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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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L to r: roses, hyacinths, tulips, strawberries and artichoke blooms

All gardeners know better than other gardeners.

— CHINESE PROVERB

GRAB WHAT’S LEFT OF 2024 TO ENJOY YOUR GARDEN BEFORE PREDICTED FIRST FREEZE!

BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH 

Now, I ask you: How’s a gardener supposed to decided What to do/plant in the garden when it’s going to be in 40’s one night and high 70’s the next day? I say: be thankful 1. we can still garden while rest of country is looking at dormancy setting in! And: 2. It’s just a quick mild single-night freeze the 2nd week of December. Most things we plant can easily tolerate these temporary cold dips. And overall, this is predicted to be on the mild side. (Altho, we all know how much to trust these ‘educated’ guesses, don’t we!)

Besides, there’s plenty we should be doing in November, even with the predicted-now-coming-extensive climate change in store. This list is from my Lazy Gardener’s Guide*:

This month, you really should . . .

• Water inground plants if a freeze is forecast. Dry roots are more easily damaged by cold.
• Plant daffodils and (refrigerated) hyacinths on Thanksgiving Day.
• Plant artichoke plants, bok choy, cilantro, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, green onions, turnips.
• Order seed catalogs for winter distractions; addresses are also in all gardening magazines. CHECK ZONES !!!!!
• Plant or move shrubs and trees so the roots can become established before real cold sets in for good.
• If you haven’t already, order a copy of URBAN HARVEST’s Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer Planting Guides

If the spirit moves . . .

• Start an herb garden — best month!
• As potted mums fade, pinch tips to force more root growth and/or plant in garden! Soon, so they can set good roots before the first true freeze! Predicted Dec. 8. Mulch well with leaves, pine needles, etc.

If you’re really feeling energetic . . .

• Try human hair sprinkled on the soil to discourage rabbits from eating bulbs.
• If you don’t have falling leaves or other healthy mulch . . . pick up some hay at the feed store. It makes an inexpensive mulch.
• Plant strawberries. They do well in containers and hanging baskets too.
• Take advantage of any Pecan Shows in your area to learn more about growing these trees.
• Cut dead growth off all fading perennials; it might attract insects. Put in compost pile.
• Leave fading rose blooms on bush. They need this signal to start going dormant for winter.

(. . . and, my favorite part! . . . )

Don’t-Do tips for really Lazy Gardeners

• Don’t panic if leaves of plants moved indoors suddenly drop off. They’re adjusting to a new environment. Cut back watering. Mist frequently to compensate for loss of humidity.
• Ignore althaeas and hardy hibiscus. They’ll come back in the spring. For bushier plants in spring, cut dead stalks to the ground. (Pictured: my Mimi’s althaea!)
• Notice thibiscus blooms. They get smaller as the nights get colder.
• Cut back on watering clivia, agapanthus.

(Free LGG pdf copy: email 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 # 309

Subject: 

BARONS – Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry by Austin Frerick, Island Press, 2024, ISBN:  978-1642832-693

In this newsletter we have talked about the poor quality of the American food and how it harms our health numerous times and is also one of the leading causes of global warming. If you want to know what is causing the rapidly rising cost of food, it is price gouging by these monopolies.

This book is a good summary for those who want to learn more about how a few families control the food market and are monopolies that our government has ignored and even supplemented with tax dollars via the USDA and other agencies.

Besides destroying the environment, the abusive treatment of workers including using and abusing child labor, including constant abuse of animals. These companies would have made the Nazi’s of Germany proud of their abuses.

The book is broken into several sections starting with an introduction and then it looks at each of the Barons:

Chapter 1: The Hog Barons
Chapter 2: The Grain Barons
Chapter 3: The Coffee Barons
Chapter 4: The Dairy Barons
Chapter 5: The Berry Barons
Chapter 6: The Slaughter Barons
Chapter 7: The Grocery Barons

From the book’s cover – “Barons is the story of seven corporate titans, their rise to power, and the consequences for everyone else. Take Mike McCloskey, Chairman of Fair Oaks Farms. In a few short decades, he went from managing a modest dairy herd to running the Disneyland of agriculture, where school children ride trams through mechanized warehouses filled with tens of thousands of cows that never see the light of day. What was the key to his success? Hard work and exceptional business savvy? Maybe. But more than anything else, Mike benefitted from deregulation of the American food industry, a phenomenon that has consolidated wealth in the hands of select tycoons, and along the way, hollowed out the nation’s rural towns and local businesses.

Along with Mike McCloskey, readers will meet a secretive German family that took over the global coffee industry in less than a decade, relying on wealth traced back to the Nazis to gobble up countless independent roasters. They will discover how a small grain business transformed itself into an empire bigger than Koch Industries, with ample help from taxpayer dollars. And they will learn that in the food business, crime really does pay—especially when you can bribe and then double-cross the president of Brazil.

These, and the other stories in this book, are simply examples of the monopolies and ubiquitous corruption that today define American food. The tycoons profiled in these pages are hardly unique: many other companies have manipulated our lax laws and failed policies for their own benefit, to the detriment of our neighborhoods, livelihoods, and our democracy itself. Barons paints a stark portrait of the consequences of corporate consolidation, but it also shows we can choose a different path. A fair, healthy, and prosperous food industry is possible—if we take back power from the barons who have robbed us of it.”

 Austin Frerick is an expert on agricultural and antitrust policy. He worked at the Open Markets Institute, the U.S. Department of Treasury, and the Congressional Research Service before becoming a Fellow at Yale University. He is a 7th generation Iowan and 1st generation college graduate, with degrees from Grinnell College and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

 Reviews:

“In this eye-opening debut study, Frerick, an agricultural policy fellow at Yale University, reveals the ill-gained stranglehold that a handful of companies have on America’s food economy…It’s a disquieting critique of private monopolization of public necessities.” –Publishers Weekly, starred

“Frerick’s prose throughout is both direct and masterfully controlled, with every point supported by extensive references and notes. This is no alarmist screed but rather a careful, systematic, and utterly damning demolition job—an exquisitely informed exposé. . . A genuinely revelatory look at mass food production in the United States.” –Kirkus Reviews, starred

 Wow.  This is one important book… If you want to know how corporations control the food supply, start here. Marion Nestle, Food Politics

[Frerick] dissects not only the food barons’ business practices, but also the disastrous impacts of these practices… The author, who frequently sounds as though he is fighting to control his personal rage at the people he’s writing about, backs up his statements with facts and figures. This is an angry and accusatory book, but also a fair and well-documented one. Booklist

After reading [Austin’s] book, I have come away with a completely different idea of agriculture that I cannot unsee. Bloomberg Odd Lots

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