The Best Laid Plans!!!

The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy! OR

(The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!)
Robert Burns, To a Mouse (November, 1785)

So much for putting in that new row tunnel cover and planting lettuces and peas early on that nice warm day we had! SNOW!!! COLD!!! I am DONE with winter (I know, I am a wimp- I moved here from Indiana, where it really got cold!). To think I succumbed the seduction of the thaw....

Happy Gardening! Eventually!

Grass

[photo caption: my boring front and back yards when we moved in, my floriferous front yard a few years later. Don't have a good photo to post of the changes to my back yard, will get one this summer!]

Grass: the Good, The Bad and the Ugly

I’ll get my bias right out at the start-I hate grass and work hard to kill it. I am married to a wonderful man who hates it too. Both of us would way rather spend our outdoor time pruning, planting, harvesting and trimming in the flower, vegetable and fruit gardens than pushing a lawnmower, let alone fertilizing and otherwise treating the stuff. When we first moved into this house we had a half-acre lot and the first mowing took us three days. No, we didn’t mow the whole time, just gave up in frustration and exhaustion, had a lemonade (or a beer) and tackled it some more the next day. We both vowed to get rid of as much of this grass as possible.

I started mulching with boards, plastic, old tarps. Anything to kill grass so it would be easier to dig. I added new beds or paths each year, so that now we can mow in a few hours. The majority of the yard is now delightful garden.

OK, why do we hate grass so much? First it takes so many inputs of energy, chemicals (fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides,…) and water to keep grass grass, and not a collection of green weeds. For example, “one 40-pound bag of synthetic fertilizer contains the fossil-fuel equivalent of approximately 2.5 gallons of gasoline, and mowing for one hour with a gasoline-powered mower generates the same amount of pollution as driving a car for 20 miles, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To keep lawns green, we apply about 10,000 gallons of water, which leads to fungal diseases and weeds that attract pests, so we douse our coveted green patches with approximately 67 million pounds a year of synthetic pesticides” (from http://www.thegreenguide.com/home-garden/garden/easy-organic-lawn-care). We didn’t want to be a part of this chemical assault, and waste of water. So, to protect our earth, and to protect our family, we decided to forgo a conventional lawn (ever read up on the harmful effects of pesticides? Pretty scary stuff).

So, grass looks nice. Well, that’s what many people think. I find grass a dull, uninteresting monoculture. Yard after yard of the same short green blades is pretty boring. And when I look at it, I think of all the chemicals that are on it, that oil that goes into making it, and all that wasted effort. I once read that, if you scraped the surface of a golf course, in order to properly dispose of the sample you would have to take it to an EPA approved site, so toxic is it. Grass might be green, but it is not “Green.”

I vastly prefer flowers, vegetables and fruits. I prefer a varied garden, with interest most any time of the year. I like to produce food from my little patch of ground, as well as beauty and habitat for birds.

So, my advice? Chip away, plant a flower or vegetable bed, reduce even just a few square feet of grass for a "Greener" yard and home.

Happy gardening!

2009 Seed Order

2009 Seed Order

(Photo caption: a photo that is totally unrelated to this entry, but is cute!)

I have a tradition I created and have followed for about 15 years, maybe 20. January 1st is the day I sit down with my seed catalogs and make my order for the coming season. Here is a list of what I ordered this year, with some explanation as to why (and a brief primer on tomato types at the end).

From Pinetree Garden Seeds (http://www.superseeds.com/): But first, why I love this catalog. There are no fancy, glossy photos, but this company consistently produces good seed in smaller qualities (and lower prices, though they have gone up over the past 2 years, but what hasn’t?) for the home gardener. Most of the time, the quantities they give me are sufficient for my needs and I don’t pay for a lot of wasted seeds. I do need some seeds in quantity (like carrots) so I just get these elsewhere. They also stock discount and full-price garden books, and garden tools and supplies.

Pencil Pod bean, Dragon Langerie Bean and Marengo Romano pole bean: these three are the yellow beans I prefer
Yard long bean: an experiment for this season. Supposed has a slight asparagus taste
Early Wonder beet: in my continued attempt to grow a decent beet. Seems to get too hot here too fast, so many an early beet??Orange Fantasia and Pink Lipstick Chards: I love greens, chard is my favorite! Except when kale is my favorite!
Sweet Success Cuke
Black Beauty, Lavender Touch and Raveena (green) eggplants: for taste and beauty.
Redibor kale: tasty and pretty, does well here.
Beleah Rose, Matina Sweet, Freckles and Pine tree mix lettuce: remember, I love greens!
Sugar Snap and Cascadia peas: both sugar snap and do pretty well here. I am going to start then early in my cold frame- I get a good flush of peas, then the heat hits…
Kaleidoscope mix pepper- have had good luck with this bell pepper mix
Paprika Pepper: home to convince my neighbor to smoke some for me so I can have home-smoked, dried paprika.
Early Jalapeno
Small Sugar pumpkin: a nice heirloom, tasty
Long Island Cheese winter squash- great for pies. We’ll see who wins this year, the squash vine borers of the pumpkin vine.
Broccoli Di Rapa: Novantina: a broccoli rabe and I hope I can make a go of it! An experiment.
Italian Large Leaf Basil and
Lovage: a great celery substitute, a perennial.

