Got Aphids?

With over 1300 species of aphids in North America, it shouldn't be a surprise to you that you find them in your garden.

When I get aphids in my landscape, it's usually on my asclepias tuberosa or butterfly weed, which can handle a few aphids.  I'm fortunate enough to catch them in time to spray the water hose on them or natural predators - like lady beetles -  to have their way and they do disappear.  If you are faced with sooty mold or a declining plant because aphids are so damaging, then you have to use stronger methods to eradicate them, such as pyrethroids or horticultural oils. Always follow instructions on the label.  Try not to stress, aphids are everywhere and you can get rid of them.

IFAS publications:

Aphids On Landscape Plants

Aphids on Florida Citrus

In Your Backyard Time Change

"In Your Backyard" is going back to its original time slot on Tuesdays at 11am - 12pm on My790am.com! You've been a loyal audience for 12 years and we've listened to you!

Every Tuesday at 11am, you can call into 352-787-9523 with your gardening questions.  I'll be updating you with Florida-friendly landscaping maintenance tips and garden trends along with the most important environmental issues facing Floridians.

Check out our Facebook page here and here! 

Leesburg Couple Rips Up Grass But Is It Florida-friendly?

Central Florida communities that use a lot of water seem to be blaming it all on the turfgrass. In a Lake Sentinel article this weekend, one Leesburg couple using 30,000 gallons of water a month on their landscape decided to overhaul their entire yard and replace it with rocks, mulch, and supposedly "drought-tolerant" landscaping.  But was it necessary?

That term drought-tolerant is getting really old and the misperceptions of turfgrass being the culprit is just downright wrong.  All plants are drought-tolerant in the right locations and turfgrass needing a lot of water is not true.  St. Augustinegrass only needs between 1" and 1.5" of water a week during the summertime if it doesn't get rainfall and only needs that amount once every ten to fourteen days in the cooler winter season.  That anyone uses 30,000 gallons on their lawn is the fault of the homeowner, an inefficient irrigation system, and a poorly designed landscape.  If you have a rock, mulch, and "drought-tolerant" plants, depending on the size of your yard, even 10,000 gallons is too much!  Your landscape should be able to survive and thrive on rainfall alone after establishment. 

Its up to the cities  and counties that are approving landscape plans and irrigation systems to allow only the correct landscapes with efficient irrigation.  Homeowners working with builders or buying new homes need to demand and insist on a certified Florida Water Star landscape and irrigation system.  Then the responsibility falls on the homeowner to maintain his landscape and watering system correctly to ensure that it works efficiently.

Rocks are not the keystones to water efficiency and can actually increase the amount of water that installed plants in a rock garden need.  The heat around the home will be greater.  Using no tufgrass is going to lead to more stormwater pollution of our water bodies. I repeat:  There is nothing wrong with turfgrass.

Heck, this is Florida!  This is not Arizona and we can have beautiful landscapes with lots of flowers, shrubs, palms, and yes, Virginia, even turfgrass and not have a high water bill or overuse our ample water supply.  Florida receives abundant rainfall and with observant care, our irrigation systems should only be used as a supplement when we don't have rain.  Depending on the size of your lawn and your landscape plants, using 10.000 gallons of water or less should be easily achievable. 

Before anyone installs a landscape that is all rocks, mulch, and no turf, do your research, contact your County Extension office and find out the facts about waterwise landscaping.  You will be very surprised to learn that its probably not your grass's fault that you have a high water bill or high maintenance landscape. 

The Vision House 2008 in Montverde, Florida uses only non-potable water from a HOOT system and a 7,000 gallon cistern.  It is a great example of Florida-friendly landscaping.  Low maintenance and low water use.



Vision House 2008

Free 2012 Bird Watching Calendar

For its 25th anniversary, Cornell Lab of Ornthinology is giving away free beautiful bird-watching 2011 -2012 calendars. The wall calendar provides an easy way to keep track of the days for Project Feeder Watch,  a seasonal all-winter tracking of birds at feeders throughout North America.

Please participate in Project Feeder Watch. The Watch goes from November through April 6th but they are still enrolling bird watching afficinados. You have to sign up and receive a number to turn in your sightings. 

Feed The Birds - New Year’s Eve 2008, Taunton MA

Updated Florida Exotic Invasive Plant List

The Florida Pest Plant Council has updated their exotic invasive plant lists for 2011.  The list is an excellent resource for ensuring landscape selections do not include plants that can escape and endanger native habitats. FLEPPC separatesd invasives into two categories, I and II. 

