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PLEASE NOTE: In the autumn of 1995, we hatched the idea for a free, local gardening publication. The following spring, we published the first issue of Michigan Gardener magazine. Advertisers, readers, and distribution sites embraced our vision. Thus began an exciting journey of helping our local gardening community grow and prosper.
After 27 years, nearly 200 issues published, and millions of copies printed, we have decided it is time to end the publication of our Print Magazine and E-Newsletter.

Growing medicine in the garden

August 1, 2013   •   Leave a Comment

NPR:

The Renaissance Garden at the New York Botanical Garden, a re-creation of a 16th-century medicinal garden, is so lush and colorful, it takes only a stroll through to absorb its good medicine.

The garden, part of a summer exhibit called Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World, is a small-scale model of the Italian Renaissance Garden in Padua, Italy, Europe’s first botanical garden.

The landscape includes Mediterranean flowers in multiple colors, fountains and odd plants that many people have never seen, like the opium poppy, with its unusual seed pods. The garden in Padua was created in 1545 as part of the University of Padua medical school, one of the earliest and most important medical schools in Europe.

Read the full article…

Filed Under: Clippings Tagged With: brooklyn botanic garden, healing, medicinal, medicine

Late summer and early fall is the best time to control common reed grass (Phragmites)

July 19, 2013   •   Leave a Comment

August through October are the best months to treat phragmites with herbicides. (Photo by John Meyland)
August through October are the best months to treat phragmites with herbicides. (Photo by John Meyland)

Phragmites (frag-MY-teez) is a tall reed grass (Phragmites australis) that thrives in wetlands. It grows up to 15 feet tall, and has seed heads in the fall that look like feather dusters. It spreads primarily by its roots, which can extend 30 feet or more. Phragmites aggressively fills in wetlands, roadside ditches, and anywhere its rhizomes and seeds take hold. This plant can dry up wetlands and clog drainage ways, requiring expensive maintenance.

August through October are the best months to treat phragmites with herbicide, after the seed heads have developed and before the first hard frost.

The Oakland Phragmites & Invasive Species Task Force (OPIS) is dedicated to bringing about awareness of this invasive plant. Learn more at oaklandphragmitestaskforce.com.

The North Oakland Headwaters Land Conservancy has produced a brief guide to small-scale phragmites control: click here to read.

Filed Under: Clippings Tagged With: common reed grass, Phragmites

Solutions for the climate challenged garden

July 9, 2013   •   Leave a Comment

NPR:

At the Hillwood Estate gardens in Washington, D.C., the new norm is: “Expect the unexpected.” So says volunteer coordinator Bill Johnson, who has worked on property belonging to the heiress of the Post cereal fortune for 30 years.

Like home gardeners, the horticulturalists and professional gardeners at Hillwood are confronting an unpredictable climate.

“We’ve been getting mild winters, things start growing sooner, so the bloom time is skewed on everything,” Johnson tells NPR’s Linda Wertheimer.

So what’s a home gardener to do? Johnson says it’s likely you have to change plants.

Read the full story here…

Filed Under: Clippings Tagged With: climate, weather

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