本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛The dirt on being green
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Sonia Day
special to the star
Eco-evangelists are becoming – dare I say it? – boring.
If I have to read one more article with the words "sustainability" and "biodiversity" in it, I'll want to stab somebody with a garden fork.
That off my chest, it's undeniable that our poor old planet is in rough shape thanks to human greed and thoughtlessness. Earth Hour is the perfect time to ponder the small steps we can personally take to try to put things right.
So, here are a few tips on becoming greener in your own front and back yards:
First, lawns
To eco-freaks, they're as toxic as Big Macs and, on small, cheek-by-jowl lots, there's not much point to them. Yet, if you like lawns, don't feel guilty. Just don't expect perfection (the pristine golf-green look is fundamentally unnatural) and avoid the after-supper-garden-hose routine (it wastes water and encourages mouldy diseases).
Don't use herbicides, either, to kill weeds. Accept that you'll inevitably have a few sneaking in.
A dandelion digger helps. The best one, a black-and-orange job made by Fiskars, clamps around dandelions' tough taproots and has a foot lever. (It's sold at Canadian Tire and Home Hardware. I love mine.)
For other tough weeds – like docks, which have stringy underpinnings – spot treatment with a spray bottle of horticultural vinegar is environmentally acceptable and usually works. (Horticultural vinegar is now available at some garden centres and used by the City of Toronto.)
And a kettle of boiling water will kill most weeds in cracks of pathways and patios.
Cut the lawn with something quiet, like an electric or push mower. But don't go in for military haircuts. Longer grass is more durable, especially once hot weather hits. Remember that once turf is trimmed, no one except your eagle-eyed Uncle Harold is going to notice the weeds anyway.
If you hire a company to maintain your lawn, ask questions. Does it use IPM (Integrated Pest Management) methods? If not, why not? What training have the employees had? What's the company's attitude to the pesticide issue? Get a feel for its approach to maintenance before signing up.
Experiment with plants
"The right plant for the right place" is a mantra worth remembering. If you're trying, and failing, to grow difficult plants like rhododendrons and roses, give up and go for something more suited to your local conditions. I abandoned roses years ago – they just don't like my clayey soil northwest of Toronto and their thorns were a pain, anyway.
Because of slugs, hostas got the heave-ho, too.
Yet, peonies work like a charm for me, as do penstemons, day lilies, some ornamental grasses and Geranium machrorrhizum, a wonderful ground cover that will grow anywhere, sun or shade, and isn't a thug – i.e., you can yank the roots out easily when you get tired of it.
What we often forget is that there are literally thousands of plants, shrubs and trees to choose from. There's no point in continuing to fuss over some "in" plant if it's constantly attacked by bugs or diseases.
Accept defeat, get rid of the offender and move on.
Avoid peat moss
Opinions are mixed as to whether stocks of this soil additive (harvested from old bogs) are dwindling around the world. Even so, to lighten heavy soil, a truckload of coarse builders' sand is a wiser choice.
And for smaller jobs, there's a terrific product called Soil Sponge now sold at garden centres. It's made from compressed coconut fibre, called coir.
They have mountains of this stuff going begging in countries like Vietnam and Sri Lanka, and collecting and packaging coir provides work for subsistence farmers. I find a scoop added to containers helps retain water better than peat moss. (The Victorians did, too, incidentally. Coir was popular back then and it's making a comeback now.)
Love your leaves
Instead of waiting for the city to come and collect them in the fall, rake yours up and stuff them into big garbage bags.
Add a scoop of soil, punch a couple of holes in the bags' sides and tuck them away somewhere unobtrusive, like behind the garage. By spring, most leaves (except oak, which are as tough as Styrofoam plates) will break down into a nice, dark brown humus that's great to spread on the garden. Don't however, save maple leaves affected with black spot.
Mulch in moderation
We've become a nation of mulch maniacs. It's true that placing a protective layer of something organic around plants certainly does conserve moisture and keep down weeds. But don't overdo it. If mulch is too thick, slugs multiply like mad. So do soil-borne diseases (research at U.S. botanical gardens has shown a big jump in these diseases and it's blamed on overzealous mulching).
Peel back the mulch after rainy weather.
If you spot mouldy patches or armies of those annoying slime balls, remove the mulch.
Don't be too neat
Resist the urge to cut perennials and tall annuals down when summer ends. Some dead plants do look messy flopping everywhere in winter, but leave them standing until spring and beneficial bugs will find hiding places in this detritus. Then they'll be on hand to dispatch the "baddies" the following summer.
Since I stopped cleaning up my garden in the fall, I've noticed a big increase in ladybugs and a reduction in aphids. I also get more birds dropping by. (They come for the caterpillars.)
Reuse plastic
Modern gardening involves distressing amounts of plastic, particularly bags and pots. And with so many plants now grown in containers, the problem is getting worse.
Buy one big bag of potting soil rather than several small ones and reuse these tough plastic sacks for garbage, used cat litter, storing fall leaves behind the garage, whatever. Reuse pots, too (most garden centres no longer take them back) and donate surplus ones to community groups and schools with gardening programs. I cut the bottoms out of small plastic pots and place them over new plantings as temporary windbreaks. These protectors, which get lifted off once plants are established, also stop cats and squirrels nosing around.
Share
So many healthy perennial plants and shrubs, as well as potting soil emptied out of containers, wind up in the garbage, especially at summer's end. What a waste.
If you enjoy growing things, join the local horticultural society or organize a gardening group in your condo building. It's a great way to swap plants you longer need. And find somebody with a garden who can recycle that unwanted soil, either into flower beds or onto a compost heap.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Email Story Email story
Print Print
Sonia Day
special to the star
Eco-evangelists are becoming – dare I say it? – boring.
