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Nature’s Way Resources owner John Ferguson, “The Lazy Gardener” Brenda Beust Smith and Pablo Hernandez welcome your feedback and are so grateful to the many horticulturists who contribute their expertise

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“Hurricane season brings a humbling reminder that, despite our technologies,

most of nature remains unpredictable.”

–DIANE ACKERMAN, (1948- ), American Poet & Essayis

‘IS IT FALL YET?’

BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH

SCANNING THE TREES for that first sign of fall color? You must be new to our area. While we don’t have the volume of fire-like autumn they do ‘up nawth’, we do have our share of spectacular starting now and (OK) very slowly increasing in October, through November and usually mostly in December. Unfortunately, those who predict these things say our first freeze may probably be on or around Dec. 8.

But look closely and you might catch a flaming branch or two. Check out your local independent nurseries! With the right plants, you won’t have to wait that long. Good example, pictured above – NOW color from Montgomery County Master Gardener Cindy Price’s winged sumac (Rhus copallinum) shines pretty beneath her 100-year-old American holly. She adds, “Two more of my favorite fall color trees, both native. Pawpaw and a hedge of four sweetgum trees that I keep cut low as a hedge just for their fall colors.” 

Is any of your fall color showing yet? Do share with pictures, names and specific variety if known.

“A deer-proof plant is any specimen surrounded by four barking terriers that live outdoors and off-leash!” — GREG GRANT.

As the Greater Houston expands more and more into undeveloped areas, fauna that called those areas home are forced out, Their natural habitat and food sources are wiped out first by clear-cutting, then by row after row of homes with St. Augustine lawns.

So it’s no surprise that many creatures, such as deer, continue to seek food and shelter where they have for centuries, even tho now they are expected to respect these suddenly-off-limits sites.

What to do? Plant things they don’t like to eat? Sometimes that works, sometimes hunger forces them to even eat plants treated with chemicals that will harm them. If you start searching for help, you’ll find most posts are for central, north, west & east Texas, so double check actual plants against a Greater Houston source.

TO BE HONEST, in 50+ years of this column, the only person I ever heard say emphatically her deer solution worked was an 80+-year-old woman at a Houston Medical Center’s Retirees Dinner. After my talk, someone asked about how to discourage deer in garden. I asked for any personal success stories.

This lady raised her hand, stood and told the group every night after dark she made her husband go out and “mark” the borders of her vegetable garden (a la coyotes). She said never had a deer problem although all her neighbors did. (I’m just passing this on. Not making a recommendation.)

Years ago, LOCAL experts helped me develop a No Deer flyer listing a lot of tips & plants worth trying in the Greater Houston area. Most may work, at least for a while, until the deer get REALLY hungry. If you’re using some plants deer DON’T seem to destroy, please do share!

For free “No Deer!” flyer, email lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com

WINTERING PLUMERIAS Halloween (or early October) is traditional day for moving these fragrant flowering trees indoors for winter, unless temperatures drop into the 50s at night before then. Pull out of ground or pot, shake off dirt and stick in a protected garage. Or, move in pot and all into garage. If plants too large to move, prune off too-large branches. Set these inside with main plant and plant them next spring. Cover rest.(From “Lazy Gardener’s Guide” (free pdf: lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com)

ATTN. GARDEN/PLANT GROUPS — In wake of Hurricane Beryl, Nature’s Way Resources offers free guided tours of NWR’s extensive nursery/soil/mulch facilities for garden clubs, plant societies and other plant-oriented, organized groups. As usual, NWR’s now-expanded meeting site is free to above groups. Reservations a must for both.

“LAZY GARDENER’S GUIDE” (PDF format) is emaild free.

Request: lazygardenbrenda@gmail.com

Brenda Beust Smith’s column is based on her 40+ years as the Houston Chronicle’s “Lazy Gardener” column — lazygardenerbrenda@gmail.com Brenda’s column focuses ONLY on the Greater Houston Area

John’s Corner

NEWS FROM THE WONDERFUL WORLD

OF SOIL AND PLANTS # 301

Subject: Subject: health and environment

We have all heard the slogan “Healthy Soil = Healthy Plants = Healthy People”. I would add that Healthy Soil = a Healthy Planet to live on. 

I read an interesting report the other day on a subject dear to my heart from www.Earth.org that summarizes a lot of the recent research and importance of soils. The title of the article is “New Report Reveals Crucial Links between Soil Quality and Human Health, Calls for Global Action”.

There is a new advocacy and awareness campaign called “Save the Soil” from the group Conscious Planet which is backed by many international organizations (UNEP, UNCCD, UNFAO, WFP, and IUCN to name a few).

