Archive for the Clippings department

Challenge: Help frontline healthcare workers fighting COVID-19

March 27, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Daryl Toby, owner of AguaFina Gardens International, contacted us about his COVID-19 challenge for businesses and individuals to check their inventory and storage for personal protection equipment (PPE). These items are needed immediately by our front line health care workers. Examples of these supplies are:

• New or unused disposable face masks
• N-95 mask (sometimes called respirators)
• Eye protection including face shields and safety goggles
• Disposable gowns
• Disposable gloves (especially non-latex)
• Disposable surgical caps
• Disposable foot covers
• Home-sewn reusable masks
• PAPRs (powered air purifying respirators) and PAPR hoods
• Wipes: bleach or anti-microbial
• Hand-sanitizer

We encourage you take the challenge:
1. Find any supplies you may have – even small quantities!
2. Post photo/video on social media with tags below.
3. Find out where to drop off donations.
4. Challenge others to get the word out!

Thank you!

#supportcv19frontline
#protecthealthcareworkers
#aguafinagardens

Diagnosing and preventing brown spots in lawn

January 25, 2020 • Leave a Comment

In my lawn, there are random brown spots about the size of a tennis ball or slightly larger. This condition only seems to happen during mid to late summer, nothing earlier. I fertilize about every six weeks and mow weekly, never cutting more than 1/3 of the grass blade. I don’t have pets, though there are plenty of squirrels and birds. I have a lawn irrigation system that I operate on designated days with about 20 minutes in each zone. What is causing the brown spots and how do I eliminate them?

What a great analysis of your lawn problem; it shows you pay attention to details in the management of your turf. It appears you have a fungal disease called “dollar spot,” so named because the sunken dead spots are about the size of a silver dollar. The spots are about 2 to 3 inches wide, and several spots may grow together, killing a larger area. The fungus can survive in an unseen dormant state in infected turf. When the daytime temperatures reach 60 to 80 degrees, it resumes growth and infects healthy grass blades. Dollar spot occurs when a combination of warm days and cool nights produce dew on the lawn in the morning, which was our mid to late summer pattern this year.

You are mowing exactly the right way. The fact you need to mow once a week says your lawn is actively growing and is probably receiving sufficient fertilizer to maintain nitrogen levels. Kentucky bluegrass, a cool-season grass, grows most vigorously in the cooler months of fall and spring. So, the most important time to feed it is in spring and fall. Feeding every six weeks as you are doing may be unnecessary.

For the best lawn appearance, Ron Calhoun at Michigan State University’s Turf Management Center recommends the “holiday program.” Make one full application about Memorial Day, a half-strength application around the 4th of July, a half-strength application around Labor Day, and one full application around Thanksgiving. Include the pre-emergents for crabgrass with the last one.

The key adjustment for you may be in the amount of water. Your irrigation system may be set to compensate for drought conditions. Try reducing the irrigation frequency and duration, and avoid watering in late afternoon and evening. The rate should be 1/10 inch per ten minutes. Water in mid-morning so that the grass has time to dry out before nightfall. Check the amount of thatch in your lawn. It could benefit from core aeration, a mechanical process that methodically punches holes in the turf and pulls tiny plugs of soil to the surface. Aerating does exactly what it sounds like: it increases air spaces for healthy root growth. If you want to reseed areas, look for resistant bluegrass varieties such as Adelphi, Eclipse, or Vantage. With minor changes and adjustments, you should see those dollar spots disappear from your lawn.

Deterring sparrows from the birdfeeder

January 20, 2020 • Leave a Comment

The sparrows seem to be overtaking our birdfeeder for the finches even though it’s one of those that requires the birds to eat “upside down.” How can I deter the sparrows from throwing thistle all around, wasting it, and interfering with the finches? Would it help to wrap the feeder with a kind of chicken wire that might only allow the smaller finches inside to eat?

The sparrows overtaking your finch feeder are most likely English sparrows, commonly referred to as the house sparrow. They are hard to control around many backyard birdfeeders. They have a tendency to overpower feeders that have a variety of feeds intended for our more desirable native birds. Goldfinches and other small native birds will steer clear of feeders that are occupied by the English sparrows.

Here are two homemade control measures that have been deemed worth a try. The first is an inexpensive method developed by Weir Nelson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and used on open port tube feeders with perches. Bend a 10-inch piece of flexible wire in half. Feed the wire through the port and loop it over one perch, then pull it tight and tie off around the other perch. When completed, you’ll have two parallel strands of wire stretched through the center of the port between the opposite perches. The two strands of wire discourage the sparrow from easily extracting seeds from the feed port. It has no effect on finches, chickadees, nuthatches, or other songbirds.

The second method is to shorten the length of perches on thistle tube feeders so they only extend 5/8 of an inch. The shortened perches will not disrupt the ability of goldfinch, house finch, and other members of the finch family from feeding, but should deter the sparrows.

