GGGC - Report on Insect Talk - 1/18/09

Mike Raupp spoke to a room quite filled with gardeners at Oregon Ridge Nature Center Monday January 18. He is a great speaker and if you ever have a chance to hear him - make the time. He quizzed us a lot about insects in general.

His web site is http://www.bugoftheweek.com/

BUGS RULE:
So Many
So old - silver fish are 350 mill years old
So like us - we share 80% of our genes with them and 50% of our genes with bananas.

I loved the picture of the Hummingbird moths who like trumpet shaped flowers. Do any of you see them up here? His video of them really looked like a bird!!

I loved the picture of tiger beetles - may/June - metallic green. They jump up and look at you to see if you have aphids on you. Again, any one seen these?

His statement that Manna from Heaven was the secretion of scale insects sent me googling and I found this: (Exodus 16:31), it is either the sweet dried sap of a Mediterranean ash tree Fraxinus ornus, the lichen Lecanora esculenta (which is still sometimes made into bread), the lumpy sap from certain kinds of legumes native to Egypt and Syria, or the result of a scale insect (Coccus manniparus) puncturing the bark of a tamarisk tree (Tamarix mannifera), which causes the tree to drip sweet sap which falls on the ground and hardens. All of them are edible and can keep you alive in a desert wilderness for a while, but they aren't what this movie is about.
And spelled with one "n", it is a Polynesian word referring to the spiritual force that accumulates in precious or powerful objects, people, or places.

Back to Mike who says bugs are high protein. About 5 people shared about eating bugs, then he reminded us that catsup legally has bugs in it, which reminded me that chocolate also legally have a few percentage of bugs in them. Yummy.

In the time of the tree ferns the insects were huge (4 ft wing spans) because of the large amounts of oxygen put out by the huge plants.

Pollinators are the most diverse of all insect species because they co-evolved with flowering plants which are very diverse because they co-evolved with the insects because........

Bees are the only insects whose babies eat pollen.

Great pictures, many of them small videos.
Milkweed - monarch
Tulip poplar - tiger caterpillar
Paw Paw - zebra - Does anyone have paw paw trees here? I really do want to try that fruit.
Spice Bush - spice bush butterfly.

A healthy landscape has multiple different plants so different stages of insect can stay in your yard. Just azaleas, pine and grass is not good. Need food for good and bad bugs like multiple stories, and different types of plants.

Ladybug eats 3,000 aphids/year and lives 3 years and each of her baby as larvae eat 1,000.

I fyou are wondering about spraying for aphids when you see them - wait a few days. You may see "aphid mummies" that are dead shells. If there are at least 10% mummies, you do not need to spray - your predator insects are doing their job.

Leave wood piles so insects can overwinter (another example of my laziness being good for wildlife - which also helped me get my Bay Wise Certification).

No predators for squash bugs.

He said there were dramatically fewer Japanese beetles the last 2 years - too few to study. I told him to come to my house. As they eat, they release a hormone that says - "here's great food, come and join me.", so pick them off early.

Signing off,
Christina
Please comment to these posts and we can communicate with each other and other gardeners here.

GGClub - From Grass to Gardens - last chapter - Garden Dreaming - by Janet Lembke

I am loving From Grass to Gardens and there are so many wonderful gardening tips that I want it available to all, so am entering it on this blog. Following are quotes from Janet Lembke, maybe slightly paraphrased, and my comments, too. Please hit reply and add your own comments.

This seems to be miscelaneous stuff.

DAFFODILS
She was amazed how hard it was to plant 100 daffodils - hard labor. Where from? Native to N. Europe. "Gerard also warns that eating the roots or drinking a liquid made from them can make you vomit." That does not sound as toxic as I thought they were.

Elizabeth Lawrence - The Little Bulbs
Winter aconites are called - winter earth-flowers.

Siberian squills
Scilla - spring Beauty (Remember I spoke of euell Gibbons saying how good these were to eat but my Mom and I only did it once cause they were too pretty to pick for their roots.).

HELLEBORES
Virgil mentions them as a part of a skin ointment for sheep.
Lenten roses.

"May your own garden dreaming be bright and bountiful."

Thus ends my note taking and commenting on Janet Lembke's From Grass to Gardens: How to Reap Bounty from a Small Yard. Please comment on any of the posts and let's keep using this for the Gunpowder Garden Club notes.

