Yeah for Me!

A BIG thank you to all my readers who visit frequently and helped me earn this honor. Another BIG thanks to Nicole Adams from Construction Management .org and the people over at U Gotta Go Green for selecting Greensideupblog.com for their annual Best of the Green blog list. “Green side up Blog aims to make creating a garden something anyone can do simply.”

These people really know what their talking about I’m just honored to be on the list.

Did you see that?   #11 in the TOP 100

Thanks!

Rees

For the first time this year the confetti of fallen leaves crackled underfoot as I walked down the path to the garden, their excited crunch announcing the arrival of fall.

The breast high weeds that had encroached into the pathway have begun to retreat. Spring brought their colors and smiles, summer brought their thorns and turned them shades of brown and tan and now they wilt and blacken as they patiently wait for the rains and microbes to dissolve them back into the soil.

The black fingertips of the giant fig tree’s under branches reach down to scratch my head as I pass beneath, demanding that I take notice and acknowledge.

Morning is my favorite time to visit the garden and the pathway is welcoming. The dampness from the dew soaks the tips of my boots as I walk and the stillness allows the vegetation to waken slowly.

A glimpse of a quick blackbird shooting between cover briefly draws my attention.

The path that leads to my garden is nearly 300 meters long and begins with a section that winds downhill, along an ancient cobblestone road which is now mostly covered by forest duff. The cobblestones have loosened over time and the material between them has been washed and blown and swept away by the seasons. Their looseness makes each step a challenge and full attention must be given to every stride.

At the bottom of the hill the path flattens and turns a sharp left to a section where a mélange of very tall trees provide cover from above and an open view to the trunks and lower understory.  The forest floor is completed covered with low, ivy like vegetation and the upper canopy filters out direct sunlight. The low light limits the growth of shrubs and other brambles but is perfect for the ivy. As I pass I wonder at the history beneath.  What stories what secrets what treasures the ivy guards?

Continuing, the pathway exits the umbrella of trees and the right edge is marked by sporadic remnants of a low stonewall, only partially visible.

After twenty or so paces the path makes a gradual left turn where tall dark sentries form a gauntlet. Ferocious no more the sentries look withered and tired.

As I continue along this section a neighbor’s garden opens up to the right. The soil was turned last spring but nothing was planted. The native weeds were laying in wait and did their best to reclaim the land.

From here the path runs straight, except for a few wiggles, all the way to my plot.

A vegetative tunnel has been formed over time and with each pass I pinch the end of a few escaping stems to keep it at bay.

A very large Oak looms ahead. Through World War I, World War II, the Crusades, the Revolution and Napoleon she has watched and listened.

Her fallen spawn crunch under my feet as I stroll beneath.

The wild black berries were a delicious treat in the spring and summer but the rest of the year the aggressively growing branches with their vampire like thorns reach out and grab at anyone who passes. The pain of a few jabs and scratches is a small price to pay for these delicious gifts.

To my left, I pass a cemetery of ramshackle headstones marking the resting places of spent tomato plants of several seasons past.

As I near the end of the pathway, towering grass plants mark the entrance to my garden and they wave like banners tickled by the wakening breeze.

My garden is at the very end of the path and when I finally reach my destination I feel at home and ready to play. The plants seem to be happy to see me again too.

Compost pile to turn with it’s delicious scent to release, small weeds to fight back in a forever war, a thick blanket of mulch to spread to keep my babies warm.

Rees

For some reason my wife and I decided it would be a good idea to take a hike with my seven year-olds class and their teacher. What we expected to be a few hour “rondonee” turned out to be an entire day. My feet were sore but it was well worth it. The kids were a lot of fun and the teacher, who has grown up in this part of southern France  is full of knowledge about the flora and the plethora (yes I used a quarter word) of history dating back to when the Romans lived here.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

My favorite is the last.

Rees

Like I said earlier this week. I have a bunch of photos to share. These are some moss pics I have taken over the past year.

