ARCHIVES

WET SPRING MEANS...                    Oops, Apr. 25, 2005

You haven't missed an essay, but I have, alas. I've been busy re-doing our back yard and replacing diseased fruit trees. 

This wet spring means do not step in your garden beds on this soggy soil because that will compact it. If you must get in to plant or weed, put down scrap lumber to step on, to spread the weight. 

It also means plant foliage is more vulnerable to fungus diseases.  They spread by splashing or blowing water as a rule.  One shows up on rose leaves as black spots.  In our dry climate, we usually don't see much evidence of black spot on roses. But we may this year. 

Other fungal diseases may rear their ugly heads as well. Powdery mildew and late blight may occur here this spring. 

People in other parts of the world have found an effective control of these fungi is a mixture of milk and water.  Apparently skim milk works well without causing odor problems arising from milk fats.  A mixture of 1/3 skim milk to 2/3 water (or even 1/4 milk to 3/4 water) seems to work well in one or two applications.  Some have even found it cures botrytis blight in peonies. 

It's worth a try, and harmless to pets and humans. 

Renovations of my back yard include having had a helper dig out a flower bed, and replace ground-level plantings with large containers.  One of my first gardening loves was growing herbs, so that's what I'm planting in the containers: all culinary herbs. 

Containers will raise plants up to a level where I can weed, harvest and tend the herbs from the seat of my electric scooter.  It works well, but I'd certainly like to talk to a representative from the company (Celebrity) so they could make a scooter ideal for gardening.  It can be improved. 

Also, containers will prevent some herbs from taking over the herb bed as Oregano, Marjoram and mints love to do.  I have about 20 large containers ready for planting, including two half whiskey barrels. 

I have thymes (several varieties), basils, Tarahumara Oregano, summer savory, sweet marjoram, chives, bunching onions, sorrel, French tarragon, parsleys (flat-leaved and curled), cresses, borage, cutting celery, salad burnet, sages, rosemary, caraway, chervil, chives, cilantro, perilla, papalo, and regular and garlic chives for the containers.  Another bed has recently been cleaned of weeds, so that will be planted with flowers. 

This is exciting to re-do beds from time to time.  Try it, you'll like it!  ##

MOTHERS AND MATERS                         April 9, 2005

Just in time for Mother's Day, a neat new paperback book contains a collection of charming reminiscences under the title, "My Mother's Garden."  The collection, "about love, flowers, and family," includes eight original essays by some of today's top garden writers as well as selections previously published in other formats.

Some of the stories are about Grandmothers' gardens, and that's fine for Mother's Day too.  Before the advent of drip watering and soaker hose, working Moms didn't garden extensively because evening watering set the stage for foliar diseases.

My Mother wasn't much of a gardener, but both of my Grandmothers were avid gardeners, even before the World War II Victory Gardens that everyone grew. This charming book is published by Chamberlain Brothers, a division of Penguin, and the price is right: $9.95.  Introduction by the renowned Penelope Hobhouse. 

When Mothers grew anything other than flowers, it was usually tomatoes.  No tomato ever tasted as good as a home-grown, vine-ripened one.   

If you're new to the Treasure Valley, be advised that local gardeners don't plant frost-tender plants such as tomatoes out in the garden until the snow has melted from Shaffer's Butte overlooking Boise. Snow on that Butte has been likened to a barometer, showing we can still have frosts and freezes this spring.

If you get excited over a warm day and plant a tomato plant out without extraordinary protection then the weather chills, the plant will never overcome the shock to its diurnal rhythms and you'll get a smaller harvest than you would if you had waited. 

Nevertheless, Home Depot was selling tomato plants three weeks ago.  It used to be said in Boise that some garden centers planned on selling tomato plants to each person three times each spring because that was how many times they'd lose them to frost.  All of us who refuse to eat supermarket tomatoes are eager for the first home-grown tomatoes, so it's tempting to plant early.

You can get away with early planting IF you surround your plant with Walls o' Water (WOWs) or an Aquadome.  Walls o' Water do work, but be sure you pick each one up after you've filled the pockets with water to eliminate any creases near pocket bottoms.  Those creases bar water, and make the WOW unstable.  I have not used Aquadomes, but Ross Hadfield has, and he says they work well too. 

You're going to have to scramble if you want to be first in the valley with a home-grown (outside) tomato.  Mrs. Hap Tallman is primed to have her first ripe one by Memorial Day.  She has seedlings and Walls o' Water ready. 

I was at Edwards' Greenhouse last week, and they had very large tomato plants ready for setting out with protection.  My seed-started seedlings are nowhere near that large, and it was tempting.  But the varieties of tomatoes were all hybrids, and I don't grow hybrids.  Instead I grow open-pollinated (OP), some heirloom, varieties. 

Hybrids lack tomato flavor, and they're usually tough-skinned and very firm.  Scared by a cannonball or two.  When Edwards Greenhouse people sow tomatoes for later outdoor growth, they usually have a good selection of open-pollinated varieties.  I suspect those large hybrids were grown by another greenhouse.

HEALTHY, TASTY TIDBITS LIVEN SALADS   April 5, 2005

No fooling.  You don't have to eat same old, same old, salads or buy expensive mixes of different lettuces for your salads.  Tailor your salads to your own palette. 

There are many different cresses available, each with a different flavor.  You don't have to have flowing water to grow them, either, contrary to what even some experienced gardeners believe. 

Some of the more unusual cresses are not available commercially, but are passed along and swapped-for in seed exchange groups.  Seed Savers' Exchange members, for instance, offer Curly, Garden Cress, Persian Broadleaf, Rishad, Shallot Cress, Upland, Upland Special, Wrinkled, Variegated Winter cress, Wrinkled Crinkled and watercress. 

Each has a bit of bite to it, and enlivens a salad by its presence.  All of the cresses except watercress may be grown in regular garden soil without special attention. They're not tender to frost either. 

Watercress usually grows in flowing water, but it doesn't have to.  Some say you can plant small sprigs of it in a container that you then stand in a tub of water, changing the water every 24 hours.  Or set up a drip irrigation line to keep it well watered.  It doesn't thrive in shade or stagnant water.

Watercress is a close relative of nasturtiums, and is about as pungent as they.  The botanic name of watercress is Nasturtium officinale. 

Another unusual salad addition is tomatillo.  This is botanically known as Physalis ixocarpa, and all of the references I've seen tell you these are self-pollinating.  The problem is, they may pollinate themselves, but nothing comes of it.  They need pollen from another plant, so you must plant at least two plants.  They will cross easily with other Physalis species such as Chinese lanterns, ground cherries or Cape gooseberries. 

Tomatillos come in two colors: green and purple.  The green turns yellow and sweetens with age, about the time it falls off the sprawling plant (and it does sprawl and take a cage with it if you've tried to contain it).  If you're planning on using the tomatilloes in salsa or any other Mexican dish, you want to pick the fruits before they sweeten and turn yellow.  You can tell the size of the fruit by squeezing the husks. 

Another green addition to a salad that perks things up is sorrel.  It has a pert lemony flavor, although it grows as a green leaf.  It will send up a tall seed stalk when the weather turns hot, and the leaves are not as good at that time.  You can keep cutting the seed stalks back to delay seed formation. 

RAIN IN THE NICK OF TIME                March 25, 2005   

Some years we get what farmers call the "million dollar rain."  It's just enough moisture to get seeds started on the path to germination.  I think this week's rains qualified. I was beginning to think our water was dehydrated.

As you go through your seeds, I'm sure you wonder how long seeds are viable.  At one time or another we all go through that.  Allium seeds (i.e., ornamental alliums or chives or onions) are usually only viable for one year, so discard those that are older. 

Commercial seed companies often print on seed packets that they were packed for 2004 or some other year. That does not tell you what year the plant actually produced them, so if you've read that "xtra-leafy" seed is viable for five years and you have a seed packet that says packed for 2001 season, it may be too old. 

You can test the seed by using a folded damp paper towel.  Put ten seeds into the towel, slip it into a plastic bag in a moderately warm place (unless it's for a cole crop such as cabbage that prefers cool temperatures).  Don't let the towel dry out, but check it every so often. If 2 germinate, you have 20% germination, and may want to plant seeds much more thickly than recommended.  If none have germinated within a couple of weeks, you can either discard them or if it's a non-replaceable seed, there are options on trying to get them to germinate.

Some folks report success soaking seeds overnight in plain water before setting them to germinate. If that doesn't work, a soak for a few hours in a potassium nitrate solution (i.e., saltpetre) may work. Use one teaspoon potassium nitrate per quart of water.  If that doesn't spur germination, try 2 teaspoons Peters' 20-20-20 fertilizer in a gallon of water, then soak. 

The saltpetre soak is the only one of these I've actually used, and found it greatly hastened germination of hot chile seeds that are notoriously slow to germinate.  Usually when I want to refresh a variety and have had a complete germination failure, I plant all of the seeds of that variety, hoping one or two will germinate. I can then save that new generation of seeds.  ##

EARLY SPRING HITS TREASURE VALLEY        March 20, 2005   

Okay, my forsythia is lighting up the entire block, and it's blooming about a month early. Hardly need street lights when forsythia blooms like that.  Forsythia blooms on new wood, and my shrub was spottily blooming last spring, so I had it cut to the ground.  It came back, and is glorious.

It should be okay to prune roses now, and blooming forsythia means if you're going to prevent crabgrass germination, do it now. There are commercial pre-emergent chemicals available in most garden supply stores.  I usually use corn gluten meal, but it's more costly now.  Our front yard was devastated by having to hook up to the sewer, so preventing crabgrass isn't a priority there. 

