Nature’s Healing Power
In his essay titled “Why We Need Gardens,” neurologist and author, Oliver Sacks wrote: “I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.”
Sacks, who died of a rare cancer in August of 2015, explained how he was introduced to the wonder of gardens as a child. And, as a physician in New York City, he took his patients to visit gardens whenever he could, believing that, just like music, gardens were vital “therapy” for people living with chronic neurological diseases. What is it about nature that is so calming and reinvigorating? he wondered, recounting the time a friend with Tourette’s syndrome became calm and tic-free on a hike in the desert. And how is it that patients with advanced dementia or Alzheimer’s disease can’t remember how to do everyday things like tie their shoes. “But put them in front of a flower bed with some seedlings, and they will know exactly what to do. I have never seen such a patient plant something upside down,” Sacks recalled.
“Clearly, nature calls to something very deep in us,” he continued, explaining his belief that nature affects us deeply spiritually and emotionally, as well as physically and neurologically. Had I read that essay before his death, I might have written Dr. Sacks a letter saying that, as a longtime gardener and lover of long walks in the woods, I couldn’t agree more with what he said in that lovely bit of writing. (Which can be found in the posthumously-published collection, Everything in Its Place: First Loves and Last Tales.) I’m not sure how I developed biophilia, an urge to connect with living things and nature, which I suppose progressed over time into hortophilia, the desire to interact with, manage and tend nature. But I’ve got both Big Time. And I know a whole lot of other gardeners who would say they do too.
Like Sacks, I can’t precisely tell you how nature works its mojo on people, but I do remember the first time I saw it happen. I was in college and working nights and weekends at a women’s shelter in North Minneapolis. The shelter had once been a convent for nuns, so the narrow, tile-floored room I used as an “office” had probably once been a nun’s bedroom. Our country doesn’t care about people who are struggling with mental illness, so the underfunded shelter paid me, and several other young women, about $8 an hour to look after dozens of women of all ages who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and/or other serious mental health issues. Tucked away in their own narrow nunnery rooms upstairs, those women were also often dealing eating disorders, broken hearts, drug-and-alcohol addiction and abusive boyfriends who showed up to bang on the front door at all hours of the night.
Read More»Planting Seeds and Waking Bees
- On March 17, 2020
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Herbs, Seeds, Uncategorized
1
Spring is nearly here and it feels like an extra special relief this season as Coronavirus sweeps the world. We’re all supposed to stay at home to protect others and help save lives, and since it’s probably a bad idea to eat cake and drink wine 24/7, let me suggest that we all plant a few seeds—flowers, herbs, vegetables—we’ve got loads of seeds in the Little Free Seed Library on our boulevard. In case you don’t already know, we always use the top shelf of our Little Free Library for seed sharing in the spring and fall. If you’d like to pick up or drop off some seeds, the library is located on our boulevard on the corner of 45th Street and Washburn Ave. S. in Linden Hills.
If you have seeds to share, please bring them in their original packets or label them in envelopes or baggies so people can clearly see what they are. A HUGE thank you to whoever dropped off a whole bunch of great seeds recently, all seemingly harvested from their own garden and neatly labeled, including tall purple allium, yellow meadow rue, butterfly weed, blue Baptisia, bottle gentian, Short’s aster, Grandpa Ott’s morning glories and clematis integrifolia (a bush-type).
The Little Free Seed Library is all stocked up!
We always appreciate seed donations so we can keep the library stocked, but we are especially grateful this year because our biggest source of donated seeds is no longer able to get them and pass them on to us. Because of that, I’ve been writing to seed companies to see about getting some donations. Several responded positively, but only Renee’s Garden actually sent some, asking only for the price of shipping, which I happily paid. Sharing seeds is one way I try to make the world a little brighter. If you feel the same, please come on by with some seeds to share, and take some home for yourself!
PLEASE NOTE—because people who feel fine can still have the virus, you should wash your hands well after touching the seed packets and/or books in our library.
Wake Up Little Bees
Did you store a native bee house in a garage or shed for the winter? If you did, don’t forget to bring it outside in early spring. As I wrote in my September column, this is the first year I’ve overwintered a bee house so I’m learning along with you. Here’s what to do: when you first start seeing early spring flowers, bring the bee house outside and, if you haven’t already, put it in a cardboard box or plastic container with a small hole cut in the top or side. Find a spot where the box will be protected from rain and wind and give the bees some time to wake up and fly out of the box through the hole. They’ll be looking for a new place to stay, so have another bee house ready and waiting for them, if possible. Be patient, it may take several weeks for all of the bees to leave.
