Weekly Garden Newsletter, May 28, 2013 -

May 28, 2013 - Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter

http://www.examiner.com/gardening-in-detroit/kimberley-willis

http://www.examiner.com/country-living-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.

 Hi Gardeners

A much needed rain is falling outside my window.  It’s preceding a warm front and everyone should keep an eye on the sky and an ear on the weather radio later today as the upper atmosphere is unsettled and turbulent and we could have severe weather.  While I don’t want storms I am glad for the warmer weather and rain.  I had frost here 3 nights in a row this weekend.  I should have remembered my own advice about frost around the full moon in May and I would not have had so many things to cover every night. Despite my covering them I did notice some damage to the tops of my tomato plants, but I think they will be fine.

I overdid it a bit on my own planting and gardening this weekend.  I have my arthritis really acting up and I am glad to be sitting inside today writing and letting it rain.   I was on a quest to plant something everyday in May and I have managed that except for two rainy and cold days – and maybe today.   This being my first garden season of retirement I have some very ambitious garden projects going on.   I planted annual flowers yesterday and moved my started dahlias and begonias outside and this rainy day will be lovely for them to get established.

I am pleased to say that the huge pile of wood chips we had has been reduced to a few garden cart loads, which are being saved for the mulching of one of my garden beds once I get it weeded.  There is now a huge circle of bare ground where the pile of woodchips was, and we are going to have to re-seed the grass there it looks like.  My husband Steve has made it his quest to get the wood chip pile moved and he did a great job, we have newly mulched garden paths and beds everywhere.  And he did this from his wheelchair, one muck tub load at a time, which makes it even more impressive.  

I have corn sprouting and this rain should help the germination rate.  Two of my favorite invasive plants are in bloom, Dames Rocket and Autumn Olive.  I love the smell of Autumn Olive in bloom and the bees are very fond of it too.  The shrubs by the pond were literally humming.  It is an aggressively spreading plant but I do see some merit in it.  The Dames Rocket came in a package of wildflower seeds about 15 years ago.  I let a few plants mature to seed pods every summer so that it re-seeds because I like it.  Each year I get a varying amount of it, this year the plants are sparse. 

The hollyhocks are also few in number this year, but the Larkspur is having a banner year.  I weeded out fistfuls of the feathery plants from my big flower bed, leaving a few here and there.   The comfrey, another invasive plant, is also blooming to the delight of the bees.  I have far fewer plants of that due to an aggressive campaign to limit it last year.  I let some grow in front of the propane tank and in a few other odd spots for the bees.  That’s probably a mistake because it will seed all over but I didn’t want to take it all away from the bees.

Star of Bethlehem, another weed in bloom. 

Also in bloom are the redtwig dogwoods, ground ivy, columbine, coral bells, lily of the valley, Jacob’s Ladder, iris, trumpet honeysuckle, alliums  and sweet woodruff, which is about 3 weeks later than its normal bloom time.   

Fruit tree damage

I examined my fruit trees again yesterday.  The cherries have a lot of fruit set but some of that may drop after the cold weather, according to the MSU Fruit report.  I can’t really tell about my apples yet, there are still a few blooms on the trees, and it’s too early to say how many apples will develop.  I only noticed a few plums developing.

Bob Tritten in his Southeastern fruit report for MSU notes that there is a large loss of pears and peaches and he thinks maybe a 50-60 % reduction in apple set but that we can still have a good crop of apples. I had noticed my own strawberries blooming on rather sparse looking plants and I read that Bob is also noticing a lack of foliage on many strawberry farms.  He recommends nitrogen fertilization for the strawberries so that’s on my agenda.

Costa Rican Skullcap

One of the new to me flowers I picked up this spring was Costa Rican or Scarlet Skull Cap,( Scutellaria costaricana).  This plant has a short shrub form, with clusters of upward facing tubular flowers in scarlet, orange and yellow, each with a contrasting color on the flower “lip” and some with contrasting throat color.  The flowers are held above the evergreen foliage, most unusual and intriguing.  The flowers are said to be attractive to bees and hummingbirds.  It’s a tender perennial; they have been offered as houseplants in some catalogs for a while now new varieties are being promoted as container plants for outside. They are for sunny or mostly sunny locations but must be kept moist.  I have seen some reports that it prefers acidic soil.   These skullcaps are said to bloom all summer.

I planted mine in an old, as in antique, cinder block that had wide, long holes that I had placed next to my new veggie garden gate.   I planted a red and an orange skullcap along with a “Firecracker”  (Cuphea) plant in the block.  For those who haven’t seen the plant I will post pictures on my garden blog page soon.  I picked up the plants at Campbell’s Greenhouse in North Branch. 

There is a North American skullcap that is used in herbal remedies as a mild sedative.  It has blue or purple flowers and grows in moist wooded areas.  There are also Chinese skullcaps that are used in a wide array of Chinese medicines.  I don’t know if the Costa Rican Skullcap has any medicinal properties.  All Skullcaps are members of the mint family.

 Australians win Chelsea garden show

The Olympics of gardening were held last week and an Australian team is jubilant over their victory.  Landscape designer Philip Johnson and an Australian team of gardeners won the best of show trophy after nine years of trying.  The team worked for 14 hours a day for 18 days to build a stone gorge, complete with waterfalls and Australian flora as their exhibit.  Ten exhibits get awards but there is one best of show award that is the most coveted.   His garden may not have won but Prince Harry’s garden exhibit got a lot of attention after his royal grandparents showed up to see it.  It featured a pattern of hearts and crowns said to memorialize his mother, Princess Diana.