I'd really love to be able to kill the field bindweed and Canada thistle in the front yard.  So far, have neither in the back yard, and I'm hoping for a continuation of that situation.

I'm converting a flower bed in back to containers so I can tend them from the back of my scooter.  I really miss my herb beds that were at ground level, so I'm mostly going to be planting culinary herbs in those containers. 

If you're planting onion seedlings in your garden, it will progress more smoothly if you'll give those roots a trim and nip off the ends of the leaves.  Sometimes roots grow longer on one side of a seedling than the other, making it difficult to set in a trench.  Trimming them doesn't set back seedlings a bit. 

I was unhappy to see that Fred Meyer is carrying onion sets grown outside of SW Idaho. There is an embargo on allium bulbs grown outside this particular region, and it's supposed to be enforced by the Idaho Dept. of Agriculture.  I'll bet other chain stores are selling the illegal sets too.  There is a good reason for the embargo. Agriculture officials fear spores (or organisms that will develop into spores) of white rot getting into the irrigation water supply and contaminating onion fields in southwestern Idaho and eastern Oregon.  Onion growing in that area is a huge enterprise, and if white rot fungus contaminates a field, that field has to be removed from onion production.  There's no known cure.

Sadly that embargo prevents folks from buying ornamental alliums grown outside the approved area too.  Alliums such as Schubertii, A. atropurpureum, A. caeruleum, nigrum, giganteum, christophii, etc., are so special.  Also, you're not supposed to plant Elephant garlic cloves in your garden, for the same reason.

I know I missed a week for an essay, but I was preparing a talk on seeds.  I'll post that on the "About Me" section of this website.  The future of seeds is of great concern to me, and it should be of concern to all: it has a direct effect on our food supply.

For those of you who don't go to that section, if you have children, please make sure they know that all vegetables (except hydroponic) grow in soil. I've had more than one or two young people tell me they don't want to eat anything grown in dirt, they'll get their vegetables at the supermarket. 

Who could have imagined they'd think those vegetables were not grown in soil?  ##

 

 

WISE ADVICE ABOUT SAGE                        March 6, 2005

Sage belongs in every culinary herb garden, but be careful about which kind you plant. Common sage, or Salvia officinalis, is hardy here, but some other varieties are not.  Folks on a garden forum on Internet have been talking about this, and some folks in warmer climates than ours claims it winterkills. 

It may die over winter, but not because of low temperatures. It can't tolerate an abundance of moisture.  Some folks in colder temperatures than ours claim that common culinary sage dies back to the ground over winter, but comes back rejuvenated in spring. 

It's not a herb you want to use in a lot of dishes, but in those dishes where it's appropriate, you can't do without it.  It's especially good in stuffing or in homemade sausage. It's used medicinally, and sage tea has been associated with longevity and increased mental capacity.

It's a woody sub-shrub with wiry square stems covered with down. Leaves are pebbled, and grey-green in color. The aroma is penetrating, and some folks with sinus trouble find a few minutes under a draped towel with hot sage tea is soothing. 

Golden sage is very attractive, not quite as rangy as the ordinary kitchen sage.  Both plants grow to about 18X18 inches, so leave room for expansion when you plant it.  They do best in full sun exposure. 

Berggarten sage looks like cooking sage on steroids. Very large leaves, and a somewhat larger plant.  Purple sage is somewhat smaller, and may also be used for culinary purposes.  Both of these sages are said to be hardy here, but my experience is that the purple sage is not nearly as hardy as the golden, and that's a bit less hardy than the Salvia officinalis. Another tender culinary sage is the Tricolor, and it's even less tolerant of frost than the purple sage.

There are many salvias that are tender to frost, but attractive plants in the herb garden.  Pineapple sage bears bright red, deep-throated flowers.  I think that flowering is in autumn, since Lindarose Curtis-Bruce and I tried for years to get it to flower during the Western Idaho Fair, but without success.   Even the foliage of melon sage is aromatic.

The flowers of these tender sages are edible, although the leaves are not used for culinary purposes.

***The weather is such that it's really tempting to plant out in the garden right now. I have planted some frost-tolerant plants out.  If you plant something that's frost tender, and want to protect it from unexpected cold nights, use a Wall o' Water, an Aquadome, or four two-liter pop bottles lashed together with duct tape. They should be filled with water, and be set in a circle around the plant before you tape them together. 

Cutting the bottom out of a milk bottle gives less protection, but sometimes that's all you need. If you cut three quarters of the way around the bottom, then pull the bottom out as a flap, you can weight it down with a stone or a brick so wind doesn't blow it away.  That's a great idea, courtesy of Ross Hadfield, Advanced Master Gardener, of Meridian. 

***I've had my attached greenhouse for several years and had no problems with mice, but this year they're entering, probably through the louvers, and eating pepper seedling leaves. Traps killed three of the varmints within hours. Now I'm plotting a way to screen out others.

It mystifies me why a greenhouse owner is pretty much on his/her own when it comes to cooling a greenhouse in addition to an exhaust fan opposite louvers. And now having to build my own cage for the louvers, the slats of which open outward. ##

THE GROWING SEASON ARRIVES                   Feb. 27, 2005

This was the most moderate February I've had in Boise over the past 32 years. Wow.  I learned something, too: not all cabbage seedlings are hardy.

We've had some cold nights here and there over the past few weeks, and I discovered to my horror that my cabbage mix seedlings hadn't survived in my cold frame. Four or five plants may not make it at all.  Pinetree only includes 12 seeds in a pack of mixed cabbages. 

The other seven seedlings came through with flying colors.  The Chinese cabbage actually grew quite a bit during their time in the cold frame.  This is a variety called 1 Kilo, and I'm assured it doesn't have a strong green mustard flavor. I hope my assurer is right. 

I set out lettuce seedlings and the Chinese cabbage in my garden last week. It's not out in the open, because I have too many birds who love greens in my area. I have the newly-planted bed covered with floating row cover.  It keeps things a little warmer under cover too.  I doubt if it's more than about three degrees warmer, though. 

That bed also contains some Petrowski turnips I planted last year. They should go to seed this spring, so I'll collect seeds and share with the Seed Savers' Exchange.  A woman on a garden list asked about them last spring, and neither of us could find a commercial source.  I hate to see seeds headed for extinction. I don't think the few degrees of warmth will affect the turnips.

Mail order stores also sell lightweight row cover just to bar insects, but one season of using that pretty well rips it up.  Slightly heavier cover used for frost protection is usable for several seasons, providing some dog doesn't think it's fun to poke his head through it.  I know, I shouldn't have laughed.

I used to think the only bad days for gardening were those in which the wind blew enough to block sinuses.  My best days gardening were those when the sky was overcast and a light rain or drizzle was falling. I even bought a yellow slicker so I could plant out in the rain, for that's the very best condition of all for transplanting.  My electric scooter isn't shielded from moisture, so I can't do that any more. I'd like to bend an ear of the Celebrity scooter people for a while. 

Another major benefit of planting under row cover is that you don't have to worry about hardening plants off.  That process of acclimating plants to direct sun and light winds can take a couple of weeks, but floating row cover admits enough light for plants to grow without baking the chlorophyll right out. 

If you're starting plants inside then transplanting outside, I hope you're not using peat pots. If you are, watch them closely because they will wick water away from your seedlings, even after they're planted in soil.  Their main benefit is in minimum root disturbance, and that's especially desirable in cases of transplanting melons, squash and cucumbers.  ##

 

 

HOW TO SHOP FOR PLANTS                            Feb. 18, 2005

We know better, don’t we?

We all know we should have a well-thought plan for our gardens, which plant goes where, but when we go to a nursery or greenhouse we buy what we fancy.

"Oooh, look at that! Isn’t that attractive? I want one of those." We buy it (or them) and haul them home. We set the plant or plants on the deck and every time they catch our eye, we’re thinking "you made me buy you, now where should I put you?"

Okay, let’s all change our shopping habits. At the very least, take inventory of your gardens. Shade garden? Need something with contrasting foliage about 18 inches in diameter, between Coleus and begonias.

See how easy that was? Go to the nursery or greenhouse, look in the section for shade plants (it wouldn’t or shouldn’t be out in full sun), and find a plant whose foliage would contrast nicely with Coleus and begonias. Then start looking at hardiness, blossom color and bloom time, mature height and water requirements.

If tags don’t tell you, ask a knowledgeable person for help. If you can’t find a knowledgeable person, go to another greenhouse or nursery to shop. Many stores just hire minimum wage people to move and water plants for the summer. It’s a joy to find someone with answers to your questions, and greater than joy, it’s a blessing to find a knowledgeable person to recommend a plant you hadn’t thought of that would work perfectly for your garden bed.

A great way to shop is to research plants at home so you go looking for a specific plant to fill that hole. It’s a major advantage to be waited on by a person who has grown that plant in this area.

I’ll bet you won’t just buy that plant, though. None of us can resist a particularly attractive plant. "Buy me! Me too!" Every gardener has heard that whisper as a shout.

Okay, so much for your first visit of this growing season to the nursery or greenhouse. What do you do for the rest of the summer? Go back, of course. There are very good reasons for return visits. One is to look for another plant to fill a specific hole.

Some experts advise going back to the nursery every two weeks throughout the growing season. This frequency should show you a plant in bud, in blossom, and post-bloom so you know whether it should be in a visible or secluded location. Some plants suffer post-bloom ranginess you’d rather hide.

