Garden Rant

Greenmap your city

My next report on Richmond's urban gardening conference is from the workshop titled "Urban Gardening and Greening for a Robust Economy".  It included Meghan Gough, who teaches urban and regional planning, and she pumped me up on the value of Greenmaps in helping to revive cities and the neighborhoods in them. Greenmaps plot ecological and cultural assets - the kinds of features everyone's looking for more than ever. Realtors love them, and that tells us something. 

For example, Baltimore Green Map plots "Baltimore's ecological and cultural resources and our city's progress toward becoming a healthy, sustainable urban environment" and in only its second year already shows 331 such assets. Like what?  Like hiking and bird-watching spots, community gardens, and vegetarian restaurants.  The project also includes print maps, events and activities.  The map is linked to on the city's website. 

But get this:  Baltimore's Green Map was started as an antidote to a prominent local map with a not-so-positive impact - the one that plots all the homicide spots in the city, helpfully published on the Baltimore Sun website.  The Green Map was envisioned as an "upbeat alternative to it that might inspire people to make the city a greener place" and I bet it does exactly that.

So where else do they have maps?  Look here, but don't assume just because you see your city here that it has a green map - DC's is blank.  Got one where you live?

Professor Gough also defined for us what a "sustainable urban environment" is - one that works toward economic development, environmental protection, equity and social justice.  Wow, I'd say that covers the waterfront.  But here's the rub - there's an inherent conflict between the slow or managed growth movement on the one hand and economic development and affordability on the other.  Wish there'd been time to hear more about that.

This is one of many short reports from a conference about urban gardening, thanks to the generous support of Olive Barn, EdenMaker Shirley Bovshow in Los Angeles, Barbara Feldt of NY City, Cathy Mastromauro in Cincinnati, and Peter Hoh in Minneapolis.

Now, that's a tomato cage!

For demo only. Dare to dream.

IGC: English garden tools!

Being sold by actual English people. Good-looking stuff.

Live from the IGC show

According to the vendors, garden centers have money to spend this year! Mr. Armitage gave a talk on "gardening is a four-letter word"--just to get me riled up, he said! Sadly, his talk was at the same time as mine, so I'll have to corner him later to get the scoop.

Never thought I’d become a rudbeckia farmer, but …

 

The "Prairie Glow," which have orange/red markings, are hidden behind the "Herbstsonne."

These hirta “Herbstsonne,” triloba  “Prairie Glow,” and laciniata “Gold Glow”  have me all, well, um, aglow. Never having cosied up to the “Goldsturm,” which were too short for my needs, I am finding that these 5-8 feet tall varieties provide just the late summer oomph demanded when things can begin to look a bit less than fresh.

Though it seems I am always behind. The big excitement now is all around echinaceas with food-related names: “Tomato Soup,” “Mac ‘n’ Cheese,” “Tangerine Dream, “ and “Coconut Lime.” (There are tons more.) My friend  Dee/reddirtramblin writes about echinacea madness here.

Most of those will not get high enough for me though (I have a brick wall to overcome), so I’ll continue with the rudbeckia, though I doubt they’ll start coming in double raspberry and lime green varieties, and still maintain their height. Or can they? Terra Nova? Proven Winners? Are you listening? Would I even want such a thing? Probably not, but it would be interesting to see them try.

Death of the Great American Lawn - Coming Soon?

On WowOwow.com, my fix-the-American-lawn guest post should be loud and clear.  It's called  "Coming Soon: The Death of the Great American Lawn". 

I've promised them the next installment will be about solutions to the problem that is the American lawn, with a link to a new website on this subject.  It's a team effort involving Paul Tukey, Ginny Stibolt, Susan Morrison, Tom Christopher, Evelyn Hadden, Billy Goodnick, Shirley Bovsho, a movie producer/environmental activist named Tom Engleman, and yours truly. 

Coming soon to GardenRant.

Grow your own drinks

Have you tried a honey lavender martini or a basil mojito? If not, now would be the time, as many of us have the ingredients growing in the garden as well as sitting in the liquor cabinet.

I started using more botanical ingredients in cocktails a couple years ago, and was happy to discover such mixers as St. Germain liquor, which is much more well-known now than when I started buying it. It is made from elderflowers, comes in a gorgeous bottle, is not that expensive, and has a clear flavor that can usually be tasted well above the din of whatever you mix it with (great with gin and gives an excellent kick to prosecco or inexpensive champagne).

Today’s NYTimes has a nice piece on floral cocktails, timed perfectly with the arrival of true summer weather across the Northeast. Check it out. And here’s a honey lavender martini recipe:

1 part gin

½ part honey lavender syrup

shake with ice, strain into a glass. Add a squeeze of lemon if it seems too sweet.

