KimberlyO says:
29. June 2010 at 12:48 |We have an outdoor lanai/shower. We want to cover most of the wood with vine type plants. I know I have seen wood covered before with vines but I would appreciate your guidance as to what type of vines would give not only greenery but we would like vines that bloom. What are your thoughts?

Kimberly, we are so lucky to have such a broad variety of vines that do well in south Florida. Many are fast growers and cover a broad expanse quickly.

Some of my favorites which are also butterfly hosts, include: Passion Vine, they come in a variety of colored flowers. One fruits and the native gets a very small fruit and tiny flower. The others have very showy flowers. Passion Vine Flowers are subtly scented. Pelican Vine and Pipe Vine and other Aristolocha varities are great, as well.

Native Honeysuckle Vine is a butterfly nectar and fine choice if you are looking for a less agressive vine, which doesn’t grow as quickly.

Lonicera (Honeysuckles) have lovely scented trumpet shaped flowers.

Native Climatis has small scented white flowers.

The Mexican Flame is a butterfly nectar host and the orange flowers are subtly scented.

These are twining vines which will cling to your trellis or fence. They require a lot of sun to bloom well.

Native Trumpet Vine (Campsis radicans) and the native Allamanda are fine vines for this area. Native Allamada is quite different than the varieties one usually sees in garden centers.

Clereodendrum vines are lovely and thrive in our area.

For a shady area  choose (Thunbergia grandiflora) Sky Vine with its showy lavender blue flowers or the White flowered Clock vine with its scented flowers.

Have you ever gotten yourself really sick because of your lifestyle? Have you ever felt sick to the point where you feel you just can’t take it anymore? Driving long distances in traffic, running from chore to chore? Run down from all the fast food you’ve been eating, the same thing every day? Dragging through the days, barely functioning, not getting everything done that needs to be done? Spending far too much time doing simple chores, disoriented, wondering where did you put your keys?  Everything hurt? Tired?

But for the disappearance of the bees, which occurs with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), if this sounds like you or someone you know, then you likely have a lot in common with Honey bees and other pollinators. While it’s been widely publicized since 2006 that Honey bees are sick and disappearing, the plight of wild bees has not been as widely publicized.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the name used to describe what is happening to honeybees, is characterized by the disappearance of large numbers of bees from managed honeybee colonies. The magnitude of losses over recent years has scientists, beekeepers and growers concerned.

The scarcity of vital pollinators, both domesticated honeybees and wild bees, could drive up prices of almonds, oranges, blueberries, cranberries and a host of other important bee dependant food crops, as the demise of the pollinators continues. Along with rising prices, in a worse case scenario with the loss of pollinators, the food crops that depend on them could disappear completely from the market.

Various culprits have been blamed for CCD over the years. In 2007 imported Australian bees were blamed as a possible source, due to a virus they may be responsible for bringing into the country.

Whatever the cause, over the years scientists have discovered that not only are honey bees sick and getting sicker, slow, disoriented, and disappearing, so are native bees.

Bees problems are growing, and their numbers continue to dwindle, while crop sizes grows.

It has been suggested by some scientists, that bumblebees in particular, another work horse social bee, are victims of diseases spread by commercial bumble bees shipped around North America to pollinate crops.

Some scientists, along with many beekeepers, believe that indigenous bee pollinators and honeybees have been killed off due to monoculture planting and pesticide use.

While scientists don’t agree on any single culprit which is causing their demise, James Ellis, an entomologist who studies bees at the University of Florida, believes bee illnesses and losses are the result of a combination of elements that make up their lifestyle, a combination of management and environmental stressors.

The combination of problems of honey bees’ lifestyles runs the gamut. Nutritional stress is part of their problem. Bees are feed on monocultures of the same crops over and over. And when not pollinating one particular crop, honey bees are fed sugar water. This limited food source for a bee is not a well-rounded diet, kind of like eating only McDonalds or  submarine sandwiches or turkey on rye everyday would be for us. In nature honeybees feed on a variety of plant flowers. 

Pesticides are a common problem, a no-brainer, according to Ellis.

In his research, Ellis has found 80 different chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides in honey bee colonies.

“Developing honey bees,” says Ellis, “can forage up to three miles or twenty eight square miles in all directions. They bring exposures back and they get concentrated in their wax.

“Pesticides are killing them in their larval stage.”

David Mendes, president of the American Bee Keeping Federation is concerned. “We believe small does of pesticide are impacting the bees,” he says.