At times you go back and these plants are sold out. So it’s up to you, whether you want to see these plants at different stages and risk not being to buy them at all or whether you’ll buy them and take your chances. If they turn ugly, you can transplant them.

Another reason for going back is that nurseries and greenhouses continue to get shipments of plants through most of the summer. Each shipment will have different species and varieties of plants, too.

Locally-owned greenhouses and nurseries obtain plants from wholesalers in this area. That tells you that the plant does grow and thrive in this area, and if it’s a perennial, shrub, vine or tree, it may have already spent one winter in this climate. Locally-owned garden centers also stock and sell plants that don’t happen to fit in the racks of plants hauled interstate by large trucks. Locally-grown plants may be much larger or more fragile than racked plants.

Chain garden centers believe that color sells, and to some extent they’re right. But they usually don’t carry plants that bloom in autumn, because they’re gearing up for Christmas when that plant would bloom. Locally-owned centers do carry such plants, sometimes with a tag showing blossom color, sometimes not. These plants may not look like much in early summer, but after labor day they puff up and bloom their hearts out.

Do some home research on fall-blooming plants. You’ll be glad you did. Happy Gardening! – Margaret Lauterbach www.margaretlauterbach.com for new garden essay each week. ##

The locally-owned nursery or greenhouse may have a garden book showing the plant in bloom or you could research it at home or at the library before purchase.

 

SEEDLINGS ARE FRAGILE AS A NEWBORN BABY       Feb. 11, 2005

If you're starting seeds indoors, they're tender and fragile. Watering with cold water right out of the tap is a shock that can be fatal. Use tepid water. It would be better to let the water stand for some time to let the chlorine gas off, but it hasn't hurt my seedlings.

Keep seeds well watered, but not soggy. Once they germinate, watch out for "damping off," a fungus disease that causes the stem at soil line to constrict flat, cutting off circulation to the seedling. Then it dies. The dilemma is that you have to keep the seedlings well watered, but all of that water contributes to damping off. There are ways to battle that disease ranging from a good sprinkle of cinnamon on the soil surface to watering with chamomile tea. I use two teabags of chamomile tea per quart of water, but you might find good results with a lighter mix. 

Brushing the seedlings very lightly each day (or running a fan over them so they sway in the breeze) toughens seedling stems and trunks.  They'll reach for the light, so turn them often to try to get them to grow straight up.  As soon as my seedlings germinate, or most in the pot have germinated, I move the pot into the greenhouse. 

The first two leaves of a seedling are feeding the plant as long as they're green and attached.  The plant is too fragile for transplanting until it develops its first true leaves. 

*** Do you chit?  Chitting is the act of cutting your seed potatoes and putting them into good light about a month before you plan on planting them out. It's also called "greening" or "pre-sprouting."  It's commonly done in Europe, rarer in the U.S., but it shouldn't be. 

To chit your seed potatoes, cut pieces so each has two or more eyes and consists of at least one ounce of flesh (I figure at least one cubic inch is enough). If the potatoes are hen's egg-sized or smaller, leave them whole. Spread the cut pieces in a shallow box or flat, one layer, with eye ends up. It's better if they're not touching.

You may want to shake them in a bag of  sulfur first, to prevent scab, infection and fungus.

Put the shallow box in a warm space where light levels are good, a week to a month before planting out.  This light will keep sprouting short and vigorous, less likely to break off. 

Advantages of chitting are faster start to growth and greater tuber production. Reason enough for the advance work.  ##

STRONG WINDS? PUT THEM TO WORK OR SLOW THEM DOWN  Feb. 4, 2005

Several years ago I visited a farm at the west end of the valley, near the Snake River. The location should have been ideal, but it was a very windy site, blowing sand scouring out growing crops and shredding plastic-covered greenhouses.

What could one do in such a situation?  Well, look into wind power generation for one thing.  But if one were persistent in their desire to farm, they could grow in "waffle" beds, like some of the early Southwest natives used. They were set below grade, and generally designed in depressed squares (hence waffles) to hold water as long as possible before it drained away.

Such plants-in-a-hole might need to be protected by windbreaks of some kind to prevent dune formation from covering them.  But it might work.

That's do-able in a small garden, but if you have many acres in which to grow, other solutions must be used, and about the only option open is growing a windbreak.  Growing a windbreak takes time, but it can be done. 

The usual practice is to grow parallel rows of trees planted across the direction of the prevailing wind for a windbreak. Many use fast-growing trees such as poplars for the windward side of the windbreak, then slower-growing evergreens to fill in under the lowest branches of the poplars, between the trees.  Windbreaks may be two to eight rows of trees and shrubs planted in parallel rows about eight feet apart, and staggered to fill in between the trees of the previous row.

The purpose is to filter and slow the wind, not to stop it.  Solid windbreaks divert the air upwards, but it then curls down toward the barrier on the lee side, causing air turbulence that may do as much damage as the original gusts.  Filtered windbreaks slow the wind, but don't re-direct it.

Beyond the influence of the windbreak, the wind regains speed.  How far does that slowing influence extend? I've seen figures that slowing in speed should extend to two to five times the height of the tallest trees in the windbreak. If the trees are 30 feet tall, then the calming effect should extend for up to 150 feet. It may extend as far as seven times the height of the tallest trees, or in this case, 210 feet.  Still others maintain that a windbreak on an American prairie can protect for 100 feet for every ten feet in height, a 300-foot area of influence.

Poplars and willows tend to be some of the fastest-growing trees, so they're useful for windbreaks. In general, though, the faster the growth, the shorter the life expectancy.

Some poplars such as Lombardy poplars have comparatively short life expectancies, succumbing to disease in about 20 to 30 years. By that time evergreens such as Scotch pines planted in a row in front of the poplars should be full enough to tame the winds.  They will not be as tall as the poplars were, so when planning rows of trees for a windbreak another row of tall-growing deciduous trees should be planted to take the place of the expected loss of the poplars. 

By then, the original planter of the windbreaks may be retiring from farming. 

Trees are not planted so that their trunks match up, but rather in a zigzag fashion, such as WWWWW where one species of trees are planted at the top points, the other species at the bottom points.

For an acreage of any size, then, a series of windbreaks would be required to avoid harsh effects of the winds. An added benefit of the windbreaks would be giving cover and perhaps sustenance (depending on the species of trees used) to wildlife, although it does take up land in non-productive ways.

In Europe, dense hedges mark the edges of fields, some hedges hundreds of years old. They form great cover for wildlife, but are impenetrable by man or large animal. (No posts or wire to replace)  Experts "laying" such a hedge cut into growing branches and tie them to other branches so that they actually grow together, called  "pleaching."  They do act as windbreaks, but are only about six feet tall, so have a limited range of effectiveness for wind filtering.

Winds, even breezes, are desiccating, so additional water must be supplied growing crops to offset this dehydrating effect.

*** I've eliminated some of my shrub fruits from consideration. Honeyberry is only three feet tall, prefers shade, and something better is coming from breeders, I'm told. Cornelian cherries bloom too early (Feb.-March) for fruit success.  I'm back to the drawing board. ##

HARDY, BUT WILL FRUIT SURVIVE?                    Jan. 30, 2005

If you're considering unusual fruits for your yard, as I am, take time of blossoming into account.

Years ago I intended to grow hardy kiwifruit here. Forewarned about vigor of the vines and the weight the fruit could attain, we built an arbor of 4X6 poles set in the ground, linked overhead by concrete reinforcing rods.  The male kiwi plant died, I reordered,  the replacement died.  Then I began to notice when the female plants bloomed.  That was in March, well before our last frosts of the winter. Had they set fruit, it would have dropped anyway.

The vines are hardy.  I've read there's an old kiwi vine in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden that is very large.  Does it fruit? I don't believe so.  It's either a male vine or if female, blooms too early for fruit to hold to ripeness.

I think the early bloom time of apricots is the reason I didn't get apricots for most of the years I had apricot trees.  I used to get infrequent but wonderful apricots until that tree was riddled by borers.  I planted two other apricot trees in a different location, and neighborhood squirrels assumed ownership. I never got a single ripe apricot, even though last spring and the preceding spring, both trees were heavily laden. 

Now I'm looking at honeyberries, seaberries, goumis and Cornelian cherry bushes.  One Green World ( www.onegreenworld.com ) has some honeyberries that bloom in March, others that bloom later. I think March is too early. I won't be able to plant all of these varieties, but I'm studying and thinking about which I want to plant.  All should begin fruiting within two or three years.

Any time you're considering planting a fruit tree, it is important for you to know at what age that fruit, that variety begins blooming. Standard apple trees may take nine years before beginning to bear fruit.  They tend to be long-lived trees, fortunately.  Semi-dwarf and dwarf apple trees begin bearing in two or three years.

Don't look for abundance of fruit on your trees this year if you didn't do a lot of timely thinning last spring.  Trees as heavily laden with fruit as all were last year can either nurture fruit development or grow fruit buds for the following spring. They can't do both at once.  If we have another bountiful fruiting spring next year, thin all you can early to break the biennial fruiting cycle. 

One way to foil the early bloom-frost cycle is to plant fruit trees on the north side of your house. It will receive spring warmth more slowly, so will bloom later.  ##

 

LONELY FOR APHIDS? PINING FOR WHITEFLIES?    Jan. 21, 2005

There's been enough time between the end of the gardening season and now for you to have forgotten your soft-bodied enemies.  You could re-acquaint yourself if you'd get a greenhouse.

