Sneezing Through Super Pollen Events

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Ann Lovejoy
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corn-male-flower

Designing A Low Pollen Garden

Are you waking up with a scratchy throat and itchy eyes? Do you sneeze explosively in little bursts several times a day? Got a low-grade headache most of the time? Ears block up often? Though allergic responses are idiosyncratic, these are very common symptoms of over-exposure to pollen. In June, grasses are the usual culprits, though some trees and weeds are also cranking out the guy stuff. Massive pollen shed is linked with plant stress, with many contributing factors. Excess or unseasonal cold and/or heat, increasing drought and/or heavy rains and flooding, unusual amounts of ice and snow, all can induce plants that feel threatened to produce extra pollen in an effort to save themselves (or really their species) through their offspring.

Folks who aren’t sensitive to pollen may not notice these super pollen events until their cars, decks, outdoor furniture, and walkways are crusted with greeny-yellowy pollen. This can be almost as annoying ad an allergy to the tidy-minded, who might appreciate learning that the best way to get pollen off cars and other painted surfaces is to wet it down, then use a combination of dish soap and warm water with a soft cloth. Scrubbing and harsher detergents can damage the paint and won’t get the pollen off as well either.) Whether you’re sneezing or seething, it’s worth taking some time to learn which garden plants are least likely to dump pollen and to trigger those inconvenient sensitivities.

Finding Helpful Information

Though few gardening references include information about how much pollen a particular plant sheds, a book called Allergy-Free Gardening by Thomas Leo Ogren is a reliable resource. In it (and on his website) Ogren offers both plant lists and strategies for pollen avoidance. For starters, most heavy pollen shedders are male. Thus, we can seek out shrubs and perennials with big, showy, scentless or lightly scented blossoms. These tend to be female and/or pollinated by critters rather than wind. Pollen-rich, wind-pollinated flowers (candidates for allergy triggers) tend to be small and less vividly colorful, so eye-catching showboats are safer bets. So are bird-friendly plants, which are generally pollinated by nectar-seeking birds. If your allergies are acute, pick sterile hybrids of any kind, from ornamentals to annuals, since they don’t produce pollen at all.

There are plenty of good perennial candidates for the low-pollen garden, including the following:

Acanthus (bear’s breeches), Achillea (yarrow), Agastache (anise hyssop), Alchemilla (lady’s mantle), Anemone (windflower), Aquilegia (columbine), Astrantia (masterwort), Cynara (cardoon), Erysimum (wallflower), Eupatorium (jo pie weed), Gaura (wandflower), Geranium, Heuchera (coral bells), Hosta, Kniphophia (poker plant), Lavatera (tree mallow), Lythrum (loosestrife), Nepeta (catmint), Oenothera (evening primrose), Penstemon (beardtongue), Perovskia (Russian sage), Phlomis (Jerusalem sage), Phormium (New Zealand flax), Phygelius (cape fuchsia), Potentilla (cinquefoil), Rheum (rhubarb), Salvia (sage), Sedum (stonecrop), Sisyrinchium (blue-eyed grass), Verbena (vervain), Veronica (speedwell), Yucca (Spanish bayonet).

Adding Annuals And Edibles

Annuals are often bred for dazzle and many produce little or no pollen, including the new sunflowers that are bred from low-pollen species to avoid getting tablecloths dirty when table arrangements include sunflowers (!). Among the most reliable low-pollen annuals are: Calendula (pot marigold), Clarkia (winecup), Cosmos, Eschscholzia (California poppy), Godetia (satin flower), Nigella (love-in-a-mist), Lunaria (silver dollar plant), Meconopsis (Welsh poppy), Petunia, Tagetes (marigold), Verbena (vervain), Viola (pansy), and of course my favorite Zinnias.

