Tropical Agriculture workshop

I just realized today I should have posted to the knitting group (many of whom are into plants) that I attended a tropical agriculture workshop in Florida a couple weeks ago. It was so cool. The place is called ECHO and they do the research on what works best so that the people working in developing countries can apply the techniques rather than trying to figure it out themselves through trial and error. It's making me a better home gardener too! Here's the post on my blog.

Giving up on push reel

After 8 years in my house I'm giving up on my push reel mower. I'm just not strong enough and still have to be careful with my computer-induced tendonitous. It just wasn't a good match. I put off mowing plus like the grass long and then it gets to be too much for the reel mower. So I'd end up weed-wacking the whole thing. Only my front yard. The dogs did in the back yard, but there are patches of jungle back there. I'll post a picture! Anyone have suggestions for gas powered mowers?

Botany question: Magnolia and Hostas

So we'd like to take a cutting of our awesome 45 year magnolia tree with us to our new house. Is that possible? And if so how?

Similar question on the hostas - how can I transplant some of them without destroying the whole "plant". We have rather large hostas which seem to be an heirloom variety or at least they look different than any ones I've seen for sale.

Also, with the house situation it looks like we might might be getting into our new place for my birthday! Which would be AWESOME as I have movers scheduled for the day after. It's been a bit of a fiasco - I'll fill in the details once I'm sure that this is all really happening. We've been renting our former house since the 2nd which is odd. But the new one (new to us, it's almost 100 years old) may be ours in about a week. :-)

For the gardeners and botanists

I'd like some advice from those of you with a good knowledge of gardening and native plants. I don't have large excesses of time or money for gardening, but I don't want to let another season pass without doing something for my yard.

What are some low-maintenance native perennials for...
... vines to grow on fences (in part to full sun)?
... full shade and dry? full shade and wet?
... part-sunny spots in need of color?

Konferons Agrikol en Haiti

I just attended the 1st agriculture conference in Pignon, Haiti! A man named Saul taught about 50 men about how trees a important in the watercycle, how Haitians need to stop cutting them down for no reason, crop rotation, etc. I was the guest attendee - they introduced me and I piped up about how in the US they plant crops right up to the streams and that's bad, and that people travel to see birds and they could get jobs as guides if they had trees and birds. The I left before it was over and took a 3 hour nap. I have a horrible cold which came on the day before, I was up last night coughing - didn't get into the miami hotel until 1am on Mon. and got up at 5:15am to catch the plane to Haiti. But other than that this is really a cool place, and the couple live in a cool house and I'll post pictures when I get back. Everyone here is so pleasant, and the language creole is like french spelled pheonetically - easy to figure out main topics. Sound this out: Anviwonman (environment). la grann vizyon = vizyon + aksyon + avalyasyon (the grand vision = vision + action + evaluation). The men were really into the discussions. And the mayor of Pignon (a woman) was ther to give them a pep talk. Tomorrow we go to Hencle so the Mompremiers can register their truck (with Iowa plates) - a get local food! Don't miss Jennifer's blog below!

Leaf raking ponderings - catch them if you can

Doesn't it seem silly to have to catch all the leaves from a tree and move them elsewhere???? [regardless of where they go - compost or landfill (even worse)] Who thought of this and why??? The english royalty with their nice green monoculture grass yards kept by sheep? I mean - look at all the trees out there in residential neighborhoods - ALL those leaves from ALL those trees have to be caught. Well, I'm saying no to raking. Keeping my back yard in pristine grass is futile because of the dogs which made me explore breaking away from societal yard expectations. Now my yard feels and smells like a little forest with all the leaves from my 5 big trees. I love it! And the front yard - well if no one raked and no one kept unnatural grass but let it go to whatever goundcover creeps in on its own, then no one would be keeping up with each other in futile lawn care. What a waste of resources (oil for both lawnmowers and fertilizers). And it all comes back to how silly it seems to me to have to catch all those leaves from all those trees and move them to somewhere else.

carex and other unknowns

Hi - I have my very own carex (or some kind of sedge) in my yard and wanted to add its picture to the collection (how'd I get my toe in at that angle?) plus a picture of something both Jennifer and I have that we independently decided to let grow to see what it is. Here is my backyard, from the roof. I wood chipped the back half. I love the woodsy feel. And here's Sally since she's so cute.

