Goal for 2020: Alternatives to Lawns

Many homeowners are obsessed with lawns. Although originally created by European aristocrats in the 17th century as status symbols, today’s lawns are a symbol of the American dream. Unfortunately, they also can be a source of unnecessary burden for homeowners, which has led to a recent, and growing, interest in alternatives to grass in yards. If you are looking to cut down on your grass while still maintaining a luscious green landscape, here are some ideas:

Clover 
to inter seed lawns, the most popular is Dutch White Clover because it is relatively low growing, tolerates close mowing, and out-competes other foreign weeds.  Just after the snow is melted, clover shows its fresh green, and it stays this way through all the summer drought into the late fall until the first snowfalls.

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Ground Covers 
Sprawling across the ground, they are providing an elegant touch to your garden.  Ground covers don't grow tall, eliminating the need to mow, but providing the perfect alternative to grass.  Many of them are nicely blooming in light hues or their leaves are in lime, grey or silver-blue shades.

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Creeping Thyme
It is excellent planted as a lawn substitute in sunny areas or among stepping stones and even as pavers to create a living patio.  Creeping thyme builds dense carpets that can even withstand some foot traffic.  It takes one year to get established and then begins to spread in its second season.

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Ornamental Grasses
Most of them like sun, are drought-tolerant and grow from 3 inches to 30 inches or even higher.  Garden owners can choose from a variety of colors and types and styles, from blue fescue grass to Japanese forest grass to Muhlenbergia or the red-blooming fountain grass to pampas grass.  They look best when grown in groups of the same variety.

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Evergreen Moss 
For shady or half-shady parts of the garden or underneath trees (where they grow anyway) moss is a lovely substitute to lawns.  Carpet moss or fern moss would prefer a damp, cool environment to grow in.  They can be planted usually from hardy zone 3-8.

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Native Perennial Beds
These important plant species provide nectar, pollen, and seeds that serve as food for native butterflies and birds.  Match plants to your site and to the soil.  Design for a succession of blooms, such as early spring flowers and shrubs, then summer blooms such as roses, lavender, irises, salvia, and yarrow.  For late summer and fall chose purple coneflowers and sedum autumn joy.  Don’t forget heuchera with its colorful leaves that are showing off almost all year.  Or just plant all kinds of blooming shrubs for year-round colors!  Mulch the beds well and you never have to weed again.  The only “chore” will be the cutting off spent flowers, immediately after blooming.

Conclusion
Compared to lawns there is almost no maintenance or future costs involved in all these lawn replacements.  Forget about lawn mowing fees, lawnmowers and snippers, weed digging, fertilizers and god-forbid pesticide poisons.  PLUS: it looks much better and gives your property curb (or back yard) appeal.  And you don’t need to change the whole lawn in one step. Start small and continue year-for-year with a bit more garden design. Enjoy!

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Horses Help Garden: Lessons From the Past

From 1850 to 1900, Paris produced an exceptional amount of food using fine-tuned growing techniques developed over generations of Parisian Mara'chiers. These urban farmers intensively cultivated one-to-two-acre lots. 

They had to: In this 50-year period, Paris grew from 1.2 million to more than two million residents.  As the population ballooned, six percent of the city area— more than 1,500 acres—provided the people with vegetables.
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Horse manure is an innocuous mix of hay and grass fiber, almost sweet-smelling. The Parisian Mara'chiers (market gardeners) used horse manure to fertilize and supply their city with fresh produce year-round.
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During his time in Paris, hot-beds were in constant use for the production of early crops. Essentially, a thick layer of moistened, well-compacted manure is buried under about a foot of soil. Decomposition creates heat and warms the soil above. 

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By using a hotbed in combination with cold frames, the Mara'chiers provided a friendly growing environment to encourage early production. This allowed them to harvest salad crops in the depths of winter and melons and cucumber in early June.
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Rich, manure-fed soil combined with intercropping enabled the Mara'chiers to achieve four to eight harvests per bed per year.  Between 16 and 30 tonnes of manure were used per acre annually. The diversion of manure from stables and streets to the city’s gardens led to a net increase in soil fertility, even with intensive production.

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In contrast, today’s industrial agriculture system depletes our soil 10 to 40 times faster than the natural rate of soil formation. As the Mara'chiers knew, food for the masses does not need to equate to degraded soil.

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They worked their plots by foot on paths of a slight 9 to 12 inches.  Men transformed into human wheelbarrows by donning hand-woven basket backpacks with extensions above the head. They loaded the baskets with manure, walked to the destination, bowed forward, and—perhaps with a little shakeout fell the essential ingredient of their success.
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Whether growing for yourself or for the market, it helps to be brave and try new things to get the most out of your growing space.  With today’s expanding knowledge and our technology, combined with the increasing demand for local, fresh, organic food, our cities need to step up their growing game. 

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Over time we have forgotten this fact. We are no longer limited by square footage: vertical growers think in cubic dimensions. Space is not the problem; innovation is our limitation. Studying the Parisian Mara'chiers reminds us that the practice of growing food intensively year-round in a similar climate has been done before—often better then we are doing today. Urban farming has become an international movement.  So, where is the closest horse stable?

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What’s in a Name?

Plant Names and Their Scientific Universal Names

Common plant names are often confusing because the same plants might have different common names in different places. Liatris spicata, which we list as gayfeather, is also known as blazing star or button snakeroot.

Common plant names such as blackberry lily, bleeding heart, goatsbeard, and fountain grass offer a glimpse into a plant's personality or appearance.  It can also reveal clues about a plant's origin, such as Ozark sundrops, or it can paint a picture of a flower, such as rose turtlehead.

