UK gardeners: No peat for you!

Peat bog in Scotland (Shutterstock)

If you love your garden, you really cant just abstain.

Thats what the delightfully named Brit celeb gardener Bob Flowerdew says about a life without peat moss. As reported in the New York Times yesterday, the public, private, and industrial use of peat in Great Britain could completely disappear by 2030. The government is acting according to the advice of a task force of experts, whoalong with environmentalists worldwidefeel that peat bogs are too important as habitat and carbon storage to be emptied out for the sake of potting media and soil additives. The task force issued a long andoccasionallystrangely worded reportthat could probably be boiled down to this 4-word excerpt: Sustainability is not easy.

And Id have to agree. But not because of any need for peat moss, at least as far as my gardening requirements are concerned. I, like most home gardeners, can get along without peat moss just fine. The larger horticulture industry is another matter, as the task force admits. It proposes a lengthy step-by-step phase-out (this is the one with the 2030 target) that includes funding the research and development of sustainable growing media.

What I like about all this is how seriously the Brits are treating the issue. The task force included every possible element of the hort industry (not just wild-eyed environmentalists). There were nurseries, flower growers, food growers, andof coursegrowing media producers, such as our friends at Scotts Miracle-Gro, and others.

Despite all the careful deliberation, and despite the 29-page report, however, the British reaction was tumultuous enough to warrant a front-page news story over here. Is there really no other media capable of nurturing seeds and hard-to-grow plants? Hard to believe.

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Vegetables Should Taste Good!

The New York Times ran a piece this week about the results of federal legislation mandating healthier school lunches beginning this year. Because of Puritanical restrictions on fat and salt, the healthy food has no flavor and many kids are just rejecting it.

Monica Eng of the Chicago Tribune has also done fantastic reporting about the insanity that is lunch in the Chicago Public Schools. (Eng is everything a food writer should beactually expending shoe leather talking to the cafeteria lunch ladies and the students.) Chicago regulations prohibit adding any salt to vegetables, when, of course, as the story I linked to points out, the vast majority of salt in our diet comes from processed foods, not from a pinch of salt added to something made from scratch. There is an additional irony in that the Chicago approach to healthy eating occurs in schools that generally lack kitchens that allow for the preparation of fresh foods. Its all reheat-only.

So the kids throw their lunches out or eat out of vending machines. Talk about counterproductive!

If you want kids to eat vegetables, heres a hint: They should taste good.

Our experience at the Lake Avenue Elementary School Garden Project is entirely different. We not only garden with the kids, we cook with themand seriously! For example, faced with the worlds most beautiful green cabbage in early September and hot weather that suggested it would soon rot and be eaten by slugs, we made pierogi with itnamely, smoked pork and cabbage pierogi, as well as potato, ricotta and cheddar pierogi. We grew the potatoes, too.

This was the opposite of a low-fat, low-sodium meal. Serious amounts of sour cream, pork fat, and butter. But it was delicious! And a lot of kids who never particularly liked cabbage before now like cabbage.

In fact, we find that the kids in our increasingly popular club will eat almost ANYTHING they grow and cook. And I am including beets and bitter eggplants. My partner Carol Maxwell and I always make sure that the recipe is delicious. We are both food people without any fear of bacon fat or cream, olive oil or sea salt, and she is truly a kick-ass cook who expands my horizons as well as the kids.

But the truth is also that the vegetables that come out of our garden are so delicious in themselves, that the kids will eat them without prodding.

My feeling is that until you have tasted locally grown or homegrown vegetables, you have never tasted a vegetable. So healthier school lunches made with tired sad produce shipped all the way from California, or frozen or canned vegetables, are probably not enticing.

Look, institutional cooking is hard. I understand that. But many of us live in places surrounded by superb local farmers. I would bet that if you tapped that resource, as my school district does, and gave the Food Service people wider creative latitudeand kitchens they could cook inhealthier eating would move out of the realm of theory and policy and into kids lives.