Ahead of COP29, they are calling for soil regeneration to be recognized as a public health priority. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the group of nations (198 countries) that have signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was put together in 1992. It commits them to act together to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human-induced) interference with the climate system”.

Soil degradation is accelerating: global malnutrition, causing mental health issues, reducing ecosystem services like cleaning air and water, causing climate change, increased vulnerability to natural disasters, and many more factors that affect our lives.

All of this causes increased cost of food, increased medical bills, increased insurance costs, and affects all areas of our economy and lowers our quality of life.

This is why using modern organic methods in our yards and gardens is so important, as we become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. In addition, it gives better results and lowers our total costs of having a beautiful garden.

 The abuse of the Earth’s soil has led to massive amounts of desertification and loss of what were once productive fields and ecosystems. They identified soil microbes as critical to returning these soils to good health if we quit destroying them.

 Desertification results from the interplay of many factors leading to increased temperature, wind changes, precipitation changes, intensification of solar radiation and more frequent extreme weather events form droughts to tropical storms (increase in quantity and intensity).

So, what causes desertification? There are many factors from clear cutting of forests so it’s easy to mine lithium to make batteries for electric cars, tillage of the soil, intensive crop growth using monoculture, chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and artificial fertilizers, inefficient irrigation systems, over grazing by livestock, soil compaction, over pumping of ground water, growing genetically modified crops, deforestation for firewood and many more. Earth-Science Reviews (2024)

For those who want to learn more the following books are very useful.

The Soil Will Save Us, Kristin Ohlson, Rodale Books, (256p) ISBN-10: 1609615549; ISBN-13: 9781609615543 Copyright 2014

Thousands of years of poor farming and ranching practices—and, especially, modern industrial agriculture—have led to the loss of up to 80 percent of carbon from the world’s soils. That carbon is now floating in the atmosphere, and even if we stopped using fossil fuels today, it would continue warming the planet and acidifying our oceans. In The Soil Will Save Us, journalist and bestselling author Kristin Ohlson makes an elegantly argued, passionate case for “our great green hope”—a way in which we can not only heal the land but also turn atmospheric carbon into beneficial soil carbon—and potentially reverse global warming. It is based on organic methods that give real results and at lower costs resulting in higher productivity from the land.

In the book of Job, God tells us to study nature and let it teach us. She starts with antidotal stories from farmers and ranchers all over the world that have restored their soil by copying nature. It then moves into the how’s and why’s this method restores soils fertility, increases yields and stores carbon in the soil. She talks about that there is a vast kingdom of creatures under our feet—billions of microorganisms in a tablespoon of soil—that take the carbon dioxide that plants pull from the atmosphere and turn it into life-giving soil carbon.

Ohlson introduces visionary scientists, farmers, foodies, ranchers, and landscapers, whose work shows that earth can be healed and offers the hope that seemingly intractable problems like climate change, air and water pollution, food quality, and even obesity have the same low-tech solution.

Ohlson’s fascinating journey to understand the hidden dynamics of the natural world—brought to life through vivid storytelling and crisp, engaging analysis will inspire everyone to rethink the potential of the ground beneath their feet, as well as the landscapes around them, and to figure out how they can make a difference.

THE SOIL – HUMAN HEALTH NEXUS edited by Rattan Lal, PhD, CRC Press, 2021, ISBN: 978-0-367-42214-1

 This book ties together many of the issues facing society today and is part of a series of books titled Advances in Soil Science. This book compiles the studies of over 25 scientists and hundreds of papers from around the world.

 The focus is on what has become known as “One Health” from multiple disciplines from all over the world to obtain optimal health for people, animals, plants, and our environment. The concept of One health has a strong history in the Bible as far back as Moses.

 See what the land is like and whether the people that live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees on it or not? Do your best to bring back some fruit of the land.   Numbers 13:18-20 

The term “soil health” refers to the functionality of a soil as a living ecosystem capable of sustaining plants, animals, and humans while also improving the environment. In addition to soil health, the environment also comprises the quality of air, water, vegetation, and biota. The health of soil, plants, animals, people, and the environment is an indivisible continuum.

“Soils can beneficially or adversely affect human health, and likewise human activity can improve or destroy soil health. In the new anthropogenic era, it is worth examining the soil health-human health nexus. To do this, the author evaluates soil from the perspective of what infects us, what heals us, what contaminates us, what nourishes us, and what we breathe. Likewise, the author examines the impact of humans on soil using a similar matrix and suggests strategies to improve human health by maintaining or improving soil health.”

“Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations” by David Montgomery, ISBN 978-0-520-24870-0

For those who want to know more about the importance of soil care, the book below explains that every civilization in history failed because they did not take care of their soil. 

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