Wednesday, January 29, 2014

If Plants Could Talk

If plants could talk, would they whine or complain, cry or carry on? Would they scream, at one another or at me? Would they tease or taunt the cats and dogs?

* "Yo, what's a green gotta do for a drink?" 
* "Hey, move your big fat leaves, you're blocking the light for the rest of us." 
* "The air is so dry in here, it's like a desert." 
* " I can't remember the last time you made us flowers, violet." 
* "Listen, Tiger, those are my babies you're gnawing on and I don't appreciate it." 

If I listen carefully, I imagine the cacophony of voices. For the sake of peace and quiet, since I have about 3 dozen plants, it's probably good that they are silent. But they DO tell us when things are not going well. It's our job to pay attention, and, hopefully, do something about it. 

Now that my eyes are open, after last week's "House Plant 101" session at Gethsemane, I see signs of suffering all around me. Yellow and brown leaves, curling up and drying out; long leggy growth as stems lean desperately for more light; cracked leaves and stems; white powdery dust, small black bugs and spider webs. Oh, the horrors!

Yellow leaves may mean over-watering in some plants whereas brown leaves have dried out - from lack of water or overly dry or cold air. Long leggy stems mean the plant wants more light. Flowering plants that haven't flowered in a while probably also need more light. Shriveling edges of leaves is a sign of dry air or maybe cold drafts. Plants do get stressed when they're moved and need time to adjust to new spaces.

The first thing I learned at the plant talk was that you should keep plants in smaller pots until they've really filled them in with their roots. This means that in most cases, indoor plants should be left in the pots they were purchased or acquired in for a while. If they've filled out and really grown into the pot, you can tell by feeling the sides of the pot or checking to see if the roots are coming out of the bottom.

If you don't like the look of the pot the plant came in, you can simply drop it inside another prettier pot - so the outer pot is a holder. You can place something in the bottom to raise it up if needed. And make sure there is proper drainage - with holes in the plant's pot and a tray underneath the pot holder.

Only when the plant has filled out its pot and feels well-packed should you repot it and then, do so in a pot about 2 inches larger. I admit I've been guilty of putting plants in much larger pots, thinking it would give them room to grow. The truth is, according to plant experts, that will often just lead to weakened roots, over-watering, rotting and plant death. 

The second thing I re-learned was that not all plants will be on the same watering schedule - AND all plants have different water (and other) needs at different times of the year. In winter, most plants are somewhat dormant outside of a greenhouse, at least in the Midwest, and don't need much water or energy as they are not producing new growth. Feeding, trimming, pruning and re-potting should be done generally in the growing season, in spring to summer, not when it's below freezing even if the plants are in the house. 

The key is to reduce the amount and frequency of watering in winter. It sounds simple but I admit that when it's brutally cold and the air gets so dry in winter, I've given plants more water thinking their skins must be as dry as mine. And I've generally done a once a week circuit with the watering can around the house, with a few exceptions that get watered more often.

The third lesson: bugs will happen if you've had plants long enough.Some plants are more susceptible and should be watched but almost any plant may attract unwanted bugs, fungus, mold, fleas or other undesirables. The key is to catch it early so you can protect the plant and keep it healthy.

In my house, the crotons are clearly the hot vacation spots for spider mites and I regularly spray the plants with water tinged with gentle dish soap and a few drops of Tabasco to dislodge the visitors. I also take Q-tips with rubbing alcohol to further discourage their squatting between leaves.

Recently, the begonias I brought in from the porch had a white dusty mold all over its leaves. I should have been more diligent about cleaning up the dropped flowers. To fix it, I did a major triage and cut off all stems and leaves with white dust on it. Then I sprayed the crap out of what was left with the same water/soap/hot sauce substance - and they're looking downright perky again!

The last thing the plant expert shared was the "world's best-selling book on house plants," and I picked one up that day. It describes most major house plants and all their basic types and names of plants and detailed plant-by-plant care tips and trouble-shooting: The House Plant Expert, by Dr. D. G. Hessayon. 

Luckily, I have new tools and a firm resolve to make things right with my house plants. I am now armed and hopefully less dangerous to my houseplants. I look forward to getting to know them better.


Tuesday, January 28, 2014

For POTS sake!!

I've been digging in the dirt - first at our Uptown condo and now at our house - for about 20 years now and love trying and learning new things. With gardening, there is ALWAYS more to learn, and I was reminded of that once again last weekend when I attended a talk about house plants at Gethsemane.