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The Great Potting Soil Debate

For the last several years Ive written a series of articles for Garden Chic magazine (a business magazine for owners of independent garden centers) in which I call up owners of independent garden centers and ask them a whole bunch of questions about how they promote organic gardening. As the owner of a retail business myself, Ive always found these conversations to be fascinating. It doesnt matter whether youre selling used books or new plantssome things about retail just never change.

One thing that always amazes me about these interviews is how fanatical people can get about potting soil. These garden center owners really sweat the decision over what potting soil to carrythey run side-by-side trials, they survey their customers, they scope out the competition. Most of them seem to have one brand that they absolutely swear by, and a couple others that they carry to please the non-believers.

Ive never been much of a container gardener myself (What? You want a drink of water? Get it yourselfIm busy!) but this year I remade part of my garden and turned it into a really cool hangout space that is all about the containers. (Ill show you pictures soon.) And guess what? Suddenly, potting soil became a BIG issue in my life.

Im a big believer in shopping locally, and luckily, the FoxFarm Soil & Fertilizer Company is located right here in town. They make a super-ultra premium potting soil called Ocean Forest, and a more affordable version called Happy Frog. Both have all kinds of good stuff added, like worm castings, bat guano, fish and crab meal, etc. etc. So I used a little of both in this new garden Ive been working on.

What about you? Is there a potting soil you absolutely insist on using? And if so, whyis it because its cheap, convenient, or just really awesome? Is money any object in the quest for the perfect bag of black stuff?

Via: The Great Potting Soil Debate

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The Gardens of San Miguel

Theres one garden in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico thats known to residents and visitors alike and its El Jardin right in the center of the Colonial city. Whats interesting and even iconic about this city park is the way the trees are pruned into always-perfect flat spheres. Here you see them behind Miss San Miguel in the recent Independence Day Parade. (On my visit I was disabused of the notion that Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day apparently thats only celebrated in the States. South of the border, September 16 is the day.)

To see the trees from above, click here. Very cool!

In an upscale part of this upscale town I found some dramatic plantings adorning shops.

As in so much of the world, the beautiful private gardens here are behind walls. Frustrating! But I got to see a few private gardens, like the interior courtyard of my sisters home, shown below.

From her hillside home I could see down into some pretty nice gardens, shown above and below.

These last photos hint at the splendor of the three villas where my nieces wedding took place, and most of the guests stayed. Though theyre humbly called casas, these 5-million-dollar estates are anything but. Theyre owned by Houston oil families.

To see what this high-altitude part of central Mexico might have looked like before it was developed, check my photos of its mostly-indigenous botanic garden.

Via: The Gardens of San Miguel

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Sunflower sutra

There is a climactic scene in the charming if strange independent movie Elvis & Anabelle. The lead male character, Elvis, a budding mortician, is about to commit suicide when he notices out his window that a field of sunflowers has magically burst into bloom outside his window. The sight revives his spirits, he makes one last effort to win back his love, and all ends well, pretty much.

Phytoremediation is one of the reasons sunflowers dominate in the Urban Habitat Project, a demonstration garden that is meant to revive some neglected and abused acres surrounding Buffalos Art Deco Central Terminal, a former train station that is gradually being brought back to productive use.

The sunflowers are joined by native perennials, fruiting trees and shrubs, bathouses, a wetland area, and other elements designed to provide habitat for birds, bees, and butterflies. Now a Registered Monarch Way station and a designated Bat and Pollinator Conservation Site, the area has long been hosting turkeys, foxes, weasels, blue herons, and, of course, deer. The UHP is the brainchild of local landscaper Dave Majewski, who intends to beautify a blighted section of Buffalo as well as educate the public and city officials that unmowed and natural does not mean hazard, dangerous, and eyesore. This is definitely the type of planting thatwere it to appear in the front yard of a middle-class suburban or urban (depending on neighborhood)might raise a neighborly outcry.

I enjoy the sunflowers and the whole planting. I am not even close to suicidal but walking through this site on a late September afternoon did revive my spirits.

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Adoptive Mothers on the Job

After much struggle, I have succeeded in getting some chicks into my coop. I picked up a box from the hatchery yesterday at the post office and was able to quietly, over the course of a few hours, stick 26 bantam chicks under the hot butts of two broody hens.

