Sustainable Gardening Blog

Readers may have noticed that I’m a diehard fan of evergreens; I preach their virtues year-round.  So when I complain about one of them, you know it’s with a heavy heart.  But who can blame me?  This English roseum rhodo is, according to my local nurseryman, one of the best-performing in Maryland, so what does that tell you?

Like any gardener, I’m naturally thrilled to have the space for something I don’t already have - maybe something showy in winter like a witch hazel.  I guess my heart wasn’t that heavy after all if I’m already dreaming of this guy’s replacement.  (And no, I see no obvious parallels with my lovelife.)

Here’s a little piece of garden art that always starts a conversation - and raises questions I can’t answer, leading me to shrug stupidly and sputter disjointed bits of information.  So I decided it’s time to stop embarassing myself and do a little Googling.

So, what you see is an artificial nest for orchard mason bees, pollinating bees that are native to the U.S.  Solitary and therefore not hive-building, these bees lay their eggs in mud-walled cells like these drill holes, or straws packed in a coffee can that’s then mounted a few feet off the ground facing the morning sun. Although the person who sold me this nest-holder raved about the pollinating abilities of these bees, they can’t be managed directly by humans - say, hauled around to different farmers’ fields - and thus aren’t suitable to large-scale agricultural use. Even worse, most native pollinating bees nest in the ground, so any disturbance and they’re history.  The use of pesticides has also reduced their numbers.

All of which helps in explaining why honeybees were brought here from Europe to pollinate crops for our growing population.  But the recent destruction of about half the American honeybee population by a parasitic mite has highlighted the dangers of overreliance on any  particular species.  So I’m right there, offering these little drill holes to the wandering orchard mason bee looking for a nest site.  I know it won’t make much difference in the scheme of things but hey, it’s something.  And not a bad-looking garden ornament, either.

RANDOM HONEYBEE FACTS:  The average honeybee hive holds 50,000 bees.  It takes the nectar of about 2 million flowers to produce one pound of honey.  Honeybees are used in the pollination of 130 agricultural crops in the U.S. and add $14 billion to crop yield and quality. 15 to 30 percent of our diet relies on honeybees.

FUN TREND:  Reportedly, a "deeply cool and trendy" new hobby in British cities is beekeeping, on rooftops and in tiny backyards.  One advocate describes it as a "fashionable thing to do something for the environment."  Don’t look for this trend to jump the pond and land in Washington, D.C. any time soon, though.  Beekeeping is banned in D.C. and many other stinger-fearing jurisdictions.

Over at GardenRant Amy put out a call for photos of hunky gardeners.  While I second that emotion, in my neighborhood they’re in short supply, so how about some hunky cowboys from D.C.’s recent Gay Pride Parade?  I say who cares what team they play for; these guys were HOT, downright SIZZLING.  And how often do we get to see buff semi-naked men girating for our entertainment, anyway?  In my day-to-day life, never, and it’s one of the many reasons I enjoy a good Gay Pride Parade.

But there was lots more to love than just the boy-toys.  For the first time since I’ve been attending, the parade had a huge contingent of families, baby strollers and all.  It had floats sponsored by such corporate giants as Southwest Airlines and Fannie Mae, with their gay or gay-friendly employees in the lead.  It had every single city politician in Washington in this election year; no mayoral or city council candidate would think of missing this event. 

And despite the forces of darkness and repression over at the White House and on the Hill, this event was about progress and enlightenment and PRIDE.  Even
the straight politicians knew to call out "Happy Pride" to the crowd
because our local pols GET IT.

Now just so I’m not accused of any kind of bias - dear god - the other photos show hot female motorcyclists and one of their topless passengers - because every parade needs some bare-breasted women, as I’ve said before.

Now that I’m the editor of the D.C. Master Gardener News, I actually get paid to visit and report on cool projects like the following, and I’m loving it.

The Children’s Studio School in downtown D.C. was built in the
old-fashioned style of schools-as-prisons, so it’s no easy task to
humanize, to enliven, to make kid-friendly.  And as
recently as January of this year its side "yard" was covered
with asphalt and rubber and was a functional - not to mention aesthetic -  wasteland. 