From Totally Tomatoes: I like the variety of this catalog and can always find something interesting. This year, I am ordering all disease-resistant varieties- having some problems with disease, so will not grow heirlooms this year (though they do taste great!):

Better Boy Hybrid Tomato VFNASt Indeterminate
Parks Whopper Improved VFFNT Indeterminate (sturdy and reliable)
Sunmaster Hybrid VFFASt Determinate and
Kada Hybrid VFFASt Indeterminate

[Wonder what those letters after the names mean? They are codes for different diseases to which the plant has demonstrated resistance.
V: Verticillium wilt
F: Fusarium wilt (FF races 1 and 2, FFF races 1,2,3)
N: Nematodes
T: Tobacco Mosaic Virus (if you are a smoker, wash your hands after smoking and before handling tomato plants and don’t smoke in the garden).
A: Alternaria stem canker
St: Stemphylium Gray Leaf Spot
TSWV: Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus ]
(Also Determinate plants are bushy and produce most of the fruit in one or two flushes. Indeterminate plants are vines that grow throughout the season and keep producing fruit until frost. Canners like determinates).

Happy seed starting!

Crape-A-Cide photo update

Photo above: severe, knobby clubbing from severe, repeated pruning. All of these photos were taken in my neighborhood on my regular walk. I found so many examples in addition to these few.

Lightly pruned crape, nice form, though badly sited (note the utility pole).

A recently severely pruned crape myrtle. Looks awful. A nightmare. Can't imagine it will look all that much better with a puff of leaves and blooms atop. And can't imagine it will thrive and live long.

Photo above: a severely pruned crape myrtle showing clubbing of the branches and undesirable umbrella form. This was part of a line of 4 or 5 similarly damaged trees.

Crape-A-Cide

Crape-a-cide! AKA “Crape Murder.”

(Caption: photo of crape myrtle used by permission with attribution, copyright James G. Howes, July, 24, 2007).

A heinous crime exists in southern gardens, from Virginia to Florida. This crime against creation maims, destroys harmony and, sadly, and eventually, kills. It is too horrible to imagine, and involves butchering, slashing and devastation. It is called crape-a-cide.

What? Never heard of this crime? Neither has the Department of Justice. If you have a crape (also spelled crepe) myrtle, you may have done it, thoughtlessly and needlessly. You know all those garden books and wiser-than-thou neighbors who tell you to mercilessly chop the branches off your crape myrtle tree to promote bloom? Well, I am among a growing number of gardeners who think this is a BAD IDEA, and let me tell you why.

First off, it may seem that severely pruning your crape myrtle back in the winter does promote a flush of bloom in summer. It is true, blooms will be larger, perhaps not more numerous, but there is a cost. Repeated pruning like this does several things:

It ruins the beautiful, natural form of the tree. The tree, instead of growing into its full beauty of form becomes twisted, stunted and develops clubbed ends on the limbs. For the large portion of the year that the tree is bare of leaves and flowers, this is an ungainly and unpleasant sight. The “bone structure” of any tree is important. Also, when in bloom, the severely pruned tree makes an unfortunate umbrella or a lollypop shape.
Many crape myrtles have beautiful bark, another point for fall and winter interest. Severely pruned trees do not develop this bark, or not as well.
When you severely prune any tree, you weaken it. Severe pruning kills off roots, making the tree more vulnerable to drought and high winds. Repeated annual, severe pruning can shorten the life of the tree.

What to do? You can cut off the little seed heads that form every year and do a light shearing. Like all trees, never prune off more than one-third of the branches at a time and do not do this every year. Wait until the tree is fully dormant to prune, say, in January. And, when you make the cut, make sure it is a small cut on the underside of the branch, then cut downwards from the top. This prevents the branch from tearing a long strip of bark onto the tree below the cut. I wince when I see this!!! Such a jagged tear can invite insects and disease and bark death. Some people slap on a little latex paint on newly cut braches, this is up to you. Certainly cut off any suckers forming from the bottom and any crossed or split branches.

Save the Crapes!

Happy gardening!

Short note 2

My lettuces survived the freeze! Just a few freeze burns!
Happy Gardening!

Tonight's lows!

BRRRRR!!!
Just a short note:
14 degrees tonight and 9 tomorrow night? I do not think that my cold frame lettuce will hold up to that! Here’s what I just did- I put two plastic milk jugs full of hot tap water into the cold frame and covered it up with old blankets. I also did the same for two outdoor beds (one of chard, one of lettuce) and covered them up too…and I will repeat this tomorrow if it works tonight! We’ll see if I can save the lettuce! It has been a pleasure to harvest my own lettuce and greens all this winter- I haven’t had to buy lettuce since about August!
Keep warm!