Worms soon to work at North Carolina Airport

Fertilize Locally just published a Post noting that worms will be used to produce organic fertilizer at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) next year.  The worm castings fertilizer will be used on site.




Authored by Dr. Kenneth Hughes,
Founder, Skolex Biotechnologies, Skolex Store

Need New Boots for Gardening?

Gardeners and landscapers typically make statements with plants, stones, and water.  Now you can make a statement with your boots.  

If you are in need of new garden footwear or just looking for a style change take a look at the boots available from The Boot Campaign,  a grass-roots effort started by five women looking to support our returning troops.

From their website, "The campaign provides an easy and tangible way for Americans to show appreciation for troops (both past and present), raise awareness of the challenges they face upon return and donate funds to charities supporting their transition home."

A recent post over at Fertilize Locally noted that our returning service men and women have strong ties to rural America and many look forward to joining the ranks of agricultural professionals around the US.

Expect to see this type of footwear making a statement at a farmers market near you.  I have made a request to Santa for my pair and I am sure you know a gardener who would appreciate both the boots and the opportunity to demonstrate support for our returning troops.

Authored by Dr. Kenneth Hughes,
Founder, Skolex Biotechnologies, Skolex Store

Thanksgiving for Menhaden

Today is Thanksgiving and for many that means turkey, pie, and other tasty treats.  It is also a time to tell a few popular US Thanksgiving stories.  

One popular story and accompanying imagery involves long tables of food where Native American Indians and Pilgrims feasted on the annual harvest.  While the sharing of a Fall harvest is quite reasonable to believe, the imagery of an enormous feast at a common table is almost complete fiction.

Another popular story told while munching turkey, stuffing, and corn muffins involves the Native American Indians teaching the Pilgrims to grow corn using fish.  This story begins with the fact that the Pilgrims had great difficulty growing the seeds they carried with them from Europe and were often on the edge of starvation when the dead of winter arrived.  

As the story progresses many historians believe myth and folklore begin to dominate.  After observing the desperate predicament that the Pilgrims found themselves in, the Native American Indians introduced them to corn and taught them to grow it by placing a fish and 2-4 kernels of corn (maize) into a small mound of soil.  Credit for teaching the Pilgrims the practice of fertilizing crops with fish is given to a multilingual Native American named Squanto.  Squanto, whose real name was Tisquantum, most likely learned the practice while in Europe as there is very little evidence that Native Americans actually used this method of fertilization (Lynn Ceci, Fish Fertilizer: A Native North American Practice? Science 4 April 1975; Vol. 188 no. 4183 pp. 26-30.).

No matter the origin of the practice or who actually participated in the technology transfer it was of significant importance to the Pilgrims survival.  The story typically ends here, but what about the fish?  The fish may actually be the true unsung heroes of the story.

Well, this Thanksgiving the Menhaden fish who were responsible for feeding the early settlers are getting both recognition and protection.  The  Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has agreed to place restrictions on the Atlantic seaboard harvest.  Details have been provided over at the Fertilize Locally Blog.

Every year billions of these small fish are net-caught and subsequently ground up into fertilizer, animal feed, and processed to obtain valuable nutritional supplements (fish oils).  While these fish are useful on land and in the garden they just may be more valuable actually in the waters of our coastal ecosystems where they help control algae and serve as a food source for large fish and birds.

This Thanksgiving take time to update your "Pilgrim" stories to note the important role that a small oily fish played in the history of America and if you use fish fertilizers take a moment to think about the source of that product.

To learn more about Menhaden fish and their importance take a look at the book by H. Bruce Franklin titled, “The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America.”

300 Pound Tiger Blooms in Brooklyn

If you are in the NY city area and looking for something to do inside during the next week, swing by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and check out the Tiger Orchid that is in bloom.  This is a rare event for the 300 pound orchid.

You can see high quality pictures at Flickr, "click" on the picture.