GGClub - From Grass to Gardens - Spirits in the Garden and more gardens - by Janet Lembke

I am loving From Grass to Gardens and there are so many wonderful gardening tips that I want it available to all, so am entering it on this blog. Following are quotes from Janet Lembke, maybe slightly paraphrased, and my comments, too. Please hit reply and add your own comments.

Ah...now she talks about one of my favorite topics - Devas and spirits in the Garden. I first heard of lay lines, vortices and devas in the 70's when I read about Findhorn gardens in Scotland. Pirrko - I bet you can reply to this blog and add some tales of your own. first, Janet, then I'll share some stories.

Wooing the Green man, courting the Dame Kind. "Blessed, the person who knows the gods of the countryside, Pan, Silvanus, the old man of the woods, and the sister Nymphs." - Virgil

What is a Garden?
I would love to have Garden Club members answer this question - It would be a nice article or at least nice to share our thoughts on this.
"Can it be defined?" Is a patch in the woods a garden or does it have to be cultivated? One garden writer says there are six essential elements - "Scale, proportion, unity, balance, rhythm and focal point." Remind you of Elyssa's and Jeannie's talks?. Janet goes on to say that something is missing. Gardens have minds of their own. They're inhabited by a nervous green energy..connected with the divine and change willy-nilly, taking the gardener along for the ride.

Her friend Donna: "You should see my dog in my garden. He moves of so carefully around the plants and bushes." She showed how he lifted one paw, then the next with slow precision before moving an inch ahead. "He knows. He's honoring the Devas. But away from the garden, he's back to his old romping self." Whoa - I have never seen a dog act that way. Please hit reply and share if you have seen that happen.
Devas. Fairies in gardens. The Flower Fairies Changing Seasons by Cicely Mary Barker. Lots of definitions for "deva", some indicating evil beings, others indicating the divine. Deities. Tutelary spirits. Elemental powers of nature. Romans: Ceres - goddess of grain; Bacchus - god of wine; Liber - presided over planting and the setting of the fruit; Robigus - prevented blight, smut rust, wilt, et al. Use of the stars: Very important in biodynamic farming promoted by Rudolph Steiner; When Arcturus rises, build up the soil with light furrows so weeds don't smother;. Now we can read the Farmer's Almanac. Who is doing something like that? Please share. Virgil did say the key to success was hard work, he still invoked the gods and goddesses.

"Gardens burst with an exuberant green energy and positively vibrate with the unseen forces of growth and decay. ...the moon tugs at growing seeds." Janet's sister sent her a Green Man. He's been around in a thousand other green guises. Silvanus - man of the woods. Green Man's images in cathedrals, churches, and mosques throughout the world. Capitals of Roman columns. Egypt - Osiris. Sufi prophet Khidr with green footsteps. Chichen Itza. Holy color of Islam, the green of paradise so Muslims wear green when they go to Mecca. His foliate face is in Indonesia and Nepal.

Female. Mother Nature. Dame Kind.

Since reading about Findhorn, I have discovered other wonderful spirit approaches to gardening. M. Wright, of Perelandra (http://www.perelandra-ltd.com/) has incredible stories of how the spirits spoke to her. Actually they would not shut up till she said she would do anything more because she was exhausted. They said they were so glad someone could hear them that they were a little over-exuberant, so they toned it down. The summer of very severe drought in VA, she watered only twice and had a luxurious jungle. One suggestion she has is to rope off a special area that is reserved for the spirits and never garden in there. Another is to offer a bit of the energy of the different supplements a soil may need in the energy form. You hold a bit in your hand and say: May the spirits of this plot of land take the energy of this nutrient in the amount needed and to the right depth to nourish this soil. Molly, of Green Hope Farms in NH (http://www.greenhopeessences.com/) is told what to plant and what to harvest by her spirits - very clearly. Order the "flee Free" if you have pets or get bit yourself and get a huge catalog that also talks of her relationship with the land. "Flowers! This precious planet is bejeweled in Flowers. The gifts of Flowers are not just their beauty but their immense healing wisdom as well. I am so happy that you have this book in your hands. I hope it will sweep you into a deeper friendship with the Flowers and help you receive all the gifts that the Flowers want to give you. …All things at Green Hope Farm are the result of a collaborative effort with Angels, Elementals, and many beloved spiritual teachers. …when I use [these words] I am not trying to indicate any religious affiliation. I am trying to stuff enormous realities into tiny limited words so that I can in some small way indicate the wonder of Flower Essences."

