Getting Educated Horticulturally Speaking

I came back from the Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association Conference a little wiser than I was before. Here's a few tidbits of interesting horticulture information:

• The infamous Callery pear was an introduction from the USDA Lab in Beltsville MD. Shame on them. Invasive pears are now ubiquitous around Washington DC. The Mama plant at the lab had to be cut down -- guess why? -- it was falling apart.
• For every 1.8 degree F increase in temperature, our electricity use increases 2.4%. Urban trees are great at cooling the environment and should be used to help reduce energy consumption.
• Sadly, budgets for urban forestry programs are down 40%
• The US has the greatest diversity of ash in the world (and watch out, here comes emerald ash borer)
• The Chicago Botanic Garden was built on a swamp and had to built up in a series of islands. They have a new building which is covered with rooftop gardens which are accessible to the public.
  

Learning a Lot in January

Did you know....

• A Snuggie really does keep you warm and is very handy.
  
• $120 toy from Santa is quickly un-played with 2 days after the big man came
• My 5 year old knows about 15 species of birds by sight -- she is VERY into bird feeding this winter.
• Why chicken manure can sometimes be less seedy than hog or cattle manure? -- only 2% of seed pass through a chicken whereas 25% pass through cattle and hogs.
• They make silicon covers to put over a cat's claws

More useful, horticultural information to come....haha

Who Says Gardening is Over?

On New Year's Day, I harvested a big handful of carrots from my lasagna garden bed at home. Yes, I did, I really did. My daughter is loving them, as are all of us, plus our guinea pig George.
He loves carrots, cucumbers, and lettuce the most. Now, the carrot is twisted like that for good reason. After I sowed the seeds, something dug some holes in my raised bed. I salvaged what I could but it ended up twisting the carrot's roots. Most of the ones I pulled from this bed ended up with a really cool twist.

Very Nippy Night

At about 6:15 am this morning, my thermometer read 5 degrees. That's cold. It took that kind of a night to finally kill (or at least maim) the artichokes (pictured below) and the chard I had planted earlier this year. The thyme doesn't look like it's been hurt at all.


Our small fountain is pretty but the I'm sure the pump is toast.

And lastly, the contorted filbert (Corylus avellana 'Harry Lauder') is really showing off at this time of the year.

Another World

Our family did a very different thing over the Thanksgiving break -- we took a cruise. No hassles with cleaning the house and cooking for relatives (this would be hassles for my mom, not me).

Anyway, our cruise took us to Key West, Cozumel, and Belize. Belize was probably the most interesting place we went. This is relative since we only had about 5 hours in Key West and got totally rained out in Cozumel. Regardless, here are some interesting things about Belize:

• They are a country with about 300,000 people
• They are the only English-speaking central American country
• They make cashew wine

This is the cashew tree (bad picture, taken from a moving boat)

Here's the wine bottle (I was pleasantly surprised by the taste!)

So this has nothing to do with horticulture in Pulaski Co, but just thought I'd share....

What does GREEN really mean?

What should it mean? Is it purely subjective? Maybe, I don't know. These questions are purely rhetorical. Does green mean sustainable?

Is growing organically being green? I think it depends. If I'm using something like Neem, which comes from trees in the Indian sub-continent (Wikipedia), and it must be shipped thousands of miles, is that really the best use of resources? Even if I'm using it on an organic garden in Kentucky? Or bat guano? Disturbing bats causes their numbers to decline, so is that sustainable or green?

Buying bagged compost that was made in Florida? Is that green? Is that sustainable?

What about lawn mowing, string trimmers, and leaf blowers? Today's mowers are gas guzzlers. They consume a large amount of energy and pollute our air with fumes and noise. Should we change the way we mow and trim? Should we demand cleaner gas-powered tools?

Is using manures on your gardens being green? Even if some can potentially carry bad, bad organisms that make humans sick?

I don't know the answers to these questions, they are more to ponder. To think about. To maybe change your idea of green.

Preparing for Winter

We've all heard the phrase 'putting the garden to bed'. I'm not fond of that phrase, really. There is so much activity that takes place in the winter. It can be pretty disruptive. Just think of all the freezing and thawing, frost heaving, all the microbial activity that continues to take place (maybe at a slower rate than summer). The snow, the ice, the cold winter rains. All these help with decomposition of organic matter over the winter.

I've given our garden at the office a nice layer of leaves -- just whatever I could rake up close by.


Then I was given some old straw bales left over from Halloween decorations. I would prefer to know my source of straw since I'd have some idea exactly what type of grasses made it up and -- more importantly -- if it came from a weed-infested field. But beggars can't be choosers.



I can plant right through this straw next spring. The worms should continue to work as it will be relatively warm over the winter with this nice layer on top. I'll take pictures next spring!