Soon I’ll be moving our bee house back outside.
A Few Spring Tips
Believe me, I want to run out into the muck and start planting as much as you do, BUT try not to do that. Walking on, and digging in, wet soil harm’s its structure, making it more apt to become hard and compacted. If you can pick up a handful of soil and wring moisture out of it, it’s too wet to work with.
Soon it will be spring!
Don’t despair. There’s plenty of other stuff to do: take off tree wraps, cut back perennials and grasses that you left up all winter, prune shrubs (not the ones that will bloom on last-year’s growth like lilacs, mock orange, forsythia and witch hazel), toss out dead annuals that are still hanging around. Do not decide until way into June whether your hardy hibiscus is dead or alive. It can take a long while for those to come up. Maybe order up a couple of yards of compost and/or manure and have it delivered to your driveway. That way, you can take your time breaking your back (and the backs of your loved ones) hauling it over to top off planters and garden beds. It’s stinky, dirt work and I really enjoy it because I know how happy our plants will be. My husband, Mike, um, not so much.
Got Dead Basil? Give African Blue Basil a Try
- On August 06, 2019
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Container Gardening, Herbs, Uncategorized
- 0
Right about this time last year I wrote a column talking about how sad it is that everyone’s favorite Genovese basil, which used to grow so nicely until late summer, is now being decimated early in the season by a fairly new disease called basil downy mildew. A mold that loves warmth and humidity, this disease starts out slowly with just a few yellow leaves and before you know it, the whole plant is a gross mess of yellow and brownish black splotches.
Yellow splotches often signal that basil downy mildew has started.
I offered several tips in that column for potentially avoiding basil downy mildew— or at least putting it off until you can make a couple of pizzas or something. And then about a week after the column came out, all of my basil plants got it and died. So, ha! What do I know, right? Well, seriously, it is nearly impossible to avoid this basil plague. But I’m not giving up on Genovese basil, and you probably don’t want to either. So let me offer another strategy that I’ve been trying this year that is so far going well.
Genovese basil is a favorite for making pesto.
In addition to planting about five Genovese basil seedlings, like I always do, I also planted African Blue basil, which is not susceptible to the disease. At this point in late July, I’ve only had to toss one diseased Genovese into the garbage. The other four are doing all right—fingers crossed. I’d never heard of African Blue basil until last year when a fellow gardener told me about it. He said he’d tried it and, though the leaves are a bit tougher than Genovese, the flavor is very similar and the plants have done really well in his garden. I planted two of them in early June, and I agree with him on all counts. I’ve made some really great pesto out of this new basil, and because it grows super quickly and doesn’t bolt, I’m be making a lot more.
African Blue basil flowers don’t go to seed, so it’s fine to leave them on the plant.
For those who’ve never heard of African Blue basil either, let me explain a bit about it. A hybrid variety created by crossing camphor basil and ‘Dark Opal’ basil, it is grown as a perennial in climates much warmer than ours. But even in Minnesota, plants can easily grow to 3 feet tall over the summer. The foliage is a pretty blend of dark green and purple, and plants produce loads of purplish-pink flowers that don’t need to be removed because, unlike most basils, they don’t go to seed because African Blue basil is sterile. Pollinators LOVE the purple flowers, and I’ve found that they are just as tasty as the leaves and can be used in pesto, salads, pasta, cocktails or anywhere else you’d use basil.
Even if you don’t like the taste of African Blue basil, it’s a great plant to add to sunny perennial gardens because it’s quite striking and you’ll attract plenty of bees and butterflies. African Blue basil is also said to grow more easily indoors, so I’m going to try putting one in a sunny window this winter. If all goes well, perhaps I can plant it outside once the weather warms up next season. The one hitch with this type of basil is, since they don’t go to seed, you have to buy new plants each year and they are a few more dollars than the typical varieties of basil we are all used to planting.
Or, to save a few bucks, you could try propagating new plants yourself by rooting cuttings in water and then transplanting them into small pots until they grow big enough to be transplanted into the garden. I can see this working well in warm climates, but I’m not sure how successful we’d be using this strategy since we would need to overwinter the plants indoors for several long, cold months. I think I’ll give it a try this winter and let you know how that turns out.
Happy gardening. And may all of your basil be free of mildew.
