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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Kim’s Weekly Garden Newsletter, November 5, 2013

November  5, 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.

 November comes and November goes,
With the last red berries and the first white snows.
With night coming early and dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket and frost by the gate.
The fires burn and the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest until next spring."
- Elizabeth Coatsworth


Hi Gardeners

I think of November as the month of no’s, no sun, no warmth, no leaves, no flowers, no butterflies, no bees, no beauty and no fun.  It’s a blah month much like February and one of my least favorites.  And this November is certainly starting out with no sun.  At least we have had some good moisture for the plants going into winter.

I will admit I still have some flowers blooming outside.  There are snapdragons, violas, verbenas, garden mums and even a few blooms on the landscape roses.  And the geraniums are blooming their heads off inside.  I even have a few blooms on the kangaroo paws I brought inside and on the streptocarpus.
I still have to dig some glads and dahlias, although I have gotten some of the bulbs inside, the ones I left in pots.  And I still have apples to pick and Jerusalem artichokes to harvest.  If any of you want some Jerusalem artichokes let me know.

I’m not much for cutting everything down in the perennial beds in the fall although there is some cleanup I would still like to do.  I like to hold off the major cleanup for those nice days in spring when it’s too early to plant but you really want to do something in the garden.  There’s debate among gardeners about garden cleanup.  It probably does help with disease and insect control to some extent but leaving stems and leaves also helps insulate plant crowns and trap snow.  Leaving flower heads with seeds is good for the birds and can provide some winter interest.  I guess each gardener has to decide on their own about fall cleanup.  You should clean up apples and other fallen fruit to deter insects and diseases overwintering though.

Do get those young deciduous trees protected from varmints before snow falls.  Surround trunks with wire cages or tree tubes up to at least 3 feet high.  Deer, rabbits and voles call kill trees and shrubs by gnawing on the trunks in winter.

Viola
Remember to slow down on watering houseplants this time of year or at least check them before watering.  As the days get shorter they use less water- unless they are right over a furnace vent.  And don’t fertilize them at this time of year, they don’t need it and it contributes to salt build up in the potting soil.

November almanac
November's full moon on November 17, is called the Beaver Moon, or the Full Frost Moon by Native Americans.  In Europe November is known as the 'wind month' and the 'blood month'.  It was the traditional month for butchering, hence the blood moon.  Unfortunately the full moon will spoil the viewing of the Leonids meteor shower at its peak.

November is named for the Latin word for nine as it was the ninth month of the Roman calendar.  In ancient times it was also called the month of the dead.  The flower for this month is the chrysanthemum and the birthstone is topaz.  Good days for harvesting above ground crops are the 15th and 16th, and for harvesting below ground crops the best days are the 25th through 27th.

In England November 5- today- is known as Guy Fawkes Day, or Bonfire night.  It originally celebrated to commemorate what was known as the gunpowder revolution but has become known as a day to burn effigies or pictures of hated people and things.  If you have an anger issue tonight may be your chance to burn some anger.

It’s Native American Heritage month.   November 11 is  Veterans day- November 13 is National Indian Pudding Day and Sadie Hawkins day, November 17 is World Peace day and Homemade bread day, November 23 is National Cashew Day,  the Great American Smokeout is the 21st  and the 28th is Thanksgiving .

Native shrubs

Native plants are a hot trend in gardens and in landscaping.  They are ecologically sound choices and often require less care than other landscape and garden plants.  The problem is that they are often hard to find as some are hard to propagate in nurseries or to hold for sale.  Some species that might do well in the landscape are just not well known enough for people to seek them out.  Researchers Julia Cartabiano and Jessica Lubell from the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Connecticut have been searching for native shrubs that are good candidates for landscape material and that can be profitably grown by nurseries.

The shrubs Ceanothus americanus,( New Jersey Tea) Corylus cornuta,( Beaked Hazelnut) Lonicera canadensis,( American Fly Honeysuckle) and Viburnum acerifolium( Maple leaf viburnum) were the choices  the researchers reported on in the August issue of HortScience.   The researchers thought all four species would be good landscape plants but that the Beaked Hazelnut and Mapleleaf viburnum would be the easiest to propagate. 

