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| Begonia |
We are now halfway through winter, calendar winter
anyway. There are 45 days until the spring equinox. By the end of the month there
are 11 hours and 12 min of daylight as we rapidly gain daylight hours. In
January we only gained 48 minutes of light in 31 days. In February we gain 69
minutes in 28 days.
This winter has been mild here so far although I keep
waiting for the other shoe to drop. So far, it’s a zone 7 winter, two zones
higher than normal. And as the days start getting longer a return to colder
winter weather gets more problematic. Plants have adjusted to the warmer
conditions and are starting to come out of dormancy. Temperatures falling below
zero now will do more damage than if the weather had been cold all along.
Yesterday was the first at least partly sunny day
here in about 10 days. Even though it’s
mild the weather has been very gloomy. We had two inches of very fluffy snow on
Saturday that melted on Sunday. According to the weather service we are about
20 inches behind our normal amount of snow by this time, but that’s okay by me.
In some parts of Michigan pussy willows are beginning
to bloom, I expect to hear of crocus or snowdrops blooming. In fact, I have a
single snowdrop in bloom by my deck, with others nearby popping out of the
ground. This is the earliest I have ever had snowdrops bloom. My roses have
little dieback, the stems remain green and the buds red. I could see the buds
swelling on the trees and the yellow cast to the weeping willow across the road
that signifies the leaf buds are swelling.
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| Snowdrop |
Yesterday I saw turkey buzzards, they do not usually
come back until April. The skunks have been out mating, they are pretty close
to their normal schedule. They generally go back into hibernation after a week
or two. My resident possum brought a friend home one day last week, but then
the two of them disappeared. They, groundhogs and racoons also breed this time
of year.
Here in my area and most areas of the country, the
groundhog did not see his shadow, so we are supposed to have an early spring. I
don’t know how the groundhog thing got started.
Basically, anyone could go outside and see if they saw their own shadow.
In fact, you just need to look out the window and see if it’s a sunny day. If
it’s sunny objects will cast a shadow. There is a movement to stop dragging
groundhogs out of their den for this silly ritual. Several years ago, a
groundhog died after a newscaster dropped him.
Groundhogs do come out of their burrows once in a
while on warm days in the winter. But I’m sure they don’t know when it’s
Groundhog Day and come out voluntarily to be a folklore weather forecaster. I think it’s time to stop it. Just use a
stuffed groundhog if you must persist in the ritual. If you want to learn more
about groundhogs or woodchucks here’s an article on my blog you can read;
Caution- don’t rely on herbal remedies
for Coronavirus
Already circulating online are many claims for an
herbal cure for the new coronavirus. I have read about elderberry syrup,
kimchi, honeysuckle concoctions, areca and betel nuts, and various Ayurveda,
homeopathy and Chinese medicine remedies being touted as both prevention and
cures. Please do not risk your health and that of
others by using these remedies or sharing the information with others. Social media has pledged to remove these false
sources of information and you can help by reporting them when you see one.
Viruses are not curable by most conventional
or natural methods. Prevention by herbal remedies or conventional medicine is
also impossible, with the exception of a vaccine, when available. What can
prevent the coronavirus is frequent hand washing, staying out of crowded areas,
staying away from sick people, and keeping your immune system strong with
enough sleep and nutritious foods.
Masks that you buy in the drugstore won’t prevent you
from getting viruses either, although they may keep you from spreading any
viruses you may have. They may help a little, but don’t count on them to keep
you safe.
If you feel you have symptoms of the new coronavirus
or the flu, the symptoms are similar, fever, cough, chest discomfort, breathing
difficulty, call your doctor or a clinic. They will advise you on what to do.
It’s best to call before going to an emergency room, doctor’s office or clinic
so they can give you directions on how to prevent infecting others when you
arrive. If you aren’t seriously sick, they may ask you to remain home and will
tell you what to do. Please stay home from work and away from other people.
Using home remedies to ease symptoms is okay in most
cases, just don’t expect them to cure you, keep you from infecting others, or
prevent the illness. Chicken soup, warm tea with honey, vapor rubs, aspirin and
other things can at least make you feel a bit better.
Right now, the new coronavirus is still quite rare in
this country, but the flu is killing thousands. The best thing our government could
do would be to ban working with the public while sick, using public
transportation when sick or going to stores, restaurants, theaters, schools and
other public places while sick. But they won’t. And everyone always thinks they
should be the exception to the rule, so we won’t.
Focus on Honeyberry (Lonicera caerulea)
If you have trouble growing blueberries in your soil
you may want to try growing Honeyberries. Even if you can grow blueberries you
may want to try honeyberries as they ripen much earlier than blueberries. If
you are into perennial food plants honeyberry is also a good choice. Other
common names include fly honeysuckle, blue honeysuckle and haskap.
The honeyberry is a member of the honeysuckle family.
There are several species native to many parts of Asia, Russia, Europe and
North America. If you grow only native plants, you may have a hard time
deciphering which honeyberries are native. There are many cultivated species,
and some are hybrids of species. Since the plants are not invasive, I would not
worry about the country of origin. Cultivated species have larger and more
abundant fruit.
