Gardens On The Rise - or Vertical Response to a Small Space

Gardens on the rise — the vertical rise that is.

Have you ever thought of gardening vertically? I hadn’t given it much thought this year when I planted gourds in one of my swans that swim around the concrete fisher boy gingerly perched on a stump. He fishes there year round, though there is no pond.

The gourds started their meandering search for where the sun they liked best was available. I watched daily as they started out toward the lawn area – and then detoured back up a side table by the park bench, and turned abruptly to check out the potted petunias on that small table. Sure enough this morning when I checked they liked the moist soil in the pot and had quickly set a tendril into the soil and the rest of the plant continued on toward the back of the park bench. There is a small tree (broken off in one of our wind storms) that affords shade to the park bench – some of the branches are precariously low to the arm of the bench. I’m waiting to see what direction the gourd will take next.

But it did give me pause. I have only a small vegetable garden area. I do make use of vertical growing most years. This year I planted bush squash so I don’t need to contend with the vines. I planted the pumpkins over in the flower bed around the windmill instead of flowers – they make a beautiful flower bed. I grow cucumbers up trellis or corn, I grow whatever I can on fences and plant smaller crops like leaf lettuce at the base to help conserve the evaporation of soil moisture and to give me more yield in a smaller area. I find that companion planting lengthens my season – even in the hot weather peas will continue to grow when roses and onions shade them on one side and beets and bush squash shade them from the other.

If you haven’t tried vertical gardening you owe to yourself to try. The plants stay cleaner, are easier to harvest, and more disease resistant because most harmful plant pests do not climb. The humming birds, butterflies, and bees are delighted with the advantage you afford them with vertical plantings. Try it next year.

Happy Gardening.
Billie

Lord of the Flies or Pollinators?

Pollinators
By Billie A Williams
“Time’s fun when you’re having flies,”
Lynn Havsall, Environmental Educator at the College of the Atlantic

For most of us, bees or butterflies are the only insects we think of when we think pollinators. Would you believe a much more prolific pollinator, the ordinary Diptera (fly) is really a contender? Some of them resemble bees so of course we attribute even that to the bee.

In a recent article in (July –August 2007) issue of Audubon Magazine an article on flies caught my attention. Apparently “… scientists recognize flies as key players in ecosystems, recycling carcasses, dung, and plant debris while themselves serving as vital food in the life cycles of many kinds of birds, bats, and fish. Some rival bees as pollinators of domestic crops. Other flies are powerful tools for helping geneticists unravel the nature of life, the police in solving violent crimes, or pollution control specialists in assessing the quality of our waterways.”

A tall order for such tiny creatures you say. Me too! Ogden Nash is credited with saying “God in His wisdom made the fly/And then forgot to tell us why.”

Reading the in-depth wonderful article by Frank Graham Jr. really gave me pause to think about flies in a whole new light. The family names boggle my mind and classing mosquitoes, dragonflies, damselflies in the same group as black fly, horse fly or blow fly boggles my mind. To tell them apart the four winged Dragonfly from the two winged bottle fly is simple when you read the names — those four winged critters have the fly attached to the name – the two winged have the fly separate from the name. J I feel so very clever knowing that.

The first four-winged insects appear in the fossil records dating back more than 350 million years. “The two-winded flies show up 215 million years ago, having evolved the tiny, clublike hind wings called halteres to make flight with the front pair more efficient.”

Another distinction is made regarding the type of antennae the insects have. The long variety such as the mosquito has or the short-horned flies like the house fly. While the mosquito has serious and lethal names to describe their various disease bearing qualities there are only a few flies with lethal characteristics. Contrary to folk entomology, the common house fly does not bite. His mouthparts are designed as sponge-like usurpers of liquefied meals. If you believe you were bitten by a house fly the perpetrator was probably the dreaded, but similar stable fly. The tiny midges (Chironomid midges) not the biting kind, are always present around water and thus become one of the most reliable barometers of the water’s quality.

