Am just heading out the door for Fairfax, Virginia – part of the greater Northern Virginia metro area, with traffic that scares the pants off of us country mice. I’m doing the Master Gardener training for the Fairfax Master Gardener Association. Their attendance is so huge, they have to split into a morning session (150 people) and an evening session (100+). Two and a half hours of training on “herbaceous plants” twice in one day – that’s a lot of yakking even for yours truly. But what a terrific group. I led the herbaceous sessions in 2007 and was impressed at the diversity of age, ethnicity, levels of knowledge, you name it. A complete cross-section of the area, all with the common desire to learn. Merrifield Garden Center generously (and brilliantly) hosts the training in their large meeting room. Alas, after we all get worked up over the fab perennials, annuals, and tropicals, there’s not much to buy this time of year.
I’ve written about the tremendous contribution of volunteer hours that Master Gardeners make to our state. As the budget axe drops hither and thither, Extension programs always seem to be at risk. All of the Garden Professors have noted their own state’s struggles with such. Here’s the (slightly) brighter side, though – the Fairfax Master Gardener Association receives no funding from federal, state, or local government. Just some training materials from Extension Same with most of the other associations across the state. Not much to cut, really. In turn, it was calculated that MG volunteers across the state reported 334,000 hours of service for 2009. That’s a pretty good return on very little investment from the state. Heck, I don’t even have an Extension appointment. But I’m a believer in the MG system, and want to help in whatever way I can, even if it means leaving the peaceful mountains and driving to Northern Virginia. A bit of a bonus is there’s really good shopping up there. Heh.
Category: Just do it
Proposed phosphate fertilizer ban
Today I received an email alerting members of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests to a proposed ban on phosphate-containing fertilizers in the state of Washington. Here’s part of the text of the email (I’ve removed underlining, bolding, highlighting etc. so this reads as objectively as possible):
“Concerns with the HB 1271 & SB 5194 banning the sale of fertilizer containing phosphorous:
1) The intent section contains scientifically inaccurate statements, creating a false precedent that turf fertilizer is a significant surface water pollutant and is not necessary for a healthy lawn.
2) It grants the authority to regulate fertilizer sales and use to the Department of Ecology (Currently, the Department of Agriculture regulates fertilizer content and registers it for sale.)
3) It changes the definition of fertilizer used by the Department of Agriculture, creating confusion.
4) It is inconsistent and will be ineffective because it exempts “natural organic sources.” Organic products are high in phosphorous. The ecosystem cannot tell the difference. All fertilizer should be regulated equally.
5) It fails to recognize the expertise of trained lawn care professionals, who should not be prohibited from providing quality service to their customers, including publicly owned golf courses, parks, and sports fields.
6) As written, it bans the use of phosphorous fertilizer for forestry, house plants, shrub beds, golf courses, sports fields and other uses. It is unclear as to private commercial property.
7) It bans the sale of phosphorous fertilizer for flower and vegetable gardens, forestry, house plants, shrub beds, golf courses, sports fields, and many other uses.
8) It bans retailers, including farm stores and ag dealers, from displaying any type of fertilizer containing phosphorous.
9) It fails to address the primary causes of impaired water quality. Regulating something because it’s easy without addressing root causes of the problem accomplishes nothing.”
So, readers and colleagues, do a little homework over the weekend. Look at the bill itself (both the house and senate bills are the same; the link is for the house bill). Are these nine concerns valid? Discuss.
Annual reporting – and you can help!
As many of you know, we Garden Professors justify our existence as faculty members every year through annual reporting. Blogging is one of the newer educational opportunities that most university systems haven’t quite figured out how to measure and evaluate.
So we’re taking matters into our own hands. I’ve created a short survey to assess our effectiveness in outreach education in the blogosphere.
The more feedback we get, the easier it is for us to make the case for continuing this effort. (And feel free to suggest other questions or metrics we should include. This is a first attempt on my part to create this feedback tool.)