The Scientific Name
It’s the formal name for the plant. The scientific name is supposed to be the formal name universally worldwide. We try to find the one that is the most consistent with the world and still makes sense.

The scientific name is the generic and the specific name together, with the generic name always first and capitalized and the specific name always second (and uncapitalized). Everywhere in the world you may go, the scientific name is (supposed to be) exactly the same: Grevillea

Genus
a group of closely related species - like your last name, the family name: victoriae

Species
Classically, a group of very closely related individuals that will only breed with each other - like your first name. The full species name is Grevillea victoriae.  It is in the family Proteaceae.

spp.
This abbreviation means several species, while sp. means one species. So, if I say Acer spp., I mean several species of maples:  subsp. nivalis

Variety
Variation of a species, where the individuals have different flower color, or leaf color, or leaf shape, etc.

Cultivar
The cultivar name is always added after a valid scientific name at the genus or species level, is not Latinised, is put in single quotes, and is not italicised:  Grevillea 'Robyn Gordon' 

The Common Name
It is the commonly used name for the plant. For example, names made up by common people. Fitz instead of Fitzgarald. Liz instead of Elizabeth.
Most plants have several names--minimally an English common name and a scientific name, but possibly several common names in each of several languages.  For example, the same plant is called: dandelion (English common name), Taraxacum officinale (scientific name)  dent-de-lion, (French common name), achicoria silvestre (Spanish common name) or maskros (Swedish common name).

Many plants do not have common names. When talking about them, people often use the scientific name, and soon the scientific name is turned into a common name.

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17 November Garden Pleasures & Chores

Even if your garden is already sprinkled with snow, there are still garden tasks waiting: last-minute bulbs to plant, leaves that should not go to waste or roses that need some TLC. Early winter is a great time to evaluate your garden layout. You can clearly see the architecture or bones of your garden.

Leaves: 
Rake to eliminate thick accumulation in flower beds and borders (an invitation to voles and mice in winter, and also an obstacle next spring to emerging plants).  Try to prevent a matted buildup of leaves on the lawn.  Recycle them into mulch and soil-improving compost.  Never send leaves away from the garden to the “trash.”
Make great leaf mulch when adding back as organic matter to beds.  Start a leaves-only compost pile, and use it as mulch next year.  Running over dry leaves with the mower to shred them will speed its breakdown.

Composting: 
Pile up composting material as you cut back faded plants, following Lee Reich’s easy plan (video how-to included). First, extract finished compost and top-dress your vegetable-garden beds with it, getting a jump on spring soil prep.  Add organic matter to your flower and vegetable beds.  Cover the compost heap so that rain doesn't flood it and leach the nutrients.

Birdbath:
Unfrozen water is the number one thing you can do in support of birds and other wildlife - so birds and other animals can have a drink (or a splash).

Seed-Saving:
Start at planting time in spring, what seeds you will save.  But even this late, some garden harvest—including the last beans, or winter squash—may hold hidden treasures.

Bulb-Planting:
Many Spring garden bulbs can go in the ground surprisingly late, even up North.  Get those bulbs in now - and even purchase more on closeout sales, if you have time for extra digging.

Clean-Up: 
Do it with a focus on prevention–of pests, weeds, and general chaos in the coming year. First hit things that show signs of disease, weed or insect infestation, in case weather curtails your cleanup before you get to everything.  Minimize weed woes for next year.

Trees & Shrubs
Add more woody plants that show off in fall. Plan to do so for next year–many can even be planted this late in autumn if your nursery or a mail-order source still has stock.
Clear weeds from around the trunks of fruit trees and ornamentals to reduce winter damage by rodents and rabbits.  Hardware cloth collars should be in place year-round, sunk an inch or so into the soil, and standing 18 inches high.  Use half-inch mesh or smaller.  Clean up under fruit trees, as fallen fruit and foliage allowed to overwinter invites troubles next season.

Pruning:
Prune dead, damaged, diseased twigs in trees and shrubs. This is especially important before winter arrives with its harsher weather, where weaknesses left in place invite tearing and unnecessary extra damage.  Remove suckers and water sprouts, too, but don’t do aesthetic pruning now.

Herbs:
Parsley and chives can be potted up and brought indoors.  A few garlic cloves in a pot will yield a supply of chive-like (but spicier) garlic greens all winter for garnish.  Harvest your green herbs, wash them, and cut them.  Store the herbs in your freezer for winter use.

Flower Garden:
Protect roses from winter damage in cold zones by mounding up their crowns with a 6- to 12-inch layer of soil before the ground freezes.  After all, is frozen, add a layer of leaf mulch to further insulate.

Cannas and Dahlias:
Tender bulbs need careful digging for indoor storage.  Once frost blackens the foliage, cut back tops to 3 inches and dig carefully, then brush or wash off soil and let dry for two weeks or so to cure.  Stash in a dry spot, like an unheated basement or crawl space, around 40-50 degrees, in boxes or pots filled with bark chips or peat moss, or just newspaper.

Deadhead Spent Plants:
Shake seed pods around the mother plants before removing plant carcasses. Nicotiana, poppies, larkspur, sage and many others fall into this group.  So do plants with showy or bird-friendly seed heads, like grasses and coneflowers.
Mulch your strawberry plants with a couple of inches of straw.  Let asparagus foliage go brown on its own; don’t cut back till later, or even in early spring.

Prepare New Flower Beds: 
For future planting by smothering grass or weeds with layers of recycled corrugated cardboard or thick layers of newspaper before adding soil, then put mulch on top.

Houseplants:
Start a pot of paperwhites or amaryllis in potting soil or pebbles and water, and stagger forcing another batch every couple of weeks for a winter-long display.  Or force some hyacinth bulbs for blooming.