Commercially there is a product available called “The Magic Halo” that seems to be effective. When used in conjunction with either a post-mounted or hanging feeder, it is said to deter up to 86 percent of the English sparrows. With monofilament lines added to the “Halo” at four corners extending below the perches, the elimination of English sparrows from the feeder is said to exceed 99 percent.

There are also several feeders available that have a screen or cage around the actual feeder. It will let the small birds feed while keeping bigger species from getting to the seeds. In general, to discourage unwanted visitors from your feeders, don’t use cracked corn or millet, and don’t use feed mixes, unless they are free of the aforementioned ingredients. Try seeds that are species specific. Many songbirds love black oil sunflower seeds, for example, and will not miss the mixes.

Growing pasque flower from seed

January 16, 2020 • 2 Comments

I picked and planted seeds in a pot from a pasque flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) this summer. They are growing and are about 3 inches tall now. How do I keep them alive over the winter. Do I plant them in the garden or keep them in the pot in the house?

Michigan is well into fall now and winter is right around the corner. That means your pasque flower seedlings won’t have enough time to establish themselves in the garden soil before a hard freeze. It would be best to maintain this as a houseplant through the winter. In his book Herbaceous Perennial Plants, Allan Armitage recommends that propagation by fresh seed is the best. Pasque flower seeds go dormant soon after maturity. This means the seed you picked could have been directly planted in the garden, giving it time to establish a viable root system to carry it through the winter. Pasque flower, in general, does not transplant well. Established plants can be carefully divided, but there are no guarantees.

So enjoy your pasque flower this winter as a houseplant. You can gather seed and continue the chain of propagation with new seedlings that can mature and produce seed in time for next spring when you can directly sow them in frost-free soil. They love full sun and good drainage. They are excellent rock garden candidates, and thrive in moderate summer temperatures and low humidity.

ReLeaf Michigan announces Big Tree Hunt winners for 2018-2019

January 10, 2020 • 2 Comments

The largest tree in Michigan was submitted by James Wegner: a red oak measuring 384 inches around (32 feet!), located in the city of Marion in Osceola County.

ReLeaf Michigan, a non-profit tree planting and education organization, celebrated the conclusion of its biennial Big Tree Hunt contest, which awards participants for identifying the biggest trees in Michigan.

Running from spring 2018 through fall 2019, more than 700 entries were sent in from people all across the state, including 80 of Michigan’s 83 counties. The winning entry for each county was verified on-site by professional arborists and foresters. The trees were found in all sorts of places, including backyards, local parks, cemeteries and hiking trails. Since many trees are on private property, the specific location of every winning tree is not made public.

ReLeaf Michigan began the Big Tree Hunt in 1993 to celebrate Michigan’s beauty and create a fun way to gather information about Michigan’s biggest trees. The contest is an opportunity for all age groups to get outside, enjoy trees, and help track these vital historical living landmarks. For more information, including photos and the winners list by county, click here.

Hidden Lake Gardens announces Tree Tower and Canopy Walk groundbreaking

December 10, 2019 • 2 Comments

The ADA-accessible tree top top tower will rise 10-stories and the canopy walk will stretch 700-feet-long.

This summer, Hidden Lake Gardens of Michigan State University announced a new attraction that will be coming to the Tipton, Michigan botanical garden and arboretum. The Tree Tower and Canopy Walk project is scheduled to open in 2020, the 75th anniversary of Harry Fee’s gift of Hidden Lake Gardens to MSU.

The design, fundraising, and site preparation phases of the project are on the docket in 2019. Then the tree tower and canopy walk will be pre-fabricated during the winter months. The Canopy Walk is set for construction and installation as soon as the winter weather breaks, with an opening by June 2020. The Tree Tower will begin construction and installation over the summer of 2020, with an anticipated opening of October 2020, just in time for fall foliage season.

The Tree Tower and Canopy Walk attraction will provide people of any ability the opportunity to have a woodland and forest immersion experience. The 700-foot long canopy walk will take visitors through the tree canopy some 65 feet above the ground via the wheelchair friendly boardwalk and suspension bridge. The tree tower will be a 100-foot tall “climb” up into and above the trees via a wooden staircase. For visitors that cannot access stairs, the ADA-compliant elevator—the only tree elevator of its kind—will move people up and down the trees. To learn more, click here.

Daffodils4Detroit celebrates 10th annual Daffodil Day on Belle Isle

November 12, 2019 • 1 Comment

This spring, hundreds celebrated the 10th annual Daffodil Day on Belle Isle, while 700,000 daffodils were starting to bloom outside. This project, created by the Michigan Division of the Woman’s National Farm & Garden Association, began in 2009. Claudia Scioly, of Ann Arbor, was inspired by New York garden designer Lynden Miller and her Daffodil Project in New York City, where one million daffodils were planted as a living memorial to those who died in the September 11 attacks.

