One of the potential environmental benefits that came up in our discussion of the pro’s and con’s of turfgrass was carbon sequestration. The basic premise of carbon sequestration is to take CO2 out of the atmosphere and ‘lock it up’ in a form that won’t contribute to further global warming. One of the fallacies floating around these days is that any plant that photosynthesizes, takes up CO2 and thereby sequesters carbon. What we need to realize is that leaves give off CO2 at night via respiration and all non-photosynthetic (non-green) plant parts such as roots and stems give off CO2 virtually all the time. … Continue reading this article “Confessions of a carbon sequestration skeptic”
Month: August 2010
Dog Spots
There is a general misunderstanding among the gardening (and yard owning) community about dog spots. It seems that some people believe that dog spots occur because of a high or low pH or because of some sort of poison in a dog’s urine, but that really isn’t the case at all. Dog spots occur because of something that I pointed out a few weeks ago in another post. Urine contains a lot of nitrogen. When a dog pees on your lawn that extra nitrogen isn’t used and so ends up being poisonous to the grass which is peed upon. … Continue reading this article “Dog Spots”
Why won’t landscapers use mulch?
A few weeks ago I was in Olympia (it misses you Bert!) reviewing grant applications. As I tend to do whenever I have time and my camera, I set out in search of gardening goofs that evening. Here’s the edge of a relatively new commercial site I discovered:
OK, not too bad so far. We’ve got a nice stone mulch next to the curb, then a lovely groundcover, in flower, that also functions as a living mulch. … Continue reading this article “Why won’t landscapers use mulch?”
Quiz Plant Revealed
Ha ha hahahaha
*mad scientist-type cackling*
Purslane? Nyet! (but good guess).
It’s an Impatien! Specifically, Impatien repens, common names variously Ceylon Jewelweed, Golden Dragon Impatien, etc. Ours is actually pretty small – can form huge clumps and cascading torrents in warmer zones.
Flower is typical of many members of the genus, and they ALL have the little spur in the rear.
For more weird, wild species impatiens, visit the Cistus Nursery website (I’m pretty sure they used to sell this, but I don’t see it listed currently). … Continue reading this article “Quiz Plant Revealed”
Quiz Plant!
Ooooh, this is a good one.
Factoids:
– Tropical, but doing well in our campus garden (Blacksburg, VA).
– Succulent stems; alternate, lima bean-shaped leaves.
– Rampant scampering.
– Very cute yellow flowers. (Hee hee, that really won’t help.)
– I hesitate to say this, ’cause it may just give it away: a couple of other members of this genus are common as mud.
Guesses, anyone? Or maybe this one’s already common as mud for you Pacific Northwesterners…
(and P-Dub, do refrain until others have had a chance 😉
I’ll post the "D’oh!"… Continue reading this article “Quiz Plant!”
Is brown the new green?
An acquaintance of mine (not coincidentally, an irrigation supplier) brought to my attention a recent editorial from USA today by Laura Vanderkam, entitled ‘’Out of Fashion: Green Lawns.” http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-08-17-column17_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip#uslPageReturn The basic premise of the editorial is that we Americans are ruining the environment by maintaining lawns. Now, to be sure, there is plenty of room for improvement in lawn and landscape maintenance, particularly in terms of water management and pesticide use. But, for better or worse, Americans love their lawns. … Continue reading this article “Is brown the new green?”
Dying dogwood diagnosis
Lots of good, thoughtful answers from you over the weekend about these trees. Here’s another photo from a bit farther away:
As Laura pointed out, there’s a relatively new parking lot here. The creation of the parking lot both compacted the surrounding root zone, then covered it with impermeable surface. The dogwoods are huddled on their little island, which is unirrigated, unmulched, and indeed hot in the summer as Daniel said. All of these environmental insults, in addition to the mature age of these trees, have led to what we call a “mortality spiral”: trees are environmentally stressed and then become more susceptible to opportunistic pests and diseases. … Continue reading this article “Dying dogwood diagnosis”
The dilemma of the dying dogwood
Here’s a photo of two mature dogwood trees that are obviously on their way out:
What happened? There’s been no construction in the area since the parking lot was paved several years ago.
Answer on Monday!
Lungs and Plants
As a third grader I distinctly remember my teacher telling our class about how it was bad to smoke because the smoke would make your lungs filthy. She used her aunt as an example. It seems that this aunt was a heavy smoker. One day this aunt was eating popcorn and accidently inhaled a piece. About 6 months or so after she inhaled it she coughed it up and it looked like a little piece of tar. … Continue reading this article “Lungs and Plants”
A ground cover I just love
I’m a particular fan of ground covers, especially those that replace bare soil or synthetic mulches (plastics, fabrics, and the sciency-sounding “geotextiles”). That enthusiasm is tempered, however, by those invasive species, like members of Hedera, that seem to take over the world (or at least my little corner of it). So while logic might dictate a preference for native species, I can’t help but love Rubus hayata-koidzumii (often mislabeled as Rubus calycinoides), and commonly called creeping raspberry.… Continue reading this article “A ground cover I just love”