Category I includes "invasive exotics that are altering native plant communities by displacing native species, changing community structures or ecological functions, or hybridizing with natives. This definition does not rely on the economic severity or geographic range."

Category II invasives are plants "that have increased in abundance or frequency but have not yet altered Florida plant communities to the extent shown by Category I species. These species may become ranked Category I, if ecological damage is demonstrated of the problem, but on the documented ecological damage caused."

New plants added to the 2011 Category I list:

• Deparia petersenii, Japanese false spleenwort
• Lumnitzera racemosa, black mangrove - Not to be confused with native black mangrove, Avicennia germinans
• Phymatosorus scolopendria, serpent fern, wart fern

New plants added to the 2011 Category II list:

• Ardesia japonica, Japanese ardesia
• Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, large-leaved mangrove
• Cocos nucifera, coconut palm
• Syzygium jambos,  Malabar plum, rose apple

Corrections on the plant list include: 

Jasminum sambac and Solanum jamaicense removed from Category II based on lack of data in natural areas. Urena lobata moved from Category II to Category I.



USDA-NRCS

City and county planners, nurseries and growers, and landscape architects and designers should make note of these new changees.

Am I Blue?

With anticipated one to three inches of rain this week, I'm taking the opportunity to plant winter and spring blooming flower seeds. This year I'm going to add one of my favorite colors to my landscape.  I planted delphiniums in the back of my border garden.  Delphiniums take full sun, moderate moisture, and grow to three feet tall. The seeds will take two weeks to emerge and will bloom January through March.

Other cool season blue annuals that will thrive in Florida are lobelias, pansies, and veronica.  Blue flowering perennials and ornamental shrubs to add to your landscape include agapanthus, hydrangea, salvias, and plumbago.

Want more winter annuals to plant in your garden? Check out  Annuals Flowers for  Florida.

Life of Flowers

Life of flowers from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

H/T to Rick Schellhorn for sharing!

Do you know the Best Management Principles (also known as BMP's) are for designing and maintaining your yard? The criteria of SJRWMD's Florida Water Star green certification program' landscaping modules and the UF/IFAS's Florida Yards & Neighborhoods nine principles are the best management practices for our state and can be utilized across the country and worldwide.

Best practices start with understanding the process of what plants need to be healthy. In Florida, Extension, Master Gardeners, and other garden experts hear from seasonal residents: "Gardening in Florida is so different than up north." What I explain to my audiences and clients is that once you understand the process of how plants grow - gardening is the same world-wide. While the plant species may change - how to assess and manage your landscape uses the same principles. While the snowbirds think its easier to garden up North, all it is really is doing what their parents did, what their neighbors did. They didn't understand the process of what plants need to grow.

You need to know the conditions of the site, i.e. sunlight, pH, soil moisture. Determine how you want to use the landscape, and how much time you want to invest in maintaining it. Some want their landscape to change with the seasons, or to have lots of seasonal plantings, while others want their landscape to stay the same year after year, with little maintenance. After determining conditions, selecting plants that utilize those same conditions, installing them correctly (correct depth, time of year, and space for mature size), and maintain the landscape appropriately (awareness, weeding, no excessive pruning, no overwatering, or overfertilizing), and you have a low-matinenance, sustainable landscape. BMP's will help gardeners achieve that effectively, reducing needless waste, pollution, costs, and labor.

While every state or organization wants to have their own unique statement as to Landscape BMP's - they really are the same criteria but based on their own state's soils and seasons, and the organization's agenda.

Does your landscaping and maintenance follow Florida-friendly BMP's?  Check it out.

Florida Water Star Silver and Gold Certification

Florida Yards  & Neighborhoods 9 Principles

Question: Planting Vegetable Seeds, Nematodes, How To Propagate Copperleafs

This week's email:

Jayne has two questions.

You have a great program on WLBE !!! One thing that confuses me is when you recommend vegetable and flower plantings, I'm not sure if you're talking about sowing seeds or planting transplants. I usually grow everything from seed, so I'm looking for that time table.

Your email is a very common problem here in Florida - thank you for writing and the kind words about "In Your Backyard." 

You want to plant seeds approximately 14 to 28 days (depending on species) before you want to transplant them in your garden. When I talk about vegetables this time of the year, I mean that you should either purchase or use your transplants that you seeded in July and August.