Aphids and whiteflies do appear out of nowhere, but you can keep them at bay with sticky yellow cards. I also do a lot of squeezing between thumb and forefinger as well as spraying with soap.

We bought a SunGlo lean-to greenhouse to commemorate our 30th wedding anniversary. I don't think they make the kind that has such large wavy corrugations anymore, but they do make thickly corrugated "skin" for greenhouses that has an advantage over the wavy kind -- it's smooth inside and outside. 

Greenhouses have come down in price and are more easily self-built than ever before.  There are small plastic-covered greenhouses you could use for seedlings, after setting them up on the patio. These lightweight greenhouses should be firmly anchored so they don't blow away. 

Charlie's Greenhouse & Garden has one that you can set up in less than an hour, and when the weather turns hot, fold it up into a large duffel bag.  There's a broad range of possibilities at www.charleysgreenhouse.com .

Or Charleys also has connectors for 2X2 framing to build a wooden frame for a greenhouse. These connectors relieve the builder of having to cut angles other than 90°.  Covering this kind of greenhouse may be done with glass windows or fiberglass or poly cover or TwinWall polycarbonate.  Charleys carries those items and so does FarmTek Growers Supply ( www.FarmTek.com ).  Farm Tek also carries structures of steel tubing, up to and including professional greenhouses. 

I have done business with Charleys greenhouse with no problems, have not done business with FarmTek.  You can check garden suppliers' reputations at www.gardenwatchdog.com. 

If you want to set up a cold frame, small or large greenhouse, you're going to have to deal with heating and cooling.  A small greenhouse may simply be heated by a 100 watt light bulb.  Too much heat will be your main problem, especially if the sun pokes through inversions.  You'll have to open vents or doors of greenhouses, and possibly set up  a fan to cool your plants.  One hot day in a closed cold frame can cook your plants.  Once cooked, they're gone. 

If you have or want a greenhouse, a valuable source of information is the hobby greenhouse list on Internet.  I think you can sign up by addressing LISTSERV@LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU , no subject, and in message portion type <Subscribe HGA-L> without the < and > .

Questions? e-mail me at the address below.  ##

NEW PLANTS TO ENTICE US                         Jan. 16, 2005

Sorry, I've just been lazy, so took an unannounced vacation here.

I started planting some seeds this morning, and I'm excited about a new gardening year.  I'll grow seedlings-to-be in the greenhouse until it's time to set them outside in my raised beds or containers. 

Seeds I planted this early are leeks, shallot seeds, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, artichokes and cardoon.  I also bought some sweet potatoes to set on the counter, waiting for them to sprout.

Some chiles take several days to germinate, so I usually plant them about this time too.  Capsicum chinense (Habaneros, fataliis, datil, squash, Scotch bonnet and rocotillo) are especially slow to germinate, even with pre-soak in saltpetre water and bottom heat.

One new variety of vegetable I'm especially excited about this year is a fingerling eggplant bred for growing in pots.  The name is Fairy Tale, and it's available from most seed companies since it's an All-America Selection, the first time since 1939 an eggplant has won that designation.  The eggplants droop over the edge of the container, and would be especially useful in curry dishes.

They wouldn't need to be peeled, but I'd at least cut them in half lengthwise for the flesh to soak up curry juices.  The skin wouldn't be penetrated by seasoned liquid.  The eggplant is said to be sweet and tender when small or double that size.  The plant only grows to 2 and 1/2 feet tall.

Perhaps in recognition of smaller and smaller yards that drive homeowners to plant in containers, another AAS winner is a compact Gaillardia, growing no more than one foot tall.  The variety name is "Arizona Sun." 

Another vegetable winning AAS designation is a winter squash called "Bonbon." It looks like a very large bonbon,  but the name apparently refers to the sweet flavor.  It's supposed to produce ripe fruit in 81 days from direct seeding, and has a semi-bush growing habit.  Again, that would be beneficial in small yards. 

A new cherry tomato, called "Sugary" was the other winning vegetable. It has a sugar content higher than most other tomatoes, and is crack resistant.  It's "semi-determinant" which means it will grow pretty large unless pruned back.  Pruning, of course, will reduce the supply of fruit. 

"First Kiss Blueberry" is "the first blue-flowered Catharanthus rosea (Vinca)" to win an award.  Breeders have been working to breed blue flowers in this plant for quite some time and AAS is convinced they've succeeded.  The color photo I've seen shows purple flowers.  There is a "botanical blue" that's really purple, but the fault may lie with the print. 

The other AAS winner this year is a double zinnia, "Magellan coral."  The blossoms are coral in color, and four to five inches across.    ##

 

CHEERFUL SUNFLOWERS LEAD SEED SUPPLIERS             Jan. 2, 2005

Have you noticed the new seed catalogs are full of sunflower seeds?  Sunflowers that are yellow, orange, red, bicolored, teddy bear-like to flat, huge heavy seed heads brighten the pages.

They're very interesting plants.  I haven't grown them in the past few years, but when I did grow them, it was for the seeds to feed birds and squirrels.  Note the picture on my home page.  I really meant to feed the birds; the squirrels helped themselves.  They chewed through a hard plastic lid on a garbage can to get at the stored seeds. 

The heavy stalks came in handy as "pushers" to push spent plants through the mulcher-grinder without hurting the mechanism.

Sunflowers' cheerful blossoms brighten any dim spot. They're great as cut flowers (they're a hit at every Farmers' Market in the country), and fine for bird feeders where they grow.  Seed hulls from black oil sunflower heads are allelopathic (toxic) to many other plants, though. If part of your flower garden under bird feeders isn't doing well, maybe you should blame the seed hulls.

Sunflowers were one of the earliest crops to be cultivated by early man.  Evidence indicates sunflowers were  cultivated as early as 3000 B.C.E. (Before Common or Christian Era), and early Native Americans followed their usual practice of planting the largest seeds from each crop. Farmers all over the world who save their own seed do that.  Some claim the Native Americans increased the seed size 1,000 percent, although that would mean the seeds were mighty small to begin with to serve as a food crop.

Early European settlers didn't think much of sunflowers as a food crop because they were so labor-intensive.  Spanish explorers took seeds back to Europe, where they were grown as ornamentals or curiosities.  Allegedly Peter the Great of Russia saw sunflowers growing in the Netherlands, and took seeds back to Russia.

That was an especially fortuitous introduction in Russia because the Russian Orthodox church banned the consumption of most oils during Lent, but there was no ban on the oil of the new sunflowers. And the seeds are oily. Russian agronomists bred and cultivated sunflowers specifically for huge oil-rich heads.

Then, when Russian immigrants came to America they brought seeds for those giant heads with them, and sold them to American seed companies.  About  the same time the Havasupai Native Americans who lived at the bottom of the Grand Canyon bred seed heads to approximately the same size as the Russians had  produced.

Botanically, the sunflower is a Helianthus, and is said to "track the sun."  It does turn, from east to west, following the sun, until buds turn to flowers. Flowers do not turn with the sun, perhaps an adaptive feature to keep the seeds from getting too hot.  Prior to blossoming or setting seed, the plant turns from east to west in total darkness.  Thus that's the plant's habit, not depend on the sun.

Although mature sunflower petals are not edible, the flower buds are edible when small.  Buds may be boiled or pickled, according to Native Seeds/SEARCH. William Woys Weaver, author of Heirloom Vegetable Gardening and other garden-cook books, maintains sunflower buds can be cooked like globe artichokes and they have a "delightful, nutty flavor." 

Sunflowers have also been used medicinally, some kinds of sunflower used to dye fabrics and basket materials, and some parts used for flutes and some for yellow facial powder during certain ceremonies. 

Sunflower oil is widely available for cooking.  Sunflowers are not only cheerful, but extremely useful.  ##

BLOOMS OUTDOORS AT CHRISTMAS, IN BOISE?   Dec. 26, 2004

My new, small Winter Honeysuckle is in bloom.  Just a few blossoms, but it's enough to impress me.  A common name for this Lonicera fragrantissima is "Breath of Spring" honeysuckle, and it's said to be so fragrant it will perfume a whole yard. 

Perhaps it will when it grows larger. Right now it's about two feet high, but mature growth will be about eight feet high and eight feet wide.  Some remarks indicate the shrub can be rangy, but judicious pruning can correct a lot of that. 

It doesn't suffer from insect invasions since few are out this time of year.  Considering its spread, I planted it too close to my deck, but pruning can correct that too, to an extent.

Lettuce and mache seedlings are hanging in there, a bright stripe of green against brown soil.  Leeks are still doing well, but some of my supposely hardy kale succumbed to freezing.  Red Russian kale was killed, black tuscan and Winterbor kales are still standing.  Kale is very nutritious, one leaf containing about the same amount of calcium as a glass of milk.

Government researchers have found that mass-produced vegetables are not as nutritious today as they were 40 years ago.  The difference lies in the extra nitrogen used to spur rapid growth.  Vegetables develop to harvest size before their nutritional components catch up. 

Worse yet, today's seeds are bred for that rapid growth, using fast-acting chemical fertilizers.  The world's biggest seed vendors are also the world's major chemical and pharmaceutical producers.  The message here is "grow your own."

Hope you had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah or pleasant Kwanzaa.  ##

PORING OVER NEW SEED CATALOGS    Dec. 19, 2004

Seed catalogs are arriving, giving me excuses to sit and dream.  The dreamed virtual garden has no weeds or malevolent insects.  I receive several free seed catalogs each year, and keep them in a vertical file, referring to them often.

