Garden Rant

The hardest working club in (orchid) show business

Here’s a garden club that provides over 4000 hours a year of unpaid help to a local botanical gardens, organizes a popular show once a year, and is a rich source of information and advice for anyone in Western New York who wants to grow orchids. And they don’t exactly fit any of the unfortunate stereotypes that came up the last time we discussed clubs.

I have to confess that while I admire orchids, especially the fragrant ones, I’ve never been tempted to grow any myself, and I just can’t seem to get too excited about them. The orchid displays at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens didn’t convince me either; they often seemed cramped and minimal. Up until now. With the help of the all-volunteer Niagara Frontier Orchid Society, orchids at the Gardens are now part of a tropical habitat display; they appear growing out of rocks, hanging from trees (as this stanhopea, above), and potted (but discreetly cited in a natural setting, not in tiers and rows, as they were before).

After talking to a couple of the Society members, including president Joe DiDomenico, above, I couldn’t help but be impressed by their enthusiasm and knowledge. They’ve been working with the Gardens for ten years, and during the last year they’ve finally created a setting that gives a better sense of how these plants actually work in the wild.

The tree limbs are from locusts downed during last year’s storm; locust is rot-resistent and won’t need to be replaced as often. The Society has also donated many of the plants as well as paid for some of the misting system. This is going to be a glorious room to visit in February.

A core group of ten club members spends every Wednesday morning at the Gardens, caring for plants in the two behind-the-scenes glasshouses as well as the plants on display. They also organize an annual competitive show, which is judged by reps from the American Orchid Society. This year’s winner, a Beallara, grown by a Rochester enthusiast, is shown above. I asked Sue Charles of the club what the three biggest mistakes you can make with orchids are; she immediately supplied the following:
1. Overwatering
2. Not enough light
3. Overpotting (too large a pot and too much potting mixture)

I’ll keep those in mind. Maybe I'll start one or two myself this winter.

A walk on the wild side

Why is a weed when you see it in an empty lot or in a ditch and a protected specimen when you see it in a nature preserve? I love parks and preserves because they celebrate plants that some gardeners (and all neighborhood associations) scorn. Yesterday, we visited the Reinsten Woods Nature Preserve, an amazing spot of wilderness in the middle of a Buffalo suburb. It has a large pond (the pink lotus display just drawing to a close) oft visited by herons and other waterfowl, enough trees to justify its name, and a ton of wildflowers. It also has a new visitors’ center that is not only green/LEED-certified but attractive in a rustic, FLWright-inspired kind of way. Just the place where you’d like your camera battery to give out. Images will have to wait for another time.

The visit inspired me to visit my private Allentown nature preserve (a protected alleyway habitat) and choose a few rare blooms for the arrangement you see above. Here is mature pokeweed (phytolacca americana), snakeroot (eupatorium ragosum) and daisy fleabane (erigeron annuus). These and many other wildflowers and wild grasses can be seen in profusion in every uncultivated spot in WNY; sometimes I can barely keep my eyes on the road as I admire these plants during my morning commute.

Fall is the time for wildflowers here; our springs are too brief and too prone to the remnants of violent weather. Who needs mums? Bring on the weeds!

My knowledge of wildflowers is minimal, but I’ve been reading about them, and the Audubon eastern region field guide is useful. I’d also thank a local expert, nature writer Gerry Rising, whose columns for the Buffalo News are archived here.

How to Find Ecologically Correct Garden Furniture

Now there's help for eco-conscious consumers trying to figure out which wood products are from sustainable sources and which aren't, and ratings for outdoor furniture have been compiled by the National Wildlife Federation right here.

Of course it tells me nothing about my "American made natural white cedar" Adirondack chairs, but I can tell you they're a bargain at $99 each.

In Which DeLawning Becomes a Total Border Do-over

by Susan
It all started with  really crappy-looking lawn, and you see it here in all its late summer blotchiness.  And as related in a story about my lawn replacement project, the original plan was to get rid of the entire lawn - suffocating it with newspaper and mulch.  Well, after hearing from our smart commenters, I downsized the project to removal of just half the lawn, at least for now.  And you told me the grass wouldn't decompose in time for planting this fall and I'd end up having to dig it all up anyway, so I switched to good old manual sod removal, as described here in this update.  (To hell with the gym; get dirty and do some real work.)  So the lower, browner and bumpier part of the lawn is now history, and I've given the land underneath it a smoother, gentler grade.