I may have to enlist the blow files (sometimes called blue bottles, green bottles etc.) in my next mystery as they are the star witnesses when it comes to presenting evidence in court about the time of death of a victim. They are attracted to the corpse shortly after death. They lay their eggs in various body openings. The maggots hatch in a matter of 24 hours and feed internally, hastening decomposition. Entomologists are able to identify maggots that are present on a body and can gauge their stage of development in the contents of environmental conditions — establishing the time, place and successive whereabouts in the time before the body was discovered. Perhaps it was killed in one place and transported to another – the flies in one place (say shoreline) may not be consistent with the flies that would be found elsewhere (say a city dump).

There is some fascinating reading in this issue of Audubon and I may have to revisit it in the next article perhaps looking at the methane gas emitted by cows by burping, creating 18 percent of the greenhouse-gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

Visit http://www.audubonmagazine.org/ for more information.

===================================================
Feel free to pass on this article as long as you leave the resource box attached.
http://www.billiewilliams.com/
http://printedwords.blogspot.com/
http://onewomansgarden.blogspot.com/
www.YouTube.com/basbleu43

What can you do with hay bales?

After reading an article in The Daily Dirt, gardening news, I was struck by the beauty of this idea. Planting your garden in hay bales. I'm sure you could buy last years bales cheaply from any number of farmers. The thought of a strawberry pyramid built of hay bales is the best thing I could think of...fertilizer, the necessary control of where the vines will re-attach themselves and all that. It could be a real boost to the weeding and care process.

"Hay bale vegetable gardening is a technique that was developed by a vegetable crop specialist at the University of Florida. It may sound odd but vegetable gardening in hay bales really works. Wheat straw bales are better than hay because they tend to have fewer weed seeds than hay bales and alfalfa and mixed grass bales also work well." Heleigh Bostwick, of The Daily Dirt says.

The author of the article recommends if you must use new bales that you soak them for three days in a row, then layer fertilizer over them for 3 or 4 days and let them sit for three more days, then dig a hole in them to put your plants. She says any plant could grow this way with the exception of root crops and tall ones like corn (because they would become top heavy and tip over). Can you see the posibilities - Step gardens where there is not enough horizontal space...you may have to tend them with a step ladder - but at least you could grow produce. I'm seeing pictures of a tower of vegetables...What an amazing idea.

I see a circle of bales with poles in the center where you plant pole beans and train them toward the poles - wouldn't that be a spectacular center for other vegetables such as pumpkins or cucumbers growing below them?

I hope you will try it out. I intend to as my strawberries are out of control in my flower and vegetable garden areas.

Happy Gardening.

Billie

Roses in Peril

Roses in Peril

By Billie A Williams

Roses are my husband’s favorite flowers—little does he know the work involved in keeping them beautiful. Today while I was out trying to rescue a $26 hanging basket of Petunia’s that were surviving on mere water and nutrients I had fed earlier in the week. A side note, beautiful basket but the first time I watered it I knew….I’ll save that story for another column.

Now on to the roses in peril I heard this buzzing sound – nearly like an electrical transformer makes in peak air conditioning season. I thought wow; the bees are especially busy today—on our very fragrant white roses. The fragrance is heavenly and perfumes nearly the whole yard. To my surprise – the bees were trying to be busy, fighting for existence among the blooms of the roses while an outrage of Rose Chafers devoured blossom, buds and everything they could reach. They even attacked the bees as I watched. I was devastated. Apparently, these obnoxious visitors are especially fond of white blooms.

I hurried to the house to read what Jerry Baker had to recommend. (I have several of his gardening books—he always has the natural solution) His solution was hand picking – YUK! Not something that made me feel very good. Other than that he mentioned a couple chemicals rotenone or Pyrethrin…Not into the expense or the side affects of chemical solutions, I opted for my old stand-by which cures nearly all insect infestations without the harmful side affects for birds and other critters in my yard.

