Friday, March 7, 2014

March 2014


Planters Punchlines
Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield
March 2014
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Backyard Composting" 
@ Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield March Meeting
Monday March 24 @ 7:00 pm in the Pitkin Community Center

      The March 24 meeting of the MGCoW will feature Marty Sienko, President - Connecticut Community Gardening Association, Master Gardener and Advanced Master Composter, speaking on “Backyard Composting”.  The public is invited. 



Compostable Matter
By Jim Meehan



I am writing this on March 1, 2014 – hoping that the Groundhog was wrong and that the Old Farmer’s Almanac turns out to be unnecessarily pessimistic.   

       
Here is their 2014 Long-Range Weather Forecast for Hartford, Connecticut: average temperature 43° (1° below normal); precipitation 3" (1" below avg.); Mar 1-8: Snow showers, cold; Mar 9-14: Sunny, then showers, turning warm; Mar 15-16: Sunny, cool; Mar 17-21: Heavy rain, then sunny, cool; Mar 22-25: Rain, then sunny, cool; Mar 26-31: Sunny, then rainy, warm.

      
 I am itching like crazy to get my long-dormant garden hands on those winter-dried perennial stems that were left standing over the cold months in order to provide (a) food and shelter for the birds; (b) “winter interest” – i.e. cool shadows and freaky skeletal sculptures; and (c) something to do in early spring to get my frozen horticultural juices flowing again.

       
I am desperately looking forward to the first sunny day that requires no more clothing than a flannel shirt and perhaps a light down vest (and pants of course) – when I can retrieve my pruning shears and thin leather gloves from the bottom of my yard-work basket, and hew these deliberately neglected and now snow-crushed and pitiful looking desiccated twigs into piles of pick-up-sticks to be consigned to the first trash bin of the growing season.

      
 I am imagining the feel of my large red plastic leaf rake dragging debris from the bare space between my hacked-down herbage, and the gentle stroke of my hand-held shrub rake as my knees feel the cool, damp earth for the first time in several months –– and perhaps I uncover the first fresh-grown green anything of the year.

       
It’s all happened before – at the same time, in the same way.  So, even though as we all know “past performance is no guarantee of future results” – it could happen again.

       
That’s what I am hoping anyway – that as you read this at the end of the third month I will have experienced at least some of my “OMG, spring really is here” garden dreams – and you, yours.

     



 Horti-Culture Corner
Ode to Compost (verses 1, 2 and 5) by Lucas Land

Leaf and rind sit silent
atop the pile of waste
lifeless leftovers lingering
piled together in an organic grave

still sits the mound
quietly surveying the hum of activity
planting, watering, tending, milking, feeding, pruning,
harvesting, dancing, laughing, weeping, hoping

There is magic at work in the rotten stench
There is mystery to behold
in the watchman of the farm



Killer Compost: Raised Beds – It Happened to Us!
By Joe Lamp'l Host of “A Way to Garden”



 “A Way to Garden” airs on Robin Hood Radio (www.robinhoodradio.com/) on Monday at 8:30 AM Eastern, with a rerun at 8:30 Saturdays. It is available free on iTunes. Robin Hood is the smallest NPR station in the nation.

      
 I say it often; it’s alright to make mistakes as long as you learn from them—especially in the garden. Well, I made a doozy recently and have I ever learned from it.

      
 If you watched our Episode 406 on building out our GGWTV Vegetable Garden, you know how hard we’ve been working. I was especially proud when the time finally came to fill my beds with carefully selected, rich topsoil, organic compost and manure. And I was feeling particularly resourceful about utilizing the manure from right here on our farm. With horses, goats and chickens, we had a generous inventory that was well rotted and ready for the garden.

       
As a full time gardening communicator who prides himself at being in the know, I am also aware of the potential current hazards of using manure to amend garden soil. In recent years, it has become very apparent that some herbicides used to control weeds in farm fields persist for a very, very long time. Even worse, they don’t readily break down, even as composted manure!

