'Spring has sprung, the snow’s all gone/The lawn’s all covered with doggie dung', laments many a gardener as winter retreats, officially at least, from the land. A popular practice in days of yore was to kick-start spring by bringing branches of select shrubs and trees into the home. Many a gardener would purposely plant a bush of # willow, forsythia, witch-hazel or flowering quince or perhaps mark down where long twigs of the deliciously sticky horse chestnut, or perhaps crab apple and red maple could be scavenged. Few must be even those embedded in the depths of our largest cities who do not have a relation or friend with such a resource before resorting to the local florist.
Recut the base of the branches in the house – some like to hammer them lightly also. Fill a vase with about three or four inches of water add a few drops of bleach and position the stems. Watch the water – it can be absorbed surprisingly quickly. The bright yellow stems of weeping willow or golden orange ones of black willow are attractive even prior to the catkins emerging. They may even start rooting!
Diversion No. 1
Lin Yueh-ku, a Taiwanese woman sufferer of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, on first prize Sunday in a literature competition held by the Taipei International Flora Exposition, for describing her life as the short-lived but glamorous night-blooming cereus or moonflower, reported The China Post. Before donning attire suited to outdoors, it is time to recommence fertilizing the house.
Our personal preference is for Wilson’s ‘Muskie.’ Like that almost legendary denizen of the Great Lakes area, this is a powerful preparation. Odiferous to a degree too but this quickly fades following application. Since it produces stunning results it is usually only to be found in garden centres staffed by those knowledgeable professionals unlikely to be found in big box chain stores.So what to do about dog deposits on the front lawn?
Alas, not much. The offending pooches have permanently poisoned the soil. Some professionals advise top dressing with gypsum, others a prolonged drenching with water. There is even talk of digging out the offending divot and replacing with fresh soil and a portion of sod on top.
Offenders note: In Chicago last year a lawn-proud retiree shot and killed a man who permitted his pooch to piddle on the sod – and was released by the court. Back in the good old days, it was considered right and proper to cease feeding wild birds in spring and letting our feathered friends get on with the job of cleaning out pests and weed seeds from the garden. Support for this has emerged in a study by Valentin Amrhein of the University of Basel, Switzerland who studied the European Parus major, better known for some obscure reason to the British as “great tits.” Put up a bird feeder in spring and these birds could end up choosing a secure food supply over sex, noted the weekly New Scientist. Amrhein advocates taking bird feeders down in the spring.
Diversion No. 2
Across northwestern North America every example of a common peat moss called Sphagnum subnitens is genetically identical, a team of American researchers has discovered. That means every specimen can be traced back to a single parent, which conquered North America in less than 300 years and shows how a single ‘general purpose genome can allow plant to grow in a range of climates, the scientists reported in the journal Molecular Ecology [Source: BBC Earth News].
A new black family of petunias has been released from Ball Horticulture to professional growers. The plants should commence arriving in garden centres in a few weeks’ time doubtlessly accompanied by not a little razzle-dazzle. Rodger Tschanz at the Guelph Trial Garden had advice earlier this year in the business periodical Horticulture Review. ‘Black Velvet,’ ‘Phantom’ and ‘Pinstripe’ are really dark purple, he says. Keep in mind the colour black can get lost in the landscape of soil and shadows, he advices. Interplanting with contrasting colours (yellow, orange) may help bring out the uniqueness of these flowers, he suggests, that can be used in both ground beds and containers.Last year, Tschanz trialed over 500 plants at the Guelph Trial Gardens. The ratings are available by
visiting the garden website here, and here which includes direction for visiting during the growing season.
Diversion No. 3
“Hope you’ve had your breakfast,” was the subject line of an e-mail from Robert Milne to New Scientist’s Feedback feature. It refers to a message he received from
environmentjob.co.uk about courses and events on the topic of “Sustainability.” One of these, at the UK's Centre for Alternative Technology, is a “Compost toilet taster day.”
Supporting St. David, on 1st March those of Welsh descent traditionally wear a leek in their caps. This not only serves to identify them but, as they wittily claim, serves later as part of their evening meal. Not so the oft-substituted daffodil, a pretty but poisonous flower Alas for poor Direland, no longer the Celtic Tiger of lore. Across the Irish Sea, the bottom could fall out of the business of St. Patrick’s lucky four-leaf clover. Last year, a genetic variation of the trait was identified by research reported in the journal Crop Science. That means breeders might soon be able to grow more of the “lucky” variety, noted New Scientist – its natural frequency is a mere 1 per 10,000 plants.
The magazine called “luck of the genes”. Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien added fuel to the fire, so as to speak, by claim that it was, “Extremely hot in L.A. today. Just more proof of God’s plan to wipe out the Californian Irish.” But there was good news from Canada where, so rumour has it, an Irish-Canadian botanist succeeded in crossing shamrock with poison ivy – and got a rash of good luck.
Diversion No. 4
Colombian police say they have captured a carrier pigeon that was being used to smuggle drugs into a prison, reported BBC News. The police believe the 1.6-ounces of cocaine paste and marijuana was to heavy for the bird. Obviously though this is just a cover story: the bird was in fact a stool pigeon.
Spring officially arrives on 20th March. Alas, gardeners over almost all of Canada beyond the Left Coast know otherwise. Ogden Nash, who we are so fond of quoting in these pages once observed:
Whatever others may sing of spring, I wish to sing there is no such thing. Spring is simply a seasonal gap, When winter and summer overlap.
