Some scientists predict an increase in natural disasters as a result of global warming. But somehow I think something else is responsible for all the volcanoes I see erupting in my neighborhood.

‘Volcano’ is the term coined for that mound of mulch that folks pile around a tree this time of year. Even though all the credible references advise against this, it somehow seems to be very popular. I drive through developments in which landscapers have generously heaped the mulch into a nice pyramid around every tree.

After spending a fair amount of money on new trees, you would think a homeowner would want to protect that investment. One of my neighbors recently built a series of volcanoes around the trees throughout his yard. It looks kind of cool, but just like Mount Vesuvius, these volcanoes can be deadly. That pile of mulch heats the base of the tree and holds moisture up against the bark. Not only does this encourage pests and diseases, but the tree responds by sending out new roots into that pile of mulch. Instead of spreading outward, these new roots grow inside the pile and over time can girdle the tree as they expand.

The International Society of Arboriculture recommends mulching tree root zones to help retain moisture in the ground and act as a weed barrier. But to avoid decay, disease and pests, ISA calls for mulch to be kept one to two inches away from the base of the tree. So a good gardening practice after mulching is to go back and sweep away any that might have piled up on the tree flare.

The trees will thank you.

It’s an often-observed phenomenon – the happy accident. Creativity thrives on finding the virtue in a mistake, and turning it into a triumph. This vertical arrangement of Corydalis and Nepeta, growing through the cracks in a weathered retaining wall in the Elizabeth and Nona Evans Restorative Garden, is a thriving, utterly unintentional example of the latest trendy craze – the green wall. And they planted themselves!

Green walls can demand careful engineering to ensure that their living facade will survive and stay decorative. Northern Ohio winters spell certain death for unprotected roots, while the summer sun  and wind make expensive irrigation systems a requirement. The most practical "living wall" in this climate is probably the most natural: a vine, rooted in the earth, and reaching for the sky.

Back to our "unintended consequence." These two self-sown companion plants have taken advantage of the other type of "living wall" design that has potential for the Ohio climate. Earth-backed retaining walls like those along highways and interstates have the insulated root zone, and natural water-holding capacity that makes for succesful vertical plantings. The fact that they bloom together in a nice complementary color palette is just icing on the cake.

Posted by Ann McCulloh

It’s raining today. And cold. It makes me want to nap. But it is also so beautiful outside right now that it makes me want to garden. I think the colors outside are amazing during this kind of weather and I spend a considerable amount of time staring out windows during spring showers.  I may not want to admit that during the work day, but it’s the truth.  So considering the weather, rain gardens come to mind. If you have an area in your yard that regularly holds standing water, you may want to consider installing a rain garden. Good old Wikipedia says that “a rain garden is a planted depression that allows rainwater runoff from impervious urban areas like roofs, driveways, walkways, and compacted lawn areas the opportunity to be absorbed.” A rain garden prevents soil erosion, decreases the water emptying into storm sewers and looks great in the process. The Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District has fantastic resources on their website for rain garden installation and has a kit with all the plants needed for a 100 square foot garden available for purchase. The manual from their website is the best I’ve seen on rain garden installation.  In our library, we have a book called Rain Gardens: Managing water sustainably in the garden and designed landscape. (Why do all books nowadays have to have such long titles? What gives?) In looking through this book, I realize that I need to be careful about information I take from books. This is potentially a very useful book. In Great Britain. The two authors hail from the UK and give many examples and pictures from rain gardens in Europe, which is all fine and well and good. My problem lies in the chart of rain garden plants at the back of the book. At first, I’m all excited – I love lists! And they tell me exactly what I need to know without a ton of reading. But then I see they recommend purple loosestrife, even noting that it can be incredibly invasive. So why are they recommending it? I would never, ever recommend planting purple loosestrife so this book’s value and credibility decreases tremendously in my opinion.  Lastly, we have just broken ground on our very own rain garden here at the Garden which will be complete by the end of May. It is located adjacent to the Woodland Garden and will be a great visual enticer for you to install one of these beauties in your own landscape. This rain garden is being installed as I type this; stop by the check it out, or stay tuned to this space for enticing documentation of this important new garden.

This year’s gardening trends are not much different from last year — but there are a few notable additions.

Edible gardening continues to be big. The recession bolstered a renewed interest in vegetable gardening last year, and we don’t see that declining at all this year.

Organic gardening is also a trend that is likely here to stay as homeowners rely more on natural means of pest control. Chemically dependent lawns are being replaced with low-mow lawns or, alternatively, homeowners are looking for and using more organic methods to control weeds and fertilize. Deer-resistant plants and sprays used to protect plants from deer will be popular as long as we allow their numbers to increase. Love them or hate them, they must be managed now.

