Well, I Didn't Think This Day Would Come

A few years ago I remember talking to another food blogger & avid gardener at a happy hour about Arlington's ban on "farmyard" animals.  At the time, a pet dwarf goat was getting an eviction notice from the county.  The conversation naturally flowed to hens. I wondered aloud what the big deal with hens were.  I mean, they make lot less noise than a (poorly trained) dog and don't poop or pee in other people's yards.  And there's no law against poorly trained dogs in your own yard. Hens have the added benefit of creating amazing fertilizer. We figured you could probably raise rabbits for eating under the guise of pets, but both of us agreed that we weren't quite up to the task of killing a bunny ourselves.

Well, it looks like one group is trying to bring hens (not roosters!) to Arlington. My uncle has a backyard hen house back in Florida. I can vouch for the not noisy and not smelly possibility for raising laying hens. Those hens are pretty cute and didn't mind my rather grabby, not terribly gentle toddler to pet them.

Check out the Arlington Egg Project and sign the petition if you agree with them!  With any luck, hens for pets & for eggs will make their way back to this--formerly agricultural--county.

File This Under Things I Don't Understand: National Arboretum to Cut Down Azaleas

As reported by WashingtonGardener magazine:
http://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2010/11/save-azaleas-at-us-national-arboretum.html

If you've never been, take my word for it that the azalea collection is stunning in bloom.  Stunning.  And, honestly, seeing car loads of people flocking to the National Arboretum is a rare thing (I've been there almost every Saturday for a year taking classes.  The parking lots are rarely full.).  Plus, in this day & age how many people do you know that take precious weekend time to go out and look at plants?  I've seen kids there romping around, excitingly calling out the different colors as well as more elderly folks searching for their favorite.

Consider contacting the people listed at the bottom of the article to save the azaleas.  The collection really is a national treasure!

Virginians: Save Our Extension Office!

This morning started like any other. Breakfast, coffee, checking email & glancing through blog posts. Then, I came across Garden Rant...specifically Susan Harris' post on the possible elimination of the VA extension office due to budget cuts.

As Susan puts it:
"WHERE'S THE FIRE? Cooperative Extension JOBS would be ELIMINATED in Fairfax and Northern Virginia. Master Gardener programs, 4-H, nutrition to low income families, financial literacy and JOBS would be eliminated. " (you can read more at the link above)

Yikes!

I've personally been helped numerous times by the NoVA Master Gardeners at farmer's markets and hoped one day to become one of them. They, and the extension office, provide valuable services to the community. Please take a moment to email your representative. It's as easy as 3 steps.

Step 1: Go to this site & find your state representatives- http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/Main?openform

Step 2: Click the "Send a Message" button (or get out some paper & pen, old school style)

Step 3: Write your message (suggested text is in the Garden Rant Post)

Tune In Tonight: Botany of Desire on PBS at 8pm

Botany of Desire is a fascinating early book of Michael Pollan. He examines 4 crops (apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes) and their relationship to human desires (for drinking, beauty, mind-bending and sustenance).

I'm almost done with the book. Overall, I found it extremely interesting. Indeed, throughout most of it I was left wondering: Are the plants controlling us? Or are we controlling the plants? I mean, our fascination with them has all but guaranteed the survival, and proliferation, of their species, which is all they really want. Are they playing us? Not to mention he knocks Johnny Appleseed off his folk-hero pedestal (Those apples were for hard cider. And he was, as an adult, engaged to a child.), points out that the favorites in the Tulip Craze were really diseased flowers (A fungus would cause crazy coloration. Propagating these flowers would just spread the evil fungus), notes that via selective breeding man has made marijuana perfectly suited to indoor growing (...by crossing two plants) and....well...I haven't finished the potato chapter yet.

I would imagine the collaboration of Michael Pollan & PBS would lead to an extremely well-done documentary. In the DC area it's on MPT at 8pm tonight!

Mark Your Calendar!

Fall can be a pretty slow time in the garden, especially if you aren't growing winter vegetables. You may want a bit of a break from harvesting and gardening or perhaps you'd like a little something to hold you over until spring.

Lots of goings on for fall round these parts:

Edible Gardening/Food-related:
At Brookside Gardens (Wheaton, MD)-
Sept 21, 7:30pm: Growing Fall Edibles

At US Botanic Gardens (aka USBG. DC)-
October 3, 1pm: Chocolate, A Consumer's Guide & Tasting

At Merrifield Garden Center (near Falls Church, VA)-
Sept 26- Intro to Cooking with Fresh Herbs

Ornamental Gardening-Related:
At Meadowlark Botanic Gardens (in Vienna, VA. Cost= Admission to gardens)-
October 3rd 10 am: Propagating and Growing Salvias
October 4, 2 p.m: Tour of the Potomac Valley Native Plant Collection
October 10, 10 a.m: Ornamental Grasses Tour
October 17, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Re-blooming Iris Fall Show


At USBG-
Sept 26, 1pm: Tour of National Garden

Garden Photography-Related:
At USBG-
October 9, 6:30 pm: The Power of Natural Light

Other suggestions Food/Gardening-Related:
Go apple picking
Visit the National Arboretum
Plant spring bulbs
Watch Botany Desire (a GREAT book by Michael Pollan) on PBS on Oct 28th. Preview here.

Beware, Roundup Users

I have been known to use the occasional squirt of Roundup to try to control bindweed (this is after hand-pulling, hot vinegar and boiling water treatments). My head hangs in shame! I had comforted myself that I had tried the organic methods & nothing was working on this invasive weed that was strangling my poor, innocent hostas, toad lilies and strawberries.

Garden Rant's post today links to a Scientific American article on that Roundup may not be as innocent as you think. Glysophate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is not the focus of the new research...the mixture of the inert ingredients are. Now, I don't mean to be an alarmist or tell you that if you use Roundup you are the devil. However, I think it's always a good idea to be an informed consumer and to know the risk of the chemicals around you.

Here are some excerpts from the article, but I encourage you to read the entire thing:

"The research team suspects that Roundup might cause pregnancy problems by interfering with hormone production, possibly leading to abnormal fetal development, low birth weights or miscarriages."

"In the French study, researchers tested four different Roundup formulations, all containing POEA and glyphosate at concentrations below the recommended lawn and agricultural dose. They also tested POEA and glyphosate separately to determine which caused more damage to embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells.

Glyphosate, POEA and all four Roundup formulations damaged all three cell types. Umbilical cord cells were especially sensitive to POEA. Glyphosate became more harmful when combined with POEA, and POEA alone was more deadly to cells than glyphosate. The research appears in the January issue of the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology."

"Most research has examined glyphosate alone, rather than combined with Roundup’s inert ingredients. Researchers who have studied Roundup formulations have drawn conclusions similar to the Seralini group’s. For example, in 2005, University of Pittsburg ecologists added Roundup at the manufacturer’s recommended dose to ponds filled with frog and toad tadpoles. When they returned two weeks later, they found that 50 to 100 percent of the populations of several species of tadpoles had been killed."