Er….the headline I really meant to write was “First Harvest.” But, sorry Whole Paycheck Foods, I will not be needing your services as much now that I am beginning to reap the bounty from my wonderful little community garden plot at Fox Point Community Garden, and now that the Downtown Providence Farmers’ Market where I pick up my community supported agriculture (CSA) box is open.

(Gratuitous cat photos below the fold!)

As you can see below, I am not the only one enamored of the three Swiss chard leaves that I plucked from the garden yesterday.

I love the look on Tiny’s face in this picture! We call him Inspector Puss, because, as my husband Curt put it, he inspects everything (literally) that comes into the house to see if he should be afraid of it, eat it, or play with it. Tiny loves to eat grass and greens, so he has clearly categorized the chard as Something to Potentially Eat.

In the end, however, he didn’t take a taste, only a couple of sniffs. Buuuut, I digress. We’ve had a couple of big rainstorms in the last few days, tons of sun and warm temps before that, so everyone’s plots at the community garden are “bustin’ out.” Three chard leaves may not seem like much…I rode my bike out there and as I was picking the chard, I realized suddenly that I didn’t need my sunglasses anymore. A giant black cloud loomed over me and the 3 miles between the garden and my apartment. So, I finished cutting the chard and bolted out of there without so much as glancing at the spinach and basil, which I suspect are also ready.

Next time I’m there I’ll take my camera! More pics coming.

Did you see this article in the NYT yesterday? (Warning-registration may be required.) Canadian researchers are examining the ability of plants to distinguish members of its own species from “outsiders.” Last summer scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario published a study on the sea rocket (Cakile edentula), a native member of the mustard (Brassicacaea) family that grows above the high tide line on sandy beaches.

Yet scientists have found evidence that the sea rocket is able to do something that no other plant has ever been shown to do.

The sea rocket, researchers report, can distinguish between plants that are related to it and those that are not. And not only does this plant recognize its kin, but it also gives them preferential treatment.

If the sea rocket detects unrelated plants growing in the ground with it, the plant aggressively sprouts nutrient-grabbing roots. But if it detects family, it politely restrains itself.

The finding is a surprise, even a bit of a shock, in part because most animals have not even been shown to have the ability to recognize relatives, despite the huge advantages in doing so.

If an individual can identify kin, it can help them, an evolutionarily sensible act because relatives share some genes. The same discriminating organism could likewise ramp up nasty behavior against unrelated individuals with which it is most sensible to be in claws- or perhaps thorns-bared competition.

Pretty cool that sea rocket can distinguish between its family members! (That’s a photo of it at right.) Dr. Dudley and his colleagues have since then discovered evidence that three other species can do the same thing, but in different ways.

Plants’ social life may have remained mysterious for so long because, as researchers have seen in studies of species like sagebrush, strawberries and thornapples, the ways plants sense can be quite different from the ways in which animals do.

Some plants, for example, have been shown to sense potentially competing neighboring plants by subtle changes in light. That is because plants absorb and reflect particular wavelengths of sunlight, creating signature shifts that other plants can detect.

Reserachers also studied a certain parasitic weed called dodder (genus Cuscuta, absolutely terrible vampire-like plant, maybe I’ll do a post on it one day). Dodder can “sense” chemicals released in the air by nearby plants and use it to “sniff out” its victim:

Scientists also find plants exhibiting ways to gather information on other plants from chemicals released into the soil and air. A parasitic weed, dodder, has been found to be particularly keen at sensing such chemicals.

Dodder is unable to grow its own roots or make its own sugars using photosynthesis, the process used by nearly all other plants. As a result, scientists knew that after sprouting from seed, the plant would fairly quickly need to begin growing on and into another plant to extract the nutrients needed to survive.

But even the scientists studying the plant were surprised at the speed and precision with which a dodder seedling could sense and hunt its victim. In time-lapse movies, scientists saw dodder sprouts moving in a circular fashion, in what they discovered was a sampling of the airborne chemicals released by nearby plants, a bit like a dog sniffing the air around a dinner buffet.

Then, using just the hint of the smells and without having touched another plant, the dodder grew toward its preferred victim. That is, the dodder reliably sensed and attacked the species of plant, from among the choices nearby, on which it would grow best.

“When you see the movies, you very much have this impression of it being like behavior, animal behavior,” said Dr. Consuelo M. De Moraes, a chemical ecologist at Pennsylvania State University who was on the team studying the plant. “It’s like a little worm moving toward this other plant.”

The movie that she’s referring to? YOU HAVE TO SEE IT! Go to the NYT article link and scroll down until you see the link for the movie. It’s worth getting an account to see it if you don’t have one (it’s free). The movie a time-lapse of a dodder seedling putting the moves on a tomato plant that it’s in the pot with it. (A still from the movie is at the top of the page). It truly looks like it’s sniffing the tomato plant out as it looks for its next victim.

Plants sure is crazy peoples!

