http://www.examiner.com/gardening-in-detroit/kimberley-willis
These weekly
garden notes are written by Kim Willis, unless another author is noted, and the
opinions expressed in these notes are her opinions and do not represent any
other individual, group or organizations
opinions.
Hello Gardeners
A few sunny days have lifted my spirits a bit. We just got the cold weather and it looks
like a January thaw is on the way. That’s
fine with me, as long as it doesn’t get too warm and start the plants
growing. Temps in the 40’s should be
just fine. I would love it if the hose
to the barn would run during the day.
Rainy weather is ahead- I don’t know if I like that. Be careful if you are out and about Wednesday
night or early Thursday as we may have some freezing drizzle or fog.
Boy, have I been getting the garden catalogs. Making my lists and checking them twice. I want to try some new edible landscaping
plants this year. (That is this years
hot garden trend-edible landscaping, by the way.) There are so many new things on the market
you didn’t see years ago. Try the
Raintree catalog/website for some great ideas. I have decided to rip out my old strawberry
patch and plant a new one. They need
renewal every few years and I want to move mine farther from the chickens- so I
get the berries.
I have always wanted some Japanese Forest Grass- almost
bought some last year, then decided to wait.
This year it’s on the top of my list because I know just where to put it
now. I see several excellent cultivars I’d
like to try. I also have a spot in mind
for some new heuchera cultivars. I want
to develop mostly shaded or partly shaded areas this year.
A few years ago I developed the west side of the front yard,
in an area under some cedar trees between the house and the horse pasture, into
an outdoor room. Mulch, chairs, lots of
colorful containers of shade plants, grill, picnic table and even a fountain
were installed. However we seldom used
the space and after a while I dismantled the fountain and just kept the area
mowed where any grass grew.
Now that the horses are gone and I am retired I am thinking
about bringing the outside room back. It’s
a nice place to sit, even if it’s a little close to the road and since we are
hoping to use some of the old horse pasture for garden it will be a nice place
to get out of the sun. Garden rooms are
a hot trend this year- wow- I am actually following the trends. That’s a new one for me.
Oh, I can hardly wait to be sitting in the shade with a good
book, with birds singing and flowers blooming. But there’s lots of work between
now and then to get done. I hope all of
you are having great garden dreams too.
Time for Hot Tea and Blonde Brownies
Kim
January almanac
The moon in January is at new moon stage January 11, first
quarter at January 18 and full on January 26.
The full moon in January is called the Wolf moon. The length of the day is 9 hours, 8 minutes
on January 1 and 9 hours 57 minutes on January 31. Good days for planting above ground crops are
14, 15, 19, 20, 24, 25. Plant root crops
on January 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 29, 30. January 10 is Houseplant Appreciation day. The 21st is Martin Luther King holiday. January 22 is National Blonde Brownie Day.
January is National Soup, Hot Tea, Oatmeal, Blood Donor and
Hobby month. Happy Days premiered on January 15, 1974 . January
22, 1973 Roe vs Wade legalizes abortion.
January’s flowers of the month are the carnation and the
snowdrop. The garnet is January’s
birthstone. Famous January birthdays
include Mel Gibson, Rush Limburg, Howard Stern, Benjamin Franklin, Al Capone, Crystal
Gale, Rod Stewart, Kristie Alley, Janis Joplin, Oprah Winfrey and Dolly Parton.
Worried about the increasing price of meat? Some people are calling for mealworm farming,
claiming that mealworms give more protein per acre farmed with less energy used
and less pollution than other animals.
The worms are dried and ground into powder to make “meat”. UGH, UGH and UGH. Sorry but I will become a vegetarian first
and that’s saying something for me.
Speaking of vegetarians a company called Hampton Creek Foods
unveiled its vegetable based egg at the 2012 Food Technologies Expo in Las
Vegas . Called “Beyond
Eggs”, the product is said to as good as regular eggs for baking. No word if you can fry it up for breakfast.