Another new trend in gardening, vertical gardening and rooftop gardening, is bringing green to urbanites with limited space. There are a number of new patents and new companies dealing with green walls and green roofs. Here, we are in the midst of creating our own green roof above our cafe that we hope will inspire others to do the same. There are a number of environmental benefits that green walls and roofs provide. We’ll look at this particular trend more in depth in another blog soon.

Posted by Cynthia Drukenbrod

          Like much of the rest of the world, I love strawberries. Very few things that taste as good as strawberries are also good for you. When I was a kid, I used to go strawberry picking with my family, and I would often eat a few berries right off the plant. If I knew what I know now about strawberry production, I would have waited for the strawberries to get a good rinsing before I ate them. Strawberries often receive repeated doses of pesticides, mostly fungicides, and are on the list of the twelve fruits and vegetables with the most pesticide residue. These twelve fruits and vegetables are often referred to as the ‘dirty dozen." You can see the rest of the ‘dirty dozen’ and also the ‘clean 15′ here. Even scrubbing and rinsing cannot remove all pesticide residues from the soft skin of strawberries, but it can remove a good majority.

        The problem with farming strawberries is that they don’t grow well in the same spot for too long. The many diseases and insect pests that plague strawberries will begin to accumulate in the soil, reducing yields and increasing need for pesticide sprays. Many commercial strawberry growers will use harsh pesticides like methyl bromide to completely sterilize their soil in order to keep growing strawberries.  Methyl bromide is a highly dangerous gas that is injected into the soil underneath plastic tarps killing all living organism in the soil. It’s is also an ozone depleting gas. It’s use has been mostly phased out by the EPA, but it is still used for a small number of crops like strawberries.  Methyl iodide, an equally dangerous fumigant that is highly carcinogenic, was recently approved by the EPA and is being used in some places as a replacement for methyl bromide. Its use is currently being debated in California where it is currently not approved.

       Since it seems to take a lot of serious pesticides to grow strawberries on a commercial scale, you might think it would be too difficult for the average gardener to grow. In fact, strawberries are quite easy to grow and are considered by many home gardeners to be one of the easiest fruit crops to grow. The problem of soil-borne diseases and pests can be easily solved for a home gardener using crop rotation. Strawberry plants tend to lose their vigor after about 5 years and need to be replanted. Instead of replanting strawberries in the same spot, try planting them somewhere else in the garden. Amend the former strawberry bed with organic matter and plant crops or flowers that are not susceptable to strawberry pests- avoid tomatoes, peppers, and cucurbits. Another easy solution is growing strawberries in pots. Strawberries do very will in pots, and the soil can easily be changed when replanted.

       When it comes to strawberries and other members of the "dirty dozen," it may be best to grow your own.  If you can’t grow your own strawberries, try buying organic first or support local farms that use crop rotation techniques to reduce pesticide needs. Also, be wary of buying strawberries out of season as they often come from other countries where even more pesticides are used. It would be a shame to limit consumption of such a delicious fruit that also has so many health benefits.

Posted By Nate Tschaenn

We have a new visitor to the Garden.  But this one has six legs, mandibles and compound eyes, and is most unwelcome.

The viburnum leaf beetle (Phyrrhalta viburnii) is here, and we are in danger of losing much of our flowering viburnum collection to its hunger.  Why is it such a problem?  Because the “VLB” has been introduced inadvertently to North America without any of its natural checks and balances, and so is free to chew its way through our wild and garden viburnums.  Not only that, it comes with a one-two punch, since both the larvae and adults feed on viburnum leaves.

A European native, this inconspicuous brown beetle—1/5” long—was first noticed in Canada about 1947 (possibly it was a hitchhiker on garden viburnums shipped from overseas].  VLB has since been making its way through the east; in 2000, it was verified in western PA and parts of Ashtabula County; by 2008 it was verified in Lake and Cuyahoga Counties.  We found it on some of the Garden viburnums this summer.

What is a gardener to do?  We could slather our viburnums with potent organophosphate insecticides, which would certainly kill VLB, along with all the other local arthropods, good and bad in the same basket.  We could do nothing, be totally organic, let the beetles have their way, and supplant infested viburnums with different flowering shrubs.

Or we could choose a hybrid approach.  If we made the effort to study VLB/viburnum interactions, we might then be able to design a modified organic control plan that selects mechanical and biological controls, but also permits least-toxic chemicals when absolutely needed.