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

I’m way overdue for a tree of the month selection! This month I picked red horse chestnut, Aseculus x carnea ‘Briotti’. I actually haven’t seen this tree in bloom before and I think it’s quite exotic looking for New England. This is probably as close as we in the Northeast will be able to get to crape myrtles, the ubiquitous blossoming tree seen so often in street plantings and mall parking lots in the South.

The red horse chestnut is a hybrid of common horse chestnut A. hippocastanum and red buckeye A. pavia, cultivated for garden use. It’s a deciduous tree that grows to 30-40 feet tall upon maturity. Its pinkish or red blossoms bloom in the spring. It likes full sun or light shade and moist, well-drained, slightly acidic soils.

I don’t know if Bach Flower Remedies work or not–they’re the company that make Rescue Remedy among many other “flower essences” used for various psychological ailments. One of the 38 essences is made of red horse chestnut. According to their website, it’s supposed to be good for those who “find it difficult not to be anxious for other people.”

Well, I certainly hope the flower essence is based on the flower not the nut, because the nut is supposed to be poisonous. It contains saponins, which is toxic to many animals, including humans, though to a lesser extent. Supposedly if you cut up the nut into small pieces or grind them into flour, you can leach the poison out by rinsing it several times and pouring the water out, but I won’t be the one testing out that theory.

The nuts look like a bit like a regular chestnut and are surrounded by a thick hull. They’re sometimes called conkers. It’s easy to see why–a falling one would probably conk you out. For that reason, this would probably be an ill-chosen street tree. In parts of the UK, children play a game, also called “conkers,” with the nuts–maybe they throw them at one another.

Whenever I pick a tree of the month, I try to pick one that has multiple uses. Buuuuut, I freely admit that I picked red horse chestnut just because it’s pretty!

Blossom and nut photos courtesy of Wikipedia.

I hope everyone is enjoying nature on this beautiful three day weekend!

Here are a few more pictures of Fox Point Community Garden. You can see it’s a pretty funky little garden. This is a picture of the “garden shed”–a misnomer that conjures up images of small wooden shacks–when this is actually a big concrete building with plenty of storage space.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many tomato cages in one place.

This next one is a long view of the garden from towards the north end. My plot is towards the back near the chain link fence.

Below is one of the two watering spigots–decked out with watering cans, it reminded me of a Christmas tree.

Last but not least is my favorite picture–it’s of the terrace at the very north end of the garden and our fox mascot. To the left of the fox–the brown bin with the white lid–is the bee box. The sign over it says, Bees–Do Not Disturb. No worries there. I’m glad my plot’s on the south end of the garden!

Finally, I’m back home and able to blog. But not before going to the Southside Community Land Trust’s plant sale and loading up on organically grown vegetables to plant at my garden plot at Fox Point Community garden.

I was so excited to be back home, with beautiful weather that was perfect for plant shopping and planting. SCLT has a great, two-day annual plant sale and we saw lots of people we knew. It was a great feeling to be planting again.

We planted a two kinds of tomatoes–a kind that fruits early for northern climates as well as cherries–as well as cucumbers, basil, epazote, spinach, swiss chard, hot peppers, and even a couple of stalks of corn for good measure. I threw in a corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas) just for the heck of it. Here’s what it all looked like at the end of the day.

I took some more photos of the whole garden–not just my little plot but the whole community garden itself. I’ll post those in a day or two. It’s a pretty funky little garden and I’m happy to be there!

Sorry about being inactive in responding to comments and posting for the last couple of weeks….I had to make a last minute trip to visit family and haven’t had regular Internet access. I’ll be back in Rhode Island in the next couple of days and will make a longer post then.

May is not New England’s best month, so it’s a good time to be gone. I’m enjoying the sunny, 70-80 degree days, completely green trees, and flowers in full May bloom here in NC. (Although yesterday we had a uniquely Southern hailstorm and a tornado touched down 5 miles away!) When I’m back in Rhode Island I’ll start planting my new garden plot and write a longer update.

Take care all!!

I’m so excited because over the weekend I was offered a plot in a local community garden. I was waitlisted at three gardens and had pretty much given up hope of getting a plot this late in the game. But it turned out there were some openings at Foxpoint Community Garden, so I showed up this morning, plunked down $25 and claimed Plot 94, the most beautiful 8 ‘ x 4′ -ish patch of dirt that you ever did see.

For those of you that don’t know, my husband and I sold our house last summer and are temporarily living in an apartment with no yard or garden. I’ve been trying to get my gardening fix with houseplants and it’s not the same (although I do enjoy my beautiful bougainvillea). I’ve really been dreading the approaching summer with no garden to play in, so Plot 94 is a great joy to me.

This week I’ll put down some compost and do some planning, and buy some bamboo poles and any other supplies. I don’t exactly know what I’m going to plant yet….tomatoes, peppers, herbs, cucumbers, just basic stuff I guess. I want some annuals too, so I can have have some flowers to tend to.

