Phoenix Rising in the Old Dominion

Snowdrops blooming at River Farm two weeks ago

Spring is sprung! (at least that's what it looks like)

The grass is riz!

Virginia's where the action is!

Once, long ago and far away, the Clean Green blog rose up, too. Key pieces of information were being give out over and over (and over and over) again as people scrambled for scraps of paper and tired ball point pens. Handouts only go so far. People lose phone numbers. Would-be gardeners needed links and access to updated information related to their particular needs, and a blog seemed like the perfect destination. But that was then.

And this is now. Here in Virginia, who knows if there will be an audience at all, let alone what it might need. However, one thing gardening teaches us all is that the journey and the destination, though inextricably intertwined, are not always the same thing. The destination changes when you least expect it, but the journey requires your heart and soul at this very moment. So this blog will rise once more.

New street cred needed:

• volunteering at River Farm, headquarters of the American Horticultural Society
• joining the Virginia Native Plant Society,
• enrolling in the Virginia Master Naturalist training
• attending a series of training lectures sponsored by the Smithsonian’s garden branch.

Any one of the Smithsonian’s in-service training lectures could make a blog post in itself; they were fantastically instructive and inspiring. But first things first.

 Bees, Please. 

"Bees don't eat your plants!" says Sam,
pointing out that butterfly babies do.

Bet You Didn't Know This!

• Wild and agricultural plants were pollinated by our native insects without any help from European honeybees, pre-colonization; thank you very much!

•  European honeybees, unlike ours, living in colonies to produce masses of honey, needed a chemical (painful) deterrent to mammalian invasion. Our native bees' sting does not pack such a punch - no need. And very few allergic reactions, either.

• our native bees are mostly solitary creatures 

The Virginia Native Plant Society's focus for this year is pollinators. Native bees was the subject of the first program, and there was standing room only. Yay! Sam Droegge, a researcher with the Patuxent Wildlife Center gave an impassioned and humorous presentation describing some of our native bees and their habits and habitats.

The Xerces Society has a fantastic recently-new book out on how to understand and protect our native bees: Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting Native America's Bees and Butterflies. Buy it from Xerces, not Amazon.

The Lurie Garden in Millenium Park, Chicago

Designing for Public Spaces, Kathryn Gustafson
This Landscape Architect has worked on BIG gardens here and abroad. Cool to hear her broad visionary thinking process for garden design. She always researches what was on the site previously. In Chicago’s Lurie Garden, she placed a line on a diagonal through the site that represented a seawall once keeping the lake back from the city.

Considering the design of Princess Diana’s Memorial Garden in Hyde Park, she analyzed what made Diana so beloved by the public. Her conclusion: Diana’s gift was an ability to reach out to people coupled with willingness to let people in to her heart.  To express this Kathryn designed an oval-shaped stream with three bridges over it. The stream bed incorporates multiple textures representing periods of Diana’s life, the bubbly-champagne parts as well the rockier ones. Here’s a YouTube:   Diana's Fountain YouTube .

A practical reminder from Kathryn, “The public will always walk in a straight line unless you stop them!”

Crocuses were poking through the senescent forms of plants last week

The Highline, New York City
Patrick Cullina

When New York city decided to tear down the elevated tracks that once carried trains to and from the meatpacking district in lower Manhattan, something incredible happened. A nothing-short-of-miraculous coalition formed to preserve the tracks, plant them, and make them a walkway for pedestrians, who were not only elevated but elated. Most gardeners know the Highline story, but here is one irresistible vignette from Patrick, who was watching as a family enjoyed the trek:

Man is moving back and forth, back and forth between pathway and thicket of grasses where crickets are singing. He is clearly puzzled. Sees Patrick, and asks, "Where are the sensors?"

Patrick:  "What sensors?"
Man:      "The sensors that make the cricket sound!!"
Patrick:  "There are no sensors."
Man:       "No sensors?"
Patrick    "No sensors."
Brief pause, man scratches head.   "Oh. Well where do you get the crickets?"

And that's the end of the story, people! I ask you in the most philosophical way:

Where do YOU get YOUR crickets? And what can we do about it?

after 11 years in Florida, I packed a bulb fruitcake into the tiny square of dirt by our front door

Gardeners will do just about ANYTHING for their plants!

