City Gardener Sandbox

If you were raised in the Christian religion, you've probably heard of frankincense and myrrh. But, do you know much about them, beyond being fragrant commodities as precious as gold? Until today, I could not have described frankincense, myrrh, or citronella. But, by the time I was finished with my volunteer shift at the U of M Conservatory greenhouse I knew more about them. However, I will have to wait for another time to actually see a myrrh tree. I'm not sure if the Conservatory has a myrrh tree. I do know myrrh is in the Burseraceae family, the same family as the frankincense tree. They are not in the myrtle family as the name would suggest. The myrtles (or Myrtaceae) are the gum trees of the Australasia, one which gives us citronella (see below). Maintenance of small trees The day's duties assigned to me were to provide general light maintenance to a group of small trees located in the desert and subtropical rooms of the greenhouse. Maintenance included pruning and mak

 What scents do you find repellent? Here's a question: how many natural plant scents do you find repellent? The one that comes to the top of my mind is the scent of the newly blossomed corpse flower, Amorphophallus titanum . It smells very much like the name implies. If I could produce a scratch-and-sniff blog post, I would be tempted. The odor is horrible to humans, but sweet to some flying insects which are also attracted to rotting flesh. But perhaps you cannot tolerate the scent of clove, or eucalyptus? Insect pests are like us in this respect. Pests in the garden and greenhouse Insects, arachnids, fungi, and viruses. Their numbers are legion. The battle is constant. The most effective weapon is vigilance. In addition to vigilance, there are biological controls made from natural compounds which are generally non-toxic to humans. Included in this category are essential oils. For example cinnamon, rosemary, sage, neem, clove, peppermint and many others. These oils are repellent,

Let me try to convince you The intent of writing a blog is to share my experience with gardening, both indoor and out. So, writing about a hiking trail seems a bit tangential to the original intent of the my mission statement -  "gardening from a high-rise apartment in a cold climate." But bear with me, maybe I can illustrate how this trail is really a very long garden, and I'm doing field work , not purely hiking for pleasure. Why we are visiting this park As I wrote in my previous blog post  we chose this area for hiking because we could do a multiday hike, walking from inn to inn using only our own two legs and public transportation (not including the flight). We walked from Muir Woods into the section of the Golden Gate Rec Area located in Marin County. Nestled within the park is the little village of Muir Beach where we spent a couple of nights enjoying coastal trails in the area. The sunny coastal trails were a great contrast to the shady quiet of Muir Woods. Golden

The goal With less than 14 lbs in our backpacks we wanted to hike through a gorgeous woodland, walking from inn to inn where we’d find  a comfy place to eat and sleep each night. Call it glamping. The setting Most of the northern California coast is dotted with an almost continuous succession of federal and state parks and reserves. At least to my eye it appears that way on the map. In terms of plant and wild life, these areas are certainly a national treasure. Sadly, as a Midwesterner I know little about them or the wonders they contain. But beginning in 2022 and again this year we were able to visit Muir Wood National Monument, located in Marin County, a few miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. Route to the redwoods We chose Muir Woods after reading an article about the park in the travel section of a publication (I've now forgotten which publication). The article described how one could fly into San Francisco, take a ferry (or bus) across the Bay to the city