July 16, 2006, Issue 212

To make more time for new material, TheMondayGarden.com is going bi-weekly for new articles; in between, there'll be an upgrading of existing material. So today, please re-visit Issue 171 (July 3, 2005) WHAT GREAT AMERICAN GARDENERS DO NOT DO, to renew our patriotic commitment to stop hurting the earth. Fortunately, doing your duty also leaves more free time and extra spending money for you. picture: Gardens along the beach in the Waterside section of Stamford, CT. Summer 2006. Do you know your responsibility if you have the privilege of living near the water?

July 9, 2006, Issue 211

Trees improve property values, reduce energy costs, provide wildlife habitat, and, perhaps best of all, shade the garden. Many think a shady yard is a "problem". Wrong. Who wants to garden in the sun when it's 90F with 70% humidity? PICTURE: strawberries, fern, primrose, coral bells, bog rosemary, Lenten rose, johnny-jump-up, mini-hosta, and a variegated Japanese grass in a petite stoop-garden, designed for viewing up close. Stamford, CT, 2006 That shady area under your tree, now a languishing bit of moth-eaten grass and moss or, worse yet, a sterile patch of pachysandra, can be a year-round delight, and require less weeding, watering, and feeding than lawn or a full-sun garden. Further, a shade garden can shelter some of our endangered woodland wildflowers.]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/07/gardening_on_the_shady_side_1.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/07/gardening_on_the_shady_side_1.html shade gardening Sun, 09 Jul 2006 16:28:43 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

June 25, 2005, Issue 210

SUMMARY: There is no ethical justification for the use of pesticides, "natural" or otherwise, to make pretty flowers or velvety lawns. Further, pesticides, long-term, are not effective insect controls. Instead, learn good cultural practices, and foster nature's defense which include predator bugs. A reader of TheMondayGarden.com wrote "I just recently had a orchid house built. Could you advise me how to get rid of the mealy bugs and scale? Is there a automatic system that can take care of this and what chemical do I use to get this under control?" Picture: Ladybug on patrol at Southfield Park, Stamford CT June 2006. Dear Reader: I can see that you're learning, like the rest of us, and I hope this will help you protect your health and that of your children, pets, and plants: I don't use chemicals to kill plant bugs and urge others to refrain from doing so as well. Bugs are all-natural (albeit sometimes not native) and fully bio-degradable, never cause cancer, and are seldom poisonous. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for pesticides ("cides" to readers of TheMondayGarden.com). The 'cides are dangerous because (1) they kill stuff, (2) they are not fully tested to make sure that they only kill what they are intended to kill, and (3) what testing is done assumes that the user is perfectly following an unrealistic set of directions under ideal working conditions.]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/06/the_best_plant_pesticides_are.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/06/the_best_plant_pesticides_are.html houseplants: pests pest control (or not) Sat, 24 Jun 2006 11:54:46 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

June 18, 2006, Issue 209

This week, to celebrate the official beginning of summer, is a virtual walk along the Mill River, featuring native and naturalized flora, many of which would also be good for your garden. The walk is divided into three parts by month; then the plants are grouped by environment, starting with the flora of the upland woods, then favorites from the part-shade and sun of the river-side and swamp, and finally the jewels of the open meadow.

JUNE: UPLAND WOODS

PICTURE: Look up to see the wonderful, water lily-like flowers of the majestic tulip tree, found in our upland woods, and in many a back yard. Strawberry Hill, Stamford, CT June 2005]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/06/the_mill_river_summer_flora.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/06/the_mill_river_summer_flora.html The Mill River: Flora -Summer Sun, 18 Jun 2006 16:49:32 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

June 4, 2006, Issue 208 this article updates and replaces Issue 54.

NEWS FLASH: MAY 2007: BEST WAY TO CONTROL: Cut the flower steams to ground (not half way up), once the flower blooms. You have a 90% chance new flower stem will not re-grow.  Black bag  the cut stems and leave in the sun to sterilize.  Ignore the plants -- a  large percent of the first year seedlings will die on their own.  The plant is bi-annual so second year plants will also die on their own.  By not pulling up the plants, and not disturbing the ground, you have best chance of of not encouraging more seedlings of this and other invasives. END NEWS FLASH.