Honeyberries are extremely hardy plants and may
survive were blueberries won’t. Some varieties/species are hardy to zone 2 and
all are hardy to zone 4. They are plants of temperate cool climates and above
zone 7 there may not be enough winter chilling conditions for fruit to form.
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| Honeyberry flower |
Honeyberries form large shrubs averaging about 4 feet
tall and wide, but sometimes reaching 6 feet in favorable conditions. They can
be pruned to be a little smaller but too much pruning will reduce fruiting. The
plants could be used as a deciduous screen or hedge, but their ornamental
qualities are only fair. Fall color is a dull yellow.
While honeyberries don’t require acidic soil like
blueberries, they don’t grow well in very alkaline soil either. Soil between 6
and 7.5 pH would be ideal. The soil should be well drained. They do tolerate
moist areas if they well drained. After establishment they are fairly drought
tolerant also.
Honeyberries can tolerate partial shade, but full sun
is needed for good fruit production. In zone 7, some light or partial shade will
help keep leaves from scorching.
Since honeyberries are not self-compatible for
pollination purposes you will need to have room in the garden for at least two
large plants if you want fruit. Gardeners will need to plant two different
compatible varieties to get fruit. Catalogs will usually sell two types that
can pollinate each other. Do not buy two plants of the same variety, you must
have two different varieties to produce fruit and those varieties should flower
at the same time. Plants need to be within 50 feet of each other and both
plants will produce fruit.
Honeyberries have blue green oval leaves. They leaf
out early in spring and start producing vigorous new growth. This new growth is
where the flowers and fruit will form. The flowers are pale yellow or white and
produced very early in spring. They have a mild sweet scent and a plant in bloom
is pretty and attracts pollinators.
Honeyberry fruits are long and
tubular. They start out rosy pink and ripen into deep blue. Fruits have pale
flat seeds inside that aren’t noticeable when eaten. Usually fruits ripen by
late May, generally before strawberries ripen, and are the first fruits in the
garden. They are well hidden by the foliage, growing under the leaves and so
escape bird bites easier than other berries.
Fruit is easy to harvest when
fully ripe. Catalogs use all kinds of fruit comparisons to describe the taste
from lemon-blueberry to cherry-grape but the way I would describe it is tart-sweet
and bland. Fruit can be eaten fresh,
frozen or turned into jelly. It is high
in antioxidants and vitamin C.
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| Honeyberry fruit |
Cultivation and care
Gardeners will generally start with small plants, as
smaller plants transplant better. Make sure to plant them where you won’t have
to move them. It can take 3-4 years to start getting fruit and fruit production
increases with age. They can then bear
fruit for 20-30 years.
Plant honeyberries 4-5 feet apart in full sun. Keep
them watered during the first year as they get established. In the future they
probably won’t need watering unless there is an extended drought.
Fertilizing also isn’t needed unless your soil is
very lacking in nutrients. However, a
light application of a general-purpose fertilizer in early spring at the base
of the plants may improve fruit yield.
Honeyberry plants should not be pruned heavily. Fruit
forms on new wood that develops in the spring so plants should only be pruned
in winter when they are dormant. Remove dead stems anytime. Otherwise a light
thinning in the center and reducing the height and width a little if needed is
all that should be done. Never remove
more than 1/3 of the plant.
In warmer zones honeyberry plants may develop powdery
mildew. This is a gray-white coating on the leaves which may cause them to
yellow and fall. It won’t kill the
plants but will make them look bad. Preventative fungicides can be used in
warmer, humid climates.
While birds do eat the berries, honeyberry is not
considered to be an invasive plant and seedling plants in the wild are rare. Plants
do not sucker or spread by the roots.
If you are a gardener who likes experimenting with
the unusual or someone into perennial food plants or edible landscaping the
honeyberry may be a good addition to your garden or landscape. Plants are
available from many nurseries and are inexpensive compared to other fruits.
Sweet Potato leaves make great salad
greens
Are you
over-wintering an ornamental sweet potato plant indoors? They do make good
houseplants. Unlike regular white or Irish potatoes, the leaves of sweet potato
are edible. If you do have a sweet potato plant inside, you may want to harvest
some of its leaves for your next salad.
A study
done by Louisiana State University and published in Horticultural Science found
that sweet potato leaves are very nutritious, being high in Vitamins C, B6, and
riboflavin as well as containing other vitamins and minerals. The leaves and
young shoots of sweet potato are as nutritious as broccoli, carrots, bananas
and other fruits and vegetables.
The
leaves and stems of sweet potato leaves and stems are not poisonous and can be
added to any salad or eaten alone. Sweet potato leaves and stems can also be
eaten as cooked greens, just like spinach and just as nutritious. Just make
sure that the sweet potato leaves you use haven’t been treated by pesticides.
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| Ornamental sweet potatoes |
Sweet
Potatoes grown for ornamental use come in a variety of colors and even varying
leaf shapes. There is no reason ornamental varieties would not be great salad
plants. Sweet Potato plants will grow in sunny windows inside during the winter
or under a grow light. They do need to be kept in warmer rooms and kept moist
to grow well. You could use them for a salad plant all winter and then put them
back out as an ornamental container plant.
