually I
interplant them mixed from short to tall so that all will get full sun, and
weeding becomes unnecessary as the plants overflow the bed so quickly that
weeds don’t have a chance to sprout. If you have very little room and can only
plant one thing, my choice would be Sweet Peas. Growing up a trellis they can
fit almost anywhere as long as it’s got a sunny exposure.
As I
mentioned before, the best cutting flowers are annuals, so we don’t use space
in the cutting garden for anything else. However, the permanent perennial
gardens of Gladiolas, Tulips, Jonquils, Baby’s Breath, Daisies, Lavender and
Irises often get clipped of a few specimens when they’re starting to lean. This
actually helps them to return better next year. Also, nice flowers are trimmed
from our flowering shrubs, such as Lilacs, Forsythia, and Buddleia and in
addition to providing color in the spring months they fill the air with their
wonderful scents.
Tidbits:
don’t put Gladiolas within 50 feet of your Strawberry bed. Also, don’t put
Tulips and Jonquils in the same vase; one of them is toxic to the other.
Also, if you
plan to dry flowers you’ve got to plant a few Strawflowers, Statice and
Everlastings (also called Pearlys). My mom puts cotton balls on the windowsills
of her antique farmhouse between the windows and the storm windows, and on the
cotton she arranges dried flowers for a wonderful contrast when you’re looking
outside on a cold, snowy day. I suggest you give it a try, but it might not
work with modern windows, especially of the casement variety.
Some
hard-learned advice:
1. Pick your
flowers often. The more you pick them, the more flowers the plants will
produce. Have more flowers than you can handle? Drop some off at Wingate,
Fairbanks Community Center, the Food Pantry or Buddy Dog where they’ll bring
cheer and joy to others.
2. Fertilize
with a granular 10-10-10 at planting time, then again once each month during
the season, using a liquid fertilizer such as Miracle Gro. The hose end mixer
attachment is a great way to foliar feed and takes a minimum of fuss.
3. Have a
supply of stakes available to keep them upright when they get leggy. I get
bamboo stakes on sale and keep them outside near the bed so that when the need
arises, they’re right there. To tie the plants, old nylons work great and have
a little “give.” Also scraps and remnant skeins of yarn work very well and can
be picked up cheap at yard sales or for free from knitting friends.
4. Collect
flowers before they are fully open and if possible cut in the morning after the
dew has dried. Once cut, it’s best to submerge the cut stems immediately in
warm water, not ice cold out of the faucet. And be sure to remove any foliage
below the water line.
5. Change the
water daily.
Some trivia
for today:
Hyssop was
once used in the Hebrew temples during the ritual cleansing of the lepers.
Research shows this may have protected those performing the bathing. Scientists
have discovered the mold that produces penicillin can grow on the hyssop leaf.
This could have acted as antibiotic protection for the caregivers against this
disease.
Nearly 90
percent of the world's plants depend on bees and other pollinating insects to
reproduce seed and thus perpetuate the species. Coriander is one of the most
ancient herbs still cultivated today. It was grown in Egyptian gardens and used
as funeral offerings in Egyptian tombs. In 1869, Dr. Brown's Celery Tonic went
on sale. The drink consisted of soda water and crushed celery seed. This
started a celery craze in the late
19th century
that included celery flavored soft drinks, celery gum, celery soup and elixir
of celery. In the 1600s, English women often wore carrot leaves in their hats
in place of flowers or feathers. There are over 350 varieties of ladybugs in
the world. These beneficial insects have big appetites, with both the larvae
and adult ladybugs devouring
many harmful insects each day.
Patron Saints of Gardening -- not your typical list
http://forums.catholic.com
San Antonio
Abad - because of his "grave digging" patronage, he is a good saint
for digging tree holes.
San Ysidro-
Isidore is the patron of farmers and large gardens. He often prayed and went to
church while angels plowed the fields of his employer. He is patron of workers
and sheepherders as well.
San Francis
of Assisi - St. Francis is the Patron Saint of the garden's birds and animals
and of ecology. Founder of the Franciscans, he is often shown preaching to the
birds.
San Andreas-
because of his fishing patronage, he is a good one for aquatic gardens with Koi
and Gold Fish.
Santa
Barbara- being patron of Geology and protector against being struck by l
lighting, is a good patron for gardens with difficult geological problems (big
rocks, bad slope, rotten soil, etc.) and to keep one safe from lightning
strikes while out in the garden.
San Bernardo
Abad- patron of Beekeeper and good for the garden, especially flowers and
vegetables.
San Antonio
de Padua- while not a garden saint, he is patron of finding lost things. I find
him especially helpful when trying to locate my lost garden tools.
St. Urban -
is the patron saint of vineyards and grape growers.
St. Fiacre -
Fiacre is the patron of herb and vegetable gardens and of men who like to
garden.
Saint
Elizabeth of Hungary- is patron of Rose Gardens and rose gardeners.
St. Jude -
while not exactly a garden patron, he is patron of lost causes and desperate
cases and would be appropriate for the "brown thumb syndrome and the
gardeners with very bad luck.
St. Phocas -
A gardener by profession, Phocas was famous for his hospitality. He even dug
his own grave for his executioners. He is patron saint of flower and ornamental
gardening.
St.
Valentine- patron of lovers and small intimate gardens.
St. Patrick -
Saint Patrick is the patron saint of organic gardening as well as the Irish. He
drove the snakes out of Ireland.
St. Adelard-
patron of gardeners
Santa Teresa
Lisieux - patron of florists
St.
George-patron of farmers
St.
Ansovinus- protector of crops.
Virgin de
Zapopan- protector against drought
St.