Scioly recognized the parallels between New York’s Daffodil Project and Detroit’s need for hope and beauty. Belle Isle had fallen on hard times and seemed the perfect place to start. In 2010, Scioly and Cecily O’Connor organized the first Daffodil Day Luncheon on Belle Isle. Lady Bird Johnson’s words, “Where flowers grow, so does hope,” became the group’s motto. A goal was set: plant one daffodil on Belle Isle for every Detroit resident. As the group neared that intermediate goal, they announced the ultimate vision and a new name: Daffodils4Detroit. The goal is now to plant four million daffodils—one for every resident in Metropolitan Detroit.

Daffodils4Detroit has become a true community effort, garnering strong support from groups, businesses and individuals alike. Proceeds from the Daffodil Day Luncheon and other donations fund the bulb purchases. Each fall, volunteer groups from garden clubs, schools, companies, and nonprofit organizations help plant thousands of bulbs in various locations. To learn more or make a donation, click here.

Plants can tell time even without a brain

August 20, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Yahoo News:

Anyone who has travelled across multiple time zones and suffered jet lag will understand just how powerful our biological clocks are. In fact, every cell in the human body has its own molecular clock, which is capable of generating a daily rise and fall in the number of many proteins the body produces over a 24-hour cycle. The brain contains a master clock that keeps the rest of the body in sync, using light signals from the eyes to keep in time with environment.

Plants have similar circadian rhythms that help them tell the time of day, preparing plants for photosynthesis prior to dawn, turning on heat-protection mechanisms before the hottest part of the day, and producing nectar when pollinators are most likely to visit. And just like in humans, every cell in the plant appears to have its own clock.

But unlike humans, plants don’t have a brain to keep their clocks synchronised. So how do plants coordinate their cellular rhythms? Our new research shows that all the cells in the plant coordinate partly through something called local self-organisation. This is effectively the plant cells communicating their timing with neighbouring cells, in a similar way to how schools of fish and flocks of birds coordinate their movements by interacting with their neighbours.

Read the rest of the story…

The Michigan Big Tree Hunt Contest deadline is approaching

August 8, 2019 • Leave a Comment

big-tree-hunt-0719 — ReLeaf Michigan, a statewide tree planting and education nonprofit, started the Michigan Big Tree Hunt in 1993 to celebrate our state’s beauty and gather information about Michigan’s biggest trees.

The Michigan Big Tree Hunt Contest, sponsored by ReLeaf Michigan, closes on September 3, 2019. All Michiganders are encouraged to find a Michigan big tree and enter it into the contest. Grab a friend or family member and hunt for the big trees that surround us every day in parks, on nature trails, or in our own backyards.

When the contest closes, certificates and prizes will be awarded for the largest tree submitted from each Michigan county, the largest tree found by a youth hunter (15 and younger) and adult hunter (16 and older), the largest eastern white pine found, and for potential state champion trees.

ReLeaf Michigan, a statewide tree planting and education nonprofit, started the Michigan Big Tree Hunt in 1993 to celebrate our state’s beauty and gather information about Michigan’s biggest trees. Contest entries provide potential state champion trees to Michigan’s Big Tree Registry as well as the National Register of Big Trees.

To enter your big tree or to learn more, visit www.bigtreehunt.com.

Newly identified hemlock could be resistant to hemlock wooly adelgid

May 8, 2019 • Leave a Comment

Yale graduate student Nathan Havill was studying Asian hemlocks to learn why they can resist the hemlock wooly adelgid (HWA) while the Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) cannot. In the process, he studied some hemlocks growing at the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts, which were presumably southern Japanese hemlocks.

He discovered that the DNA of those hemlocks did not match that of any known species. An investigation showed that the Arnold Arboretum acquired the seeds in 1983 and that they came from Ulleungdo, a small island off the South Korean coast.

In 2008, Arnold biologist Peter Del Tredici traveled to Ulleungdo himself to gather more specimens, which he gave to Garth Homan, a botanist at the University of Maine. Homan found that some of the tree’s DNA was much like the southern Japanese hemlock, while other parts of the DNA more closely resembled that of a different Japanese species. Plus, the Ulleungdo tree had different needles and cones, and flushed new leaves several weeks earlier than the others.

After analyzing these and many other differences, the team announced a new hemlock species: Tsuga ulleungensis, the first new temperate conifer since 2002.

Scientists and others who hope to restore the devastated American hemlock forest are excited. However, since the tree is both rare and endangered, it will likely be a long process for all involved. Breeding work could produce trees that are mostly native but also adelgid resistant.

Excerpted from The Coniferite, Newsletter of the American Conifer Society Central Region.

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