Tomatoes planted from seed 5 weeks ago.



Five different species of peppers planted August 27th.

This UF publication will make it easier for you to determine when to plant: Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide.

I brought my weird looking carrots into the extension office in Tavares and was told I had nematodes in my 12 ft. square foot garden (3 ft. off the ground). I also had green and yellow bush beans that didn't do well at all, but onions and shallots doing great! It has only been the second season of growing crops in this garden and I am so dissappointed. Do I need to kill the nematodes before planting again? If not, what vegetables would you suggest? If I need to kill the nematodes, how do I do that? I grow, eat, live, organically. 

Jayne, I'm so sorry!  Certain plant species release alleopathic chemicals that make growing some species next to others very troublesome.  Check out this great chart of compatible and incompatible garden plants.  I think it will help explain why some of your plants didn't do well.

Also, because of Florida's sandy soils in certain locations, destructive nematodes are a vegetable gardening problem. The key to controlling nematodes will be with your cultural practices.  Jayne, you can do one or all of the following:

1. Change out or sterilize your vegetable garden area with solarization next spring before you plant for the summer.
2. Add amendments to your soils, which will allow beneficial fungi to control nematodes.
3. Add beneficial nematodes to your soil which will provide about three months of control against root-knot nematodes
4. Buy nematode-resistant plant varieties. Look for the N in plant description (V = virus-resistant, F=fungal-resistant, N=nematode-resistant)
5. Rotate your crops. Don't plant carrots or plants in the same family (tomato and peppers) in same location year after year.
6. Last but the best way to grow vegetables in Florida's sandy soils? Raised beds -whether you build them yourself, use containers, or purchase a kit.

 More information on nematodes:

  

Nematodes and their management - UF/IFAS - Florida

Managing Nematodes For The Non-Commercial Vegetable Garden UF/IFAS - Florida

Root-Knot Nematodes In the Vegetable Garden - Clemson University, South Carolina
Control Root-Knot Nematodes in Your Garden - University of Arkansas
Marigolds for Nematode Management (pros and cons - read before planting) UF/IFAS Florida

Nematode Control in The Home Vegetable Garden - Alabama A & M, Auburn University

Roberto asks:

Can you explain to me how to take a clipping from one of my existing Copper Leaf plants and use it to grow another plant?

Roberto, easy way to get more plants! Take a cutting of a soft tip of a stem of copperleaf approximately 5 to 6 inches. Cut the stem diagonally and place in Root-tone and then plant in potting soil. Moisten and keep moist (not wet) and in the shade. You can put the plant and pot into a clear plastic bag to keep the humidity in. Within six to eight weeks you'll have roots and can repot into a bigger pot. I would wait until spring before putting them in the ground as its so close to winter.

Here's more information with photos.

These are Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' Smoke Tree cuttings that I took about four months ago. 


Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' cuttings

New Garden Tool Moves Soil With Ease

FNGLA's The Landscape Show is this coming weekend to the Orlando County Convention Center and its always the best place to see the hottest landscape design trends, the newest plants coming to garden centers and the latest in garden gadgets and tools. 

One of the most innovative garden gadgets that I've seen in a few years that will be showcased at The Landscape Show is the LEANLever.  The LEANLever is a flexible attachment for hand tools that uses Archimedes' Law of Leverage. You remember Archimedes?  The philosopher who said: "Give me a place to stand on and I will move the Earth."  Jerry Behar, a top Fortune 500 consultant, learned the hard way that leverage is a gardener's best friend. After hurting his back digging up soil in his yard, Behar received estimates of more than $300 to move the soil off his driveway. He decided to invent a tool that would help him leverage the soil without straining his back.

Behar received a patent for his LEANLever and took the invention to the International New Product Exposition (INPEX 2010) where he won multiple awards, including the Bosch Award

The LEANLever is also being reviewed by NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) to reduce musculoskeletal disorders (Back pain and Hand Arm vibrations). Device drives jackhammer vibrations into the ground and worker does not have to support a 60 lb tool.

There are many benefits of this contractors tool for the household too:

• Reduces fatigue
• Reduces back pain
• Increases leverage
• Reduces bending
• Doubles lifting power
• Reduces vibrations from motorized tools
• Supports and controls heavy tools.

You can see the LeanLever at The Landscape Show I'll be interviewing Jerry Behar today about his new garden tool on "In Your Backyard." You will want to pay attention;to the special announcement for My790am listeners!

