February 26, 2013 - Kim’s Weekly
Garden Newsletter
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.
Hi Gardeners
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| Spring will come! (Iris reticula) |
The full Snow moon was beautiful last night. When I was younger I would often go out in
the magic of such nights and just walk.
It’s amazing how different the environment seems at night and here in
the country it’s so quiet and peaceful.
Now I just get up and look out the window, there were lots of rabbits
out last night doing their mating dances.
Speaking of weather March 1 is Friday. Supposedly whatever the weather is on that
day is what determines how the weather will be at the end of the month, you
know, in like a lion out like a lamb? It’s
supposed to be partly sunny, quiet and cold on Friday so March 31st
should bring wild weather.
I am so glad February is almost over; it’s my least favorite
month or maybe tied with December. Only
22 days to spring. I don’t want the
weather to get as warm as it did last year in March but it sure would be nice
to get some sun and temps in the 40’s. I do have those pretty daffodils still in
bloom and a beautiful lavender ivy geranium is blooming its head off on my
kitchen window sill so I have some signs of spring to look at.
I have a bit of a plant mystery. I found an odd shaped lump that I suspected
was a bulb of some kind, last fall when I was cleaning up some old pots. I couldn’t identify it and didn’t even know
for sure it was a bulb but I stuck it in a small pot with some soil and brought
it on my porch. I had forgotten about it
pretty much; the pot was stuck down between my two large pots of rosemary. When watering out on the porch yesterday I
noticed the pot was sending up a fat shoot.
It must be something cold hardy but I’m not sure what yet. That’s a fun mystery I hope to solve in a
week or two.
I was also cleaning off the top of the refrigerator in
preparation of painting the kitchen and found a cottage cheese carton with a
bunch of poppy seed heads that had leaked about a cup of poppy seeds and some
of those tiny dried peppers that look like little pumpkins inside. I can’t remember how old they are, more than
a year I know, but I think I will try to sprout some of the seeds as an
experiment. That shows you how bored and
ready for gardening season I am.
Check those
houseplants
I’ve noticed that my houseplants are starting to grow again
and they need water about twice as often as they did earlier in the
season. Even though it’s not been
terribly sunny this month the days are getting longer and the sun stronger and
the plants sense it. Combined with
longer days of photosynthesis, growth and the dry air in our homes from the
furnace houseplants will need to be watched carefully so they don’t dry out too
much. You can begin to fertilize them if
you want to promote growth or blooming.
This is also the time to watch for pests on
houseplants. Scale insects in particular
will become active and go into reproductive crawler stage as it gets
warmer. Spider mite problems also
increase. You may want to move some
houseplants further from the window as March progresses so they don’t get leaf
burn.
Things you can do
outside now
If you are like me, you are getting anxious to get outside
and garden again. There are a few things
you can do outside, weather permitting.
It is time to get those fruit trees pruned. Examine trees for black knot and other cankers
and prune them out. You can prune oaks
now and other trees and shrubs. Just don’t
prune anything that blooms in the spring if you want spring blooms. Hold off on rose bushes, there may still be some
winter kill of stems and dead wood on the plants helps protect still living wood
further down the stem. You can cut back
your ornamental grasses if you are tired of looking at the bleached brown color
and if you haven’t removed corn stalks, sunflower stems and other garden debris
its fine to do so.
It’s a good time to walk around the yard and do some
planning and dreaming and maybe measuring.
And if you ever thought of tapping some maples for maple syrup get your
supplies ready. Anytime there’s a day that’s
sunny and above freezing is a good time to tap maples for a while. And you can always take the Christmas lights
down.
Flowers and bees
create electricity
A fascinating study I
read about this week was the discovery that at least some flowers produce a
negative electrical charge and bees flying through the air build up a positive
electrical charge. When a bee lands on a
flower he can sense something like static electricity. Far from being upset by this the bee has
learned that a stronger pulse means more of a pollen or nectar reward, because
as each bee visits a flower the static electricity gets weaker. No electric pulse and the bee might as well
just take off instead of wasting its time with a plundered flower. It’s amazing how plants communicate with and
train their pollinators.
Bumblebees in the
news
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Bumblebee on catnip |
Honeybees do a dance to tell other members of a tribe where
the food can be found. Bumblebees don’t
dance but they do spy on honeybees and they can interpret their dancing and find
the hidden food. When bumblebees do find
food they want to let their hive members know about they bring back a scent on
their bodies, and the other bees smell their way to the food, following a scent
trail through the air.
And here’s what those research dollars are spent on. Researchers built an artificial meadow with a
variety of artificial flowers that held food rewards for bees. Next they built tiny robotic spiders that mimicked
flower spiders, those tiny spiders often found on garden flowers that have the
ability to change their color to match the flower. Flower spiders wait in flowers to catch bees,
their preferred food. The robot spiders
had tiny arms that could catch a bee when it landed on a flower. The robot spiders were put on some of the
fake flowers, some were colored to match the flowers and others were not. Real bumble bees were released into the artificial
meadow to visit the artificial flowers.