Authored by Dr. Kenneth Hughes,
Founder, Skolex Biotechnologies, Skolex Store

EPA Webcast Presentation on Nutrients in Ground Water

The EPA is providing a free webcast seminar on nitrates and phosphates in ground water.  These nutrients impact the quality of all water systems including your drinking water.  The webcast is tomorrow Tuesday, March 29, and should last 2 hours.  You can download presentation materials and follow along with the discussion on your computer.  You can sign up to listen for free with this link - EPA webast.  This seminar should provide you with the tools to help your neighborhood stop practices that lead to nutrient run-off.

This information is taken directly from the EPA registration site:
""Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution Series: Nitrate in Ground Water"

Join us for a webcast titled "Nitrogen and Phosphorus Pollution Series: Nitrate in Ground Water." This webcast will highlight an emerging issue of increased nitrate loading to ground water, a growing national concern. According to EPA’s most recent data, public water systems using ground water as a drinking source serve over 300 million people nationwide. The total number of people drinking ground water increases when factoring in households supplied by private drinking water wells. Ground water can become contaminated by nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous) leaching from the land surface into the ground water supply. In a September 2010 report, Nutrients in the Nation’s Streams and Groundwater, the U.S. Geological Survey monitored and documented nitrate levels above 10 mg/L, which is the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) set by the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations through the Safe Drinking Water Act, in over 20 percent of shallow household wells in agricultural areas. Additionally, from 1998 to 2008, the number of nitrate violations recorded at public water systems around the country has nearly doubled. Surface sources of drinking water are also at risk as, for example, stormwater runoff can carry nutrients directly to rivers, lakes and reservoirs – some of which are used as drinking water supplies. Capital costs to remove nitrates from public water systems or to provide alternative water supplies for individual households can be very high, with some communities spending millions of dollars. The webcast will provide a national overview of the nitrate in ground water issue and highlight a case study in Oregon’s Southern Willamette Valley. This webcast is a second in a series of Watershed Academy Webcasts on the impacts of nutrients on water resources."

Summer Holidays and Public Gardens

You may be starting to look at summer holiday and vacation plans. Here are a few suggestions.

We love to travel and no matter where the destination we always seek out and try to visit a public botanical garden. Sometimes while on the way we sneak a peek over the fence into a few back yards if there looks to be something interesting. Public gardens are cared for by a staff of dedicated professionals and usually a small well-trained army of volunteers. These gardens are a great source of inspiration and motivation for modifying your own landscapes. Your visit also provides financial support which is vital to their efforts and mission.

Horticulture Magazine's February/March issue has a good article on several US gardens and arboreta that are "more than just pretty places" as the title proclaims. These gardens are known for providing new plant varieties to the nursery trade each year. Visit them online at their site or on their Facebook page which is quite active.

If you will be traveling in the Pacific Northwest this summer or are just looking for a great place to visit, take a look over the border at Vancouver and Vancouver Island. You can take a beautiful 90 minute ferry ride between Victoria and Vancouver, and your car can go with you. Make a reservation if you are taking the car and get there on time.

While there are great Chinese and Thai restaurants and more shopping than you can imagine, there are also great Parks and gardens to visit. Stanley Park has gorgeous views and you can bop in and out as you wish. Also in Vancouver is the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This Garden is an authentic representation of a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) garden and the first of its kind outside of China. The term feng shui translates as "wind-water" in English and you will not find a better spot to absorb some ideas for your own landscapes.

One of my favorite gardens is however, on the Island. Butchart Gardens is just outside of Victoria and worth every minute that it takes on the ferry and in the car to get there. It has been a work in progress for more than 100 years and is known for its floral displays. It started out as an abandon quarry and was turned into a sunken garden that is truly spectacular. It will make you stop and ponder what you would do with a giant pit or give you ideas if for some reason you do have access to a pit. When you visit see if you can find the small waterfall.

In addition to this garden there are Japanese and Italian gardens and an extensive rose garden. There is family friendly food, shopping, and musical events throughout the summer. A map of the grounds is provided here.

Be careful though, a visit here may prompt your to start excavating your own back yard so that you too can have a sunken garden.

Safe travels.

Plants Hate Showers - Don't Do it.

Last week's Post generated several comments questioning the benefits of showers for indoor plants. I am not a believer.

