Is Spring on the way?

Puttering.

Today was a chance to putter around the growing greener yard. Nice, chilly late winter morning.

- After debating for a day, I checked the weather-channel predictions, and planted this Hardy Chicago fig. It was grown from a cutting last Winter. Reading the tag, I started the cutting 1/10/06, from a 2-node cutting (similar to the ones that I started about one week ago). I did add some home made compost to the hole, along with eggshells and soil from a more improved part of the garden, mixing with the soil in the hole. It's mulched with some leaves, but later in the Spring I intend to add some more compost plus a top layer of bark mulch. The top bud is pruned off to encourage branching. I hope that the buds havent swelled to a vulnerable point yet. I'll have to watch the predictions and cover it if a hard freeze is anticipated.

- some of the perrenial tops are pruned and chopped for the composter. The yard looks a bit cleaner. There are more that need trimming.

- 3 more bags of Starbucks grounds are added to the tomato bed.

-Lettuce is "winter sown" in an outdoor container. The lettuce seeds are about 1 year old. They should still be viable (according to one site, lettuce seeds can survive 5 years if stored properly); not much lost if they are not. The container is left exposed on the back (southern exposure) deck. Onion seeds, apparently, last only one year. I threw in some bunching onion seeds which, if they grow, great, but since they are from 1995, they may not. Later, I also winter sowed some radishes and spinach, also 1-2 years old.

At last, a day with a little 'life' to balance 'work'. It's been a hard few months, and I worked without a complete day off for the past 2 weeks straight through, so I took the weekend off. No homework done this weekend either.

Global warming and the gardener

Some random thoughts about Global Warming, and Gardening.

First, everyone has a role in this issue. As the top of the blog states, "Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads 'not guilty'." Gardener or not, each person has a role in trying to reduce carbon emissions, increase carbon sequestering, and compensate or prepare for change.

To reduce carbon emissions, we can grow shade (reduce air conditioning requirement), grow food crops (reduce shipping costs), grow organically (avoid unnecessary use of petrochemicals). We can share starts from favorite, well-adapted plants (reduce shipping costs, use locally adapted plants with improved chances of success).

My favorite shade project is the grape arbor on the south side of the house, which cools a bedroom in the summer, provides a shady place to sit, allows warm sunlight in the winter (because the grapes are deciduious), and provides many pounds of really tasty grapes in the Summer.

To increase carbon sequestering we should plant more trees where-ever practical. Trees remove CO2 from the air, and sequester it in their wood. My yard is small, but I have planted a ginkgo seedling in the back yard (now about 8 feet tall) which will also shade the house (it is on the south side) and two ginkgo seedlings in the front yard. Ginkgos are versatile, adapted to a wide variety of climates and conditions, and long-lived. Many other varieties of shade tree will do, this is just a favorite for me. A nut-producing shade tree might also be a good option, and will also provide food. I've seen figs large enough to provide shade, but not many people want such large fig trees.

My yard is not large, however, so I don't know how many more trees I can add. Now if I could just some neighbors to add trees... some of their yards look so barren. By having trees in my yard, I also provide an example. Woody shrubs and trees may also help (less lawn, and some carbon sequestered in the wood, although not nearly as much as a shade tree). I do have lots of those, in the form of dwarf fruits, and shrubs. (After writing this, I think that I have just decided to let the Eucalyptus - which I was going to pollard near the ground and grow as a shrub - grow as a tree instead. It's north of the house, near the street, so won't shade the garden.)

To prepare for change, we need to think about what will grow in our changed local climates. Some traditional or native species and varieties will be stressed with the changes, and won't flourish. Meanwhile, others that would not have grown before, will do well. Some gardeners (myself included) like to push their "zonal envelope" (derided by others as "zone denial"). A few degrees might make a difference in whether tender varieties of figs survive and fruit, or peaches. Or Eucalyptus as noted above (I know, these are a problem in California. But if the native trees can't adapt, then "invasive" might mean "successful" and a "detriment" turns into a "benefit").