Garden Tools:
Clean shovels and hand tools, maybe oil them a bit and place them into a bucket filled with fine sand to keep them dry during the winter.  Bring your lawnmower for service after the final mowing, rather than in the spring rush, then store without gas in the tank.  Run it dry.  Drain and store watering hoses.

Outdoor Christmas Tree:
If you're planning on buying a live Christmas tree with the intention of planting after Christmas, dig the hole now, while the soil is workable, and cover the soil with burlap before the ground freezes.  Remember to keep the soil around the tree-covered so that it does not freeze before it can go back into the hole.

Planning for Next Spring:
Make your next-year garden resolutions. Plan how to extend your garden’s season. Get more creative with the use of spring and fall bulbs. Or start a rock garden. Whatever you do, gardening in cooler temperatures is more enjoyable.
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Monsanto RoundUp Trial

Monsanto Ordered to Pay $2 Billion to Cancer Victims

Among the many revelations that have emerged from the trials:

* Monsanto never conducted epidemiology studies for Roundup and its other formulations made with the active ingredient glyphosate to evaluate the cancer risks for users.

* Monsanto was aware that the surfactants in Roundup were much more toxic than glyphosate alone.

* Monsanto spent millions of dollars on covert public relations campaigns to finance ghostwritten studies and articles aimed at discrediting independent scientists whose work found dangers with Monsanto’s herbicides.

* When the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry sought to evaluate glyphosate toxicity in 2015, Monsanto engaged the assistance of EPA officials to delay that review.

* Monsanto enjoyed a close relationship with certain officials within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who have repeatedly backed Monsanto’s assertions about the safety of its glyphosate products.

* The company internally had worker safety recommendations that called for wearing a full range of protective gear when applying glyphosate herbicides but did not warn the public to do the same.

Pilliod attorney Brent Wisner suggested to jurors in his closing arguments that they consider punitive damages in the range of $1 billion to send a message to Monsanto and Bayer about the need to change the company’s practices.

“The jury saw for themselves internal company documents demonstrating that, from day one, Monsanto has never had any interest in finding out whether Roundup is safe,” Wisner said following the verdict. “Instead of investing in sound science, they invested millions in attacking science that threatened their business agenda.”

Michael Miller, who served with Wisner as co-lead trial counsel said: “Unlike the first two Monsanto trials, where the judges severely limited the amount of plaintiffs’ evidence, we were finally allowed to show a jury the mountain of evidence showing Monsanto’s manipulation of science, the media, and regulatory agencies to forward their own agenda despite Roundup’s severe harm to the animal kingdom and humankind.”

Bayer issued a statement after the verdict saying it would appeal: “Bayer is disappointed with the jury’s decision.

“There is no reliable scientific evidence to conclude that glyphosate-based herbicides were the “but for” cause of their illnesses as the jury was required to find in this case.”

Compensatory Payment Ordered for Alberta Pilliod and Alva Pilliod:
TOTAL – $2.055 billion  

Hundreds of trials are pending in courts around the United States against Monsanto-Bayer.

By selling to Bayer last summer for $63bn just before the Roundup cancer lawsuits started going to trial, Monsanto executives were able to walk away from the legal mess with riches.  The Monsanto chairman Hugh Grant’s exit package allowed him to pocket $32m, for instance.


Studies show that along with promoting illness and disease in people, these pesticides pushed by Bayer and Monsanto, Dow-DuPont and other corporate players, are endangering wildlife, soil health, water quality and the long-term sustainability of food production. We all have to pay for it!

Yet regulators have allowed these corporations to combine forces, making them even more powerful and more able to direct public policies that favor their interests...

What we can do as consumers? Just say NO to chemicals - especially pesticides,
and live a more healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Regarding your own garden: see 
my former article:
https://garden-dream.blogspot.com/2019/10/easy-sustainable-gardening.html 

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Farms on Southern Vancouver Island

Farmers Market

With Canada’s only Mediterranean climate, there seems to be no limit to what can be produced here. However, it’s not just the land that makes this region a foodie paradise, it’s the passionate people behind the products who work tirelessly to create quality local flavors.

Farms in Southern Vancouver Island
Lakes, hiking, parks, and camping... The Cowichan Valley boasts the highest mean annual temperatures in the region, and the Mediterranean-like climate has made it a mecca of vineyards, orchards, and farms. The outdoor Duncan Farmers Market (open Saturdays year-round) is a great place to start a delicious tour of the area.

It extends from Shawnigan Lake, just 40 minutes north of Victoria, past the City of Duncan and up to Lake Cowichan, 27 kilometers west of Duncan.  Numerous wineries and small communities sit along the way.  A local park - Old Mill Park - contains the remains of a lumber mill when it was founded nearly one hundred years ago.

Alderlea Farm and Café 
The Alderlea Farm and Café is a magical place.  While bees make honey you can put in your tea, chickens lay eggs for cakes.  The owners Katy and John Ehrlich busy themselves, making a difference.  Their shared passion for organic and biodynamic farming led them to purchase the 10-acre farm in Glenora - just 3 kilometers from HWY 1 - nearly 15 years ago.

Farm to Table Cuisine for Everyone
This place takes authentic food to a whole other level. Literally, you are at the farm, eating whatever they’re growing at the moment.  All dishes are made with fresh ingredients from the farm in a casual and cozy environment.  The creative and unique flavor profiles work perfectly, and you can't find the same dishes elsewhere on Vancouver Island.