I'm on the driver's side door....

Tough love for a fig tree

How To Say Goodbye To A Garden

Saying goodbye to 2011 is easier than saying goodbye to my garden - after all, I only invested one year in 2011. The garden, however, received almost exactly eleven years of my attention. Eleven years of thinking, planning, digging, pulling, weeding, planting and learning. Not to mention wandering, daydreaming and solace-seeking. 

So how do you say goodbye to a garden?

Here's what I think. I think you have to take ritual final walk. Your walk may not be on your last day there, or your last actual look at your garden. But you decide: "This is my ending here. I will see everything. I will change nothing more. I will touch, smell, remember." Only then can you can let go, and walk on to the pathway beyond.

And so, I remember - when the St. Augustine grass came right up like flat, green, shag rug  to the front door, with no bees or butterflies, or anything else to welcome us.

Native flowers and ferns, part of the  results of the mini-gardens from previous post

I try, try, try to remember the fragrance of a fiddlewood blossom, because nothing in the world is as gently light and sweet as a fiddlewood in bloom.

Citharexylum spinosum, otherwise known as fiddlewood

I seek out my friends, and wish them fare well. 

I remember how long it took to learn, first, how to spot a skipper, and second, to have the patience to photograph one.

Gulf fritillary munching on coral honeysuckle

One of the skippers on a firebush, Hamelia patens

I remember when a friend gave me six little  green stems, and slowly but surely, with no help of any kind aside from sporadic weed removal, they covered a wide patch of ground. This is the Florida peperomia, Peperomia obtusifolia, endangered in Florida now. 

I think you have to cry just a little.

Goodbye, Red Cedar.

When you have walked all the way through the garden, when you have remembered the successes, and the failures, then you need to  remember that there is still so much to learn. You will never know everything about gardening. What would be the fun of that anyway? So now it's time to hold your memories tightly, say goodbye softly, and walk on through, through to the path beyond, where new plants will need you somehow, even you don't ever have a new garden of your own to move into.

Coffees, ardisas, stoppers filling in where we used to have to mow grass. So many birds, caterpillars, bees and other beings live here now. A little window to look out from...

This is the last Clean Green from Florida, where the last five months have been consumed by selling a house, finding a new one, and moving, with all the et ceteras that involves. Now even though I have no yard, I am already learning new plants in Virginia. I am member of FNPS and VNPS!!

I look forward to planting and conserving in 2012.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, PLANT LOVERS EVERYWHERE!

A SuperBowl - of Natives!

Jane Thompson, out at Indian Trails Native Nursery has come up with this amazing Super Bowl, and I am so excited to share the news! Jane has invented a  Super way to get a mini, native garden, instantly. You will be able to :

• know what and where the plants are - no scratching your head,"is THIS the coreopsis?"
• skip the weeding 
• have blooms right when and where you want them
• bring butterflies to your limited outside planting area

Here's what Jane says:

I want customers to place orders before they come out, so the bowls are made fresh. When they order, they will have a list of wildflowers to choose from. "Custom built!" (How cool is that?! You can see the list if you scroll down below the big image at the bottom.)

The bowls are suitable for starting all year long right here in Palm Beach county. They can be used in full or part sun depending on species selected.  I can help people choose the right plants when they tell me about their spot.

Coreopsis

 Bowls are built for Moist or Dry conditions and can be customized to reflect different plant communities. For example if someone lives over near the beach and they want a patio bowl there, I would recommend: Beach Dune (blanket flower, verbena, dune sunflower, and a couple of sea purslane). My favorite mix for the 18" bowls is: Salvia, Blazing Star, Blanket Flower and a couple of Coreopsis for dry and Twinflower, Macromaria, Blue Flag Iris and a couple of blue eyed grass for moist.

I can also make a "succulent" bowl with a combination of prickly pear, coontie and spanish bayonet w/ perhaps a trailing purslane to cascade over the edge. (ooohh - I want one of those!)

Herb bowls are in the works. I have mint, basil and dill growing for those who would like a mini herb garden.