A veterinary colleague living in Ashville, NC, introduced me to devas for the land she rented for a few years was full of them. I purchased some crystals from a local shop then two of us went to the property. I never heard them the way she did. I did sense their presence and a shift as they entered my crystals. When I carefully placed them in my gardens here I affirmed they were happy. Rationally I saw nothing specific from them.

Janet goes on to visit the gardens of several of her Staunton neighbors, who have all practiced "yardening" - turning a yard [of grass] into a garden. This reminds me how much fun for us to visit each other's gardens during the year.

I. Joann - wildflowers and volunteers.Rental property. While writing this book, Joann moved west and the landlord cut all the following down!!!
Nasturtiums and Gourds on the side. Ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) has replaced the grass. Nine foot goldenrod. Zinnias. "Pokeweed reaches up beside the house as high as the eaves; its stems are dark pink, and soon its berries, now pale green, will turn purple. Cardinals relish them..people enjoy the tender new leaves." Mullein. Joe pye weed. Queen Anne's lace. She has a box elder tree which is rare that far south (Elliot Coues 1800s) maple-like chaste tree - "The sap yields a fine white sugar, but it is not so sweet as that of the real maple, and more is required to make the same quantity of sugar). In high school in NJ, we tapped our swamp elders and box elders and it did take a lot of sap to make syrup and sugar. Redbuds. Butterfly bushes, flowering crab, lilacs. It is filled with rusty treasures to catch one's eye. An arch marks the entrance to her garden and it was a maple she bent over to make the 6 foot arch. I wonder what would have happened to the tree if left to grow that way? It was cut down when she moved.
II. Carroll - dotes on floral color.Acre on a corner on an incline. First to grow flowers in the neighborhood on Rainbow Drive. And it stopped traffic. Front: Daylilies, African daisies, New England Asters, Irises ("too work-demanding"), St. Johnswort, yarrow, peonies and white flowered Boltonia. "Use pencils on your markers and it will not fade." Lots of trees and shrubs there, too. Side: Perennial begonia (Begonia grandis) is enormous; sweet bay magnolia; (She does not keep a book - takes a lot of photos - just like me). Backyard is woodsy - lots of trees and shrubs. Sassafras, dogwoods, wild persimmons, elderberry, spice bush (Swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on it), sothern magnolia, pin oak, beauty berry (cardinals and other birds love), white pine, hemlocks. Two compost heaps - one in shade and one near the house. Piles like mine!!).then a corner with orange flowers - orange marigolds, orange snapdragons, orange crocosmia, orange lion's ear. Nearby ar moonflowers (Ipomoea alba) cover a trellis. A Pool. The back forty vegetable garden. "Plant evening primrose (Oenothra biennis) to attract the Japanese beetles from your other plants" Won't that just attract the one's from the neighbors, too? My ferns and grapes are beloved by the beetles but they still munch on the 2nd (of 3) flowering of my rosebush).

Juliette dotes on plant-shapes and shades of green in her B&B (started in 2000). [could this be a field trip for a few of us?]
Front: 4 yellowwood trees native to the South. Large white flowers in the spring. 3 boxwood. She was so tired of cleaning up after the big Southern Magnolia that she severely cut it back to a bush and now it is only 6 feet tall and covered with the shiny leaves from ground up. Redbuds, black locust, bald cypress, fig and Harry Lauder's walking sticks (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') [sound neat - anyone have them here?]. Lots of steps and paths for visitors in the steep backyard. Liriope, poke joe-Pye, Hyacinth vine at the swing with fragrant blossoms with edible pods (Dolichos lablab).

Steve - small tranquil, well-shaded spaces limned by trees, shrubs and flowers.
Looks like a Green Man. Front is a rock garden. St. johnswort, white anemones, sedum, iris. Flagstone patio invites lingering. Ferns, trumpet creeper, Korean cherry tree (he traded two nativity scenes from his vast collection). Backyard has impatiens with enormous flowers ("the variety hawkeri was discovered in 1970 … by grant from Longwood Gardens..in New Guinea as an ornamental….hybridized…one is Trapeze.). Butterfly bushes. Not a blade of grass. She writes a lots about each of these plants.