REMOVE SOD AND INSTALL PLANTS, RIGHT?
Well no, that was the next surprise.  Look again in the before picture at the plants in the right-hand border hugging the lawn.  They mirror the hourglass-shaped lawn, so that a smaller lawn with a different shape makes the right border looked terrible, especially as seen from the deck.  And aerial views turn everyone into fussy design critics, let me tell ya.

NOW REMOVE ALL THE PLANTS IN THE BORDER
That's an exaggeration, but not by a lot.  In order to redesign the right border, everything but the back row of plants had to be dug up and parked in my holding garden.  To wit: 8 pieris japonica, 10 astilbes, 10 euphorbia amygdaloides, 2 large hydrangea macrophylla, 3 large carex, 3 Knockout roses in their first year, 2 medium-sized Miscanthus 'Morning Light', 1 Hollywood Juniper in the garden 2 years, 1 spirea 'Anthony Waterer', 1 Euonymous 'Emerald Gaiety', about 4 flats worth of vinca minor, and gobs and gobs of liriope spicata, about which I'll be ranting soon in a separate post.

But without removing everything and starting with a clean slate I'd end up just tweaking what's already there, not really creating something new.  And man, having a bunch of gorgeous, full-size plants to rearrange in a more beautiful way is awesome. 

CORRECTING MY DESIGN BOO-BOOS
1. So, this whole-border do-over gives me the chance to rant a bit about borders and what almost everyone does wrong in designing them, including me:  WE MAKE THEM TOO DAMN SMALL.  This "border" started out as rows of tall shrubs along the property line, with the lawn going right up to them.  And bit by bit I've enlarged it, pulling its line out into the lawn until FINALLY it's the size it should be. 

2. Another mistake I've been making is USING PLANTS THAT ARE TOO SMALL FOR THE JOB.  So no more trying to fill the corner with various perennials - they just lacked impact in this large space that's seen primarily from a distance.  Now it's all shrubs and Miscanthus grasses, with a Hollywood Juniper as a focal point. 

3. And the other lesson I've learned (and now yack about to my defenseless clients) is to FILL UP THOSE CORNERS because they anchor the garden and give it a natural focal point.

Don't be too surprised if you see more of this corner - my new favorite spot in the garden. 

Next - Where There Once Was Lawn.

Why Are The Catalogs Better Reading Than The Magazines?

I was recently "selected" for a free issue of a gardening magazine called Garden Gate and dutifully settled into bed with it this week in order to report on this pub. 

The magazine bills itself as advertising-free, so you might think that they'd just let 'er rip and tell the truth about everything.  Actually, no.  As far as I can tell, the business model depends on your going to their on-line store and buying stuff directly from them.

And the content is so namby-pamby inoffensive, they might just as well have a bunch of blowhard advertising clients of the kind that used to so rattle Darren on Bewitched.  Actually, "inoffensive" doesn't quite describe it.  Depressing and insulting, comes closer.  Apparently, we gardeners have a hard time comprehending even two-syllable words.  Or any plants more daring than daylilies and hostas.   

Apparently, we also really, really like being sucked up to.  My issue of Garden Gate devotes six pages to the favorite plants of the magazine's readers.  Guess what the readers like?  You'll never guess.  Daylilies and hostas.  Maybe a good nursery will be able to introduce you to these novelties. 

This is democracy at its worst.  God, for both information and style, give me a benevolent dictatorship like the Plant Delights catalog any day! 

There are certainly better magazines than Garden Gate, but as a general principle, I'd rather settle into bed with a catalog.  Why is that?

Clearly, there is a huge passion gap operating here.  The good catalogs are put together by people who are insane for plants and know everything about their specialty.  The magazines?  By editors whose jobs appear to hang on their ability to appeal to a demographic that the Garden Rant community does not fit--uncultured, sheltered, conservative, sentimental, easily spooked. 

The interesting thing is, I can't think of any other subject besides gardening where the same is true, where the commercial content so frequently trumps the editorial.  I mean, I'd certainly rather read Vogue than the Bloomingdale's catalog any day.  I'd rather read Bon Appetit than Williams-Sonoma.  I love House & Garden and am bored to tears by Restoration Hardware.  I'd rather read the op-ed columnists at the New York Times than the brochures I get from politicians.  But I'd far rather read the White Flower Farm catalog than even a supposedly serious magazine like Fine Gardening.  More stylish.

Am I alone in this?

