Sustainable Gardening Blog

Though my deep lot is awfully narrow it still takes two shots with my Canon PowerShot to capture the whole thing, left to right.  So when professional garden photographer Rob Cardillo was visiting last week to shoot my garden I pumped him for information about cheap wide angle cameras and - because he’s one of the world’s nicest, most generous people - he offered his camera for me to grab a few quickies, which he promised to send to me.  Done! 

So what you see is my back garden at its most colorful, and also the progress being made by various groundcovers in replacing the former lawn.  It’s mostly a creeping sedum that pops up in this neighborhood as a weed and spreads like crazy.  Those full, billowy areas look maaavalous in the detail below, doncha think? Planted just last fall, that area filled in SO fast, I’m psyched that the bare soil around the more recent plantings will be gone soon.  Better be.

The sedums are accompanied by some mazus and an assortment of thymes, which I’m trying out on this mostly sunny hillside.  The mission of any plant on this site is to prevent erosion and eventually get thick enough to prevent weeds.  More will be revealed later this season.

Wow, being taped for TV is fun!  That was my mantra, anyway.  Otherwise a body could get nervous about being on camera, especially if the body has a few decades on it.  And a garden coach could fret over how the whole thing’ll get edited because there’s always that chance of coming off as stupid.  Or smug, or any number of impressions you’d rather not make on the viewers of metro D.C.  Thank god I can blog about it, at least. That seems to be how we bloggers process life.  (Not sure what I think about that but it’s a lot cheaper than talking to therapists so I’m sticking with it.)

THE SHOW AND THE SEGMENT
It’s called News Now at 6 and it’s the lead-in to Katie herself on CBS affiliate WUSA9.com.  The subject?  Garden coaching, of course.  But that was just the starting point.  The idea was to coach the camera - the viewer - so man, what an opportunity!  (See, another positive-sounding mantra - something else that’s easier on the budget than therapists, by the way.)

THE TEAM
First to arrive were the cameraman and producer.  Alia, whose last name I didn’t catch because it was all I could do to remember his first one, created the story line and determined every single shot and clearly knew what he was doing.  After bossing me around for 2 hours of B roll he’s relaxing here on my porch, just waiting for the anchor to arrive. 

With him was "senior multimedia producer" Stephanie Wilson, with whom I had a chance to sip lemonade and shoot the breeze on my deck.  (A respite - no reason to be nervous!)  She set up the whole event and was in charge of the interview itself.  That’s the very cool Stephanie on the right.

And last to arrive was local anchorwoman Lesli Foster, beauty-queen beautiful in person or on the air.  (Hard not to stare.)  I’d seen Lesli do countless interviews with gardening experts in her last gig on Sunday mornings -  including regular appearances by my buddy Kathy Jentz. - and always manage to look like she understood the answers. (She tells me that’s a miracle.)

WHAT I SAID
Quick - think of 5 bullet points you’d like to make in your few seconds on air.  Given what my garden could demonstrate on this particular day, here’s what I hoped to get across and if even one out of five actually airs, I’m happy.

• The lawn-to-edibles conversion.  Edibles are the one segment of gardening that’s growing.  (And I slipped in a mention of the great coaching that GardenRant commenters gave me, since I don’t know what I’m doing.)
• The anti-lawn tide sentiment that’s sweeping the green world, and the reasons for it.
• Climate change = drought-tolerance in plants more important than ever.
• For low-maintenance, choosing shrubs and trees over annuals and even perennials.
• Urging people to buy plants that bloom some other time of the year.  We have plenty of azaleas around here already, thank you. 

And I couldn’t help but talk up the DC Urban Gardeners and hand over the business card.  None of that was on tape - that’s a different story - but we’re spreading the word  every chance we get. 

WHAT I DID
Alia worked me pretty hard.  Had me pruning (while the shrubs are blooming?  Say it isn’t so!)  Also watering, both the wrong way and the right way.  And even dividing a sedum. 