Make honey lavender syrup by boiling 1/4 cup honey and 1/2 cup water with 3 teaspoons lavender, and adding 1/4 cup lemon juice after it cools. That will make enough syrup for a few cocktails. (I have adapted these proportions from a local restaurant that makes these, so some experimentation may be in order.)

Gardening on wheels

 

Ingredients:

Donated punk Shopping Carts

Burlap coffee bean bags for liners

Best soil I can get

Compost

Ground up coconut shells leftover from local hydroponic farming

Organic seeds

Caretaker/gardeners

Faith

—Stella Marrs, artist and creator of shopping cart victory gardens 

Abandoned shopping carts are a well-known feature of urban living, but I wonder if as many intriguing uses of them have been made in other cities? Here in Buffalo I have seen a photo-documentary project in which they were scientifically catalogued (this became an Abrams-published book and a successful Chelsea gallery show), a garden furniture repurposing project, and this, in which 50 of them have been filled with edible plants (vegetables, herbs, and flowers) and distributed throughout the downtown residential area.

They are tethered to parking meters (made obsolete by new systems, for the most part), porch railings, fences, and so on. The ones I have seen look as though they’ve been watered, and all the plants are alive and producing. I am not sure if all the plants are being harvested; some of the herbs I saw have gone to seed. Whoever lives/works in the nearest storefront/residence is responsible for its shopping cart garden.

They are particularly useful where there is no gardening area whatsoever,  but they are also attractive next to larger conventional gardens (top). I think it’s a neat idea.

Note: The link I have given goes to an older website for Marrs's postcards, for which she is best known, and which predate her move to Buffalo. It does not mention the shopping cart gardens; there is very little online about these. 

On growing vegetables in containers

What this first-time veg-gardener has learned so far

I learned that "self-watering" still requires getting water into the container's reservoir.  Nothing happens automatically and without a water source nearby, I did a lot of schlepping - which was totally worth it for the glorious produce and fun of it all.

Another question to answer was how to support rather large plants, without being able to insert sturdy posts into actual soil, ya know. I tried some wire supports, but the squash just got tangled up in them.  I tied tomatoes against the privacy screen, but then couldn't move the planter around (on its handy rollers) to harvest the cherry toms. 

But like all gardeners, I'm already scheming about what I'll do differently next year and one BIG answer is to grow container-sized plants.  Yep, they actually exist, or at least Renee Shepherd sells them and she sent me a nice assortment for next spring. There's "Super Bush" tomatoes (no comment), "Bush Slicer" cukes, (ditto), "Little Prince" eggplant, and even container sunflowers and zinnias.  Can't wait to try 'em.

Something else I learned from the very patient Renee is that some plants - most vegetables are really and truly easier to grow from seed sewn outdoors - no need to buy starts like I did this year.  (And starts are only available in the super-common, too-big-for-container varieties.)  Seems they don't do much til the soil warms up, anyway.  Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, however, DO work better when grown from seed in late winter - or starts grown by someone else.  Okay, I'm catching on, and I think I can manage starting tomato seeds indoors in March, really.  At least enough for two plants.

But back to Renee.  I had the pleasure of a nice long dinner with Polly Jones and Renee when she was in DC for the Congressional Club's annual First Lady's Dinner with Michelle Obama.  Here's part of her report on Renee's Garden Blog:

  Best of all, I was invited to the VIP reception before the affair and had the thrill and honor of meeting Michelle Obama in person. I was also able to make a personal selection of our seeds to give to Michelle for the White House Garden. Michelle was everything I expected -- vibrant, graceful, clearly engaged and enjoying what she is doing. When you speak with her, you have her full attention and feel like you are the only person in the room. The luncheon itself was really fabulous. I was seated at a table quite close to the First Lady and other honorees, so I got to watch her "up close and personal" as she gave a very insightful speech on community service.  

Since when is having a small seed business the ticket to hobnobbing with power and (in this case) glamour in America?  Since now, baby - gardening is coming back.

All photos courtesy Renee Shepherd.

Rant on the Road: Chicago

I'm headed to Chicago this week for the Independent Garden Center show, which turns out to be a really fun way to drool over whatever products indie garden centers are going to be carrying next season, while rubbing elbows with a few other garden writers.  I'm giving a couple of talks, one on wildlife gardening and one on kitchen gardening, so stop by and say hello if you're around.