Wood-Fired Oven Pizza, Every Sunday from 4:00pm
The rustic café bustles Friday to Sunday, from 11:00 - 8:00, spring through fall. Now in its seventh year, the venture adds value to the farm produce and provides a place for people to gather, learn, and enjoy the beauty of biodynamic produce and food on the plate.

Enjoy a delicious home-cooked, farm-to-table, organic meal, a selection of award-winning local wine and beer, and a stunning view of the farm and the animals.

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Easy Sustainable Gardening

Here are some tips to create a more sustainable - and far less expensive - landscape on your piece of paradise:

Shrink Your Lawn
Those expanses of green turf take an enormous amount of resources.  Eliminate some of your lawn and create a more natural landscape.  You will ultimately use less water and reduce chemical use and save some money too.  As well, you will do less mowing and raking.


Gather Rain Water
Harvesting rainwater in barrels helps to conserve water and save money.  Rainwater is soft and pure and requires no treatment.  You can use it to water your garden, your houseplants or even wash your hair with it.


Use Mulch
Mulched beds improve the appearance of any landscape.  But more than importantly, mulch protects the plants' root systems and adds nutrients to the soil.  Mulch slows soil erosion, retains moisture and helps to prevent weeds.  You will spend less time weeding and watering your garden and more time enjoying it.


Compost, Compost, Compost
Composting organic kitchen and garden waste produces rich humus and improves the soil.  By composting you reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites, thus reducing greenhouse gases.  You also save money on chemical fertilizers.


Choose Native Plants
Native plants are better able to withstand drought conditions and poor soil.  They are also better able to resist pests and diseases, thus reducing the need for harmful chemicals.

Attract Pollinators to Your Yard
By growing a variety of plants you increase the number of different wildlife species that are attracted to your garden.  Insects, bees, birds, and bats contribute to a healthy ecosystem by transporting pollen from one plant to another during fertilization.


Plant Shade Trees
Planting deciduous shade trees near your house will help cut your air conditioning bills in summer.  In the fall deciduous trees drop their leaves allowing more sun to shine into your home and so help to reduce heating costs.  But, trees deliver more than cost savings: they are important carbon sinks and help to reduce global climate change.


Plant Edible Ornamentals
You can produce a beautiful landscape as well as tasty food for the table by integrating edible plants into your garden.  For example, runner beans, ruby chard, globe artichokes, nasturtiums, and garlic chives blend happily with purely ornamental plants.


Use Local Materials
Rather than using exotic materials trucked in great distances for your landscaping projects, consider using stone, salvageable concrete, used bricks, and other recyclable materials found locally. 


Choose Alternatives to Power Equipment
Instead of a power lawnmower consider using a push mower.  Instead of a string weed trimmer use hand shears, a scythe or a hoe.  Instead of a gas blower for leaves, use a rake or broom, or better still allow leaves to remain in place to decompose and add nutrients to the soil.  Instead of a lawn, think about creating a meadow or more flower beds.

Happy Garding : )

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Bucket List: Visiting Southern Englands Gardens

England is considered by many garden lovers to be the ultimate travel destination. In the south of the country, in particular, a wide variety of facilities await you: whether it's a colorful shrub garden, a large landscape park, Victorian kitchen gardens or house gardens laid out according to old plans. 


A Garden Trip Through Southern England
After arriving with the ferry at the white chalk cliffs of Dover, we travel to Great Dixter, THE experimental area of the garden writer Christopher Lloyd, who died in 2006.  To this day, his informal way of using plants is a role model for many garden planners.  Not only in England.

The next station is the garden of Parham in West Sussex.  The dimensions are impressive: the landscape park covers 354 hectares and even the walled ornamental and kitchen garden measures 1.6 hectares. Head Gardener is Tom Brown.  He manages the gardens organically, without chemical fertilizers or insecticides.

A 90-meter long pergola of wooden beams and limestone columns, lushly covered with climbing plants is one of the highlights of the West Dean garden. No less impressive is the Victorian kitchen garden designed by "Gardens Manager" Jim Buckland.

Even in England gardens are not always spacious and spectacular. At least at first glance. The garden of Highdown in Worthing in West Sussex seems almost modest.  But the fact that it was created at all is not self-evident.  The main protagonist in this garden is the lime subsoil. In some places, even the bare rock flashes out.  A challenge for head gardener Jo Hooper and her team.

Southwest of London, in the county of Hampshire, lies the estate of Upton Grey.  The garden bears the signature of one of the best-known British women in gardening circles: Gertrude Jekyll.  The fact that the garden from 1908 radiates its typical charm again today is the result of meticulous research, hard work and a lot of passion, which the owner Rosamund Wallinger invested over decades.
 "A garden between tradition and modernity".  How many times have you read this phrase in travel guides? In any case, too often.  But in the case of West Green House's garden, the description might fit.

At first glance, the Merriments nursery in East Sussex is nothing unusual for plant connoisseurs, offering trees, shrubs, and perennials.  The adjacent show garden, however, is worth a detour.  The owner and garden planner David Weeks has created a kind of "walk-in garden magazine" right next to the sales area, with living examples of plant combinations.

In the southeast of England, in the county of Kent, lies one of the most famous gardens in the country: Sissinghurst.  For many visitors the ideal image of a country house garden. Sissinghurst is the life's work of garden writer Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson.  In 1930 they bought the property - at that time more a ruin than an inviting residence.  For several years the couple repaired the buildings and laid out the magnificent garden.

Tresco Abbey Garden, Isles of Scilly
A bit further away are the sub-tropical gardens, hidden on the Isles of Scilly, built by Lord Proprietor Augustus Smith in 1834. The tropical garden is set in 17 acres and the warm climate and location on a hillside ensure unusual exotic plants from all over the world are in plenty.