       
So if I knew better, why did I do it? Chalk it up to my haste to fill my new garden beds, combined with the very unscientific assumption that it couldn’t happen to me syndrome. My rational for proceeding prior to the proper testing was also flawed. Conscience of the potential risk, I had been observing various weeds and plants springing to life from this massive, aged manure pile for weeks while failing to consider that not all plants are impacted by these herbicides in the same way.

       
Giving myself the green light to proceed with amending my soil with this free and abundant manure, I blended about 20% total volume to each bed in my garden. Then I planted every bed, including 20 varieties of tomatoes. And then I waited—and waited.

       
Herbicide Damage on TomatoesSomething wasn’t right. As my new plants finally started to grow, their leaves were so twisted and distorted, while other plants were severely stunted. I knew what happened—I just refused to believe it was true, and that it happened to me! To add insult to injury, even the hay I used as mulch contained the bad stuff because it came from the same source.

       
About a month later I finally confirmed my suspicion. The farmer that grows the hay that we buy for our horses made his periodic delivery. I didn’t waste a moment; “What type of herbicides to you put on your fields?” I asked. “Grazon” he replied—not the answer I wanted to hear. It’s all I needed to know. The trade names for the products you want to avoid are many. But the active ingredients of greatest concern are picloram, clopyralid, and aminopyralid because they can remain active in hay, grass clippings, piles of manure, and compost for an unusually long time. These herbicides eventually break down through exposure to sunlight, soil microbes, heat, and moisture. Depending on the situation, the herbicides can be deactivated in as little as a few months yet complete deactivation and breakdown can take several years!

       
So what will I do now? Many people I’ve consulted with didn’t hesitate to suggest I remove the soil from every bed and start fresh. I agree, it’s the best way to tackle the problem head on. Yet, considering the time, energy and expense of filling each of the 16 beds the first time, I can’t stomach the thought of removal and starting over.

       
The other option, and the one I’m taking, is to leave the soil in place, hoping through bioremediation, I can heal the existing beds. I’ve grown out the plants that are already there to see how they ultimately respond. After that, I’ll turn the beds to expose the soil to more to sunlight and air, and promote the soil microbe activity in each bed and hopefully deactivate the herbicides more quickly.  Then I plant cover crops in all the beds to keep the biological systems running above and below ground.

       
Cover Crops Thankfully, not all my plants were affected, yet hardest hit were the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and beans. Remarkably, the cucumbers, okra, herbs, chard, beets, sweet potatoes and watermelon did fine, as did my ornamental annuals scattered throughout.

       
What should you do? Never use manure or even hay as mulch in your garden beds when you are unsure of the chemicals used in the field. It’s unfortunate but for now, it’s the only way you can be sure you are not transferring harmful, active herbicides to your garden. And lastly, farmers have a big responsibility in this as well. Please inform your customers if you are using herbicides that can be potentially devastating to home gardeners. My hope is that by next year, my soil will be restored and this is one mistake I know I’ll never make again.

       
If you want to see the segment we did on this for the television show, where Joe shows the actual damage and shows you how to test your manure before you put it in your garden, be sure to watch it here, in episode 410. (http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/weedless-gardening/)







What to do with a dead deer: Compost it
By Krisy Gashler (http://www.news.cornell.edu)



 Composting isn't just for veggie scraps. It's often the best way to deal with roadkill, livestock mortality and even large-scale animal deaths due to floods, fires or other catastrophes.

       
Many people, including some farmers, assume it's best to bury animals underground. In fact, it's safer and kills pathogens more effectively when carcasses are composted in unturned piles, according to Jean Bonhotal, director of the Cornell Waste Management Institute.

       
"Most of the time they get buried, but that brings them 6 feet closer to the water table," Bonhotal said.