I'll also be at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville on Thursday, August 20 at 7 pm. Looks like Wicked Plants' illustrator, Briony Morrow-Cribbs, will be joining me. Please do come out for a bit of botanical wickedness on Thursday evening, and bring some friends.

In other news, Wicked Plants hits #8 on the New York Times bestseller list next week.  It gets a mention in the "Inside the List" column as well--online this week and in print next week, and because it's categorized in their how-to, advice, and miscellaneous list, the Times takes it to heart:  "Finally, a how-to book that actually teaches something useful! Want to discourage lingering weekend guests? Try spiking the salad dressing with castor oil, a power­ful laxative."  And so on.  Folks, don't try this at home.

Oh, and one last thing:  the CBS Sunday Morning segment has popped up online:

August is bustin’ out all over

Forget about June. June sucked. And so, for the most part, did July, in terms of the sun required to kick blooms into action. But now we truly have some sultry weather and these flowers are loving it.

I’ve posted about rudbeckia "Herbstsonne" (top) here. Last year they were just about finished at this time. This year they're still going strong and the bees are everywhere among them. The plants are way too tall for where they are, but I stopped caring about such things some time ago (if I ever did).

Another bonus is that I still have tons of lilies yet to bloom, including some speciosum rubrum (regular and alba) and these tigrinum flore pleno. Increasingly, these species types are my favorite.  Normally I don’t show too many close-ups, but species lilies are so cool, you have to.

And Thursday night I saw a hydrangea I had to have. It’s a blue lacecap with variegated foliage, some of it pure white. Wild. Hydrangeas do very well here and there is very little I wouldn't pull up to put a hydrangea in its place.  A rainy, somewhat coolish summer can still be great for continuous plantings and plenty of blooms.  

Blooming today, the Tardiva hydrangea

I'm a big fan of Hydrangea paniculata 'Tardiva' - it's right up there with the oakleaf.  This one's pruned to be almost espaliered, wide but close up against the English laurel hedge.  So in this tight-fit border I can still walk along the middle, passing between the Tardiva and that 'Ogon' spirea.  Speaking of which, I'm in love with its chartreuse willow-like foliage anywhere, but especially with the lamb's ear.  There's some Salvia 'May Night' and reblooming Tradescantia in this vignette, too.

For once, I followed the Garden Blogger Bloom Day rules.  Though back on my blog I broke 'em again.

Getting the Lead Out

The New York Times continues to report on the non-story of the non-lead in the White House vegetable garden. As you'll recall, the original soil tests showed lead levels at 93 ppm, quite a bit below what it would take to get the EPA worked up (400 ppm) but still higher than what the more highly evolved Dutch would want to see in their soil (40 ppm).

Still.  Things have continued to improve, thanks to the addition of lime, greensand, crab meal, and organic stuff.  Now the levels are only 14 ppm, and this, I think, is the only really newsy bit in here:  Look!  In just a few months, you can totally reduce lead levels in your soil using nothing but some simple organic stuff!  And this:  "The pH was adjusted to between 6.5 and 7. When the pH is in that range, lead is unavailable to the plants." Well, that is really handy to know. The lead levels are now comparable to soil that has never been trod upon by a modern human.  Nicely done.

But there's more fun to be had.  The NYT just couldn't help themselves; they had to wade into the sludgestorm started over at Mother Jones back in June when that publication made the point that sewage sludge may well be to blame for the lead levels in the first place.  Apparently this is not the first time the White House lawn has been used to send a message to gardeners and farmers:  there was also that time back in the 80s and 90s when the EPA, wanting to increase public acceptance of sewage sludge, spread biosolids on the White House lawn.

Spreading sludge at the White House was a way for the EPA to reassure the public that using it as a fertilizer for crops and yards (instead of dumping it in the ocean, as had been common practice) would be safe. "The Clintons are walking around on poo," the EPA's sludge chief quipped in 1998, "but it's very clean poo."

And that, of course, got everybody worked up.  Read all about it if you've got nothing better to do with your Friday.

But wait!  The NYT went back and interviewed the retired groundskeeper, Mr. Irvin Williams, "who retired as head groundskeeper at the White House last year, after 59 years on the job, said sludge was used only once there, in 1985."

Just once.  And nobody inhaled.

Except!  Now MoJo wonders if Mr. Williams is really remembering things right.  They cite several media accounts over time of the use of sludge on the lawn, including this from Mr. Williams himself:

"Meanwhile, along Pennsylvania Avenue, the grounds crew at the White House is preparing for life after ComPRO," the Post reported. "Irv Williams, who has taken care of the White House grounds for 38 years, said they will make due, even though ComPRO has helped the South Lawn."

