Nothing drives me crazier than simplistic solutions to complex problems. Given our changing climate, there has been an explosion of “drought tolerant” and “firewise” plant lists in the gardening world. Most of these lists are devoid of science and all of them are removed from reality. The fact is that taxonomy plays a minimal role in determining whether a plant will tolerate environmental extremes.
Here at the Garden Professors we pride ourselves on being on the cutting edge of technology. In fact, we’re so tech savvy we didn’t even whine when FaceBook foisted a new homepage format on us for no apparent reason. So it’s only fitting that we offer you, Mr. and Ms. Garden Professor Blog reader, an opportunity to participate in the first ever landscape horticulture research project designed by social media.
Here’s the deal. My current research project on water and nutrient management of trees in container production has left us with over 100 ‘Bloodgood’ London planetrees in 25 gallon containers. … Continue reading this article “Be a Part of History!”
We’ve finally gotten our summer here in the Pacific NW and it’s been pretty hot for a few weeks. The plants weren’t really prepared for this, so we’ve had to irrigate quite a bit to keep all that lush foliage happy. So the topic of this podcast is Water Works – focusing on how water moves in the soil and through plants.
One of the more interesting tidbits I found this week is a recent USDA study on growing more potatoes with less water.… Continue reading this article “Podcast #8 – Water Works”
Today I was sent a link to a posting on “droopy leaves.” Essentially, it suggests that droopy leaves are a means to conserve water on hot days and that watering these plants causes more problems than it solves because the roots don’t get enough oxygen. A link to the science of transpiration is provided. The advice is to wait until the evening and if the plants perk back up, then they didn’t need water after all.… Continue reading this article “Hot weather and not-so-hot advice”
A few weeks ago one of our readers, landscape architect Owen Dell, sent me a link to his blog where he takes on rain barrels. It’s a great analysis of the (im)practicalities of rain barrels and it got me to wondering how many of our readers (and my GP colleagues) use these as supplemental sources of irrigation water?
I have two in our back yard that were made from old olive oil containers retrofitted for collecting and dispensing water.… Continue reading this article “Rain barrels”
A few days ago I got a question from Cynthia about “potting up.” For those of you for whom this is an unknown phrase (and no, it’s not a euphemism for a certain herbal activity), it refers to the practice of moving plants into ever larger containers. She was wondering if there was any “real science” behind the practice – in other words, why not just start out with a larger container?
Hah! I needed no further encouragement and spent several days collecting and reading decades’ worth of research.… Continue reading this article “Plant containers – does size really matter?”
Sometimes I am not such a good garden professor. That’s because, when I get home, I sometimes (OK — often) don’t give my plants the attention they need. It’s also because, when we leave for vacation, I often forget to tell whoever is watching the animals to keep their eyes on the plants too. Now, really, you would think that someone who saw a plant on the back porch in full wilt would think “Hey, Maybe I should water that!” … Continue reading this article “My Long Suffering Basil”
One of the topic groupings for our posts is titled ‘Cool research’. The subject of today’s post has actually been around for a few years but I still think it’s pretty cool.
When we think of interactions between plants we usual think of negative interactions such as competition for water and nutrients or maybe allelopathy. But there are cases where plants can benefit each other. One of these is a phenomenon known as hydraulic lift. … Continue reading this article “Need a lift?”
Why, oh why, can’t someone engineer a sturdy, long-lasting, horticulturally-correct water breaker.
We have, at last count, six hoses in use at our very spread-out garden & farm. I go through a lot of breakers, and am down to two, which I rotate around. In dire need of some new ones (as well as a huge bale of TP), I perused the garden aisle at our local big box (rhymes with “Target”). Pistol grip schnozzles abound – these things that propel the water
like a 95 mph fastball. … Continue reading this article “Creative Uses For Old Water Breakers”
First of all, who we are and what we do. All of the Garden Professors are in the business of the science of Horticulture. What’s Horticulture? The standard definition of Horticulture is the art and science of tending a garden. Horticulture is clearly more than science but science is the foundation and underpinning. For anyone that needs convincing that Horticulture is an art as much as a science I suggest the following exercise. Go to a major research university and wander through their Botany or Plant Biology greenhouses.… Continue reading this article “Art, Science, and Faith”