COVERING GARDENING
It’s no surprise that this particular local TV station is covering garden coaching.  They have gardening interviews almost every Sunday morning, after all, with good experts.  And one of their weathermen, Howard Bernstein, has a blog where I recently spotted a discussion of preemergent lawn herbicides.  Neither Ed Bruske nor I could resist jumping in to suggest something organic rather than the synthetic Scotts product mentioned by our local extension agent.  Heck, I’d just read Jeff Gillman’s praise of corn gluten meal as a preemergent weedkiller.  Like the "Weed & Feed" products we rant against, it fertilizers while it weeds BUT in an totally safe and healthy way.

So local Master Gardeners and wise practitioners of the gardening arts, let’s join Howard in his efforts to educate the homeowners of DC about gardening by sending him timely items for his blog.  Then check back with your comments because the more the merrier - and because all bloggers crave comment, right, Howard?

WHAT, NO VIDEO?
It’s coming - as soon as it airs and they send me the link.  Coz nowadays we’re all about the link. 

Of COURSE I know Scotts isn’t paying the Washington Post (right?) but one little item in yesterday’s Source Section did boggle the mind. 

The offending text is here, under "How  Do I Not Screw Up?" In what was otherwise a fine little piece about what plants to grow in pots, reporter Dan Zak wrote: "All plants need sunlight and water, but they also need plant food.  Basic Miracle-Gro or a comparable product will do the trick."  Dan, Dan, Dan.  Please scroll down to the previous post here and read the section about fertilizers, or consult any environmentally responsible gardening authority in the world.   And here’s a handy compilation of articles about overfertilization.

Moving on, here’s the nice part: a gallery of 4 pots planted up for different purposes.  My favorites are of coure the one by Ed Bruske - number 2, for edibles, and number 4 by Kathy Jentz, the "Tough to Kill" design. 

Jeff Gillman knows all about the hot controversies within the gardening world in this era of eco-consciousness and has this complaint: "Everyone seems to want to pass judgment." As a professor of horticulture at the University of Minnesota, he’s concerned that most gardening information is written by people who follow a particular school of thought and are "unable to see beyond their biases." So he wrote The Truth about Organic Gardening (Timber Press) to help gardeners "see beyond dogma" about organic versus synthetic gardening products, one of the primary areas of disagreement and confusion.  I say amen to that. 

Soil Enrichment and Fertilization

So let’s examine some common myths about fertilizers.  First there’s the notion that nutrients in synthetic fertilizers are different from the ones in organic fertilizers, or that synthetic fertilizers are "chemicals" and organics are not.  Not so - they’re all chemicals.  Organic ones are slower to break down and take effect, so they last longer.  They also require a larger quantity to be used and therefore cost more for the same quantity of nutrients.  Synthetics are quick and cheap and concentrated, which accounts for their popularity. 

Another common belief is that synthetic fertilizers are made from petrochemicals, but Gillman says that’s rarely the case.  Synthetics do use a lot of power in their production, but that’s usually natural gas. 

And here’s a surprise: organic fertilizers can be brought to the market through the decidedly unsustainable practice of mining.  For example, rock phosphate is mined in Florida and North Carolina and those mines do considerable damage to the land there.  (Potassium used in synthetic fertilizers is mined in the Western states, with similar deleterious effects.)  So Gillman recommends using nonmined organic fertilizers that reuse nutrients from other living sources - fertilizers like compost, bonemeal, blood meal, seaweed extracts, alfalfa meal, and fish emulsions.

Another myth about organic fertilizers is that they don’t leach into our groundwater the way synthetics do, and Gillman disagrees, saying they’re just as likely to leach into our groundwater "if they’re used in the over-aggressive way that most people fertilize their lawns." 