Just Add Water

I did not have to pay any political consultants the big bucks to develop my message:  Everybody ought to grow a few vegetables.  Of course, this is not the kind of message that will ever get me elected to Congress, but unlike many of my opponents, I do at least know where I stand:  Everybody ought to grow a few vegetables.

Good for the planet, the palate, the kids, and the mood. 

The problem is, how do you turn all those immense numbers of non-gardening Americans into gardeners?  It's not like most of them have parents who were big gardeners.  According to the USDA, food grown in the backyard has plummeted from 33% of the country's food crops by dollar value in 1894 to 1.3% in 2005.

At Garden Rant headquarters, we were recently contacted by a Westchester-based company named Teich Garden Systems that sells all the wisdom your parents don't have in one neat package:  a complete garden, with fence, raised beds, gravel paths, soaker hoses, and plastic mulch.  Teich will not only install this garden down to the organic soil and plants, you can contract with them, if you like, to do the end of season chores, too, like ripping out your frost-killed squash vines.  Their garden system appears to be deer-proof, weed-proof, and idiot-proof.  Such a garden is total overkill, of course, if there are no deer or idiots in your yard--but how many Americans can really make such a claim?

"Brown said he only got involved after receiving numerous e-mails from angry gardeners."

Yeah, more on this. But I had to share this gorgeous image of Jean in her garden (taken by News photographer Harry Scull, famous for his shot of OJ's Bruno Maglias) and provide further proof of the power of your activism. Had those emails not arrived (they really caused a sensation), Jean might still be facing a court date. Here's another excerpt from the story (priceless quote above) that appeared in today's story in the Buffalo News by Brian Meyer:

In the span of two days, Jean Dickson’s lush front yard on Crescent Avenue received separate visits from the mayor, the city’s top inspections honcho and two other city administrators.

They didn’t come to admire the rose of Sharon, peonies and wildflowers that have created a distinctive landscape in this Parkside neighborhood.

City Hall leaders visited because an inspector sent Dickson notice that her garden was violating ordinances. That, in turn, touched off a tidal wave of e-mails and blog entries from outraged gardeners.

...

Mayor Byron W. Brown said he even received e-mails from people living out of state.

Read the whole story here. Buffalo News story I may have to remove the picture (not kosher, I know) but you can see it on the website for a week.

This Gardening Thing is Killing Us

Why is it that the Brits have more interesting gardening news than us?  According to this article in the Telegraph, gardening injuries land 87,000 of our friends on the other side of the pond in the hospital every year.  (we've done the math for you--as a percentage of the population, that would be roughly equivalent to 438,000 injuries in the US.  And in fact, a 2004 estimate of garden tool injuries in 2004 put the number at about 400,000.)

Let's review the numbers, shall we?

6500 were injured by a lawn mower.  In the United States, about 80,000 people per year require hospitalization for lawn mower injuries.  According to the US study, "The rate is about half the number treated for firearms injuries annually. In addition to strikes from flying projectiles, the most common causes of injury for people over age 15 were non-specific pain after mowing and injuries occurring while servicing the mower. The most common injury requiring hospitalization was fractures of the foot. "

Flower pots (carrying them?  Having them thrown at you?) cause 5300 injuries in the UK. We were unable to locate statistics on flower pot injuries in the United States, but there has been some talk of flammable flower pots, perhaps related to them being used as an ashtray, at Consumer Reports.

Forks, shears, spades, hoses, and other such hazards accounted for the remaining injuries.  Overall,  if you account for all the people who didn't go to the hospital but perhaps should have, roughly 300,000 Brits are injured in the garden each year, and apparently it's all the fault of  Alan Titchmarsh and Gardener's World on the BBC.   Here in the US, we do have some overall stats for gardeners age 65 and older--100,000 injuries and 51 deaths (the deaths including "tripping on garden hoses," chainsaws,  and garden tillers, but mostly lawn mowers were to blame.  Especially riding  mowers that tend to roll off embankments.)  But no such detailed study on the under 65 crowd, alas.

Gardening.  It's a grim business.  Be careful out there.

Could someone please tell me what Lavender Mountain Lilies are?