When they landed on a flower with a robot spider the robot spiders would
catch them and release them.
What were the scientists trying to find out? Whether being caught by a spider and getting
away taught the bee to be more cautious and whether a camouflaged spider was
more successful than one that was not camouflaged. (Who dreams up these studies?) Guess what, bees do learn to be more cautious
when they escape from a spider about approaching other flowers. And camouflaged spiders were only slightly
more successful catching bees.
What does this teach you and me? All those stories about tiny government
cameras watching you could be true. When
you see a flower spider on a flower this season is it for real or is it a
government sending tiny robots in to watch you?
And are you in a real garden or one the government built to experiment
with you? Are the hummingbirds buzzing
around your head real or tiny drones? Something to think about, huh?
Monarchs headed north
As we sit in our homes waiting for a winter storm the
monarch butterflies are waking from their winter hibernation in central Mexico,
stretching their wings and mating. Soon
they will begin flying north, following the greening of the country from south
to north, laying eggs along the way, and then dying.
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| Monarch on milkweed. |
Each fall a young group of monarchs leave the US and fly to
the forested areas of central Mexico, most to a Mexican state called Michoacan. There they hang in huge fluttery orange and
black clumps in fir trees for much of the winter. In February, they wake, eat and mate to begin
the journey of some 2,000 miles north. There will be 4-5 generations of summer
monarchs, each only living a few weeks.
But the butterflies that fly south in the fall will live 4-5 months so
that they can renew the species.
Every year thousands of people brave the area of drug cartel
hideouts to see the beginning of the monarch migration. A whole tourist industry revolves around it. Former president Jimmy Carter and his wife
made the journey this year to see the monarchs.
Nature has the ability to draw us to its wonders no matter what danger we
might face.
Ypsilanti allows
gardening on vacant lots, says no to hoop houses
The Ypsilanti, Michigan city council voted to allow
gardening as a sole use of vacant land in residential areas. (Before that you could have gardens as an
axillary use, such as in your back yard.)
That means that residents can farm a whole vacant lot or more if they
like. The council wasn’t so sure that
they should allow greenhouses or hoop houses on vacant land though. They decided to say no to that part of the
proposed zoning amendment. The top size
proposed for greenhouses and hoop houses was 720 square feet, that’s maybe 24 x
30 feet if I do the math right, but that scared some garden haters.
“We need to keep our residential areas for residents” said
one protestor. (Maybe he was afraid
plants would crowd out humans? ) The new
ordinances also stipulate that motorized equipment can only be used between 8
am and 8 pm on gardens and that gardeners must use IPM and “best practices” on
their gardens. That should be a hoot
trying to enforce.
What makes city people so afraid of gardens or even
farming? I have seen some messy gardens
but they haven’t hurt anyone. An
overgrown lot, which most vacant land in a city turns into, will attract just
as many pests as a garden and it also attracts dumping and crime. Even spreading manure on a garden doesn’t
smell worse than a lot of dumpsters, factory emissions and the mingled smell of
too many humans in too small of a space.
Ok- end of rant.
Try this plant this
year
Saskatoon’s (Amelanchier alnifolia), have blue fruit that
looks and tastes somewhat like blueberries, however they are less fussy about
soil conditions. They need well drained
soil in full sun and should be mulched or kept weed free when young.
Saskatoons are very cold hardy and MSU is working to develop
them as a market crop in Central Northern Michigan. There is currently more demand than supply for
the berries. They are a favored berry in
Canada and Native Americans used them for both food and medicine. They are self- fertile so you only need one
plant and a mature plant is very productive. They form a 15-20 foot bush, have pretty white
flowers in spring and the fruit ripens just ahead of blueberries in July.
Other names the plants are sold under are June berry,
serviceberry, shadberry and prairie berry.
There are many species of Amelanchier, so look for ones called
Saskatoons for fruit production. Several
varieties are offered commercially for fruit production. I ordered mine from Gurney’s nursery but
several nurseries now offer them.
Saskatoons are very
high in antioxidants and the health benefits are similar to blueberries. They don’t taste exactly like blueberries but
are sweet and flavorful. They are cooked
or eaten like blueberries and are said to make excellent jam. Fancy, high end restaurants are featuring
them in season on the menu so it could be a good cash crop too.
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| Garden at Suncrest-pond lilies |
Get out the good books and prepare to hunker down, its snow
time.
Kim Willis
More Information
You may want to read my article on
examiner this week because some of you will recognize the ponds from the
pictures in the article. It’s a new
format that allows me to put several pictures with text-( so they can spread it
over more pages) but the formatting is a bit tricky. I gave it a try – see if you like it.
Water and
greenery go together and there are few things more soothing than sitting in a
beautiful garden with the sound of water bubbling in the background. Gardeners
often long to add a water feature to their gardens but many are afraid to give
it a try. Even the smallest patio garden can benefit from a tiny splashing
fountain and with a little planning almost any garden can have the pleasure of
a water feature. Read more at:
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