27. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

I have seeds from milkweed, sweet pea vine, white orchid tree and basil. If you are not too far from Ft. Lauderdale, and would like some, let me know and I’ll save some for you. Also have native plants and a few exotics, left from a recent sale that apparently wasn’t well advertised by the sponsor, so am selling at a discount.

The tree and plant list includes: Mulberry, Bulnesia, Hong Kong Orchid Tree, Copper Pod Tree, Lancewood, Indigo Berry, Maple, Buttonwood, Clusea, Yellow Elder, Ponytail, Miraguama Palm, Canary Island Date Palm, Florida Thatch Palm, Crape Myrtle.

Shrubs Perennials, Vines and Cycads include: Angel’s Trumpet, Pink and Red Powder Puff, Salvia coccinea, mimosa, Pandorea Vine, Cocoplum, Java Glory Clereodendrum, Justicia spicegera, Hummingbird Bush, Dioone edule, Jasmine Sambac, Blue Passion Vine, and more.

Let me hear from you if you are interested.pinkie@pinkshovellandscapes.com or thepinkshovel@gmail.com

Posted in Green Gardening | Print | 8 Comments »

24. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

Next month, I’ll begin featuring Green gardeners and their gardens and also interviewing scientists and researchers regarding their work which affects our environment. If you are an Ecology minded gardener with a fine garden and would like to be featured, or if you are doing important research, let me know. I look forward to hearing from you and learning about your gardens or your work.

I recently interviewed a bee colony researcher at the University of Florida. Watch for the posting here soon.

Posted in Green Gardening | Print | No Comments »

21. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

If your garden is Green, the following pictures are among some of the types of visitors you are likely getting in your garden.Recently I was disappointed it was so wet with the non stop spring rains lately and the mosquitos. They were keeping me out of the garden.Today I see the sun and dragonflies have arrived to take care of those biting critters. Here are a few pics of some of the garden visitors in my south Florida garden. Just click on the picture to enlarge it.

Posted in Green Gardening | Print | 3 Comments »

14. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

Some gardeners are clipper happy and always cutting, sometimes leaving plants in distress they leave so little leaf. Yet others I’ve met are afraid to prune. I’m not sure what they fear, as plants are living and growing and can be cultivated to your desires and needs when pruned appropriately in your garden.

For those of you growing plants like the Yellow Elder, Cape Honeysuckle and Dahoon Holly which bloom in spring, it’s almost time to prune.

It’s especially important to prune plants which bloom on old growth in a timely fashion. It’s those plants whose blooms can be set back and that may even miss their bloom entirely,  if they are pruned too late in the season. For spring blooming plants that bloom remontantly all year or those that bloom on new growth, timing is not as important.

Watch for spring bloomers to have their last flush of bloom, if it’s been over three weeks since the plants last bloom, you can safely assume it is finished blooming for the season. This is then the time to prune those spring blooming plants that bloom on old growth.

If  you are growing small trees as shrubs to keep them low or at eye level, cut them back at the top a few inches shorter than what would be their idea height for your garden. If they are leggy,  and need to be cut so that they will be fuller, be bold and cut them back six to eight inches, or more, if the plant is not pleasing you in its growth, or needs rejuvenation.

If they are are at the right height and not leggy, but growing too full, cut them at the Y juncture close the branch from which they are growing, removing branches to thin the plant.

To fully rejuvenate multibranched shrubs, cut out about one third of their growth at the base of growth at soil level. For the next few years, after each new flush of new branches grows in, cut out another third of the branches, until the shrub is entirely rejuvenated.

Any plants that bloom on new growth can be pruned now as well. Antique roses respond beautifully to pruning and remontant bloomers will bloom beautifully as they always do after they have been pruned.

However, if a plant blooms on old growth and blooms in summer or fall, you will be best served, and able to appreciate their blooms, if you wait until after its last flush of blooms after it blooms in summer or fall.

The beginning of the growing season is always a good time to prune, as you will be able to see the plant flush out with new growth quickly over the course of the summer and fall.

Posted in Breaking Environmental News | Print | No Comments »

14. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

Join us Saturday, April 17 from 9 am until 3 pm at Birch State Park for an Earth Day Celebration. Native Plant Society, Federation of Garden Clubs and Pink Shovel will be among the there.

Buy native plants and non-pest exotics.