While one chick arrived weak and didnt make it, the rest seem to be doing well. The broody hens are extremely maternal, ready to peck anybody who tries to bother their chicks. My three other adult hens Ive shut into the coopI dont want any babies falling the three feet from the opening to the ground. They seem merely mesmerized by whats occurring.

I think hens really know their business when it comes to rearing the young.

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Landscape architects guide to your city coming soon

The American Society of Landscape Architects recently announced the launch of The Landscape Architects Guide to Washington, D.C. just the first of many across the country. Its an online, mobile-friendly guide to more than 75 historic, modern and contemporary designed spaces in D.C., with 800+ photos and expert commentary by 20 local landscape architects. It covers not just the usual touristy places but interesting sites in all parts of the city. Sixteen well planned tours, in fact.

Very cool! Itll be a great resource for our 19million annual visitors and for locals, too.

But the guide will serve another, more subtle purpose to elevate public understanding of what landscape architects actually do. As Adrian Higgins said, As with architects and engineers, much of the professions work is not apparent and deals with concerns such as circulation patterns and storm-water management and has focused increasingly in recent years on sustainable design.

One example of a designed space that isnt obviously designed is the stretch ofPennsylania Ave in front of the White House. It was closed to traffic after 9/11 and became the subject of an international competition to redesign it for pedestrian and First Amendment use while providing access to emergency vehicles and the whole inaugural migillah every four years. After the winner was chosen, dozens of planning agency meetings were needed to hammer out every imaginable detail from the exact varieties of American elms to the perfect slope of the street. I worked for that agency at the time and sat through every one of those meetings, so came to appreciate the often hidden hand of landscape architects in our lives.

Theres more about the Guide on The Dirt.

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Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

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Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

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Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

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Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

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Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

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Neighborscant live with em, cant kill em

Shutterstock images

If you want to appreciate the widest possible range of opinions about gardening, talk to gardeners about their neighbors. Because, you know, nobody really wants to admit that their neighbor might have the right idea (about anything), and most of us have had mild-to-medium plant-related disagreements with the property holders on either side. I was at a party yesterday, and one of the guests was regaling groups of us with a story about a shrub border, a tree that needed trimming and two neighbors. The right-hand neighbor needed the tree to be trimmedand then some shrubs were cut back as part of an overall tidying. I wont go into details, but the upshot was that the left-hand neighbor became so outraged over the way the shrubs bordering her property were trimmed that she called the police on my friend, the party guest. (The police declined to intervene.)

Trees andsometimesshrubs are by definition neighborly plants. They have no regard for property lines. We are living in fear of our elderly sugar maple causing massive damage to the house next door, given enough windy days, and recently had it severely trimmed in hopes that its benign and surprising presence in a tight urban spot can continue. And then there are property lines, the ones that you think you have and the ones that they think they have. Plants can be big players there. The whole notion of invasive takes on a micro definition.

And then there are the stories like this one, about how persistent complaints from neighbors almost caused an entire front garden to be eradicated by city bulldozers. Fortunately it had a happy ending.

Those of you living in the wide-open spaces, with maybe no neighbors for acres, might be feeling kind of smug right now. Not so fast. One of the reasons I think Buffalo doesnt need a High Line is the incredible variety of urban plantings I can see within half a mile either way from my front door. I see mini-meadows, formal shade plantings, cottage gardens bursting with color, even elegant hardscaping, depending on which block and which house it is. (The architecture is cool too.)

And if not for neighbors, what would we talk about at parties?

(By the way, one of my neighbors has called the police on me, but not over gardening.)

Via: Neighborscant live with em, cant kill em

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Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More

Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Weve long marveled at the amazing holding power of tendrils like those of cucumbers, but scientists have been unsure about what makes them twist. This very cool video employs time-lapse techniques and mechanical models to show us how. From NPRs Science Friday.

Just click that little play button. The video format is Quicktime, so doesnt look like the Youtube videos were used to.

Via: Unraveling the Mystery of the Cucumber Tendril

Read More