Goggle earth tells
all
In many big cities “urban farming” is actually embraced but
one researcher, John Taylor, a doctoral candidate at the University
of Illinois Chicago
listing community food gardens and other urban farming sites. Taylor
decided to use Goggle Earth to see just how many gardens there were in the
urban area of Chicago . He used Goggle Earth satellite images to look
for gardens in the Chicago area,
comparing what he found to lists provided by various sources. He also made follow up visits where Goggle
Earth indicated that there were gardens that weren’t on lists and checked out
sites where gardens were supposed to be but Goggle Earth didn’t show gardens. He also randomly visited many other garden
sites
What you can take away from this is that people do garden in
urban areas but community feel good projects account for very little of the
food produced in these areas. Taylor and
others recommend that empty lots be offered to neighbors for gardening much as England
and other countries offer allotments on government owned land for personal
gardening. According to the American
Gardening Association more than 43 million people have personal gardens in the US
and save about $530 a year per household on fresh produce.
Termites are mining
gold
In Australia
geologists found gold in termite mounds.
It seems as the termites chew through their subterranean world they
ingest gold, which they excrete as little stones, like human kidney stones on
the mounds above their burrows. By
examining the mounds and finding the poop nuggets geologists can determine if there
is a gold deposit in the ground underneath.
Gold is also being found in African termite mounds.
Orchids
Orchids comprise the largest family of plants on Earth, 10 %
of all the plants on earth are orchids.
Just last year two new species of orchids were found on Cuba . Orchids have always fascinated botanists. Each species of orchids attracts specific
pollinators and there are some 30,000 species to study. Many orchids offer neither nectar nor pollen
to their pollinators, instead they use deceit, looking like a female insect or
smelling like one, to attract pollinators.
Yet as a family orchids are extremely successful, occurring on every
continent. Some of our native
wildflowers are in the orchid family.
Habitat loss however, has caused many orchid species to
become endangered or nearly extinct, even as we find new species. Orchids are also unique in that when their
seeds fall on the ground and germinate in their natural habitats the newly
sprouted seeds rely solely on colonies of microscopic fungus to survive. The fungi species vary from habitat to
habitat. The best colonies of fungi are
in older established orchid habitat with a diverse selection of plants. If an abundant colony of the right types of
fungi are not present orchid seeds won’t even germinate. New forests or other habitat rarely produce
good orchid growth conditions.
The reproductive idiosyncrasies of orchids always made them
a challenge to domesticate and grow as garden and houseplants until the last
decade or so, when tissue culture and other vegetative methods of orchid
reproduction are bringing many colorful species of orchids on the market. Orchids are now considered to be the most
popular houseplant on the market and the second largest income producing potted
plant, just behind poinsettias. Hawaii ,
California and Florida
produce most of the orchids sold in the US .
Orchid prices ranges from under $10 to many hundreds of
dollars. You have probably seen them in
many types of stores, from garden shops to groceries. Most of the common
species are actually quite easy to grow and even get to re-bloom. I was given a beautiful orchid plant several
years ago and it has re-bloomed each late winter-early spring since. The plants require little care, like most
houseplants they need excellent drainage from their containers and they needed
to be potted in special orchid planting mix and not soil. Different species require different light levels;
mine thrives in a north window.
Depending on the species you’ll need to fertilize with
either orchid fertilizer or a diluted houseplant fertilizer a few months before
the expected blooming period to initiate buds.
You allow the container to dry out just a bit before watering unless the
plant is in flower, when they should be kept moist.
Most species thrive at normal home temperatures, but avoid
cold drafts. There are tiny species and
some that grow very large. The color
range is wide and the shape of the blooms also varies. Some orchids are fragrant- if you don’t pick
them. Orchids quickly lose their scent
when picked. Many orchids bloom in late
winter- early spring when their blooms are most welcome. Orchid flowers generally last for several
weeks.
This is a short, generalized summary of orchid care. The object is to get you to pick up one of
those pretty plants as you shop through this dreary winter and bring it
home. Make sure you buy one with a
label, so you can research any special care it needs to thrive and
re-bloom. You can grow an orchid- give
it a whirl.
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