To tell the truth, I didn't rush out the door or even start getting ready to go on such a cold Saturday morning without some hesitation. I could easily have stayed home with the hubs, and having to dig the car out after yet another snow storm did not help my reticence. 

Since I'm starting to think about what I want to tackle in the front yard (*see below*) IF and when this winter decides to give it up (hard to imagine on one of the top 20 coldest days in Chicago's history), I thought the plant talk would help get my mind *in the game*, er, garden. And being in a warm greenhouse for a few hours would be nice, too.

* I'll be ready to jump in this spring with the help of a landscape design class I'm taking next week at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I'd like to have a plan in place for adding some foundation plants including some evergreens to the front yard and to figure out how to take the garden to the next level. 

As a gardener, most of my green thumb and thinking is focused OUTSIDE, even though I bring some plants inside each winter to see how long they'll survive. Over the years, I've brought in herbs, geraniums, elephant ears (caladium), decorative or thai peppers and, this year, begonias. Most of them did not make it past January so my expectations are set fairly low, and I don't think about house plants when I am 'gardening.'

So I joined the household plant lecture with a few questions in mind. One of my plants had an ongoing bug problem, the begonias had a powdery mold or mildew on the leaves and a few other plants had not made the move from our very sunny condo to our fairly shady house very well. 

For some reason, it had not occurred to me that INDOOR plants were as complicated, varied and in need of attention as much as my OUTDOOR plants.

As the discussion continued, I realized I had been outright negligent of my indoor plants. Some died as a result, including the pretty pink-tinged long-leafed one that froze out on the sun porch one unexpectedly cold night last November. Some had come and gone fairly quickly, others had surely suffered for years but still managed to hang in there.

Is there a group of People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants as there is for animals? Would I be in trouble with them if such a group did exist? Possibly so.

I have taken my indoor plants, with whom I literally share space and air each day, for granted, as if they were stepchildren to my outdoor plants (although descriptive, as a stepparent, I dislike that phrase). 

The truth is, I have been negligent. I've excitedly brought a new plant home here and there and done my best to find its perfect spot - with the right amount of sunlight or shade. I've tried to introduce the newbies to the existing crew, which had grown to over 25 plants we discovered when we moved into our house last year.

But apart from my weekly watering and occasional cleanup of dead leaves, the indoor plants were more or less ignored unless I saw something shocking, like serious spider webs or lots of dropped leaves. (Gasp!)

One plant has been with me for 25 years and with my family for at least 40 years. For his years of 'service' and ability to defy death multiple times, he earned a name. He's a simple spider plant, he makes lots of babies each year that tease my cats, and even my mother knows this plant by name, Harry.

But Harry's indoor comrades have been less fortunate with my affections and attention. Only one other plant has a name in my house; it's a jade plant I got from a former neighbor named Jay, so Jayde came easily. No other plants have nicknames, and I don't even know many of their proper names!

For someone who spends so much time in her garden, this realization was shocking. So I have made it my mission to get acquainted with my houseplants, and make things right for them. And I will do it. Starting now...










Thursday, January 16, 2014

Mushrooms & More!

There are lots of great options for organic, locally or regionally grown food in Chicago these days but there are still times when I'm out of milk and have to go without or make a special trip to a store for it. Since I  have a caffeine habit (that I could break if I wanted to do so, but I don't, apparently), this issue comes up pretty regularly - and there's nothing like that caffeine-less headache to motivate me to get to the store.

The milk available at the area grocery stores, however, is not that great as far as taste or quality - at least not in the same ballpark as our farm share produce or eggs anyhow. Target and Jewel have brands that are supposedly organic, and maybe they are better than the average dairy products, or maybe they're not (that's for another entry). And, sure, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's milk "says" it's organic but it is still trucked all around the country to their stores, as far as I know.

We get the best milk from an Illinois dairy called Kilgus Farms - which is a family-owned farm that is organic and ethical and raises their cattle the way they were when I was a kid: on pasture land. Generally, we get this awesome milk delivered to our door via another amazing organic company, Farm Fresh Foodstuffs.

This amazing small company delivers organic food of ALL types TO YOUR DOOR! You can see what's available on their website, find great deals, seasonal and specialty items and learn all about the folks who make and grow the food on their website. They deliver twice a week in the city of Chicago as well as in the suburbs (and I'll write more about them another day as well).