There’s a wealth of gardens to visit across England that can offer inspiration for planting and designing your own backyard.  Enjoy your trip through Southern England Gardens!

Read more:
https://www.visitengland.com/short-breaks-england/english-gardens/selection-englands-best-gardens

https://www.gardensillustrated.com/gardens/25-of-the-best-english-gardens-to-visit/

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Dividing Iris Plants

In early summer, I drove from nursery to nursery to buy a certain color of bearded irises. But no luck! I assumed that I was too late - until one of the staff explained the real reason: the Iris Borer which had wiped out a huge part of the crop in many nurseries and the plant wholesale. 

It is a pest that carries bacterial soft rot into tubers, triggering infection with a strong unpleasant odor.  So, I decided to divide the Irises I had on hand. I hadn't done it for a couple of years.  Bearded irises and Siberian irises need to be divided periodically - every three to five years - to maintain a good flower production.

Dividing Iris Plants
Bearded irises are best divided in late summer, about six weeks after blossoming ceases, while Siberian irises need to be divided in spring just when the first small shoots show up.  First remove the upper half of all leaves, using pruners to cut through the thick foliage.  This reduces moisture stress.  Lift the clump, discard older rhizomes and discard tubers that are damaged, hollow or mushy.  Use a garden hose to spray soil debris off all the rhizomes and their roots.  Examine the rhizomes carefully for holes and signs of decay.  Replant the younger tubers 30 centimeters apart, to obtain vigorous stalks and flowers next season.

Don't Plant Too Deep!
Dig a hole for each transplant about 12 centimeters deep, with a mound of soil in the centre.  Compost, composted manure, and peat moss can be added to the soil if it needs renewing. Set the rhizome on the mound and allow its roots to hang down the sides. Fill in with soil, covering the roots entirely and halfway up the sides of the rhizome, leaving its top surface exposed. Covering over the top with more than two centimeters of soil would cause it to rot. Water the transplants in and keep the soil moist while they establish new roots.

See a short video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkaO-mplU6M

How to Divide Siberian Irises
Siberian irises will cease flowering when they need to be divided, every three or four years. Clumps also grow from the center outward and give way to a "bald" center.

Siberian irises have thick, strong roots; you may need garden forks and elbow grease to separate the clumps.  Early spring is the best time to divide Siberian irises, just as the new foliage is pushing up through the soil. 

Lever the clump carefully with a garden spade, sliding the spade under the roots and lifting upward.  With your hands, try to separate the clump into sections along natural lines of division.  If the mass of rhizomes and roots is too strong to pull apart, use two garden forks inserted back to back in the center and lever it apart.

It is also possible to cut it in half with a blunt-nosed spade. Separate the clump into two or more sections, replant the sections 45 to 60 centimeters apart at the same level they were growing, then water them into their new hole.

Happy Gardening!

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A Gardeners Dream: Landhaus Ettenbühl

Traveling between Freiburg/Breisgau and Basel, Switzerland? Don't miss this hidden treasure for plant lovers, gourmets, and romantics. Just minutes from Hwy 3 or Hwy 5, south of Bad Bellingen-Hertingen, visitors and guests can enjoy lovely gardens, tea time and a wonderful restaurant or a picnic on the grounds.

Ettenbühl is not only a rose garden with immense varieties of roses, but also a 5-hectare landscape park with many distinct flowers, rare trees, forests, and shrubs.  There is always something new to discover in the twenty garden rooms - 365 days a year.  Enjoy English garden culture, but also stop by at the cozy restaurant for breakfast, lunch, brunch, coffee, and cake, or an original English tea time.
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Gardeners Brunches and Picnics
If you are in the area on September 15, September 22, or October 6 - and you like to have a leisurely brunch, make your reservations in time.  Official summer picnics are on September 9 and September 14.

They extended the Bed & Breakfast to ten rooms - and of course, there is also "Ettenbühl to take away".  At the rose and shrub nursery, you will find over 1000 varieties of roses and shrubs, and in the country house shop, are beautiful, practical and useful things for your home and gardening.  A large selection of roses and perennials can be purchased too.
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English Gardening School
The gardens of the Landhaus Ettenbühl, which are now over 40 years old, serve as an ideal and inspiring classroom.  The aim of these gardening classes is to bring visitors closer to the art of English gardening, both with its practical and artistic aspects.
Visitors are welcomed with tea or coffee and a croissant and are served a 3-course lunch with wine or other drinks.

Enjoy one of the loveliest gardens in Germany or maybe even Europe!

Info:
Hof Ettenbühl, 79415 Bad Bellingen-Hertingen, Germany
Rosen und Staudengärtnerei - ‎Englischer Garten
https://www.landhaus-ettenbuehl.de/ (German only)

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Pick Fruit, Berries and Nuts for Free

In Germany, there are plenty of wild fruit trees, fruit bushes, herbs and nuts that provide all sorts of healthy treats. The interactive map of Mundraub shows you where you can collect apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, juniper, hazelnuts and much more in your area.

An ingenious map showing app where wild fruit trees grow.  The providers of the map do not only want to draw attention to the wild treats, but also connect people.  A harvest calendar in PDF format can also be found at CHIP.
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Fresh Free Fruits in Austria
Throughout Austria, you will find mouth-watering nosh hedges and trees on the platform. The city of Vienna has already registered many fruit trees in Vienna on the map.  A good place for fruit picking is the Steinhofgründe. On the former orchards of the nursery, Steinhof are numerous cherry, apricot, apple, pear and plum trees for self-harvest. Since the Steinhofgründe is a dog-free zone, they also invite to collect wild herbs.

