It Takes a Planet to Raise a Child

The Best is a Native

The best ornamental plant in our yard is a native plant.  I picked it up at a plant sale run by our local native plant society this past spring.

As instructed, I planted the  young green sprout in a sunny location without really knowing what it would turn into, besides having a vague idea of the flower shape. The name of the plant is three-lobed coneflower (Rudbeckia triloba).  It is a late bloomer. During the first part of the summer, it grew into a large, green, unremarkable plant on the rock slope next to our driveway.  Then August came and BOOM, it burst into flower.  For the past month, it has displayed more than a hundred bright yellow flowers with dark centers.  It is absolutely spectacular. 

Porcupine loves to watch the butterflies and bees that are attracted to the flowers.  In surprisingly short order, she has learned that flowers in the garden are for looking at and not randomly picking.  Although there are plenty of blooms, I can't bring myself to cut any of the coneflowers to bring inside.  They look so great where they are.

Don't let anyone tell you native plants aren't as attractive as exotic ornamentals.  I dare say our Rubeckia triloba is the best ornamental plant on our block (though not to my neighbors because that would be obnoxious).  I will definitely pick up a couple more next year.

 

Pests I Like

Maybe it is my biology background, maybe it is because I lived in an apartment for several years, or maybe I am just unconventional, but I like some pests in our yard.

1. Our lawn needs some work.  We tried some seeding last fall but it did not take.  I don't know if the birds ate the seeds or what, but our lawn is still non-uniform.  We have clover, fescue, crabgrass, chickweed and violets.  I don't mind the chickweed or clover (actually good for fixing nitrogen in the soil).  I am not so big on the crabgrass.  I do love the violets!  In the spring, our backyard looked like this.  Even now the violets don't look bad.  They stay green longer than the grass in dry periods.  I can feel the turf aficionados cringing, but hey I think it looks good and isn't that the point?
2. I found a caterpillar on a spinach leaf in our garden a couple of weeks ago.  Despite the fact it was chewing on our spinach, I was glad to see it.  I tried identifying it online but I could not find it. So I do not know which butterfly population our vegetable garden is supporting.  I am going to look for butterfly guides on my next library visit.  This is a poor photo, but if anyone has any ideas, it would be much appreciated
3. I woke up early on Sat and saw a groundhog chewing our broccoli plants.  Another intruder in our vegetable garden.  Again, I guess I should have been upset but when I saw the plump groundhog reaching for our plants and taking a nibble, I just laughed.  I tried to get a photo but I should have turned off the flash because I got some reflection from the window glass and when the groundhog saw the flash, he took off like a shot across our yard and presumably, back to his hole.  We have a couple of holes in our lawn.  I try to mark them with sticks because I worry about kids stepping in them, otherwise I am glad to see the groundhog(s).  Our neighbor is not so happy to see him.  She puts all sorts of objects (rocks, fish tank pebbles etc) down the hole close to her yard but they just dig around the objects. I don't see them as such a bother and am happy to see some wildlife .

I do have pests that I don't like - crabgrass, already mentioned,  poison ivy - even though it is a native plant, I appreciate it in natural areas but remove it from our yard so our daughter doesn't tangle with it, weeds in the garden, anything in the house - mice, ants etc. 

If we were relying on our vegetables to survive or if our lawn was a golf course, I might have a different take on these likable "pests", but for now,  we'll let them be and be happy they came to visit.

Whole Food - A Whole Lot Better for You and the Environment

I heard this story on NPR yesterday about how vegetable seed companies are reporting a boom.  The story attributes the surge in home vegetable gardening to growing concern about food prices and that is probably true.  But I would like to think that at least part of the increased interest is due to a general greater public environmental awareness and the increased number of  "locavores".

I know that is part of our motivation.  See our garden's progress in photos below.  As a woman mentions in the NPR piece, it is a lot of fun and satisfying to grow your own vegetables.  Our garden hasn't yielded anything yet.  Some spinach is almost ready.  I don't think Porcupine gets the concept that we are growing vegetables but she has helped water a couple of times and thought that was a blast. My husband is very into the mammoth sunflowers we planted. He is ecstatic at the thought that they could grow to 10 feet.  We'll see, and we'll see if we save much money. 


As we watch our garden grow, I have become more and more convinced home gardening is a great idea for those who have the space and time.  There are the numerous environmental benefits. We took out a patch of lawn for our garden so that helps with water quality because gardens filter water and create less run-off.  Those of us with veggie gardens probably won't save many shopping trips because our gardens won't be supplying all our food this summer, but we do save transport of the produce we grow in our gardens and that is huge.  Also the abundance of produce helps you focus on a whole foods diet, or at least one with less processed foods.

Our downtown Saturday Farmers' Market opened at the beginning of May.  We went the last two weekends.  Also, because we have been busy with work, we haven't done any big supermarket trips lately, just small picked up a few ingredients here and there at smaller shops (e.g. fish market).  The result is we are using more stuff we have on hand, like rice, grains, veggies and beans and eating less processed food (although I did buy a baguette from the bakery today which could qualify as locally processed).

 I don't have any numbers, but when you think about whole versus processed food, whole (unprocessed, not the supermarket) food has to be significantly better for the environment simply because of the reduced transport energy to and from the processing plant plus packaging energy and materials.  How much better is it that your green pepper went directly from your backyard or local farmer to your homemade pizza rather than Lord knows where to get on a packaged frozen pizza and then to your oven? 