Fertilizer 101
- On May 09, 2019
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Fertilizer, Seeds, Uncategorized
- 0
It’s been a long time since I wrote about fertilizer so I’m going to do that today because people are always asking about what to feed their plants. First, though, it’s finally time for seed sharing and I’ve got the Little Free Seed Library outside my house all stocked up. As always, the top shelf of our Little Free Library is reserved for seeds in the spring and fall. If you’d like to pick up or drop off some seeds, the library is located on our boulevard on the corner of 45th Street and Washburn Ave. S. in Linden Hills.
Coin-size envelopes are in there so you can package up seeds to take home. If you have seeds to share, please bring them in their original packets or label them in envelopes or baggies in some way so people can clearly see what’s available.
Please bring seeds to share if you have extra!
Fertilizing Basics—Now, let’s talk plant food. People often ask me why their plants look spindly and sad when mine are so lush and happy. The answer is simple: I feed them. All living things need sustenance, and plants are no exception. LOTS of people who tell me they don’t have a green thumb would find that the opposite is true if they added food to their plants’ usual diet of plain old water. This is especially true for plants in containers in which soil nutrients are quickly depleted and not replenished as they are in gardens with healthy soil.
If you’re new to fertilizing, here’s a quick tutorial. On every package you will find three numbers such as 5-5-5 or 10-5-5. Those numbers are always in the same order and the represent the percentage of three nutrients. The first is nitrogen (N), which promotes green, lush growth. The second is phosphorous (P), which is good for developing healthy roots and is important for flower and fruit development. The last is potassium (K), which plants need for healthy overall growth.
Synthetic fertilizers give plants a boost, but don’t help support beneficial soil microbes.
People used to advise gardeners to always use a “balanced” fertilizer, meaning all three numbers would be the same, like 10-10-10. But newer research has shown that balanced fertilizers often provide far more phosphorous and potassium than plants really need. Instead, look for products with numbers more like 5-1-2 or 5-1-3. That way, you’ll avoid having too much P and K build up in your soil. And you’ll also help protect the environment from those excess nutrients, which often leach or run into nearby waterways where they promote the growth of algae and harm fish and other creatures.
Organic or Synthetic?
When you shop for fertilizer, you’ll find two types to choose from—organic and synthetic. Organic options are derived from ground-up rocks, animal waste, plant parts and other organic matter. A few examples include green sand, blood and bone meals, cottonseed meal, fish emulsion, seaweed extracts, compost and manures. Synthetic fertilizers are made of synthesized nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium through processes that rely on some kind of chemical reaction involving non-renewable resources (synthetic nitrogen is produced using natural gas).
I like this brand of fish fertilizer. You can get it with or without seaweed.
I use organic fertilizers on my plants because they are generally a more sustainable choice—exceptions include rock phosphate, which is strip-mined, and bat guano (poo), which is harvested from caves at bats’ expense. Organic fertilizers also help foster a healthy environment for beneficial microbes in the soil. And, while they usually contain smaller amounts of N-P-K than synthetic fertilizers do, organic options can be more nourishing to plants because they are taken up slowly as needed where synthetic fertilizers are slurped up fast, like a human gulps down a Coke.
It’s not always easy to find a good selection of organic fertilizers. So I’d like to give a shout out to Midwest Supplies. Located in Minneapolis, this fine little store has a wide array of choices and knowledgeable staff to answer any questions you may have. As I wrote in a column a few years back, my organic concoction of choice is a mix of fish emulsion and blackstrap molasses. I got the idea from Dean Engelmann, co-owner of Tangletown Gardens, who uses the mixture himself.
Unsulfered blackstrap molasses is commonly used in organic horticulture. The sugars in it feed beneficial microbes, helping to boost soil and plant health. Dean recommends combining the two at a 1:1 ratio. I use a 5-gallon bucket for this, first adding fish emulsion with the amount of water recommended for the area I’m feeding (read the label). Then, add the same amount of molasses as you did fish emulsion, and give the mixture a good stir because the molasses gets blobby.
Like people, plants need more than water to thrive.
It’s not a great idea to let this stinky brew sit around, so make only what you need at one time. To use, just dip a plastic pitcher or whatever into the bucket and pour the liquid fertilizer wherever you need it. I mostly use it on container plants and vegetables, but if something else in the garden looks like it could use a good meal, go for it. One thing: do your best not to spill this stuff on your shoes. They will smell like dead fish forever.
How to Help Bumble Bees
The plight of honeybees is well publicized. But you don’t hear much about other bees that need our help, and that’s too bad because many other kinds of bees are also disappearing fast. In this column, I’m hoping to raise awareness about what’s happening to bumble bees, particularly the rusty patched bumble bee. It’s not too late to help.