The fruit fly app also displays the locations of 1980 fruit trees in Vienna, sorted by fruit type and harvest time.

On the website Gartenernte, you will find fruits vegetables, wood or products of bees in the region. The offers come from surpluses of private gardens and commercial sellers.

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Peonies Are Forever

The lovely sight of blooming Peonies is in May and June everywhere. Here are some tips on how to take care of these old-fashioned beauties: 
Certain Peonies growing in gardens which have been there for more than 100 years. No one’s ever divided them or fussed with them, and they just keep coming up every year and flowering in lovely colors.
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Planting Time
The ideal time to buy and plant them would be in September, early October.  Prepare a site that is maybe 2 feet across and about a foot deep, and add lots of compost in with it.
If you don’t have any compost (shame on you : ), then at least add a bit Bonemeal. 
If your garden soil is low pH (slightly acidic) mix a little bit pulverized limestone in.
Don’t plant the root too deep!  The same principle as with Irises.
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Peonies need to have sun -  lots of it! 
An optimal condition would be a very sunny spot and good drainage. Peonies do not like to be in a wet site.  Planting them on a slight slope would be the ideal location. Get Peony stakes and set them up as early as possible in order not to have the stems to bend when they are growing up.  The stakes avoid blooms toppling over.
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When to Plant
Most of the peonies are sold in the springtime and they bloom in May or they’re in flower and the garden centers show them. You have two choices.  Either you can keep it in the container and hold it until fall.  Best is to dig a hole in the future location, place the container in and surround it well with soil.  Don’t overwater - but also don’t let it go dry for long periods of time.
Or - if you really want to plant it into the ground, don’t disturb the tiny feeder roots.
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With the right selection of peonies, you could have them flowering five to six, maybe even seven weeks, depending on the season and the Peony types.  And if you do a good job of preparing the planting site, the peony is going to be there for a long time. 

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How to Grow Your Own Mushrooms

Are you unhappy about high prices for grocery mushrooms? Why not become more self-sufficient and grow your own Champignons, Portobellos, Oyster or Shitake mushrooms! Only Porcinis cannot yet be cultivated in the garden.


Finished cultures
Prepared cultures are the easiest way to cultivate mushrooms. It is particularly suitable for beginners, or mushroom friends, who would like to try cultivation. The finished mushroom cultures consist of a substrate block of sawdust and some additives - all in all for approx. 10 - 30 dollars.

Follow the Instructions!
Don't worry, it's easier than you think!  Usually, the substrate block simply has to be cut or cut open. Sometimes, however, it can also be removed completely from the bag. For some mushroom types, the soil has to be mixed in.  Through contact with oxygen, the fungus growth is stimulated.  The block is set up at 10 to 20° C in the house or garden. It is important to moisten it regularly. The bale should not dry out. Don't place it in full sun! The first mushrooms can often be harvested after only four weeks. Sometimes, however, it takes up to 12 weeks.  Depending on how large the substrate volume is, up to three further harvests can follow.

Mushroom Brood
Mushroom spawn is available in different forms, depending on whether you want to grow it on wood, straw or various substrate mixtures. The so-called grain brood is very popular. The mushroom netting is spun around grain or millet grains.  These organic nutrients are the food basis of mycelium.  The advantage of the grain brood is that it can be mixed very well under substrates. In addition, the culture can be easily packed in cans or bags. Grain spawn is particularly popular for professional mushroom cultivation and the inoculation of strains.  The substrate brood uses fermented, marbled straw flour, straw chaff or simply sawdust instead of grains.

Generally, straw bales or soaked straw pellets are larded with it.  The mass is simply broken up, for example into nut-sized pieces, which must, however, be streaked with mycelium.

Mushroom brood should be used quickly after purchase or delivery. However, at temperatures between 2 and 12° C it can be kept for several weeks or months. The lower the temperature, the longer the shelf life. It is important that bacteria or mold spores do not come to the brood at any time. Therefore, it is safest to always wear disposable gloves when handling the fungal brood. If infected with any pathogens, the entire brood can die.

Straw Bales
Mushroom cultivation on straw bales is best suited for oyster mushrooms and brown caps. It is also suitable for rose mushrooms and lime mushrooms. This type of cultivation does not work with other mushrooms. A rod or grain brood is used.

A pressed, untreated straw bale is used for this mushroom cultivation.  Wheat straw or barley straw is the most suitable.  The bale must not be too old, maximum one year, not older. It is important that nothing is damp and there is no mould. For the beginner, the size of 50x50x100 cm is completely sufficient.

The best time to start breeding is in April or May. The bale is soaked for two days in a rain barrel, an old bathtub or another sufficiently large and suitable container. Clear tap water is used. Then the bale has to drain for a whole day. It must not be too wet. More preparation is not necessary. Now the rod or grain brood can be spread.

• Drill holes in the bales with a planting wood, distance about 20 cm
• Put the brood in the holes, at least 15 cm deep
• Close the holes again

Once the entire bale has been provided with larvae, it is covered with a foil. The film increases the humidity and provides the mycelium with ideal growing conditions.  It is even better to wrap the whole bale with foil. Lack of oxygen promotes mycelium growth. However, watering is a bit laborious.

Optimal growth conditions for the mycelium offer temperatures between 20 and 25° C, with constant humidity

After 5 to 6 weeks the bale is penetrated by the mycelium. The straw must now always be kept moist, but never too wet. If everything goes according to plan, a fine web will appear after about 3 weeks.  Already three weeks later can be harvested for the first time.

Usually, there are 2 to 3 further harvests, always at intervals of 3 to 4 weeks, but this also depends on the weather.  Thus, about 6 kg of mushrooms can be harvested from one bale.  After that, the straw is exhausted and can no longer provide food for the mycelium.