In working with homeowners as a gardening coach I’ve noticed the widespread assumption that everything in the garden needs regular applications of fertilizer.  Gillman knows better, though, explaining that we should focus instead on making soils more fertile so they’ll support healthy plants, and that means not just the usual N-P-K in most packaged fertilizers but also the right pH, bacteria, fungi, and organic matter.  And the best source of all of that is good old compost.  So for vegetable gardens he recommends tilling into the soil a half-inch of composted manure; just make sure the compost has been cured long enough, especially if it’s manure (otherwise it can contain high levels of human pathogens). 

But how about the rest of our plants, like shrubs, trees, and perennials?  Gillman told me in an email that they don’t even need compost, just a good organic mulch every year.  That’s been my own practice for decades and my plants seem happy enough.  Even roses will bloom without "rose food" but if you want maximum floral performance he suggests two applications of alfalfa meal per season around your roses.  One clear exception to the mulch-only rule for ornamentals is plants in pots because their nutrients are leached out by the frequent watering they need.  Gillman’s favorite fertilizers for pots are fish emulsion and the ones based on seaweed.  And of course you’re using a good potting soil, right?    

Now the plant that homeowners ask gardening experts about more than all the others is turfgrass, so I nagged Gillman for some advice about lawns.  He couldn’t resist first blaming the corporate members of Overfertilizers Anonymous for creating a national addiction to bright green monocultures of perfect lawns.  (To a real gardener, lawn care isn’t even gardening at all and I’ll be doing my best to eviscerate this national obsession in a column coming soon.)  And the answer is that Gillman’s favorite fertilizer for lawns is - surprise - corn gluten, commonly used to prevent weeds.  It’s a twofer!  And a nice segue to weeds.

Weed Control

As a group, organic herbicides are relatively safe, especially the most common one - corn gluten meal.  It’s simply part of the corn plant and is so safe it’s even found in cat food.  It works by creating a barrier between the soil and weed seeds, and Gillman calls it "extremely effective" at doing that. (Don’t be discouraged by less than perfect results the first year; it’ll be more effective in subsequent years.)  At the same time, it’s a 10-0-0 fertilizer and applied in the recommended quantity, it provides all the nitrogen your lawn needs, especially if you also leave the clippings on the lawn.  But get this - it takes 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet to do the job and that’s a lot.  It also needs to be applied at the right time to prevent the weeds - while the forsythias are blooming. Then wait at least 6 weeks before applying any grass seed, since its germination will be prevented, too, not just the crabgrass. 

Now once weeds have germinated, your options start to dwindle.  Flame-throwing them to a crisp works, though not as well as synthetic herbicides, and the method itself has its obvious dangers. Garlic and clove oils will kill the tops of weeds but not the roots (so why bother?) Undiluted vinegar will burn up the top portions of weeds but again rarely kill the roots.  Frying weeds under black plastic, a processed called solarization, works but also kills all sorts of beneficial microorganisms in your soil, so Gillman’s not a fan.

The bottom line about weed removal is:  Use your hands.  Hand-weeding is not just organic but very effective, and free.  Do it once a week or so and you’ll stay on top of them.  But the key to weed control is in prevention and that means using mulch, "without a doubt the best method of weed control" and the best choice for gardeners - as opposed to farmers trying to make a living. 

For anyone needing a larger-scale solution, Gillman concedes that synthetic weed controls are cheaper and more effective, and for guidance in choosing among them he suggests using the EIQ.  That stands for Environmental Impact Quotient and it’s a good measure of any product’s relative dangers to humans and the environment, from a low of 10 to a high of 100.  Unfortunately EIQs aren’t on pesticide labels but they can be found on the Web via Google, using that term and the name of a product.

Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) is often used to kill weeds in preparation for planting and Gillman regards it as "relatively safe" for humans and the environment.  You may be surprised, as I was, that its EIQ is only 15.3.  (Compared to, say, organic horticultural oil with its EIQ of 27.5 - because it can hurt plants and beneficial insects.)  While acknowledging that some  regard Glyphosate as too dangerous to recommend, he questions the studies that that judgment is based on.  There’s no doubt that frogs are harmed by it, though, so it can’t be used around water.  (Actually they’re harmed by the inactive ingredients in Roundup -  soaps and oils - but unfortunately, the EPA doesn’t require those inert substances to even be identified on packaging.)