He and others like him, have seen the symptoms of CCD in the hives. The bees’ immune systems and feeding behaviors are affected. Bees suffer memory loss, become sick and stop eating. He believes the viruses the bees are contracting are a symptom of the problem and not the cause.

Viruses such as Nozema; and pests like the Varroa mite are two of a host of known problems bees are subject to.

In addition, says Ellis, a lack of genetic biodiversity caused by their management in colonies, plays a role.  And winter is another stressor, he says. All, he thinks, contribute to CCD. So that they can survive the winter, bees are often kept over winter in Florida.

The lifestyle of domesticated honey bees requires that they live in their colonies in boxes, which are seasonally tossed up onto the backs of trucks and carted around the country to various crops in a variety of states when it’s time to pollinate.

Imported European honey bees are  considered the most important single crop pollinator in the United States. They are essential to many of our industrial food crops, included among them are almonds in California, blueberries in Main and cranberries in Massachusetts. That means quite a few yearly trips and back, on the back of a truck for oodles of boxes of bees.

According to Ellis managed colonies have been suffering decline in this country for the past 70 years. 

According to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in a 2006 report prepared by the National Research Committee (NRC), all North American pollinators are in decline. This includes honeybees and hundreds of species of native, unmanaged, wild bees.

Recently, in an effort to cut down on bumble bee loses, a group of entomologists, The Xerces Society For Invertebrate Conservation, based in Portland, Oregon, and other environmental groups joined in supporting a petition to regulate the commercial bumblebee industry. The group hopes to change laws to require managed bumble bees be inspected and certified as disease free.

Bees pollinate a host of fruits, nuts, and vegetables in the United States and are responsible for approximately $15 billion annually in crops according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Scientists at The Xerces Society and Cornell University estimate native bees are worth $3 billion annually in the U. S., making them vital to the crop industry and sustainability of agriculture.

According to the Xerces Society website and its director, Scott Hoffman Black, a wide range of native bees help with crop pollination, and in some cases provide all of the pollination required. Wild bees are also especially important as pollinators for cover crops of clover and alfalfa eaten by animal crops on sustainable farms.

In addition to their role as food crop pollinators, wild native bees are also essential to the integrity of many ecosystems, from forest understory and pastures, to fields, meadows, orchards, vegetable and flower gardens, our own gardens and roadsides. Without native bees, sustainability and productivity of our ecosystems will be lost. Many flower plants would become extinct.

The health of these important pollinators is important to sustainability: our sustainability, and that of many other living species. The loss of bees will come at a considerable cost.

Since 1950 the number of managed honey bee hives in the United States has declined by 50 percent.

The past four or five years the decline has worsened.  Five years ago, says Ellis, there were 5 million. Now there are 2.4 million. If the decline continues at this rate, in 70 years there would be no bees left.

 “The losses are significant when our nations food supply is dependant on these creatures,” says Ellis, who has been keeping bees since he was 12.

In a recent survey conducted by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA), honey bee colonies nationwide lost 33.8 percent of their bees from October 2009 to April 2010.

An increased loss over a similar survey from 2008-2009, when losses were reported at 29 percent.

“The colony losses that beekeepers are suffering, at greater than 30% per year, are unsustainable,” says lead researcher, Jeffrey Pettis of ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville Maryland. “CCD has added an extra burden to keeping bees at a time when our agricultural production is being asked to increase to feed a growing world.”

Pettis notes that losses over the summer months were not documented in the recent survey.  Like Ellis, Pettis believes the problem of CCD cannot be attributed to one specific problem, but is caused by “a combination of factors.”

He and entomologist, Jay D. Evans continue to research the problem, conducting experiments that will assess the effects of a combination of factors. One study will look at the effects of exposure to pesticides and Israeli acute paralysis virus (IAPV), and another will look at the effects of the combination of pesticides and Varroa mites.

There is an estimated 4,000 species of wild bees native to the United States.

According to Ellis, there are 1400 registered beekeepers in Florida.

What can we do as citizens and gardeners to help with bee conservation?

Bees forage for nectar, so provide plenty of nectar sources with blooming flowers. Native plants are always a smart choice to provide habitat for desirable wildlife. Check out the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign at www.nappc.org. for more good plant choices, or check with the Native Plant Conservation Society where you can find a listing for your local native plant society at www.plantsocieties.org.

