(Via EnjoyGardening)

Posted by admin to Jim's Notebook on 2007-10-25, 12:38:45

Hits & Misses: Ornamental kale & the plant killer strikes again
Question of the Week: How does a plant become a weed?
The Business: Anticipating new products

On Saturday, October 20th our family was very pleased to be present at the opening of the Ted Hole Family Park in St. Albert. This park, which is situated in the vibrant Erin Ridge community in St. Albert, sits on what was once the north field of our vegetable farm. A committee of like-minded St. Albertans, many of them who knew my parents well, worked hard to take this park from paper to reality. The park features plenty of trees which would suit my Dad just fine. He was one of the first proponents of planting trees to reduce wind erosion and to provide wildlife habitat. In fact, over the course of his life, he planted hundreds of them. There couldn’t be a greater tribute to him than this wonderful park.

Hits & Misses
Hit: Ornamental kale
I can’t help but love ornamental kale. It is big and bold (some would even say ostentatious), and it always looks great in fall gardens. If you’re not familiar with this plant, it has the shape and weight of a regular cabbage but it is covered in ruffle-edged purple or green leaves and has an open habit that shows of its contrasting centre. Ornamental kale is so darn frost hardy that long after the bedding plants have faded it just keeps on looking great. Put it on your “hit” list for next year.

Ornamental kale prefers full sun and moist, moderately fertile soil.

Miss: The plant killer strikes again
Yes, I confess that I killed a half dozen poinsettias last week. I was messing around with our fertilizer injector (a machine that is programmed to meter out just the right concentration of nutrients to our plants) and I inadvertently, but thankfully only briefly, gave some plants too much of a good thing. The result was a few poinsettias that looked scorched enough that they had to be tossed out. If I recall correctly, I think that the last time I scorched plants in this manner, I swore that I would never make the same mistake again. Oops!

Question of the Week
How does a plant become a weed?
There really is no technical definition for the term weed. If you boil it down to traits, you might be surprised to discover that weeds possess many of the same qualities we prize in people: resilience, toughness, stoicism. But with plants as with people, there is a fine line between resilient and irrepressible, tough and aggressive, stoic and domineering. When an ornamental plant crosses the line and threatens to dominate the landscape, it becomes classified as a weed. Case in point, when purple loosestrife revealed a hidden desire to push native plants out of our wetlands.

The Business
Anticipation
I’m really excited about some of the products that we’re going to trial in the next few months. I’m especially interested in those that my brother Bill and his wife, Valerie, had a chance to see at the gardening industry trade show in Amsterdam. They put together a great presentation for our staff and I think everyone enjoyed the chance to see items that ranged from the latest in floral bouquet “spreaders” (devices that neatly pushed stems apart and held bouquets in shape) to tomatoes that apparently will produce fruit indoors. I’ve seen the pictures; now I want the products in my hands!

This miniature tomato was touted at a trade show in Amsterdam as being able to produce fruit indoors. We’ll see!

Did You Know?
A new world record for the largest pumpkin was set just a few weeks ago. Joe Jutras of Rhode Island grew a whopping 766 kilograms (1689 pounds) pumpkin. It wasn’t that long ago that growing a thousand pound pumpkin was seen as nearly impossible. Now there are many prizewinners that top that mark frequently. That’s a lotta pie!

“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.”
— Nathaniel Hawthorne

(Via grow this)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2007-10-25, 09:35:00

The fires began on Sunday, This is the first morning in 5 days that we woke without smelling smoke in the air. What you may not gather from national coverage is that of the half million people evacuated, most were ordered to leave so the emergency personnel could concentrate on fighting fire and not traffic or panicked residents. In the back country, they wanted the narrow winding roads through canyons and valleys empty so fire trucks could travel unimpeded. By this morning, most of these people were able to return home. Our place is a mess from the winds, but we’re otherwise fine

When they finally started checking IDs at the Q, the number of evacuees went from almost 5,000 to barely 400. Apparently, many people were drawn there by the prospect of good food and good company. The ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) went through scattering many homeless illegal people back into the shadows we prefer them to occupy. As Randy Newman said, “we care that the world isn’t fair”. It was particularly painful to the rich people whose hilltop mansions in the country may have been burned or damaged to have to undergo the additional stress of mingling with poor people. While journalists like to stand in front of smoldering ruins and tilting chimneys to report on the devastation, we'd rather not consider the many shanty towns in back country canyons where many of our agricultural workers camped illegally. Of course, because they don’t have identification papers with their addresses, they won’t be counted or served.

But the good news is that there is now a “Prayer Station” at the Q, manned by people in black pants and bright gold shirts who are trained in crisis counseling and grief counseling and prayer. They call themselves “God’s Bumble Bees”. No, I’m not kidding.

No information on Lake Arrowhead fires beyond the still mandatory evacuation orders. If his house is still standing in Arrowhead Villas, Kareem says it proves there is no god because he prayed to no god to save it. J&K are on their way to Riverside because UCR is open and they’ve got classes. Their colleagues have been taking their sessions, but at Teaching Assistants, they are in charge of their sections and don’t want to depend too heavily on the kindness of friends to cover for them. They’re making the 2 hour drive – almost exactly 100 miles from our door to the campus – knowing only that they can’t return to their home a mere 20 miles from school, but will have to drive back to San Diego for the night.

President Bush is in the house today, making aerial tours and standing in the same photo op places occupied by our state and local officials for the past week. One of the reason The Governator got his job is that when big fires in San Diego County exactly 4 years ago this week, his predecessor didn’t show up to feel our pain and his ass was recalled. Now that the fires in San Diego are winding down, perhaps officials will travel north to check out the Irvine Fire, the Malibu Fire, and the fires burning in the San Bernardino mountains overlooking Riverside.

(Via Plant Care)

Posted by admin to Aglaonema, Dracaena, Plant Pictures, Plants - General, Troubleshooting on 2007-10-25, 07:11:12

Last time I talked about plant profiles but with a twist. The plant profile was based on the personality type and offered some suggestions on house plants that work for that type of person...