October 1, 2013 - Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter
From Kim 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
The weather is gorgeous,
I hope you have had time to get out and enjoy it. I am tearing apart my large perennial bed on
the east side of my yard to make room for some bulbs I have arriving soon. There is a huge euonymus bush that is taking
over, it has buried a peony and some daylilies and I need to dig them out and
find a new spot for them as well as dig out tons of phlox.
Woody nightshade berries at sunset. |
I cut down all the
cornstalks and my son carried them home to decorate with. It’s funny how city folk take compost
material or animal fodder and make decorations out of it. We also harvested a bunch of huge pumpkins
although we have some that are still changing color that we left. In fact the vines are still blooming. Everyone around here seems to have tons of
pumpkins around here so I can’t imagine why the prices are so high at the
stores for them.
The dahlias, marigolds
and Maximilian sunflowers are lighting up the yard, their colors seem so intense
in the October light. The Maximilian sunflowers are attracting lots of bees
too. The hummingbirds seem to have left. I have seen huge flocks of turkey vultures
soaring around, which generally means they are getting ready to migrate.
Speaking of birds, my
survey of bird numbers revealed that most people who emailed me thought there
were fewer birds this year, one person said her bird feeder population seemed
normal. One MG wrote to the Michigan Audubon
Society and here’s what they said:
“Thank you for calling Michigan Audubon.
There is no sudden decline in birds that we
are aware of in our area. Every year, about this time, we receive this same
observation. It may be due to the fact that many birds are in molt, shifted to
different areas for foraging, etc. I encourage your friends to document their
bird observations over time using eBird so they can compare year to year.
Otherwise, it is just an anecdotal observation.
eBird www.ebird.org
is very user friendly and you can track your own observations while seeing what
others are seeing on the landscape. You can even generate graphs to help tell
the story of bird populations over time.
Other sources include the Christmas Bird
Count and the Breeding Bird Survey.”
I’m not sure if I quite
agree with this but there it is.
I wrote a large article
below about epigenetics, it’s a topic I became interested in when I was doing
some research on recent genetic information I learned about our family. It’s not exactly gardening but I hope you
enjoy it. I promise to write more about
gardening next week.
One more off –garden topic. Today marks the start of the new health care
market place, an important step in bringing the US up to the health care levels
of other modern countries. If you do not
have good, affordable healthcare please give the marketplace a look and see if
it can help you. As a person who has
struggled with finding healthcare, and often went without healthcare because I
couldn’t afford it, I know how this will be a great help to many people. If you have an existing health condition you
will now be able to get health care at the same rate as other people your age
and there is no additional waiting period for you to get treatment for your
pre-existing condition.
I know many people are
skeptical and scared and there will be problems that will need to be worked
out. But please give the new system a
chance. I think in a few years we will
be glad that we adopted this so that all people in our country have affordable
access to healthcare. If you don’t
understand the marketplace and what it does there are all kinds of non-profit
organizations offering help in getting your insurance started. Take your time and don’t rush to get it done,
understand the options and choose which is best for you - you do have until
December 15 – or beyond if you don’t need healthcare beginning January 1. And the website is struggling today to keep
up with the people who are eagerly signing up for affordable care so you may
want to wait a day or two.
October
almanac
In October the full moon is called the Hunters Moon,
Dying Grass moon or Traveling moon as Native Americans often moved to winter
grounds during this time. It occurs October 18. October is full of holidays, (some of which I
disagree should be holidays). We have Columbus
Day October 14, Sweetest Day the 19th, United Nations Day the 24th
and of course Halloween the 31st .
It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness month although that
seems to occur year round anymore. It’s also Adopt a Shelter Dog month, Cookie
month, Eat Country Ham month, Pizza Month, National Popcorn Popping month, the 21st
is Pumpkin Cheesecake day and the 24th
is Bologna Day. October is also Diabetes
Awareness month (great choice with all the yummy foods being honored.
Garden at Suncrest, September 2013. |
The October flower is calendula or Marigold. In older days calendula was called
marigold. Octobers original birthstone
is the opal and a secondary birthstone was appointed in 1952, the tourmaline,
which comes in a variety of colors.