The Beaked Hazelnut is a rounded large shrub, 12-25 feet in height.  The leaves are thick ovals with toothed edges and a hairy underside.  The plant produces catkins in the fall that persist through winter and are pollinated in the spring.  Each seed is a small nut enclosed in a tough husk with a point, the beak.  The nuts are edible and were eaten by Native Americans but the husk is covered with fine hairs that can irritate the skin of those who are removing them to get the nut.  There is also a hard shell around the nut which must be removed.

Squirrels and some birds like Jays eat the nuts.  Native Americans used the stems of Beaked Hazelnut for basket weaving.  The plant prefers sandy loam, well- drained soil and does not do well in clay soil or wet areas.  It prefers full sun to light shade.  It can be propagated by planting the nuts or rooting cuttings.

Mapleleaf viburnum is an attractive smaller shrub 3-6 feet in height.  The leaves are lobed like a maple leaf with serrated edges.  In spring small clusters of pretty white flowers turn into attractive red or purple berries that can persist through winter if not eaten.  Birds eat the berries as well as some small animals.   The flowers attract butterflies and the plant is a larval host to the Spring Azure butterfly.
 
The Mapleleaf viburnum berries are not considered edible for humans but Native Americans used the berries to make several medicinal concoctions for cramps and colic and as a diuretic.  The plant is useful in the landscape because it will tolerate dry shade but it does best in well drained but moist soil in partial shade.  It does not propagate well from seed; it is usually started from rhizomes as it does sucker, or by rooting cuttings.

Fly Honeysuckle is one of our native honeysuckles and is not considered invasive.  It forms a slowly spreading bush up to about 8 feet tall with attractive leaves.  In late April it has sweet smelling yellow-white flowers that become reddish fruits in late summer.  The fruits are eagerly sought by robins and cardinals. 
Fly honeysuckle is tolerant of most soil and moisture conditions and will grow in full sun to partial shade.  It is propagated by seed or cuttings quite easily although plants may be a little slow to establish.

New Jersey Tea may be the best known of these four native shrubs and does appear for sale in native plant catalogs and herbal catalogs.  It has a long history of ethno-botanical uses in North America.  Other common names are red root, mountain sweet and wild snowball.   It is a small wiry stemmed shrub to about 3 feet tall.  It has long oval leaves that smell like wintergreen when crushed and that have white hairs on the back.   Stems are green when young but turn woody with age.  The roots are reddish in color.

New Jersey Tea flowers are fragrant clusters of tiny white flowers that attract a lot of bees and butterflies. They bloom for as long as a month in early summer.  The plant is the larval host for the butterflies Spring Azure, Summer Azure, Mottled Duskywing and the Dreamy Duskywing.  The flowers turn into papery 3 lobed capsules with hard brown seeds inside.  The seeds are eaten by many birds including wild turkeys and grouse.   Beware- deer love to browse on this plant and will seek it out.

New Jersey tea is named because early settlers used its dry leaves as a tea substitute. It has no caffeine but may give an energy boost.  Native Americans had several medicinal uses for the plant.  It was used for bowel problems and the roots were eaten to give people energy on long trips.  It lowers blood pressure and the roots were used to stop bleeding- they have blood clotting properties.  The roots are also used to make a red dye.

New Jersey Tea likes well drained soil and will survive droughty conditions.  It prefers full sun.  It is slow growing but will gradually spread by suckering.  It can be propagated by seed or cuttings but the biggest problem is protecting it from deer and rabbits which are unusually fond of the plant (maybe that energy thing again?).  In the garden it is also prone to powdery mildew, especially in irrigated conditions.   This is a plant however, with some selective breeding, which could produce several nice garden varieties.

Why cold may be more important than warmth in climate change

Scientists and ordinary people both have noticed that the normal schedule of spring has been altered in temperate areas and that plants aren’t leafing out, flowering or fruiting at the right times.  This leads to complications for other species on earth, including humans, who depend on plants to feed and shelter them.   As the climate warms the degree of change becomes greater.  Since light doesn’t change, the days lengthen and wane just as they did before the world got warmer, temperature has to be involved.