Some of the plants include: Some of the Trees: Clusea, Buttonwood, Bulnesea (also known as Verawood), Dahoon Holly, Miraguama Palm, Florida Thatch Palm, Canary Island Date Palm, Lancewood, Indigo Berry, Mersine guianensis, Crape Myrtle, Seagrape, Lignum Vitae; Some of the Perrenials: Mexican Salvia, Black Eyed Susan, Galardia, Salvia species. Some of the shrubs, subshrubs, cycads and vines include: Yellow Elder, Native Lantana, Dioon Edule, Pandora, Blue Passion Vine.

Hope to see you there. Bring the family. 

Hugh Taylor Birch State Park is located at Sunrise Blvd. and A1A @ 3901 E. Sunrise Blvd.

Posted in Breaking Environmental News | Print | 1 Comment »

11. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

Posted in Green Gardening | Print | 1 Comment »

11. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

Spring is upon us and it’s time to do the work that will help your garden thrive throughout the coming growing seasons.Take a walk through the garden and have a look at your plants.

Notice if any have discolored or unnaturally curled or eaten looking leaves, or branches crawling with ants or dark colored branches. You are looking for the signs of pest insects.

In my garden I spied white fly already, and some scale on a couple of plants. Treat those problems first. Stay away from chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

For a quick, easy, safe and cost effective remedy for pests and fungi, fill a water soluble fertilizer hose applicator with 1 part cheap cooking oil, 1/2 part liquid dish soap and 1/2 part alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. Fill the balance with water and mix.  My applicator holds about 8 ounces. So I put an ounce of cooking oil, 1/2 ounce of dish soap, and a 1/2 ounce of hydrogen peroxide.

Don’t use the mixture on new seedlings.

I used it on everything that showed the signs of pests. And on plants showing signs of fungus. Due to our unusually cold and wet winter here in south Florida, I had several potted Cocoplums in duress due to a fungus. Be sure to soak the plant as well as the soil around and under the plants to be sure you have smothered your little garden pests and fungi.

This is a simple topical mix so it does not have any residual effect in your garden.

You might also try Neem oil, from the Neem Tree, as a pesticide or fungicide.

Copper fungicide is also considered safe and is used on organic crops.

After you have any pest problems addressed, it’s time to prune off any winter burn or any plants that are looking leggy and need to be filled out, as well as any plants that are getting too large and need to be thinned.

To thin a plant, cut the branches out at the base of growth, at the Y joint where it connects to another branch, or to thin it even more, cut the branch back all the way to the base at the soil.

To encourage a plant to grow fatter and fuller, cut it back at the tops of branches. Cut back 4 to 6 inches if you are trying to maintain it’s height and let it get taller. Cut back harder, as much as half the plant, if you are trying to keep it short or if it is really leggy and needs a lot of help.

Next it’s time to weed. If you aren’t the type who likes kneeling in the garden, plucking the weeds from the soil by hand, or digging them with a hoe, then use vinegar to kill the weeds.

Unlike many of the chemical pesticides on the market, vinegar will not buildup in the soil and cause herbicide toxicity which will weaken your plants over time.

Keep in mind the vinegar will kill whatever you spray and is not selective. So take careful aim.  I put my vinegar in a small gallon sprayer and use it on weeds that are not too close to my plant’s roots.

When the weeding is done, it’s time to top dress plants with a good compost or composted animal manure. Remember healthy soil is not just dirt. It’s alive and teeming with microorganisms important to the health of your soil and your plants.

Spread the compost around the area of the root of all your plants, or if you have enough, top all of the soil bed with the compost.

This will help put important beneficial fungi and bacteria in the soil, creating a healthy living soil and a symbiotic relationship between roots and soil. Doing this regularly, at least each spring, if not several times a year, will make your plants healthier and more disease and pest resistant.

I add horse manure compost from a local horse ranch to my compost. And top dress with the horse manure compost in spring. This way I’m certain that I’m not using a product filled with estrogens and antibiotics, and God knows what else, used in the feeding of food animals. Remember mad cow disease was discovered to be a result of forcing cows to be cannibals, feeding them their own dead.

Mushroom compost has also been found to be a fine soil additive with nutrient value.

Next it’s time mulch. Be sure to use a natural mulch and not a dyed recycled construction debris wood mulch. The construction debris mulch has been found to have formaldehyde and arsenic in it by University of Miami and University of Florida researchers.

So, though it sounds like a good thing in theory to buy a recycled product, in this case it is not!  When children and pets walk on it and when you are applying it, these carcinogens can be absorbed into your skin. The theory is that the plants will take the poisons up into them. Well often this is true. If  you are growing food crops or herbs you are likely to be eating these poisons if you are growing in recycled wood mulch.These products, like the other chemical products put more dangerous pollutants into the soil, water supply and the air.

