The Platform Of The Garden Party

Who says there's no platform for gardeners as the prevailing winds whip this country intro frenzy?

Kitchen Gardeners International -- a non-profit founded in Maine 8 yrs ago by a gent named Roger Doiron -- has hooked up with eBay to sell virtual plots of the First Lawn. Why? After repeated readings of its press material, I see it's a fund-raising campaign for KGI programs, a call to turn front lawns into kitchen gardens, and a way to galvanize interest in convincing the next president to grow food on the underused, over-preened White House lawn.

Roger Doiron, founder of the Maine-based Kitchen Gardeners International, is using this cheeky campaign to petition our next president for a quarter-acre garden on the White House lawn.

photo credit: Eat The View

 

I fear the campaign suffers from confusion. We've got the virtual lawn sale, the Eat the View petition plus the challenge of interacting with eBay if that's not something you ordinarily do.

But at heart, no gardener will argue with KGI's mission statement, "to achieve greater levels of food self-reliance through the promotion of kitchen gardening, home-cooking, and sustainable local food systems".

Besides, if you're feeling disenfranchised as a green thumb voter, here's a place to put your muscle, your shovel and your vote.

As far as the precedent of growing veges on the big house's turf, the last time it was dug up and planted was in 1943, when victory gardener Eleanor Roosevelt grew carrots and beans. Here's a juicy article on the subject by the well-known victory gardener, Barbara Damrosch.

Check out a video after the jump...

Continue reading "The Platform Of The Garden Party" »

11:16 AM ET | 09- 5-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Another Mystery Solved

We've just had a query from DillyBean over at our discussion group about mystery plants and with a little help from our friends over at Timber Press (what? you don't know about this outstanding horticultural publisher?), we have lift-off.

This volunteer showed up in DillyBean's Oregon garden. The telling clue was its seed pod, "covered by a paper husk, much like a tomatillo". Any ideas, she asked? Don't eat it, we answer. This is the shoo-fly plant, Nicandra physaloides, a day-blooming relative of Jimson weed with similarly poisonous parts.

photo credit: DillyBean

 

Based on some elemental surfing, it would appear the shoo-fly plant is inordinately fond of Illinois, since few other states (w/the exception of California) have websites showing where this weedy non-native has naturalized. After planting it voluntarily, Chicago gardener Mr. Brown Thumb has since decided to nip his in the bud.

Nicandra physaloides is hardly poised to take over the planet, and if you can look past its coarse leaves, the flowers and the dried seed husks are quite ornamental. I found a nice assortment of comments about the plant posted on the U.K. website, Plants For A Future. And should you want a variegated form (who am I to judge?) check out Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Oh yeah, about this "shoo, fly!" thing. The plant's reported to have insect-repelling properties, particularly against white fly.

7:59 PM ET | 09- 2-2008 | permalink | comments (2) | e-mail post

Cat, Roof, Neighbor, Ladder, Labor Day

It's 5:30 am Labor Day morning and I hear Lulah crying. Which is odd, because I let her out at 4:30am and left the door open for her return. The crying continues so I get out of bed and check all exits/entrances. No Lulah, more crying. It takes me a few minutes, but finally I find her.

Lulah against a morning sky with the delicate silhouette of Sophora microphylla, but we're not talking plants this morning, we're talking Lulah's inexplicable trip to the roof in what is the first time in our four years together.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Now it's 6:00 am and I take out my only ladder. It's completely inadequate, i.e., total crap. I briefly consider getting out on the ledge below the roof to keep Lulah company, but having recently fallen down my own back stairs only to land on the basement concrete floor, I reluctantly forgo the risk.

I decide to e-mail my neighbor Paul, an early-waking walker who, like me, is often online. Never have I been more grateful for the invention of the Blackberry. Paul gets my message and goes into action.

Paul Anthony, generous neighbor and dependable early riser; elapsed time between distress call and response, 10 minutes.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Lulah, bless her, stays put while we prepare for her rescue. For a moment I think she looks amused, but she's not that cerebral. Certainly she's stopped mewing and is no longer pacing in distress.

And so I ascend to her rescue on this well-named labor day. No doubt you'd like to see a better picture of our happy protagonists, but one of them had seriously bad bedhead.

photo credit: Paul Anthony

 

9:28 AM ET | 09- 1-2008 | permalink | comments (16) | e-mail post

Stumped No More

Eileen Vennum sent in a pix of a mystery plant she and her husband have been seeing in spring along the roads of east Texas. Before reading any further, wanna hazard a guess?

Nice to know that healthy stands of native elderberry are thriving along the roads of east Texas. But what am I missing: can anyone tell me why the county mowed it down a week after this pix was taken? A plant that feeds countless birds and deer?

photo credit: Eileen Vennum

 

The answer's Sambucus canadensis, good old elderberry, a beloved and sentimental native plant used for everything from pies and wines to whistles. Chances are just about everything you want to know about elderberries you can find here.

