A nice day....

My wife came up with a great idea a couple of weeks ago.... buy tickets to the Placer County Farm and Barn Tour. Best $20 we spent, in six hours my family got to:

1. See sheep dogs in action,

2. Swing on a tire swing,

3. Check out an organic farm,

4. Pick our own pumpkin (or five to be exact),

5. Hear from our kids, "Its cool to see where our food comes from...",

6. Go on a hay ride with a 60 year old Ford tractor,

7. Sample honey from a local beekeeper,

8. Buy a couple of Christmas gifts from local craftspeople,

9. Get lost a few times on some country roads;

10. Visit an iris farm.

Great day, we will be doing the farm tour again next year.

Have a great evening......

Sean

Toastmasters Speech: The Wonderful World of Bamboo; One Happy Garden Punk

One Happy Garden Punk

I had a bamboo plant sale this past Saturday and finally met Katie at Garden Punks. Katie ended up buying bambusa multiplex "Alphonse Karr," [pictured] a clumping bamboo that has ornamental beauty and serves as a great privacy hedge. Based on Katie's post, she seems to be one happy Garden Punk with her new bamboo plant. Maybe another "bamboo geek" in the making? We shall see. More on Katie's experience here.

Toastmasters Speech: The Wonderful World of Bamboo

Never fails. I was ready to give my Toastmasters speech today at noon and sure enough, I was called away to another work matter and wasn't able to attend my lunchtime Toastmaster's meeting. Oh well, I'll keep this one in my hip pocket for another day. But, hey, why not share with you all:

"The Wonderful World of Bamboo

Your planting bamboo! Eeek!

Don’t you know that that stuff will take over your yard, your neighbor’s yard?

Bamboo is a misunderstood plant that people fear because they heard a story from long ago or blindly planted it without doing the research necessary.

Or they were misled by a “nursery professional” eager just to offload a plant and make a quick buck.

I own a small backyard nursery and have about 60 types of bamboo plants in my collection.

I often hear horror stories about bamboo, but I am finding that my customers are doing the research and embracing bamboo as a plant with huge potential.

Bamboo, after all, serves many purposes;

It’s beautiful – it comes in many colors, sizes and shapes and brings something special to the garden.

Its functional – they come in both running and clumping species.

Runners are the aggressive version of bamboo that causes fear. If planted in a decorative pot or if you have some space, it can serve as a beautiful addition.

[Demo running graphic]

Runners can fit in a suburban garden; however, a 2 ½ foot deep plastic rhizome barrier is a necessity

Over the past decade, clumping bamboo has been introduced to the U.S and offers a less aggressive alternative. Clumping bamboo grows slower and at a much smaller distance making it easily controllable.

[Demo clumping graphic]

Bamboo has environmental benefits –

A grove of bamboo sequesters 35% more carbon than an equivalent stand of trees.

It’s a great alternative to hardwoods and regenerates quickly, in a matter of years, not decades like a forest.

The fastest culm growth has been clocked at 2 inches an hour in some species.

Bamboo was the only living thing to survive at ground zero of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic blast and its survival allowed for the quick re-greening of Hiroshima .

So how can you become educated about bamboo?
With the increasing popularity of bamboo, there are a lot of resources out there to learn more.
One is the American Bamboo Society, which I am a member of, that publishes scientific journals and a more user friendly magazine for members. They have a couple of public sites:

www.americanbamboo.org

www.bambooweb.info

These sites have pictures, plant information and sources to by bamboo. My business happens to be on this site.

There are also many books that have been published that are great resources.

Also, there are many folks out there, especially through the American Bamboo Society, that are more than willing to answer questions about bamboo.

After doing the research, you’ll find that bamboo will likely serve many purposes.

OK, I leave with a new trick - how to determine a runner from a clumper (not 100% applicable, but is in most cases).

[Demo this - for most bamboos, you can tell a runner by the vertical groove on the culm, for a clumper it is all smooth with no vertical groove]

With a little education, bamboo goes from an “invasive weed” to a functional, beautiful plant that can offer privacy, lend beauty and, dare I say, maybe even help save the planet?

That bit of education is all it takes to get to know and appreciate the Wonderful World of Bamboo."

Have a nice evening!

Sean

Playing outside in the garden

There is a fairly new initiative here in California that many local governments are adopting, its called the California Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights. Essentially its a positive counter-movement to a growing trend among children and adolescents, more sedentary lifestyles, an increasing percentage of overweight and obese children, and an alarming rise in Type 2 Diabetes among kids.

The California Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights statement is simple, turn off the TV and play outdoors. Beautifully simple and a return to a healthier form of play. The Bill of Rights suggests ten basic ways to exercise a child's outdoor rights:

1. Discover California's Past
2. Splash in the water
3. Play in a safe place
4. Camp under the stars
5. Explore nature
6. Learn to swim
7. Play on a team
8. Follow a trail
9. Catch a fish
10. Celebrate their heritage

These are all good tenets to get kids outside and enjoy the great, outside world, subject only to the limits of their imagination.

I offer one amendment though, like #5 (Explore nature), that all gardners can appreciate - bring your kids (or a young relative) outside with you when you garden. Let them get their hands dirty as they plant their first seed, deadhead the roses or harvest the vegetable garden. Not only does gardening entail physical activity, it teaches patience, an appreciation for nature and all its beauty, and introduces them to a dying skill, becoming a green thumb, a knack for working with plants to help them grow and flourish.