The first thing I do is write the page number of the index or table of contents (some seed companies call index material a table of contents), because these catalogs are notorious for hiding such information.  Several include the index roughly in the middle of the catalog. 

With a piece of scrap paper, I sit and write down the items I'm especially interested in.  I may order a few of them or none.  You do have shipping costs to consider.  After I make my selection, I check to see if another seed company has that variety of seeds at a better price.  It's usually most helpful if I check to see if I already have that seed.  One of my major complaints about seed companies is that few of them date their seed packets.

Some seeds remain viable for a few years, others such as onion or any other allium seeds only remain viable for about a year. 

Some of my favorite seed catalogs, in no special order are Pinetree Garden Seeds ( www.superseeds.com ) with inexpensive but smaller seed packets; Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds ( www.rareseeds.com ) for large variety of squash, eggplants, tomatoes and melons especially; Evergreen Y.H. Enterprises for Oriental vegetable seeds ( www.evergreenseeds.com ); Tomato Growers Supply Co. ( www.tomatogrowers.com ) for a huge variety of tomatoes, chiles and eggplants; Nichols Garden Nursery ( www.nicholsgardennursery.com ) for a large selection of herb seeds and common and uncommon vegetables;

Richters ( www.Richters.com ) for herb seeds and plants, although remember this is a Canadian company so delivery may be slowed at the border; Parks Seeds ( www.parkseed.com ) for vegetables and flowers, especially sweet corn bred and raised in this valley; Territorial Seed Co. ( www.territorialseed.com ) for vegetables and flowers, some especially bred for the Pacific Northwest; and a soft spot in my heart for Southern Exposure Seed Exchange  (www.southernexposure.com ) for unusual vegetables.  Be cautious with these varieties, though, since they're bred to grow in hot humid conditions, some very long season requirements. 

*** Some very good news appeared a couple of days ago on a list I subscribe to.  Abundant Life Foundation, dedicated to preserving our seed heritage, was badly damaged last year when vandals set fire to an adjacent building.  They lost a lot of rare seeds, but not all.  They're making a comeback, with the help of Territorial Seed Co.  I don't know whether they'll have a seed catalog this year, but I hope so.    ##

SQUASH OR GOURDS?                   Dec. 11, 2004

I recall sitting in a classroom a few years ago hearing a report that distinguished gourds from squash by edibility: squashes were edible, gourds were not.  The statement was not challenged, by me or anyone else.  Now I would challenge it.

Many gourds are edible, chief among them the Lagenaria longissima, or the war club.  Nichols Garden Nursery carries seeds for it, advising picking when "half ripe."  Can't go to ripe and back up, but since the gourd is supposed to grow to "two to three feet long," I'd guess 12 inches to 18 inches would be half ripe.  Nichols reports Italians familiar with this vegetable claim they can build a banquet around a Lagenaria.

Another widely-used gourd is the young Luffa gourd.  Both the angled and the smooth luffas are eaten when they're four to six inches long.  If you let them grow larger, they're useful for pot scrubbers or bathing aids after the rind is softened and pulled off, and seeds removed.  Recipes should be available in Oriental cookbooks.

The confusing edible gourd is one popularly called Tromboncino.  It resembles an English horn, being a long tube with a bell-like bulge at the end.  It must be eaten when still pale green, and preferably less than 18 inches long.  Botanically it's a gourd classed as a Cucurbita pepo.  It is helpful when seed companies call it a "Trombolina"  as John Scheepers Kitchen Garden seeds does, adding it's a "tromboncino" type. 

Confusion arises when "tromboncino" is added to the name,  Zucchino Rampicante (some seed companies add "tromboncino" ), a squash that is a squash, not a gourd.  Botanically this one is Cucurbita moschata, and popularly it's known as a climbing zucchini and pumpkin.  Complicating matters further, Territorial Seeds simply calls it "Tromboncino," and identifies it as a Cucurbita moschata.  The description sounds like it is the squash, not the gourd. 

This squash looks like a butternut squash whose neck has been stretched, up to almost three feet.  It's a wonderful squash, discovered by my friend Stella Schneider.  Since it's a climbing variety it could be grown in a small space. 

Immature fruits of this climbing zucchini may be used as summer squash, others may be left on the vine to mature to winter squash. The rind turns tan, the flesh orange. Italians use the sweet flesh for stuffing gnocchi and ravioli, non-Italians use it for pies and all other winter squash dishes.  It makes a wonderful winter squash with excellent keeping capabilities.  You may still be eating last year's squash when this year's climbing zucchini are ready to harvest.  Few winter squash keep this well.

Other gourds that are edible are small bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria), wax gourds and bitter gourds.  Those latter three and the luffa are primarily featured in Oriental dishes.  Seeds for these are available through Evergreen Y.H. Enterprises ( www.evergreenseeds.com ) or Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  (www.rareseeds.com ) if you don't find them on local racks.  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds also carries  seeds for Zucchino Rampicante, listed under summer squash. ##

 

PLAN FOR  BARE ROOT FRUIT TREES     Dec. 3, 2004   

Some fruits do very well in our climate, but we've got too many greedy squirrels to let you have any of your own apricots.  They gobble through the nearly-ripe fruit to get at the nut inside the pit, making a mess beneath the trees.  That's IF the tree sets fruit that escapes a killing spring frost. 

Other fruits are much more reliable, and not as attractive to squirrels.  This year we had the first good crop from a new Italian plum tree.  We previously had an Italian plum tree we had good fruit from for several years, but like other stone fruits in this area, it eventually succumbed to peach tree borers. 

The parent of these destructive insects is a clear-winged moth, steel blue with yellow or orange bands around the body. They lay eggs at the base of the tree in July, and when those hatch, they immediately bore through the bark and feed on the tree's inner bark, spending the rest of the summer and winter under the bark where sprays and systemic poisons are ineffective.  They exude a substance that looks like a large mass of raspberry jello at the base of the trees.  It doesn't take much soil removal to uncover this evidence of the culprits. 

These destructive insects are common in our area, and they shorten the lives of peach, plum, apricot, nectarine and cherry trees.  Until the day that their feeding completely girdles and kills the tree, you can obtain very satisfactory crops of fruit.  I think average life expectancy of stone fruit trees in this area is about 12 to 15 years.

You may not think Italian plums are anything special.  They are, after all, dried and then they're called prunes.  Prunes have a certain reputation that's well-deserved.  Don't eat more than four in one day or you'll regret it. 

But growing these plums at home allows you to pick them when they're tree-ripe and they are incredibly delicious eating out of hand.  We shared our crop with Stella Schneider who cut some into small pieces and froze them.  She uses them as blueberry substitutes in recipes, and says they work perfectly for that.  She also loved the whole plums for snacks. 

I'm sure squirrels and birds got into some of them, but we were able to harvest a good crop even so.  We almost always get a crop of plums, their blossoming and fruit-setting somehow eluding spring frosts.  Some small birds perch in the plum tree, nervously nipping off fruit blossoms and buds, but they don't seem to do any substantial damage. 

I've had very little insect damage to plum fruits themselves, although early spring usually sees a heavy aphid infestation on leaves.  When this happens, give them a blast of water from the hose.  You won't remove all of them, but you also won't be killing beneficial insects that will finish the job for you.  

Some of the best things about Italian plum trees are 1) it's self-fertile so doesn't need a pollenizer, and 2) it's a fairly small tree.  Mature height is usually about 12 feet. It bears fruit two or three years after transplanting. Judicious pruning can keep it even lower.  It tends to be a narrow tree, so doesn't take up much space.

It needs at least a half day of direct sun, full sun is better.  Soil must be well-drained and moderately fertile.  Plums ripen in late August or early September after March blossoming.  These trees are usually hardy to about minus 30° F.

*** Peach and nectarine trees are also fairly small, about 12 feet high, and almost as trouble free as plum trees.  They are subject to the peach tree borer damage as well as some canker diseases.  Peach Leaf curl may damage a crop if spring conditions are favorable for this disease.  As for insects, the only real insect problems I had with peaches and nectarines were earwigs that like to climb in at the stem end, and startle you when you cut the fruit open.  ##

TRANSPLANTING DURING HIGHS AND LOWS      Nov. 26, 2004

You don't usually think of transplanting in the dead of winter, but you can do it with some types of plants.  Herbaceous plants may expire of shock at being thrust into cold or frozen soil, but trees will take it.  If you buy a living Christmas tree that you plan on planting in your yard after Christmas, winter is a good time for transplanting that.

Linda, a friend in northern Ohio (USDA zone 5) heard of a distant neighbor who wanted to cut down 11 trees on his property one January. She wanted the trees, so hired a tree spade business.  The tree spade took wedges from her yard, trucked them to the neighbor's and spaded up two maples, one blue spruce and eight white pines, three to six inch caliper, and replaced the holes with the divots from her place. 

They moved the newly dug trees to Linda's, and dropped them into the holes.  Linda and her husband filled in uneven spaces around the roots with sand mix, and mulched the soil suture line. Spring rains awakened the trees, and they resumed growth as if nothing had happened.  There were no losses.

If you're planning on planting out your living Christmas tree, I'd suggest digging a hole before the ground freezes, and fill the hole with leaves or a bag of leaves.  Be careful to adapt your tree to warm temperatures gradually, a few days in the garage and a good soak of water before moving it into the warm dry house.  Don't keep it indoors for more than ten days, watering it every few days.  Fewer days is a better plan, then re-adjust the tree to colder temperatures gradually, the opposite of how you brought it indoors. 