       
Carcass fluids from improperly disposed animals can leach into wells, creeks or drain pipes, spreading bacteria and viruses.

       
"Composting is a fairly forgiving process. If we do it well, we can make a 1,200-pound animal disappear in three months. The bones will still be there, but the carcass will be gone," Bonhotal said.

       
But there are instances when composting is not appropriate. For example, animals with a prion disease, such as mad cow or chronic wasting disease, need to be incinerated or chemically treated. Cornell's alkaline hydrolysis digester, which uses high heat, high pressure and a chemical bath to quickly digest animal carcasses, is the state-designated facility to dispose of animals with prion diseases.

       
Most of the time, however, composting is the best way to go. It's faster, easier, more effective and, unlike burial, can be done year-round, Bonhotal said.

       
Rendering, a process that converts animal tissue into value-added materials such as tallow, is another option, but the industry can't manage as much of the dead stock as they have in the past, she said.

       
Bonhotal works with agencies and individuals to spread the message of proper animal waste disposal. Several years ago, the Waste Management Institute teamed up with the New York State Department of Transportation to address roadkill disposal; dead deer picked up by the agency are now composted.

      
 She also helped organize the fourth International Animal By-products Symposium held in May in Dearborn, Mich., and funded by the Department of Homeland Security through the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense and Michigan State University. Other topics discussed at the event included safely dealing with euthanized animals; containing animal-originated food disease outbreaks; and state, federal and international agency disaster response planning and policy.

       
There's still progress to be made in achieving best practices for animal carcass disposal, Bonhotal said.

       
Earlier this year, for example, 300 pigs were killed in a fire on an upstate farm and buried.

      
 "The day after a disaster, the farmers just want to have the animals gone. And they may not have the confidence that composting will work," Bonhotal said. "But they may pay for it later with environmental damage."

     





The world's ugliest plants: Green and unpleasant ugly plants



Ugly or intriguing? You be the judge in this battle of the aesthetically challenged to find the world's ugliest plant.

       
RHS [Royal Horticultura Society] experts have scoured the planet to produce a list of the world's 10 ugliest plants. Their choice spans the spectrum from the spiky to the hairy. Given the conditions in which many of these plants live – extreme temperatures and humidity – it's perhaps understandable that survival skills win over looks.

       
The frightful flora have also been handed the short straw when it comes to names: stinky squid, bastard cobas, monkey cups and vegetable sheep are a world away from the charms of the lily or rose.

       
However, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the RHS wants gardeners to vote in a survey to find The World's Ugliest Plant. You can name your most objectionable plant and also defend the homely specimens you love. To take part, visit the RHS World's ugliest plant survey. The "winning'" plant may appear at the RHS Show Tatton Park (July 22-26).

       
Ugly Top 10

       
1 Bastard cobas (Cyphostemma juttae) A slow-growing, ornamental plant that can reach 6ft, also called wild grape, tree grape and Namibian grape. Plants are found in Namibia. The large shiny leaves tend to fall during winter and grape-like bunches appear near the end of summer.

       
2 Birthworts (Aristolochia gigantea) Also referred to as pipe vines, they are widespread and appear in various climates. The basis of

the plant is an intertwining stem with simple leaves. The flowers have a strong scent.

       
3 Elephant's trunk (Pachypodium namaquanum) Found in the North Cape of Namibia, the plant consists of a thick trunk, densely covered in spines. There is a crown at the top appearing during the growing months of winter, and velvet- textured flowers appear from August to October.

       
4 Corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanium) This plant only blooms every four to six years within its 40-year life expectancy. The flower is described as the world's largest; reaching 5ft high and 4ft wide. For eight hours of the three-day bloom, the flower emits a smell that is described as rotting flesh, attracting a carrion-eating beetle, for pollination. The plant is also known as an aphrodisiac.