GGClub - From Grass to Gardens - secrets of vegetables and "weeds" - by Janet Lembke

I am loving From Grass to Gardens and there are so many wonderful gardening tips that I want it available to all, so am entering it on this blog. Following are quotes from Janet Lembke, maybe slightly paraphrased, and my comments, too. Please hit reply and add your own comments.

Lots of recipes here for the vegetables.

Companion Planting
marigolds and tomatoes. Virgil: vegetables along with white lilies, verain and poppies. Iroquois: corn, squash and beans (grat story here). She has a table from USDA.

Green Beans
To not fart - eat with applesauce.

July
Put iin the fall crops - broccoli, cauliflower need to start by July's end (she lives in Blue Ridge, VA area). Pick cucumbers - young ones who have not set seeds will not cause burping.

August
tomatoes: Better Boys; Yellow Pears (produce late in season); and marigold is enough for her.
PUt in cauliflower, kale, collards, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi and broccoli are all "coles" and full of K, Vit C, fiber, antioxidants and more. rotate each year for 3 then you can go back.

Carrots: nantes half long and touchon go into a 10" raised bed. Squirrels scratch and no need to thin.

"Weeds" or food
Dandelion
http://www.goosefootacres.blogspot.com/ is my favorite how to eat weeds person. Ihave his book. His personal history should be know by any one who is hungry - Wanda or Andrea - maybe some of the food bank people would be interested. "It was that way with my family also. Back in 1948, my father died and left us with no money. My mother had no skills to support a family, but a friend told us that we could “live on lambsquarters” until she developed some.. Today, had she said that, she would have been laughed out of the kitchen. But then it was not unusual advice, because most Americans grew gardens and were familiar with what the soil had to offer. We knew that we were surrounded by mysterious wonders waiting to be discovered and harnessed for our use, and just needed someone knowledgeable to unlock the secrets. For us, that someone was Agnes Mare, a neighbor and friend from down the street. For the next six months, while my mother learned a couple of trades that would earn her enough money to support us, my six-year-old brother and nine-year-old self would spend the early mornings before school gathering the young tops of lambsquarters and bringing them into the kitchen where mother would make the most amazing spinach dishes from them. For, after all, that is all that lambsquarters is– a wild spinach."
Back to Janet;
Dandelion (another Aster!!!) came from Eurasia. Chines call it "earth nail"!!! Japan - 200 ornamental varieties. Greek genus name means: remedy for disorder. Species name means "sold in shops". John Gerard in the Herball: "Boiled - strengthens the weake stomacke; raw stops the belliw and helps the dysentery"

Ground ivy
"brings me great delight". Ivy like mint in the mint family. Gerald says it was put in ale casks. It can cover cfileds and climb hedges, so I would say it is a no no. Janet loves that it stays green in winter (so maybe I will leave it ini the lawn where it is mowed down before it flowers)

Trumpet vine
Native to us. Part of the Bignoniaceae, the Trumpet Creeper family (catlpas.

virginia Creeper & wild clematis or virgin's bower
Native.
Creeper: The leaves turn deep red which signals birds that the fruit is ready and they alight to feast on drupes and berries -mutualism. Not too pushy a plant.
Clematis: Totally grabby plant. a lawn mower kept it within bounds (at her moms). Belongs to buttercup family - Ranunculaceae.

Immigrant plants
I am listing possible edible ones .
amaranth - redroot pigweed - S. Amer.
bindweed - Europe
burdock - europe
red clover - North Africa, asia, europe, india
henbit - europe and africa
lamb's quarters - pigweed - goosefoot - eurasia (delicious. Wild Spinach. mess of greens from spring till frost. gather the tender leaves, boil briefly, drain, butter, hard cooked egg and vinegar. High in A and C, ca, K and Ph. Seeds great for birds, squirrels and chipmunks. Was cultivated at Iron Age towns in Denmark. Seeds can be ground for flour or eaten whole.)
mallow - europe (Gerard: leaves against insect bites and prevents bites)
wild onion/garlic, crow garlic - europe
winter cress, yellow rocket - europe (mustard family. Gather before winter is out and add to salad. Bitter after flowers up.

NATIVES:
bur cucumber, cinquefois, fleabane (eastern daisy), goldenrod, horse nettle, nutrass, plantain, pokeweed, sicklepod, spanish needles, spurge, blue violet, confederate vioset (woolly violet), wood sorrel. Many of these are edible, too. she cuts back the violets after they bloom and they bloom again in the fall.