Carol can be reached for comment at her blog at www.greengardenersnews.com

or email at thepinkshovel@greengardenersnews.com

or pinkie@pinkshovellandscapes.com

Photograph by Jacob P. Whitaker

Thanks

As children, most of us over a certain age, let’s say the baby boomers, remember a story from our childhood about a nasty bee sting. Or maybe it was a wasp. If it wasn’t you, it was your sister or brother or best friend or neighbor who was stung.

These were days when children still played outside in unstructured activities, days before terms like Nature-Deficit Disorder – a term coined by author, Richard Louv, were a part of the discourse.

Days when lawns were coming into prominence as the method of landscape for single family homes. Days when gardens were diminishing with the rise of super markets where already grown food was plentiful. Days when natural forests were being cut down to make room for development of suburbs and strip malls. Days when our industrial nation became wealthier and more women went to work outside the home, unlike their mothers who gardened and proudly prepared vegetables from the garden for the family dinner table.

Bee sting stories pepper the histories of those of us raised in rural environments, before so much of development changed the landscape from a mostly living landscape to a more architectural one constructed of concrete and harvested trees and tar.

I still hear those stories today, of the dangers of bees in the garden, from people who have created what they hope are sterile gardens and want only to keep them that way. As they are afraid and expecting a killer attack from an insect or bee if they dare cut back on the pesticides or allow a blooming flower into their tightly managed, highly engineered, hard pruned landscape of well cut turf grass, and monoculture of green foundation hedges, planted close to the house or the perimeter of the lawn.

These well meaning people, with their highly engineered landscapes often mistakenly believe that they are contributing in a positive fashion to the world, just like they often believe and hope their gardens are sterile. But that is wrong. So utterly incorrect. Gardens and lawns engineered with regular pesticide, herbicide and chemical fertilizers are gardens that are more than likely highly polluted. They are gardens unlikely to host a living bee visitor, or a bee using the garden as habitat.

And that garden and bee problem, or non-bee problem, is one that parallels an ongoing problem of our industrial food crops today. The dwindling native bee population, and the dwindling imported bee population, responsible for pollinating much of our fruits and vegetables in this country is being affected by the highly engineered, chemically dependent and therefore often polluted landscape.

Still, what’s that got to do with my garden, a garden without bees, what’s the big deal, you may be thinking.

The big deal is that our gardens are part of the living landscape, and together are part of the greater ecosystem, an ecosystem which includes the solitary native bees of this country, which help to pollinate the food crops, but are also important as part of our terrestrial ecosystem.

Bees are essential to the integrity of many ecosystems, from forest understory and pastures to fields, meadows, orchards, vegetable and flower gardens, our own gardens and roadsides. Without them we loose the sustainability and productivity of these ecosystems. Eventually, without bees, many flower plants would become extinct.

I suspect that many folks with polluted gardens that they hoped would be sterile, would likely tell you if you asked them, that they think sustainability is important and that they support conservation and preservation. Many are unaware of the irony of the way they garden and the fact that highly engineered, chemically maintained gardens contribute to pollution and the demise of desirable pollinators and the local ecology.

Why aren’t bees living in chemically engineered landscapes? When the plants and soils harbor pesticides and herbicides, and other pollutants commonly found in chemical fertilizers today, the plant often takes up the poison and it is passed on to the foraging pollinators through the flower nectar. This makes the bees and other pollinators sick or in many cases kills them.

This problem of ecosystem chemical poisoning is one of the many maladies affecting imported honeybees and native bees.

Unfortunately, this is not news and the problem has been getting worse for decades according James Ellis, an entomologist at the University of Florida. Ellis studies bees, including imported honey bees, which are the main pollinators of our food crops in the US today. Read my next blog to learn more.

So, how you ask does the honey bees’ plight have anything to do with local gardens, with our gardens? We all can make a difference and do our part, as I do in my garden, hosting native bees in a healthy living landscape by keeping a garden which accommodates them. Grow lots of flowering plants and plenty of native plants, a sure way to encourage foraging pollinators like bees and butterflies. The living healthy bees will surely do their part, even though some are selective, to pollinate food crops, and contribute to the vital biodiversity of our broader ecosystem.

And as far as the bee sting worries, I have none. While some bees don’t sting, the one’s who might, always have flowers, pollen and nectar to keep them busy in my garden, where I have never been stung by a bee.

My theory - bees in my garden never mistake me for a flower, as they might if I were the only colorful thing among a broad expanse of turf grass and tightly pruned hedges with no flowers.

If you are looking for some advice about plants to grow in your garden to attract pollinators, leave me a comment, and I’ll get back to you soon.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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.