       
5 Tree tumbo (Welwitschia mirabilis) The plant, found in south-west Africa, specifically Namibia and Angola, is considered a living fossil. Initially, the plant grows two leaves from one thick trunk and, as the plant continues to grow, the leaves may split. Some plants are estimated to be more than 1,000 years old.

      
 6 Thorn of the cross (Colletia paradoxa) Also known as gigs, curumamil, cross or crown of the cross. From South America, this slow-growing shrub with greyish flowers blooms in March and April. Often used as an ornamental plant for its fragrance, it is under threat of extinction, due to a loss of habitat.

       
7 Stinky squid (Pseudocolus fusiformis) A mushroom first reported in Pittsburgh, North America, in 1915. Often found at the edge of woods, in parks and gardens, usually in summer and autumn. The body first resembles a puffball, but later splits to form a stalk with arms that taper.

      
 8 Sea onion (Bowiea volubilis) Also known as the climbing onion, this plant originates from South Africa. The bulb is a pale green, with half growing underground. New branches appear each year, making it look like an elongated asparagus, with greenish flowers.

      
 9 Vegetable sheep (Raoulia eximia) Named because of the way it looks from a distance, this is found in New Zealand's Southern Alps. This shrub forms grey-white mounds and can spread 5ft. Tiny leaves are covered in hairs, with flowers beneath.

       
10 Monkey cups (Nepenthes) [Shown Below] Also commonly known as tropical pitcher plants, this plant comes from a family of more than 120 species. They are vine-forming, originating from south China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The plant grows as a climbing vine.










Here's the best new edible plants of 2014
By George Weigel http://blog.pennlive.com/



Just in time for your plant-planning pleasure is my annual four-part series on best new plants debuting in the coming season.

      
 I'll start today with the best new veggies, herbs and fruits, then pick up next week with best new annual flowers, then move on to best new perennials the following week, and finish off the last week of January with best new trees and shrubs.

       
Here you go:

       
Basil 'Try Basil.' This is a new potted plant mix from Burpee Home Gardens that puts three different basil varieties – a smooth, Italian 'Genovese' type, a crinkled green-leaf type and a purple-leaf version – in one pot.

       
It's Ann Hoffman's favorite new edible coming to Black Landscape Center in Upper Allen Twp. in spring.

       
"What took so long for someone to think of this wonderful idea?" she asks.

       
Lots of new twists await tomato aficionados this year, but this line of sweet/small/striped varieties from an independent California breeding farm is most curious.

       
The 'Tiger' series of Artisans is oblong in shape, while the 'Bumble Bee' series is more rounded. The seven total varieties range in color from yellow-green to orange to pink to purplish-red.

       
All keep producing all season until frost, and they're about as good-looking as good-tasting.

       
Seed is available from Johnny's Selected Seeds and Totally Tomatoes. 

      
 'Indigo' tomatoes. Oregon State University last year brought us a break-through new tomato color – true dark purple – in 'Indigo Rose.' It's that color because it's rich in anthocyanin, a disease-fighting antioxidant.

     
 New anthocyanin 'Indigos' debut this year in blends of dark red, blue/black and dark purple, including 'Indigo Apple,' 'Indigo Blue Beauty,' 'Indigo Blue Berries' and 'Indigo Kumquat Hybrid.' These are all cherry types and small fruiters.

       
'Indigos' are no slackers in the taste department either, based on early gardener feedback. Seed sources include Totally Tomatoes, Harris Seeds and Territorial Seed Co.    

       
You'll also find three other new varieties of 'Indigo' tomatoes in grafted plant form through Burpee Home Gardens' new Bumper Crop™ tomato line. That line also features a "Big Collection" of four grafted, large heirloom varieties and an "Early Collection" of three grafted, fast-maturing varieties.

       
Tomato 'Chef's Choice Orange.' This newcomer is one of two tomatoes to win All-America Selections honors in nationwide university trials.

      
 'Chef's Choice Orange' is a hybrid bred using the orange-fruited heirloom 'Amana Orange.' Like that one, it's bright orange in color.