Also, stay away from unnatural, manufactured mulches, like rubber or plastic. These products do not break down in the soil and provide no nutrient value to your soil or plants the way natural mulches do. Their manufacture also puts pollutants into the atmosphere.

Choose a natural product. Use bark chips, dried leaves, hay, pine needles and the like. You get the picture. In my area, we can buy maleluca bark, eucalyptus bark, pine bark,  and even cypress.

Though cypress comes from a native plant and may be best to forgo.

Spread your mulch about 3 inches thick. Thick enough to help keep weeds at bay and help hold moisture in the soil, and protect plants’ roots from the heat, without depriving the soil of oxygen.

Be sure to leave a little breathing room close to the trunks of plants and trees.

Water well and let nature take it’s course.

Posted in Green Gardening | Print | No Comments »

3. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

In my garden iguanas have been a part of the ecosystem. I’ve had to get used to the fact that I would see few of certain flowers and watch the demise of many of my beloved herbs and tender perennials. The local iguanas have found my ground covers irresistible, chowing down on such favorites as the native Mimosa, Ruellia, and even muhly grass. Eating the flowers of bouganvilla and the lone Hibiscus.

Gardeners have asked me time and again for remedies to rid their gardens of these exotics creatures. They are escapees into our local habitat and are thought to have gotten out of hand due to owners of these creatures setting them free.

I have been unable to offer remedies beyond planting more woody shrubs and trees that they don’t enjoy as much, and planting more mature plants.

Certainly we can spray our plants with flavors they wouldn’t be likely to enjoy like cayenne pepper. And while I often use and advocate the use of environmentally friendly alternatives to pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, some of the activities offered by other advocates are just too silly and time consuming to even be considered, like spraying the plants forever and a day, just to keep the iguanas at bay.

I just haven’t felt the need to kill the pesky critters or to take their lives. I am blessed with such such an abundance and there are plenty of plants they do no harm. Like the glorious oaks, whose branches they used to lay on above my head as they took pleasure in warming themselves from the sun.

In my own garden they have eaten the younger plants first so that older Alocasias are untouched by them, but smaller, more tender elephant ears have disappeared quickly.

After this last cold their numbers have dwindled to the point where I have not seen one in my garden. Experts believe many didn’t survive when our temperatures dipped so low that they could not recover and many died. In my garden the mint and the Belemcanda are growing back. The Hibiscus and bouganvilla are blooming.

Wednesday I was in a friend’s garden, admiring her new additions, and there climbing through a patch of king’s mantle was one of the bright green creatures we thought we were rid of, eyes fixed on us. Not until she shook the branches of the plants did it make an attempt to scuttle off, up a nearby cabbage palm. She noted how the flowers on the king’s mantle were dwindling. Whether or not a mate for this creature lives nearby is an unknown. So, the problem may or may not be over.

If they show up again in my garden, I will let them live there with the native creatures, but I will miss my flowers and tender perennials, if that should happen.

Posted in Green Gardening | Print | 2 Comments »

2. April 2010 by Carol Whitaker.

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted as I’ve been working diligently on a manuscript for a book I am writing. It’s about time I got back here.

• While watching The Jim Leher Report on PBS today I saw an ad for Earth Grains. I went to the website and made a discovery, as I had suspected I would - that there is some Green Washing going on.  Yes, of course the Sara Lee bread products are made from grains grown on the earth but as you will see if you read the article here, http://industry.bnet.com/food/10001539/sara-lees-earthgrains-smack-down-why-greenwashing-is-hard-to-get-away-with/the company is trying to make us believe that somehow applying the usual chemicals and fertilizers to soil that is being depleted and polluted by these processes is somehow Green, that is, good for the environment, us and is sustainable.

• I hoped for the best while I expected to find the worst. Unfortunately, there was nothing at the earthgrains site that talked about using natural ecologically sound practices or refraining from using genetically modified seed for growing. The genetically modified seed alone angers me. Who wants to eat food which has the herbicides and pesticides genetically implanted in it. It’s just nuts!

• And of course, it’s the way it is these days with industrial foods. So check it out and learn that these breads are no better than others made the usual way. They are not even local.

• If all things are equal, meaning that the crop or food product is produced the usual way, with no consideration for natural organic methods, or the growers don’t use heritage seeds that aren’t genetically contaminated with pesticides and herbicides,  then at least I prefer to buy locally, helping the local economy where I live, and eating food that at least doesn’t have as many chemicals because it doesn’t need to be preserved for storing and shipping until it finally gets to the dining room table.

Posted in Breaking Environmental News, Sustainability Issues | Print | No Comments »