A recent missive from my neighborhood organization offered the following:

A. 10 Monsella Tulips ($15)
E. 20 Jumbo Crocuses ($10)
B. 25 Lavender Mountain Lilies ($10)
F. 5 Fragrant Hyacinths ($10)
C. 10 Naturalizing Daffodils ($12)
G. 3 Stargazer Lilies ($10)
D. 5 Allium Purple Sensations ($10)
H. 10 Deluxe Tulips ($10)
I. 10 Quail Daffodils ($10)
L. 20 Blue Grape Hyacinths ($10)
J. 20 Glory of Snows ($10)
M. Spring Garden Collection ($20)
Includes 50 bulbs (5 Deluxe Tulips; 5 Deluxe
Daffodils; 10 Blue Grape Hyacinths; 10 Alpine
Rosy Bells; 10 Tall Dutch Irises; and 10 Jumbo
Crocuses)
K. 10 Angelique Tulips ($15)

It’s that time of year. Many of you have probably received emails similar to the one I just got, offering a selection of bulbs, the sale of which will benefit a local nonprofit—often a school, maybe even the school that your child attends. I don’t have kids but I am a faithful girl scout cookie buyer and soccer team supporter (though I think those big boxes of candy bars left in the office with an envelope are pure evil, especially when you’re the only one there at 10 p.m.).

I am happy to sacrifice my budget and waistline, such as it is, to support these excellent causes, but when it comes to bulbs, I also—kind of—want to know if they’re decent. Before I plunk down $15 for ten Monsellas I can get from John Scheepers for $8 (which is fine), I’d like to be sure I’m not digging up the garden for nothing.

And then the names. I went to the Dutch Gardens site (where I think this sale originates) to get to the bottom of “Lavender Mountain Lilies.” (shown above) I did find small print there IDing the plant as ixiolirion tartaricum. Hmm. Yet another cultivar (among many) that has no business calling itself a lily. I’m not sure the botanical name they give is right either.

Well, I don’t want to be ill-natured about this, but I think that people who are trying to help charities, schools, etc. deserve to get reputable, correctly ID’d bulbs for their money, just as we do when we order from whomever. That’s all.

Oh, and if anyone buys that Lavender Mountain Lily, let me know how you do.

Mowers in the News

E Magazine has an article about mowers - electric v. gas-powered - in today's edition.  What surprised me?  That there are only 1.3 million gas-powered mowers in the U.S.  Out of 300 million Americans, I would have guessed at least 50 million mowers.  And contrary to the assertion that electrics cost at least $150 more, I found a lightweight electric for only $110 (from Wal-Mart, but don't tell anyone). 

All’s well that ends well

Jean’s garden is safe. Apparently the emails you all sent were read by the mayor, and, according to what I was told yesterday, these emails were the first he had heard of the whole matter. Our commissioner of inspections went out personally to Jean’s house to look at the garden and this is what he reports:

I personally observed (today September 25, 2007) a very nice garden with what appears to be a mix of wildflowers. It is in very good condition for the end of our growing season. There are several narrow paths between groups of plantings, the paths are well maintained and cut very short, the plantings are still in bloom and are very colorful. The plantings do not intrude into the city’s right of way and they do not obstruct any line of sight. The unique location of the property on an almost dead end section of the street and the complete lack of pedestrian and vehicular traffic that can pass in front of the garden obviate any concern about blocking a line of sight for a car…
any enforcement action that may have commenced should and will be terminated.

(This report was sent to some of you who emailed, so I feel comfortable publishing this excerpt.) I honestly think that Jean would be in court, facing heavy fines and the possible destruction of her garden, if the flurry of emails, listserve messages, and blog posts that have happened over the past ten days or so had not occurred.

The fact remains, however, that the inspector was very persistent (5-6 visits over an overgrown garden are unusual, given the other problems Buffalo has) and it took the major’s intervention to make this go away. I don’t think it should have needed that and I still believe that much education about sustainable gardening is needed by municipalities and bureaucracies such as this and those in other cities.

What almost happened to Jean can still happen to others in Buffalo and many other places. But for now, I’m very happy her garden has been vindicated. My main concern now is which champagne to buy for the party. To all of you who emailed and offered support, thank you.

MORE Outrageous HOAs in the News

Residents of a North Carolina community are being told by their Homeowners Association that they must have:

• Healthy grass free of brown patches and weeds.
• Living trees with mulch.
• Planter beds with living shrubs and flowers.

No matter that there are water restrictions in effect due to severe drought conditions.

"While the Board is aware of the inconvenience presented by the heat and water restrictions, we believe that having neatly landscaped lawns of grass is of the utmost importance to our community," said a letter sent to the homeowners in August. Here's the story.

And here's another one, a story from Georgia about a battle over silk flowers, which apparently offend the sensibilities of the community association.

And worst of all, a poor schlump in California lost his home because he planted too many roses.

The good news?  These stories are coming fast and furious because they're being covered by local media. There's a nice compilation of these and other stories on the top political blog DailyKos, and thanks to Craig at Ellis Hollow for the tip.