ComPRO being the sewage sludge stuff.  Catchy name, that.

Well.  What shit was spread around, and when was it spread?  And what did the President know about it?  Such questions have been asked before at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, regarding matters far smellier than this one.  I'm just glad the Obamas have had better luck with their tomatoes than I have.  Enjoy the weekend, folks.

Gardenbloggers on WowoWow.com

WowoWow is a woman-owned and -run website with lots of high-powered women at the helm (Lily Tomlin, Lesley Stahl, Whoopi Goldberg, Marlo Thomas, etc) but until now there was no sign of gardening on the site.  Well, that was then and this is 2009 and they're getting into gardening, y'all! 

First up is a round-up of "renowned" gardenbloggers - we love that! - all answering short tip-type questions.  Now I was afraid my tip-type answers would be overly simplistic but with all of us answering the same questions, it was just fun.  Pals Shirley Bovshow and Pam Penick are among the seven.  

Next up - guest posts, and my first offering is about the anti-lawn movement.

Round-up of Carpentry and Beefcake on HgTV

Sure, I'm sometimes hard on HgTV - the lower-case G reflects their disappearing gardening content - but truth to tell, I'm still watching.  And lately I've explored some of the home improvement shows that get videotaped after my gardening shows on Sunday morning (hi, Paul!), and it turns out they have plenty of episodes about outdoor and in-the-garden projects, and some of it's downright watchable.

My first discovery was a show called Don't Sweat It starring Steve Watson, on the left in the photo.  He's so damn natural and believable as a carpenter I feel like I've hired him and my project is in very good hands.  He actually has a remodeling business in Los Angeles, where he's also been a struggling actor for many years.  But don't worry - he's no pretty boy spokesmodel like some of them.  You know, the ones who call plants "greenery" or refer to "trees and plants".

But with Steve at the helm I was fascinated by the projects and even learned a thing or two.  Here's a selection of his outdoor episodes:

• Flagstone Walkway and Trellis Gate
• Building a Horizontal Plank Fence
• Floating Decks and Flagstone Walkway
• Installing Rain Chains

Another show I'm surprising myself by actually recommending is Carter Can with Carter Oosterhouse.  That's Carter with the bare, hairy chest.  I can't really remember what his show was about but I know I enjoyed watching him it.

Alas, the final fix-it show gets a big ole thumb's down, no matter if the star was one of People Magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive!"  That would be Over Your Head with bottle blond Eric Stromer.  My notes say, verbatim:  "Stupid.  Lots of high 5s and 'Awesome!'  Ugly designs." 

Well, it's basic cable, after all, and two out of three is better than the networks do.

Ranting about heirloom tomatoes

Quoting food writer Jane Black in today's WashPost, "Call me persnickety, but someone needs to take a stand here:  'Heirloom' is not synonymous with 'good.'"   And "The best tomato I ate last summer was not an heirloom tomato." And she quotes a disgruntled writer in Sociologia Rulalis - I must have let my subscription lapse - who calls them "bug-eaten, calloused, mottled and splitting tomatoes that may or may not taste good."

You get the idea.  Any rebuttals? Photo credit.

Some thoughts on late blight

Check out Dan Barber’s op-ed You Say Tomato, I Say Agricultural Disaster.

 A depressing quote from it:

Here’s the unhappy twist: the explosion of home gardeners — the very people most conscious of buying local food and opting out of the conventional food chain — has paradoxically set the stage for the worst local tomato harvest in memory.

Does Barber have answers? Somewhat. More diverse plantings, working with cooperative extensions, looking at tomatoes bred for resistance. There’s no question that the incredibly wet weather the Northeast has been under for months now isn’t helping. We have had hurricane-level rain accumulation in Western New York for the last couple days. I don't grow many vegetables (just a couple heirloom cherry tomato plants) but my friends who do are not happy. I have not yet checked in on our local farmers. But the sun is coming this week!

Got something you'd like to Rant about?Announcing Guest Post Week

Get something off your chest here at GardenRant during the week of August 24-30, and give the hard-working Rant ladies the week off!  Come on, we know you've been hiding your inner ranter, just waiting for someone to lure it out, so we're luring, baby!  Send 'em along to Susan[at]Sustainable-Gardening.com to get on the schedule. 

Below is our standard guidance on guest rants.

What, exactly, is a guest rant?

First, it's short. 500 words is plenty. 

Second, it's highly opinionated.  Take a position on an issue, pro or con.  Rant or rave, just have a point of view. Be unguarded and informal.  Tell it like it is.

