Stories – Page 6 – The Garden Professors™

Is there any future for a scientifically-sound gardening magazine?

(You’ll see two posts from me today. This first one is easier to do at 6 a.m.)

One of the efforts I’ve been involved with is serving as science editor (and writer) for MasterGardener Magazine. We started this quarterly publication in 2007 (take a look at it online at it here) – not just for Master Gardeners, but for anyone interested in sustainable gardens and landscapes. Sadly, the publication went to an annual issue last year because of the economic downturn and now may be eliminated altogether.

Yes, this is a Washington state publication so when native plants discussed they are local natives. But the information itself is applicable no matter where you live. We had hoped at one time to offer regional issues, so that the magazine would have a local flavor.

Anyway, the publishers are no longer willing to carry a loss on the magazine. What they really need are advertisers.

Any suggestions out there? Most useful will be ideas that I can do from my computer or phone.

A thought about Invasive Plants

Recently there was an article published in the journal Science (widely considered one of the most prestigious science journals in the world) by two professors who I knew while I attended college in Pennsylvania (Franklin and Marshall College — Anyone ever heard of it?). I found this article particularly interesting because it explained how the beautiful Pennsylvania scenery that we assume is natural was actually created over the course of three hundred years. Saw mills and dams changed water flow patterns — those pretty streams that flow through the Southeastern PA (and nearby areas) that I grew up in aren’t natural at all.

Of course this is just another thing that we’ve done to make this country different from what it was when people first came here. We’ve also farmed the heck out of the land, built large industrial areas and, on top of that, there’s the issue of global warming (which, for the sake of this post, we’ll assume is caused by humans), increased carbon dioxide in the air, decreased top soil and forest land (mostly because of the farming), and a general increase in soil, water and air pollutants.

So, with all that said, It seems to me that we’ve done a lot of things to change the environment. With all that we’ve done why are we so upset when some plants, which we call “invasive” thrive in these settings? It’s not their fault that they do well in the conditions we’ve created. Sometimes I feel like we’ve built this great big smorgasbord of lutefisk (fish treated with lye — it’s pretty nasty) and then get angry when only people who grew up eating this type of fish come to the party.

I’m not trying to promote invasive plants — And I’ll be the first to admit that this post is oversimplifying the whole question of invasives — Still, it irks me sometimes that we aren’t more concerned about the environment where we plant our greenery rather than the plants themselves who, after all, are just feeding on the smorgasbord that we’ve created.

Notice Any Similarities to Compost Tea?

Linda sent me a link to This Comic the other day. Funny stuff — and not a little bit analagous to our friends who think that compost tea is the cats meow!

I think about these things as I peer into my coffee cup…

This winter, we’re working on renovating part of the campus Hort Garden. We’re tossing around lots of ideas/themes, but I’m leaning towards a garden full of “Plants with a Purpose”. Edible, fiber-producing, medicinal…you get my drift. Which brings me to today’s bloggerific topic: beverages.

Mankind has, throughout history, infused or fermented just about every species of flora in an effort to get either perked up or calmed down. These plant potions are often classified anthropologically as, ahem, “ceremonial beverages”. The species that we currently rely on for our daily ups and downs are not native to North America. But that’s not always been the case.

Way before the joys of coffee hit these shores, there was the Yaupon holly (and I am partial to hollies). This thicket-forming evergreen shrub likes “wet feet” and is usually found in marshy areas in the piedmont and coastal plains of the southeast. Translucent red berries grace the female plants in winter – hollies are dioecious, meaning male and female flowers reside on separate plants. The fact that Yaupon is one of few native plants to contain caffeine was picked up on very early by Native Americans – a potent tea brewed from the leaves was called the black drink. Though the scientific name Ilex vomitoria might indicate some unpleasant side effects, it only exhibits emetic properties when a ridiculous amount is consumed.

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) has been used as both a flavoring and as the main ingredient in teas and soda. The sassafras is a sweet little understory tree, with oddly and variably shaped leaves – with one, two, or three lobes – Dr. Dirr at UGA pointed out to us that they often resemble “racoon mittens” Native throughout the Appalachians, the tree roots were dug up in early spring before while still loaded with sap (where’d ya think they got the name “root beer” from?!). Safrole is the phenolic compound that produces the characteristic flavor. However, safrole is now considered a carcinogen and the FDA banned the sale of sassafras for human consumption in 1976. Extracts used in food and beverages have to be “safrole free” – produced through a commercial process. It’s also a psychoactive compound. This may explain Yosemite Sam’s obsessive-compulsive tendencies and Saturday morning profanity (and I quote) “Rassan, sassan, sassafrasan…”.

Last in today’s line-up of stuff from the woods: Humulus lupulus (the vowel-heavy name for hops). Mmmmm, hops. Here ye, the one or two people that may not know this, that from hops cometh the essential oil that maketh beer yummy. Speaking of oils, get close enough to hop vines on a really warm day and you’ll get a whiff of why it’s in the family Cannabaceae. This perennial vine is native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. The European beer-making strains have naturalized – that is, has spread from plants brought over by colonists in the mid 1600’s. Hops are also dioecious – the female flowers are papery cones about the size of a quarter and the source of all hoppiness (the male flowers are basically useless and just sit around with their feet on the coffee table). The leaves are sandpapery and most have three lobes – sort of reminiscent of a grape leaf. Not only useful to make ceremonial beverages, the vigorous leafy vines provide an excellent screen and can quickly cover up an unsightly fence, shed, or family member. Now that’s a useful plant!