My kids will verify this but I have this thing for moss. Whenever we are on a hike or just out and about the little patches of green grab my attention and I make everyone wait until I have looked closely or grabbed a sample. I think it has something to do with its resilience. How can something so dainty and fresh looking survive in some harsh spots?  I’ve done a good amount of research into moss and have several specimens I’ve collected. I’ve also got a nice recipe to use for spreading it around and painting it on pots and boulders and such. Here are a few photos for you to enjoy.

okay I know this is a lichen and not a moss but I only had one lichen photo so I've included it here because it's cool.

I’m looking forward to the fall rains when the moss will spring back to life.  I’ve collect many types and have learned a lot about how they grow and what you need to keep them happy so let me know in the comments if you want any advice on growing your own moss.

I’ve been a little busier than usual lately and haven’t had a chance to post much. That should change as fall and winter approach.  I recently needed to clear some space on my camera and when I was moving them to a storage drive I was reminded of some of the beautiful scenery I had taken shots of over the past year.  I thought some of you might enjoy seeing them too so over the next few days I’ll post some of them for you to enjoy too.

An ancient Olive tree in Pasero Italy.....I snuck a cutting and it is well rooted and growing great!

Creative Planter at the weekly market

Moss covered fountian in one of my favorite towns in France- Fountiane de Vaucluse

My youngest at Piza....yes it really does lean

Some manicured Sycamores in front of the casino at Monte Carlo....

Another well aged olive with a nice growth of moss in the Italian mountains.

Alright that is enough for tonight. Like I said, I have a bunch more I will load up as the week progresses…..

Rees

Tomatoes are fairly easy to grow but there a few common problems for new gardeners to deal with and one of them is tiny black spots that develop on the tomato fruit and eventually merge to form larger spots. Here is a photo of what I am talking about.

IF YOU HAVE LARGE ROTTEN SPOTS  or yellow leaves go to this post HERE

In my book eBook, Growing Juicy Delicious Tomatoes I review this and most other problems you might encounter but here is a short explanation and solution for the black spots on tomatoes.

So what are these little black spots? Most likely these lesions start out as little black spots on the tomatoes fruit that look like little dimples and are slightly indented. They eventually increase in size and can become the size of a dime or larger.

Does this sound like what you have on your tomatoes? The most likely culprit is, Pseudomonas syringae also known as Bacterial Speck.

So what is the solution to these black spots on your tomatoes?

This is a disease that is spread when water splashes onto the fruit.

One partial solution is to minimize water on the plant. Never squirt the plants with the hose when watering. Instead, water by drip or flood irrigation. This should reduce the cause. If you want complete eradication of these little black spots on your tomatoes you will need to resort to chemicals….yes you heard me right. Copper Sulfate is the one to use, but this one is okay and in fact is actually considered an organic remedy. Copper Sulfate is available in most garden centers in various forms.

An application of Copper Sulfate will help clear up the black spots on your tomatoes. It must be sprayed on, be aware that it will also kill many beneficial insects so my suggestion is to do it late at night when most of the good bugs are not active. By the time morning arrives the spray will be dry and less harmful to the insects.

Oh and feel free to eat the tomatoes with the black spots, they are fine to eat and can be added to a batch of tomato sauce without any problems.

Another common tomato problems are cracks and splits in your tomato fruit. If that’s your concern read my earlier post HERE

For my post on TOMATO END ROT click HERE

If you need more details and my methods for growing great tomatoes, check out my eBook HERE.

Thanks for stopping by,

Rees

I’ve been preparing to plant my spring garden and am planning to include some garlic again this year.  It seems like we use garlic in just about every meal so why not grow it? I must confess my last attempt didn’t go so well. I think I was sold some of very old bulbs for my starts because  the percentage of successful sprouts was pretty low. I’ll make sure I get good bulbs this year. Make sure they feel solid and full and are not missing any cloves.

There are over 600 types of garlic, also know as Allium sativum. Garlic is related to onions, chives and the leek family. There are a bunch of different varieties but they can all be lumped into one of two groups, Hardneck garlic and Softneck garlic. The Softnecks are what I will be planting this spring and a couple of good varieties are Early Italian, Artichoke, Silverskin, and Purple Garlic. The Hardneck can only be planted on the fall and a couple of good varieties are  Porcelain,  German Red (huge) , Purple Stripe, and Asian.