Third, it's interesting.  Well, that goes without saying.  But seriously, tell us an interesting, behind-the-scenes story.  Surprise us. Get people talking.  Because if you get them talking, they'll go away and continue the conversation on their own blogs, and that helps spread the word.

Did we mention that it should be interesting and personal and off-the-cuff and fun?  Seriously, no PR talk, and no how-to.  Pretend you're e-mailing a highly amusing tale to some friends.  Now pretend we're your friends.

Drew Becher is sort of annoyed

This is the first of many short reports from a conference about urban gardening, thanks to the generous support of Olive Barn, EdenMaker Shirley Bovshow in Los Angeles, Barbara Feldt of NY City, Cathy Mastromauro in Cincinnati, and Peter Hoh in Minneapolis.

Over Richmond, Virginia's finest box lunches, about 150 of us were dazzled and energized by the MOST entertaining Drew Becher, executive director of the New York Restoration Project. That's the urban gardening group started back in '95 by Bette Midler. (Love her!)

He started by telling his own story, of growing up in Dayton (which he showed on a map so we'll know where Ohio is) as a weird kid who loved gardening.  Who gardened his own yard AND all his neighbors' yards.  At 12, he won a "Best Yard" award in a competition intended for adults.

Then in high school he was "sort of annoyed" by the state of the school grounds, so he complained to the school board and ended up starting a beautification campaign.  In college, too, he was sort of annoyed by what he saw around him and that led to a committee to oversee the grounds and the commissioning of a master plan for the campaign - by the famous Peter Walker, no less.  He still seems annoyed by the "23 different types of trash cans on campus!"

Next, he won an internship for Chicago's Mayor Daley and after speaking up to the boss about problems he saw around the city, found himself hired as Chicago's first Assistant to the Mayor for Landscaping back in the early '90s. That led to green roofs, more street trees, and lots of what used to be called beautification and is now called greening.

So what better background could there be to head up one of the coolest (and most effective) urban greening projects evah!  And what better job for a plant geek with an outsized personality?  Nobody was fooled by Drew's suited-up banker look at the conference, and it didn't take much sleuthing to find these photos of NYRP's parties, including this shot of him at their yearly Huluween Party (Bette's from Hawaii).  Hmm, with this year's shinding coming up soon I wonder if there might be a press pass available for a hard-working gardenblogger.  (A girl can dream.)

Next up...lots more about the New York Restoration Project.

Photo left:  Bette Midler and Kathy Griffith (love her!) at last year's Huluween Party.

How much plant improvement can we stand?

Bloomerang is sold by White Flower Farms and others

Long bloom seasons, disease resistance, hardiness, and other desirable improvements in perennials come at a price.  Stella d’Oro blooms its head off all summer but its ubiquity has rendered it obnoxious to many, Knock-Out roses are foolproof but have no fragrance, and the long-blooming dicentra can’t begin to compare with the old-fashioned spectabilis. Sometimes, the trade-off is worthwhile; I love the foliage of the all-summer dicentra, for instance.

But some critics think the hybridizers have gone too far. Should a lilac bloom all summer? It’s quite a concept. There are at least two reblooming lilacs on the market: Josee, and, more recently, Bloomerang, a 3-4-foot blue/lavender variety developed by Proven Winners. And likely others to come.

I totally understand where the naysayers are coming from. Regardless of how these new varieties perform, the romance and excitement of lilacs is all about their brief, glorious moment in spring. Everyone loves lilacs. In spring. Would Whitman have bothered to write poetry about them if they bloomed in the door-yard all summer long? I doubt it. So this is what some garden writers are saying about the reblooming lilac concept:

From Anne Kingston of Macleans: The arrival of a reblooming lilac has drawn a fresh line in the soil between the old and the new gardening guard. Those who eagerly await the species' fragrant flowering as a harbinger of spring find the prospect of lilacs blooming again in September akin to watching a burlesque dancer perform the same act into her dotage—untimely and kind of creepy.

From Bradford McKee of Slate: In the annals of plant novelties that cheapen gardening for the sake of enriching it, I can't think of anything so dumb. When you can have any flower whenever you want it, that's not gardening. That's shopping.

The actual rebloom performance of Bloomerang is not spectacular: a heavy first flush with some sporadic repeats through fall, with rests in between. So, really, as long as the spring bloom is up to standards, should we care if the plant puts out a few flowers afterward from time to time? Is it that big of  a deal? New hybrids are allowed and people can buy them if they want.  Still, I can see why this one might be a bit disturbing to some.

However, if someone comes up with a smallish lilac that will bloom in shade, I might have to buy it.