If the tree is going to sit in standing water in the hole you've prepared for it, don't put the water there.  The tree can probably withstand a little drought easier than wet feet.

Transplanting during summertime is another story.  Perfect transplanting weather is a grey drizzling day.  We don't have many of those, but those that occur in late spring are perfect for setting out transplants in the garden.  Buy a yellow slicker for garden wear on those days.

My scooter unfortunately is not rain or moisture-proof, so I can't go out on those days.  If you can set out your plants under those conditions, though, you don't have to worry about hardening off your plants (gradually acclimatizing them) before setting them out.

If you transplant during hot dry weather, I usually like to plant in late afternoon, watering generously, and shade the plant for the first day or two.  After that, if you can shade it when it droops or just shade from the hot noon sun, keeping it well watered (but not drowned), your transplant should go smoothly.  ##

WINTER GARDENING                                    Nov. 21, 2004

Winter gardening is different from summer gardening, but it does exist.  Some folks plant hardy lettuces, spinach and chard to winter over, and most winters they survive and thrive, yielding very early nutritious greens. 

One of the hardiest greens is corn salad, or mache. Corn salad can be mighty discouraging the first time you grow it.  Leaves of even the "large-leafed" varieties are only about the size of a half dollar coin, so that portends intensive labor in the kitchen, washing the leaves for salads.  It's a lot easier to deal with if you cut off the whole plant just above soil line, and use the that in your salads.

The ideal size is a rosette of six leaves that fit in your mouth in one bite.  This was one of the greens that constituted Alice Waters's great salads in her famed restaurant, Chez Panisse, salads that changed salad making in America. 

Ideally they should have been planted a lot earlier than I did plant seeds for this, but I'm eager to see if they'll struggle through this cold weather.  Seeds had barely germinated before it turned cold.

*** Have you ever heard of Walcherin cauliflower?  The Netherlands enjoys a milder winter than we usually have, and some plant breeders there bred some cauliflowers that would grow over the winter, yielding very early cauliflower. 

Seeds for these cauliflowers are hard to find now, but seed companies such as Territorial ( www.territorialseed.com ) stock cauliflower seeds that grow over the winter.  Perhaps our weather is too cold to overwinter cauliflower.  We are, after all, colder than the coastal region.  But if you have a well-sheltered area in which to grow, try one of these cauliflowers that take 200 to 270 days to mature.

They should be started in early July indoors since outdoor temperatures at that time are usually too warm for cauliflower seed to germinate.  Set them out in rich, humusy soil covering about 1/2 cup of complete organic fertilizer when there are at least two true leaves.  Do not fertilize them until spring growth begins, then fertilize heavily until harvest in March or early April. 

I never plant so that plant roots or seeds will directly touch any fertilizer.  Roots may grow into a pocket of organic fertilizer without harm, however.

*** The Northwest Flower and Garden Show will be held February 9 through 13, 2005.  Theme apparently is "Spring."  Some folks visit that show for a sneak preview of spring, and to see new plants, new landscaping ideas, and other garden innovations.  It is sponsored by Sunset magazine, and the emphasis is on maritime gardening, not inland Northwest.  ##

THIS AND THAT                                            Nov. 13, 2004

Each year I find I'm having more and more of a struggle with SAD, Seasonal Affect Disorder.  It's far worse than spring fever in killing my energy.  Hope you folks are doing better than I.  I started posting essays on Internet a little over a year ago, and don't know how I had the energy then. 

In addition to shortened daylight hours, another annoying thing about fall is that in raking leaves out of flower beds, we often rake out ID tags along with the leaves.  Some people bury the ID tags next to the plants, but whenever you want to identify them you'd have to dig up the tag. 

One of the best ways to keep track of what is planted where is a map of each bed, showing this is planted south of that, etc.  You could do that with the buried labels, too, only resorting to digging them up if there's a question.  Some folks also keep photos of their beds showing placement of plants. Squirrels and large birds are notorious for picking out plant tags and dropping them someplace else.

Nov. 16, hoping computer problems are cured.  A weekly nursery managers' newsletter reports our state is making specific plans to prohibit importation of any more invasive species.  The state agriculture department hopes to name an invasive species coordinator by the end of 2005 and to have a new invasive species law by the following year. 

Nurseries west of us are on the alert because proposed laws would also affect nursery shipments through Idaho, according to the newsletter, "and that could have a dramatic effect on the industry."

It's too bad that such laws were in place before Russian thistle, knapweed, cheatgrass and field bindweed took hold, but better late than never. Terrible insects are in the U.S. (not here, thank heavens), and agriculture officials are working hard to quarantine and destroy them.  One of the worst is an Asian long-horned beetle that is huge, and destroys trees.  It has preferences, but it will go after almost any tree there is. 

We don't need those or snakehead fish or kudzu.  Shudder. 

*** If you grew sweet potatoes, watch them closely.  Few of us have storage conditions that will keep them for long periods of time.  They need humidity and high temperatures.  Humid conditions are hard to come by at my house. Sweet potatoes will just dry out, the yellow-fleshed ones faster than the orange-fleshed, apparently.  ##

IS THIS THE LARGEST HERB?                        Nov. 8, 2004

Do you know the Linden tree?  Did you know it's classed as an herb?  The genus name is Tilia, common name is Lime tree, and yes, it is an herb. 

Its flowers are dried and used as a tea in Europe, but dried flowers can't be kept for long periods of time.  Old flowers used in teas produce intoxication.

The wood is lightweight, fine-grained and not invaded by worms as a rule, so the wood is used for piano sounding boards and for fine carvings and furniture veneers.  Sap drawn off in spring may be used to make sugar, and the leaves exude a sweet matter of the same composition as the manna of  Mount Sinai, according to Mrs. Grieve's "Modern Herbal."  "Cornucopia, A Source Book of Edible Plants" reports a ground paste of the fruits and flowers of Tilia americana resembles chocolate in flavor and texture.

Young leaves may be used in salads or chewed alone (make sure the tree hasn't been sprayed with a pesticide). 

Linden trees are very hardy, down to USDA zone 2 (to 50° below zero F).  Linden trees are used in many parking lot plantings around Boise, and most of those could benefit from substantial limb removal.  There are far too many limbs too close together on the trunks. I do appreciate those businesses that have grown those mandatory parking lot trees to a height where they cast welcome shade over shoppers' cars, though.  Albertsons stores seem to neglect their parking lot trees, and they don't seem to grow enough to cast shade. 

The most beautifully-shaped deciduous tree I ever saw was a Linden tree in Lyons, Colorado.  I don't know whether the owner had pruned it or not.  The tree naturally tries to grow to a certain shape that most of us consider beautiful. That tree was small for a Linden, about 25 feet tall.  They can grow to 100 or more feet in height.

Because of size, Michael Dirr, author of "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants," advises against home plantings of Lindens.  Another factor that should limit home use is folks who are allergic to the pollen.  Linden trees have "perfect" flowers, that are self-pollinating.  Pollen doesn't have to blow about copiously, but it does. 

*** Seed catalogs are beginning to come in.  I use a Sharpie pen to write the page number of the index on the cover of each catalog since seed companies put them wherever they like.  I also like to start preparing lists of what I'd like to grow then go see if I can buy it locally.  If not, then I look for the best seed source.  ##

A SPECIAL SHRUB FOR BENEFICIAL INSECTS    Oct. 29, 2004

In early spring, 1993, Lindarose Curtis-Bruce planted seeds for Vitex shrubs (Vitex negundo heterophylla).  She sold seedlings through her new nursery, Sunrose Nursery (now closed), specializing in medicinal herbs.

I bought and planted one of the seedlings on the south side of my house.  These shrubs are hardy to zone 6, and mine has not been through one of our zone 4 winters where the temperatures drop below minus 20° F.  Zone 6 means it's hardy only to minus 10°.  Its sheltered location and the sun's reflection back from our dark red house protect it further. 

The shrub is now roof high, about 13 to 14 feet. That's its expected height for life.  Although it's a little late to leaf out, it makes up for lost time by blossoming from midsummer until frost.  It sends up panicles of tiny blue flowers that attract bees and beneficial wasps in unending lines.  It's called one of the best "honey" plants by Richters, the Herb Specialists.

Once beneficial insects are fed there, it's a short trip to the garden where they can lay eggs in larval hosts (that is, parasitize them), or vary their diets by eating problem insects such as aphids. My shrub is open, airy, and a bit leggy.  When it's dormant, we'll nip off the tops of the branches to encourage filling in lower on the shrub. 

As if attracting and feeding beneficials weren't enough, this shrub is ranked as a medicinal herb, used for headache, dizziness, coughs and mental unrest.

It has no insect or disease problems to speak of. An easy shrub to love. 

There is another Vitex shrub, the Vitex agnus-castus.  It's hardy only to zone 7 (that is, to 0°).  It's also a medicinal herb, regulating menstruation and ovulation.  Some say it subdues the sexual urge, hence the common name "Chaste tree." Other sources, however, say it has the opposite effect. 

***Most of my garden beds have been cleaned off and covered with a new coat of compost for the winter.  Other beds look Autumn bedraggled (I've seen designers' clothes that look like they ought to be called that but they never are), but my Calendulas are as bright, perky and vigorous now as they are in March.

Calendulas, or Calendula officinalis, were appropriately named after the calends or the first day of every month by the Romans.  It takes severe cold to quash their blooming propensity.  It's also known as the pot marigold. 