Recently the cold weather here in south Florida hit some of the tropicals quite hard. Palm trees suffered most. My Licuala grandis has browning leaves and looks like something that belongs in the compost bin. As I drive the area and walk through the gardens here I have seen extensive damage to Alexander Palms, Christmas Palms, Coconut Palms, and others.

While those plants suffered through the cold, antique roses are in their element, and showing off. Several vareties of antique roses, Calliandras and perennials planted in my garden to feed butterflies and overwintering hummingbirds look fabulous. All of the perennial Salvias are showing off and the hummers are visiting them daily.

Antique roses putting on a show right now and showing no intolerance of the cold, include: Old Blush, Cecile Brunner, Louis Phillipe, Cramoisi Superieur, Champney’s Pink Cluster, Martha Gonzalez, Mrs. Dudley Cross, Duchess De Brebant and Caldwell Pink also known as Pink Pet.

Landscapes can make a positive difference to reduce climate change and global warming.

According to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin

    * Terrestrial plants capture more carbon dioxide (CO2) than all the oceans combined, globally.

    *  Carbon sequestered from plants and stored in the soil is twice the amount found in the atmosphere.

    * According to Architecture 2030, forty eight percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. come from buildings.

    * Landscape design, construction and maintenance changes can increase the amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere.

As gardeners we can reduce carbon emissions by:

    * Hand pruning our plants with appropriate hand tools

   * Raking or sweeping leaves, or allowing them to remain and decay as mulch, rather than using noisy, polluting blowers to move them around

   * Recycling  leaves and garden debris (not infested with fungi or pests) by putting them into a compost pile rather than a plastic bag, which causes pollution through its manufacture

  * Using natural fertilizers and compost and composted animal manures to improve the quality of our soil, and wean our landscapes off of fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals

(Remember the manufacturing processes of many chemical fertilizers pollute. And many chemicals used as pesticides are known carcinogens.)

   * Replacing turf grasses with natural paths and plants grown in their natural habits

(Those who say electric mowers are better are mistaken. Remember electricity production also creates pollution. Many electric power plants are fueled by coal.)

   * Provide the capture of CO2 from the atmosphere and store it indefinitely, through our gardens, especially our big trees

According to The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas, the process by which plants store carbon begins with photosynthesis. Plants need their leaves for photosynthesis, so it’s a good idea to stop whacking them all off with a gas trimmer on a regular basis for that reason alone.

Through the process of photosynthesis plants capture carbon dioxide. They store it below ground. This organic carbon “sequestered” in the soil is a vital part of the carbon cycle. It represents a carbon store twice as large as that in the atmosphere.

Managing soil and vegetation to maximize carbon sequestration can positively impact greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

Various ecosystems are efficient at storing carbon below ground. Saturated conditions of wetlands don’t allow the breakdown of dead plant material providing excellent carbon storage.

Native Grassland soils also contain great stores of carbon, as these grasses put more biomass below ground than above – the carbon bound up these soils can be stored there for hundreds of years.

Conserving and restoring natural landscapes is important. Creating more natural living landscapes in our homes, suburban and city neighborhoods is vital.  If we fail to design and manage our living landscapes better than we have in the past, we will continue to negatively impact global climate change.

According to Pia Thompson and Jennifer Ganary, who the port director, Phil Allen, directed me to speak with, of the six sites tested at the port which show higher lead levels, the low test was at 52.3 mg per litre and the high at 539 mg. Those are some high numbers.

According to Thompson and Ganary, the only off site areas which rely on water from the 15 distribution sites at the port are the Harbor Shops on 17th Street.

I have not seen any documents which show this to be the case.

While design is an important consideration for home gardens, continuing to grow plants that require so many chemicals in order to thrive is detrimental to the health of the living landscape. Chemicals in soil, air, water and even our food supply are reaching frightening proportions. The chemical load in our bodies is also at an all time high.

It just makes sense to stop growing plants and lawns that require so much engineering, so many chemicals. The carbon footprint of engineered landscapes may surprise you.  Gas power tools have a carbon footprint. The manufacturing of the chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fugicides produce more carbon footprints. The chemicals, when we make them a habit, become part of the landscape, our air, water, soil, food and bodies. Many of these contaminants are known to have deleterious health affects, many are known  carcinogens.

The wonderful thing is, there are so many wonderful plants that can thrive in any landscape provided one plants the right plant in the right place. Planting plants in conditions where they thrive, one begins to create a Green garden.