Invasive critters, like the Asian Longhorn beetle, can sneak in the country uninvited. However, foreign plants generally need to entice humans into importing them. In the case of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), early European immigrants valued this biennial member of the mustard family because it tastes, well, like garlic. Adding to its assets, garlic mustard is high in vitamins A and C, and only too easy to grow in moist part-shade (e.g. most of our forest understory, shaded roadsides and hedge-rows.). As an evergreen, it is readily available in fresh form all winter, which was a particularly good thing before supermarkets. While there is no direct proof, it is believed that garlic mustard came into North America with the European settlers. There are records of it here in the 1800's. Picture: A cotton-tailed rabbit surrounded by invasive garlic mustard, mugwort, and burdock, none of which are food to him. If this is what's left of the wild, what's he supposed to eat? Meanwhile, the lack of predators gives the invasives a competitive advantage over the rabbit's proper native food. Cummings Park, Stamford, CT June 2006. But being likable isn�t enough to get the title "invader"; being likable by humans just gets a human to put you in the garden. Being "weedy" or "aggressive" in the garden isn't enough, either - that just gets you pulled up. To be invasive, the plant has to be able to escape the garden on its own, spread fairly quickly over a wide area, and beat out the local, wild competition by hogging the light, water, nutrients, and space. Garlic mustard is good at this. Garlic mustard has already infested all the USA except the southern border where it is too hot for the garlic mustard's seeds to germinate. Also, parts of the Northwest are still free of garlic mustard. The plant is also a pest in Southern Canada. It has the distinction of making the noxious weed list in 45 states at last count. Unfortunately, garlic mustard�s direct competitors include our beloved woodland wildflower flowers such as spring beauty, wild ginger, bloodroot, toothwort (wild, native mustards), Dutchman's breeches, hepatica, and trillium.

May 26, 2005, Issue 207-208

Why cover the building of a river-side playground by community volunteers on a site dedicated to the urban wilderness? Isn't it just another playground in another park? May be but it is our park, and it is part of the comprehensive plan for re-development of the riverside "green space". The playground is part of the City's decision on the balancing of human and non-human uses of the riparian space and the devolvement of the surrounding neighborhoods. The desired vision seems to be happy children growing up along a sparkling river with herons, geese, ducks, and osprey, squirrels overhead, and songbirds in the bushes. Meanwhile, the adjacent lower- and middle-income housing and small businesses of the West Side get spruced-up but remain intact. (The new, "luxury" (i.e. high-income) residential development is planned to be farther north and east; and, years from now, to the south.) In other words, the same neighborhood, only better, for humans and non-humans alike, plus a world-class playground for all the children of the City to visit.

Picture: On Day 5, the skies open once again. Later, I was surprised to find out that the rainfall total for the week was "only" 3 to 4 inches. May 19, 2006.

The plan was for community volunteers to dedicate 5,000 hours in one week (three shifts working 7:30 A.M. to 9:00 P.M., May 15-21, 2006) to raise a playground from a design created by outside consultants with input from area children, using mostly donated materials. By the end of the week, somewhere over a 1000 individuals who live or work in Stamford had invested a good 8000 to 9000 hours on the site, most of it in rain and mud. The people came from the international corporations headquartered in town, the local businesses both large and small, the schools, the religion organizations, the city government, and the neighborhood, including the men's shelter. Many others contributed from off site. Indeed, special thanks goes to those unseen hands who prepared our meals. (Speaking of small, local businesses, TheMondayGarden.com didn't publish last week because I was helping in the tool shed).]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/05/building_the_mill_river_playgr.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/05/building_the_mill_river_playgr.html The Mill River: the Playground Fri, 26 May 2006 16:57:10 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

May 14, 2006, Issue 206

As mentioned in the Mill River Picture Tour, the Army Corps of Engineers' plan to restore and revitalize the Mill River calls for tearing down the Mill River Dam and the high concrete walls that currently surround the mill pond north of the dam. The plan's goal is restore this stretch of the river to its pre-1640 state with gentle, sloping flood plains, and gentle, moving currents. Fish would once again migrate up the stream to spawn; people would be able to kayak for miles and fish for days; and the stream-side critters would be able to make proper homes for themselves. So what's not to like? Right behind the mill pond walls, and dependent on the walls, are the Kwanzan cherry trees given to the City on Arbor Day in 1957 by Junzo Nojima, a Japanese-American who had made his home in Stamford. When the typical Stamford resident (who has never actually set foot under the cherry trees but does drive by occasionally) first hears about the plan, the reaction is "Eek! No Way! You can't tear down the lovely cherry trees! Don't you know they were a gift?" Not so fast. Let's take it a step at a time. Then, perhaps you'll agree that the best thing for the environment, and our view, is the Army Corps of Engineers' plan. Picture: Looking north from the old West Main Street Bridge. Stamford CT April 2006. This dam was built in 1922 as the final successor to a series of mill dams first erected here in 1641. The 1922 construction also included the high concrete walls around the pond that significantly narrowed the pond, creating more useable land but restricting the river's proper flow.]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/05/replacing_the_lovely_cherry_tr.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/05/replacing_the_lovely_cherry_tr.html The Mill River: the Cherry Trees Sun, 14 May 2006 16:22:28 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

