Ghostwater Garden

Day Late, Dollar Short?

Happy Earth Day!

I spent yesterday (or more correctly, Mark spent yesterday) tilling over a patch for a vegetable garden.

Next time, I'm going to listen to the man when who tried to rent me a sod remover and the light tiller.  Running the heavy tiller through the sod was an excercise in insanity.  And my poor Mark, as is usually the case, bore the brunt of my stubborness. 

Pictures to follow at a later date.

In other news - Two of my hellebores did finally bloom - I have one white with a spattering of cute red freckles, and one that is a pale green.  So when I shop again, I'll be going for the solid purples and I will have a lovely patch. 

Public Service Announcement:

Say NO to Cypress Mulch

The cutting of cypress forests for garden mulch is destroying vital wetlands that stabilize Louisiana's coast against hurricanes and provide vital migratory bird habitat.  We believe that gardeners must know the truth about cypress mulch, and will stop using cypress mulch when presented with the facts:

Cypress mulch is not as effective as other mulches. Only the ‘heartwood’ from mature cypress trees is rot and termite resistant. The young trees now being cut to feed the growing cypress mulch industry do not have these qualities. A University of Florida study confirmed that cypress mulch isn’t any better for your garden than pine bark harvested from commercial plantations, not critical coastal wetlands.

Much of Louisiana’s cypress mulch comes from illegal logging. Regulators turn a blind eye towards these activities, allowing loggers to continue destroying these forests without penalty. Yet 70-80% of the cypress wetland forests of Louisiana will never regenerate if cut, even if they are artificially replanted.

The cypress mulch industry destroys wetlands that protect coastal Louisiana. At a time when the nation must invest billions to restore Louisiana’s wetlands for hurricane protection, cypress forests are being ground into mulch. Cypress wetlands prevent flooding by absorbing excess water like a sponge, controlling flood height and speed. These wetlands save lives and prevent the destruction of coastal cities.

On Friday, April 14, Waterkeeper Alliance sponsored an advertisement in The New York Times encouraging consumers to say NO to cypress mulch. Please visit www.waterkeeper.org to see the ad and for more information on cypress mulch, including our fact sheet and links to additional resources.

Ecology and Gardening go hand in hand, yet many gardeners are unaware of the potential costs of the materials they use.  Fertilizers and the runoff damage they cause get a lot of press.  The depletion of peat bogs and cypress forests gets much less screen time.   

 

Posted in response to a polite request from

Bana Malik
Communications Associate
Waterkeeper Alliance
914.674.0622 x 213

My Wish

To everyone, no matter what nation, race, religion or creed:

May your day be filled with Hope and Joy.

Peace.

Broke down under temptation...

...and bought two varieties of japanese maple seeds from Commonwealth Plants.

All the maples you see in the stores are grafted, because maples do not come true to seed.  So what I've bought is 50 seeds of exploration into the unknown. 

What you do get with the seeds is the name of one parent, the one that produced the seed.  All the maples are then open pollinated, so the seed may be crossed with any of the other maples that were con-currently blooming. 

I bought 25 seeds from Acer palmatum dissectum "Viridis" and 25 seeds from  Acer palmatum atropurpureum. 

They arrived in the mail today, and more than half of the atropurpureum were already sprouting! So my lunch hour was spent putting the sprouting seeds in pots, and an hour after work putting the rest to pots. Fifty maples is a LOT of seeds.

I can't wait to see, through the next few years, what I have and how they perform in zone five. Winter hardiness, spring color, summer color, fall color...

Ought to be an interesting journey.

The Gardening Bug...

Sung to "My Favorite Things"

Catalogs breeding and seedlings are sprouting
Weeds have arisen and beds are a-calling
Spring has erupted and bitten us all
There's so much to do here - Hope I'm done by this fall!

Veggies and flowers are begging attention
grass isn't growing - but it's worth a mention
planning and plotting a new summer scene
there's so much to do here - I'm ready to scream!

Pansies to dead head and crocus to divide
shrubs that need trimming and mulches to provide
bugs to be vanquished and compost to turn
there's so much to do here - must avoid a sun burn!

When the bugs bite
When the weeds thrive
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my gardening things
And then I don't feel so bad!

Filk by Tamena

Found via LJ's Gardening community

Want your flowers to be more controlled?

Give them alcohol.

This allows you to control the stem growth of the flower, effectively stunting it's growth.  It's a process that emulates some of the things they do in the big production greenhouses, to make the flower more appealing to the market.

Personally, I like my flowers to be laden with their own personalities - straight and aristrocratic or loose and floosy as their nature dictates.  I'll not be out with my shotglass in the garden anytime soon.

Found via MucknMire