I spent so much time writing this I ran out of time to hunt for plant photos. So here you go: My traveling T.Rex enjoys a nice, hoppy Virgin Islands Pale Ale on a lovely beach in St. John.

Justice finally

This just in from our Saturday paper: US man wanted for ecoterror sentenced in China.

For those of you who don’t know my history, I was an associate professor at the Center for Urban Horticulture at UW when it was firebombed in May 2001 by ecoterrorists. It’s a long and sad story, but if there’s an upside, it’s that this event was the ultimate reason I’m doing what I’m doing now. Otherwise I would probably still be doing lab-based research – which is good and necessary, but not nearly as personally satisfying as working directly with people who want to understand and apply plant sciences as they relate to garden and landscape sustainability.

I was the first person from our center on the scene that morning – I heard about the fire on the local NPR affiliate and immediately thought that somehow it was my fault – that I’d left something on in the lab. I raced to the scene and watched my building burn. My colleagues trickled in as the morning went by, and we cried and hugged as we watched our professional lives literally go up in smoke. It wasn’t until the ATF showed up that we began to understand that this was no accident, but a deliberate act of violence against us.

I don’t think about the fire much any more, except when these news items appear. What was particularly galling was a statement by the arsonist’s father that his son isn’t a terrorist. While I sympathize with the agony a parent must go through in such a situation, I know for a fact that my colleagues and I felt exposed and threatened by having our offices torched. Many of us ended up going through therapy to deal with the fear and anger we experienced in the days afterwards.

That’s what terrorism does to you.

Compost Tea? How About Compost Pee!

My news tab in Firefox is the BBC “latest headlines” page. It’s a great place to get pretty darn unbiased news plus the U.K. equivalent of “News of the Weird”. SO, relative to our ongoing discussion of composting…here’s a story ripped directly from the BBC headlines. Follow the link for a video (interview, that is).

Disclaimerage: I nor any of the other Garden Professors endorse this activity, nor any claims as to its usefulness, scientific relevancy, harrumph harrumph, etc,. etc,. etc. We do, however, fully endorse garden-related humor!

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Pee To Help Make Your Garden Grow

Gardeners at a National Trust property in Cambridgeshire are urging people to relieve themselves outdoors to help gardens grow greener.

A three-metre long “pee bale” has been installed at Wimpole Hall.

Head gardener Philip Whaites is urging his male colleagues to pee on the straw bale to activate the composting process on the estate’s compost heap.

He said the “pee bale” is only in use out of visitor hours, since “we don’t want to scare the public”.

He said: “For eight weeks now, male members of our garden and estate teams have been using the outdoor straw bale when nature calls. The pee bale is excellent matter to add to our compost heap to stimulate the composting process; and with over 400 acres of gardens and parkland to utilise compost, we need all the help we can get.

“There are obvious logistical benefits to limiting it to male members of the team, but also male pee is preferable to women’s, as the male stuff is apparently less acidic.”

By the end of the year, it was calculated that the 10 men from the 70-strong garden and estates team will make more 1,000 individual trips to the pee bale, contributing towards the compost for the estate. The estate said it will have saved up to 30% of its daily water use by not having to flush the loo so many times.

Rosemary Hooper, Wimpole estate’s in-house master composter, said: “Most people can compost in some way in their own gardens. Peeing on a compost heap activates the composting process, helps to produce a ready supply of lovely organic matter to add back to the garden.

“Adding a little pee just helps get it all going; it’s totally safe and a bit of fun too.”

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/8357134.stm

Published: 2009/11/13 00:40:21 GMT
© BBC MMIX

Mysterious tree failure exposed!

end about the tree failure question! Many of you zoned in on an important point visible in the two photos I shared. The tree’s base was obviously quite narrow where the trunk broke, and with the tree’s vase-like architecture this led to breakage. But why was the base so narrow?

Again, several of you thought about root issues, such as a restricted root zone, or possible damage to the lower trunk. Actually, it’s a combination of root and trunk issues, as this last photo shows:

Tree failure 3

What we have is a large circling root (you can see it at the soil surface to the left and right of the trunk) that has girdled the trunk completely and prevented it from growing in diameter. The trunk above this point continued to grow, eventually creating the instability that eventually led to failure.

This tree used to be the focal point of a small urban landscape. It was planted about 15-20 years prior to failure and obviously had poor roots. It irks me that the industry cannot figure out a way to (a) produce trees with decent roots and (b) plant them correctly. No wonder so many ISA-certified arborists are now recommending that people only purchase bare-root trees, so that these heart-breaking scenarios are avoided.

Congratulations to Jimbo in Australia for being the first to identify this particular problem, and honorable mentions to those of you who had logical and realistic diagnoses for tree failure.

(I hate to take pleasure out of the fact that girdling roots are a significant source of tree failure in Australia, but Jeff and Bert give me so much grief about root washing that I was starting to wonder if it was only the Pacific NW that was cursed with this problem. Guess not!)

Mysterious tree failure…

Here is this week’s plant puzzler. This mature tree just fell over one summer day. There had not been any significant wind, the soil was well-irrigated (but not overly wet), there had been no construction work or other root-zone disruption. There were no significant pest or disease problems. I’ve posted two photos from different angles, and will show one more photo on Monday. Why do you think the tree failed?

Seattle Chainsaw Massacre

In the spirit of the season I’m including some photos from our neighbor’s willow tree that failed a few years ago. The failure wasn’t unexpected, given the age of the tree and the lack of crown care it received. What’s truly scary is the “tree service” that came out to deal with the problem. Low bid wins again!

(And yes, I’ll post a puzzler as well. Two for one today!)