It may not be "common wisdom" but houseplants hate showering (with or without you) and it's not just because they have been talking to the cat. Before you start shouting comments similar to those reserved for mid-western governors or North African dictators, hear me out.

For a long time people have recommended that one or more times a year you should collect your houseplants and either singularly (for the bashful plant) or in groups place them into the shower and let them have it. Drench them, saturate the soil and flush the container until... well until you think that the evil has been rinsed away. The wisdom behind this ritual is two-fold. Showering removes dust and dirt from plant leaves and flushes away salts that may have accumulated in the plant's root zone. Shiny leaves help the plant "breathe" better, and decreased salt in the root zone increases overall plant health and assists in water uptake. Clearly worthy goals, but is there a better way?

Before discussing the better way, let's look at the drawbacks to the entire showering process. The "common wisdom" assumes your pot has a drainage hole. If your pot does not have drainage holes you are in trouble, you will not be able to flush the soil from the top. Game over.

Picking up and moving potted plants can be painful. Pots filled with dirt and plants are heavy and you risk breaking the pot or expensive bathroom fixtures which most people wish not to be without, and hurting yourself when you attempt to carry them into the bathroom. Next, you need to use a mat or towel to protect the surface of your shower or tub. Rough pot bottoms and grit or small stones between the pot and your tub will scratch and damage the surface.

Now for the shower. We can all agree that it is common sense to use warm soothing water just like the plant would experience in the Utopian garden. OK, a bit of sarcasm for sure, but while this sounds great and is easily doable, how does one know when to stop the treatment? When the "juices" run clear? When to stop flushing remains a mystery to me and everyone else unless the soil is tested before and after to monitor progress. Clearly this is not practical.

More work may lie ahead.  Hopefully during the shower treatment dirt, small stones, and other solid material is leaving the container and washing down the drain and not collecting in the drain trap. If you are unlucky, you will be fishing rocks, dirt and a lot of nasty hair-goo out of the drain so the shower functions again.

If I had to guess, the last step in the showering ritual is the worst for plants. Once the water stops flowing they must now do time in the low light of the bathroom while sitting in soggy water saturated soil. The length of the sentence depends on how heavy the pot is now that it is saturated with water, the anticipated risk to carpet and floors from plant-leakage during the return "home", and of course your next scheduled shower.

Was it worth the effort? It is hard to really know. The leaves are shiny, but perhaps you flushed all of the water soluble nutrients, beneficial organics, electrolytes, and microorganisms down the drain. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater as someone once said. If you have a water conditioner that exchanges sodium for calcium and magnesium you may have made the root zone worse by increasing the soil sodium content. The point is that there really is no way to know if it was worth the effort.

There is a better way and this is simply to replace the potting soil in the pot. It is a dry method and can be completed right next to where the plant sits. Over time potting soil degrades and loses its structure resulting in a less than ideal environment for plant roots. Showering and flushing the soil will not regenerate or rejuvenate it. Experienced container gardeners replace container soils once every twelve to eighteen months.

Taking the time to replace container potting soil also allows you to address drainage issues by increasing the size or number of container holes and modifying the potting material to be more porous. It can also be a great excuse for swapping in a new more interesting pot or upgrading to a larger container that will allow the plant to reach its full potential. This is also a good time for inspecting the plants roots for disease and quality. As for the plant leaves, blow the dust off with a small air pump, the blower setting on your vacuum (reverse) if it has one, or wipe the plant leaves with a damp cloth. While this may take a bit more time the level of effort is much less.

Now for the best part of the no-shower method. You and your plant can have a fresh start. This is the perfect time to initiate a new plant care regime. The new regime can prevent salt build-up by using slow release organic fertilizers instead of synthetic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers such as worm castings and composts and teas made from these materials are excellent ways to provide both plant nutrients and beneficial microorganisms. A new water schedule can be set and low mineral water such as rain water can be used going forward. If you don't have rainwater available use a low mineral content tap or bottled water. Check the labels.

Challenge the common wisdom and forgo showers, at least for your plants.