It's a medicinal herb, much used by people even today to soothe rashes, bee stings and cuts, bruises, etc.  According to the Rodale Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs, one can crush fresh flowers and mix them with olive oil for an easy ointment.  I wouldn't try that with an open sore, however. 

Calendulas have many medicinal uses including acting as a general tonic, inducing sweating, help with fever, flu, and even syphilis.  They are also edible.

When they go to seed, the neat rays of the blossom give way to a snarl of seeds that look like the cartoon Bill the Cat.  Seeds are said to look like little boats, but to my eye they look like dried worms.  However, they're easy to germinate and they germinate fast enough even for a kindergartener.  The last time I germinated calendulas on purpose, it took three days.

They do re-seed in the garden, but I've never found their appearance so rife it was objectionable.  And they'll certainly brighten a dreary day like today. ##

OUT OF YOUR GOURD? MAKE IT LAST                 Oct. 25, 2004 (I'm late)

Did you grow gourds this year?  Some are ornamental only, others are ornamental and useful.  Those that are used for various purposes from holding or dipping water to musical instruments, birdhouses, rattles, sponges, or even for human food, are the Lagenaria, with white blossoms. 

Those with yellow blossoms are Cucurbitaceae, the same family as pumpkins and squashes.  The Old World knew the Cucurbit gourds, but the pumpkins and squash part of the family had to wait for the discovery of America, where they were native.  Nearly 2500 years B.C., Cucurbitaceae gourds were used extensively for eating utensils.

All gourds are frost-tender, so I hope you've already harvested your gourds for this year.  I've grown bushel and birdhouse gourds as well as the Tromboncino and Hercules War Club types of edible gourds.  A neighbor grew ornamental gourds and had a wonderful variety of fruits filling his garage before our late frost.  He shared some with us.

Ornamental gourds are usually only good for one year. Deterioration starts in a few months after harvest.  One gourd reference says they may be kept longer by briefly dipping them in boiling water, then put into a solution of one cup of 20 Mule Team Borax dissolved in three cups of hot water for 15 minutes.  Then they're dried in a wire basket.  When they're thoroughly dry, they may be washed, dried and polished with paste wax. They may then last two years or a little more.

Gourds such as the bushel gourds, dippers, birdhouse gourds are usually set aside for the soft outer skin to mold.  Once that has happened, and it may take several months, you take a choregirl and water, and scrape that outer skin off.  Then the hard gourd may be decorated or left with the natural mold stain. Some sources say you can leave them outdoors to freeze and thaw, but I tried that with some and had collapsed mush.  Those beautiful gourds that look like Indian pots at Art-in-the-Park are left to mold then cleaned and lightly sanded before they're painted and waxed. 

Those pot-like gourds seem to be thicker than those I've grown.  That difference in thickness may be a difference in climate. 

Gourds made into musical instruments are most commonly used as rattles or drums, but they may be scored so a stick drawn across the scores makes an interesting scratching sound, or gourds may serve as a sounding box for a thumb piano, marimba or even a lute.  They're very versatile, and these Lagenaria may be very long-lasting.

Luffas should be left on the vine until they are ripe or the vines are killed by frost.  Then put them to soak in tubs of water, weighing them down if necessary, until the outer covering and pith soften.  Then peel the skin off the sponge, and remove the seeds.  Some people shake them as if shaking a thermometer to remove seeds, others bang them on the corners of buildings. 

Growing gourds is not difficult in our climate.  They want full sun, something to climb upon,  good drainage, and something to climb upon.  They don't require a lot of fertilizer, and too much nitrogen will produce foliage and few fruits. When vines are about ten feet long, nip off the end of the vine.  The main vine at that time will have mainly male flowers. Once the end is pruned off, that will produce branching along the vine, on which female flowers (and fruit) will form.  I once grew birdhouse gourds over an arbor we had built for kiwi fruit, and it was a happy decision.  Gourds hung here and there in quite a decorative fashion.  ##

 

WINTER GARDENING ON INTERNET            Oct. 1, 2004

Enjoy the warm weather while you can, but when sleety winds blow, stay inside and do virtual gardening on Internet.  Watch your step though, or you'll invite an avalanche of spam.

Don't go to the Usenet forums.  Anyone can post anything there, from good advice to pornography.  Spam or junk e-mailers harvest addresses from those lists like most of us rake leaves.  One friend who participates in three Usenet forums regularly has hundreds of spam mails each day, and he hasn't figured out where they're coming from.  I receive three or four, plus the important personal mail that my e-mail program thinks is spam and sets aside.

There are two excellent places to browse instead: Suite 101 at http://www.suite101.com/topics.cfm/635 features many forums conducted by knowledgeable gardeners.  In a different format, garden web ( www.gardenweb.com ) has even more forums available.  In those forums, information essentially comes from individuals, so read it with a critical eye.  If someone else comes along and says that doesn't work, pay attention to that too. 

As in real life, it doesn't take long for you to figure out who is knowledgeable and who is not. 

One of the most useful tools at your disposal is a good search engine and some knowledge of how to use it.  Suppose you have small round yellow spots on your ripe tomatoes.  Is it a disease? You could go to a search engine such as Google or Yahoo or Alta Vista, and in the empty box, type tomato-fruit+diseases.  The hyphen between tomato and fruit sort of ensures you'll get fruit diseases instead of foliage diseases.  But even the best search engines go awry from time to time.  And by adding "+diseases" sort of ensures you won't get comparisons of yield or appearance. 

If you find nothing there, consider it's insect damage (it is).  Go back to your search engine and type  tomato-fruit+insects.  You will still have to investigate several sites before you find one that exactly fits your problem, and you learn it's stink bug bites. Rephrasing the query often helps substantially.

 Another way you can tell the search engine what you want is by using quotation marks around your query.  Thus "insect fruit insects" should get the same results as tomato-fruit+insects.  You can't use both limiting punctuation  sets at once, however.  More coming when I come in from my garden.

Part II.  I don't like the last-minute scurrying to protect things from freezing, so I've been gradually closing down the garden.  A nagging thought keeps popping up, "maybe it won't freeze and snow this winter."  Well, it will.  Our weather is so beautiful now, it's hard to imagine it turning cold. 

Yesterday there was a large brown preying mantis on the door jamb.  She had a rounded abdomen, so I presume was looking for someplace to lay her egg case.  My Viburnum lentago (Nannyberry) bushes are beginning to turn red, and they'll be spectacular, with deep red burnished leaves.  I see my Mahonia has self-seeded .  I wish I could transplant those tiny shrubs, but I know from experience they're extremely touchy about being transplanted.

I learn something new every year. One that should have been obvious was that you should not grow a squash you're not familiar with amid other squashes.  I grew one squash because its name is the maiden name of a friend.  I also grew spaghetti squash and Zucchino rampicante (climbing zucchini).  Their shapes are quite different.  The other fruit that appeared looks like a Butternut squash.  I thought it was an immature Zucchino rampicante, but perhaps it's the unknown squash.  Oops. 

If you want to bake a pumpkin pie, don't use a pumpkin, but use a squash instead. Pumpkin pie bakers swear that a "pumpkin" pie made of butternut squash is far better-tasting than a pumpkin pie, even if it is a good variety for pies.  Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are not good for pie baking. ##

BULB SNATCHERS BEWARE                     Sept. 24, 2004

Spring flowering bulbs have appeared on store shelves already, and we're in 80+ degree weather.  Select what you'll plant, but wait until the soil cools off before you plant.  Planting bulbs when the soil is at 60° is ideal. The problem is, if you don't buy bulbs early, the desirable ones are gone by the time you get around to selecting yours. 

Many of us are afflicted with creatures that eat our bulbs.  Gophers and voles love tulip bulbs.  No mammals dine on daffodil bulbs, since they're toxic.  There are ways to foil bulb snatchers, however. 

One way is to make baskets of hardware cloth with 1/2 inch spaces.  You could use wire cutters to cut into corners and bend down sides, wiring sides together into a box.  Plant bulbs inside, hoping voles won't enter from above. 

Some folks use wire hanging baskets, but be sure the holes in the basket aren't large enough to let a vole in. 

Another product that's supposed to be effective against voles is called VoleBloc.  It's made of expanded slate, and critters supposedly won't chew their way through it.  As of right now, I don't know of a local source for it.  You could try putting a lot of gravel in the planting hole, and that might work too.

Folks planting small bulbs, especially valuable small bulbs, plant them inside berry baskets.  When the bulbs multiply, they'll remain inside the berry baskets. 

Rock garden enthusiasts are most likely to be planting in that manner, although collectors of miniature daffodils may use that technique as well.  I've become quite interested in the miniature daffodils, and the micro-miniature daffodils, tiny plants that look like a mature blooming daffodil but stand less than three inches tall.

Several bulb companies sell bulbs for miniature daffodils that stand about 6 inches tall (unless in special soil that causes them to grow larger), but I don't know of a U.S. source for the micro-miniature daffodils.  New Zealand and Australian growers seem to be at the forefront of the miniature daffodil development.  A large show of miniature daffodils closed a few days ago in Melbourne, Australia. 

Of the spring-flowering bulbs, some of my favorites are the species tulips.  They're probably not suitable for cut flowers (but who knows, considering the creativity of some of the flower arrangers in our area). One reason I like them is that they naturalize easily in our climate and spread.  Some of the fancy tulips die out after a year or two, but tulips such as the Darwin tulips return as reliably as Canada geese.