Directions will be included. You will know when to cut back spent flowers. And then you can  toss out them into an area of your yard where you would like to see them reseed. Watering tips will be discussed. Each bowl will last for up to a year on your patio,  or, you can them plant directly into the ground! There is a list for you to choose from if you scroll down below the large image of the poster.

 So give Jane a call (561-641-9488) and plan your custom-built native garden today! Indian Trails is out just west of 441 in Lake Worth; yes, it's a trek out there, but make it a destination! Jane has a beautiful demonstration garden, you could go on down to visit the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge, or head into the town of Lake Worth and treat yourself to lunch with some friends. And of course, Indian Trails also has a huge selection of native plants for your landscape. 

The Nitty Gritty!

Soil: Composted yard Waste

Mulch: Shredded Australian Pine Trees

Plants: Florida Native and Florida Friendly plants

Yes, yes and yes!

18" bowls 5 1g plants $25

14" bowls 3 1g plants $20

12" bowls 3 4" plants $15

~Native Plants for Florida's Wildlife~

6315 Park Lane West, Lake Worth, FL 33467

561-641-9488 fx: 561-641-9309

Certified Minority Business Enterprise

DPI:04723384

List of plants to order from depending on availability:
Salvia (assorted colors)
Twinflower (moist or dry)
Milkweed (non-native)
Blue Eyed Grass
Dune Sunflower
Blazing Star
Coontie
Scorpion Tail
Spiderwort
Sea Purslane
Tapa Verbena
Golden Creeper
Sea Oxye Daisy
Southern Wood Sage
Lyre Leaf Sage
Porterweed
Coreopsis (Moist or Dry)
Native Boston Fern
Gopher Apple
Ambrosia
Mimosa Strigalosa
Prickly Pear Cactus
Spanish Bayonet
Blanket Flower
Wild Petunia
Silk Grass

Drought Tolerant Natives

Dry weather has the growing season in a kind of state of suspension right now. Usually our plants are reaching skyward by now, but this year they are curling inward and looking kind of crispy. Even some of the native plants look like they would really like a drink. I was interested to make a comparison-walk through the yard today to see which natives were the toughest in these dry conditions. Here's what I found.

The usual suspects were completely unfazed, as you might guess: cabbage palm, saw palmetto, cocoplum, both upright and horizontal, Simpson's stoppers, wax myrtle, myrsine, firebush, and of course, beach dune sunflowers. The dunes, Helianthus debilis, are blooming their heads off, a solid mass of color, even the new ones put in only a few months ago. These have had absolutely not one drop of supplemental water. For one thing, I have been gone! 

Hackberry tree

There were other natives that I might not have predicted would hold up so well, like this hackberry, Celtis laevigata. This tree was planted at the end of the summer last year, so it has not yet been through a rainy season, an event I usually wait for when I am deciding whether or not a plant needs supplemental watering. The hackberry is a great wildlife attractor; yellow-bellied sapsuckers especially like it, and it is a larval host for several butterflies.

Locustberry, Byrsonima lucida, another favorite plant that is not so well-known, (covered with pink flowers in spring) is also oblivious to the fact that it is living in an extreme drought. Same with the Walter's viburnum, Viburnum obovatum, Dahoon holly, Ilex cassine, and my one Ironwood tree, Krugiodendron ferreum, which is just a baby yet. The Florida privets, Forestiera segregata:green and happy; ditto pignut hickory, Carya glabra, (I urge you to plant more of these trees which provide mast, fancy word for nuts, for wildlife). The acacias, Acacia farnesiana, check, check, green and happy. The live and laurel oaks, Quercus virginiana and Q laurifolia both mature specimens AND  newer, young trees appear unaffected. 

Coral honey suckle growing on fence

 The lovely coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens. This plant blooms heavily in summer, and sporadically in the colder months, but is attractive to many butterflies and to hummingbirds. Drought apparently no problem. I checked: this anecdotal evidence backed up by real books.

Ilex glabra, or inkberry

Here's a another tough, tough native you may not know about,

Ilex glabra, commonly called inkberry, or sometimes, gallberry. Just look at the berries this thing is producing, and it has not had a drop of rain in literally months. I do love the little miracles! This bush will slowly colonize, but this has not been a problem - it is not rampant.