It’s
also easy to start cuttings of sweet potato over the winter simply by putting
pieces of stem into a jar of water. Toothpicks can be stuck in a sweet potato
from the market and the bottom of the tuber stuck in a jar of water. It should sprout
and then you can pot it in potting mix.
This could be an excellent project for kids.
February
almanac
It’s Leap Year this year so February has 29 days. Adding a day to
February, which always seems the longest and dreariest month anyway, seems
cruel. So why do we add a day to our year every 4 years? The earth completes a
circle around the sun every 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds. If
we did not adjust our calendar every 4 years we would soon be way out of sync
between the natural year and the calendar year.
There are other rules to determine a leap year and keep things tidy too.
A leap year has to be divisible by 4, for example 2020. But it cannot be evenly
divisible by 100 unless it can also be evenly divisible by 400. So, 2000 was a
leap year but the year 1900 was not. The year 2100 will not be a leap year
either.
There are some interesting traditions surrounding Leap Year/Day. One of them is that on February 29th
a woman can propose to a man. In the
Middle Ages if a man did not accept that proposal, he had to buy a woman 12
pairs of gloves. At some point in time
this was an actual law.
In many countries it is considered unlucky to be born on February 29th.
In some countries it is considered to be an unlucky year to be married in too.
The Henriksen family from Andenes, Norway holds the record for the most
children born on February 29 in one family – 3 children. A February 29th birthday can cause
some kinks in the law, for example when does a child born on Leap Day become of
legal age? Different countries handle this in different ways.
The full moon is on the 9th this February and coincides with
moon perigee on the 10th, the closest point the moon comes to earth
in the month. This makes for high tides and a better chance of precipitation
around this time. It’s called the Full
Snow Moon. The moon apogee is the 26th.
By the 28th there are 11 hours and 12 min of daylight as we
rapidly gain on spring equinox. In January we only gained 48 minutes of light
in 31 days. In February we gain 69
minutes in 28 days. It’s leap year so we
may gain a minute more. Go sun go!
February is National Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month, American Heart Month,
Marijuana Awareness Month, National Bird Feeding Month, National Cherry Month,
National Grapefruit Month, and National Bake for Your Family Month.
The 2nd was Candlemas day as well as Groundhog Day. It is the halfway point through winter and
also the beginning of housecleaning for spring. The 5th is National
Pancake Day. The 12th is Lincolns Birthday, Darwin Day and Plum
Pudding day. The 14th is
Valentine’s Day as well as National Condom day, and for those who don’t
celebrate Valentine’s Day, it’s also National Library Day. The 15th
is Susan B. Anthony’s Birthday. Presidents Day is the 19th. Tortilla Chip day is the 24th,
National Pistachio day is the 27th.
National Public Sleeping Day is the 28th, have fun with that.
The February birth flower is the violet, which symbolizes faithfulness,
humility and chastity. African violets
are being featured in many stores in February and make a good gift for a
gardener. The February birthstone is the
Amethyst.
Halva or Sex Candy
Valentines Day is just around the corner. Why
not whip up some candy that promises to make your Valentine partner more amorous? Halva is a fudge like candy made from sesame
seeds that has been considered an aphrodisiac since at least the 13th
century. All respectable harams in the Mid-East had halva kitchens where dozens
of varieties were prepared.
The candy was a trade item eagerly sought by
many countries in earlier times and many countries developed their own versions
of halva. Health food stores now sell the treat and it is pretty healthy as
candy goes.
A halva
recipe starts with what we know as tahini, or a paste made from hulled, roasted
sesame seeds. Tahini paste has other uses in cooking too. The paste can often be found in the baking or
spice section of groceries. You can make your own tahini but that adds an extra
layer of work to a halva recipe. Here’s
a simple halva recipe.
Ingredients
2 cups
honey,
1½ cups
tahini paste
2 cups
of sliced or chopped nuts. Toasted sliced almonds, toasted pecans or chopped
walnuts or pistachios are good choices.
Directions
Line a
loaf pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil sprayed with pan spray.
Into a
medium sized pan pour two cups of honey (pure honey, not corn syrup honey).
In
another pan place 1½ cups tahini paste. Stir it well to combine the oils that
often separate out with the solids.
First
put the honey pan on low heat and cook until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy
thermometer or soft ball stage. Remove from heat.
Heat
the tahini pan until the tahini is just warm, about 120 degrees and thin and
smooth.
Pour
the tahini into the honey, stirring constantly until it’s smooth and begins to
thicken. Stir in your nuts.
Pour
the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and refrigerate. Halva should sit at least 12 hours before
slicing for best results and is better a day or so later. Tightly wrap uneaten
halva with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated to store.
While it is February
one can taste the full joys of anticipation. Spring stands at the gate with her
finger on the latch.
-Patience Strong
Kim Willis
All parts of this blog are copyrighted and may not be used without
permission.
And So On….
Find Michigan garden events/classes
here:
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is the Lapeer County Gardeners facebook page)
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