So what else you got for us, folks? We love playing matchmaker, introducing you to the mystery plants in your world.

10:49 AM ET | 08-28-2008 | permalink | comments (0) | e-mail post

No Stump Speech, Just Stump Me

One of the on-going discussion groups at the Talking Plant Flickr site has focused on that age-old gardening question, "What the hell is that plant?". Thanks to the page's moderator and TP's best friend Andy Carvin, we've had some interesting species pop up for identification now and again.

TP flickr member Live Now posted this to the stumped page to see what might turn up. The answer, with help from Mike in Oregon: the fluffy seedheads from our native western pasqueflower, Anemone occidentalis. Isn't it a hoot? The mountain in the background is the ever-spectacular Mt. Rainier, which I will go to my grave never being able to pronounce.

photo credit: Live Now

 

I expect you'll be seeing a lot more peculiar seed heads, fruits and unusual late-blooming flowers -- or perhaps you've got a file of stuff you're still wondering about -- in which case, consider this an invitation to post your unidenfied flora and if I can't figure it out, no doubt one of our community can.

You can either post your pix here (with a few useful hints, please!, like location and season pix was taken) or send me an e-mail with jpg attached and again, as much info as you can recall.

OFFER IS LIMITED, PLANT GEEKS STANDING BY...

11:26 AM ET | 08-27-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Your Views On Plants

As summer marches on, our legions of Talking Plants Flickr Pix members continue to document moments in both their own and in other peoples' gardens. Most folks are enamoured with macro shots so we've got a lot of sexy plant porn, but I've also noticed some nice one-word captions that help transform a pix into a story. And I do like stories.

Once TP regular Blathanna called this, "Hanging On", her photograph took on a poignancy that reminded me of a much-loved piece of art on my own wall. It's a charcoal drawing of an elephant in a fanciful kind of harnass, hanging mid-air; I wasn't sure why it spoke to me till I saw the title, "Reluctant Departure". Then, I cried. Turned out the artist Christine Bourdette created it during the last days in the life of her beloved dog. Does "Hanging On" speak to you?

photo credit: Blathanna

 

Another recent post by a TP photographer I'm less familiar with, djFargo, gained a little something with the addition of a title. It's a good picture of a moment in time that takes place every year, every place, coast to coast -- but with little fanfare.

"Awakening" may not be a new take on emerging buds, but the title did make me take a second look. With a little imagination -- and whatever else gets you through the night -- you can see the slow-mo unfolding and awakening sepals yawning on a brand new day.

photo credit: djFargo

 

OK, enough with the corny stuff. Thanks to the more than 400 of you! who are playing in our Flickr pool. I would enjoy getting a wider perspective on your growing, ageing, drying or dying garden. As always, all stages of beauty and decay are welcome here.

11:04 AM ET | 08-26-2008 | permalink | comments (1) | e-mail post

Major American Nursery Headed For Obits

Flappers were all the rage when Hines Nursery first opened its doors. That was a whole lot of management decisions ago. Looks like the octogenarian brand may not weather its last one; Hines Nurseries has filed for bankruptcy.

Though no one likes to see good people lose jobs, I did get some perspective on the bright side of the huge wholesale nursery's failure from The Blogging Nurseryman, the blog of California nursery owner, Trey Pitsenberger.

Evidentally, over the last year, Hines employees have been leaving comments on his blog about what's going on in their company. The bottom line? In turning its back on local nurseries and selling out to big box stores, the nursery got what it deserved.

"I know that at Home Depot," Pitsenberger wrote, "vendors like Hines don't get paid until the product is sold at the retail level. If the plants remain unsold for any reason, Home Depot does not pay. Considering the care plants receive at my local Home Depot I am not surprised that there are many unsold plants."

Perusing the comments on his site, Roger Dodger - who clearly works in the field - wrote this:

"Wake Up Call here people, STAY AWAY from the BOX stores if you want to stay in the business. Make those one-on-one relationships with the Indy folks, grow what they want and sell it at a price that they can also make a profit".

I haven't gotten into the nursery business much in this blog, but being a long supporter of both independent and niche nurseries, I ain't shedding tears.

11:01 AM ET | 08-25-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post

Fear of Pruning

Pruning. It strikes a certain terror in those of us who love our plants and can't face doing anything that might harm, disfigure or discourage them. You know who you are. Funny, though, I never thought I was one of you until I hit a brick wall concerning my sorely overgrown manzanita.

Behold the glorious manzanita in question, a selection of Arctostaphylos pajaroensis with armies of pink flowers in early spring, wondrous year-round foliage and rich mahogany-colored bark. Of course you can't see the bark here, nor can you safely walk down the sidewalk, both reasons why I had to admit powerlessness and submit to the higher power of talented friends. (That's Geof Beasley, I took you to his garden party a few weeks ago.)