May 8, 2006, Issue 205

This week I received in my email two organicconsumers.org quotes (reprinted below), courtesy of Stamford Herbalist Laura DePreta (also a certified Master Gardener and an organic home-farmer). We can enjoy life more while burning calories rather than fossil fuel. Don’t drive to the store, especially to buy imported (from California) food with low nutritional value. Rather, walk to the garden and farmers market. Be healthier and better looking too! picture: A pot of seed-grown lettuce on my balcony-- 3 full salads or several sandwiches -- squeezed into between the primroses and violas. Stamford CT May 2006; a second pot, sowed 2 weeks later, is "in training". "HOW TO BE AN ENVIRONMENTALIST: GOTTA GIT A GREEN THUMB: If you don't have one already, there's no better time than the present to start your own vegetable garden, whether it's on your own land or in a local community plot. According to the latest data from the US Department of Agriculture, the level of home food production is at its lowest point in US history. With the average food traveling more than 1500 miles from farm to fork, the environmental impact of big agribusiness foods is at an all time high. Concerned about global warming and peak oil? Consider the fact that it takes 400 calories of fossil fuels to transport a single 5 calorie strawberry from California to East Coast supermarkets. What's more, that flavorless non-organic strawberry was grown with methyl bromide, a carcinogenic and ozone depleting pesticide. In contrast, a perennial patch of strawberries in your yard grows back on its own every year, requires no fossil fuels and no pesticides, and tastes a whole lot better. The environmental benefits of growing some of your own food are staggering. The Organic Consumers Association is developing a new campaign to help turn every thumb into a Green thumb. : Learn more at organicconsumers.org]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/05/burn_calories_not_fossil_fuel.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/05/burn_calories_not_fossil_fuel.html eco-groceries eco-transportation Wed, 10 May 2006 13:08:31 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

April 30, 2006, Issue 204

To continue the Mill River series, here is a very, very small sample of the friends of the river. Many are fishers, some are gathers, and others just enjoy the waterside environment.

PICTURE: The night heron fishing below the Mill River dam, two of his buddies are in a tree across the way. Note his long white plumes. Mill River Dam (at West Main) Stamford CT April 2006

PICTURE: A bee looking for dew, dandelions, and violets Stamford CT April 2006]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/friends_of_the_mill_river.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/friends_of_the_mill_river.html Friends of the Mill River Sat, 29 Apr 2006 20:13:47 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

April 23, 2006, Issue 203

When I'm hiking with a group through the Stamford's uncultivated areas, I try to remember to point out the poison ivy. Having grown up in the country, I forget that many people haven't learned to recognize this serious peril of the urban wilderness, and their own backyards. Inevitably, I hear someone say that they don’t get poison ivy. Not so fast; my own grandmother ended up in the hospital by believing that her life-long immunity to poison ivy had carried over into her senior years. PICTURE: Poison ivy thriving in a privet hedge along a sidewalk on Morgan Street, Stamford CT May 2005 POISON IVY'S EFFECT ON HUMANS According to the Food and Drug Administration, 50 to 70 % of us are allergic to poison ivy and most of the rest will become allergic if exposed. The American Academy of Dermatologists estimates that, annually, between 10 and 50 millions Americans have an unfortunate encounter with poison ivy. The usual allergic response is an annoying rash. Extreme cases, though, can result in hospitalization, and serious, long-term health issues.]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/avoiding_poison_ivy.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/avoiding_poison_ivy.html poison ivy Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:14:16 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