The California Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights is a positive effort to get kids outside. Gardening is just one aspect of this, but an important skill that helps kids keep healthy bodies and minds, as well as a skill that is hard to come by and can only come about from the care and time we take as adults to teach children gardening as a skill.

Cheers!

Sean

Photos credit: Flickr - Robin Horrigan

The Unintended Garden

Sometimes the best garden are the most neglected.... in this case completely unintended. Last fall, prepping a newly planted bamboo plot for winter I used some of the "rough" compost from my bin. The same one that we put grass clippings, leaves and kitchen waste (seeds and all).

With hot weather hitting northern California over the past few weeks, new vegetables began cropping up, a squash (neither of us know what variety it is) and a tomato plant (either a big version of a cherry or maybe a Roma). These plants are thriving among the bamboo, the squash plant is even using the bamboo to climb. Since I have been using natural fertilizers, blood meal for nitrogen and bat guano for potassium and phosphorus, the bamboo and its new vegetable neighbors seem very happy, completely neglected and doing great.

Sean

My weekend: Bamboo in the country

A few sore muscles and a couple of blisters later, my dad and I finished two raised planter boxes and planted four types of bamboo on their three acres in Grass Valley, CA. Although I do live on a larger-than-normal suburban lot, I do not grow running bamboo in the ground (I like to have neighbors that like me). So, the offer was made by my parents to use the land they have and I took them up on it. There is enough water and enough room for them to grow.

The four types are:

p. nigra "Black Bamboo": A big seller, full sun, up to 30 feet tall and can take -5 f.

p. edulis "Moso": One of the biggest in the world, the culms are furry to the touch, 75 feet tall, and 7 inch diameter culm, this is a big boy. Can take temps down to 0 f.

p. bambusoides "Castillon": Another favorite, yellow culms with green stripes, leaves are striped. Young shoots also take on a red color. 35 feet tall, can take temps down to 0 f.

p. bambusoides "Giant Japanese Timber Bamboo": Name says it all. 72 feet, 6 inch culm diameter. Full sun, can take temps down to 5 f.

We may be expanding bamboo grown at my parent house and also possibly more planters for fruit trees and more vegetables (they have a small plot now).

I'll share photo updates next year to show growth.

Sean

Green lawn experiment, naturally....

I'd love to get rid of my lawn. Less water use, more gardening opportunity and no more fertilizer to keep it green. We recently reduced the front lawn by about 60% and our back lawn by about 50%. Since I live in a family and I was the minority voice in the matter, this was a compromise.

Over the past couple of years, I have transitioned from the traditonal Scott's Weed and Feed to using nothing. Now I am exploring a couple of natural additives and practices to help keep my lawn green and lush without poisoning my local creeks and waterways downstream in the process.

Here are the practices I have incorporated recently and am seeing some early success (lawn looks surprisingly green):

1. Grasscycling - Using the "mulching" function on my lawnmower, I let the grass clippings, finally chopped, sit on my lawn. This adds nitrogen back into the lawn as the grass clippings degrade back into the soil. Surprisingly, the lawn doesn't look messy and we haven't tracked little blades of grass into the house;

2. Weeding by hand - yes, it is tedious, but it beats killing my soil with Round-Up and Scott's Weed and Feed; and surprisingly we have been fairly successful containing crabgrass, almost better since we stopped using Scott's Weed and Feed;

3. Applying a mix of blood meal (high in nitrogen) and bat guano (high in potassium and phosphorous) to the lawn - You have to be careful since these are considered "hot" and can burn your lawn if it is done carelessly. First, water your lawn for a minute. You can either use a fertilizer spreader and apply it low to the ground since it tends to be somewhat light and blows in the wind or you can use a sprayer with the mix inside. The problem with the sprayer is that the gritty bat guano tens to clog the sprayer. After I evenly apply the mixture, I then rewater the lawn for a minute or two right after application. Both bat guano and blood meal are sold at many independent nurseries under the brand name E.B. Stone.

The result of these steps is a surprisingly "green" lawn, healthy, maybe a little less weeds in the grass (especially crabgrass) and this is all done with natural products. Happy I tried it.

Question for readers of this post - Have a lawn? How do you keep it green and lush using only natural additives and practices?

Sean

Holes and cutting out bamboo... I'm tired!

No, this is not a problem with gophers. Me, one jackhammer, and soil full of river rock. Pictured is rock that is in the ground all over my yard, after all I live in a town named Rocklin. Determined to get the momentum going on finishing my backyard, I rented a jackhammer to get the soil ready for plants of all kinds including several Japanese Maples that we have had in pots for a few years, bamboo, some lavender plants and a bunch of unique plants we have picked up at the plant sale recently.

Four hours, lots of noise later, some blisters on my hands and some sore muscles, mission accomplished, but I'm exhausted.

I also knocked out removing half of a mature Golden Goddess Bamboo, a clumping bamboo we planted several years ago. The problem is that it tends to have more of a drooping growth. What's great though is that this variety by far is my best selling bamboo variety and this year I actually ran out because its selling so good, so I took the clumps and potted them, they'll be ready for sale by fall. Once I finish the job, we are planting Thamnocalamus tessellatus "Bergamboes," a South Arican bamboo that grows straight up, is dense, is a clumper and provides privacy.

OK, I'm tired, time for bed, sweet dreams everyone.......

Sean