Class Session # 5

We got to bring our laptops to class today........ spent the morning doing Internet searches on various topics and learning how to discern gardening fact from gardening myth.  Interesting..... very interesting.  
Lesson learned........   don't be so sure that what you've learned over the years about various gardening principles and practices is legit (aka - scientifically tested/proven)...... chances are, some or all of it may be a home remedy passed down from great, great grandma, or worse yet, a deceitful marketing ploy by a company looking to sell more product. 

After a sunny lunchtime break we reconvened for a presentation on composting.   Lively, lots of Q&A, and I came away with a few new good tips (I'll share them with you later in a Key Learnings posting).  

With all required activities accomplished we were released early......... 5 down, 7 more to go.  

Formula for Sustainability

I watched an interesting video a few weeks ago..... it was one of our optional learning activities, and for me, a real gem.   The topic was sustainable gardening and one part of the presentation really stuck with me that I thought I'd share with you. 

Imagine a 3-legged stool.....

........  as you know, if you take one of the legs away the stool falls over.
Now imagine each one of those legs is part of a three-part formula necessary for a gardening decision to be considered sustainable.

1. The first leg requires your gardening decision to be gainful to our LOCAL economy.
2. The second leg requires your gardening decision to be ecologically possible for OUR AREA.
3. The third leg requires your gardening decision to be culturally acceptable.

Now bump each decision you make about your garden up against each of those three legs and see if it stays standing...... if it does, you've made a sustainable gardening decision - well done!  Let's try some examples:

1.  You're at your local nursery and see a gorgeous herbaceous perennial that's native to Spain, and want to buy it for your garden.

• Gainful to the local economy:   Depends... as long as the plant was seeded/propogated and grown locally.... OK / DING!
• Ecologically possible in our area:  No. The plant is native to Spain, so will probably require extra care/attention/resources for long term survival.  DING!
• Culturally acceptable:  Yes.  People won't beat you up over your gorgeous plant.  OK.
• 1 leg definitely not standing..... not sustainable.

2.  You want to fertilize your lawn with a synthetic fertilizer manufactured in Ohio.

• Gainful to the local economy:  No.  The product was manufactured in Ohio and had to be shipped a few thousand miles.  DING!
• Ecologically possible in our area:  Sort of.... if used properly, but in reality, all synthetic fertilizers come with some sort of ecological risk/issue. OK / DING!
• Culturally acceptable:  Sort of.... while many people readily use synthetic fertilizers, more and more people recognize their inherent hazards and fossil-based dependencies...the scales are starting to tip.  OK/ DING!
• 1 leg definitely not standing.... not sustainable.

3.   A local winery is turning old wine barrels into rain barrels.  You decide to buy one to catch rain run-off from your garage roof  for watering your container plants.

• Gainful to the local economy:  yes, by recycling/re-using a locally sourced product.  OK
• Ecologically possible in our area:  yes, saving water is always a good thing.  OK
• Culturally acceptable:  yes, rain barrels are well accepted as a way to conserve water.  OK.
• All three legs standing..... sustainable.

So..... each time you need to make a gardening decision, think of the three-legged stool.....

..... and if it falls over, try to reconsider your choice/action and seek a more sustainable option. If you need help figuring out an alternative.... reach out and I'll see if I can help you.

Week 4: homework and stuff

Gosh darn it..... I toasted two homework assignments this week... TWO!..... I mean, I really bombed them.  

• First one required us to look at photos of turf grass and pick out four correct attributes from a list of eight.... each slide had a different species of turf grass and a different set of attributes.  For each grass we had two tries to get the four right attributes and, for a number of them, both times I blew it.  Got 66% on this one.   
• The second one required us to look at photos of sick lawns and try to identify the pest causing the problem.   Some looked pretty obvious but others were a real bear to figure out.  Again, each photo came with two attempts to get the answer, and on a few of them I bombed both tries.  Got 70% on this one.

Lawns are just not my thing, so the subject matter was totally boring and the wording on the choices vs the information in the text books/videos/other resources was so randomized it ended up being a guessing game, with me getting nuked big time.   If we have to get 80% or higher on each gradeable item then I'm in a pickle, but if it's the overall grade that counts, mine is still well above 80%, so I'm in the clear.  Not sure if the MG boss will serve me up a remedial training assignment.... we'll see what happens.

Apart from that, it's been a typical week of homework......  : )

• Read more chapters from the text book and take two more quizzes, which I passed with flying colors.   
• Another crossword
• Read four different pamphlets on lawns - growing, care, pest management stuff.
• Watch a brief composting video
• Watch about 1 hour 40 mins of videos on lawns, lawn care, lawn pests etc.  Boooooooring! 

I think I mowed and edged that lawn we had in Florida so much I'm burned out on them.  David Quammen's piece "Rethinking the Lawn" from his insightful book The Boilerplate Rhino also gave me a sizeable kick in the pants on what I was doing with lawns, so now 8-10 years later, with my ever growing understanding of the need to practice planet-friendly living I just struggle to see anything good about lawns in today's world - anyone out there want to re-set my thinking?

Orchard Mason Bees: Key Learnings

As I mentioned in an earlier blog we had the pleasure of seeing Missy Anderson's presentation on the Orchard Mason Bee.  Below are some interesting facts I learned about these little guys.....

• Unlike the bumble bee or honey bee, the mason bees are considered harmless.  Males do not have a stinger.
• They're only active March - May (the peak of fruit and berry blooming).... the rest of the year they're in hibernation.
• They're non-social, meaning they don't hang out in hives in large swarms.  They're independent little critters that make their own digs in tiny holes pretty well anywhere.
• They look very similar to the common housefly, so look carefully before you take a swat!  They're black all over with a blue-ish hue.  The males have a little tuft of white hairs on their heads.

• Orchard Mason Bees are VERY efficient pollinators.  It takes about 250 of them to pollinate a 1-acre orchard.  It would take about 40,000 honey bees to do the same amount of work.  This is because Orchard Mason Bees tend to stay close to home.... venturing on average no more than 300ft from their hidey-hole, whereas honey bees can roam up to 5 miles.

Pretty cool huh?  Want to learn more? 

I've asked Missy to come and give her presentation to folks here in the Snoquamlie Valley where I live.   We'll be meeting on Monday, February 22nd, 7:00pm - 8:30pm at the library in Carnation, WA. Buzz me if you need directions (ha ha, couldn't resist that one!)  Any and all are welcome.... and bring the kids!  Hope to see you there! 

If you can't make it, Missy's already scheduled to present elsewhere:

• Emery's Garden Nursery, Lynwood. Sat Feb 20 at 11am
  My Garden Nursery, Bothell, Sun Feb 21 at 12:30
  Molbak's, Woodinville. Sat Mar 13 at 1pm

If none of these work for you, feel free to reach out to Missy directly to arrange for her to come to your neck of the woods.   Missy Anderson, Master Gardener, orchardmasonbees@yahoo.com.