Even though climate change is generally considered global warming, there will be some areas that are cooler, and some areas with more chaotic weather patterns. Most likely, some areas will be much more dry. Dry tolerant plants become more desirable. Maybe some hardy cacti - time to learn to cook nopales (Oh no, not more about opuntias! By the way, I did buy another small one at Fred Meyer. Probably an Opuntia rufida which looks like this or this. But it's not very hardy so is overwintering indoors.) Some stream of consciousness here. Not quite 'word salad' but getting close.

Other thoughts:

-maybe offer to rake the neighbor's leaves, so they are less likely to cut down their trees? Then take the leaves home and compost them.

-maybe I should go out today and plant some lettuce. That way it doesn't have to be shipped from california. I wonder if those old lettuce seeds will germinate?

-mulch mulch mulch. makes the garden easier to maintain, improves the soil, allowing for deeper roots, making garden plants more resilient, reduces plant disease by preventing splash back from the soil, reduces weeds and water requirements, makes use of the leaves mentioned above.

-it really is time to give up on the idea of a golf-course-like lawn as the neighborhood ideal. Let's see more productive kitchen-garden yards, or low-maintenance forested tree-filled yards, or ornamental flower and shrub filled yards, but not energy-intense, chemical filled lawns.

That's about it for random thoughts today. Time to go out and plant those lettuce seeds. It's light outside now.

353 year old fig tree in Brittany (1610-1987)

From a post on the gardenweb fig forum, this fig tree was planted in the Brittany region of France at the religious order of the Capuchin (a Franciscan order) and apparently survived until the community needed a parking structure (ouch!).

The automatic translation from the French is difficult to read but here is a link.

Apparently, it wasn't a delicious fig although the author may have been biased ("Herbaceous and little sweetened savour these fruits, made us find them hateful by comparing them with our excellent figs South") .

From the photos, it looks like it was grown on a massive arbor. The Winkler Mission Grape vine at Davis California is a similar, but much, much younger, grape version of the same concept (covering a 60 X 60 foot arbor)

(Some comments on using old photos. I am not a lawyer, but I did look up copyright law in Wikipedia. According to that source, works published before 1923 are all in the public domain. In addition, in most countries, if the author has been dead more than 70 years, the work is in the public domain. All works created by the US government are in the public domain. So these photos should be OK to post.)

Rhubarb Dreams

Since the rhubarb is starting to sprout, I started thinking about this plant. This photo is from August 2006.

I've grown it for 4 years, starting it from an "orphan" root that I bought at Fred Meyer's 'reject' stand. It was dried out and dead looking. Even so, it grew rapidly. Due to the fast growth and large size of the plant, it was relocated to a larger spot after one year.

The variety is Victoria. This is an heirloom variety, sometimes raised from seed. I previously raised glaskins perpetual from seed, but didn't have room for two rhubarbs plants so it had to go (the choice had more to do with the location than the plant). Sometimes the stalks are red, but mostly they are green Even on this one plant, there is color variability. In the early Spring, they are redder, but in the summer, they are green. It has a strange, majestic flower stalk, similar to that of yucca, but more fluffy.

Despite the best of intentions, I've harvested only a few batches of stalks, for rhubarb pie or crumble, and one time attempted a rhubarb jam (this was very solid & even though I liked the taste, the texture was too firm). Of course, I didn’t have much idea of what I was doing. The main thing that gets into my way is not that I don't like it (I love rhubarb) but that I am not much of a cook.

Since I'm partial to trivia about a plant's history, here are some interesting factoids and links:

The history of horticultural and medicinal use of rhubarb goes back 4,700 years.

The amazing history of rhubarb - more than any one person could know about rhubarb.

Of course, Wikipedia also has a wealth of information about rhubarb.

Some strange things about this vegetable:

- While tomatoes, which are a fruit, are commonly considered a vegetable, rhubarb, which is a vegetable, is classified as a fruit.
- There is a region in England known as "the rhubarb triangle" where rhubarb is grown.
- Rhubarb rhaponticum, which is a true rhubarb, is known as "false rhubarb."
-The name comes from the latin "rha barbarian", for the barbarian plant from the river Rha, which is the old name for the river Volga (I don't know if I really believe this).

NPR has some alternative uses for rhubarb, such as in chutneys. I really will make better use of this plant this year. Others mention rhubarb breads, rhubarb cake, rhubarb sauces.