As for edibles, most root vegetables are harvested before they flower, so their pollen is not an issue. Both crucifers (broccoli, cabbage, kale, etc.) and alliums (chives, garlic, leeks, onions, shallots) are seldom troublesome pollen producers, and while some herbs shed lots of pollen (notably chamomile and artemisias), many others do not. Many pollen-sensitive folks can enjoy growing basil, chives, dill, mint, thyme, lavender, fennel, parsley and rosemary without pollen issues. (While many people are sensitive to lavender, sensitivity to fragrant plants is not usually pollen related.)

Grrrrrasses

As for those dratted grasses, some (like turf grasses) are indeed major offenders in the pollen-shedding category. This isn’t the only reason that I encourage people to reduce or eliminate lawns, but it’s certainly a factor for all of us who prefer not to be allergic to June. Turf grass sensitivities can usually be reduced by regular mowing, but weedy and ornamental grasses are another story. Here again, some are major pollen producers (Johnson grass, orchard grass, Timothy grass), while others are generally far less problematic. Happily quite a few ornamental grasses produce only modest amounts of pollen. Here’s a list of beautiful garden grasses that are less likely to trigger allergies:

Anemanthele lessoniana (pheasant tail grass), Arrhenatherum elatius (oatgrass), Bamboo, Briza (rattlesnake grass), Carex (sedge grass), Elymus (lime grass), Nassella tenuissima (Mexican feather grass), Panicum (panic grass).

Go For Girly Shrubs

Shrubs are of course a key element in garden design and as such, can definitely not be left out of the picture. As with mowing the lawn, clipping shrubs and shearing hedges before they bloom are good ways to eliminate allergic reactions to pollen. However, it’s far simpler to replace heavy pollen producers with less stressful plants. For instance, if you love willows (a notoriously heavy pollen producing clan), plant a corkscrew willow, or the weeping form called Weeping Sally, both of which are females. If you hope to avoid excessive pollen exposure from all your shrubs, consider planting some or all of these handsome shrubs:

Aronia (chokeberry), Berberis (barberry), Callicarpa (beautyberry),
Ceanothus (California lilac), Chaenomeles (quince), Cornus (twiggy dogwood), Escallonia, Fuchsia, Holodiscus (ocean spray), Kolkwitzia (beautybush), Lonicera (shrubby honeysuckle), Nandina (false bamboo), Oemleria (Indian plum), Philadelphus (mock orange),
Physocarpus (ninebark), Potentilla (cinquefoil), Rosa (rose), Rosemarinus (rosemary), Santolina (cotton lavender), Spirea,
Symphoricarpos (snowberry), Vaccinium (blueberry, huckleberry),
Viburnum (guelder rose).

Of course, allergy responses can be idiosyncratic; what triggers many may not bother any given individual, and our particular triggers can be both specific and uncommon. The best way to figure out what to avoid is to pay close attention to your body and to develop a good nose for triggers. Keep track while weeding to discover which weeds set you off and mulch areas where the worst offenders are usually found to discourage seed sprouting. And what about the bees? Consider planting a pollinator patch or several, tucked into out of the way areas, and/or allow pollen-rich plants that aren’t triggers for you to flourish as well. Onward!

 

Posted in Annual Color, Gardening With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Pollinators, Sustainable Gardening, Tomatoes, Weed Control | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Doing Less, Enjoying More

Posted on June 3, 2019 by Ann Lovejoy
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Simplifying Garden Care

Recently a friend was bemoaning the fact that weeding her driveway takes more time than she likes. Though I’m generally a fan of weeding, which allows us to really see and savor our gardens, I admit that weeding a gravel driveway can be an exercise in frustration. In fact, weeding is the number one reason most folks say they don’t like gardening. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to make gardening more gratifying. The first is to make fabulous soil, adding compost several times a year to pretty much everything but the driveway. In Seattle, Cedar Grove offers a terrific source of organic compost, as do many places these days. We can replenish our gardens with our neighbor’s recycled wastes, mulching generously to enrich the soil, smother out weeds, and conserve precious moisture. When our soil is healthy, our plants grow better and gardening is far more rewarding.

