“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!'”
— ‘ROBIN WILLIAMS (1951-2014)
BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH
CAN’T CELEBRATE SPRING WITHOUT MUSIC! HOW MELODIOUS ARE YOUR PLANTS?
PLAYING “IN”THE GARDEN is a fun activity for many of us. But watching someone actually “PLAYING” a plant may pop a few eyes at the March 22 meeting of the Cactus and Succulent Society of Houston.
That’s the day HCSS member and pianist CHADEN YAFI will “play” a barrel cactus, as in producing music — in fact, John Cage’s famous “Child of Tree” (1975). For this piece, barrel cacti, she explaines, “sounded better maybe because of its long spines.”
An enthuiastic pianist and cacti and succulent collector, Chaden has no fears of harming her floral duet partner. ” I am stroking the spines gently, and there are no
electrical currents. The contact mic just picks up the sound of the spines and amplifies them.”
But is the plant really producing music? It depends on the plant.“Some produce clear musical pitches,” she notes. “I was able to get 6 or 7 clear pitches on mine when plucking certain spines, but I didn’t mark which spines, I think Cage did not want ‘determined’ sounds, and every time the
performance will be different.”
She warns the keys are “not as precious as a piano or any other instrument but Cage was able to see how these plants can produce a scale!” Any plants with spines, she says, can be safely used to produce sounds by plucking the spines, like Madagascar Palm or Queen of Thorns.
The cactus she’ll be “playing” March 22 for Cactus & Succulent Society members and visitors is obviously happy. Between gigs, Chaden reports it is thriving in her garden, delightfully producing different sounds as it grows!
WED., MAR 22: CACTI AS MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: OVERVIEW AND PERFORMANCE OF JOHN CAGE’S ‘CHILD OF TREE‘ by CHADEN YAFI
7 pm, Multi-Service Center, 1475 West Gray. Free. Houston Cactus and Succulent Society. hcsstex.org
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 229
A question I often get asked is why do we want to plant native plants in our landscapes? There are many good reasons why we should use more native plants:
Native Plants are low maintenance
Native plants can tolerate weather extremes from heat waves and droughts to extreme cold with freezing temperatures. Once established they tend to ignore weather extremes. A couple years ago, after winter storm Uri had past, many of the native plants in our nursery were in full bloom the next day (they just laughed off the winter storm).
Many are perennials hence they return every year saving time and money on replacement.
Natives require less fertilizer, are more adaptable to different soil types, most are insect and disease resistant hence fewer toxic chemicals are needed, they use less water and grow well even when neglected.
Native plants provide food
Native plants provide food for our pollinators, from being a host plant for butterfly and moth caterpillars to providing pollen and nectar for the adults. Native plants often have beautiful flowers from our Redbuds to Magnolias and Buckeyes with dozens more that provide flowers. My Black Locusts (Robinia pseudoacacia) are blooming now with clusters of lightly fragrant white flowers which are making the bees happy.
Black Locust also works with microbes in the soil to fix nitrogen taken from the air increasing the soils fertility.
Texas has one of the largest variety of wildflowers in the country. Wildflowers are native plants and driving through the LaGrange area yesterday, the fields of Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes were very breathtaking.
The Coral Vine from South Texas is not only beautiful, it is a favorite of honey bees and fully hardy in our area. The photo below is from outside our sales office last year. We have several growing in our nursery including the snow- white form.
Native plants in addition to being tough and beautiful they providing vital habitat for birds and many other species of wildlife benefits as well. The colorful array of butterflies and moths, including our iconic monarch, the swallowtails, tortoiseshells, and beautiful blues, are all dependent on very specific native plant species as they only lay their eggs on certain species.
Native plants provide nectar for pollinators including hummingbirds, native bees, butterflies, moths, and bats. They provide protective shelter for many mammals and other wildlife. The native nuts, seeds, and fruits produced by these plants offer essential foods for all forms of wildlife.
Many native plants are edible and have much higher nutrition density than many of our common vegetables. These range from edible greens to nopales made from the prickly pear cactus. The prickly pear fruits also make a delicious jelly or wine and are food for wildlife.
Many of our native plants produce fruits than can be made into delicious jams, jellies, wines, etc. One of my favorites is May Haw jelly (Crataegus opaca). Texas has several species of wild plums that are delicious.
Texas also has five different sub-species of Black Cherry growing in different regions. If you ever visit Natives of Texas Nursery outside of Kerrville, they have escarpment Black Cherries growing on the property that are over 50 feet tall. https://www.nativesoftexas.com/
In addition, we have many nut-bearing trees that have edible nuts. The state tree is one of my favorites, especially in pecan pie.
Many native plants have beautiful fall color
The photo below is our native Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) in front of our sales office from last fall.
