Art Design 4 Garden

hello!

its so nice to be back.

what a great week of posts last week!

a big hug and a thanks to all of our guests.



we have had loads of rain here and more to come

so the garden is large and lush these days.

the hens are happy in their new home

and our banty has begun to lay sweet tiny eggs.

we have harvested our first pear of the season.

and watermelons are growing on our front stoop.

i have plans to start a new rock wall this weekend, if i dont get washed away.

i love this time of year.

fall is in the air

but there is still so much to come.

I like to encourage folks to keep their gardening manageable and focused on what they enjoy (in programs at the botanical garden where I work).  But plants grow, reproduce, and need editing, and its not always easy.

In our acre and half in the Piedmont, Im finding myself doing more heavy-lifting tasks than Id like (with my gardening companion doing field work in the mountains).  Hmm, I guess I havent appreciated how important mowing and weed-whacking have been to keeping even our natural garden in shape.  Yuck -- not pleasant gardening tasks, and weed-whacking has produced a small back strain.  Phooee.

I worry about NOT having enough gardening to do in the mountains, when we eventually decamp to our small house and garden there (hey, theres plenty of gardening work to be done in local community gardens, etc.)  But its hard not to appreciate what having a smaller gardening footprint means.  There are other things to do, after all.

At Chau Ram County Park (with camera and binoculars)

A recent news item confirms what has been in the pipeline for some time, that a bug, of Japanese origin is about to be released in carefully-selected sites in the UK, to control Japanese knotweed. A friend in Japan tells me it has been collected in her area, Kumamoto, right on the southern tip of Kyushu. Here’s a local newspaper story:http://www.47news.jp/CN/201003/CN2010030901000230.html
Given the disasterous history of introducing predators of pests (like Australias’ cane-toad problem) some have expressed alarm at introducing the insect. This does sound like it has been thoroughly researched though, apparently for several years, to ensure that the bug doesn’t affect native flora - so let’s stop worrying and get on with it.
Knotweed is a magnificent plant, which is why the Victorians introduced it - William Robinson in The Wild Garden suggests planting in ‘the pleasure ground’ and by the waterside. Maybe we should blame him? Call it ‘Robinson’s knotweed’ instead of blaming the Japanese.
The press of course love Japanese knotweed. They love stories about foreign exotics causing trouble generally. Something about the triffid nature of the story appeals to that elemental need for journalists to frighten people. And of course an excuse for a bit of subliminal racism - have you noticed that the country origin of these scare-plants or pathogens is always emphasized: Spanish bluebells, Dutch elm disease etc. By the way, if you ever see buddleia being called ‘Chinese buddleia’ then you can be sure that someone has decided its a bad thing and is to added to the list of proscribed plants.
Japanese knotweed is undeniably a huge problem in a few areas, and an irritant in many more. It is not going to take over the country any more than the entire population is going to be eating raw fish for breakfast, or even spreading miso on toast like I do. There is an unattractive eco-fascist tendency which tends to see all non-native plants as problems waiting to happen, and the knotweed as simply the tip of an iceburg. Some ecologists however have pointed out that some spring wildflowers like wood anemones are able to co-exist happily with knotweed and others that growing alongside rivers it is very good otter habitat.
The spread of knotweed since its introduction in the latter 19th century is of course a warning to all in horticulture, that we do need to be responsible with what we grow and where we plant it, but the reality is that the problems we have with invasive aliens is pretty minimal compared to those faced in many other countries. Our long growing season which enables our aggressive grass flora to make vigorous growth for most of the year sees off most potential invaders. And some others, like buddleia, are a positive benefit.
I’d be quite happy to see knotweed as yet another part of our flora, kept well in check by the little Kumamoto-bugs or whatever they are called, just popping up now and again by the waterside, just like William Robinson would have intended.

It was a sunny warm day, in the upper 70s, perfect for gardening. Its nice to be back to work in my own garden after being away for a week.

- Some marigolds and cosmos transplanted to pots.
- Sow 2 flats of seeds for cucumbers, zinnias, pumpkins, winter squash, summer squash, melons and broccoli.
- Prepare one garden bed and plant fava beans.
- Weed the garlic and asparagus beds.
- Weed the main path in my community garden plot.