Another key to happiness is to consider where and how we spend our time in the garden or on the grounds. This informal analysis can guide us to reduce or eliminate the repetitive chores that make gardening feel like drudgery. Nearly always, garden chores can be reduced dramatically by making a few simple changes in our garden’s basic design. Remove and/or avoid adding plants that need frequent clipping. Consider replacing overgrown hedges with a fence. Use a flame weeder to keep weeds from gravel paths. Reduce summer watering by clustering thirsty plants and giving preference to plants that tolerate dry soils wells.

Lose The Lawn

For most folks, the fastest way to reduce both the weekly workload and high resource use is by getting rid of the lawn. No ground cover or perennial plant you can name needs to be watered, mowed, and fed as often or as much as a lawn. If you have young kids, un-manicured play lawns are great, and some pets need a place to poop, but such lawns can be quite small. What’s more, we can often shrink or edit them out entirely as the kids grow up and pets pass on.

To make a start on the shrinking process, consider converting the sunniest areas to herb and vegetable plots. In some communities, battles over the right to grow edibles instead of lawns are being won by the foodies, so this is worth a try even where lawns are expected. Simple, clean lines and tidy beds go a long way towards earning approval even from the conventionally minded. Attractive trellises, arbors and pergolas provide year round structure and can host ornamental vines from grapes to roses. Plant plenty of bright annuals to bring in the bees and your edible beds will look good enough to eat.

Skirting The Issue

Where lawns include trees, give each lawn tree a wide skirt (to the dripline or beyond) of native or regionally adapted plants. This grass-free barrier helps our trees live longer, healthier lives, since weed whacker wounds are a leading cause of tree damage and death. It also protects the mowing person from getting poked in the eye by low hanging branches, which eliminates a great deal of regrettable language. Instead of planting fussy border beauties in these tree circles, use woodland plants that don’t mind the company of tree roots.

For year round good looks and seasonal interest, combine spring and summer bulbs (which prefer minimal summer water) with drought tolerant evergreen ground-covers that need only one annual trimming to keep them tidy. For instance, spring crocus and scilla, summer blooming Allium Schubertii, and autumn crocus can be carpeted with delicately textured Epimedium x perralchicum or sheets of Cardamine trifolia. To keep such an area looking great, tuck fading bulb foliage under the ground-cover and renew compost mulches in spring and fall. Over time, increase the size of these tree circles into low maintenance beds between wide paths.

Improve Paths

Excellent paths make a great difference to the looks and functionality of any garden design. The most common design mistake (which is sadly not confined to amateurs) is to make paths too small. Six to eight feet is a good width for a main path, while secondary paths can be four to five feet wide. This allows two people to walk side by side and permits passage of loaded barrows and carts (or strollers, walkers, and wheel chairs). Plants can spill comfortably onto the path surface, softening sharp lines and hard edges. Paths laid in big, simple curves evoke a feeling of ease and flow, encouraging leisurely travel. Straight lines and right angles create a more martial ambience and lose the sense of mystery lent by curves that disguise the full extent of the grounds. Tight angles are also more difficult to keep trimmed and edged, and annoying weeds seem to seek them out.

Instead of creating squared-off places where paths cross, make round-a-bouts with large pots tucked in the center. Let longer paths balloon out here and there to make sunny and shady seating areas. Make these large enough to hold at least a bench, or a table, some chairs, and a few large containers. Here too, big is better: Soft, simple lines and generosity of scale will make these areas easy to care for, comfortable to use, and visually attractive. When making service areas for compost, trash and tool storage, and so forth, pave them with crushed rock, never pea gravel, which is treacherous underfoot. Where soils are heavy, trench paths and fill them with clean, crushed gravel to allow excess water to drain away freely. I surface most paths with crushed quarter-minus basalt (our local rock), inserting pavers or flagstones to vary the look in different areas. Graveled areas can be kept weed free with flame weeders which are both entertaining and effective.

