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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

March 5 newsletter


March 5, 2013 - Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter



Redbud blooming in spring.
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


March is here, the season of hope, early spring, when we start to see the promise of renewal. Someone once said that the winds of March is nature yawning as she awakes from sleep. Charles Dickens describes March as “when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade”.  Native Americans called the March full moon, the Worm moon, when the earth softens and worms make their way to the surface again.

Early settlers often referred to the March full moon as the “sap” moon.  Often the weather around the March full moon is excellent for collecting Maple sap and boiling it into sugar.  The early settlers were taught how to do that by Native Americans.  They would collect the sap on sunny days and then spend much of the night boiling it down into sugar.

It’s time to stretch and get busy. The gardeners favorite season is coming quickly now. When we have one of those rare sunny days above 40 degrees, when it’s not windy, it’s time to apply dormant oil to the fruit trees and those other woody ornamentals you want to protect from insects before their buds swell too much.  Finish up that pruning too.  Pruning should also be done before you can see a green tip on tree buds.
St Patrick’s day is a traditional day to plant peas.  If you can reach the soil, even if it’s half frozen, you can plant peas in the garden.  Why not start some leaf lettuce in a cold frame or sunny windowsill in an unheated room? 

It’s time to get serious about ordering seeds and plants if you have delayed.  If you wait much longer some things you want will be gone and most of the early bird deals will shortly be over.  Mail order nurseries usually ship plants to you when weather reports indicate the time is right in your area and orders go out from south to north and not always in the order that people placed orders.  Sometimes by the time shipping is right in some of these northern areas (like ours) they have run out of an item or only the smaller, less perfect specimens are left.  If you have the ability to pot up a bare root plant and/or hold a potted plant in a sunny, not too warm but frost free place you can often ask the nursery to ship at an earlier date than normal for your area.

Any hardy, dormant woody plant that arrives can be planted as soon as you are able to dig a hole.  Dormant, hardy perennials can be planted as soon as the soil is thawed.  However anything that arrives that is breaking dormancy or is leaved out requires more care.  These should not be planted out until hard freezes are unlikely and the soil has warmed a bit.  A good test to know if the time is right is to look for similar plants outside and see what stage they are at.  For example if hostas are just starting to poke above the ground you can plant any new hostas which are just starting to sprout but hold off on planting those new plants that are fully leafed out until the hostas in the garden are pretty well leafed out.
Marsh marigolds, an early spring flower.

March almanac
Daylight savings time begins next Sunday, March 10th .  On March 19th 1918 congress approved daylight savings time and it began on March 31.  Remember to set your clocks ahead an hour.  There will be less sun in the morning and more in the evening. Spring begins March 20, when the days and nights are equal in length, 12 hours.  By the end of March our days are 12 hours and 27 minutes long.

The dark of moon is March 11, 1st quarter March, 19th, full moon is the 27th .  Best days to plant above ground crops are the 20,21, and below ground crops on the  29,30.  Best days for fishing are the 11-27 and the best days to set eggs for hatching are the 26-27.

The 11th is  Johnny Appleseed day, the  12th is  plant a flower day and girl scouts day,  the 15th is the  Ides of March, the 14th is  learn about butterflies and potato chip day,  the 17th is St Patrick’s day, the 18th is goddess of fertility day, the  20th is  international earth day and proposal day, on the 29th of 1886 coca cola was introduced and this year Easter is on the 31st.

On March 27, 1513, Ponce De Leon sighted Florida.  On March 30th 1867, the US bought Alaska from the Russians.  It’s National Women’s History month, Irish American month, National Craft month, Frozen food month, National Red Cross month and National Peanut month. The bloodstone and aquamarine are the birthstones for March. The violet is the flower for the month of March.

Choose purple

At the 42nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), held in Denver August 29, 2011,   scientists reported on research done with purple potatoes on a group of overweight people with high blood pressure.  The group of volunteers were fed 6-8 small purple potatoes that were cooked without oil in a microwave twice a day for a month.  The researchers found that the study participants all had a decrease in blood pressure and that none of them gained weight.  Purple potatoes were chosen because the purple-blue pigments in plants are known to be high in phytochemicals that promote cardiovascular health in humans.  (Researchers are now doing studies using red and white potatoes to see if there are equal benefits there).

There is a lot of interest in the anthocyanin compounds in plants that have blue-purple- red-purple coloration.  Several studies have shown that the deepest colored plants provide the most health benefits.  Snapdragon genes were inserted in tomatoes to produce a deep purple tomato.  When these tomatoes were fed to mice their lives were much longer than mice fed other colors of tomatoes.  A Kansas researcher is using a specially bred purple sweet potato in cancer studies.  Scientists at the Agricultural Research Station in Beltsville MD found 36 beneficial anthocyanin compounds in red, (purple) cabbage.