Rusty patched bumble bee—Xerces Society, by Johanna James-Heinz
Of the 48 bumble bee species in North America, several are considered to be in decline for a variety of reasons. But in December of 2016, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was endangered because their numbers had declined by 87 percent over the past 20 years.
A happy bumble bee (not rusty patched) collecting pollen. —iStock
One of Minnesota’s declining bumble bee species, the rusty patched bumble bee was the first bee species in the continental U.S. to be declared endangered, but it probably won’t be the last. Minnesota is one of the few states where rusty patched bumble bees can still be found, and they are most commonly spotted in the Twin Cities area.
Reasons for the decline of bumble bees mirror those of other bees: pesticide use, climate change, habitat loss and disease have all seemingly contributed to their demise. The situation is dire, but there are positive things gardeners can do to help. A good place to start is to stop using pesticides, or at least limit their use. Next, if you have a big yard and can allow a small space or two to include a few little piles of leaves or brush, queen bumble bees will thank you for the nice places to nest.
Rusty patched bumble bee specimen in the National Collection at the Smithsonian.
Because bumble bees are out early in spring and are active before many plants are in bloom, consider adding some early-spring-flowering bulbs, perennials, shrubs and trees to your yard, like plums, hazelnut, witch hazel, willows, grape hyacinth, scilla (one of my favorite spring plants), snowdrops, crocus, hellebore and Virginia bluebells. Of course, there are many other plants that can be added to your gardens to help bumble bees and other pollinators too.
Unlike honeybees, bumble bees don’t have a lot of honey stored in their nests, so they depend on available flowers.The University of Minnesota’s bee lab has a lot of helpful information on bees on its website, including Plants for Minnesota Bees, which lists several flowering plants that bees like that are suited to most home landscapes. Remember to include plants that offer nectar and pollen because bees need both the protein from pollen and the carbohydrates from nectar to survive.
Rough blazingstar
—Courtesy of Prairie Nursery
In addition to planting bumble bee favorites like blueberries, tomatoes, borage, sage, oregano and thyme, here are some standouts to consider from the bee lab’s list, as well as other sources:
- Anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
- Autumn joy sedum (Hylotelephium telephium)
- Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa)
- Catmint (Nepeta x fassenii)
- Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum)
- Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum)
- Honeysuckle vine (Lonicera)
- Ironweed (Vernonia fasiculata)
- Partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata)
- Primroses (Primula vulgaris)
- Rough blazingstar (Liatris aspera)
- Sea holly (Eryngium maritimum)
- Stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida)
- Wild geranium (Geranium maculatum)
To learn more about bumble bees, including more information on why they are disappearing and what their needs are in terms of habitat, nesting and overwintering, have a look at this section of the Xerces Society’s website.
I’d also like to suggest two great books about pollinators by local authors: Pollinator Friendly Gardening by Rhonda Hayes and Pollinators of Native Plants by Heather Holm.
—A version of this story appeared in Northern Gardener magazine.
Free Seeds Still Available
- On June 07, 2017
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Herbs, Organic Gardening, Perennials, Seeds, Uncategorized
- 0
The Little Free Seed Library at my house (on the boulevard on the corner of 45th Street and Washburn Ave. South) has been busier than ever this year. People have donated so many seeds; I’ve had to put them out in batches because there isn’t enough room to hold them all. A few weekends ago, when we were out gardening, we lost count of the number of families who came by, often sitting down on the sidewalk together, to sort through the seeds packets and decide what they wanted to take home.
“Mommy, make sure you get some red peppers,” one little boy yelled. At suppertime, a teenage boy and his mother showed up because he had walked by earlier and seen that the library also included free seeds. “I went home and told her that we had to come back because this is so cool,” he said. All of this happiness made us happy too, so thank you to all of you joyful people who came by to get some seeds. And thank you, too, to everyone who has brought over seeds to share.
What’s in the Little Free Seed Library is always changing, but with all of the donations it’s safe to say that there is a still a big supply of vegetable seeds, including several varieties of corn, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, squash and lettuce. There is also a variety of herb seeds, as well as a wide variety of flower seeds, including lupines, snap dragons, morning glories, zinnias, coreopsis, Shasta daisies, Echinacea, moon flower, impatiens, delphinium, foxglove, four o’clocks, bachelor buttons and many more. Come by and take what you need, or drop off extras you’ve got!