Replace Weeds With Winners

What shall we do with lawn remnants? Where such constructive alterations leave narrow strips of lawn between paths and beds, incorporate these grassy leftovers into beds (or paths). Now, take a look at your paths: Another very common design error is to create beds that are too small and out of proportion with the site and the house. Big, bold beds look best and are easiest to plant without resorting to pruning for size control (always a mistake). Following these simple steps will leave you with little, if any, lawn. In my gardens, everything that isn’t a path, a seating area, or a service area is part of a bed. Well filled beds are far easier to care for than lawn. If you have weeds, you don’t have enough plants.

As always, when making gardens of whatever size, my models are the meadows and woodlands where plants succeed each other in effortless waves throughout the year. Even now, when my beds are truly tiny, I’m filling them with a tightly knit matrix of annuals and border shrubs, perennials and bulbs. Are there any grasses? Yes indeed, handsome clumpers that provide texture and movement with every breeze. As a general rule, about about a third of the plants in each bed are evergreen, and half to a third are native. The others are chosen for drought tolerance, adaptability, and a long season of good looks. Once your garden is similarly transformed, you’ll be enchanted to have time to relax and admire the garden without a chore in sight. Onward!

 

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Kitchen Cures For Climate Change

Posted on May 27, 2019 by Ann Lovejoy
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Seeking Higher Ground!

Helping Our Planet Plate By Plate

It’s getting more obvious each year that climate change is occurring faster than many people hoped. If of us are in a position to actively change the world, we can all most definitely change our corner of it. For starters, we can make a significant review of our daily habits, many of which contribute to our world’s environmental woes. Some changes are both pretty obvious and simple, like switching to energy saving LED lights. If you’ve been turned off by LED lighting in the past, take a look at the newer types, which are “tunable” to suit various needs, and are especially helpful for aging eyes!. We can also work on driving less, walking and biking more, and reducing energy use wherever possible (something we often think about but don’t always manage to put into practice).

What do we buy and how is it packaged? Reducing waste can make changes that accumulate beneficially, especially if we avoid single-use plastics and choose paper packaging over plastic. Aluminum cans are easy and cheap to recycle; indeed, they’re 100% recyclable indefinitely, whereas plastic bottles are more difficult and expensive to recycle than aluminum, steel, or glass. These and many other excellent tips can be found on Climates, a UK-based but worldwide social network that connects people who want to live lives that reduce the impacts of climate change. The group encourages thinking and experimenting and sharing carbon footprint-reducing ideas that are practical anywhere.

What’s On Home Plate?

If we first-worlders have been sheltered from drastic climate change, today violent weather shifts are affecting everyone everywhere. Island dweller like me definitely think about rising sea levels, nervously noticing the new tsunami warning signs posted in our Waterfront Park. Before long, all of us will also be more aware about food sourcing: We Americans enjoy unprecedented food choices, yet the more abundance we enjoy and the more we import, the greater our carbon footprint.

Here’s a sobering thought: The average footprint for people in United States is over three times the worldwide average. Wanna check yours? Try this: http://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=8

The fastest way to shrink our footprint is by changing our daily diet. If all meat eaters simply switched from beef and lamb to pork and poultry, each person would shrink a ton a year off their footprint. Over half of crops grown worldwide are used for meat animal feed, mostly for beef. While worldwide food production creates up to a third of all greenhouse gasses, by far the largest portion comes from raising beef. Hmmm.

Moving Towards Meatless

For some folks like me, making the switch was effortless. However, if your family is novelty-averse, try using pork and poultry in recipes where you might ordinarily use beef, such as stew. Use your usual beef-based recipe but substitute pork, and don’t say anything about it unless somebody asks. Most savory dishes can be made deliciously with turkey or chicken replacing beef, from burgers to meatloaf. Serve sustainably harvested fish weekly, perhaps starting with fish and chips and high-end fish sticks. Gradually mix in salmon burgers, fish tacos and grilled trout to gently nudge the family meal pattern away from red meat.