Sounds like a pretty good idea!  Let’s walk through the hybrid “education and action” plan that we made for our VLB infestation.

As these things often go, VLB has learned to favor our smooth-leaved viburnums, especially arrow-wood (Viburnum dentatum), over the hirsute varieties it had back home.  Maybe it’s like eating nectarines instead of peaches? A Garden walk-about confirms this, so we decide to focus on arrow-wood, and simply monitor other viburnum varieties for VLB. This saves us effort and possible pesticide use; if other viburnums begin to show VLB damage, we’ll adjust protocol.

We also decide to provide complete cultural care to all our viburnums, to reduce their overall stress and so help them survive VLB.  This is a simple matter of composting and mulching in spring, and irrigating during possible summer dry spells.

Next, we consider the VLB life cycle, since it will help us discover when the beetle is most vulnerable.  VLB lays eggs by drilling into viburnum first- or second-year branch tips in early autumn; the eggs over-winter under the bark and hatch by early May; the larvae eat leaves, and then crawl down to the soil to pupate by early June; the adult beetles emerge by early July, eat leaves, mate, and complete the annual cycle. VLB presence is  betrayed by two identifying clues: "sewing machine" egg scars on dormant twigs (see photograph); buckshot feeding holes in the leaves starting in late spring.

Well, what is the best stage to arrest VLB?  We decide to go after the eggs, since they’re easy to catch!  A mechanical control method will work.  So, right now in early April, we are tip-pruning egg-laden young twigs from infected arrow-wood plants, and away from their future feeding bushes.  This is a good choice, since viburnums respond well to pruning, and will not suffer a loss of vigor.

In our highest visibility gardens, where viburnums need to be cosmetically perfect, we will forgo tip-pruning, and choose from two chemical control options.  First choice is an April spray of summer horticultural oil, which is essentially liquid candle wax.  Hort oil is topical, smothers the eggs, and does minimal harm to beneficial arthropods. Second choice is granular imidacloprid, a synthetic nicotine that is applied to soil and translocated from the roots to the young leaves, where it kills the feeding VLB.  Used like this, it also doesn’t harm predatory beneficial insects.

We will attempt to get by with just the early spray of benign hort oil.  If this is unsuccessful, next spring we’ll go for the nicotine.

Oil can also kill the larvae, but timing is more finicky.  Killing the adults requires stronger broadcast chemicals, and by their advent it is too late anyway to prevent leaf damage by the hungry spring larvae.

There it is.  We studied the plant and the insect, and used what we learned to pick a suite of smart, safe control methods for our VLB infestation.

There’s a name for this approach to pest control.  It is “Integrated Pest Management,”  or (here comes another acronym) IPM.  Local biological systems are kept intact, to buffer against future pest explosions.  Plants are grown with the grace of their unique nature in mind.  IPM views the garden as a whole, and not merely as a game board of plants vs. enemy insects and diseases.

The threat to Ohio’s wild and garden viburnums is real, and may even prove devastating.  Please monitor your viburnums for VLB damage, and be ready with IPM thinking.  Integrated Pest Management: control the pest without crushing the garden.

—I better get busy, I think I just heard that new visitor calling my name…”CHOMP!”

For more on VLB, check these websites:  http://ohioline.osu.edu/sc195/013.html, http://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/html   

 Posted by Mark Bir

 Why do we look so favorably upon the color green? And why do we place such a high priority on developing and protecting green spaces?

There is something cool and soothing about green. If you want to lower your blood pressure, immerse yourself in a lush garden. While red and orange are exciting, green is calming. We must be hardwired to respond as such. That is why traffic barriers and caution tape aren’t green. Hot colors grab our attention while green lulls us into relaxation. And when we relax, we breathe deeper and shed the stress and tension that can take its toll on our bodies.

It’s the beginning of spring and it’s normal to look forward to the flowers and fruits planned for the summer. But let’s give credit to the foliage plants that are going to immerse our patios in green this season. Plan for the cannas, chard and elephant ears that will put the “lush” into our luscious gardens. Anticipate the ivies and creepers that will cover the barren winter landscape with a fresh green carpet. And appreciate the woodies that form the green structural elements in these spaces. We all need a little green area to which we can escape. Green is therapeutic.

Maybe that’s why the Irish consider it so lucky. 

Posted by Bob Rensel

It’s clear that interest in vegetable gardening is growing by leaps and bounds. Seed sales are up by 20 percent and the number of homes growing vegetables also rose by about 20 percent last year, according to the National Gardening Association. More and more people seem to be signing on to the idea of having fresh fruits and vegetables available right outside the back door.

