Just a short (but irritated) note about the latest fawning over compost tea. Please, people, as Jeff pointed out nearly two years ago on this blog, just because Harvard (and now Berkeley) buy snake oil it’s not transmogrified into science. Middle America would be better served by using compost as a mulch and letting nature make the tea.
Author: Linda Chalker-Scott
Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott has a Ph.D. in Horticulture from Oregon State University and is an ISA certified arborist and an ASCA consulting arborist. She is WSU’s Extension Urban Horticulturist and a Professor in the Department of Horticulture, and holds two affiliate associate professor positions at University of Washington. She conducts research in applied plant and soil sciences, publishing the results in scientific articles and university Extension fact sheets.
Linda also is the award-winning author of five books: the horticultural myth-busting The Informed Gardener (2008) and The Informed Gardener Blooms Again (2010) from the University of Washington Press and Sustainable Landscapes and Gardens: Good Science – Practical Application (2009) from GFG Publishing, Inc., and How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do from Timber Press (2015). Her latest effort is an update of Art Kruckeberg’s Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest from UW Press (2019).
In 2018 Linda was featured in a video series – The Science of Gardening – produced by The Great Courses. She also is one of the Garden Professors – a group of academic colleagues who educate and entertain through their blog and Facebook pages. Linda’s contribution to gardeners was recognized in 2017 by the Association for Garden Communicators as the first recipient of their Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award.
"The Garden Professors" Facebook page - www.facebook.com/TheGardenProfessors
"The Garden Professors" Facebook group - www.facebook.com/groups/GardenProfessors
Books: http://www.sustainablelandscapesandgardens.com
Podcast #7 – Better Red Than Dead
This week’s podcast is dedicated to anthocyanins – those pigments that give plants red, blue, and purple colors. Anthocyanins are also powerful antioxidants, important visual signals for pollinators, and often deadly to insect pests. The myth of the week explains why red leaves aren’t usually a sign of phosphorus deficiency, but instead an indicator that anthocyanins can help plants survive many environmental stresses.
My interview this week is with Cass Turnbull, founder of PlantAmnesty, a Seattle organization dedicated to “ending the senseless torture and mutilation of trees and shrubs.” My son Jack took the interview photos, and Cass supplied the others from the PlantAmnesty photo archive. You’ll love the way she combines her educational message with humor!
Cass on her “throne”
One of the nonbotanical garden residents
A selection of PlantAmnesty humor
Please let me know what you think of the podcast; you can email me directly or post a comment on the blog. Suggestions for future podcasts are most welcome!
Podcast #6 – Garden Hocus Pocus
Forgive my tardy posting – I spent yesterday traveling from Indianapolis back to Seattle. I was in Indianapolis for the Garden Writers Association annual meeting and gave a talk on “evidence based garden information.” It was encouraging to see how many garden writers DO want reliable sources of good gardening science. And I got to meet Joseph Tychonievich, a frequent commenter on this blog and a PhD student at Michigan State.
Anyway, on to this week’s podcast. The theme is “Garden Hocus Pocus” which just opens the door for so many topics! I settled on opening with the ancient Greek Doctrine of Signatures and how it’s being used today. Then I discuss the function of plant alkaloids a bit, since they have historical use in magic and witchcraft. And the myth of the week is quite similar to the talk I gave at GWA – specifically, how to separate the science from the snake oil.
My interview this week is with plantsman Riz Reyes, who works at the UW Center for Urban Horticulture and collects plants and has a landscaping business and blogs….and he’s not even 30 yet! My daughter Charlotte came along and took some great photos of Riz’s garden. (Thanks, Riz, for identifying all the plants here!)
Riz with Cardiocrinum giganteum var. yunnanense at Kew Gardens
Dahlia ‘Weston Spanish Dancer’
Left to Right: Lilium ‘Miss Lucy’, Petasites x hybridus, and Ulmus glabra ‘Camperdownii’
Lilium ‘Magic Star’
Dahlia ‘Bishop of York’
Linda interviewing Riz out of the rain
Please let me know what you think of the podcast; you can email me directly or post a comment on the blog. Suggestions for future podcasts are most welcome!
Podcast #5 – Selling Sustainability
Everyone (including me) hates how the word “sustainability” has been overused and misused. Yet there are some good concepts associated with the word that can help gardeners make rational decisions about products and practices. This week’s podcast deconstructs sustainability into specific actions that gardeners can easily follow:
- Discovering and nurturing the natural processes that keep your gardens and landscapes healthy and functional
- Choosing plants and products wisely to conserve natural resources
- Creating gardens and landscapes that don’t require constant inputs of packaged fertilizers and pesticides
The podcast illustrates each of these points. First, there’s a research article that demonstrates the benefits of polyculture in growing vegetables. Next, there’s a critical look at a website presenting a “Sustainable Garden Starter Kit: 10 Must-Have Products for the New Green Grower.” Lastly I dispel the myth of “instant landscaping”, which is code for “long term disaster.”