Homegrown garlic is potent stuff and tastes way better than the garlic you get at the supermarket, so be prepared for a treat.

Garlic is pretty easy to grow and does well as long as you have a well draining soil. It also prefers it on the hot side but will do well in almost any climate except maybe the humid states like Florida.

To plant garlic you gently break apart the cloves and tuck them into your prepared soil, roots down. They just need a little bit of cover so keep them shallow, an inch of cover is perfect. I like to space them out so the bulbs can really get big. Space them 4-6 inches apart if you have the room.  You should start to see green shoots in about three weeks. Keep them watered and plan on harvesting in about four months. You can leave them in longer if the weather is still warm and they are still growing.  You will see the leaves start to turn brown and that’s a sign it will soon be time to harvest. I like to tie my drying leaves in a knot and let the garlic stay in the ground as long as I can so they will get nice and big.

Once you have gently removed them from the ground, just brush them off and let dry in a cool dry location (not in direct sunlight) Garlic will store for quite a while if you keep it dry and cool.

I’ve never tried garlic in a pot or tub but I don’t see why you couldn’t grow it that way.

Happy planting and keep the breath mints handy,

Rees

Do you want a green lawn?

Excerpt from my ebook Growing Great Lawns

One of the most important factors in growing a great looking lawn is how much and how often to feed it.  The fertilizer companies have every one convinced that it takes a rocket scientist to figure this out.  I’m here to tell you that is all BS.

Fertilizing you lawn is really quite a simple process and one I always looked forward to.  Let me simplify it for you.  Your lawn will grow okay without any fertilizer at all BUT IT WILL NOT BE GREEN. Most of the elements your lawn needs will be supplied by the soil air and water, most but not all.

The amount of Nitrogen (N) that is available to your grass is the most important factor to having a nice looking lawn. If it has enough it will be happy and green if not, it will be pale and sad looking. So how do we add nitrogen? Well, commercially manufactured fertilizers are the best option. The problem is that the fertilizer manufacturers have no standardization.

The range of blends and types of nutrients varies widely, luckily, there is one thing you can use as a guide. All fertilizer bags have three numbers listed on them. It is usually on the front or perhaps on the ingredient list on the back of the bag but the should be prominently posted.

These three numbers are the amount of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) shortened to NPK contained in the bag. The bag will show the percentage of each of these three elements that are available in the fertilizer. Remember we are mainly concerned with the Nitrogen to get the green color we want and nitrogen is the first number listed. Here is a problem. He can’t just buy a fertilizer that is high in nitrogen and use it all year around. Nitrogen availability is dependant on temperature. In the colder times of year less will be available so we must use a higher level and in the warmer growing seasons you will need less or your grass will grow too fast (think Jack and the Beanstalk fast).

Let me make this simple for you. I suggest that you apply only two types of fertilizer and only change from one to the other once a year. Forget all the fancy mixtures and blends and avoid any seasonal ‘specials’ just follow these instructions and remember that your goal is to apply about 1lb of actual nitrogen each time you fertilizer. (calculation in the appendix)

When the grass is actively growing, use a mixture that is labeled 16-6-8. That’s 16% nitrogen 6% phosphorus and 8% potassium. Now don’t be surprised if you go to buy fertilizers and can’t find anything with these exact numbers, you probably won’t because it is a commercial blend. Just get something close as possible (16-4-6, 18-6-6, etc.) Remember the Nitrogen is the important element here so as long as you get something in the range of 16% to 21% nitrogen you will be fine. Don’t worry about the other two elements they are not what’s important here, just pay attention to the amount of N.  That mixture should be good for the warmer seasons then, when it starts to cool off you will need to shift to a higher N level. This one is simple. Just get the highest level of N you can for the lowest cost. 46-0-0 is a good one, 36-0-0 is another. The P and K aren’t available when it is cold and the N will be all that is needed. Remember, don’t use the high Nitrogen fertilizer in the warm seasons as the grass will grow so fast it will begin to look shaggy the day after you mow it.