Just Slightly Sad

This is my vegetable garden last Saturday, a week after my first frost, with the squash vines dead on the top, though still going strong underneath.  Christopher C. of the blog Outside Clyde, newly transplanted from Hawaii to North Carolina, wanted to know what to expect of this strange stuff called "frost." 

The vegetable garden doesn't go off a cliff after the first 32-degree night, but it takes a series of steps down into winter.  I lost a lot of basil with my first frost.  The beans and green peppers are probably next, so I harvested as much of both last weekend as I could.  The very last thing to go in my garden are the Brussels sprouts--I've harvested those on Christmas day, even in Zone 4 in upstate New York.  And the consolation is, a lot of brassicas actually taste better after a few frosts.

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You know how much room normal watermelons take up in the frig?  And how they aren't stackable and sometimes even roll around?  Yeah, I hate that, too! Thankfully, smart Japanese farmers have figured out how to make them square - by putting them in square tempered glass cases while they're still on the vine.  Why didn't WE think of that?

Thanks to Ilene Sternberg for the photo.

"Ferns are Ferntastic"

by Susan
That's just one of the messages that adorn the T-shirts of American Fern Society members, who presumably can then ID each other and talk ferns all day. This and other tidbits from the world of fern-lovers was revealed by Oliver Sacks in a recent article in the New Yorker.  Turns out this best-selling neurologist-author (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat) is a fernie himself and attended a recent Fern Foray in New York City where he and a dozen others were flattened against an embankment of the Park Avenue railroad trestle "peering with magnifying glasses and monoculars into tiny crevices in the stone."  Fern Forays have been going on for over 100 years but this particular day the group included a poet, 2 teachers, a mechanic, a neurologist (presumably Sacks), and a urologist - men and women aged 20 to 80. 

Founded in Victorian times with Darwin as their icon, the American Fern Society is "one of biggest international fern clubs in the world", with over 900 members worldwide. (There's more than one?  Imagine the rivalries!) Members of the Torrey Botanical Society, founded in the 1860s, also participate in the forays, though their primary interest is the world of mosses, liverworts and lichens.  According to Sacks, "Ferns are a bit too modern, too evolutionarily advanced, for them, just as flowering plants are for the rest of us."  I guess they won't be posting on Gardenblogger Bloom Day.

All this raises one question in my mind:  How on earth do people become fanatics about one particular plant group and if I may say so, especially one that's so primative and unassuming?  What kind of people are turned on to, say, liverworts?  But just look at all the plant societies [pdf].  Orchids have their fans, gladiolas have theirs (maybe funeral directors) and Siberian iris,too.  Ditto penstemon, dianthus, fuchsia, gloxinia and cactus.  But why these and not others?

On the other hand, isn't nice to see that not everyone is glued to their TVs, their iPods, their (name that device) but are outdoors observing and enjoying nature.  Go fernies!

Photo Credit

Guest Rant: Sex and the Pumpkin Patch

Please welcome Susan Warren, author of Backyard Giants. And yes, we're giving away a book--keep reading.

When I wrote an October 2005 article for The Wall Street Journal about competitive giant pumpkin growers, I hadn't planned on spending the next two years of my life immersed in that world. As I went to work on the book that followed, I was a little embarrassed to admit that I was committing myself to a project involving giant fruit. Whenever anyone asked me what my book was about, I'd squirm and stammer and end up almost apologizing for not writing about something more serious, like the Kyoto Protocol or corporate scandals.

But I discovered that life plays out in the pumpkin patch pretty much like it does in corporate boardrooms, with lots of drama and tedium, super-charged competition, and even a gender divide.

For whatever reason – some growers like to call it a "sport" – competitive giant pumpkin growing has attracted a disproportionate share of men. I think there's something about monster garden produce that appeals to men's macho side. These are muscle fruit, like muscle cars and muscle shirts. And it doesn't hurt that sex is a requirement of the job, even if it's only between plants.

Lindsay Lohan Gardens, And Still No One Cares

Uninteresting celebrity and party girl Lindsay Lohan is off at Cirque Lodge in Sundance for rehab, and she's taken up gardening.  According to one report:

The Mean Girls star–who is currently residing at the Cirque Lodge rehabilitation center in Utah–took great pride in showing off her gardening skills to her father Michael during their recent reunion. He said, ‘And she helps look after the horses. Every day she helps muck them out, feed them and ride them. She has taken up gardening and loved showing me the roses she helps look after.’

