The National Wildlife Federation is partnering with Scotts the lawn chemical giant;

The USDA has published the 2012 Plant Hardiness map.

The Scotts/NWF debacle is being defended by the CEO as being beneficial to both sides. Perhaps they think that Scotts is going to go green and make more natural products for the lawn. I am having problems with Miracle Grow and natural backyard habitats. Scotts can make a difference but they have to start promoting some better, less toxic products for the home gardener.

The USDA map has been greeted with mixed reaction. Most think that the divisions are likely to encourage gardeners to take chances with plants. Better maps are touted as being from Sunset (which divides everyone into micro zones) and the Arbor Society that also has a map. The problems with both these maps is that catalogues and books really just use USDA. Using the theory that most years we fudge the zones anyway, I have been using 5/6 all along!

So just so that we have a picture of the wildlife that Scotts and NWF are so protective off, the little fellow at the top was perched in the old apple tree earlier today – he tries to bully the little birds by the bird feeder, or when they take shelter in the little spruce next to it.

]]> http://www.katesgardenjournal.com/news-in-the-garden-world/feed/ 1 http://www.katesgardenjournal.com/foraging-with-sam-thayer/ http://www.katesgardenjournal.com/foraging-with-sam-thayer/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:11:07 +0000 Kate http://www.katesgardenjournal.com/?p=1084 Continue reading →]]> Sam Thayer has been foraging since a child and now teachers others how to forage too. He defines foraging as food that has not been specifically grown for eating – edible wild flowers, nuts and wild  berries are all good sources of nutrients. We talk about where you can legaly forage and how to learn how to differential between things that are edible and those that are not good for you.

The nutrients in nature’s food are generally higher than those in supermarket equivalents and although they cannot be gathered everywhere in winter, Sam processed nuts all through the winter and gathers pods from the Kentucky Coffeetree – Gymnocladus dioicus – which can be used to make a very coffee tasting drink. Raw food diets and paleodiets that are now becoming popular are also discussed.

Sam has a couple of books that help you become aquainted with nature and the food that you can safely forage. Head to Sam’s website : www.foragersharvest.com

The show airs Saturday January 21st at 10am and can be found on here after January 23rd here

As against this video taken just 2 days ago.January 11th, 2012

So far winter has been rather mild and so far we have not had much in the way of snow. Bulbs are coming up and even the daylily has started to show some green returning. The lemon verbena and mint have not really gone dormant yet.

Yesterday things came to a screetching halt with a cold front and the arrival of snow. We missed the bullet for real snow and the grass has yet to be covered but wind but continual snow drizzle makes it seem dull and wintery out there.

I took a trip around the garden to see what is going on – this year has been so  mild that apart from rain we have not had any cold weather and not much in the way of cool weather either.

The perennial bed is, of course lacking much in the way of green color but the pieris is adorned with pretty dark pink preflowers. When the shrub is bigger I will pick some of those for winter wreaths but for now they are staying on the shrub.

In the vegetable bed, the salad greens and winter carrots etc are all snug under a rigid plastic sheet that I covered them with. I cut the 8×2 sheet into 2 4×2 pieces that cover the 4ft square beds. Bricks keep the sheet off the leaves and help to keep the sheet open when the sun is out. This is an experiment only this year to see what survives and continues to grow through the earliest part of the year.

The mild weather also means that I can still use fresh parsley, thyme and sage for seasonal stuffing over the holiday season.

So there is plenty outside to look at, including some little bulbs that are coming through prematurely. I hope they stay very small for the next two months!

For the vegetable bed and most of the garden I have used a simple overhead sprinkler with a couple of leaky soaker hoses and a hose pipe but the upgrade will include three sorts of watering:a  drip irrigation system for the shrubs and trees, including the little fruit trees above, and a lawn sprinkler system of some sort for the veggies. The soaker hose will still be used in the perennial beds where things are close together but the trees and shrubs really need something that just delivers water to them and not the grass between them!

I am probably going to measure and then go to someone online that deals with  irrigation supplies such as http://www.irrigationsupplyoutlet.com/ which is reasonably priced and I can put things together like a lego blocks – I think they can be built with timers and I would like to add something with liquid fertilizer too if possible.

