Nature’s Way Resources is proud to produce & email you this free weekly newsletter. We have no ads, but sponsors do graciously help support this project as a public service. Please note their names below & show your gratitude for this free service by patronizing their businesses! To become a sponsor, call (936) 273-1200
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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‘The trouble with gardening is that is does not remain an avocation. It becomes an obsession.’
— Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978), American poet & Pulitzer Prize winner
Exciting new options (for us) highlight upcoming events! See below …
PLANT SALES COMETH!
BY BRENDA BEUST SMITH
Enjoy our — relatively-speaking! — beautiful weather this week. It’s gonna get colder next week. Fortunately, our many local Master Gardeners and other Greater Houston gardening groups are already gearing up for major fruit and vegetable sales. Inventories are easy to see on most websites!
Our gardening organizations are often privy to new varieties from competing growers long before we are. That’s how these coming sales can offer new-on-market varieties, often not yet otherwise available. They’ve been tested in local Demonstration Gardens for a while!
Master Gardeners’ (and other) Demontration Gardens are usually open to the public. You don’t have to live in a specific county to visit. Find your closest one to plan a visit.
DO YOU HAVE YOUR “NEW” USDA PLANT HARDINESS ZONE MAP? (Fairly new: 2023) Handy free download. Zones far more complicated than before. Note! Online plant companies/resources often use these Zones as guides on plant sale labels.So good to know. Greater Houston is still in Zones 8-9-10, but these are now divided into various sub-zones. Good luck! My eyes are permanently crossed looking at it! https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/planting-zones/texas-planting-zones.htm
ANCIENT WARNING gardeners-of-old used to give new garrdeners — who,of course, didn’t buy plants full of bloom stimulators, growth hormones, etc.)! My guru, Mother Nature, still lives by this with natives! Remember, if you collect seed (especially of natives):
“Sleep” = They’re setting roots.
“Creep” = First green shoots appear.
“Leap” = into growing plants!
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.
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 # 314
Subject: Glyphosate, Wastewater and Worms, Insect Control, Epigenetics feminization
I read in an article published by the alliance for Natural Health, that the Department of the Interior purchases over $1 BILLION worth of the cancer-causing chemical glyphosate (Round Up) to spray into the environment each year. What a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Researchers in Chile have developed a system to recycle wastewater from wineries and other industries using earthworms. Winery wastewater is high in sugars which bacteria and earthworms love.
Earthworms work well on other waste streams from the production of milk, cheese, ice cream plants, slaughterhouses, and others that have a lot of sugars, proteins, and fats. These are excellent feedstocks for earthworms who convert the waste into useful products (vermi-compost) for our gardens.
Scale insects known as cochineals are major pests of prickly pears in Mexico. Nopales are a form of an extremely nutritious vegetable made from the soft pads of underdeveloped prickly pear cacti.
Research by the Entomological Society of America has found that they can be controlled without toxic chemicals. They found that autonomous biologic control could be retained by using agroecosystem principles that retains structural complexity and diversity of species. Journal of Environmental Entomology (2016).
This is another reason to have lots of diversity in our gardens and only use modern organic methods. Toxic chemicals are not needed if we follow the guidelines that God gives us in nature.
I was reading a paper a while back on epigenetics (the study of why a certain gene gets turned on or off) that confirms what naturopaths have been saying for hundreds of years.
Researchers have established the food you eat determines which genes get activated. Basically, it can determine whether the genes that control obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, hyperactivity and others whether they are turned on or off. Even a mother’s diet can affect the genes of her children.
This is another reason that growing as much of our own food organically as possible is beneficial to our health. The second best is to purchase organic food whenever possible and grass fed meat and free range eggs.
We have talked about the dangers of sewage sludge and compost made from sewage sludge (biosolids) that is sold to be used in agriculture and gardening on numerous occasions. There is now another health harming example of exposure to chemicals in biosolids and compost made from them.
Researchers have found that exposure to the estrogen from birth control pills which end up in the sewage sludge can cause sex changes. They found a complete feminization of three amphibian species after exposure. Journal Scientific Reports (2016)
SPONSORSHIP
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, please contact us at 936-273-1200 or send an e-mail to: lazygardenerandfriends@gmail.com
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.
About her column, Brenda says: “I don’t consider myself a ‘garden writer.” I started out 50+ years ago as a very lazy “gardening reporter.” I still feel that way today. I hope my columns inspire/help newcomers, but I do not write to them. I write to very experienced gardeners who want to expand their horizons.
JOHN FERGUSON
John is a native Houstonian and has over 35 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. For years he represented 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 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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