Starry rosinweed blooming despite drought

 Starry rosinweed, Silphium asteriscus, has, like the beach sunflowers, continued to put out flowers despite the heat and drought. Rufino Osorio, in his book, A Gardener's Guide to Florida's Native Plants, says this is "yet another overlooked native with much horticultural potential. It is tough, long-lived perennial, that, throughout a prolonged period, bears large, highly attractive yellow daisies..." I had heard a lot of praise for this flower, but finally had the chance to purchase some early this year. I watered it in when I planted it, but it bloomed during the time I have been absent from the home front. It has certainly lived up to its descriptions of glory!

Carolina jessamine growing on pond cypress

Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, (sempervirens means "always green") is another toughie. It has already bloomed for the year, but has continued to grow greenly and spread....You can see that I have whacked it. I don't ordinarily go for the poodle-top look, but this vine can be aggressive. I have heard, and choose to believe, that a very heavy, thick vine can be a liability to a tree in high winds, as well as having the potential to inhibit photosynthesis by smothering. Interesting side note: this pond cypress, which grew here by itself, is nowhere near a wet spot. I always wondered about that, but learned recently that pond cypress can adapt to living with wet feet, but it is very happy in on dry land.

Coonties sending up new leaves after scale attack

Coonties, Zamia pumila, ( there are several 
synonyms for pumila among them angustifolia, floridana and integrifolia) of course are doing fine. But I thought this was noteworthy: these coonties got a case of scale this spring. Never had it before, it didn't spread to any of the other coontie stands in the yard, but it was awful. I knew the proverbial advice was to "just cut it down to the ground." Hated to do that, but the scale was killing the leaves off anyway, and I certainly wasn't going to use pesticides. That was about six weeks ago. I watered once, just after I cut it down, once, and look at this fantastic lime-green growth! Zounds!

Well thanks for taking a walk with me; I always feel happy when I'm out with the natives, and it was fun to have you along. 

OK, one plant for the road,Tillandsia fasiculata. Drought? Huh?

Tillandsia fasiculata, cares not about drought

 Want to buy some of these?
http://www.plantrealflorida.org/plants/detail

Want to learn more about any of them?
http://www.floridata.com  
http://www.regionalconservation.com
http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/

Native plants do add life to your landscape. And to mine, too!

Clean Green Vegetables

The heaping mounds of knee-high weeds are gone. Finally. 

I paid the ultimate price for the last year's summer of absence, but progress has been made! 

Vegetables by the square foot

I decided that since time is at more of a premium than ever, I would give a try to the Mel Bartholomew method of raised-bed, square-foot gardening. His book contains formulas for how to build a raised bed in multiple shapes, how to create your own soil for filling the beds and, of course, how to partition the beds into sections of one square foot each to maximize growing area. 

He suggests that the planting medium you create be made up of one third each of compost, peat moss, and coarse vermiculite. Vermiculite is sold in two grades, with the fine, or smaller type more commonly available. I had to search around for the coarse grade, but did find it at an independent garden center. 

I had a moral dilemma with the peat moss element, because it really is NOT a sustainable crop and harvesting kills off the life in the bog areas it comes from. The companies tell you that they leave the bogs in condition to re-grow, and they do re-grow; but it takes hundreds of years to return it to the life-giving source it originally was. Not only that, but the harvested bog also ceases to function at a high level as a carbon sink.

Coir is best alternative to peat moss. Coir is the name given the fibrous material that makes up the mesocarp, or middle layer, of the coconut fruit. As far back as 1949, E. Hume was writing about the benefits of this medium for growing. Several Dutch companies have been using it since the 80's and the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew is currently shifting most of its plant production into coir.

Coir comes mostly from Malaysia and Sri Lanka where it is a by-product. Sri Lanka processes over 2.5 billion coconuts each year and has built up an infra-structure that guarantees the most consistent quality of coir dust. It has to be free of contaminates such as animal manure and salinity. Alan Meerow, U. of Fl.,  has a very informative article: Coir Dust: A Viable Alternative to Peat Moss. An interesting read, it describes the production of coir, and the experiments that have been conducted comparing it to peat as a growing medium.