I am reading this report on organic agriculture and climate change. I haven't finished reading it but the main idea and supporting research described in the report points to organic and local farming as having great potential to help slow climate change.

A Quiet, Fit and Kooky Way to Mow Your Green Lawn

"Green is mainstream" may be the word on the street, but that doesn't mean your neighbors won't think you are a little kooky when you pull out the push reel mower.

I mowed our front lawn yesterday with our reel mower.  As far as I know we are the house in the neighborhood that doesn't mow with a power mower.  I would describe neighbors' reactions to our method of mowing as bemused curiosity.  "Your mower works pretty well," our next door neighbor remarked from her driveway yesterday as she watched me mow down the final stretch. As in "wow, that thing actually works."

I have to admit I was a bit of a skepitic before my husband purchased our reel mowers.  (Aside- our first Task Force reel mower was fun to push, but did literally "not cut it" because it was too "light-weight".  We now have a slightly more expensive Sunlawn model with a rear roller that works better because it doesn't bounce over the tough spots like our previous model).  Here are at least three good reasons for having a reel mower:

1. Save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Gas powered can produce the same emissions as up to 100 miles in your car, though EPA is working on reducing those emissions.  Some of the new rechargable electric models are pretty green, but always the green geeks, we went with the zero energy (at least grid energy) option.  Our number one motivation for purchasing a reel mower.  However, the benefits of 2 and 3 are strong enough to stand alone. 
2. Reel mowers are wonderfully quiet.  There is something very satisfying about quietly letting your mind wonder while working in the yard.  Especially good if you are one of those people (like me) who has trouble sitting still inside and thinking without a strong urge to start doing something else. I have never mown a whole lawn with a power mower, but in contrast to the reel mower, they have interupted my thoughts and conversations on several ocassions. Conventional gas mower motors can reach 85-90 dB - the same noise level as motorcycles.
3. Reel mowing is good light exercise.  I am not saying this in a tongue and cheek sort of way.   Actually reel mowing is easier I thought it would be.  Of course, I was originally thinking it would be like dragging dull scissors through yarn.  Not the case - our mower makes crisp cuts, usually on the first pass.  You do have to push harder than a power mower, but with less force than you probably think, and ocassionally you do have to do a few passes to catch taller plants.  Reel mowing also takes longer than power mowing, but the quietness and the legimate exercise component allow you to count mowing with a reel mower as leisure rather than work, which makes a difference to how you feel about investing the time.

Here are a few tips if you think you are ready to join the ranks of neighborhood green kooks with the reel mower.

• Quality counts.  If you are not sure about a particular model, see if you can find a store that accepts returns after you give it a test run.
• As with all mowers, you will need to trim some edges with a string trimmer (or sheers if you want to be really green).  Edging borders reduce the amount of tall grass borders that need trimming when you are done.
• Don't let your grass get too long.  If grass blades start approaching a foot, you will feel like you are dragging dull scissors through yarn.  If it is too late to get a relatively short first cut, you may want to borrow a power mower to bring the lawn back to maintenance shape.
• If you want to go really green, cut down on the size of your lawn. Something we are working on but don't want to get rid of the lawn altogether because it is a convenient place for Porcupine to run around.
• If you have the big bucks and like new gadgets, you may want to skip the reel mower altogether and check out this baby.

Spring is Springing - Not Yet Sprung

Spring is springing around here.  We still have some cold days but spring is pushing through like the little crocuses that are turning up in our lawn.  That is one reason I haven't posted too much lately - I've been drawn outside to do yard work, also have been inside doing more work, work.

Every spring, despite or to spite myself, I remember this poem my dad used to say every spring

Spring is sprung,
De grass is riz
I wonder where the birdies is?

This year I began to wonder if that poem was written in response to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (or maybe she mentions it? - it has been so long since I read it). I googled it without much luck finding its origin.  Some sources attribute it to Ogden Nash which would work time period-wise but other sources dispute it being Nash and say it was the prolific Anoynomous.  In any case, I did find this other verse that Dad did not say (BTW be careful what you say around your children, especially if it rhymes, it will stick in their heads forever).  The second verse suggests it was written just for fun.

The bird is on the wing
But that's absurd
The wing is on the bird.

The first verse could also be related to the more recent, less popular book by Doug Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home that claims the way we landscape our developed areas including suburds is partly responsible for declines in bird and insect biodiversity.  I have said it before, it is worth a read.

We have been trying to make our yard more wildlife friendly and are starting with removing invasive exotics.  I recently wrote an eHow article on How to Remove English Ivy because unfortunately, I have done a lot of that both here at our new house and in a previous job. 

This is our first spring with a yard and we are loving it.  One day, for fun, I cut some crabapple blossoms off an overpruned and now overgrown Japanese crabapple in our yard. Fresh cut floral arrangements from your own yard, a simple pleasure for sure.

Speaking of flowers and buds, if you have a yard and are interested in this kind of stuff, you might want to check out Project Budburst, "designed to engage the public in the collection of important climate change data based on the timing of leafing and flowering of trees and flowers."  A great project, especially if you have older kids who might get into it.  If you missed some flowering and budding, like me, don't worry, the first step is to register plants then you will be all set for next year and for leafing out this year.

Finally a quick non-yard tip related to the frugal buy used tip from last post - discovered accidentally this week a great household item to give a two and a half year old who wants your cell phone - a hand (solar-powered, of course) calculator.  I gave it to Porcupine because I just happened to have it out.  Now she walks around the house with it in her purse and takes it out to talk on it.  So funny, and we didn't have to buy a thing!