      
 'Chef's Choice Orange' produces average 12-ounce fruits about 75 days after planting in the garden – significantly earlier, and also more disease-resistant, than 'Amana Orange.'

      
 Tomato 'Fantastico.' This is the other AAS tomato winner, and it's a red-fruited grape type.

       
'Fantastico's' attributes are: early to ripen, heavy in yield, resistant to late blight, resistant to cracking and compact in size, making it a good choice for container use.

       
Bean 'Mascotte.' The first bean to win an AAS award since 1991, 'Mascotte' is a bush filet-type green bean that grows a compact 18 inches, making it a good choice for pots as well as in the ground.

      
 I test-grew this one last summer and found that the beans were longer and slimmer than most (a skinny 6 inches) and totally stringless.

       
The yield was good. One other side benefit was that the beans formed high and toward the outside of the plants, making them easy to see and pick.

       
Squash 'Green Tiger.' This was my favorite new veggie that I test-grew last summer – a compact zucchini that produces attractive dark- and light-green striped fruits.

       
But beyond that, two practical advances impressed me more.

       
One was how fast 'Green Tiger' got busy, producing ready-to-pick fruits just 5 weeks after I direct-seeded in mid-May.

       
The other is how this variety refused to die under the usual squash vine borer attack. Even though the bugs nearly wiped it out, a couple of 'Green Tiger' stems kept fighting to produce enough fruits for regular picking until frost.

      
 I got my seed from Harris Seeds, but W. Atlee Burpee Co. and Jung Seed are others that carry it.

      
 The healthful fruits of this sprawling, viney shrub have long been popular in its native China, but goji berries recently become trendy in grocery, health-food and nutrition stores.

       
"Now this antioxidant super-fruit is available to home gardeners," says Bryan Benner, a grower at Dillsburg's Quality Greenhouses, which is supplying two new goji berry varieties from Proven Winners.

       
Big Lifeberry® was bred for its larger-than-the-species red fruits. Sweet Lifeberry® was bred for its sweeter-than-the-species flavor.

       
Both grow 5 to 6 feet tall in full sun to light shade and benefit from some tying or trellising to corral the plants' floppy growth habit.

       
The oblong, pea-sized fruits ripen continuously from early summer to fall, flower purple and produce with just a single plant (cross-pollination not required).

       
I think the taste takes some getting used to, but apparently birds and deer are just fine with it.

       
Finally, here's a new blueberry that looks like a fruiting boxwood.

       
"This is like nothing you've ever seen before," says Josh Howard of Oregon's Fall Creek Farm and Nursery, which bred the whole line of cutting-edge BrazelBerry fruit bushes. "Blueberry Glaze™ has really dark berries – nearly black – and a boxwood-like habit. It's got glossy, glossy leaves, and you can shear it like a boxwood."

       
The fruits are high in antioxidants, the 2- to 3-foot size is compact enough for pot growth, and fall leaf color is a rich burgundy.

       
David Wilson, marketing director for Garden Splendor Plants, also likes this newcomer for its spring flowers. "The plant really comes into its own with masses of gorgeous pink, fading to white, tubular flowers that are produced all over the 2- to 3-foot mound," he says.

       
Just give Blueberry Glaze™ acidy soil and at least one other blueberry nearby for pollination purposes.



Horti-Culture Corner Bonus
By Roy Blount Jr.



Roy Blount Jr. is a well-known southern humorist and sportswriter.  Blount is reluctant to try and define what southern humor is.  But, when asked by a northerner if southerners laugh at different things than northerners, he says, “Yes, northerners.”

       
Here are his thoughts on broccoli.



The neighborhood stores are all out of broccoli,
Loccoli.



Broccoli Versus Kale



Check out the tongue-in-cheek “Broccoli versus Kale” ad campaign that’s showing up on highway billboards around New Haven – shown in the following video





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