The Long Story of Tea in America Have you ever wondered where your tea comes from? Tea is one of those everyday things that we can always find at the grocery or convenience store. You may remember that tea was imported to Boston in the Colonial era. Maybe you also remember the story of how colonists, dressed as Native Americans, dumped the British East India Company’s cargo of tea into the Boston Harbor in December 1773 to protest unfairly high...
A Mystery and A Memory We found several large evergreen shrubs in our new yard that we couldn’t immediately identify, when we moved here over a decade ago. We could pick out the boxwood and Camellias, but we were especially curious about the very tall, open shrubs that the birds loved the most. It was August, and tiny bluish gray drupes were ripening along this shrub’s woody stems. Its leaves were fragrant. Birds gathered in its dense and twiggy...
Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium and More That pile of wet grounds left from your fresh pot of coffee contains nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and iron. Does that list of ingredients sound familiar? You may recognize this nutrient list from the last bag of fertilizer you read. Brewed coffee grounds, the dried and ground remains of the coffee bean, which is a seed, can be repurposed to enrich compost and improve soils. Grounds may contain up to 10% nitrogen, intended...
We can consider winter as the ‘weekend’ of the gardening year, both the last month and the first months of the year when we can enjoy a much-needed rest from the regular routine. A period of rest and renewal restores energy to both the garden and the gardener. It allows us time for reflection on the successes and challenges of seasons past and an opportunity to plan and prepare for the seasons to come. If winter is the weekend,...
The United States Department of Agriculture released an updated Plant Hardiness Zone map on November 15 that reflects changes for about half of the country. This updated map, the first since 2012, is based on the average coldest winter temperature, on the coldest night of the year, for each region of the country. The trend shown on this map paints an accurate picture of how many parts of our country are warming. The USDA cautions, however, that the data...
If fragrance is the gate of memory, the spicy aroma of Eastern red cedar takes me back to childhood holidays. My parents would load us in the car, about a week before Christmas, for a drive out to a friend’s farm where we could walk through the meadows in search of our Christmas tree. After a lively debate about the trees we found, Dad would pull out an old handsaw and begin cutting the tree. We would all help...
The first Camellia shrub usually chooses a stretch of damp, cool October days to burst into bloom. I am always taken by surprise when its luminous white, spring-like blossoms unfold, because they look rather out of place beside the colorful leaves falling from nearby trees. Bright flowers in shades of white, pink, and red open on our evergreen Camellia shrubs each October and November while the rest of the garden fades, and as we begin preparing for winter’s...
Vines of all types love our Coastal Virginia climate. Many different species thrive in summer’s heat and humidity, growing by inches each day. They creep across the ground until they encounter something to climb. Their tender, flexible tips reach up and out in search of a support, and then they climb. Benefits of Vines All vines in our area produce flowers and seeds. While some flowers are bright and showy, like the bright orange trumpet creeper, others are nearly...
I never intended to create the Lantana stand. Never in my wildest gardening dream did I expect it to get this huge. There were no warning labels to prepare me for what it has become. And it all began so innocently… In the beginning, there were only a lonely tea rose and a few New Guinnea impatiens, I. hawkeri, growing in the neat round bed in the center of our new front yard. We bought the house in...
“… despite its bad reputation, Phragmites provides many benefits that are generally unknown and unappreciated. After studying salt marsh ecology and the impacts of stressors, including invasive plants, for many years, I have concluded that removing this invasive species wherever it is found – especially along vulnerable coastlines – is a very expensive and often foolish procedure.” Dr. Judith Weis, Professor Emerita in Biological Sciences Rutgers University Historically, Phragmites Are Part an Important Part of the Ecosystem Our...