Hopefully this will help my young fruit trees thrive rather than just stay alive!

The seasonal plants that I tried to condition in October seem to be doing all right. The poinsettia did indeed turn red, albeit not quite as red as the commercial brands and the way that it produced the red ‘bracts’ was interesting. I am not sure what I expected but as the literature always refers to the red parts as modified bracts to the flower, I expected that they grew as red ‘leaves’ as the flower was produced. What actually happened was that some of the green leaves turned first a brown color, making me think that they were dying, then they turned red. So far I have not seen an evidence of a flower of any sort either, but it has at least been worth the effort of remembering to put it into the closet every night for three weeks – and bringing it out again.

The Christmas cactus is still working on developing buds and flowers so has been put into a cool back bedroom to hasten the process. In the meantime I purchased two salmon pink ones for color.

Lemon Grass and Rosemary enjoying the morning sunlight

With the weather, more specifically the nights, getting cooler I took advantage of a decent afternoon to uproot and pot up my tender perennial herbs. The only two I have to deal with this year are rosemary and lemon grass. My lemon vebena died shortly after being planted (I think I forgot to water the poor thing).

I like to dig generously to make sure that I have all the roots included but then shake off all the excess dirt complete with worms etc. After planting into pots and watering I have put them by the back door for a few days. I plan on bringing them in overnight when it is cold but keeping them outside for at least a few more weeks so long as the days don’t start getting cold. The location is sheltered from northern winds and traps sunlight so feels much warmer during the day than the actual air temperature out there in the garden. I try to keep things outside for as long as possible so that they are inside for as short a time as possible. They also get natural air ventilation which is healthy and the outdoor air is more humid than indoor air as well, which all make for a healthier plant.

Saturday was a great day for gardening after the morning chill had turned into sunshine. My intention was that I would do some final clear up of the veggie beds and trim perennials down, not to mention uproot any annuals that were left. We have had a bunch of frosts so it was time to have a last day in the garden – I thought.

I started well – the basil in the backdoor herb bed was dead, and moving on I needed to get the summer beans out of the square foot beds too. All of them were still hanging onto the supports and they were dried and dead. So far so good. Then I hit a slight problem – the calendulas and the borage were both still doing absolutely fine. I then moved over to the next raised bed and after clearing out the dead beans and two leftover tomatoes, I noticed a bunch of lettuce – small but definitely growing.

I didn’t have the heart to take them out, and if we get somewhat decent weather and with a few clothes the lettuce should do just fine. That, along with some golden chard (Pot of Gold) and some kale made the idea of ‘putting the garden to bed’ a little premature. There is still alot going on in the veggie bed at the middle of November.

Brown needles on conifers in fall

This is what my conifers looked like about 2 weeks ago – the inner needles were showing brown and became very noticable on the tree. Fortunately I knew that this was a natural occurance, but the kids did not and thought I was somehow killing them! I must admit that the smallest one does concern me slightly because if we assume they were all planted together, then the stunted growth is a concern. As the ground is quite steep in that area and the sump pump tips out near there, I am wondering if it sits on a rock and slowly starving for nutrients. Unfortunately the tree, even thuogh it is small compared to its neighbors, is too big to move so unless things go downhill fast, it will stay there. Below is the tree this afternoon in the fall sunshine.

The conifer looking green again

So here we are in October and I know that poinsettias need to be conditioned to put out the flower and bracts, so I have started putting it into a cupboard off the study each night. According to my garden center it should be fine with just a week of conditioning but I am hedging on the side of caution and keeping it in the closet until I see a sign that it is putting out flowers. It still has a few weeks. Note that the blue bucket is just a temporary holding saucer that makes it easy to water, and carry back and forth to the closet. When the flowers start to form it will be a nice neat seasonal container to sit in.

The Christmas cactus is a different plant and I don’t think it needs conditioning, though if it doesn’t put out some sign of a flower it might just get the closet treatment too. Right now it is on the kitchen counter, so bright indirect light is what it gets, but some evening lights may be a problem. I  just read that it does like long nights, so that will be a closet job too!