Many common vegetable varieties now have purple or blue varieties.  You may want to consider these when you are choosing vegetables to grow this spring.  There are purple carrots, potatoes, red cabbages, red-purple kale varieties, chard, red-purple lettuces, basil, beans, peppers, sweet corn, onions, eggplant, broccoli, and kohl rabi, and probably more.   And when choosing fruit you may want to buy purple grapes, black or purple raspberries, purple plums rather than other colors of those fruit. 

Organic plants contain health benefits for you – but they are not the happiest plants

New research has given some credence to the often heard line that organic food is healthier for you.  Researchers at the University of Barcelona, Spain, showed that organic tomatoes contained higher levels of phenolic compounds than conventional tomatoes. Phenolic compounds have proven human health benefits for the prevention of cardiovascular and degenerative diseases. Tomatoes also contain lycopene and other carotenoids, and vitamin C.  While organic tomatoes are higher in phenols, research still needs to be done to see if that makes them more beneficial to humans than conventionally grown tomatoes, although it would seem logical to assume that.

However, even if the high phenol plants are healthier for humans, it doesn’t mean that high phenol levels make for happy, healthy plants.  This same research found that the more stress tomato plants were under, the more phenols they produced. In other words, what’s good for us may not be best for the plants.  And in these studies, organically grown plants showed more stress than conventionally grown plants.

 A research study published February 20 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Maria Raquel Alcantara Miranda and colleagues from the Federal University of Ceara, Brazil also found that organic tomatoes had higher sugar content, Vitamin C, and phenols.  However they also found that the organic tomatoes were 40% smaller and plants were less productive.  This was caused by the plants having to expend more resources defending themselves from insect and disease, the stress which also cause the high phenol levels.  Plants also have to work harder to extract maximum benefits from organic fertilizer compared to conventionally fertilized plants.

Researchers are now trying to figure out how to best balance stress in plants to produce maximum benefits for humans while preserving good production and healthy plants.

How plants are like us

One of the first things you are taught in Master Gardener Class or any botany course is how plants differ from animals.  But as science progresses, we are discovering amazing things about plants.  While plants may have developed different ways of doing things than animals, they are much more complicated and more like animals than previously thought.  This year for the first time there will actually be a plant neurobiology conference, where researchers will discuss such topics as how plants communicate, how plants adapt to change, animal like behaviors of plants and consequences of plant misbehavior.  The conference takes place in July in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.  You can see the research based plant behavior website at http://www.plantbehavior.org
Violas in spring

I am reading a new book on plant senses ( What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz) and it explains that while plants don’t have eyes they do have photoreceptors similar to those in animal eyes.  One type of receptor is located in the tips of shoots and tells the plant to grow toward light.  The part of the plant that grows is actually the middle part of the stem and it will curve toward light.  The plant processes information the shoot “eyes” send it to make the plant grow.  There are different types of light receptors in leaves that measure the length of light- how long the day is.  The day length determines many plant processes, such as flower initiation.  Only one leaf exposed to light can relay that information to the plant.  For parts of the plant to send information to other parts of the plant implies a “nervous system” and some sort of conscious “control”. 

I used to joke that vegetarians were worse than meat eaters because they ate defenseless creatures alive. ( A carrot is alive until you cook it.)  What will it mean to vegetarians if we find out that plants actually feel fear and pain, if even in a primitive sense? Even seeds are tiny plant embryos and they are alive.  There are some intriguing hints that this may be so. 

Other books

Another book I have come across is Master Gardener by Rolf Margenau.  It’s a kind of cute mystery story ( fiction) about MG’s who try to smuggle in and release a milkweed that resists roundup – to save the monarchs and it’s written by a MG.  It’s only 2.99 on Amazon, a quick read although not the most professional writing, and supports a MG.  And for those of you who are poultry – animal lovers you’ll love this book from a Michigan writer- Enslaved by Ducks by Bob Tarte.  It is professionally written and quite funny,  a memoir of the authors move to the country and his wife’s love of animals.  My husband says he and Bob should talk.  You can find it on Amazon.

A reader sent me this and I thought I would include it.
National Wildlife Refuge Survey – Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge
The Center for Food Safety is currently investigating the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s decision to allow the growing of genetically engineered soybeans and corn at the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge in Saginaw, Michigan.   The Service has not considered the various risks to the environment or wildlife posed by cultivating genetically engineered crops at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.  National Wildlife Refuges are important places for wildlife and serve as wintering and breeding habitat for migratory waterfowl, among other restorative purposes.  A variety of waterfowl depend on the aquatic and wetland habitats at Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. Such species include Canada goose, mallard, green-winged teal, and ring-necked duck. These waterfowl currently use these pesticide-intensive, genetically engineered crops as a food source. 