Not too much about gardening therapy on the Cirque website, but the list of substances you can get treatment for reads like some kind of fantasy cocktail menu.  Percoset?  Opium?  Xanax?  AND gardening?

via Ecorazzi

Horticultural returns of the season

Happy fall! As I enjoy the hot weather—though I wish I could stop watering my containers—I've been also been appreciating the interesting striations of (early?) fall color on local trees and this monstrous silver lace vane, brought to you by my next door neighbor. We could cut it, as the utility pole is on our property, but I don't think it's hurting anything.

Sally Jean’s two cents

When I sent a link to the two rants on Jean’s garden (trials and tribulations thereof), I got a great response (first word: “Wow!”) from our resident guru Sally Jean Cunningham, a horticulturalist and garden writer who also has a TV and radio show on gardening (Channel 4 at 8:15 and WWKB Saturdays at 10 am for you locals). She promptly scheduled a TV segment (this morning) live from Jean's, in which she interviewed Jean and talked about her garden. I meant to get there and take a picture, but wasn’t able to, but I did get a shot from the TV. Lame, I know. We were busy last night getting through these, below (with some friends).

Sally’s segment was great; she (properly) didn’t stress the court stuff, but she did talk about Jean’s garden and the advantages of a “messy” country-style garden in the middle of an urban location. Then she took the topic to her radio show, and some callers told her they had similar complaints about their non-traditional gardens. We are very lucky to have Sally here; her newspaper column also does its best to get out of the traditional “garden tips” rut and educate on the impossibility of a low-maintenance garden, interesting and unusual plants, native species, why plants fail, and, of course, alternatives to lawns (among many other topics).

I don’t know what effect Sally’s advocacy will have for Jean (no news on the court date) but now Jean knows that not only her friends and neighbors (and many of you) but local professionals in the horticultural field are on her side. By the way, THANKS to all of you who have written to the mayor. If your emails are being returned, just send them to me ealicataatyahoo.com, and I’ll print them out and deliver them. Indeed that’s what I’ve already done; I have no idea how his email is filtered.

And here’s another terrific response I got from a friend of mine, Dave, who runs a landscaping service. There’s lots more but this gives you the flavor:

YEAH??!!!!

Tell them to come and take a look at mine!!!!

DON’T GET ME STARTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pope root – sumac – thistle – etc… wild “out-of-control” Kerria and Rhodotypos, dogwood. 
MY GOSH, can you believe that we have a 10-12 foot+ forsythia that has never been manicured?…..you name it. All grown and nurtured on PURPOSE. Birds, bees, butterflies, etc… EVERYWHERE.
…

What a treat it was this season to share with the amazed kids on the street here all that is happening naturally under the scope on these plants – mainly the “UGLY” thistle that I was told that I should remove from my front miniscule landscape because it is a “WEED”! You know what we then did? We labeled all these “WEEDS” and misc plants for people to see the names of them!

Dave has also offered to install a sidewalk for Jean for nothing.

One last thing. I have noticed among some of the comments on this and the Utah lawn issue statements like “Oh, I’m glad I live in x and not there,” etc. Well, I don't know if that's the message. There is no utopia for gardening or for anything else. Wherever we live, there are problems—just different ones.

Organic Lawn Care in the News

by Susan
Yes, another post about lawn care because it's the most important choice that homeowners make about their landscapes, I venture to assert.  Right, Paul Tukey?  He's a consistent pro-organic voice and contributed to this huge, prominent Washington Post spread about the issue.  (And readers, note that Paul  recommends "rebuilding the soil life by top-dressing the lawn with screened compost and giving four yearly applications of compost tea."  Hey, another convert!  I am SO going to try that stuff next year.)

Most of the article seems to make the case FOR organic lawn care, but then there's this interesting quote from Scotts Miracle-Gro, which offers an organic lawn-care products "because consumers want the choice."  As for the environmental benefits of organics, their chief environmental officer said "We believe most of that is perception."  A perception worth cashing in on, of course.

And David Clement, a "home landscape expert" with the University of Maryland, is skeptical of the claims of organic turf-grass advocates.  "Organic lawn care is fine, and you can do that, but when you have problems, very few of the organic solutions are as effective," he's quoted as saying.  And "I'm not sold that organic would be that much better than the regular regime.  I know there are a lot of people who feel otherwise.  It almost comes down to your belief values."  Wow, isn't that exactly what Cheney says about conservation efforts?  It's a personal choice, ya know.