Werenfrid- vegetable gardens
New Gardening Products from IGC Tradeshow
Posted by Jodi Torpey @ http://westerngardeners.com
Here are just
a few of the fabulous new products gardeners can look forward to in 2013. I
asked everyone I met if these products are either readily available or
available for ordering online and was assured that if gardeners wanted them,
they could find them right now.
I hope you’ll
enjoy this small selection of what caught my eye in the new products section.
It was hard to narrow the choices to just these five and there are hundreds of
other booths to visit tomorrow on the gigantic tradeshow floor.
Organic Plant
Magic is an all-purpose plant food that’s alive with beneficial organisms and
bills itself as “the organic alternative to Miracle-Gro.” I talked with Kevin
Richardson, managing member, who explained that Plant Magic is good for
flowers, vegetables, trees, shrubs, lawns and even indoor plants, too. More
information on www.organicplantmagic.com.
I enjoyed
meeting Joseph Masciovecchio, president of The Predator Preventer company and
learned he invented this ingenious device that offers 24-hour protection from
nuisance wildlife from rabbits to moose and even bears. Joseph says this
solar-powered device has three layers of protection from pulsating deterrent
lights that look like a larger predator’s eyes to high-power blinder lights and
a high frequency alarm that’s safe for humans. Visit
www.ThePredatorProtection.com.
I liked the
Caterpillar Caddy a lot, especially when I found out it took a father-son
collaboration to get it to market. The Caterpillar Caddy is an adorable way to
store a self-coiling hose that provides 50 feet of easily accessible garden
watering. It’s a whimsical and functional addition to the garden. Look for it
on www.gardensmartproducts.com.
Seedy
Greetings are clever greeting cards from my friends at the Hudson Valley Seed
Library. This new product is a greeting card that includes an art pack of seeds
on the inside. I liked the design and the fact the card is a way to share a
message and a packet of heirloom seeds with a gardening friend. Check out the
designs at www.SeedyGreetings.com.
For something
completely different, take a look at Wintercraft to create your own round ice sculptures. These can be used
to decorate the outside of the house with a warm candle glow in winter or use
them for party decorations (or wine chillers). I’ve often admired ice
sculptures featured in decorating magazines and Wintercraft makes it easy. You can see more at www.WinterCraft.com.
EcoScraps are real organic garden products
By Debra Atlas – www.redding.com Sunday, January 13, 2013
Since it's
the middle of winter, the thought of feeding your trees probably hasn't crossed
your mind. But now's the time to start thinking about it.
February is a
good time to fertilize your trees, said Pam Eagelston of Gold Leaf Nursery.
"Feeding
the soil is as important as fertilizing the tree," she said. "It
feeds the beneficial microorganisms in the soil, improves the texture of the
soil and helps dissolve the nutrients to a form that the roots can
absorb."
For those who
don't want to use chemicals this year, there's an effective organic option.
EcoScraps, a
Utah-based company, manufactures chemical-free organic lawn and garden products
made from fruit and vegetable waste.
As a student
at Brigham Young University, Dan Blake, EcoScraps' CEO and co-founder, observed
how much food people were throwing away.
We accumulate more than 30 million tons of
food waste each year in the U.S.
That's enough
to fill the Rose Bowl stadium once every 3 days with nothing but food waste,
said Blake.
Realizing
that "garbage is the only thing you actually pay someone to take it away
from you," Blake began investigating food waste with an idea of
restructuring the waste stream.
"The
majority of (what we throw away) goes to landfills," said Blake, "and
(rotting food that produces) methane is causing more environmental
issues."
Blake grew up
gardening and doing landscaping projects. So it was natural that with food
waste on his mind, he turned to the idea of creating quality compost.
"Organic
composts are basically manure-based," Blake says. They lack nutrients.
Blake wanted to see if, by using food wastes that hadn't been digested by
animals, you could get more nutrient values like you do with using Miracle-Gro
or other chemical-based soil.
To prove his
theory, he began Dumpster diving, "borrowing" food wastes from
restaurants and began his composting efforts in his apartment's parking lot.
After much experimenting and tweaking of the formula, he and his partners came
up with compost that's all fruit and vegetable waste.
EcoScraps
products contain no chemicals, no manure and no animal by-products. They're
certified by OMRI, the Organic Materials Review Institute. Being OMRI certified
means these products can be used on operations that are certified organic under
the USDA National Organic Program.
"This
all-natural compost has a higher nutrient base than any Miracle-Gro soil,"
which is a chemical-based fertilizer, Blake said. "You can do a
side-by-side comparison with any other chemical product," he said,
"and (ours) will do just as well for performance."
EcoScraps
products include Compost Mix, Potting Soil Mix, All-purpose Plant and Soil
Booster, and Lawn and Garden Growth Formula.
The company's
compost helps break up tightly-packed soil, promoting better aeration, drainage
and water retention.
Their Potting
Soil Mix is made with 78 minerals and 16 different macro- and micro-nutrients
necessary for plants to thrive. It can be used with both indoor plants and
outdoor veggie gardens.
Blake's view
of organic gardening products? "The standards are pretty low as far as
organic," he said.
As a
self-styled organic gardener myself, I've found that the majority of
"organic" fertilizers and potting soils contain ingredients that, on
closer inspection, aren't organic at all. EcoScraps' ingredients bring the
"natural" back into all-natural. And, unlike many organic products,
you won't pay premium prices for EcoScrap products.
To take
advantage of a special discount being offered to my readers, go to
EcoScraps.com and enter the promo code "RED20" to receive 20 percent
off your online order.
An
environmental journalist and blogger, Debra Atlas is reachable through
www.Envirothink.wordpress.com or debraatlas@gmail.com.
Horti-Cuture Corner
"In the landscape of Spring there is neither
better or worse.
The flowering branches grow naturally,
some long, some short."
- Alan Watts
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