I mixed up a cocktail of Mrs. Murphy’s Oil soap and water. (1/4 cup to a quart of water) and sprayed the dickens out of those roses. I probably err on the side of too much soap to water, as Jerry Baker has a different recipe below--but his is pre--mine is present solutions.

Reading further in Jerry’s book he says “if you give your roses a bath once a week with a solution of 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap mixed with 2 gallons of warm water, odds are, you won’t need any chemical controls!” I wish I had heeded my own advice earlier when I saw the first chaffer on my Smoke Tree.

Here’s another trick from an old-time gardening friend, "put one or two garlic cloves among your roses to keep aphids and other pests away." (Another thing I was too busy to follow this year) Usually, I plant a row of set onions in front of the roses that border the head of my garden, which normally is enough control. This year the weather has been so different that perhaps I need to go back to more intensive and consistent prevention medicine. It's hotter than it should be this early and the rains we get are torrential downpours accompanied by horrendous winds. Very unusual.

Now, I must keep an eye on my Concord grape vines as these nasty critters move across my yard, they are surely next and the Rose Chafer will feed on them too. Mrs. Murphy, are you ready?
Happy Gardening
Billie

====================================
You may feel free to use this article if you retain this resource box with it.
Award winning Mystery Suspense author Billie A Williams invites you to visit her at http://www.billiewilliams.com/ or check out her You Tube video of A Christmas Dream Script for a 3-Act Play designed for medium to small theatrical groups.

www.YouTube.com/watch?v=z0G3KE5HxNY
http://printedwords.blogspot.com/

Bananas, Salt, Tea and WD40

BANANAS, SALT, TEA AND WD-40™
By Billie A Williams
Rose bushes are they hard to raise? Depends on who you talk to. I have had terrible luck with the miniature variety, but basically the others are a breeze. They need pruning, water and occasionally a few banana peels. What you never heard of burying banana peels around the perimeter of your roses? The nutrients are ideal for them, but what I didn’t know before was, the banana peel actually retards aphids a real nasty for rose bushes and gladiolas. I usually spray my plants at the first sign of trouble with a weak soap solution. If I see any aphids near my roses, I use Mrs Murphy’s Oil soap mixed with water in a spray bottle (also good on the grape vines) but I like the double duty banana peel instead. Tea is another rose booster. It will enhance the growth of roses.


Here are a few more hints for other bugs and areas of your living space. Are you tired of uninvited guests at your picnic? To keep those pesky ants at bay try putting plastic containers under the legs of your picnic table and filling them with water. The ants may climb up the plastic container but they will fall in and drown before they get to the table legs.

Salt has always been a favorite remedy of mine for so many things. You can fill a plastic container with salt water and place it at ground level in your gardens where you have seen slugs or snail damage. The snails and slugs drown trying to get at the salt. (This works with beer too) If you need to bait them use pieces of raw potato around the dish. You can also use salt to stop weeds from growing in the cracks of your sidewalks or walkways and is one of the many things that can extend the life of cut flowers. In the kitchen you can use a light salt water solution to put peeled potatoes or apples in until you are ready to use them, to keep them from turning dark.

Tea is a great addition to any acid loving houseplants soil. I use weak tea to water my ferns, and other house plants once a month. You can also use it and the tea bags to speed up the decomposition of your compost pile. (Compost pile coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells and any organic vegetable matter is great.)

Now here is something I bet you’ve not heard of before—WD-40 ™uses in your garden. I believe WD-40 ™ has nearly as many uses as duct tape. You can use it to spray your flower beds lightly to keep cats, dogs and other animals out of them. You can use it on your bird feeders to keep squirrels off of them (hmmm cheaper than Cheyenne pepper – perhaps.) Those dirty messy pigeons building nests on balconies and porches, try spraying surfaces with WD-40™ it makes your place very unappealing to the pests.

Also spray railings and bird feeders to keep them off. If you have a wasp problem, building nests under your eaves—next summer spray the over hang under the eaves with WD-40™. One more good use for it, spray thistle plants and they will be history.