Art In The Garden Tour

What a great time on Saturday with Leesburg's Center for the Arts fundraiser: "Art in the Garden."   The event hosted a tour of gardens with talented local artists inspired by the surrounding landscape. I was able to hitch a ride with four lovely ladies in proper hats, winners of the "grand tour" which featured driving to each home in a white limousine that had champagne and chocolate wine.

Starting at Simon Seed Nursery in Leesburg,co-sponsor of the "Art in the Garden," the tour visited five homes with birds, creative landscapes, lakefront views, and fabulous paintings.

I tried to take as many photographs as I could even though I was pointing out great plants everyone should have in their gardens as well as naming species.

The highlight was a delicious brunch served at Leesburg's Center for the Arts Gallery on Main Street with special guest, Rosarian extraordinaire Mark Nelson, of Nelson's Roses fame. 

What a great time I had and I'm marking my calendar for next year's Art in the Garden! 



Art in the Garden

Glow In the Dark Mushrooms Rediscovered

Eerie glow-in-the-dark mushrooms have been found again in the Amazon rainforest after not being seen for 170 years.

Although glowing fungi are nothing new to science — there are 71 identified species — this particular species (named Neonothopanus gardneri, after the initial discoverer) is notable for its size and the extraordinary strength of its light.

"It glows more brightly than almost all other luminescent mushrooms," said Dennis Desjardin, a fungi expert at San Francisco State University. "If you were in a dark room and you put one on a newspaper, you'd be able to read the words

I love photographing and looking for mushrooms on my hikes.  Read how these bioluminescent mushrooms were discovered, lost and refound here.

Read more about bioluminescence.
10 Fascinating Bioluminescent Organisms 

No Rest For The Wicked

The wicked plants in your garden are not necessarily turf weeds but exotic invasive trees, ornamentals, and vines that take over ecosystems and spread their havoc far and wide. The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council, known as FLEPPC, has a downloadable brochure for your files, maintenance company crew, or your HOA to determine if a plant species should be removed. If a HOA committee is renovating common areas or older landscapes, make sure that these plants are not in the design.

Many of these beautiful and hardy plants were sold and encouraged in previous years so its not anyone's fault that they are in your yard.  But while Category 1 Exotics are not illegal to sell nor mandatory to remove, they are still expanding into Florida's habitats and will for decades to come. Exotic invasives are dangerous because they are easily propagated by seeds and spread by underground roots. Birds and winds from tropical storms help dispurse the seeds increasing their range out of neighborhoods and across the state. As these "Most Unwanted" plants multiply, they compete with native plants for space and resources.

 

In your landscape, exotic invasives grow very quickly and have little to no pest problems to help decrease their numbers. Exotics, then with water and fertlizer that in their homeland countries would not normally get so their species has no natural controls, and populations explode.

Who are these most wanted wicked plant species? Are they in your backyard? Here are some of the ones I frequently see:

• Coral ardesia, Ardesia crenata
• Asparagus fern, Asparagus aethiopicus (formerly Asparagus sprengerii)
• Orchid tree, Bauhinia variegata
• Camphor tree, Cinnamomum camphora
• Wild taro, Colocasia esculenta
• Heavenly bamboo, Nandina domestica
• Sword fern, Nephrolepis cordifolia
• Mexican petunia, Ruellia tweediana
• Mother-in-law tongues, Sanseveria hyacinthoides
• Chinese tallow tree Sapium sebiferum
• Brazilian pepper, Schinus terebinthifolius
• Arrowhead vine Syngonium podophyllum

Vegetable Garden Planted

Well, its done!  Our front yard, in the unused portion of our driveway, is now home to our vegetable gardening.  Due to the large oaks and "North Carolina" themed landscape in the backyard, the front and side yard is one of our sunniest locations.

We used a pre-cut cedar raised bed product from Home Depot. At approximately $80, the raised beds were reasonably priced factoring saving time, labor, and cost versus buying the materials and sacrificing to the wood gods. We also reused our cleaned aluminum tubs and rectangular plastic containers from springtime.

We checked last season's low-volume irrigation, changing out the emitter heads for good distribution uniformity.

What are we expecting to harvest from our edible landscaping?