The most common weedkiller for lawn is 2,4-D, with an EIQ of 15 to 20.  Here Gillman takes issue with that relatively low number because it’s been shown in highly credible studies to cause cancers.  Scotts Weed n Seed is the biggest source of 2,4-D and Gillman calls their recommended three to five applications of it each year "absolutely nuts."  In his view, having a dandelion-free lawn is simply not worth the potential danger of using 2,4-D up to five times a year, and I couldn’t agree more.  Besides, dandelions are good for pollinators and where would we be without pollinators?  Let’s hope we don’t find out.

Coming soon - my review of organic insecticides and treatments for plant disease.

One of my new favorite people in the gardening world is Carol of May Dreams Gardens.  Voted "Gardenblogger I’d most like to have as a neighbor," she also created some of the coolest stuff in our world - her book club and, of course, Bloom Day.  Gardeners sharing the beauty of their plants and gardens with the world — what’s not to like.  And I spent some time with Carol recently in Austin and again I ask:  What’s not to like?"

So on the top photo shows not just the daffodils and tulips in the background but - ta-da! - the new creeping sedum that’s replacing the turfgrass in my back garden.  There’s also a bunch of cool plants from Stepables, plus the creeping Jenny and mazus that neighbors have given me - plant reviews coming soon.  But because I’m one of those gardeners "on a budget" (love the euphemism!) and won’t be buying 100s of anything, creeping sedum is what’s mostly growing here.  It came to my garden as a weed and decided to spread like crazy. 

Above are some ‘Pink Diamond’ single late tulips with the gorgeous Euphorbia x martinii.  Too bad two out of three of them have chosen to die on me.  Performing MUCH better is the shade-loving Euphorbia amygdaloides on the left.  It’s happily filling out whole borders in my woodland garden.  And it looks great all year, ya know.  That foliage is evergreen and even the blooms looks good after they’ve dried on the stems.

Listen up!  Kojo Nnamdi’s interview with Safelawns.org crusader Paul Tukey should be required listening for everyone who tends a patch of lawn.  That way, when people ask me about how to have a perfectly good lawn without the use of toxic products or constant watering I can just answer:  "What he said."  Here’s the link. 

I just learned that Gail of Clay and Limestone in Nashville, TN has chosen this humble blog as one of 10 Excellent Blogs - thanks!  It’s just the encouragement I need.  See, since teaming up with others at GardenRant, I haven’t known what the heck to DO with this one.  I’ve changed the name - a couple of times.  I’ve even (much to my regret) changed the blogging program - to the geeks-only Wordpress (long story there).

So what AM I doing here?  Supplementing my Sustainable Gardening site with how-to-garden stories, stories of coachees transforming their gardens, stories of my own garden’s transformation, especially the lawn-to-alternative-groundcover and lawn-to-veggie-garden transitions.  Oh, and occasionally veering off-topic whenever it suits. 

Now to pass on the encouragement to 10 others:  Okay, I pick:

• Urban Ministry Garden
  
• Gardening While Intoxicated
• Sweet Pea Chronicle
• Ellis Hollow
• Outside Clyde
  
• Open Register
• Deep Middle
• Back 40 Feet
• Art of Gardening
• Garden Wise Guy

 Sometimes it’s damn hard to keep up with the current best thinking on gardening practices, and the question of whether wood chip mulch is good or bad for our plants is a case in point.   After what thought was a lot of research, I came down against it in my page about mulch and mulching, recommending instead the use of shredded pine or leafmold mulch.  (Around plants, that is.  Wood chips on paths are indisputably okay.)

Now here comes Master Gardener Magazine with an article about wood chip mulch by Linda Chalker-Scott (Ph.D., Extension Urban Horticulturist and Associate Professor, Washington State University) to contradict conventional wisdom.  (Those durn scientists can be SO annoying, with their namby-pamby reliance on the scientific method and peer review and all that stuff for sticklers.) 