Thank you all for a great year!
Fertilizers, crops and landscapes
Last week Jeff wrote about the dangers of using “balanced” fertilizers, especially in reference to phosphorus content. Comments quickly followed about using fertilizers in many situations – on farms, in container plants, on trees – and so on. One of the latest comments came from Nick and began “I don’t usually recommend fertilizer for perennials or woody plants to consumers. In most cases they aren’t needed.” And this leads into today’s topic.
Many of the horticultural practices we use in our gardens and landscapes have, unfortunately, been derived from agricultural crop production. Whether you’re growing a field of wheat, garden tomatoes, or containerized shrubs your goal is maximizing crop production. By its nature, this is an unsustainable practice because it requires continual inputs of water and nutrients at higher levels than would naturally occur.
But this is not how you should care for landscape trees and shrubs, and why Nick’s comment was a good one. You don’t need to routinely add fertilizer to these plants; they don’t need it to grow normally. What we should be doing in landscapes is preventing nutrient deficiencies. Once you have a soil test in hand, you’ll know what nutrients may be too low (or too high) and how soil pH will affect that. For most of us, this may involve occasionally adding one of a few nutrients (most commonly nitrogen), or perhaps acidifying the soil to improve nutrient availability.
How do you know when to add nitrogen to established landscape plants? Let your foliage do the talking. If leaves are uniformly yellow, small and sparse, you might have a nitrogen deficiency. This will be most common in the mid to late summer, when plants are growing most rapidly and competing with one another for resources. Be sure this symptom is wide-spread, however. If it’s just one plant showing deficiency symptoms, it’s probably not a landscape issue.
“Leave” Them Alone…Adventures in Extension Podcasting
We’re on the topic of communication this week…how can Extension personnel communicate best with their audience/stakeholders. It used to be via racks of Xeroxed “Fact Sheets” at your local Extension office. A few of these are said to still exist, but with states gutting their extension budgets, the costs of printing have become prohibitive. And more critically…where do YOU go for information? A musty file full of handouts? Heck no. Electronic media is tailor-made for extension. It’s virtually free, easily updated, and reaches a vast majority of clients. Bert already covered YouTube, as well as posted the BEST extension video ever, courtesy of Utah State. So I shall not be redundant.
At Virginia Tech, we have some folks utilizing the Power of Podcasts to communicate whatever point they’re trying to make. Dr. Mike Goatley, our Turf Extension Specialist, has done especially well with the technology. He presents practical advice in a very user-friendly package. He nearly always cites relevant research. The information presented in the audio file (MP3) is also available in some sort of text format, whether a fact sheet, script, or PowerPoint handout, often with hot links to the research literature cited. You don’t even need an iPod; just click on the link and your media player of choice will open and play the audio.
For today’s example, I’ve selected one of my favorite Goatley-casts… his guide to lawn leaf management entitled “Leave Them Alone.” Effective, informative, and very convincing…all in 4 minutes. Take a look and listen here…
Mike demonstrates with his mulching mower. The safety glasses are a nice touch. I wouldn’t have thought of that.
So what to plant under power lines?
I’m going to add a bit more to Bert’s discussion. Through the efforts of Dr. Eric Wiseman of Urban Forestry at Virginia Tech, we have a
Utility Line Arboretum (ULA). Modeled after Dr. Bonnie Appleton’s original ULA for Virginia at the Hampton Roads research station, Eric’s includes many woody taxa suitable for planting in the vicinity of power lines (see a nice list of Bonnie’s favorite power-line-friendly taxa here).
Eric came to me with his plan in 2006 and we found some space in our Hahn Horticulture Garden to get it going. Funding came through from both the Virginia Department of Forestry and the USDA. He’s now up to 50+ specimens, including a “no-no” tree for a demonstration of relative size. The Urban Forestry Club students maintain the site and Eric uses the ULA for both education and outreach. Our hort garden visitors are free to wander through the well-labeled display. Interesting story: obviously, this would be more effective with a faux power line for scale, like Bonnie has at Hampton Roads. Our campus architect said “heck no.” Apparently Virginia Tech has gone to great lengths and expense to get all power lines/utilities below ground. And the ULA is adjacent to the much-visited baseball field.