Anyway. I looked around for coir, and found some very small bags for sale in box stores, but not nearly in the quantity I needed. A fertilizer plant about an hour away from me had some, but you had to have three yards of it delivered by their trucks. That was not an option either. So I rationalized the purchase of two bales of peat, saying it would be my last ever, and also that I would compensate by blogging here about why we should not be using it. According to Bartholomew, once you have started out right, the only thing you ever have to add is compost. So I won't need to add more peat or coir to the project going forward.

Brocs are squishing the littles

I planted broccoli seedlings right after the first of the year, and we are eating them now. There is just nothing like garden fresh! I also have onions, planted according to Mel's rule of 16 little things to a square foot. Onions get big when they are mature, but I'm harvesting green onions from the crowded square to make room for the eventual grown-up bulbs.

The beds are as easy to maintain as Mel claims. The only complaint I have is that the big-leafed broccoli do not really mix well with smaller plants. Mel says you can intermix any plants if you stick to the rules about how many to put in each square. Broccoli gets one plant in each, but although each broccoli plant got enough light, the smaller things, like lettuce, basil and even peppers,  next to them could not compete equally for sunlight. Small detail to pass on to the next user!

So far, it's a great method, and I'm working extra hard on my compost so I won't ever need peat moss again. Latest trial along those lines: fire ants seem to like it there...the battle continues.

Eat Local, Plant Native.

sue dingwell

 

Red Berry Day at CleanGreen

Red berries.

I love 'em, you love 'em, the birds love 'em. And this time of year there are plenty of them around in a native-happy yard. It was bright and sunny yesterday so I went on a red berry hunt, interested to see how they compared in photos.

The two coffee bushes, Psychotria nervosa and Psychotria ligustrifolia, both had berries. Here is the ligustrifolia, also called 'Bahama coffee." It really is a Florida native, despite its name, just the Jamaican caper is.

Psychotria nervosa was also loaded with berries; note the deeply impressed veins on its leaves. This is a good way to tell them apart. They both are easy growers, but like to be in at least partial shade most of the day and also prefer to keep their little feet in a moist environment rather than in dry sand.

  This picture shows the form of the nervosa. The plant to it's right is a wax myrtle.

There is one more coffee, Psychotria sulzneri, know as the Velvetleaf coffee, and I don't have one, darn. I have seen them in natural areas, they have a distinctive blue green color, with, as you might guess, a lovely rough texture to the leaf. Rufino says they often grow together, the Velvetleaf and the nervosa. I'd like to have one, but they are not as commonly for sale. Good to have a mission...

Glory of the skies; here's one of the reddest of the red - a Dahoon holly, Ilex cassine. This tree had escaped the bulldozer somehow, when the folks who first lived here put in the house.

The Dahoon has an open canopy and is another plant that is easy to grow. It's also listed as a commercially exploited species by the Florida Department of Agriculture. So is protected and wild populations should not be disturbed. It is however, easy to buy from native sources.

There are other red-berried plants, as well, but this is the last one for today - the Florida privet. And when I stuck my head in to get a close up of the berries, look who I found. It's the little Hydra squirella. I wrote about him last time I stuck my head in a bush too, in a post about FNPS grant money. It never ceases to amaze me how many living creatures are in plain sight when you take the time and care enough to go looking. Good reasons to give them native plants to live in, right?

The Florida privet, Forestiera segregata is a relative of the privet so widely grown up north. Birds are especially fond of its berries. Here is a photo from after I removed my head, showing the branches The forestiera is a wonderful addition to a mixed hedge grouping, tolerant of a wide variety of soils and sun levels.

New Native Nursery!

Congratulations to Jeff Nurge and Susan Casamento who have just opened a brand new all-native nursery in Palm Beach County! What a happy day for natives, and for the folks who want to plant them! This is really exciting news! And don't you love the name? Native Choices! Yes!

Jeff tells me that they have registered Native Choice as a member of Association of Florida Native Nurseries, and their listing will appear in next year's Real Florida Gardener. 

Here in Palm Beach county we now have three all-native nurseries. Is that some kind of record? Indian Trails and Meadow Beauty have provided invaluable support to our local FNPS chapter outreach events through the years, and links to their addresses are over on the side bar, too. All three nurseries are owned by people who are knowledgeable, friendly, and passionate about natives.

Welcome to the retail world, Native Choice!