Good days for harvesting above ground crops are the 10th
and 11th and for harvesting below ground crops you should go for the
2nd , 3rd, 29th and 30th . And there will be a lot of harvesting this
month, soybeans and corn harvest will begin soon.
Swallowwort,
a threat to Monarchs
Monarchs are very scarce this year and we need to help
their numbers increase in any way we can if we want to continue to see them in
the future. An invasive plant that might be found in a meadow near you poses a
threat to Monarch reproduction and Monarch butterfly lovers should seek it out
and destroy it.
Swallowwort is a European relative of milkweed, but
unlike milkweed it is toxic to the larvae of Monarchs, who lay their eggs on it
by mistake. It’s also toxic to livestock. Swallowwort forms a mutually beneficial
association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the soil. The soil where
swallowwort grows builds up a high population of the fungi and this discourages
the growth of plants which cannot form associations with the fungi. This results in huge patches of nothing but
swallowwort. There are two species, Black and Pale Swallowwort.
Swallowwort is a very invasive perennial plant that will
survive in the same habitats favored by native milkweeds. It’s a vining plant that will climb trees or
simply scramble up over grasses or brush. It has oval shiny dark green leaves,
with a sharp point and a smooth margin arranged opposite each on the stems. Unlike
milkweeds, swallowwort has a clear, watery sap.
Clusters of reddish purple to pink star shaped flowers
arise out of leaf joints and the flowers turn into narrow pods similar to
milkweeds pods. Inside the pods are
seeds attached to a bit of fluff like a milkweed seed. Plants turn a bright yellow in fall, which
can help identify them.
Swallowwort has been found in many places in Michigan
including Oxford, Romeo, Waterford, Milford, Benton Harbor, Kalamazoo, Lansing and
Petoskey. You can see a map and report
sightings here http://www.misin.msu.edu/facts/detail.php?id=36
Canada is going to release a moth that feeds on swallowwort,
(Hypena opulenta) and the US is now
considering the same thing. In Europe
swallowwort has many pests that keep it in check but there are no natural
controls here. Currently control
involves pulling and chemicals. Mowing
may increase sprouting and make thicker stands.
For complete control suggestions see this fact sheet http://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/invasive-species/Swallow-wortBCP.pdf
Why
what you eat, where you live, and what you breathe can affect your genes
Can getting too much folic acid, (found in dark leafy
greens, beans and grains) or too little Vitamin D and selenium in your diet
affect your children and grandchildren’s health? Research suggests it does.
As we learn more and more about genetics and how to interpret
the genetic code we are also discovering that our environment and what we eat
can affect our genes and in turn determine the health and fitness of our
children and grandchildren.
We all have thousands of genes arranged on 23 chromosomes
that determine everything about us, including the fact that we are human. However 2 people can have the same gene or
set of genes and yet be vastly different.
That’s because other factors are at work, chemical signals that tell
some genes to shut off or turn on or behave in unusual ways. The study of these signals or “markers” is
called epigenetics. It’s only been
recently that we have found that these markers can be inherited along with our
basic DNA.
Chemicals in your environment, things you eat, exposure
to radiation, any number of things we are finding out now can cause the genes
in your body to be modified. (The process is called methylation.) We sometimes refer to this as a mutation. This
may affect you, causing cancer and other diseases, but we now know that these
changes can also be passed along with your DNA and affect your children and
grandchildren. Sometimes changes to
genes don’t even show up in the person in whom the gene change occurred, but
become apparent in children or grandchildren.
When you hear people talking about the BRCA gene increasing your chances
of getting breast cancer, they are actually talking about a marker, or breast
gene mutation that is inherited.
Everyone has the same breast gene.
Getting too much folic acid (also called folate) doesn’t
usually come from a normal diet, (although it’s possible), it comes from taking
supplements but it can cause problems. Too little folic acid also has risks;
most notably a deficiency during early pregnancy can cause spinal bifida and
other fetal deformities. When we
discovered the relationship between a folic acid deficiency and fetal health
the government decided to fortify cereals and other products with folic acid. It’s become standard procedure to give
pregnant women folic acid supplements during pregnancy.