First bed:

• Pasillo Bajio Chile Peppers
• Cow Horn Peppers
• NuMex Joe E Parker Peppers
• Cubanelle Peppers
• Ancho/Poblano Peppers

Second bed:

• Supersweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes
• Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
• Beefsteak Tomatoes
• Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes (saved from the grocery bought tomatoes)

How many tomatoes does it take?  Check out how you measure your fresh tomatoes for your cooking recipes.

First Tub:

• Gourmet Baby Greens Mesclun Lettuce
• Bibb Lettuce

Second Tub:

• Bloomsdale Spinach
• Red Malabar Spinach

Rectangle container:

• Onions
• Leeks

We only used half or less of the seed packets so we will save the seeds in dry envelopes and place them in our refrigerator to keep for spring.  As the plants emerge, we will thin them out and place some in containers for our children and the neighborhood, and keep some for our table.

We have to wait about ten days to see any green shoots! Will be taking photos from sprouting through harvesting.  Let us know how your vegetable gardening is doing.  We'll post your photos.

New Plant Finds

Visiting Apenberry's is always like a treasure hunt! Dave, buyer and  part of the sales staff for the local nursery knows that I'm always on the search for great new plants for my landscape and this weekend I hit the jackpot. 

The Yucca rostara 'Sapphire Blue' is an incredible succulent that has soft and short blue needles and slowly grows into a small 5' tree with no branches, just the globular needles.  Definitely a xeric plant that only needs occasional watering during droughts, this yucca will create a wonderful rock garden container. I used a matte black modern pot and added Blue Spruce stonecrop, Sedum reflexum 'Blue Spruce',  and Sea Urchin Sedum - Sedum lineare 'Variegatum' along with a paddle plant, Kalanchoe thrysiflora.  I stuck other small succulents strategically between the round and flat stones to fill in and add interest.  Zone 5 - 11.  Full sun, minimum water, good drainage.

Monrovia has a beautiful new frilly Juniperus x pfitzeriana 'MonSan' called Sea of Gold.  Not often you can find 'Northern-looking' variegated ornamentals shrubs here in Central Florida and this one is outstanding.  Golden-yellow foliage that will increase in color with cooler temperatures.  Its perfect for smaller areas with mature size of 3 foot tall by 4 foot wide. Zoned 3 - 9,  this mounding juniper needs full sun and minimum watering during droughts.

Both plants rate high on water conservation, pest-free, and low maintenance.  If you don't live near Apenberry's, go to your local nursery and ask them to order these great treasures for your backyard.

Preparing For Irene - Is Your Backyard Ready?

UPDATE: 8/30/11 Irene didn't give Florida a bit of trouble. Unfortunately flooding, winds, dune destruction, and at least 18 died from the hurricane's damage.

UPDATE:  2pm Monday - Looks like Irene may be heading to northeast towards Charleston now. Hopefully we'll still get some of the beneficial rainfall.   

Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 is heading our way. She is expected to skirt Central Florida's east coast Friday and while only a category one storm now and possibly increase to a category two on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, we will still get a lot of winds and rain.  Is your yard and home ready?

What should you do in your yard to prepare for a hurricane:

• Remove any dead branches, fronds, or limbs from trees and palms that could possibly break.
• Check yard and remove any patio furniture and toys that could become wind projectiles.
• Turn off irrigation now so that your landscape is not saturated by the time the storm arrives.
• Check gutters to remove any debris that will clog or backup.

Check your hurricane supply list and make sure you have everything necessary to be comfortable if power goes out.in your area.  Remember the power companies do know when power is out in an area and will have extra crews ready to get your electricity back on. Never let children or pets outside to walk around when electrical lines are down.  If your electricity is out, you can use your grill outside to make coffee or meals. Never use a charcoal grill indoors due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Irene is our first guest and this will be a good test for Florida to prepare for a normal hurricane season of three to seven tropical storms and named hurricanes.  Florida receives most of necessary rainfall during the hurricane season so we do need the heavy rainstorms. 

Starting Seeds

A great way to enjoy your favorite vegetables and flowers is to save the seeds to plant again. The process is easy and economical.  Tomatoes are ideal for learning how to save seeds. 

You will need:

• Your favorite ripe tomato
• Glass jars or container to soak seeds in
• Paper towel or coffee maker liner
• Seed packets or plain paper envelopes (great way to recycle old opened envelopes)

Always allow the tomato to fully ripen before trying to harvest seeds.

• Cut the tomatoes in half at the equator (widthways).

• Carefully scoop out the jelly and seeds out of the pulp center and place in jar.  If done gently, you can still eat the tomato.