BRING THEM IN OR LET THEM DIE?            Sept. 17, 2004

It never fails, some plant in the garden puts on a showy spurt of growth in September, and when frost threatens, we're not sure what to do with that now beautiful or productive plant. 

You can bring in many plants, including chile plants.  Chiles and tomatoes are really perennials that we grow as annuals.  When you dig such a plant, it's impossible to get all of the hairlike roots, so cut back on the foliage to compensate for the loss of roots.  The toughest part is clearing your plant of insects.  Clear them all out. A single aphid can pump out babies faster than you can say "don't."  They're parthenocarpic, not needing fertilization to make babies.

Gradually acclimate your plant to warmer, drier, indoors.  It's the reverse of the spring hardening off.  Indoors, you'll have to watch out for spider mites, too, for they proliferate in warm dry conditions.   You'll usually first notice tiny spider webs forming a triangle between the plant's trunk and a branch.  Put a white sheet of paper under the plant and tap on it. Spider mites will fall onto the paper, where they definitely are visible. 

Many plants go into shock and defoliate after that change in environment.  Continue watering, but give them less water than usual, until they develop a new set of leaves.  Some plants require a humid atmosphere.  You can spray with a mist setting once or a few times per day and/or set the pot on gravel in a large saucer with abundant water.  The pot should sit up above the water, not down in it where roots are in danger of being rotted. 

If you grow any vegetables, plant out spinach now.  I'm planting spinach, mache and lettuce this fall.  I grew shallots from seed, and will probably plant some shallot cloves this fall too.  Shallots seem to grow better over winter than over summer, like garlic.  I planted onions one fall, but by spring they decided it was their second year, so they all went to seed.  Shallots and garlic can be saved, but not onions.  The seed stalk arises at the roots of the onion bulb, and its tough woody self rises right through the onion bulb. 

I've been savoring the aroma of roasting chiles on my grill this beautiful afternoon.  I've got to peel them for dinner with friends this evening.  More tomorrow. 

I know, I ate too many chiles rellenos for dinner and didn't get back to this.  I had a wonderful crop of mild chiles this year, principally because I fertilized differently.  I strewed kelp meal lightly over the bed, then after the seedlings had been in the ground about two weeks, I gave each plant about a cupful of a homemade fertilizer mix: half alfalfa meal and half corn gluten meal.  Plants sat there as if dazed for about a week, then began growing, flowering, and setting fruit.  Leaves were a nice dark green color, too. 

You can get all of these ingredients at Zamzows -- kelp meal, alfalfa meal and corn gluten meal.  They have many very useful bulk products for gardeners, but the last I looked they didn't have them listed on their website, darn 'em.  They carry stuff like chicken grit too, that may be useful to gardeners IF it doesn't contain salt.  Some chicken grit does contain salt and/or other ingredients for the birds' health that would not be good for your garden or seedlings if you're using grit to top off your seedling containers.

Watch out for frost this time of year.  They're predicting some nights at 34°.  That's 34 measured 5 feet off the ground.  Since cold falls, it will be colder at ground level, as much as 6°.  In my experience, if you live in the city, surrounded by large trees and warm dwellings you don't have much to worry about until temperatures drop further.  If your property or garden is exposed, with vacant property adjacent, for instance, cover tender plants. 

I picked all of my mild chiles over the past few days, and covered the hot ones. The nice thing about Reemay, Harvest Guard or any of these pressed agricultural fleeces is that they admit sunshine and water, so it doesn't hurt to leave the covers on for a few days.  That's a lot easier than putting them on, taking them off and putting them on, day after day until we get into Indian summer.  ###

AUTUMN DRAWS NEAR                        Sept. 10, 2004

Mother Nature's plants begin winding down with the shorter days, and insects and spiders seek cover or somewhere to lay their eggs.  The very large black and gold banded spiders, yellow argiopes, have their intricate webs set up in the garden.  Watch where you put your hands when you pick tomatoes or other produce.  They're blind, but could bite (they don't usually). 

This is the time of year we often find 3-inch preying mantises inside the house.  I've found the best way to handle them is to gently push a stiff thin cardboard in front of them until they step onto it, then carry it outside.  They can bite too, and that head swivels.  They're also laying their eggs wrapped in a foam-like case at this time of year.  That egg laying sounds like someone's spraying the last of an aerosol can.  The foam mixed with eggs emerges as froth, and quickly hardens. 

How do they get into the house?  I think they ride in on the dog or me or my husband or my scooter.  I'm pretty sure spiders do ride in on the dog. 

We have native preying mantises, whose egg cases resemble long triangular tents.  The Chinese preying mantises whose egg cases are sold by garden stores are somewhat larger, growing to 3 to 4 inches in length.  Their egg cases are blobs, and may be laid on solid surfaces or twigs. 

Watch when you're shutting your garden down that you don't discard egg cases attached to old asparagus stalks or weed stalks.  There may be one or two or 50 eggs in that case.  Rather than try to pry off the egg case, cut the stalk above and below the case.  You can then either tie it to a shrub at about the same height as you found it or put it in the refrigerator where it will remain dry.  Do not forget it in the spring. 

Watch out for mice trying to find a warm place for the winter.  My terrier is an excellent mouser, but he's afraid of falling things like ironing boards.  As a result we set traps indoors that he can't get into.  Garden centers do have traps like a long black box that mice can get into but dog paws cannot.  Kitten paws might be able to reach in far enough to get hurt, but I don't think there'd be anything enticing them to try it. 

This is the time of year for a creature called Harvestman or Harvester to appear.  Most of us knew them as Daddy Longlegs spiders, but strictly speaking they're not spiders.  They feed on other insects, each other, and other tiny creatures.  They're called Harvesters or Harvestmen because we usually don't notice them until harvest time.  Some live outdoors, looking for shelter when weather turns harsh.  Several may overnight in a knothole, with legs entwined for warmth.  Or perhaps to make sure the neighbor isn't hungrily hunting. These have round bodies.

A more oval-bodied kind does come indoors, and we usually find those in the bathrooms where they hang from nearly invisible webs in the corners.  They favor bathrooms because it's a handy place to take a drink and a great spot for hunting other household dwellers looking for water.  Neither do any damage in the garden.

*** In the vegetable garden, leave your sweet potatoes in the ground as long as possible because the yield of the tubers doubles every two weeks from Sept. 1 to the 30th.  Bear in mind, though, they're very sensitive to frost. 

For those new to southwestern Idaho, we often experience a night or a few of frost, then two weeks or more of glorious sunny warm weather or Indian summer.  So when frost threatens, cover your frost-sensitive plants because we'll probably have a few more weeks of ripening.

*** If you find any crows, ravens, magpies, jays, owls, eagles or hawks that are dead and have no visible signs of decay, put on your gloves and double bag the carcass in plastic garbage bags and take it to the zoo.  Tell the zoo staff your name, phone number and the location where the bird was found.  Zoo Boise veterinarian Dr. Debbie Wiggins will test for signs of West Nile Virus.  She can't test if there are obvious signs of decay, and they will not accept birds from anonymous finders.  Gloves are for your own protection.  ##

YEOW!!  WHAT'S THAT?                        Sept. 3, 2004

Okay, you're pruning your roses and run into something that looks like a sea urchin on your rose bush.  Ewwww.  Disease?  No, it isn't.  It's a type of gall called a bedeguar that a Diplolepis rosae wasp creates in which to lay its eggs and raise its larvae. 

In fact this gall begins its weird growth when the wasp lays its eggs in the rose stem.  It can grow to about two and a half inches across, with innumerable threadlike appendages in four to eight weeks after the eggs have been laid.  Perhaps it's its bold appearance that attracts other critters.  There can be as many as 25 other critters inhabiting the cluster by the time the larvae should emerge.  But they may have been slain in their own home.

Parasitic wasps also lay eggs in that gall, and their larvae may kill the Diplolepis rosae larvae before they hatch.  They often do.  The parent Diplolepis rosae wasps are usually female (males are rare, and the wasps are parthenocarpic, or produce young witihout fertilization).  These wasps are tiny with a black head and thorax, and orange abdomen and legs. 

These galls are common on wild roses, but not as common on cultivated roses.  Cultivated roses subjected to water stress may become the site of these galls. 

The galls are light green in summer, turning to red in fall.  Its popular name is Robin's Pincushion.  Anju Lucas, of Edwards Greenhouses told me about these galls just as the Statesman finished running my last columns.  It was in the back of my mind, but I didn't realize I had failed to write about  them until a friend in Massachusetts ran across one in a botanical garden.

The main damage is esthetic damage; if they bother you, prune the canes bearing them.  Keep in mind, however, it's also home to very beneficial critters too. 

*** Winter squash is ripe when the stem looks woody and you can't puncture the skin with a thumbnail.  Don't worry, if it's not ripe and you slice into it with your thumbnail, it will heal over.  If you can, leave your winter squash on the vine until frost threatens.  Then leave two or three inches of stem attached to the squash, and handle it carefully to avoid bruising it.  Never carry squash or pumpkins by the stem.  When that breaks off, the squash or pumpkin won't keep well.

Above all, don't believe that doggerel, the "frost is on the punkin." Frost causes a watery spot on the outside of squash or pumpkin that will soon turn to rot.

After harvest, store them in a warm room for a few weeks, preferably not touching each other so they have good air circulation. 

If you want to bake a great pumpkin pie, don't use pumpkin, use a squash such as a butternut squash.  They're all in the family, and the squash makes a better pie, believe it or not.