April 16, 2006, Issue 202

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PRINT-QUALITY COPY OF THIS ARTILCE GOOD NEWS: Now you can get rid your lawn of weeds without chemicals or a backache. Indeed, it doesn't even cost much to become the envy of your neighbors. Not only that, your community group can help spread the good news by selling the product as a fund raiser! This past week, I cleared the undesired broad-leaf weeds and the crabgrass from ¼ acre of lawn in an hour flat, leaving plenty of time to over-seed with new grass, weed the garden, and actually enjoy the spring flowers. Imagine that! This "better mouse trap" of weed and invasive plant control, dubbed "The Dandelion Terminator" or the "DLT-100", is the invention of Ed Reed, a Montana carpenter. It is a special drill bit-like device that fits into the average electric drill and that effortlessly cuts the broad-leaf tap rooted weeds away just below the root crown, making it hard for the weeds to regenerate. The DLT-100 costs $25 and change -- about the price of a ½ gallon or less of nasty weed killer. Further, there is no way that the DLT-100 can cause cancer or asthma, or result in dangerous chemical residues building up in your water or your lung tissue. The DLT-100 also totally selective -- you decide which plants to keep and to kill. Some may even find the DLT-100 so much fun to use that they'll be praying for weeds. PICTURE: My mother, who normally doesn't operate an electric drill, having no problem taking out some fleabane. I did two days of testing on untreated lawns that had plenty of "weed" samples. I found that the DLT-100 works even better than the inventor claims in that it handles a much wider variety of plants than just the broad-leaf tap-rooted lawn critters like dandelions and plantain. I also found the DLT-100 extremely easy and safe to use (but please, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!). Now, here's the even better part: anyone can use it, regardless of bicep circumference and mechanical inclination. And the guys love the DLT-100! In my second trial, at a friend's house, her husband tested the DLT-100 and was absolutely sold -- he's getting one pronto. So if you're trying to wean your man off the lawn chemicals, buy him a DLT-100. In no time, he'll be skipping the herbicides and encourage the weeds so that he can impress the neighbors with his very own Dandelion Terminator.]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/the_dandelion_terminator_is_he.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/the_dandelion_terminator_is_he.html Controlling invasives and weeds lawn care (or not) Mon, 17 Apr 2006 12:37:20 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

April 8, 2006, Issue 201

Sorry-- there no pretty picture today as there are no pretty pictures of killer cancers. If any of you are still using pesticides, or have neighbors that are doing so, please read this unedited email that I received from an old friend and my answer to him. This is real. If you use pesticides, you are causing this to happen. Sue, Hi. You mentioned that chemicals to kill weeds and a link to Lymphoma. I have just started treatment for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Do you have any links to material that talks about the relationship to lymphoma? I have commented to my doctors that I have always had a physical reaction when my neighbors had their lawns treated. J J -- I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear of your trouble. What is so shocking is that the industry and government have known for years about the pesticide - lymphoma link. Here are just a few references. Please stay in touch and my prayers for your complete recovery come with this email. Sue To the readers: I found these links in 20 minutes. What will your kids find in the your lawn, the school yard and the park? What are your shoes tracking home to kill your cat? "Pesticides" means anything that kills insects, non-insect bugs (e.g. spider mites), weeds and other perceived "pests". In the reports I read, weed killers were mentioned most often. So is a weed-free lawn worth killing your neighbors kid?]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/pesticides_really_kill_duh.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/pesticides_really_kill_duh.html pest control (or not) Sat, 08 Apr 2006 16:28:22 -0500 TheMondayGarden.com, Eco-gardening at its best

April 3, 2006 Issue 200

Note: this article updates Issue 159 (April 10, 2005) Pure and simple, lesser celandine is not marsh marigold; instead it is marsh marigold killer. Until recently, I'd never seen a real marsh marigold, except in a pot. I wish that I could say the same for the highly invasive similar-looking European cousin, the lesser celandine a/k/a fig buttercup a/k/a Ranunculus ficaria. Indeed, one of the reasons that marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) is so rare is because lesser celandine crowds out the marsh marigolds and our other delicate native spring wildflowers like spring beauties, rue anemone, hepatica, bloodroot, Dutchman's breeches, and trout lily that are trying to co-exist in the same environment. PICTURE: lesser celandine along the Mill River, north of Bridge Street, Stamford CT, Spring 2006 Lesser celandine still seems to be a valued wildflower in England and Ireland, but in northern U.S. and southern Canada, it is an infestation of the worse sort Lesser celandine is so bad that the US Geological Survey, not exactly an organization known for hyperbole, calls it a "travesty". PICTURE: Real marsh marigold, off the trail at the Bartlett Arboretum, late April 2005.]]> http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/lesser_celandine_marsh_menace_1.html http://www.themondaygarden.org/archives/2006/04/lesser_celandine_marsh_menace_1.html lesser celandine Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:43:21 -0500