The Pile Shrinks

Today had some light snow but it was considerably warmer than this weekend which was very frigid. It was warm enough to entice a good-sized group of Grumpies to come in to bring in more lights, displays and trees out in the gardens. Marv, Terry, Larry, Dick W., Dick H. and Pat all went out to bring in elements from the lights show. Bill O. came in later to help Larry continue this work out in the gardens. We're making considerable progress in getting the show put away and it has been a nice team effort. Jim, Dave, Bob A. and Vern were all here to finish work on the Adirondack chairs and butterfly projects and are now moving on to some "specialty" work that is top secret (and related to our color themes this year...). Dr. Gredler was here to paint and we had Jim H. inside wrapping up cords as they arrived and thawed out. Janice came in to work on some projects and Marianne was here to help as well. Marianne has been going thru historical photos and files that we're purging but pulling out the most relevant items for scanning. I'll feel better once these historical elements are digitized so we wont ever lose them. We also saw Mary, Gary, Mike, Karen, Darcy, Sue M. and Tom C. over here today too.

Above is one of the marigolds (Tagetes sp.) that I ordered today. This is 'Moonsong Deep Orange' which has huge, 3" globular flowers and is also an All-America Selection in 2010. I've ordered most of the marigolds but still have to go thru another 30 or so catalogs to finish my seed ordering for this year. The pile is shrinking; just not fast enough! I'll also be ordering compact vegetable and herb varieties that will lend themselves better to a smaller spot in the garden or in a container as seen below. We're promoting the incorporation of smaller edible plantings in the landscape for those that lack the space but desire fresh produce. We'll have a huge display of these options out in the gardens. In addition, at our spring plant sale, we'll be offering many varieties of compact vegetables and herbs and will also have a "container planting" option at the sale itself. The intent is that customers can purchase pre-planted containers, plant their own or even bring their own container for planting. Details still need to be worked out but we'll have volunteers help with this process and the final cost will be based on what materials are utilized for the containers. At home, we grow most of our vegetables and herbs in containers and have had great success.

I was reading an article in the magazine Landscape Architect and Specifier News (January 2011) and the title, "Wi-Fi Damaging Trees Worldwide, Study Says" caught my eye. I'm paraphrasing right out of this article and I should also mention that there are some that question the results of this study.

"A five year study by Wageningen University in the Netherlands concludes that radio frequency radiation from Wi-Fi networks is harmful to trees, causing significant variations in growth as well as bleeding and fissures in the bark. Trees (ash) placed closest to Wi-Fi radiation demonstrated a 'lead-like shine' on their leaves that was caused by the dying of the upper and lower epidermis of the leaves."

The city of Alphen aan den Rijn ordered the study when local trees displayed a disease condition that could not be attributed to a virus or bacterial infection. In the Netherlands, about 70% of urban trees are showing these symptoms whereas only 10% were affected five years ago. Trees in densely forested areas are hardy affected at this point.

Just some food for thought. It should be interesting to see if this study is replicated and what the implications will be if this is a verified threat to our trees....