Consider for example, those who force sickly hybrid tea roses to live in south Florida gardens. Many hybrid teas require, not only improved soil (which is an easy thing to provide) but also heavy doses of fungicides. This addiction to chemicals is an unnecessary and unhealthy way to garden. Chose an alternative. Learn the choices. There are other roses one can grow here. Chose non-fussy antique China roses that perform well in zones 10 or 9 for a south Florida garden instead of sickly chemical dependent hybrid teas, which will not thrive in our humidity and heat.

When planting a suitable rose, amend the alkaline sandy soil with some compost and milled spaghnum peat moss and place the rose in full sun and you have the glory of roses without the chemicals.

Learn about the alternatives to your finicky plants and grasses. It is unnecessary to keep injecting so many chemicals into our living landscape, our food supply, our bodies.

Any way you look at it, Ficus hedges are not Green. The constant use of gas powered trimmers and blowers to maintain them makes them a plant with a major carbon footprint.

The pesticides required to keep them alive in the environment of pests doing damage to them these days, pollute our air, soil and likely our water and food supply. The manufacture of the pesticides has a carbon footprint as well.

When planting a hedge or screen to be Green, it’s important not to plant a monoculture. While monoculture hedges are quite popular and hedges are a great way to provide privacy to a garden, buffer noises from the street, and screen an eyesore from view, the way they are commonly planted as monocultures in long rows is not Green. 

The best way to plant a Green hedge is to use a variety of plants in a hedge.  Stagger the plants in a zig zag fashion rather than a straight row. Then allow them to grow in their natural habit.

This method protects garden and gardener from great loss, and contributes in a positive fashion to the living landscape.

When the plants need some pruning, do it by hand.

If a particular plant is suddenly under attack by a pernicious pest, one doesn’t have to use pesticides on the whole hedge, nor lose the whole hedge. The plants not under attack remain standing sentinel at their posts in the garden hedge.

Without the need for constant gas equipment to prune the hedge plants, not only does one lessen their carbon footprint, they also save money on the cost of maintenance.

Allowing plants to grow in their natural habit also provides habitat for desirable native birds, butterflies and the likes, as well as annual migrating birds.

Smarter choices of plants for hedges have always been available, but the ease of growing Ficus from cutting and their quick growth, made them cheap and popular with growers, developers, landscapers and homeowners.

My favorite choices for a more natural, naturescape style, Green hedge, include: Simpson Stopper, Green Buttonwood, Jamaica Caper, Bay Rum (what a marvelous bay scent the leaves have when one brushes against them), Golden Dewdrop, Clusea rosea “Nana”, Powder Puff (has beautiful flowers and is available in a variety of colors and sizes), White Indigo Berry, Tawnyberry Holly, Tallowwood, Red Stopper, Redberry Stopper, Spicewood, Natal Plum, Marlberry, Myrsine, Lingarro, Holly Malpigia (for a shorter hedge), Florida Privet, Chinese Hat, Bush Cherry, Bouganvilla, Bay Cedar, Black Torch, Boxthorn (for a shorter hedge), Wax Jasmine, Firebush.

Consider the ultimate height you want in your hedge. Plant the taller plants at the back row when staggering them.

All of the above plants have a lot to recommend them. Some are better than others at tolerating salt water intrusion. So consider that when choosing plants for landscapes near the ocean.

Some other fine choices that have been around a long time include: West Indian Cherry, Barbados Cherry, Yew Podocarpus. All these are also fine when grown, limbed up, as small trees, as are some of the other choices.

Be creative, plant a back row spread about 6 feet apart of Jamaica Capers. Two or three feet in front of them, in between each set of Jamaica Capers, plant Green Button Woods. About two feet in front of the Green Buttonwoods, in the center of each set, plant White Indigo Berry. Or zig zag three of the same plant, then three of another plant and so on until you have created the look you want with your Greenscape hedge. 

If you don’t have that much space, then alternate the plants and stagger them only a foot in front of each other. Be creative.

Top dress with composted manure and watch them grow. Enjoy a Green screen which offers beauty, privacy and desirable wildlife habitat.

Know that you’ve done your part for the environment and the living landscape.

The picture here shows a Greenscape with a hedge, planted at the left of the photo. The hedge is made up of several varieties of plants which do well in south Florida. They were planted small, in three gallon containers and have been allowed to grow in their natural habits. The natural hedge includes groups of Firebush, red blooming Powder Puff, and Golden Dewdrop, all of which are butterfly, bird and hummingbird attractors. They create a wonderful natural visual screen from the neighbors and offer privacy to the homeowners. The plants are all relatively fast growers and are filling the space quite quickly.