Genetically engineered crops have no place on the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, and we need your help to stop it. 

We are looking for information from members who live near or visit Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, located in Saginaw, Michigan.  If you reside near or have visited this National Wildlife Refuge we could use your help.  In your email, please tell us: 1) Where you live, 2) The last time visited Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.   office@centerforfoodsafety.org

Go play in the dirt
Kim Willis
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” ― Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg

More information
I am putting something a little different in this week’s information segment.  Many of you who took the Master Gardener class are struggling to decide how to proceed with certification, remaining in a Master Gardener club etc.  I found this article on Master Gardeners- whether they should have another name, and about the animosity many people in the gardening world feel about MG’S.  I am going to re-print the original article and give you a link to the site.  There are a lot of comments posted there now and those comments are as interesting as the article.  I suggest you go there and read them http://gardenrant.com/ministry_of_controversy
This is not my article, I just found it interesting.  It’s on the Garden Rant Blog page written by Susan Harris- if it doesn’t come up on the home page type in Master gardener  in the search box on the home page.
Recently there was a lively garden-writer discussion on Facebook that began with this question:  “I’m a member of several professional garden groups and a recurring theme that comes up is anti-master gardeners. Why?”
Boy-oh-boy, did people have answers.  One opined that Master Gardeners represent a “stale and stagnant status quo,” another had seen them selling known invasives in their area, but the main complaint against Master Gardeners was about their very name.
Bad Name
I totally agree with the commenters that “Master Gardener” is a misnomer and I weighed in to say that attending classes (where attendance wasn’t even required), completing a take-home test and then performing 40 volunteer hours does not make anyone a “master” at anything.  There were people in my class (in DC) who’d never put a plant in the ground in their lives, and after MG “training” and certification, still hadn’t.
That “master” in the name leads to problems like:
- People thinking it’s on the same level as “Master Carpenter,” a tittle that represents actual mastery.
- Apparently, it can go to people’s heads.  “Some MG’s take that title too seriously and are extremely pompous.”  “Extremely pompous about the mostly abstract info they have.”
- It makes people boring:  “They use the title of ‘Master Gardener’ as a badge of all-inclusive expertise. Plus they tend to be really really boring.”
- The name is often mistakenly assumed to indicate a higher level of knowledge and training than actual horticulturists!
- From yours truly, a complaint that America’s Master Gardener Jerry Baker is a known quack who’s made beaucoup bucks off that self-proclaimed title.  (Which I ranted about back in ’06.)
Better Name?
Garden writers seem to agree it’s time for renaming. “If they’d rename the program to something more honest, that made it clear that the level of education is meant for homeowners and not as a professional certification, I’d have fewer sore feelings about the program.”
“Horticultural Research Volunteer” was suggested as “something that allows the public to know that they are not BETTER THAN US.”
Taking Work from Garden Writers
Some complain of MG writing columns competing with paid (hopefully) garden writers.
And a related pocketbook complaint is that you can’t use your Master Gardener credential for commercial purposes.  “A pure interpretation of this means that you can’t put MG on your resume, on the cover of your book, on a byline or author bio for a magazine or newspaper article (for which you get paid), on your business card, and so on.”
Coming to their Defense
“We are not volunteer gardeners nor do we compete in any way with professional horticulturists or designers; we provide RESEARCH-BASED gardening information to the public. We are taught during our training that it isn’t necessary to have all the answers; it’s only necessary to know how to find them. ”
And several writers sang the praises for MG programs in their area.  (And I’m always happy to hear about MG programs that are nothing like the one in DC I’ve ranted about.)
 No Surprise: It Starts in Washington
Responding to a suggestion that the garden writer group rename the MG program, one writer answered that the name can only be changed at the national level (by the Department of Agriculture, presumably) and continued:  “I think the lack of consistency form place to place is one of the problems w/the program as a national institution.”  Others echoed this complaint about the lack of consistency across the country.
And we heard from Canadians about what the program can be:  “In Ontario, we’re required to take a horticulture certificate from one of two universities (three courses, usually taking two years of distance ed) and write a qualifying exam before being accepted into the program. Each year, we have a compulsory technical update, and monthly meetings, of which we must attend at least four, include one hour of education. Thirty hours of volunteer time annually (most do more; I did nearly double that last year) is essential to remain in the program. It’s a shame there’s so much anti-MG feeling.”
What do YOU think of Master Gardeners?  And can you suggest a better name?
Weigh in, and I’ll try to get a response from the USDA folks who have jurisdiction over the program, from the Extension Master Gardener bloggers and from the Garden Professors.
( Please, readers of this newsletter- if you want to comment go to the website.)


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