That’s Eric on the right, demonstrating proper planting techniques.
Our Horticulture department has a great relationship with Forestry; especially the Urban Forestry section. Their students take our Landscape Establishment and Urban Horticulture courses and we encourage our landscape contracting students to take Arboriculture. Several are minoring in Urban Forestry (or vice-versa). Just thought I’d share a nice success story – one that should make Bert’s maligned arborists happy!
Water is the answer!
Wildlife week continues! My humble experience with my own gardens past and present, as well as our campus garden, is that the presence of water virtually guarantees the presence of wildlife. One of the National Wildlife Federation’s top requirements for becoming a Certified Wildlife Habitat is “supply water” (another requirement: "$20 fee"). Water is, of course, the beverage of choice for most animals (though I did hear of a squirrel that preferred beer). And some creatures require it as a substrate in which to reproduce (that sounded a bit clinical). Unfortunately, the popularity of water gardening, according to garden trend surveys and such, peaked in the late 1990’s and has decreased since. I’d imagine this goes hand in hand with the desire for “no maintenance” landscapes. Whatever. I will not have a garden without moving water in it.
Our first pond-building experience. Dig 11′ x 16 hole with concentric steps. Place excess soil behind pond to create stream/falls/unintended volcano. Line, add river stone and gravel. Add water and LOTS of plants to disguise said volcano.
Voila.
True story that has nothing to do with wildlife*: We put this house up for sale one spring when the garden was kickin’. Within 10 minutes of the Realtor putting the sign out front, a truck drove up. The couple walked straight to the pond (at this point outfitted with a spiffy patio) and said "We’ll take it." I said "don’t you want to see the inside of the house?" and the young woman responded "Sure, I guess we need to." Sold it at 99% of asking price. Never underestimate the value of landscaping!!!
Back on topic…The sound of moving water is an essential part of the experience for me. Makes pulling weeds in the vicinity almost pleasant. Fish, tadpoles, snails, and salamanders populate our wee pond.
"Burrdurrrrp."
Watching the birds bath on the shallow gravel beach is delightful. The pump runs all winter, keeping the water moving and mostly open. I’m pretty sure that in the dead of winter, it’s the only unfrozen water source for quite a distance, judging from the multitude of critter tracks in the snow.
Water makes a garden more pleasant, adds value to our home, and increases the odds of survival for the wildlife during the toughest times of drought and cold. Now get digging.
*Actually, there was a wildlife-related incident…when the buyer’s Realtor took them down the exterior steps to inspect the cellar, he reached inside the door and put his hand on a 5′ long black snake wrapped around the light switch. That was almost a deal-breaker. Point being…if you create a wildlife-friendly yard, they will come. All of them.
When You Gotta Go, Go Green
Here’s a bit of the fact-filled, intrepid reporting we at Garden Professors are pleased to provide.
Just back from a visit/droolfest to Pennsylvania’s "Golden Triangle" of horticulture: Swarthmore’s Scott Arboretum, Chanticleer, and Longwood Gardens.
At closing time on Saturday, I was wandering through the cavernous halls of the Longwood conservatory, looking for either my travel companion John Greenlee (Mr. American Meadow Garden), or the restroom. Found one, then followed the signs to the other…
Whoa.
And it keeps going, way on around the bend.
Unveiled just a week prior, the green wall system was designed by GSky Plant Systems. At a little over 4,000 square feet with 47,000 plants, it’s now the largest green wall in North America.
The modular panel system is very clever:
Plants are held in place by a geotextile surrounding a fiber substrate. Computer-controlled drip irrigation is woven throughout the entire structure.