Sedges and violets

I was going to post this under Jennifer's sedge photo, then it got long and became it's own post.

I found a sedge in my yard. Would that be good to grow in the part of my yard that pools up? Could I get a little clump of it growing in my garden and keep it as a contained clump, or is that like someone growing a spot of regular grass in a garden? What is the public perception of sedges? Lisa gave me a bunch of violets years ago, and they're spreading so I'm planting a bunch of violets out front in the bare spots of my yard. My mom called them weeds.

confessions of a consumer

Since I initiated consumerism boycott, I thought I should fess up on my spending habits. 1st was the fake finger/hook I bought for my boss - he was with me when we found them and is missing 2 pinkies, how could I resist? Made in China, 95 cents. I bought 2 museum catalogs of the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at Union Station. I'll never see them again, the info was a bit overwhelming, my best friend in PA loves archaeology. Yes it was a book, but not a novel, $5 each. Dog treats - bought a bag at the Merc - the Good Dog brand made locally by homeless people. I also buy them at the farmer's market. So in sum, the finger is the only frivolous thing. Oh - and the 25 cent cheapo headband at the rec center. Forgot my scrunchie, miserable in aerobics with hair hanging down, had to do it.

On another note, I put my 35 gal. rain barrel together yesterday afternoon, and it's full. Once I make sure it's not leaking, I'll make my 50 gal. one. The back yard turned into a small pond of water, along the fence line which the dogs run, so I can't put my rain garden in the pooliest parts of the yard, but it's right next to it. Check out this ironic dog rescue:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/07/rain_forces_road_closures_across_county/
Rescue teams from Douglas County and Osage County help Gail Jackson and her dog "Rocket" into a rescue boat at the FOB range near Lone Star Lake. Rising water stranded six women and five dogs that were part of a Boxer rescue program which used the site as a retreat over the weekend.

Gardening

After going to the farmer's market this morning and buying three tomato plants, I was inspired to do a bit of gardening this morning. I cleared out the weeds in my vegetable patch, transplanted a couple of coneflower plants, and planted my tomatoes. In addition I planted seeds: basil, sugar-snap peas, and Alyssum.


The lettuce and spinach are growing well - the lettuce is a bit happier than the spinach.

Lettuce

Spinach

There are also buds on the larkspur and spiderwort that were left by the previous tenant.

Larkspur

Spiderwort

Well - back to exam writing. I wonder if my tomatoes have grown any.

Tulips!

I know these photos are crappy, but the tulips in my yard seemed to open all at once today. I was so excited that I wanted to share it with you all.

Speaking of Spring...

Since we've been talking about the emergence of spring recently:
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/budburst/
(This link made me think of you and your red bud tree monitoring, Jennifer)

Spring in Tucson pics

Spring flowers in our yard in Tucson (taken today in the wind -- wind and macro lens, bad combination!)

Pretty pink mystery flower
















Ruellia

Fairy duster (I think)

Mystery yellow bush (2 pics) --below

Bee bush (Aloysia?) -- above















Creosote-- below

Madly-blooming aloe

Damn it's hard to get the labels where you want them!

Peonies and other pretty plants

These pictures of spring are so nice! It has been a dreary spring break in Lawrence as usual. But things are warming and greening up! My peonies and other plants are starting to break through the ground and I am looking for advice on how to stake them so they don't flop over all spring. I found some grow-through stakes in a gardening catalog (unsolicited) that were $30. Kind of pricey. Usually, I tie them up with twine, but this doesn't seem to work very well and ends up looking kind of ghetto. I also have some really tall Silphium perfoliatum that tend to droop in the late summer. Does anyone know of a cheap and effective way to stake plants that isn't totally ugly?

I will send pictures of these budding plants soon!

I gave this post a label so there would be something beside brawls on the list :)

Grades have been posted

Woooooohoooooo.

Finally for my biology 100 class. If you have 960 students, and you make a mistake on an exam key, even for only 1/4 of the exams. It takes a long time to fix. But it was the right thing to do.

A picture of one of the crocuses blooming in our yard (nothing to do with the exams).