GGClub - From Grass to Gardens - Flowers part 2 - by Janet Lembke

I am loving From Grass to Gardens and there are so many wonderful gardening tips that I want it available to all, so am entering it on this blog. Following are quotes from Janet Lembke, maybe slightly paraphrased, and my comments, too. Please hit reply and add your own comments.

pg 101
black eyed Susans
Another member of the aster family. "Rudbeckia" honors a father and son at Univeristy of Uppsala in Sweden. She loves "Prarie sun" with 5" flowers.

Coreopsis
Asters - again!! Tickseed. Whorls, pompoms and petal-light of palest yellow and deep gold. Native to N. America - grow wild in many states. I do not think I have ever seen them growing wild. Used for dying.

Lantana (L.camara) - ??? OK to plant?
Vervain family (teak tree of Asia; beauty berry tree of America.
Myriad little flowers of many colors that attract lots of butterflies all summer long. Long bloom. sprawls. Shrub verbena. It has overrun the Pacific islands and Thailand - in top 100 of invasives. Forms thickets which exclude native understory species. Fruits poison animals and it secretes chemicals inimical to vegetables. Janet says that in the north it is ok to plant, coming back after the day lilies bloom, then dying out in Nov. comments - invasive here or not?

Sunflower
Aster family again. Indians cultivated them as food crops. Aztecs venerated them. Main crop is for oil, with the rest of the plant fed to animals. over 3 million acres are for this crop. "In th early stages of growth s do track the sun but later stabilize themselves to face east before they bow their heads toward the earth. The bowing has been bred into them, for that lowered head makes it harder for birds to snack on the ripened seeds."

that's it for flowers. Remember this book is at the Hereford Library.

GGClub - From Grass to Gardens - Flowers part one - by Janet Lembke

I am loving From Grass to Gardens and there are so many wonderful gardening tips that I want it available to all, so am entering it on this blog. Following are quotes from Janet Lembke, maybe slightly paraphrased, and my comments, too. Please hit reply and add your own comments.

I love what Janet says about her garden - It is my goal - the gaudier the better. Sedum pink clashes with cayenne red and marigold orange. Flowers and vegetables mixed together.

Daylilies
These are her favorite. Name means "Beauties of a day." I have eaten almost every part of the day lily (stuffed blossoms, base of greens in a salad, dead blooms in soups & stews. Janet says when she was a child, her friends and she would pick all the flowers and suck the nectar from the base - just like honeysuckle. I did not know this about the plant. The Chinese (where they originated) said the buds, made into a powder, are good to ease pain and grief. They grazed cattle on daylilies. If seedpods form at the base of the flower, cut them off (I have never done that).

MARIGOLDS
Again, I am just noting things Janet says that are new to me or prompt me to think other thoughts for you. Aster family (marigold is one) are a New World plant found by the Portuguese in 1500s. Several are native to the US Southwest and grown wild. Pot marigold (calendula officinalis) is european, but its name, Marigold was given to the Nw World flowers that went from Brazil to India to Europe and back to the Americas. Gerard reported a boy who had swollen lips and mouth after eating marigolds and a cat whose lips became swollen before it died and mice have been reported dying after eating it. "Contrary to Gerard, the petals may be eaten without fear". The roots do release a compound that kills root bug that kill tomato roots, which is why so many plant them as companion crops. One Burpee marigold is called Nema-gone.

This year they grew well from seeds in one of my deck boxes. I will try their seeds next year.

zinnia
I get to pick these from my CSA, Calvert's gift farm - all summer long. One year they did well for me. "All you need to do is broadcast the seeds." It was originally a drab weed that the Aztecs called eye-sore. Linnaeus named it after a professor of medicine, Johann Zinn, who had grown the plant from seeds sent from Mexico. "The ugly duckling became a swan after hybridizing.

Its odor repels pests. It loves sun.

GGClub - From Grass to Gardens by Janet Lembke - Edible plants

I am loving From Grass to Gardens and there are so many wonderful gardening tips that I want it available to all, so am entering it on this blog. Following are quotes from Janet Lembke, maybe slightly paraphrased.

Pg 65
RED BUD BLOSSOMS are sugar sweet. John Lawson (1709) - "the Red-Bud-Tree bears a purple Lark-Heel, and is the best Sallad, of any Flower I ever saw. It is ripe in April and May."