Many kids are far more open to eating vegetable-based meals when they’ve helped to grow and harvest the food, so get them into the garden early and often. If you already eat a meatless meal once a week, try having a weekly meatless day and ask the kids for ideas. If you get push back, have an open, exploratory conversation about climate change and choices. Experiment to find tasty, intriguing vegetarian recipes the whole family enjoys and simply serve them without comment. I’ve found that, if there’s lively conversation on interesting topics, many people won’t notice there’s no meat unless you point it out. So don’t.

Garden Tacos

Chewy, organic yellow corn tortillas make tacos especially toothsome; for the most intriguing texture, lightly fry the tortillas on both until they bubble, using just a slick of avocado oil. Crunchy sweet corn, velvety avocados, spicy peppers and onions make this high-satiety meal especially satisfying. Have all ingredients prepped so you can serve (or eat) these amazing treats straight from the pan.

Sweet Corn & Avocado Tacos

8-10 6-inch yellow corn tortillas
1-2 teaspoons avocado oil (or any high-temp oil)
1 cup salsa
2-3 ripe avocados, thickly sliced
few grains sea salt
2 ears sweet corn, kernels cut
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped sweet peppers
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1-2 fresh limes, in wedges

Brush a heavy frying pan with oil and place over medium high heat for 1 minute. Fry a tortilla on both sides until it bubbles, then spoon a little salsa over it. Add slices of avocado and sprinkle with salt. Now add some corn, red onion, peppers and cilantro, squeeze on a little lime and fold in half. Eat at once and prepare to be amazed! Serves at least one.

http://www.climatesnetwork.com/splash.php

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25795-going-vegetarian-halves-co2-emissions-from-your-food/

More about tunable LED lighting:
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/09/f33/2016_gateway-acc.pdf

 

Food’s Carbon Footprint

 

 

 

Posted in Climate Change, Gardening With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Recipes, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Nourishing Native Pollinators

Posted on May 20, 2019 by Ann Lovejoy
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Planting For Bees, Bugs, Butterflies, Bats, Birds…

I’ve recently been asked to help design a garden that will nurture and support native bees and other native pollinators. The request was made with determination but some sorrow as well, as the couple seemed to think that the only way to do this is to replace all our non-native plants with huckleberries and salal. They also worried about attracting honeybees, which might crowd out natives. The idea that native pollinators are only able to feed on native plants is a common misconception. It’s true that some native pollinators are indeed specialists that really do feed mainly on certain plants; think about Monarch butterflies and milkweeds, for example, or squash bees. However, many native pollinators are generalists that happily harvest nectar and pollen from a wide palette of plants.

It’s easy to get confused about how to be helpful, since while there’s plentiful information available about non-native honeybee preferences, there’s far less for native pollinators, which were largely ignored by the general public until colony collapse started making headlines. Until a few years ago, nobody really knew how to nurture native pollinators in our gardens. However, a 2015 study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology challenged quite a bit of “standard wisdom.” A group of researchers decided to test the question of whether gardeners who want to enhance gardens in support of pollinators should plant native or exotic species. Three test plots designed like garden beds held native, near-native, or exotic mixtures of plants. Over a four year period, the beds with the most flowers at any given time got the most pollinator visits. The beds with the native and near-native mixes were the most popular with the greatest number and variety of pollinators overall. However, as the flowering season wore on, pollinator attention shifted as the exotic plants extended the floral display longer than the others.

Variety Wins!!

The final recommendation was to plant mixtures of native, near-native, and exotic plants with an eye to having bloom for as long as possible. Now, that’s exactly my kind of garden! The study (which took place in England), defined natives as plants that arrived in England without human intervention and were attractive enough to be garden worthy. Near-natives were chosen from plants native to the Northern Hemisphere that were ecologically similar to a native plant (like using Japanese maples in place of vine maples). Exotics had Southern Hemisphere origins and were able to fill a similar ecological slot to a native plant.

Though no precisely similar study has been done in the maritime Northwest, the researchers suggest that their results are likely to be replicable elsewhere. Some of our most useful guidelines can be found on the website of the Xerces society (see below), which has been promoting pollinator protection and support for nearly 50 years. We can also become researchers in our own gardens, watching and recording which plants get the most visits through the season. For instance, herbs are always popular in my gardens, along with almost any open-faced blossom that’s single rather than double (double flowers are harder to access).

