INTERMENT, BUT NOT DEATH
(The following is from my book GROWING FIGS IN COLD CLIMATES)
The Warm Earth
I buried two fig plants a few days ago. No, not because they died. The reason was night temperatures occasionally dipping into the low ‘teens (13°F, to be exact, on December 4th), which is just about the limit for fig stem survival. If the stems die from cold, there’ll be no fig harvest from them them next summer.
Last summer’s figs
So what’s the connection with cold and burying the plants? The ground is a repository of heat; dig a few feet down Read more
MUCKRAKING, THE GOOD KIND
Many Meanings
“Muck” has some bad connotations. Among dictionaries’ definitions are such synonyms as “dirt,” “rubbish, or, worse, “slimy dirt or filth.” But that’s only part of the story. Especially across the Atlantic, muck is more aligned with “manure” or the diggings from soil especially rich in organic matter. (I once had, perhaps still have if I can find it, an older British gardening book all about muck.)
Muck, let’s use the Britishism, is really wonderful stuff. Plant roots revel in this fluffy material, and the result is dazzling flowers, luscious fruits, and cushiony, green lawns. I prefer the word “humus” to muck, but two people I questioned thought that humus (pronounced HEW-muss) was a Middle Eastern appetizer (which is hummus, pronounced HUH-miss). Another name for muck could be “soil organic matter” but seems too vapid for this dark, moist stuff that is seething with nutriment and life. Compost is a form of muck.
Leaves have fallen from trees and gardens are shutting down for the season, making now an especially good time of year for, er…mucking around. Read more
WOOF, WOOF, BUT NOT A DOG
More than Meets Your Eye — So Look Closely
The transition from fall to winter brings many trees and shrubs from their most ostentatious to their most subtle beauty. Like a developing photographic image, the textures and colors of various kinds of bark come slowly into view against the increasingly stark winter landscape.
If you were to choose one plant for its bark, what would it be? Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) usually comes to mind, of course. But there are so many other trees and shrubs with notable bark, some as striking as birch, others with a subtle loveliness best appreciated during a winter stroll or viewed through a window from a comfortable chair.
My favorite bark. Can you guess what it is? Read on.
Whole books — Bark, by G. T. and A. E. Prance and Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast, by Michael Wojtech — have even been devoted to bark. They are useful adjuncts, in addition to other features such as tree form and remnants of autumn leaves on the plant or ground nearby, to winter plant identification. Read more