There will be a bunch of formulation that garden centers will try to push on you, timed-release, slow-release, urea based and on and on. Go ahead and learn all about them if you want but if you follow my instructions you will be fine. If you can afford to pay a little more the best fertilizers are a combination of fast release and slow release materials. For the slow release component look for the letters IBDU, sulfur coated or water insoluble on the bag. They are pricy but last longer.

Fertilizer frequency is also important. The trick is to keep a uniform color and avoid the ups and downs of yellowing between fertilizer applications.. A good rule of thumb is to apply every six weeks in the growing seasons and every eight or ten weeks when the turf is not actively growing.  If you want to get more detailed than that I have provided a set of calculations in the appendix for fertilizer amounts but if you follow these instructions you probably won’t need to get more detailed than this.

Signs of fertilizer deficiency: If you are mowing your lawn regularly you will see that following a fertilizer application your grass will grow faster and you will have more clippings to depose of. When you start to see a sharp drop in the amount of clippings you will know your fertilizer is running out. If you begin to see a yellow returning to your lawn that is a sign you need to re-apply quickly.

This is a  excerpt form my book Growing Great Lawns,  and here is a link to another article I wrote on lawn care.

http://greensideupblog.com/2010/11/dead-grass-here-is-how-to-fix-it/

Happy Mowing

Rees

If your dog or cat ate mistletoe you might want to read this.

You may have heard that the common mistletoe plant is poisonous and this past week we had an incident at our home that prompted some further research on just how poisonous mistletoe is. Here is what happened.

At the Saturday market I am always on the lookout for anything to do with plants or gardening and about two weeks ago my eyes caught a mound of greens piled high on a vendors table. From a distance I thought if was just more Christmas garland but on closer inspection I found them to be big bundles of mistletoe. This mistletoe was very fresh and had large branches full of white pearlescent berries. We took some home, hung it up and I took advantage of it for several days.

Eventually, one of the small pieces came loose and my middle daughter found the remnants later, on the floor in her bedroom where Hercules, our 13 pound wonder poodle had eaten it for a snack. I wasn’t too concerned because I thought he would have to ingest a lot more to do any harm but daughter and I went into research mode and here is what we found.

Yes, mistletoe is poisonous to dogs and cats and it can be deadly, or more commonly, will cause other less severe symptoms. Technically mistletoe is a hemi-parasitic plant that doesn’t have roots like normal plants but instead attaches itself to the branches of trees and draws energy from the tree.

There are two general types of poisonous mistletoe that are sold for Christmas. The European variety is Viscum album and the common mistletoe in the US is Phoradendron serotinum. They have different toxic ingredients but both can do harm.

The European variety of mistletoe has oval leaves and small clumps of 2-5 white berries. The US variety has oval leaves but the plant is shorter and denser and the white berries usually form in clumps of 10 or more.

But how poisonous is mistletoe to dogs and cats?

Like I said earlier, yes, mistletoe is poisonous but common reactions are a bellyache, diarrhea and quickened pulse although death is definitely a possibility. The leaves are the worst but the mistletoe berries are poisonous too. Unless your pet has ingested a lot he should be fine but don’t take this lightly because in large doses it can really be a problem. Go see a veterinarian now matter how much you think your pet has eaten.

Oh, and don’t worry about Hercules, he is fine. He barfed once and we gave him some extra water and he was good to go but we were lucky.

In case you want to learn about other poison plants here is link to an earlier post on plants that can poison pets.: HERE

If you can’t reach your vet please call1-800-222-1222. US POISON CONTROL CENTER

Or here is the number for the ASPCA help line:

ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center hotline at (888) 426-4435.

Excerpt from my ebook Growing Great Lawns

I’m asked from time to time what is the best kind of lawn mower to buy, so with Christmas right around the corner, I thought I would put my suggestions in writing. A new lawnmower under the tree could make someone very happy, and you will get the best prices on mowers this time of year. Spring and Summer are the main buying seasons for mowers, and believe me, that’s when the retailers bump their prices up. In the Fall and Winter you can get some great deals.