The interview this week is on building your own garden pond. Dr. Jim Scott (PhD in horticulture), turns his talents to the plumbing, electrical work, and aesthetic disguises needed to build a really great garden water feature. Lucky for me, he also happens to be my spouse!
Jim and Linda try to figure out how many years it took to do a week long project
Decks…
…cleverly disguise pump system…
…and filter system
Seasonal guests
Permanent residents (the little orange guys in water)
Please let me know what you think of the podcast; you can email me directly or post a comment on the blog. Suggestions for future podcasts are most welcome!
Podcast #4 – Going Native
Another one in the can! This week the podcast focuses on native plants; I’ve got an interesting research item about using mixtures of native grasses for lawns. You’ll also hear why sometimes native plants might not be the best choice, whether the goal is attracting fruit-eating birds or creating a sustainable urban landscape.
And you will love this week’s interview with Lacia Bailey – Seattle gardener and urban dairy goat maven. Once again I enlisted my son Jack to capture the moment on film:
“I’ll bet that camera is edible, too!”
Lacia and Dalli (the goat who thinks she’s a lap dog)
The goats make short work of most garden and yard waste
My podcasting producer Tina makes some new friends
Chickens are part of the system, too. They eat bugs from the used goat bedding.
Lacia setting up the milking station
Please let me know what you think of the podcast; you can email me directly or post a comment on the blog. Suggestions for future podcasts are most welcome!
Podcast #3 – Plants, Drugs and Rock and Roll
I’m starting to have fun with these! This week the podcast has some fun items about the wide world of plant secondary compounds, which are all those interesting chemicals that aren’t related to the basic building blocks of life (the carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids). Plus there’s a myth segment on how music affects plants – is “acid rock” as bad for plants as it is for young developing brains?
And the highlight is my interview with Robin Haglund – Seattle gardener and urban beekeeper. Both she and Corky Luster, owner of Ballard Bees, describe what it takes to open a bee hotel on a small urban lot. My son Jack took some great photos of Robin’s garden, some of which are below:
Linda, Robin and Corky
Bee fountain
Bee heaven – nectar and lots of water
Corky opens the hive
Bees and honey!
Art and the garden
Please let me know what you think of the podcast; you can email me directly or post a comment on the blog. Suggestions for future podcasts are most welcome!
Cabbage? Audrey II? Or Jeff’s brain?
Too easy! Yes, Friday’s evil grin photo was on a head of cabbage (taken on location for this week’s podcast to be posted tomorrow. So yes, Robin, this is YOUR cabbage!).
I especially liked the more “creative” answers – you guys are fun!
Mauve mystery
Another in our ongoing series of mystery plant parts – what am I?
Answer on Monday!
Podcast #2 – Garden Concoctions
I’m getting my feet under me with podcasting – it’s becoming more fun and less scary. The theme for this one is “Garden Concoctions,” so the Plants in the News and Myth Busting segments are along those lines.
My interview this week is with Maurice Skagen, owner and designer of Soos Creek Botanical Gardens. This 23 acre plant collection has been carefully cultivated over the last 30 years and just recently opened to the public.
A volunteer visits with Maurice
Soos Creek draws visitors of all ages
The pond
The long borders
Clematis canopy over trees
Demonstration vegetable garden
Please let me know what you think of the podcast; you can email me directly or post a comment on the blog. Suggestions for future podcasts are most welcome!
Out of the lead frying pan and into the phosphate fire
A recent NYT post reports that adding fish meal to lead-contaminated soils will cause the lead to bind to phosphate found in fish bones. As the article explains, this chemical reaction results in the formation of pyromorphite, “a crystalline mineral that will not harm anyone even if consumed.”
Given my concerns about excessive phosphate loading in urban soils, I contacted Dr. Rich Koenig, an urban soil scientist and chair of WSU’s Crop and Soil Science department. I wondered, at least, if the article should have directed people to have a soil test done first to determine how much phosphate was already in the soil before adding more.
Dr. Koenig was likewise concerned that the application rate of fish meal was probably far higher than what plants would require, thus increasing the risk of phosphorus leaching and runoff. He also referred my question to Dr. Jim Harsh, a soil chemist in his department familiar with the process described in the article.
And as Dr. Harsh pointed out, it’s important to make lead less susceptible to uptake by people and other animals exposed to contaminated soils. However, he’s unconvinced that phosphate is the best choice; in fact, research by Dr. Sally Brown (cited in the NYT article) and others (including Dr. Harsh) have found that compost containing iron is also able to bind and immobilize lead. The advantage of high iron compost is that iron will not leach into nearby waterways, nor cause the same kinds of plant toxicity problems, as phosphate can.
Thanks to both Dr. Koenig and Dr. Harsh for their quick and informative responses on this topic.