Except for the glass ceiling, the corridor is subterranean. Perhaps because it was closing time and mostly empty, we found it just a tiny bit unsettling. John flailed about, muttering something like "Soylent Green is people!"
Anyhoo, it was very grand and inspiring. In case you’re wondering what was behind all those shiny steel doors:
Folks, you can’t get this kind of in-depth information on just ANY garden blog…
A lawn alternative we can support: Conifers!
As many of the blog readers are aware, I do a lot of writing about conifers. In the process I mingle with members of the American Conifer Society or ‘ACS’ for short -although some wag has suggested that ACS actually stands for Addicted Conifer Syndrome, such is the devotion of these enthusiasts for their beloved conifers. A couple weekends ago I was privileged to attend the first ever ACS ‘Illinois Conifer Rendezvous’ hosted by Rich and Susan Eyre, owners of Foxwillow Pines nursery in Woodstock, IL. Rich and Susan are a wonderful, enthusiastic couple and conifer addicts of the first degree. Their nursery boasts one of the largest assemblages of rare and unusual conifers anywhere in the country. The program for the ‘Conifer rendezvous’ included speakers and tour of the nursery. The highlight for me, however, was the tour of a couple of local homes featuring outstanding conifer gardens; including the home of Rich’s 92-year-old mother Margaret Eyre. Margaret is an incredibly energetic woman with a passion for hostas and philanthropy (see the Heifer International link on the Foxwillow Pine website http://www.richsfoxwillowpines.com/). Margaret decided years ago to dispose of her lawnmower – no small feat since her house sits among homes with vast expanses of lawn typical of the sprawling suburbia that radiates from Chicago. What to do without a lawnmower? Plant plastic turf? Margaret had other another idea…
Margaret Eyre’s conifer haven sits like an oasis in the Chicagoland suburban sprawl
I didn’t get an exact count, but I’d estimate Margaret has about 80 to 100 specimens tucked away on a standard-sized city lot. Most are dwarf or unusual conifers, though several are full sized trees. No need for a lawn mower here.
Pseudolarix amabilis Golden larch
Abies lasiocarpa Subalpine fir off of Margaret Eyre’s back deck
Mixing forms, textures, and colors provides a study in contrasts
In addition Margaret Eyre’s place we toured the home of John and Margaret Havlis. The Havlis’ landscape is quite large – a couple acres – and shows what conifers and a little creativity can accomplish.
Conifer border around the Havlis backyard. Note the winter deer protection for new specimens.
Recurved needles on Abies koreana ‘Silberlocke’
Microbiota decussata Russian cypress. Conifers in this part of the garden are set of by hardscaping that imitates a dry creek-bed.
Dig it up and give it another chance!
Too often I’ve come across relatively young trees, shrubs, and vines that are surviving, but not thriving. Every year they struggle gamely to put on a few new leaves, grow a few more inches, but something’s fishy and it’s not fertilizer. Today I’m going to try to convince you to give these languishing woody species a second lease on life.
Long-time readers of this blog will remember some of the root horrors I’ve (literally) uncovered in containerized and balled-and-burlapped plants. Poor root quality, improperly amended soil, roots swaddled in multiple layers of materials, and root crowns sunk far below grade are some of the most common reasons why roots fail to establish after transplanting.
Fall can be a great time to correct these problems. For deciduous species, it’s best to wait until the leaves have fallen so that water needs are reduced. You can find basic instructions on how to install and care for woody plants on my web page.
There are other reasons that plants might not establish, too. You might remember my long-suffering Clematis, two which had been planted in an area with a perched water table. The lack of oxygen both retarded root growth and created an iron toxicity problem. I dug them up and transplanted them into containers (during which I had even more fun with overmixing the soil with water and then allowing the undersides of the leaves to sunburn). They were pretty sorry looking back in July – most of the leaves fell off after being burnt – but here they are just two months later:
So while you’re out putting your landscape to bed for the winter, take a close look for stragglers. Give their roots another shot at survival – you’ll be glad you did.