Although I have my favorites, I don’t want to suggest a specific brand here because I haven’t used them all, and some brands are only available regionally; but I will tell you the elements I look for when I go mower shopping.

First let me pass on one of my father’s favorite sayings: “Only a rich man can afford cheap tools.” His point was that if you buy a quality product, you will only need to buy it once, but if you buy a low quality tool then you will probably need to purchase a second or a third when the cheap product breaks down. Keep that advice in mind when mower shopping.

Now, you probably want to know which style lawn mower I suggest – reel-style or rotary-style? The only time I recommend a reel-style mower is if you have a very small lawn or if you have a putting green in your near future. If this doesn’t describe your situation, I suggest that you get a power rotary mower. Besides, reel-style mowers are for very specific grasses, so I almost always suggest a rotary-style.

Next question is whether you should get a self-propelled or push type mower. If you have a very small lawn then get a push type. It will save you a hundred bucks or more on the purchase price, some cash on gas or electricity, and pushing it will give you a bit of exercise. If you have a medium or a large lawn (over 500 sq ft.), definitely get a self-propelled type. You will thank me in the heat of the summer, and you can always shut off the self-propelled control and push the mower if you need some exercise.

We all want to be as green as we can, so you may be wondering if you should get an electric or gas lawn mower. This one’s easy. Don’t waste your time with an electric lmower. They don’t have enough power, and I guarantee that you will run over the electrical cord at some point.

Many people want to know what size mower to buy. In case you didn’t know, lawnmowers come in various sizes. The size refers to the width of the deck or the width of the area cut when you make one pass across the lawn. Common sizes are 18 inches to 24 inches wide. For larger laws areas, you may want to consider a riding mower or a commercial sized 36” walk-behind mower. I don’t discuss the larger mowers here, but I do in my new eBook Lawn care and Gardening Equipment Basics that I am writing for the Rainforth Home and Garden “Great Gardens Simplified” series. For a normal-sized residential home lawn, I suggest a 21- to 24-inch deck. The decks come in different materials. I prefer a steel deck to aluminum, and I would never buy a lawnmower with a plastic deck because they are dangerous in my opinion.

Horse power would be your next concern. Most manufactures offer a variety of motor sizes. I prefer the larger motors, in the 4.5 hp to 5 hp range. The standard motor is usually 3.5 hp to 4 hp, but I think the larger sizes last longer and make the work easier if you can afford them. You will probably also have an option on which motor manufacturers to choose from. The two most common are Briggs & Stratton and Honda. Honda motors have a reputation of lasting longer, so if it were not more than a $50.00 upgrade, I would go for the Honda – but Briggs is a fine product too.

If you like a very neat lawn or if you like to compost, you’ll want to look into catching your clippings. I would almost always go with a mower that has a grass catcher over one that does not. The new recycling mowers are nice, but there are many times when I will want to bag my clippings, and most lawn grows better if you catch the clippings and remove them. If you have a turf type lawn that doesn’t require that the clippings be picked up, such as Bahia (southern states), you can always take the bag off. Just make sure it has a deflector so that when you use your lawn mower without a bag you don’t send rocks and debris flying everywhere. The recycling mowers have a special design that really chops up the clippings and spits them back down onto the grass. This usually won’t be a problem, but if you have a bluegrass, ryegrass, or fescue lawn, you should get a mower with an option to catch or not. During most of the growing season you will want to capture the clippings and take them to the composter, but certain times of the year, when the lawn is growing very slowly, you can get by without bagging the clippings. I suggest you just get one that has the option to catch.

You will have to decide if you want to buy your mower in a traditional store or online. I’ve always purchased my mowers from a store or paper catalog (commercial mowers), but as long as your online retailer has a reasonable return policy, and the mower has all the elements you’re looking for, I really wouldn’t have a problem with buying on the Internet.

So to recap, here are my suggestions in a nutshell:

• Self-propelled
• 4.5 or 5 horse power Honda engine (Briggs & Stratton is fine)
• Gasoline engine
• 21 inch steel deck
• Grass catcher with a recycling option

I hope that this helps you in your search. If you have questions or need further assistance just send me a note or post a comment here.

Rees