Leaves float on every strong breeze, covering our walks and driveway just hours after we last cleaned them. The many different species of trees in our community almost guarantee that we will have a long season of managing fallen leaves and pine tags. Leaves may begin to fall in August or September, particularly when the weather is dry. And some trees hold onto their leaves until the following spring. So cleaning up fallen leaves is more of an ongoing...
Pawpaw Flowers Pollination Challenges Pawpaw flowers are a dull red to purple color which resembles rotting meat, and they have a putrid odor to attract the flies and beetles that pollinate them , much like native skunk cabbage and jack-in-the pulpit. Pawpaw’s small flowers have six petals and are rarely larger than a half-dollar. These are ‘perfect’ flowers, having both male, pollen bearing stamens and a female pistil, whose base will develop into the fruit after about five to...
The Elements of Life Water, light, and air fuel our lives. We depend on them, as does every plant and animal. Light energy powers the chemistry of photosynthesis to transform elements like carbon and hydrogen into sugars, food. Oxygen fuels the production of life energy in every living cell. And water fills every cell of every living creature; gives us sap and blood; powers every process of life. There is no life, not even the tiniest microbe, without water. ...
What is a mycorrhiza? (my-kor-rise’-uh) A mycorrhiza is a symbiotic relationship between a plant and a network of mycelium in the soil. Over 90% of plant species depend on mycorrhizal fungi to assist their roots in accessing water and minerals from the environment. Mycelium extend the reach of a plants’ roots. Why are mycorrhizae important? Fungi share in the abundance of sugars and other carbon-based phytochemicals produced by a growing plant each day. They use carbohydrates absorbed from a...
“To use the world well, To be able to stop wasting it and our time in it, we need to relearn our being in it.” Ursula Le Guin A friend and I were chatting about recipes one afternoon. She is a talented cook and loves to feed her friends and loved ones. I asked for the recipe for something delicious she had served, and she avoided disclosing the details. Finally, she gently explained that among her family, no...
Our once shady front yard was left a bright expanse of coarse wood chips and mangled leaves after the arborists pulled out their heavy equipment and left, that hot summer afternoon almost a dozen years ago. A freak summer thunderstorm had harbored a waterspout or small tornado when it blew in from College Creek a few days before. Our first clue that something was wrong had been seeing the underside of a muddy root ball rising 8 feet or...
Appropriate Species for Tiny Forests in Eastern Virginia Tiny forests designed following the Miyawaki method include a wide variety of native trees, shrubs, and ground covers planted randomly and densely, varying the heights of trees to establish a canopy layer, intermediate layers, and a ground cover layer. Plant as many as 3 to 5 plants per square meter into the prepared soil. Plants grow quickly, reaching for the light. A forest that takes a century or more to develop...
“Why should a man die in whose garden grows sage? Against the power of death there is not medicine in our gardens But Sage calms the nerves, takes away hand Tremors, and helps cure fever. Sage, castoreum, lavender, primrose, Nasturtium, and athanasia cure paralytic parts of the body. O sage the savior, of nature the conciliator!” From the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum ca 1100-1200 CE The name Salvia officinalis, designating our common culinary sage, derives its species name from...
“And therefore, as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.” William Shakespeare, from Hamlet, First Folio Perhaps you have already made a fairy garden. It is an endearing activity for parents and grandparents to enjoy with the children in their lives. Full of whimsy and fun, we enter the world of ‘make-believe’ once again and see the world from a different perspective. Everything is...
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet v. Q2 1599 What is in a name? How does naming a thing affect its destiny and how later generations will view it? The story of how a popular native holly came by its name, and how that name destroyed a promising Colonial American industry, demonstrates that names have incredible power to shape the future....