Who’s Who In Pollinator Circles

I’ve always been fascinated by bees and other pollinators and enjoy trying to identify that many tiny critters that inhabit the garden. Like many people, I started with bees. Yikes! North America is home to over 4,000 bee species, many of which admittedly look pretty similar. Others, however, are quite distinctive and it’s well worth spending some time with an insect guide to learn to recognize our tiny neighbors. Good resources include bugguide.net and the USDA/Forest Service online guide called Bee Basics. If anyone wants to develop a good handbook to help identify native insects, I think you’d find a ready market!

As with so many things, the more we learn about our companion pollinators, the more we want to nurture and support them. Happily, simply offering a broad palette of pesticide-free plants will take us a long way toward that goal. While European honeybees are social creatures that share a hive, most of our natives are solitary bees that nest in the ground, in fallen logs and old stumps, or even in clumps of wild grasses. Like organic farmers, we can establish untended ‘bug bank’ areas where beneficial insect nests won’t be disturbed. Another excellent reason to practice benign neglect!

Nurturing Natives

Sturdy little Mason bees are among the best known of our natives, largely because they’re champion pollinators and easy to raise at home. (European honeybees actually aren’t all that efficient.) Since about 75% of backyard food crops are bee pollinated, providing food and shelter for natives can pay off in big garden dividends. Naturally enough, native flowering plants will be the biggest draw for native bees (who will often go on to visit the imports). You’ll find some attractive and garden worthy plant choices among the Oregon grape family, from low growing Mahonia nervosa to shapely, mannerly forms of shrubby M. aquifolium such as Smaragd and Apollo. I always add insect favorites like Indian plum (Oemleria cerasiformis), ocean spray (Holodiscus discolor), and native roses to my own gardens if they aren’t there already, mainly because I love them too. Flowering currant and native honeysuckles are also rewarding, as are evergreen and deciduous huckleberries, thimbleberry, salmonberry, salal, ninebark, kinnikinnick and redtwig dogwoods.

Not too surprisingly, many native bee favorites are also appreciated by native butterflies. Indeed, when we amplify our garden palette with choice natives, our beds will come alive with a delightful range of beautiful critters, from helpful insects to lovely birds. Certain native perennials may appear without our help, including bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa), red columbines (Aquilegia), pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), and avens (Geum macrophyllum). If they don’t pick the right place for themselves, gently reposition them now where they can flourish over time. I often group such volunteers between tall shrubs at the back of deep beds where they have room but don’t swamp proper border beauties.

Natives & Allies

Both honeybees and native pollinators are fond of Sidalceas and Lavateras in both native and non-native forms. Many species of violets, milkweeds (Asclepias), sweetpeas, dogwoods, and spireas are similarly popular, whether native or exotic. Fruit crops will benefit from Mason bees, while veggie beds will attract native bees that appreciate tomatoes and peppers as well as squash and beans. Ornamental thistles please bees, butterflies and birds (especially goldfinches), while hops can gladden the heart of man (in liquid form, anyway) as well as butterflies and the smaller bees.

Nectar is not the only attraction in a well stocked garden, so don’t get bugged by bugs. Having a haze of insects hovering over your beds will just about guarantee you a host of birds (even hummers need protein as well as sweet desserts) as well as butterflies. Housing helps too; many grasses (especially stipas) are butterfly friendly host plants, while roses offer building material to leaf cutter bees along with their pollen and nectar. That’s a large part of why I tidy the garden in late winter and early spring rather than in autumn; putting off the work protect and supports native pollinators and when I finally get around to it, there’s a lot less to do, since so much as self-composted in place.

Here are links to lots of accurate regional information:

Pollinator Conservation Resources – Pacific Northwest Region

http://www.xerces.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/MaritimeNorthwestPlantList_web.pdf

 

 

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