If I have to read one more article with the words "sustainability" and "biodiversity" in it, I'll want to stab somebody with a garden fork.
That off my chest, it's undeniable that our poor old planet is in rough shape thanks to human greed and thoughtlessness. Earth Hour is the perfect time to ponder the small steps we can personally take to try to put things right.
So, here are a few tips on becoming greener in your own front and back yards:
First, lawns
To eco-freaks, they're as toxic as Big Macs and, on small, cheek-by-jowl lots, there's not much point to them. Yet, if you like lawns, don't feel guilty. Just don't expect perfection (the pristine golf-green look is fundamentally unnatural) and avoid the after-supper-garden-hose routine (it wastes water and encourages mouldy diseases).
Don't use herbicides, either, to kill weeds. Accept that you'll inevitably have a few sneaking in.
A dandelion digger helps. The best one, a black-and-orange job made by Fiskars, clamps around dandelions' tough taproots and has a foot lever. (It's sold at Canadian Tire and Home Hardware. I love mine.)
For other tough weeds – like docks, which have stringy underpinnings – spot treatment with a spray bottle of horticultural vinegar is environmentally acceptable and usually works. (Horticultural vinegar is now available at some garden centres and used by the City of Toronto.)
And a kettle of boiling water will kill most weeds in cracks of pathways and patios.
Cut the lawn with something quiet, like an electric or push mower. But don't go in for military haircuts. Longer grass is more durable, especially once hot weather hits. Remember that once turf is trimmed, no one except your eagle-eyed Uncle Harold is going to notice the weeds anyway.
If you hire a company to maintain your lawn, ask questions. Does it use IPM (Integrated Pest Management) methods? If not, why not? What training have the employees had? What's the company's attitude to the pesticide issue? Get a feel for its approach to maintenance before signing up.
Experiment with plants
"The right plant for the right place" is a mantra worth remembering. If you're trying, and failing, to grow difficult plants like rhododendrons and roses, give up and go for something more suited to your local conditions. I abandoned roses years ago – they just don't like my clayey soil northwest of Toronto and their thorns were a pain, anyway.
Because of slugs, hostas got the heave-ho, too.
Yet, peonies work like a charm for me, as do penstemons, day lilies, some ornamental grasses and Geranium machrorrhizum, a wonderful ground cover that will grow anywhere, sun or shade, and isn't a thug – i.e., you can yank the roots out easily when you get tired of it.
What we often forget is that there are literally thousands of plants, shrubs and trees to choose from. There's no point in continuing to fuss over some "in" plant if it's constantly attacked by bugs or diseases.
Accept defeat, get rid of the offender and move on.
Avoid peat moss
Opinions are mixed as to whether stocks of this soil additive (harvested from old bogs) are dwindling around the world. Even so, to lighten heavy soil, a truckload of coarse builders' sand is a wiser choice.
And for smaller jobs, there's a terrific product called Soil Sponge now sold at garden centres. It's made from compressed coconut fibre, called coir.
They have mountains of this stuff going begging in countries like Vietnam and Sri Lanka, and collecting and packaging coir provides work for subsistence farmers. I find a scoop added to containers helps retain water better than peat moss. (The Victorians did, too, incidentally. Coir was popular back then and it's making a comeback now.)
Love your leaves
Instead of waiting for the city to come and collect them in the fall, rake yours up and stuff them into big garbage bags.
Add a scoop of soil, punch a couple of holes in the bags' sides and tuck them away somewhere unobtrusive, like behind the garage. By spring, most leaves (except oak, which are as tough as Styrofoam plates) will break down into a nice, dark brown humus that's great to spread on the garden. Don't however, save maple leaves affected with black spot.
Mulch in moderation
We've become a nation of mulch maniacs. It's true that placing a protective layer of something organic around plants certainly does conserve moisture and keep down weeds. But don't overdo it. If mulch is too thick, slugs multiply like mad. So do soil-borne diseases (research at U.S. botanical gardens has shown a big jump in these diseases and it's blamed on overzealous mulching).
Peel back the mulch after rainy weather.
If you spot mouldy patches or armies of those annoying slime balls, remove the mulch.
Don't be too neat
Resist the urge to cut perennials and tall annuals down when summer ends. Some dead plants do look messy flopping everywhere in winter, but leave them standing until spring and beneficial bugs will find hiding places in this detritus. Then they'll be on hand to dispatch the "baddies" the following summer.
Since I stopped cleaning up my garden in the fall, I've noticed a big increase in ladybugs and a reduction in aphids. I also get more birds dropping by. (They come for the caterpillars.)
Reuse plastic
Modern gardening involves distressing amounts of plastic, particularly bags and pots. And with so many plants now grown in containers, the problem is getting worse.
Buy one big bag of potting soil rather than several small ones and reuse these tough plastic sacks for garbage, used cat litter, storing fall leaves behind the garage, whatever. Reuse pots, too (most garden centres no longer take them back) and donate surplus ones to community groups and schools with gardening programs. I cut the bottoms out of small plastic pots and place them over new plantings as temporary windbreaks. These protectors, which get lifted off once plants are established, also stop cats and squirrels nosing around.
Share
So many healthy perennial plants and shrubs, as well as potting soil emptied out of containers, wind up in the garbage, especially at summer's end. What a waste.
If you enjoy growing things, join the local horticultural society or organize a gardening group in your condo building. It's a great way to swap plants you longer need. And find somebody with a garden who can recycle that unwanted soil, either into flower beds or onto a compost heap.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net