My point is that I'm not always ready to put in an order (even though you only need a $20 order with Farm Fresh Foodstuffs to get free delivery) and I'm often SANS milk, which means SANS caffeine, which means SAD FACE.

So when I stopped into the nearby newly opened mushroom store and saw Kilgus Farms milk for sale in their cooler, next to lots of mushrooms, Nueske bacon, cheeses and other goodies, I was elated. I can now find the BEST organic milk only a few short blocks from home!

I picked up some mushrooms to put in a fried rice and grabbed some stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer this past Monday, as I had a friend coming over for dinner. The stuffed mushrooms were excellent and the bag of mixed 'shrooms were delish in the main dish too.

They grow mushrooms year-round, five different varieties to be exact: Portabella, Crimini (aka Baby Bella), White Button, Shiitake and Oyster. 

River Valley Farmer's Table has MORE THAN just mushrooms - and I can't wait to go back and try some of their soups, sandwiches etc. - as they serve breakfast and lunch. What a great find - and just down the street from our house!!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Water Meter Installed!

Save water, save money and 'save the earth'? It sounds too good to be true but it's the real deal, folks.
I heard about the City of Chicago's free program to install water meters from several friends last year and thought it was a great idea to increase water awareness. Even though we live next to the largest source of fresh water in the world with our proximity to Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes, that does not mean water is an unlimited resource we can take for granted.

In some parts of the country, water aquifers are drying up and many Western states are already experiencing water supply issues. Add population growth, climate change and trends of increasing water usage per American citizen and it's pretty clear that we should pay attention to our water and use it more wisely.

Homeowners in Chicago are charged flat fees for water and sewer services based on the size of the building and accompanying yard areas. Our original water bill from the City of Chicago assessed the charges for our single family home in the city as follows:
 3 floors 26' wide building
(0001) Hose Frontage 31" to 62"

With the existing un-metered system in Chicago, home and building owners are charged basically by the square foot instead of actual usage. How then are the actual charges calculated?

The Chicago City Council legislates the cost of water and sewer services and publishes the rates on the city's web site per 1,000 gallons (water) and per 1,000 cubic feet (sewer). Rates for 2014 jumped up from 2013.

"Effective January 1, 2014, the water rate will increase by 15% and the sewer rate will increase from 92% to 96% of the water charge. The metered water charge will be $3.32 per 1,000 gallons (or $24.80 per 1,000 cubic feet)."

Okay, so that's how the system works and it means some people pay for water they haven't actually used, and maybe some intense gardeners are getting a deal. But it's hard to know what's fair or equitable with this type of system. I mean, how are people going to know how much water they pay for or possibly waste each year if they don't know how much water they actually use, right?

According to the EPA, the average American uses 300 gallons of water each day - and about 70% of that water is used indoors. About 27% is used in toilets, 22% for washing clothes, 17% for showers and 16% via faucets. This gives us an idea of what we use water FOR on an average day.

I was skeptical at first but any Chicagoan would be when they hear the city is going to give them something for free that will also save them money. What's the catch, I wondered, but I checked it out.

The program is called Meter Save - and it is voluntary and free for homeowners in the city and surrounding suburbs that get their water supply from the City of Chicago. Besides getting the meter installed for free, the city guarantees that homeowners will not pay more than their previous water bills for a full seven years if they opt in to the voluntary program.

And, to sweeten the deal even further, the city includes a water saving gift - such as a rain barrel or water conservation kits for indoor or outdoor use. I picked the rain barrel and can't wait to install it this spring near our front yard, as we already have one in back.I'm told the city is a little backed up with deliveries of rain barrels but since it's still below freezing, that's not a problem.

When I called to sign up last June, the crew that came to the house said our water shut-off valve, what they called the "buffalo box" needed to be repaired or replaced. They showed me the valve in the parkway in front of our house and that it was bent at an odd angle. If there was a problem, they couldn't shut off the water supply to our house. They advised me to have the valve fixed before getting a water meter installed and they put in a request to have the city fix it.

Once the city fixed the valve (in December), MeterSave called me back to re-schedule the installation and on Jan. 3rd, two commercial plumbers and an inspector arrived again on time. In less than 30 minutes, they had the water meter and electronic reader installed in our home. It was fast and painless.

We'll now get our water bills every 2 months instead of every 6 months and we can see the meter turn to gauge our water usage whenever we like. The city workers will drive by and electronically read the meter for our future bills and we're on our way to conserving water - and money. Voila!