Sunday Bloody Sunday

Is this title too extreme?  I’ll leave that up to you.

Most of you are aware of the frog controversy that surrounds Round-up.  A few years ago a professor from Pittsburgh showed that this chemical can kill aquatic creatures if it gets into a pond. Particularly tadpoles.  Not that Round-up is intended to be used around water, but still, it is a concern and I don’t want to minimize it.  Nor do I want people to forget that other supposedly safer products have their own set of dangers.… Continue reading this article “Sunday Bloody Sunday”

Weird Plant Wednesday – II

Okay, so it’s actually Thursday morning. We’re doing a "staycation" this week and my farm work to-do list dwarfs my usual work week. Not exactly relaxing.  One of the daily duties is dragging the hose around trying to keep some favorite plants alive. We’re in a drought, though not near of the awful and epic proportions of some parts of the country.  When our Floriculture Forum was held at the Dallas Arboretum this spring, horticulturist Jimmy Turner welcomed us to "Gardening Hell." … Continue reading this article “Weird Plant Wednesday – II”

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.… Continue reading this article “Podcast #2 – Garden Concoctions”

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. … Continue reading this article “Out of the lead frying pan and into the phosphate fire”

Being Lazy Has Its Advantages

I am just about the laziest gardener you’d ever want to meet.  Around my field plots at the school things tend to look good –but that’s part of my job.  Around my home, well, I probably water my plants once or twice a year, I fertilize every few years.  I almost never use herbicides or any other weed control methods besides pulling – again, that happens once or twice a year.  And I only mulch about once every two years or so (sorry Linda!). … Continue reading this article “Being Lazy Has Its Advantages”

Weird Plant Wednesday!

Greetings, all!  Things seem to be pretty slow in the blog-reading world…middle of summer, vacations, etc. Plus we’re all out there gardening, unlike the dead of winter when we’re deprived of this joy, so the next best thing seems to be reading about it.  Thanks to all who check in with us, even if just occasionally!

I’m taking over the Wednesday slot for a little while – I have a backlog of cool/weird/new/unusual plants to share, and  Weird Plant Tuesday just doesn’t bring the alliteration.… Continue reading this article “Weird Plant Wednesday!”

Podcasts are here!

Today marks a grand experiment…I’ve made the leap into podcasting. Each episode is less than 30 minutes and contains (among other things) an outdoor interview with someone who does something interesting with gardens and landscapes. This week’s podcast features Seattle landscape designer Richard Greenberg, who took me on a tour of a garden he’s been working on for 20 years:


Linda with Richard Greenberg

The nice thing about having the blog host the podcasts is that I can include some photos from my interview sites. … Continue reading this article “Podcasts are here!”

This Bud’s for you…

Ask the risk of honing in on Jeff’s turf, I thought I’d pass along this article by former University of Maine associate dean (and apparent Garden Professor wannabe) Katheryn Olmstead.   It seems that Dr. Olmstead’s painstaking research has documented a preference among slugs for domestic beers, particularly Budweiser.  http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/21/living/garden-slugs-prefer-budweiser-over-foreign-brands/  Like most undergraduate students, it seems slugs prefer domestic swill to more refined imported brews; confirming many suspicions about both slugs and undergrads.  Although we’ll have to wait for the full peer-reviewed article, her scientific method seems sound, including use of replicated plots.  … Continue reading this article “This Bud’s for you…”

Cool achlorophyllous plant

Can’t get anything past our blog readers!  Yes, from the highly cropped photo on Friday two readers quickly recognized emerging Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora):

These plants have no chlorophyll, instead relying on fungal partners who colonize both their roots and the roots of nearby photosynthetic plants.  So ultimately this is a parasitic species, as it takes resources from the photosynthesizers in its root network without reciprocal benefit.

These are not commonly found plants, so I think it’s really cool that they appeared in such profusion in a home landscape.