Native Plants Provide Environmental Benefits
Native plants help fight climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing carbon in the soils and in their roots.
Native grasses have roots that can grow over 12 feet deep. In addition to storing carbon, they open the soil so that rain water can be absorbed and they prevent erosion.
For more information
The Audubon Society has a database where one can type in your zip code and find out which natives work in your area to attract birds: https://www.audubon.org/native-plants
The Native Plant Society of Texas has many local chapters where the members will be glad to help you and their website has lots of information. www.npsot.org
Texas is considered a drought prone state and we are running out of cheap water from our aquifers. To protect our future, we need to conserve water and use other environmentally friendly options. That is why just a few years ago the State of Texas passed a law that gives homeowners living in an HOA community more control over landscaping their yard with water-saving alternatives like our native plants.
The Woodlands Township is offering a 50% rebate up to $300 per year for those whom purchase drought tolerant native plants. They also have pictures and cultural information that one can download. www.woodlandswater.org
Another example is the state of Minnesota which is now paying homeowners up to $500 per home to remove their grass lawns and plant Urban Meadows (native grasses, forbs, and wildflowers).
Below are a few links to the statutes itself and a few articles on the subject one might find interesting:
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.202.htm
https://spectrumam.com/xeriscaping-and-your-texas-hoa/
Senate Bill 198 (2013) – Protection of Drought-Resistant Landscaping and Water-Conserving Natural Turf (also HB 449 – 2013)
“SB 198 modifies Section 202.007 of the Texas Property Code. Section
202.007 restricts HOAs from enforcing a provision of a Dedicatory Instrument that would prohibit or restrict a Homeowner from using drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf on his or her property. A HOA may still require a Homeowner to obtain pre-approval of such landscaping or turf from the HOA to ensure, to the extent practicable, maximum aesthetic compatibility of such landscaping or turf with other landscaping in the subdivision, but a HOA’s approval
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ABOUT US
BRENDA BEUST SMITH WE KNOW HER BEST AS THE LAZY GARDENER . . . but Brenda Beust Smith is also:
- a national award-winning writer & editor
- a nationally-published writer & photographer
- a national horticultural speaker
- a former Houston Chronicle reporter
When the Chronicle discontinued Brenda’s 45-year-old Lazy Gardener” print column — started in the early ’70s as a fun side-project to reporting, it then ranked as the longestrunning, continuously-published local newspaper column in the Greater Houston area. The name, she says, is not just fun, it’s true. Brenda’s gradual sideways step from reporter into gardening writing led first to an 18-year series of when-to-do-what Lazy Gardener Calendars, then to her Lazy Gardener’s Guide book which morphed into her Lazy Gardener’s Guide on CD, which she now emails free upon request. Brenda became a Harris County Master Gardener and, over the years, served on theboards of many Greater Houston area horticulture organizations. She hosted local radio and TV shows, most notably a 10+-year Lazy Gardener specialty shows on HoustonPBS (Ch. 8) and her call-in “EcoGardening” show on KPFT-FM. For over three decades, Brenda served as Assistant Production Manager of the GARDEN CLUB OF AMERICA’S “BULLETIN” magazine. Although still an active broad-based freelance writer, Brenda’s main focus now is THE LAZY GARDENER & FRIENDS HOUSTON GARDEN NEWSLETTER with John Ferguson and Pablo Hernandez of Nature’s Way Resources. A native of New Orleans and graduate of St. Agnes Academy and the University of Houston, Brenda lives in Humble, TX, and is married to the retired Aldine High School Coach Bill Smith. They have one son, Blake. Regarding this newsletter, Brenda is the lead writer, originator of it and the daily inspiration for it. We so appreciate the way she has made gardening such a fun way to celebrate life together for such a long time.
JOHN FERGUSON John is a native Houstonian and has over 27 years of business experience. He owns Nature’s Way Resources, a composting company that specializes in high quality compost, mulch, and soil mixes. He holds a MS degree in Physics and Geology and is a licensed Soil Scientist in Texas. John has won many awards in horticulture and environmental issues. He represents the composting industry on the Houston-Galveston Area Council for solid waste. His personal garden has been featured in several horticultural books and “Better Homes and Gardens” magazine. His business has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal for the quality and value of their products. He is a member of the Physics Honor Society and many other professional societies. John is is the co-author of the book Organic Management for the Professional. For this newsletter, John contributes articles regularly and is responsible for publishing it.
PABLO HERNANDEZ Pablo Hernandez is the special projects coordinator for Nature’s Way Resources. His realm of responsibilities include: serving as a webmaster, IT support, technical problem solving/troubleshooting, metrics management and quality control. Pablo helps this newsletter happen from a technical support standpoint.
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