I wasn’t prepared for a day in the garden today…it was a fairly last minute notice and I didn’t know what to expect; I wasn’t wearing gardening clothes; and I didn’t have any tools or compost. Plus the weather was cool and drizzly. But all of a sudden there I was, just me and Plot 94, and I wanted to do something besides turn around and go home.There were some weeds–nothing serious, just a few. So I weeded–and it felt so good to get my hands dirty!

Oh, mother earth,
With your fields of green
Once more laid down by the hungry hand
How long can you give and not receive
And feed this world ruled by greed

Oh, ball of fire
In the summer sky
Your healing light, your parade of days
Are they betrayed by the men of power
Who hold this world in their changing hands

Oh, freedom land
Can you let this go
Down to the streets where the numbers grow
Respect mother earth and her giving ways
Or trade away our children’s days

Credits

• Mother Earth (Natural Anthem), copyright Neil Young, 1990
  
• Image courtesy of NASA.

Landscaping and gardening with ornamental grasses is hot. Ornamental grasses provide home gardens with nesting sites, food, and cover for birds and other animals; pleasing and unusual texture and dimensionality; and garden interest in all four seasons. Some varieties can be used to plant lawns that require less mowing and water.

As their popularity grows, the invasive nature of some ornamental grasses is becoming a problem. If you’re planting grasses this spring, try to find native, non-invasive varieties. It’s amazing how often I see invasive plants, including grasses, at reputable nurseries. A lot of people probably don’t care, but I tend to assume that a gardener who bothers to patronize a real nursery instead of his or her local big-box gardening center actually cares about what they’re planting. Don’t assume that just because a “good” nursery carries a plant that it’s not invasive. Unfortunately it isn’t always so.

Some invasive ornamental grasses commonly found in nurseries are:

• Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana, C. jubata)–This stuff is everywhere. If I had grown up in the kind of neighborhood that had a homeowner’s agreement, there would have only been one rule: All homeowners must plant a mound of pampas grass beside their mailbox. Pampas seeds and spreads prolifically and is invasive in California and Hawaii, and is banned from sale in South Africa and New Zealand.
• Maidengrass (Miscanthus spp.)–It’s really unbelievable how many so many species of Miscanthus in the nursery trade; M. sinensis seems to me the most common and there are a billion different cultivars. I’ve read various advice that some species and/or cultivars are invasive and others aren’t: variegated ones are a problem; antique species aren’t invasive; depends on when in the growing season that they bloom and drop seed, etc. Personally, that’s too much to information for me to sift through. I realize that it’s an important landscaping plant, but I just wouldn’t buy Miscanthus spp. anymore. I’m sure many will disagree.
• Reed canary grass or ribbon grass (Phalaris arundinacea)–in the wild P. arundinacea is a wetland invasive; a couple of white-striped cultivars are sold in nurseries.
• Fountain grass (Pennisetum sp.) Like maidengrass, there’s a lot of hearsay on what’s invasive or what’s not. XYZ species is OK; ABC is not; It’s OK as long as you cut it back before it seeds; on and on. I’m too lazy–I just don’t buy it.

Don’t forget that invasive is in the eye of the beholder; in other words, what’s native and lovely in one growing zone might be invasive somewhere else. An example of this is the native grass river oats, Chasmathium latifolium; there are many other examples as well. Do your research before you buy. A lot nursery owners and workers that I’ve talked to don’t know or don’t have time to find out the answers. So I’d ask a local extension agent, call your local Master Gardener hotline, or look it up on the Internet–but be sure to use a non-commercial source SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA such as a university with a cooperative extension/outreach program. Rick Darke’s excellent volumes, The Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses and The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes are great resources as is the venerable Bill Cullina’s Native Ferns, Moss, and Grasses: From Emerald Carpet to Amber Wave, Serene and Sensuous Plants for the Garden.

Here are some native non-invasives that I like:

• Feather reed grass ‘Karl Foerster’ (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’). This upright grass is tolerant of a wide range of conditions and rarely self-sows.
• Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium). The foliage of this prairie grass is various shades of gray-blue-green and turns orange, red or tan in the fall.
• Muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). I love this stuff (photo above). It’s like fluffy pink clouds.
• Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pennsylvanica). This sedge would be good to use for a path or lawn replacement. It’s short clusters spread slowly, forming a thick, lush carpet (see photo below).
  Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). Ah, switchgrass. Remember when Resident Bush actually said the word ’switchgrass’ in his 2006 State of the Union speech? I thought my head was going to spin right off my neck. Switchgrass is a tall and tufted native that’s highly touted as a potential biofuel crop. (Because, as George so deftly put it, “America is addicted to oil.” Thanks for the insight, shrub!)
• Buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides). What’s not to love? Another prairie grass, Buffalograss is short and drought-resistant, and would be an earth-friendly alternative to a traditional lawn.

Photo credits

• Muhly grass courtesy of Rick Darke and HDTV
• Pennsylvania sedge courtesy of Cornell Extension All Star Groundcovers