• Add water to the jar.

• Cover jar with plastic and make a slit in the top of the plastic to allow for transpiration of the seeds. This will enable the seeds to ferment which will help the seeds separate from the jelly and also help destroy any diseases that the seeds may have.

• Now place jar in sunny window (60 to 75 degrees) for three to four days. 

Come back in three days and let's see how the tomato seeds are doing!

Arabian Lilac - Summer Delight

Arabian lilacs, Vitex trifolia f. purpurea, a member of the chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) family are a new addition to the Florida landscape.  Heat-thriving with soft, fragrant leaves and purplish blue flowers, these plants grow in full sun or partial shade.  As a shrub they grow to be six to eight feet tall, or you can trim them up to be a small understory tree by trimming the lower branches.

Drought tolerant, these Australian natives need consistant watering the first year and after establishment can thrive on normal summer rainfall.  Butterflies are a benefit of planting these purple beauties in your yard. No other pest problems or disease to speak of now.  Ask your local nursery to order one for you!

Summer Containers That Beat The Heat

Creating beautiful pockets of color for your yard is easy when you select the right plants and containers.  Choosing a container is not only about aesthetics but also about your landscape maintenance style. Are you someone who loves pottery full of flowers but you don't have irrigation to the pots or want to worry about watering every day in the summer heat?  Then select a ceramic or plastic container and using a potting soil with water holding materials like coconut fibers or polymer water balls that will allow soil to hold onto moisture longer.  Clay pots dry out very quickly and depending on the plant species used will need watering every day. For succulents and cacti, clay pots are very appropriate.

Mix annuals, perennials, succulents, herbs, and even small trees in your container, making sure they all have the same sunlight and soil conditions.. Select three to five plants that will give you vertical (height), horizontal (width) , and depth (hanging below the pot's top edge).  Vary the foliage types with spikes, succulent vines, or soft velvety leaves.  Use the color wheel approach to match your flowers and foliage with your choice of container. 

Complete your containter by adding Spanish or sphagnum moss to fill in any bare areas to create more interest.  If you are collecting Spanish moss from your yard and want to use it indoors or on a patio, dry it out and kill any insects or mites first by microwaving for one to three minutes before adding to your creation.

Keep an eye on your plants for the first couple of weeks to ensure that it is getting enough rainfall or water to beat the heat. 

Some ideas for great plants to use in containers for full sun outdoors:

• African bush daisy, Gamolepis chrysanthemoides
• Ice plants, Aptenia spp.
• Osteospernum, Osteospermum spp
• Ageratum, Ageratum spps.
• Blanket flower, Gaillardia pulchella
• Bulbine, Bulbine frutescens
• Bluebird vine, Petrea volubilis
• Calendula, Calendula officinalis
• Celosia, Celosia spp.
• Common yarrow, Achillea millefolium
• Firecracker flower, Crossandra spp.
• Firecracker plant, Russelia equisetiformis
• Gazania, Gazania spp.
• Gloriosa lily, Gloriosa superba
• Showy stonecrop, Sedum spectabile
• Ornamental potato vine, Ipomoea batatas
• Jewels of Opar, Talinum paniculatum
• Lavender, Lavandula dentata, Lavandula stoeches
• Million bells, Calibrochoa spp.
• Society garlic, Tulbaghia violacea
• Whirling butterflies, Gaura lindheimeri
• Zinnia, Zinnia spp.

Updated - Don't Eat Your Vegetables In The Front Yard!

UPDATE:
I wrote an in-depth article on Edible Landscaping for Green Builder magazine on "Edible Landscaping 02" pages 31 - 37.

7/18/11 Update: Drudge Report is now reporting that the city of Oak Park, Michigan has seemingly dropped the anti-veggie fines but now wants to impose an unlicensed dog fine equivalent to the same fine and incarceration time. Sounds like a vendetta to me...

After Oak Park City failed in its bid to charge Bass with violating a local ordinance for using her front garden to grow organic vegetables, no doubt put off by gargantuan media attention on the case, they are now pursuing Bass for a similarly ludicrous misdemeanor that carries an identical penalty, 93 days in jail, for owning unlicensed dogs.


However, Bass’ dogs are fully licensed, the city is merely reinstating an earlier charge that Bass has already complied with.

7/15/11 Update: The city of Oak Park, Michigan is delaying any further action on the Bass's front yard vegetable garden.

