Episode four: Spider Plants and IPM

Plant of the podcast

Spider Plant or Chlorophytum cosmosum

Also known as the airplane plant

member of the lily family

Native to S Africa

Leaves up to 16 inches long and almost an inch high

has advantageous roots

Puts out stolons with flowers and baby plantlets

Found by NASA to be one of the most efficient plants for filtering pollutants out of the air

Easy to grow, tolerates a wide variety of light, temperature and humidiy

Tip of he podcast

IPM

Integrated Pest Management

Could be a whole podcast on it's own

Instead of blasting the problem with whatever is handy, there is a series of steps to ake.

1. Threshold Decide what is an accepable amount of bugs or disease. In some cases it might be one, but in something like an aphid, it might be 20 per leaf, these are just numbers, you have to set your own.
2. Monitor and identify the pests. You cannot properly control something if you don't know what it is, and you definitely do not want to destroy a good bug
3. Prevention The best thing to do is to keep your plant as healhy as possible, that will help if it is attacked, and pests and diseases seem to go for the weakest individuals.
4. Once monitoring, identification, and action thresholds indicate that pest control is required, and preventive methods are no longer effective or available, IPM programs then evaluate the proper control method both for effectiveness and risk. Effective, less risky pest controls are chosen first, including highly targeted chemicals, such as pheromones to disrupt pest mating, or mechanical control, such as trapping or weeding. If further monitoring, identifications and action thresholds indicate that less risky controls are not working, then additional pest control methods would be employed, such as targeted spraying of pesticides. Broadcast spraying of non-specific pesticides is a last resort.

Digging in the Dirt

Weeding and watering.

Fibery Fun

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This year the Tour de Fleece started Saturday July 3rd and runs until Sunday July 25th, 2010.

Guidelines (NOT RULES):

1. Spin every day the Tour rides, if possible. Saturday July 3rd through Sunday July 25th. Days of rest: Monday July 12th, Wednesday July 21st. (Just like the actual tour)
2. Spin something challenging Thursday July 22nd. (The Tour’s toughest mountain stage from Pau up the legendary Col du Tourmalet)
3. Take a button if you want one. Then we can use the button on our blogs in show of solidarity. Take it from here or grab a clean one from the flickr pool. Come join the flickr pool!
4. Wear yellow on Sunday July 25th to announce victory. Why not wear yellow on any day you feel particularly successful? (Yellow is the color of the race leader in the Tour - but here we are all ‘race leaders’)
5. Other colors if desired: Green (sprinter - think FAST), Polka-dot (climber - as in uphill), and white (rookie)

Teams: Join one, or many, or none.

• Rookies (first years)
• Sprinters (fast and/or high mileage like lace)
• Climbers (conquer mountains, big personal challenges)
• Breakaway (Art yarns)
• Peloton (The main group. Everyone is in the peloton at some point)
• Lantern rouge (You will participate as much as possible but you may skip days here and there. Cheerleaders welcome.)
• Wildcards (This is for people who want to form their own team. This includes sponsored teams, like those affiliated with a specific fiber shop or people who live in the same town, etc.)
  
  
  I have been spinning on my handspindle
  
  
  
  

The teams are inspired by the actual Tour de France.

Join Team Sasquatch

Rambling

Saw Knight and Day

iPhone 4 Saving for it, like Dr Gemma said. Favorite app Is that gluten free and Is that Gluten Free Eating Out.

Episode 3 Composting and Poison Ivy

In which it is revealed that one rose has disappeared, compost and poison ivy are discussed, amongst other things.

Poison Ivy

http://www.poison-ivy.org/index.htm

http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view

One of the most common plants we don't want to run into.

In the State of Florida, the State Park System considers Poison Ivy to be a native plant (which it is) and only removes it from where people are supposed to be. Wekiwa State Park has a reputation for people getting rashes from the algae in the water, after having swum there I think it is from the people climbing in where they are not supposed to, and going through the poison ivy to get there.

A very attractive vine, with three leaflets (Leaves of three, beware of me). The scientific name for Poison Ivy is Toxicodendron radicans older names or synonyms are Rhus toxicodendron and Rhus radicans. Then plant is a member of the family Anacardiaceae. The Anacardiaceae family is also known as the sumac or cashew family. (Yes cashews are in the same family as poison ivy, which is why they must be cooked to “kill” the Urishiol oil, and why some very sensitive people are allergic to cashews. Another popular food in the family are the mangoes.)

Poison Ivy is often mistaken for other plants and vice verse. Some of these plants include Virginia Creeper, Raspberries and Blackberries.   