You might be thinking that the plants will bloom and green up earlier when the climate becomes milder and they do to some extent.  But plants that evolved in temperature zones also need a certain amount of cold during their resting phase to function on schedule.  In milder than normal winters the flowering and fruiting of some species is actually delayed or prevented.  Some plant species have begun to decline in some areas and expand northward, where the amount of cold in the rest period is more suited for that species.

While gardeners may rejoice that they can grow species of plants that used to be not winter hardy in their zone, they may also lose some old and dependable plants from the garden.  And the whole web of life is affected by the loss of some plant species or even just a delay in their fruiting or flowering.  Birds and pollinators for example, depend on certain plants to bloom or fruit at times that are beneficial to them and when that doesn’t happen, it can cause great losses in their populations.  And when there are no pollinators when flowers bloom, it can cause a decline in that plant species.

Warmer winters also have a tendency to keep plants from going into a deep enough dormancy so that even short mild periods will start growth again, which is often followed by colder temperatures that can do great damage to plant vigor or actually kill the plant.  In many areas hosta are now be affected in this way- there is actually more winter kill than when the winters were colder.

In the journal Global Change Biology, researchers report that the worst time for warmer than normal winter temperatures are mid- February to mid-March, when the lengthening day also begins to signal plants to come out of dormancy but when there is still a good chance for later cold weather.   Some plant species are able to adapt their life processes to changing winters but some, including many tree species, may not be able to adjust.

Researchers also warn farmers and gardeners not to rely so much on older signs to begin planting- such as planting corn when the oak leaves are the size of mouse ears or planting tomatoes when the lilacs bloom.  Even scientific “degree day” indications for planting may now be off track.   We may have to re-adjust our knowledge of phenology- relating plant growth stages to other biological processes, such as pest emergence.

Don’t overdo the fish oil, eat eggs instead

We are constantly being told that fish oil and other sources of Omega 3 fatty acids should be generously consumed but new research suggests you can get too much of a good thing.  Research done at MSU and published this month in Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes & Essential Fatty Acids, suggests that too much Omega 3 fatty acid can alter the immune system and lower the body’s ability to fight infections.  It can also cause colitis.   Researchers don’t believe that there is a problem with the amount of Omega 3 fatty acids that could be consumed with foods; it is only where people take large regular supplements of Omega 3 that problems can develop.   So ditch the fish oil tablets and eat fish.

However one food that people were being warned not to eat too much of – eggs- is being found to be extremely beneficial to our health.  Research has found that eggs actually contain more antioxidants than an apple or cranberries, about twice as much in raw yolks.  When cooked the antioxidants in egg yolks still equals that of an apple or cranberries.  This is based on the hens eating a typical confinement diet of grains; eggs from free range hens may contain even more antioxidants.

Even better than antioxidants, researchers have found that the proteins in eggs are converted to ACE inhibitors in the intestines and this can actually work to lower blood pressure.    Eggs have been given a bad rap in the last few decades because it was thought that the yolks raised blood cholesterol and people have taken to nasty habits like eating an egg white sandwich.  However it has been proven that eggs raise the cholesterol only in certain individuals with genetic idiosyncrasies and in most people eggs don’t cause a rise in bad cholesterol.  Eggs are high in protein, low in calories and full of many needed vitamins, they are a perfect food that should be eaten whole and frequently.  ( I am a teeny bit prejudiced toward eggs but the facts are there.)

Dog tail wagging

This may not be about gardening but here’s a bit of interesting information that I have come across in reading this week.  According to research dogs wag their tails to the right if they are happy or playful and to the left if they are feeling sad, angry or otherwise in a bad mood.  Other dogs respond to the tail wagging direction in a way that indicates they understand what the tail wagging signifies.  The tail wagging corresponds to areas of the brain “that light up” under observation which control aggressive or fear feelings or happy, playful feelings. The problem is I can’t tell which way my dogs are wagging their tails.


Make sure to have an egg for breakfast!
Kim
Garden as though you will live forever. William Kent


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