Here’s what she has to say:  In tests (something that apparently scientists are still doing) wood chips perform with the best of all possible mulch materials for moisture retention, temperature moderation, weed control,sustainability and enhanced plant productivity.  And what’s more, in urban areas they’re often FREE.

Drawbacks?  What drawbacks?

Referring to the reported drawbacks of wood chip mulch, she calls them "much ado about  nothing".  The concern that wood chip mulches can tie up introgen and cause deficiencies in plants, it turns out that studies show that it actually increases nutrient levels in soils and the foliage of plants.  "My hypothesis is that a zone of nitrogen deficiency exists at the mulch/soil interface, inhibiting weed seed germination while having no influence upon established plant roots below the soil surface."  For that reason, she recommends against wood chip mulch around plants with shallow roots - annuals and vegetables.

Even if you remain unconvinced by the research, you can still use wood chips on top of a more nutrient-rich underlayer (say, of compost).  This "mulch sandwich" approach mimics what you’d see in the mulch layer of a forest.

How deep?

Here’s what surprised me - her recommendation that 4-6 inches of the stuff be used.  That’s because "A review of the research on coarse organic mulches and weed control reveals that shallow mulch layers will promote weed growth and/or require additional weed control measures."  Again, a divergence from lots of other writers recommending 2-4 inches, or even a maximum of 2 inches. 

But what about soil structure?

Now here’s something the article didn’t addres - the impact of mulch on ability of the soil to hold moisture and other benefits of what we call good soil structure.  Do wood chips decompose fast enough to improve soil within, say, a year?  I’ll shoot the link to this post to the good folks at Master Gardener Magazine and see if we can get a response. 

Photo credit.

This rash of publicity for garden coaching is creating a whole new bunch of coachees, and one of them is my new favorite.  Not just because his professionally designed garden was so damn gorgeous, which it was.  But because he decided the estimate he’d gotten for maintaining it - $11,000 a year - seemed outrageous, and he wondered if he could do it himself, with a little coaching.  And because he took careful notes as I explained how to prune each of his shrubs and by the end of the walk-through he was visibly excited and exclaimed, "I feel so empowered!"  God, I love that shit. 

It seems that this surgeon-gardener had read many books about pruning and was still afraid to take action - it’s all so confusing!  Yeah, I hear ya.  That’s why teaching pruning one-on-one, in the garden, is so much better than books, videos, PowerPoints and all the rest.  Coaching rules!

Ready or not, the biggest gardening task of the year is upon me - the spreading of 7+ cubic yards of leafmold mulch.  Here’s what it looks like just off the truck, delivered this morning by my city’s public works crew.  (And can I say that the near-severing of my power lines by the raising and lowering of the truck bed was harrowing.  The memory of that same mechanism knocking an air conditioner out of its window and onto my living room floor is still fresh, so there’s some justification for my less-than-total faith in these public servants.)

Anyway, notice that some of the pile encroaches on my neighbor’s driveway?  That’s why the goal here is to get the whole pile moved ASAP, which means hiring help to move it downhill (and down steps) to the backyard.  I stirred up quite a fuss over on GardenRant recently by admitting to hiring what I called "immigrant laborers" but guess what - I’m doing it again.  True, some gardening professionals insist I should be hiring only professionals to haul mulch, but $10 an hour is what’s budgeted for the job and it’s either that or risk my own back doing the job.  Sorry!

One more thing.  This time of year - every single year - there are the same questions on all the gardening-related Yahoo groups about mulch - which kinds are best, is hardwood okay, does the city’s leafmold have weeds, and on and on.  But I hesitate to just post this link in answer to all those questions because it seems almost self-promotional but really, that’s why I compiled all that information in the first place, so let’s use it. 

Hey, I know.  I’ll tell them to visit this link to the very same information on the DC Urban Gardener site.  No harm promoting that, right?