Each year in Chelsea, England, one of the world’s largest and most prestigious garden event is held on 11 acres of the Royal Hospital Chelsea grounds in west London.  There are 550 exhibits from around the world and this year was the 100^th anniversary of the event.  Attendance is limited to 157,000 visitors and it takes a crew of 800 people about 15 months to prepare the event.  No tickets are sold at the gate; they must be purchased in advance.  Most people wear garden party attire to the event.  Children under 5 are not allowed.

This year a flower of the century was picked by popular vote and it was awarded to the hardy geranium 'Rozanne’, which was introduced at the show in 2000.  The geranium was found growing in 1989 in a corner of the garden of Rozanne and Donald Waterer  in the village of Klive, Somerset UK.  ‘Rozanne’ was taller, hardier and had larger flowers than most hardy geraniums and may have been a natural hybrid.  It’s pretty blue-violet flowers may be in your garden as it’s a popular perennial.

Can lemons repel ticks?

It’s long been known that animals that live where citrus fruits grow often rub the fruit and leaves over their bodies.   Researchers speculated that the citrus either repelled or killed insect pests.  Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) at the National Zoological Park in Front Royal, Va decided to test the theory.

    

The scientists broke down the juice and rind from lemons into some 20 different chemicals which they tested on mosquitoes and ticks to see if they repelled or killed them.  To make a long story short they found at least 10 chemical components of lemon either repelled or killed ticks and that there was some degree of repellence for mosquitoes, although it wasn’t as strong as the tick reaction.

Scientists also tested millipedes, which some birds are known to hold and rub over themselves.  They found that millipedes contain three benzoquinone chemicals (similar to cyanide) that repel ticks and mosquitoes.  So if you are going for a stroll in the tall weeds it might be worthwhile to rub lemons and millipedes on your legs

.

The benefits of ginger

It’s always good to hear of natural remedies that can help our health.  Recently researchers at Columbia University found that ginger compounds can help asthma patients.  Purified ginger components and isoproterenol ( a common asthma medication), were significantly better at relaxing bronchial spasms and allowing patients to breathe easier than just the medication alone.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School found that 2 grams of ginger root supplement reduced colon inflammation.  And the same amount of supplement was found to reduce muscle pain caused by exercise by 25% by the University of Georgia.  In a study by the University of Rochester Medical Center ginger capsules given with conventional anti-nausea medications reduced the nausea of chemotherapy patients by 40% more than just the conventional medications.  Ginger has long been used to cure a stomach ache and nausea but now we have “scientific” proof it works.

Do we need another tomato that survives shipping?

A few weeks ago I talked about new purple tomatoes that were developed with snapdragon genes.  The purple color increased the anthocyanins, healthy pigments, in tomatoes.  Now those genes are being manipulated to produce a tomato that will be more flavorful after shipping long distances. Scientists are really excited that the purple genes may also have conveyed some advantages in “keeping quality”.

Now tomatoes were pretty healthy foods even before being manipulated.  And I have never found a tomato in a grocery store that tasted as good as those grown in a garden, ripened in the sun and having traveled only a short distance.  Even the tomatoes ripened in Canadian greenhouses or grown locally using hydroponics indoors are a distance second to garden ripened tomatoes. 

I don’t see any reason that tomatoes should be grown far away and transported to a store near you and I don’t see why we are wasting scientific research dollars trying to make one that ships better.  If you are my age you remember that “hothouse” tomatoes were only available in limited quantities in winter, usually around holidays in the grocery store.  They were expensive, and no one really expected them to taste like home grown tomatoes.   Now people expect to walk into a supermarket any time of the year and find tomatoes at a price they can easily afford.  They really don’t know what to expect of the flavor, because supermarket tomatoes are all many people know. 

Part of America’s food problem and environmental problems is that we expect to have what we want to eat at any time of the year.  That results in tomatoes being grown in places such as California and South America using scarce resources such as water and being shipped thousands of miles, using fossil fuel energy and polluting the environment.   Not only do the tomatoes have to stand up to shipping, which they don’t do well if they are soft and juicy, but they must have shelf life, that is sit around for a while, before rotting.  They are not as nutritious as tomatoes that ripen naturally on the vine.  There are nuances of flavor and texture that are only achieved when the sun produces the sugars and acids in a fully ripened tomato growing on a healthy vine. 

Tomatoes should be grown locally and consumed in season. You can store fresh, naturally ripened tomatoes at their peak by canning them or making sauce or juice and freezing it and you will lose little of the flavor and nutrition of the tomato.  That’s not true when you pick a tomato in a distant place while it’s still green and ship it hundreds of miles, and then ripen it with ethylene gas.  Or you chose a tomato in a supermarket that looks red but is still hard and immature.

Planting a Tigerella tomato plant.

We should stop spending money on developing tomatoes that can stand shipping and have a long shelf life  and instead spend it on educating people that some food is better if its eaten locally and in season.  It’s better for the environment and for us.  Put the research dollars into developing tomatoes that can ripen locally in hoop houses in colder weather under less light.  Or into developing disease resistant tomatoes that homeowners can easily grow without chemicals.

If you don’t have the place or time to grow your own tomatoes buy them in season from a local grower.  If you want tomatoes out of season can them yourself or buy US grown and canned tomatoes.  Commercially canned tomatoes usually have few additives- unless you want them- and they are nutritionally superior to shipped tomatoes, always from vine ripened fruit at peak quality.   There are some environmental concerns still with packaging and shipping the canned product but it’s a better option than shipping the green fruit and developing farming enterprises to service far away  markets.

 That’s my rant- more fresh tomatoes grown locally please, less reliance on developing fresh foods with shelf life.

So get yourself some tomato plants this week and plant them.

Kim

Garden as though you will live forever. William Kent