Mushrooms Harvest on the Balcony
If you don't have a garden, you can grow mushrooms on the balcony. You can use pots filled with straw pellets. The pellets must also be moistened in a larger container and swell until they fall apart. Then water is added and stirred until a pulp is formed. The substrate brood is evenly distributed in this.

The mass is distributed in pots or other vessels which must have a water outlet at the bottom and which are sealed with foil. They are left standing for 6 to 10 days, preferably not too light, rather shady. During this time the mixture ferments. Make sure that the mixture is moist but not wet. Excess water must be able to drain off. Do not use a coaster. After four to six weeks you can harvest for the first time.

Mushrooms are not only low in calories and fat but are rich in B vitamins, as well as other nutrients that can improve our skin and help us feel less tired, according to health experts.

Happy Growing : )

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Glyphosate in Protein Products on Amazon

Glyphosate Discovered in Top Selling Organic Pea Protein Products on Amazon
The results shocked us all - USDA Organic certified pea protein powder products had high levels of glyphosate in!


The Highest Levels of Glyphosate:

- ORGAIN Organic Protein™ Plant Based Protein Powder – Natural Unsweetened


- Anthony’s Pea Protein (84% Protein) from Germany

The Detox Project has been promoting the gold standard testing of human and food samples from around the world for the last 5 years and we are now using this expertise to increase transparency for consumers everywhere. The project has also proven how they can help brands clean up their supply chain!

Read more:
https://detoxproject.org/reports/

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The Botanical Garden in Mobile, Alabama

The Spring Hill area in the north-western part of Mobile, Alabama, is one of the most lovely parts of the city.  And right in this lush and hilly residential area is Mobile's botanical garden located. 

In March I had the pleasure to visit this over 100 acres of an extended treasure.  It’s a wonderful blend of cultivated areas and nature trails.  Best of all: Dogs on leashes are allowed in this lovely area.  Huge pines allow for welcoming shade and add acidic soil which is favored by the Azaleas and Rhododendron shrubs and trees.

How Camellias Came to Mobile
Wandering the woodland trails was especially delightful as the Camellia blooms were at its peak: from white to light pink into mauve, purple, and maroon. Camellias are believed to have first arrived from Europe through the Port of Mobile nearly 200 years ago.  But the inspiration for today’s K. Sawada Winter Garden really began in 1910 with the arrival of a Japanese immigrant.
Kosaku Sawada, fresh from horticulture school in Osaka, had journeyed to America with big dreams to start a small nursery in 1914 - growing a plant which is well known in his native homeland—Camellias!  Many years of painstaking work followed, during which Sawada said only a small number of seedlings from two separate years—1925 and 1931—produced flowers worthy of public distribution.

The Camellias’ “competition" is the Azaleas, who showed off with lovely color shades that went from yellow to light orange, copper, and into the pink color wheel.

Other Garden “Rooms”
Discover the Fern Glade, Fragrance and Texture Garden, Herb Garden, Japanese Maple Garden, Rhododendron Garden, and collections of hollies, magnolias, roses, and the perennials, as well as 27 acres of longleaf pine habitat.  You might spend a whole day in this lovely environment...

Lots of Events and workshops/classes are offered to garden enthusiast and those with a green thumb. Amazing: the fee to visit the garden is only $5.  Most botanical gardens charge three times this amount.

A pity only that I missed the plant sales which are taking place every Saturday morning from March 30-June 29, and then again in October. Maybe next year…

Best time to visit the Magnolia garden and the Rhododendrons is late February.
http://www.mobilebotanicalgardens.org/hours-and-admission/

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Organic Gardening vs Glyphosate - RoundUp

Last Fall this research shocked the Nation: Glyphosate in your breakfast cereal. Tests detected glyphosate in all 28 samples of products made with conventionally grown oats by General Mills (Cheerios), Quaker and Pepsico.

Cheerios, Peanut Butter Bars, or Granola Oats, Honey & Almonds, were some of the worst products with the highest concentration of glyphosate. One could also exclaim: “Want to kill your kids? Just feed them Cheerios.”

I am wondering when EWG will test California wines: I spent a couple of months in the Napa and Sonoma valley and have seen them constantly spraying their vineyards with RoundUp. American soil is soaked with Glyphosates…

https://www.ewg.org/release/roundup-breakfast-part-2-new-tests-weed-killer-found-all-kids-cereals-sampled
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With the garden season now in full swing, here is a reminder for gardeners and commercial “landscapers”:

In the journal “Scientific Reports”, the researchers say they saw “dramatic increases” in several pathologies affecting the second and third generations. The second generation had “significant increases” in testis, ovary, and mammary gland diseases, as well as obesity. In third-generation males, the researchers saw a 30 percent increase in prostate disease – three times that of a control population. The third generation of females had a 40 percent increase in kidney disease.

Skinner and his colleagues call this phenomenon “generational toxicology” and they have seen it over the years in fungicides, pesticides, jet fuel, the plastics compound bisphenol A, the insect repellant DEET, and the herbicide atrazine. At work are epigenetic changes that turn genes on and off, often because of environmental influences.

https://sustainablepulse.com/2019/04/23/glyphosate-causes-serious-multi-generational-damage-to-rats-new-wsu-research/

What Can You Do as a Gardener?

Never, ever, use any glyphosate products, such as RoundUp or the Weed b’ Gone. Pour boiling water over any weeds cropping up in your driveway. Do it on a hot and dry day, and they will die in minutes.

Weeds in the lawn can easily be dug out. And Dandelions are edible: their leaves are very tasty, mix them in your salad. Make Dandelion wine from the blooms and roast the roots as a vegetable side dish.