Use it to take care of your lawn and garden tools. Spray the handles to keep them from splintering and giving you slivers, spray the tines of garden forks, shovels, hoes, to keep them rust free and in good condition. (you can do this with your snow shovel, snow blower etc to keep snow from sticking to them in the winter, too)

Like I said WD-40™ is in a race with duct tape™ and probably super glue™ to see who is the most versatile and important. I love organic solutions when at all possible, but when something works like magic it’s hard to resist using modern warfare in the garden to get rid of pests.

===================================================
Feel free to pass this article along as long as you leave this resource box attached.
Billie A Williams
Multi-published Mystery/Suspense Author
Whose Accidental Sleuth’s solve crimes with wit, wisdom and chutzpah.
http://www.billiewilliams.com/
www.youtube.com/basbleu43

Rose Pests - and Helpers

This morning when I stopped at our local Mathis Ace Hardware ( you know the jingle "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware - man" - er person) I needed a cure for my peonies - they haven't bloomed yet and I planted them years ago. Someone told me they need Oyster shells - I wasn't able to find any. (If any one has any ideas I'd be pleased as punch to hear them. I do have plenty of ants so that isn't the problem) Picture of Lady Bug and aphids on fennel

But speaking of ants they are a problem in another way. Every insect has a benefit - such as the need for ants to help open peony blooms. however, Ants do pose a problem in that they "farm" aphids -- aphids can mean disaster for your glads or roses. So whats a person to do? You could import some Lady Bugs - they have a special appetite for them. (not the asian beetle please, but the real Lady Bug)

A women next to me in the insecticide - fertilizer isle was searching for rose dust to kill the aphids and things bothering her roses.

I had a solution for her - since she seemed to prefer organic, but was desperate. We could use the lady bugs (we have many around here. They didn't seem to be doing their job) or at least something safe for pets, birds, people. My solution for pests is Mrs. Murphy's Oil Soap. I mix it with water in a spray bottle - about 1/8 to a 1/4 cup to a quart of water and mist my plants until the leaves drip. I've used it to get rid of the bugs in my grapevines, the bean and squash bugs. It works to spray it around my back door to keep asian beetles and box alder bugs from coming in everytime the door opens. It's a wonderful product and doesn't hurt the environment.

I love finding solutions to my gardening problems that can help others and not harm beneficial critters or people. If anyone knows a reason why my 10 year old transplanted Peonies are not blooming though - I'd appreciate a note. Thank you!

Happy Gardening.

Billie

It's Organic, It's Exciting, It's Cutting Edge

I borrowed this (with permission of course) from a lovely lady over at The Daily Dirt - if you love gardening you will want to subscribe to her daily missives they are great! Here is the link.

http://www.mygardenguide.com/blog/index.php?id=1060

Wednesday What's New: Sustainable Urban Farm

The Link for the story: the original article: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0718100720070607

The Science Barge, a sustainable urban farm is on a mission to educate people about sustainability. Moored on the Hudson River on New York City's west side, the barge is equipped with two greenhouses and is powered by solar, wind, and biofuels, and irrigated by rainwater and purified river water--with no carbon emissions, no water use, and no waste stream.

The cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, and other vegetables are grown using hydroponic gardening techniques. Ted Caplow, head of New York Sun Works, the non-profit organization behind the Science Barge, believes that if vegetables were grown hydroponically in greenhouses on New York City's rooftops, there would be more than enough vegetables to feed the region.

Caplow says that greenhouses produce seven times more food and use four times less water than traditional farming methods on land. Despite the proliferation and success of community gardens, one of the reasons rooftops may be the solution is that space for growing gardens on land is limited in a region with a population as dense as New York City. Of course most people don't have access to their rooftops, but the possibility of using public rooftops is a viable option.

Photo source: www.nysunworks.org Source: Environmentalist dreams of New York rooftop farms

Heleigh Bostwick, Making Gardens Greener