Compost

To the left a compost pile.

http://www.howtocompost.org/

Most of you have heard the term compost, and I am betting that some of you even have a pile going. I have my own little system. Three large grow pots (I begged off of a friend who installs trees) that I fill with weeds and kitchen scraps. (Meats don't go into the pile, as they attract rodents, possums and racoons.) I have a separate container in my kitchen for coffee filters and grounds, which I put out straight, no composting required.)

If you don't want to make your own, or can't, you can purchase ready made compost at a local nursery or big box store. I am lucky, that I can get more compost material from my county which I can use to supplement my compost piles.

Compost adds nutrients as well as micro organisms to the soil, which research has shown to provide immunity to plants. Also, the organic material helps to hole water and nutrients in the soil.

I like to use compost as mulch, and I think my plants like it as well.

Plant of the Week: The Passion Flower Vine

Popularly, passion flowers and especially passion fruit are frequently used with sexual or romantic innuendo, giving rise to such uses as a one-time soft drink named Purple Passion. The "Passion" in "passion flower" does not refer to sex and love, however, but to the passion of Jesus in Christian theology. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish Christian missionaries adopted the unique physical structures of this plant, particularly the numbers of its various flower parts, as symbols of the last days of Jesus and especially his crucifixion:

• The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance.
• The tendrils represent the whips used in the flagellation of Christ.
• The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles(less St. Peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer).
• The flower's radial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the crown of thorns.
• The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents a hammer or the Holy Grail
• The 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails and the 5 anthers below them the 5 wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance).
• The blue and white colors of many species' flowers represent Heaven and Purity.

Mainly described as vigorous, the passion flower may be an invasive plant. I have a fried at work who was glad that the January freezes killed his red passion flower, as it was taking over his garden.

It is a larval food for several butterflies: Including the gulf Frittillary and the Zebra Longwing, and the Julia.

Some cultivars have edible fruit as well. I planted a Purple Possum from Logee's which is supposed to provide fruit.

Tip of the Week:

Find your extension office. Every county in the US has one.

Click on your state and then follow the link to your local office.

They know the best plants to grow in your area, and can usually answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you to Anoukharp who contaced me on Ravelry. She is the harpist in Fairydae, the group who performs the theme music for the podcast.

Thank you to Sillyfru of the Sassypants Knitter Podcast and Coggie TM of the High Fiber Podcast for your support and help.  

Here are pictutes of the roses that I purchased from the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas. They arrived this week, and the pics are from their website.

Duchess de Brabant

Wind Chimes

Maggie

Duchesse is going in the front yard, the other two are going in the back to screen the view of the road.

Episode 1 show notes

Yarns from the Garden Episode 1

Currently working on

Evenstar and Legolas by Susan Pandorf

Garter Rib Sock by Charlene Schurch

spinning fiber frm Gnat Barknknit

Garden

Corkscrew vine

Plant Nannies

Wine bottle edging

Tip of the week find you zone

The USDA Hardiness Zone Map divides North America into 11 separate zones; each zone is 10°F warmer (or colder) in an average winter than the adjacent zone. If you see a hardiness zone in a catalog or plant description, chances are it refers to the USDA map.

http://www.garden.org/zipzone/

Wikepedia Article

Plant of the week: Asclepias tuberosa Butterfly weed

Description
Perennial 2-21/2 feet Orange yellow flowers green smooth pods Sap not milky and leaves not opposite

Native to Eastern US open woods and fields. Prefers well drained soils.

Culture
Butterfly weed is a trouble free perennial that will come up year after year in the same place without crowding its neighbors.
Light: Prefers full sun but can tolerate partial shade.
Moisture: Tolerates drought.
Hardiness: USDA Zones 4 - 10
Propagation: By seed or you can divide tubers in spring.

Usage
Plant butterfly weed in mixed borders, meadows and natural areas. Butterfly weed is slow to emerge in spring, so you may want to mark where they are.

Features
The caterpillars of monarch butterflies (they're the ones that migrate to Mexico each winter) feed only on milkweed foliage. Adult butterflies of many species sip nectar from the beautiful blossoms of butterfly weed.

Aphids will attract a yellow orange aphid. Let it be. Aphid Wasp. Brachonid species are native and will mummify the aphids.

I am dipping my toe into the podcast pond. After a bit of a frustrating start I am having a lot of fun, and I think I am a process podcaster... I like to do each segment separately, and edit and create the shoe notes as I go.

This is a picture of the wine bottle edging. I am hoping that the labels will wear off soon.

This is a wine bottle in a plant nanny in one of my amaryllis pots. They seem to last about two weeks now.

Wine botles in the garden

I am now using 1 liter wine bottles as edging. I have buried them in almost to the bottom of the bottle. (They are upside down.) I am varying the heights, trying to make a wavelike pattern.

Last week, I used 2 liter bottles and Plant Nannys to add some low tech drip irrigation for some of my plants. I will try to post some pictures tomorrow.