An exuburant front vegetable garden

The filet pole beans are coming in now, as are the climbing squash (winter squash varieties). 

And, I've been harvesting tomatoes and early peppers for weeks now.  There are paste tomatoes, slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes -- hard to beat that, along with the ancho and romano peppers.

front raised beds

It's remarkable how healthy everything is looking -- no bean beetles (knock on wood), no powdery mildew on the squash leaves, no squash bugs or squash vine borers

Read More

Natural neighborhoods: re-knitting the fabric of life

What's interesting me now, especially, as I've transitioned to volunteer outreach, is how those of us who are keen and passionate about gardening for nature (especially with native plants in mind) can help reach more folks.

And even more importantly, how do we create neighborhoods that help sustain life, both ours and the birds, bees, toads, butterflies, squirrels, insects, etc. that support the ecological underpinnings of life on our planet.

a pollinator-friendly pocket meadow

I've seen lots of people gravitate to wildlife-friendly gardening from more "traditional" gardening practices (and from plants that don't work for a living in our environment to ones that do), as they realize that they don't have the biological diversity of birds, insects, and other wildlife in sterile, ornamental landscapes filled with lawns, specimen trees and ornamental shrubs.  But there's a lot to do in our urban and suburban landscapes...

How do we encourage more folks to become part of the process of re-knitting our urban and suburban landscapes with strong threads of native plants, pollinator and wildlife-friendly corridors made up of our personal home gardens?  How do we encourage similar plantings in public and commercial landscapes?

I'm not really sure.

I've been involved with teaching about these things for my entire career, and I'm still not always sure about what works the best, aside from inspiring through story and example, encouragement, and sharing ideas and suggestions. 

My basic level ideas simply start by encouraging folks to grow things, preferably native or edible, and learn more about them.

Read More

Landscaping with Native Plants

It's been a lovely couple of days at the Landscaping with Native Plants Conference in Cullowhee, NC.  Now in its 32nd year, the conference brings together native plant enthusiasts of all sorts, from horticulturists to academics, homeowners to designers, wonderful native plant vendors, and everyone in between.

I've been coming sporadically since the mid 80's, but have been here the last three years, as I've had more time in the summer (and my gardening companion has, too). And we've both been involved with programs, as well.

It's a great conference, and it's been wonderful to see how it's still flourishing, continuing to bring in new people interested in native plants in all of their guises (field trips to wonderful natural areas nearby is a core part of the Cullowhee experience).

Read More

A milkweed on the greenway

I'm thinking this is swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata.  I haven't ever bothered to really learn all of the milkweeds and their specific characteristics -- there are actually quite a few species out there, although only a few "in cultivation."

This one is along the Weaver Boulevard greenway in Asheville -- quite lovely. 

I admired the common milkweed at Beaver Lake again this morning -- covered in honey bees, flower flies, and skippers.

Read More

Planting pollinator gardens

There's an excellent new initiative, from a consortium of groups, from non-profits to garden groups, in association with the recent federal initiative around promoting pollinator plantings.

It's called the Million Pollinator Garden Challenge.

It's a good thing.

I "registered" my small landscape yesterday, which includes a pocket meadow and an informal perennial bed full of natives below the house (not to mention all of the native plants planted elsewhere).

It doesn't take much to transform a "traditional" perennial bed into a pollinator-friendly one.  But I'm feeling that we definitely need to encourage folks to do that, as well as transform lawns into life-supporting plantings.

I'm getting weary of seeing nothing but plants that just sit there, and don't "work for a living" in residential and commercial landscapes.

Read More

Nocturnal symphony

It's in full swing tonight, accompanied by fireflies. Crickets, tree frogs, and cicadas (or maybe it's the katydids) are LOUD.

I can hear them through the closed windows.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Read More

Integrated pest management in the edible garden

Squash borers: Take action before they do damage.

I ended up with some volunteer butternut squash vines from kitchen scraps buried in the garden. Normally, I would not be growing them during mid-summer, but we'll see how they do in our hot summer weather.

One action item is to bury the base of the stems and then again along the vine in several places. Then even if the borer moth finds a place to lay her eggs and her larval offspring hollow out the stem, the whole plant will not have to depend upon that one section of stem for water and nutrients. It will have alternative roots. You really really don't want to use any poisons around squashes because each female flower needs to be visited by 7 or more pollinators to ensure fruit production.

Bury the base of the squash stems with compost and mulch with pine needles to keep squash borer moths away.

Then bury the vine at several additional places along its length.

There were some big holes in my okra leaves.

A brown stinkbug. 

Okra pest

My husband and I love our fresh okra. Normally, there are a few holes, but the okra plants are so vigorous that we have not had to take any action. This year is different, because something was eating some good-sized holes in the leaves. The okra seems unfazed by the damage, but I decided to look for the culprit.

I turned over a well-chewed leaf and found a brown stinkbug. They fly, but they are not very fast, so they were easy to pick it off, throw to the sidewalk, and then step on them. Pee-yew... they really do stink. I found a few more (just one to a leaf) on this day and then again on the next, and the next. Now, I'm not finding any, but I'll keep looking.

We've had so much rain recently (8" in June) that it's not been necessary to do much extra irrigation, so my work to build swales between the okra was probably not necessary—at least not so far. You can read my article Okra Swales for more information on how and why I use this method. 

Some clearing out of the jungle

It's been several years since the wild area out in the front meadow has seen any attention. Normally that's fine with us, but for the last few days, my husband and I have been doing some moderate clearing. We work only in the early morning from about 6:30am to 9am. It's the catbriar (Smilax spp.) that gives us fits. To reduce future maintenance, it's important to dig up the tubers rather that just cut off the vines because those tubers provide the energy for more and bigger shoots. One of these days I'm going to clean up their tubers and make a batch of sarsaparilla. These tubers do have a slight peppery taste. There are 2 recipes in Peggy Lance's new book: Florida's Edible Wild Plants. We've been eating the soft young tips in salads for years, but the drink would be a new experience.

Our Backyard Habitat sign was dislodged from its tree as we pulled the vines from the trunk, so I scrubbed it off and rehung it. It's been nearly ten years since we've been certified. Read my post done at that time: Creating Backyard Habitat.

I was cleaning out some catbriar vines
and made sure to dig up the tubers.

I cleaned off my backyard habitat sign and rehung it
at the front corner of the lot so my neighbors can see it. 

Good night moonflower!

A sunrise on the banks 

of the St. Johns River

Good Night Moonflower

Good night moonflower.

As the sun is rising, 

And others wait to start their day,

You fold up your brilliant white petals,

That glow in the dark,

to attract your night-flying pollinators.

Daytime's here. Your work is done!

The saltmarsh mallows (Kosteletzkya pentacarpos) glow in the sunrise.

I hope you are having good summertime adventures in your yard and gardens.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

Read More