Way healthier than breakfast cereal or Granola Oat bars...

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Iconic Tree of the Southern States

My second-most admired tree in the southern States of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Lousiana are the "Bald Cypress". I discovered this tree during a walk in a residential area in Florida, and the owner gave me its name.  When googling it, I realized that these are the legendary “swamp trees” in countless photographs I have seen before.

It’s hard to mistake the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) for any other tree. These tall conifers with flared trunk bases are representative for the Florida Everglades and Louisiana - where it is the State Tree.

They prefer to grow in swamps and bayous of the southeastern United States from Maryland to Texas.  You will notice them later in the year for the beautiful russet-red fall color of its lacy needles.

These trees can also thrive in drier, upland soils in plant hardiness zones 4 through 9 - if watered well.  The soil should be very acidic, moist and sandy. Irrigate regularly.  Its delicate, feathery foliage is sage green when new, turns to copper-gold in autumn and then falls with the first frosts, leaving the tree "bald."

It is a large, slow-growing, and long-lived tree. It typically grows to heights of 35–120 feet (10–40 m) and has a trunk diameter of 3–6 feet.  Plant them at least 50 ft apart if you plan a group to allow “air” between the trees.  The tallest know specimen can be found near Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, with a height of 145 ft. The oldest known living specimen, in Bladen County, North Carolina, is over 1,620 years old.

Bald Cypress Shade trees are available in Nurseries and garden centers, starting at ca. $70 for an 8 gallons pot. It might grow from 1 to 2 ft per year in favorable conditions.
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Teo Spengler from SFGate explains how to grow them from seed - if you have patience:
Harvest bald cypress fruits on the ground beneath the tree in autumn. Look for round cones that have not opened. Store them in a warm location to dry for several weeks.

Break the cones into small pieces, each containing one or more seeds. Separating the seeds from the sappy cone segments is very hard, but you can plant them together.

Fill the bottom one-half of a plastic bag with wet sand. Place the seeds and cone pieces into the bag with the sand. Store the bag in a refrigerator for two to four months at a temperature between 30 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Fill a planting tray with wet sphagnum moss. Remove the plastic bag from the refrigerator, and take the seeds and cone pieces from the plastic bag. Sow the seeds and cone pieces in the wet sphagnum moss. Press each seed and cone piece until it is 1/2 inch below the surface of the moss. Sow 10 seeds for every one tree you wish to grow. The germination rate for bald cypress seeds varies greatly. Saturate the moss with water, but do not flood the seeds. Maintain the wet condition of the planting medium until the seeds germinate, which generally takes one to three months.

Read more here:
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/propagate-bald-cypress-68246.html

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Tropical Plant Curcuma - the New Garden Star

Curcuma is an eye-catching perennial with a tropical feel. It pairs nicely with other tropical plants, like hibiscus and elephant ears. The plant prefers plenty of water so it would be a nice companion planting on the same watering schedule as the elephant ear.

The name comes from the Sanskrit kuṅkuma, referring to turmeric. Turmeric has been used in India since ancient times as a substitute for saffron and other yellowish pigments.

For garden planting, choose a location that has a fertile, moist soil with good drainage that receives a little early morning sun or bright filtered shade all day.  Tubers should be planted about 1.5'' (4cm) deep and completely covered by soil to remain moist for good sprouting.  Optimal temperature is between 20-30 degrees Celsius.

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Winter Care of Curcuma in Cold Climates
Costa Farm’s website gives this advice: “If you live in a cold-winter area, you’ll need to bring your Curcuma indoors to protect it from the chilly conditions. Curcuma needs to go dormant, so you can’t treat it like a houseplant. Rather, you’ll need to store the tubers in a cool, dry place."

"For Curcuma planted in the ground, carefully dig the tubers in fall, when the plant’s foliage begins to turn yellow. Gently clean loose soil from the tubers, then let them dry in a warm, sunny place for a day or so. Once the tubers are dry, store them in a container with coarse sand or peat moss. Don’t seal the container -- let it breathe. It’s best to store Curcuma tubers in a cool place (50F/10C) over winter. You don’t want the tubers to completely dry up over winter, sprinkle just a small splash of water in the sand/moss periodically."

For Curcuma in pots, you can stop watering the container once the foliage starts to go yellow. Let the potting mix dry, then store the entire pot in a cool place (50F/10C) for winter. Sprinkle just a bit of water in the pot a couple of times over winter so the tubers don’t completely dry out. Bring your Curcuma back outdoors to a shaded or partly shaded spot in spring after all danger of frost has passed.

See Beautiful Curcuma Plants in this Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5K_5u6aDgA

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Winterberries - a Splash of Color in the Darkest Time of the Year

On my yearly pilgrimage to sunnier shores, I enjoyed the lovely colorful shrubs before leaving Nova Scotia, Canada. Then I met them again everywhere around the Appalachians and then - o wonder - in NW Florida.  They can be seen in gardens and in the wild.  In December they are perfect for attractive winter bouquets, mixed for example with dark-green Pine or Boxwood twigs.
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Ilex verticillata – the American winterberry – is prized as an ornamental plant in gardens for the midwinter splash of bright color from densely packed berries.  Winterberries grow from Hardiness Zones 4 to 9 in the Eastern part of North America.

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Winterberries are easy to grow, with very few diseases or pests. In July they are showing white blooms. Berries appear from November on.  Although wet acidic soils are optimal, the winterberry will grow well in the average garden.  Important: At least one male plant must be planted in proximity to one or more females for them to bear fruit.  For best color impact, plant five or seven shrubs in a group in your garden.