While there is no doubt that correcting a folic acid
deficiency during early pregnancy will lower the risk of spinal bifida, other
nervous system irregularities and some heart problems in a baby there is now
troubling evidence to show that getting too much folic acid can have profound
effects on human health also. Some of
these effects don’t show up until the second or third generation, in other
words the person taking in the excess folic acid won’t show the changes
although there can be effects to the person who consumed excess folic acid too.
Recent research studies have linked excess folic acid to
breast cancer in children and grandchildren of people who consumed the excess and
to bowel and prostate cancer both in the original consumer and their descendants. In fact in animal studies the rate of breast
cancer was twice as high for daughters of those who had excess folic acid
during pregnancy and breast feeding as those who did not use supplements. (On the other hand a deficiency of folic acid
can lead to heart problems in the descendants of those who had the deficiency.) Research has also linked the increase in
childhood asthma to dietary supplements of folic acid during pregnancy.
Recent research has also shown that people who have high
levels of Vitamin D and selenium have lower rates of methylation or gene
changes. They also have less chance of
developing bowel cancer, particularly men.
The rate of methylation in your genes is what determines how fast you “age”
and some of the methylation changes are inherited. (So high Vitamin D and
selenium are good, high folic acid level bad, at least for now.)
Some countries are no longer allowing the supplementation
of foods with folic acid. And some
doctors are now prescribing folic acid supplements only in the first trimester
of pregnancy, as research is suggesting that it doesn’t help much after
that. No one should take folic acid
supplementation without first determining whether you have a deficiency. And the avoidance of restricted diets that
focus on certain foods, even if those foods seem to be healthy, should be
avoided.
What’s important about the new research in epigenetics is
that it also suggests that events in a person’s life, such as starvation or
exposure to a toxic chemical may make changes to that persons genes and those
changes may affect the lives of children and grandchildren, even if they are
not exposed to the same conditions, through gene marker inheritance. For example a person who goes through a long
period of malnutrition may end up with changes to his or her genes that affect
how fat is stored or metabolized. That change could have saved that person under
those conditions but leads to problems in future generations.
The sins of our fathers takes on a new meaning and should
lead to serious thought about our diets and about the environment we choose to
live in, so that we don’t pass our “sins” down to our children.
Some studies that I read that lead to the above
information The Journal Cell, September 26, 2013, February 2011 issue of the
journal Cancer Research, research published by Ulrika Ericson of Lund
University, Sweden,2010, 2009 study results published by University of Southern
California, A University of Adelaide, Australia study, 2009.
Zombie
steroids
This bit of information fits right in with the epigenetic
information I presented above. We all
know that things we eat and things we feed animals sometimes end up in our
water supply. There is evidence now that
a common steroid (Trenbolone acetate), that is implanted in beef animals to
make them gain weight faster and that is used illegally by body builders and
other athletes is excreted
and ends up in the water system.
Originally it was thought that this steroid was fairly
safe since research showed that it broke down quickly in sunlight. However new research shows that this steroid
has “zombie-like” properties in that it comes back from the “dead” at night and
actually replicates itself. Warmer and more acidic water can increase the
process.
Research also indicated that dienogest, a hormone used in
a birth-control pill for humans called Natazia, and dienedone, a banned
anabolic steroid, react in the same way as Trenbolen acetate. More hormones and steroids need to be
studied.
Steroids don’t get removed in water treatment processes
and you can drink them right from your tap.
We know that steroids can result in fish and other water organism’s
deaths and may be responsible for genetic deformities in fish and
amphibians. As larger organisms we don’t
suffer immediate effects like smaller things, but what are these chemicals
doing to our genes?
This study was done by the University of Iowa
and published online in the journal Science.
Some of out pumpkin harvest. |
A sad note;
For those of you who
know Bev Kobylas please send her your condolences and prayers as her mother
passed away Sunday.
Get outside today – this weather won’t last!
Kim
Garden as though you will live forever. William Kent
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