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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

January 8 weekly garden newsletter


January 8, 2013 - Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter

From Kim Willis
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, 1974January 22, 1973 Roe vs Wade legalizes abortion.
January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just after take off, killing all 7 crew members.

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.

Worms as a protein source

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 was a little skeptical of the many lists floating around 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

Taylor found that of the 1,236 community garden sites listed only 167 (13%) were actually producing anything.  The good news was that he found some 4,648 back yard type gardens, usually of less than 200 square feet.  By overlaying census information and making site visits he found that these gardens were concentrated in areas with high Chinese, Polish and Eastern European immigrant populations and the gardens often grew foods that these groups would have grown in their native countries.  Taylor also noted that many elderly African Americans had backyard gardens and food plots that reproduced what they remembered from their southern childhoods.

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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