But thanks to Master Gardener Ed Bruske and his team of parents and neighbors, it now holds 40 raised planters of various sizes containing 18 yards of
topsoil and compost.  Not to mention dozens of 4- and 5-year-olds
watering the planters with their cute little watering cans.  Indoors
there’s a sophisticated seed-starting
set-up where the plants began, and a worm composting operation where worms produce castings for the garden.

Another Really Cool Person Who Gardens: Ed probably never imagined he’d someday be creating and managing a
school garden.  As a Washington Post food writer and caterer, Ed’s interest in
gardening naturally began with growing herbs and expanded to vegetables.  So when he noticed the empty space at his
daughter’s school, the idea of the schoolyard garden was born.  Luckily,
his search for help of all kinds led him to the D.C. Extension Agent,
who suggested he enroll in her 2006 Master Gardener class. So Ed
attended and recently became the class’s first graduate to achieve
official Master Gardener Certification.
Congratulations, Ed, and no hard feelings about your beating the pants off the rest of us, including yours truly.

Some Really Cool Sources of Funds:  The project’s roughly $3,000 in funding - to date - began with Garden Resources of Washington, the community and youth garden group, and spread to the local political
body (think mini-city council) and even included a mysteriously
anonymous neighbor (please, no paparazzi).  Next, the
ever-resourceful Ed discovered the Mantis Corporation, makers of the
marvelous compost bin in the top photo, and hit them up for a freebie.
Got it!  This model retails at about $500 and creates compost in a
month, as long as the kids keep turning that handle.  So add fighting
childhood obesity to the many benefits of this aah-inspiring project.

[Click-to-enlarge photos:  Ed with freebie composting bin; and
his 5-year-old daughter Leila with her watering can.  Readers, I can’t
show you the other incredibly cute photos I got because, I found out
later, I needed parental permission.  Sorry to say, that’s the age we
live in.]

Readers, it can now be revealed that I’ve been meeting privately behind your backs with two other gardening bloggers -  by email, by telephone and even in person! - to plan and implement our scheme for world domination.  In fact, the introductory feeler Amy Stewart sent to Michele Owens and me was entitled "World Domination," which got our attention.  That’s Amy - a trim wisp of a woman who thinks BIG.  And all that scheming has paid off because Garden Rant is already more than I’d hoped for - good-looking, funny and provocative as hell.  And isn’t that provocative element exactly what the online world has added to the gardening conversation?  Damn right, and long overdue.

So meet me over at Garden Rant for rants and raves and the kind of smart-aleck behavior my mother tried so hard to discourage.  But Mom, this is so much more fun.

Heather Galindo, a gardening writer with the Houston Chronicle, recently listed this humble blog among four she considers "must reading," and had these generous words to say:

"Well Rounded: Takoma Gardener.  Also a marvelous writer, Susan’s posts are always informative, full of ‘go get ‘em’ spirit, and activist-minded. She’s a terrific garden designer and an actual, real life Gardening Coach. ‘Drop and pull 20 weeds!’ Okay not quite like that, but man, I wish she was near here rather than in the DC area to coach me. Just today, her blog convinced me to try overseeding our small, pathetic yard with clover. I’ll report back on that later."

Heather went on to demonstrate exquisite taste in her choices of Amy Stewart, Michele Owens and Kasmira - all favorites of mine - as the other must-reads. 

Heather, the next time I’m in Houston you’d better believe I’m stopping by your place for a coaching session - off the clock.

[Photo:  Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland.  Great site for free outdoor concerts.]

First, to vent.  I haven’t posted in a few days because my whole photographic world is in shambles.  I won’t burden you with the details but think New Editing Program, New Pixel-Packed Camera, the Burning and Copying of countless CDs and their subsequent Storage for ready Retrieval, and finally, Old Editing Program that suddenly won’t even talk to me, complaining of a "full scratch disk."  I’ve heard that one that before.  But because we Southerners know how to carry on in adversity, I’m choosing lawns as a good photoless topic and forging ahead.