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

With a big party of my own coming up this Labor Day Wkend, I knew it was time to tackle my exuberantly happy plant. Note that I didn't obsess over whether it was the right time of year to prune it; I've long gotten over that. Instead, I was taught years ago that the best time to prune a plant is when you're standing in front of it with clippers in your hand. Otherwise, the seasons roll by and the years roll by and before you know it the plant's so out of scale that all you're left with is the most drastic option. File under do what I say, etc....

Meet the team: Geof, Kate Bryant and Len Porter. All three are plant nerds with excellent senses of humor which also enable them to survive clients as professional gardeners and garden designers.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

The crew assembled two days ago during an uncharacteristically rainy summer day (I am not being facetious). The four of us discussed our options, everyone voting for their approach of choice. Ultimately, all our opinions came into play and we let loose on this wonderful specimen that -- none could deny -- had to be lassoed, even if the result (gulp) might be loss of life. Not immediately, but I'm aware it could happen, which is exactly the kind of trouble you can get into when you put off regular pruning.

Talk about a makeover team. We've got three very different approaches going on here which you'd think would be a recipe for disaster. But every couple of minutes -- particularly when I screamed, Wait! Stop! -- the team stepped back, observed, walked around the shrub, reassessed and again had at it. Kate did take a picture of me but the very obvious word coming out of my mouth is not for prime time.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine

 

Now don't expect to be wowed by the "After" shot; truth is, after two hours of four people pruning both this and several other shrubs, my garden actually looks relatively untouched. That gives you some idea of how exuberant it's become this summer, and as readers of this blog know, there's a good reason: the call of the wildflowers. No regrets here.

Hard to believe, but a lot of wood came out of this shrub. The inside has been considered opened up (the bark is now visible), the sidewalk is safer, and the long-term plan is for it to grow up and over, not straight out. More pruning will be needed next year. photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

Now for an invitation you do NOT want to turn down: if you're concerned about what/what not to prune right now, operators with answers are standing by...

1:17 PM ET | 08-22-2008 | permalink | comments (5) | e-mail post

Xeriscaping Still Gets Bad Rap

Yet again, the art of landscaping with minimal watering takes a hit. In a lushly photographed New York Times article with the yummy title, A Sustainability That Aims To Seduce, author Stephen Orr paraphrases (note emphasis) a few landscape architects as suggesting that xeriscaping can result in "dusty summer yards full of scrappy native species".

I'm not bashing the landscape architects or Orr, per se. The article's thesis is that even people who can afford hiring landscape architects are increasingly environmentally sensitive, and even landscape architects (long-maligned for their lack of expertise/imagination in using plants) are integrating xeric principles and celebration of place into their designs.

What gets me is the lack of acknowledgement that the days of "scrappy native species" are also over. These days, people who love plants and live in hot, dry areas now have unbelievable choices. It's a revolution in gardenworthy species that began in New Mexico with David Salman's High Country Gardeners, and continues around the country and the world.

It's a solid-enough article for the NYT, but if you're not among the privileged and the monied -- who often seem to lack the great, good sense that they have to share the planet -- this last quote may stick in your throat.

... the message of conservation and environmental responsibility cannot be couched in punitive terms if it is to succeed. "People shouldn't have to make a choice between beauty and sustainability," Ms. Cochran said. "Our work is designed so that I am able to say to our clients during a presentation, 'Oh, and by the way, its also sustainable.' "

11:25 AM ET | 08-21-2008 | permalink | comments (7) | e-mail post

Cold Water, Happy Salmon and Hungry Deer

Lying in a mountain river on a 100 degree day turns out to an excellent reason to live. Who knew? The secret is long underwear, fleece and a well-fitted dry suit. The ability to think or swim are optional.

Meet my guide into the glories of mountain rivers, Mary Edwards, who is executing a difficult maneuver known as letting it all go. Mary had indeed put in an arduous day, photographing often elusive salmon in eastern Oregon's Lostine River.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine, NPR

 

I don't have much to say about the aquatic plants in the Lostine River. Didn't see anything that turned my head. Admittedly, the competition was stiff: sunlit pools, bright orange stones, bubbles of clear blue water. Oh, and the reason we went to the Lostine River: spawning salmon.

No, those are not big dogs, those are little does who are standard issue in the front yards of the botanically-challenged residents of Joseph, OR.

photo credit: Ketzel Levine

I have lots of great tape and a few darn good pix from my recent visit with fish biologist Mary Edwards, gathered for a Morning Edition story you'll get to hear in the next few weeks. But I've little to feed your appetite for tales of chlorophyllic glory, since it was just too hot to hike.

However, I did snap this wee pix outside Mary's house in Joseph, OR., where she does her best to grow flora despite the fauna.

Dare I even invite response on the subject of gardening with deer? You game?

8:25 PM ET | 08-19-2008 | permalink | comments (4) | e-mail post