7/11/11 Update: My interview this morning with Julie Bass on WLBE 790am (My790am.com)  was very informative. Not only did Mrs. Bass check with the city of Oak Park, Michigan regarding any ordinances restricting raised beds, they told her there should be no problems if she did it. There is Michigan legislation that protects people who want to grow their own food.

And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.

- Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

Has the world gone mad? In an amazing turnip of events, Julie Bass, homemaker, mother of three, and simple gardener, could go to jail for three months for growing vegetables in her front yard. The Oak Park, Michigan resident was only trying to make a sustainable garden out of the front yard that had been demolished by the City of Oak Park utilities fixing the sewer system in the spring. Passers-by admired her efforts. A single complaint from a neighbor not green with envy - but with mean-spiritedness - encouraged the Code Enforcement department to issue a warning to Mrs. Bass to remove the raised beds of warm season annuals and vegetables.  When Mrs. Bass didn't comply, she was issued a ticket and charged with a misdemeanor. She goes to a pre-jury trial on July 26th. 

"In order to live off a garden, you practically have to live in it.

- Frank McKinney Hubbard

The reason for the citation is a code that says a front yard has to have suitable, live, plant material.  Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski stated: "That's not what we want to see in a front yard."  Is Mr. Rulkowski a horticulturist, landscape designer, or a landscape architect?  Does the City of Oak Park have a horticulturist on staff to help them dig through all the dirt on what is a suitable plant or not?  Is it based on USGBC green certification, best management practices, asesthetics or personal opinion?  Is turfgrass a suitable plant? Are cookie cutter designs a government regulation? Everbody has to have the same landscape?

See Julie Bass's edible front yard here.

Edible landscaping is still a popular gardening trend in the United States with 43% of households surveyed by the Garden Writers Association Foundation planning on establishing a vegetable garden this year. Vegetable gardening is even being encouraged by the White House - why does the City of Oak Park even want to get involved in such a pickle?

 

This is not the first case of gardening interference between a regulating body and residents.  Confrontations between HOA's and homeowners has increased over the last few years with homeowners emboldened by new water conserving ordinances.

• Not In My Backyard On In Your Backyard
• Yard Wars - Homeowner, City Declare A Truce 

I'm interviewing Mrs. Julie Bass on "In Your Backyard" tomorrow, at our new day and time: Mondays at 11:30am to 12:30pm.  Please plan to tune in  about this outrageous attack against individual homeowner's property rights. You can also check out the Bass family's Facebook page: Oak Park Hates Veggies.  You can also sign the Bass's petition to stop the persecution.

 

The word 'vegetable' has no precise botanical meaning in reference to food plants, and we find that almost all parts of plants have been employed as vegetables - roots (carrot and beet), stems (Irish potato and asparagus), leaves (spinach and lettuce), leaf stalk (celery and Swiss chard), bracts (globe artichoke), flower stalks and buds,(broccoli and cauliflower), fruits (tomato and squash), seeds (beans), and even the petals (Yucca and pumpkin).

- Charles Heiser, Seed to Civilization

More with Teresa on edible landscaping: Edible Landscaping: So Good You Can Eat Them Right Up

More resources: 

• Lawns are a European invention.
• Napa-Valley Landscaping - Florida Style, Green Builder magazines, Jan 2011, Feb 2011, April 2011,
• Edible Landscaping
• "TheEdible Landscape" - An Urban Farming Renaissance?
• Florida-friendly Landscape Guidance Models For Ordinances, Covenants and Restrictions
• Edible Landscaping,  University of Florida/IFAS
• Edible Landscaping, Ohio State University
• Gardening Quotes - The Spirit of Gardening
• Carrot Juice Is Murder - Arrogant Worms

The garden should be adorned with roses and lilies, the turnsole, violets, and mandrake; there you should have parsley, cost, fennel, southern-wood, coriander, sage, savory, hyssop, mint, rue, dittany, smallage, pellitory, lettuces, garden-cress, and peonies. There should also be beds planted with onions, leeks, garlic, pumpkins and shallots. The cucumber growing in its lap, the drowsy poppy, the daffodil and brank-ursine ennoble a garden. Nor are there wanting, if occasion further thee, pottage-herbs: beets,herb-mercury, orache, sorrel and mallows, anise, mustard, white pepper and wormwood do good service to the gardener.- Alexander of Neckham, Of the Nature of Things, 1187