Lawns are a huge topic these days, specifically how to reduce their size or even get rid of them altogether.  Then there’s the more moderate approach that I took in my recent column, "Earth-Friendly Lawn Care Throughout the Year,"  in which I lay out the consensus among environmentally responsible experts - to use only organic products, mow higher, tolerate some weeds, and so on.  I think I even slipped in a promo for clover, to no one’s surprise.

Next up is a column tackling a much more controversial subject: are turf grasses inherently bad, even if they’re cared for using these environmentally correct techniques? And what alternatives really work?  I’m hearing totally contradictory statements by seemingly unbiased, well-informed sources - so I’m loving it!!  I’ll let you know my take on the subject as soon as I have one.

FOR MY OWN LAWN I do have a position and a plan:  I’ve reduced the size considerably but will keep what’s left for utilitarian reasons - like walking, hauling a garden hose in every direction, and occasionally mowing.  And I’m keeping my lawn because - don’t let anybody fool you - most alternatives are more maintenance than the lawn itself!  Yes, as heretical as it sounds, ask people who’ve gone lawnless how much less maintenance they have now and they’ll laugh.  Seriously.  That’s because it’s really the traditional, perfect lawns that are so much work, not the profoundly imperfect kind of lawn I have.  And most borders, god love ‘em, are a lot of work.

And here’s the other part of my plan: to gradually transform the lawn I have left into a healthy patch of biodiversity, to include turf grass, clover, attractive weeds like violets, and anything else I can find that might work.  So what do you suggest?  Remember it can’t be so tall that a garden hose would catch on it, and it has to be drought-tolerant, walkable and mowable.  Perhaps a touch of thyme?

The old-fashioned idiom to be "in clover" means living a carefree life of ease, comfort and prosperity."  Okay, count me in.  And everyone knows that clover of the four-leaf variety is good luck.

But we’re gardeners here, so what about planting the stuff in our lawns?  Here’s what Less Lawn has to say about it:

"Clover is often planted by gardeners as a soil conditioner. It grows quickly and easily, chokes out weeds and is easily ‘turned in’ to the beds when planting time draws near. The deep root system reduces soil compaction. Clover is also a nitrogen-fixing plant, which   enriches the soil with natural fertilizer.  Clover also works well, however, as a replacement for turf - consider the benefits: 
Low Maintenance  - Clover needs little to no watering or mowing.
No Fertilizers - Chemical fertilizers are not needed to grow clover.
Color - Clover stays green even in the driest part of summer.
Inexpensive  - It costs about $4 to cover 4000 sq. ft. of turf area.
Comfortable  - Easy to walk through or play on, although not as durable as grass."

Did you catch the bit about clover being a "nitrogen-fixing" plant?  Now I’m no botanist, as Readers here have surely noticed, so I looked it up for you and it goes like this.  Bacteria that live in nodules on the roots of clover convert nitrogen in the atmosphere into a form that’s usable by plants.  There, that’s as technical as you’ll ever get from me.  Cool stuff, though.

And if you care about biodiversity (and who doesn’t?), clover also supports more wildlife by providing nectar for those pollinating bees we all love and even attracts small, non-stinging but aphid-eating wasps.

So what’s not to love?  I’ll concede that the romance of running barefoot across fields of flowering clover is sometimes ruined by the screams and curses of the newly bee-stung.  But isn’t that why God created gardening clogs and TEVA sandels?

Look out, Washington, D.C.  The Master Gardeners are getting organized and are coming soon to a plot of ground near you.  We’ve already invaded cyberspace - as of 2 days ago - and there’s no stopping us now. (Update: DC Master Gardeners have become DC Urban Gardeners.  Visit the site or the news blog for all the dope.)

And Readers, once again I ask for your help.  I’m looking for ideas from Master Gardeners everywhere about your local program.  How does it work?  What kinds of events do you have?  Who are you - god, I hate this term, but it works here - liaising with?  And, of course, I want your link! Thanks in advance from me and all the passionate gardening activists here in D.C.