TREE LIMBS DROP? WHO KNOWS WHY?
By Brenda Beust Smith
“Limbs fail sometimes because of defects and unusually heavy loads of foliage, but there is another kind of failure…” So begins HOWARD GARRETT’s website section on Sudden Branch Drop, a subject briefly touched on recently when a perfectly healthylooking limb suddenly dropped off a huge tree in a Houston-area yard, fortunately missing the house.
On his website, Howard — one of our earliest (and greatest) organic gardening proponents — explains the truth is, no one really knows why, in very hot, very dry weather (such as we’ve experienced for FAR too long now), isolated “apparently healthy” tree limbs suddenly crack and drop off. Numerous arborists’ guesses include: “…change in branch movement, tissue shrinkage, internal cracks, moisture changes, ethylene gas released inside of branches and microscopic changes in cell wall structure.” (click link for more info.)
The point is, be aware if a large tree limb, regardless of apparent overall health, looks like it’s starting to bend downward, looks “different,” or leaning a different way. If it already looks suspicious, get an expert to check it out. While you’re on Howard’s The Dirt Doctor website, be sure and check out his other organic gardening advice
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SHARING ‘SURVIVORS’
Fellow gardeners are our best friends these days. They don’t have to sing their favorite plants’ praises. All they have to do is show they’re in bloom or just still green these days! So thanks to these sharing gardeners . . .
MARIE ENGLEHART‘s garden heat survivors near Cypress in NW Harris County are full of the beautiful blooms above — despite heat & drought. Only plumbago is watered sporadically.The rest get two 10- minute sprays (Monday & Friday).
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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
NOTE: When sending pictures for potential use in column, please make sure they are jpegs no larger than 10″ wide AND each is identified by its NAME.
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NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 253
NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 253
Subject: trees and rain food safety cryptobiosis
We have an ongoing heat wave and drought and no one wants to be outside, hence this is a good time to get caught up on some educational videos.
Bob Randall, PhD shared this link with me on how trees make rain. For years I have read about this concept but it was in an abstract sort of way. This short video made it come alive. After the video there is a link to many of the scientific research papers that it was based on for those that want additional information.
Andrew Millison teaches permaculture at Oregon State University and the combination of those three facts means that he can produce a ton of great videos on permaculture topics. Given that we are now in a 42nd day without rain and very hot weather, his discussion on the role of trees and rainfall is interesting and useful.
Permaculture Instructor Andrew Millison explains how trees are connected to water in the atmosphere as well as water flowing through the landscape. This video articulates the amazing role that trees play to ecosystem and climate health, and how their removal causes the drought-flood cycle.
We have talked about the problems and poor quality of our food system many times and why we need to grow as much of our own food as possible.
There is a new documentary on Netflix called “Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.” This film is shedding light on our food system and just how safe it really is… or is it?
Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food, looks at the American food industry, often touted as “the safest in the world,” and examines the ongoing problem of deadly foodborne illness.
The documentary reveals interviews with victims’ families and industry experts, including Sarah Sorscher, JD, MPH with the Center for Science in The Public Interest.
The film also highlights how previous federal action has dramatically reduced incidences of food poisoning, such as when the USDA banned E coli from ground beef in the 1990s.
“The truth is, our food is nowhere near as safe as it should be,” says Sorscher. “Regulators and the food industry have not done enough to mitigate deadly pathogens like STEC E. coli and Salmonella. We continue to be sickened and die at unacceptably high rates due to contaminated foods as a result.”
Now, we have an opportunity to make a similar change in poultry. The USDA has proposed a rule to ban dangerous forms of Salmonella contamination in some raw poultry, following the same model used in ground beef.
Note: The documentary did not mention it, but another source of pathogens is using sewage sludge (a.k.a. biosolids) as fertilizer in growing conventional food. See the following links for more information on the dangers of sewage sludge products (a four part series).
Bio-Solids or Sewage Sludge Revealed Part 1
Bio-Solids or Sewage Sludge Revealed Part 2
Bio-Solids or Sewage Sludge Revealed Part 3
Bio-Solids or Sewage Sludge Revealed Part 4
The video below is also on the problems with our food supply and aimed at a younger audience.
In today’s episode, we look at America’s food system, why corn is in nearly everything we eat, how factory farms are bad for consumers and the environment, and why greed makes it so hard to eat healthy.
A reader sent me an article from The Wall Street Journal on a survival method used by microbes and some animals called “cryptobiosis.“
Researchers discovered in 2016 that creatures (microbes) frozen in ice or permafrost for 24,000 years could be revived. These are rotifers (microscopic aquatic creatures) and tardigrades (water bears) that can go into a form of suspended animation and stop all metabolic processes till things improve.
Researchers have now discovered a nematode (a small microscopic worm) in Siberian permafrost frozen for 46,000 years and was revived. This is a new record for animals.
The mysteries of God’s creation are amazing!
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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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