The idea of perennial vegetables may be a bit slower to catch on, especially in our cold winter climate. If someone stopped you on the street, could you name a vegetable that you only have to plant once, then harvest year after year? Some of us could come up with asparagus, rhubarb, maybe artichokes if you have a favorable climate. Another moment or two of reflection and you might name Jerusalem artichokes, or “sunchokes” as they’ve been rechristened. (Did someone say "daylilies"? Yes, edible, and perennial!)

Massachusetts author Eric Tonnsemeier can add more than 100 to that list! Thanks to his recently published book, Perennial Vegetables, from Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, a Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-Grow Edibles, my eyes were opened to several that are grown as ornamentals here on the grounds of the Garden. Native “ramps” (Allium tricoccum), aka wild leeks, emerge from the leaf layer in the Woodland Garden in late March every year. Long celebrated in their native Appalachian region with festivals and fund-raising dinners, they have become a prized seasonal ingredient in gourmet kitchens (with a price to match!).

The “root” (actually the underground stem) of the lovely, hardy lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) is a staple in Asian cuisine. Sweet lotus-filled buns and fritters have been favorites of mine for years. I had no idea that lotus could be successfully cultivated in a large tub, and harvested (carefully) before the winter dormancy period. If your pond is deep enough, you can leave it under water all winter.

Many of the vegetables described in the book are hardy in our climate; others are suited to a warmer zone or greenhouse. Tonnsemeier makes a specialty of growing aquatic edibles in his Massachusetts garden. Perennial Vegetables describes a cornucopia of interesting plants, and how to grow them in a well-researched and beautifully illustrated format. The book is offered in the Garden Store’s book section. It will be added to the shelves of the Eleanor Squire Library this April. (Check out the Library’s online catalogue.)

There is a struggle going on in my garden right now. It is the first week of March and there is still a foot of snow on the ground. But that hasn’t stopped the witch hazel from rolling out its yellow ribbons to introduce the season’s first blooms. It’s kind of a competition between the witch hazel and the lenten rose every year. This year the lenten rose is crying foul since it has been disadvantaged by snow cover since December.

I listen to all the gripes and assure my plants that no slight was intended. I couldn’t have survived the winter without the maiden grass seed heads waving at me each morning. Since November the redbud seedpods have been whispering words of encouragement to me when there is a breeze. I promise them all that I won’t get too excited over the witch hazel blooms and assure them that their persistence has helped me endure the winter months.

The truth is, I need each and every one of them. I take for granted that plants oxygenate, humidify and purify my air. But I’ll never underestimate their ability to inspire and engage me. Especially those that are so persistent in the winter. 

Is a garden better than any other designed space? Horticulture therapists can explain the healing powers of plants and landscape architects can describe the therapeutic attributes of a well-designed green space.

But wait a minute. Won’t a feng shui designer help you achieve that same tranquility and balance in your living room? And a home organizing consultant can relieve the agitation of a cluttered basement or the chaos of a hopeless closet in disarray. Why should a garden space be considered more beneficial than any other well-designed space? After all, there have been many snowy nights lately during which I find peace in my favorite stuffed chair in front of the fireplace. Add a good book and a glass of wine to that scenario and one might think it’s the perfect stress-free environment in which to recuperate from a hectic day. How could this setting be any more calming and therapeutic?

Well, let’s see. It would be nicer if there were fragrant lemon tree blossoms next to my chair and a hedge of lavender and rosemary for me to brush up against when I moved around. The calm generated from these aromas could be enhanced with a beautiful sunset or interesting cloud formations moving across the sky. But I can’t see those from my living room. And while it is peaceful in front of my crackling fireplace, I kind of like the sounds and sights of wildlife. Bird song can be very tranquil and the simplicity of hummingbirds, blue jays and squirrels are entertaining distractions in our complicated lives. While I like the colors in my living room, they aren’t as dynamic as those that unfold in the garden. Chocolate heucheras, stained glass coleus and bold sunflowers just begin to describe the changing palette manifested in the garden. The ceiling fan can move some air, but it’s just not quite the same as a gentle garden breeze rustling the ornamental grasses. Just thinking about fresh air makes me want to breathe deeper.

Everybody’s different and one person’s paradise might not be as ideal for someone else.  But research shows that gardens generally lower stress levels, improve memory and alertness and promote healing and self esteem.  That’s why I prefer the back yard patio chair when the weather is more accommodating.  Until then, the stuffed chair in the living room will have to do.  Where’s that latest seed catalog?