“In his garden, every man may be his own artist without apology or explanation.” —Louise Beebe Wilderman (1813–1871), American writer, essayist, critic
“What do you mean you don’t water! I saw you watering your tomatoes!”
BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH
Pictured is my Rangoon Creeper, (Combretum indicum), rambling sort of vining plant, just started blooming this week on our street-side fence. Not only have I never watered it (seriously!), it’s planted not far from the ditch rim. What little rainfall we’ve had probably doesn’t sink very deep into its soil. Gets morning sun and afternoon shade.
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MORE DELIGHTS THAT IGNORE THE HEAT! CEIL DOW, Ginger
Grower for the Friends of Mercer Botanic Gardens reports Mercer’s big “BEAT THE HEAT” sale 9-5 Saturday will carry gingers, as well as the ginger-like Costus, most of which, she says, “are quite adaptable to blooming and growing with just rainwater. Examples are Costus fissiligulatus, Costus ‘Tropicais’ and ‘Peruvian Pineapple’.
Costus and gingers look somewhat alike and Costus are sometimes called spiral gingers (their most visual difference). To learn more about these and other heat-hardy plants, plan your Saturday (July 22) shopping trip to be on hand at Mercer Saturday at o hear Ceil discuss gingers (at 10am) and plumerias (at 2pm). . In addition a virtual sale option will run from 8am-8pm.
The plant preview & virtual-onlypurchase now posted at
friendsofmercer.com/virtual-beat-the-heat-sale.html
Mercer Botanic Gardens, 22306 Aldine Westfield Rd, Humble, Harris Cty Pct 3
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Speaking of Mercer, volunteer extraordinarie and avid native plant expert DON DUBOIS reported in on his “Watered Only by Mother Nature” bed at home that includes, pictured below, l to r: flowerbed, yellow sneezeweed (Helenium amarum), purple spotted beebalm (Monarda punctata) and prairie verbena (Glandularia bipinnatifida).
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BEFORE YOU BUY A NEW TREE, be sure you have in hand the free download: Tough Texas Trees by DORIS HEARD. This free guide from the Garden Club of Houston lists both large and small trees with great info on each. Check out the rest of GCH’s ‘Education” page. It’s loaded with videos and brochures specific to our unique subtropical pocket. Whatever you do, if you’re new to this area, check LOCAL sources for advice conformation. Don’t rely soley on national advice or even advice for other parts of Texas. We may be very different.
Three containers of each are on trial for 150 tests. Paul Winski (a familiar Extension name in our area!) heads the trials as (now) A&M Extension Program Specialist – Commercial Horticulture/Green Industry. Results are regularly updated on facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092571460
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Brenda Beust Smith’s column is based on her 40+ years
as Houston Chronicle’s Lazy Gardener Email: lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com
— Note: This column’s gardening advice focuses ONLY on
the Greater Houston area. Personal reports MUST include your area.
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* BRENDA’S LAZY GARDENER GUIDE is no longer sold. However, free pdf copies available upon request at lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 248
Nature never stops amazing me with its mysteries. Researchers have found that the invasive ambrosia beetle known as the black stem borer, raises its own food. It prefers dead wood where it can farm a species of fungus that it carries with them in special pockets inside the female’s heads.
These beetles and fungi produce pheromones that attracts other beetles by smell, telling other beetles they have found a good home, which causes them to aggregate into large populations. Researchers believe that by disrupting the communication it may provide control of this pest. Frontiers in Microbiology (2023).
Speaking of pheromones, the silk moth family have very sensitive antennas to smells. These moths have sensitive eyes and powerful scent detecting antennas, hence when the female produces pheromones a male can sense one single molecule and find females from six miles away.
Lunas are a beautiful moth with long tails that are common to the silk moth family. Scientists have studied these moths regarding what purpose the tails serve in nature. Predation from birds or bats, sexual selection, etc.
Scientists have discovered the long tails evolved solely to help the moths escape bats which the tail is believed to disrupt the reflected sonar signal, and the longer the tail the greater its effectiveness (the tails had no effect on bird predation). Journal Biology Letters and Behavioral Ecology (2023)
More and more gardeners are planting food for pollinators like bees, butterflies, and moths. The Luna moth uses species like black walnut, hickory, willows, sweetgums, black cherry, and others as host plants for its larva.
Many gardeners experience soil diseases in warm and moist soils that are common along the gulf coast during the summer. There are a few things a gardener can do to help lower the possibility of soil diseases.
To reduce the risk to our gardens we must increase the density and diversity of the soil biology. Gardeners can do this by several processes.
- Routinely use trace and micro-nutrients that are often deficient in our soils by applying products like Re-mineralizer.
- Build organic matter by using compost, humates, composted (aged) native mulches, and cover crops.
- Foliar applications of seaweed, fish emulsion, agricultural molasses, ground crab or shrimp shells feed and stimulate beneficial microbes. The MicrolifeTM products like Super Seaweed and Ocean Harvest work great.
- Biological inoculants like mycorrhizae fungus and beneficial bacteria should be used at planting time
- Humic and fulmic acid drenches can stimulate beneficial microbes
- Use rainwater for irrigation or at least filter municipal water as it is full or chemicals that kill the microbes which prevent disease.
- Using a several inch thick layer, of aged native mulch keeps soils cooler allowing the good microbes to grow and work. It also helps feed earthworms which help destroy many bad microbes and stimulate the growth of good ones.
The above steps help plants grow stronger and faster with more flowers and fruits.
A good quality aged native mulch layer that is 3-4 inches thick, is essential in many ways. The chart below indicates how important keeping the soil cool is to a plant’s health. Aged Native Mulches are very effective in keeping soils cool and provide many other benefits.
Water filters to remove the toxic chlorine, chloramine and fluoride are available. The more one waters their garden the more important they are.
If one has an organically rich soil and only waters occasionally, then soil microbe populations will recover from the damage. If one
waters weekly or more then the microbial population does not have time to recover and filters remove the toxic chemicals to help protect our soil.
Filters like the one shown below are available that will screw onto your outside water faucet, then your water hose attaches to the other end of the filter, hence extremely easy to use.
They are available at some garden centers or online retailers. It is also available direct from the manufacturer for $56.99 at boogiebrew.net
The literature states that the Plus model will treat 45,000 gallons of water removes chlorine (99%), chloramine (87%), fluoride, mercury and other heavy metals, DDT, and some other pesticides.
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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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