More Fall Plantings

I'm definitely leaning into the retail plant therapy right now. Garden Treasures Nursery has some great finds, including big espalier fruit trees, the 'Koto no Ito' Japanese maple I've wanted for ages, and a variegated osmanthus! The fruit trees are huge, and Kate and I both hurt our backs trying to install them. And the osmanthus just excites me because I don't normally see the variegated one at nurseries (this is the one that blooms in the fall, and has a strong fragrance).

New Activity in the Front Yard

 I'm installing a new, mostly ornamental bed on the north side of the property, just to the east of the driveway. The featured specimen tree of this bed is a Japanese maple, 'Koto no Ito' ("harp strings"), and it's surrounded by a hydrangea, a couple rhododendrons, a couple leucothoe, some blueberries, and some native huckleberries, among other things. It's a combination of purgatory plants that badly need a home and some recent acquisitions. I don't have a strict design in mind -- just going with the flow and seeing what happens.

Kate and I also did some much-needed maintenance on the existing beds.

Gorgeous Snag is a Garden Treasure

 For years I've driven west on WA-530 and admired this snag from a distance. Serendipitously, when Kate and I were checking out the Garden Treasures nursery, we found out that the snag is located on their farm! 

Bioplastic is Not the Answer

The data doesn't look good. The best solution is still reduction... in a society that makes it hopelessly difficult. Still, we can't go on believing this greenwashing bullshit.

Bioplastic Just as Toxic as Traditional Plastic, Study Finds

“Bio-based and biodegradable plastic are not any safer than other plastics,” Lisa Zimmermann, aquatic ecotoxicology PhD student at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and lead author of the study, said in a statement. 

Previous research have also shown that bioplastics marketed as compostable or biodegradable often don’t actually break down unless they’re sent to specific facilities, and bioplastics made of organic material are most often made of agricultural crops, which compete with food production for land use. Plus, agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. 

John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA’s oceans campaign director, said the new research adds more weight to his concerns about the utility of bioplastics. 

“Bioplastics, like all plastics, commonly contain chemicals that are largely unregulated, even though many are known to cause cancer, reproductive health problems, or other serious diseases. Before introducing new materials, the chemicals involved should be disclosed, tested, and regulated,” said Hocevar, who wasn’t involved in the new study. 

(Read the full article here.)

Mandala Garden Update

Progress on the mandala garden continues. Kate and I have finished the whole outline of the rock wall, and just need to work on building up the height and filling in gaps. One wheelbarrow at a time, we're slowly filling the beds with a mixture of compost and sand and random organic matter.

Whew! We've come a long way since we first started this project. I've learned a lot through trial and error about dry-stacking rocks, and I feel like I'm finally starting to get the hang of it now that we're almost done. C'est la vie.

I Tried Amanita Muscaria for the First Time

...and they were delicious! Kate and I harvested some from a nearby schoolyard, and carefully prepared them by boiling twice (throwing out the water each time), and then sautéing. Surprisingly, these mushrooms still have a good texture and nutty flavor, even after all the boiling. 

To be clear -- because I know some folks will be concerned -- yes, Amanita muscaria, also known as the fly agaric, is classified as poisonous and/or hallucinogenic. The main psychoactive substances in this mushroom are the neurotoxins ibotenic acid and muscimol. However, paraboiling and draining out the water will break down the psychoactive and toxic components. It's worth mentioning that this method doesn't work for other, truly poisonous mushrooms, like Amanita phalloides (death cap mushroom), which contain deadly amatoxins that cannot be cooked out of the mushroom.

We successfully prepared these mushrooms and did not experience any ill or psychoactive effects (and from what I hear, the mind-altering effects are rather unpleasant anyway). If you do find these in the wild and want to give them a try, do your research and make sure you have a positive ID, which tends to be pretty easy with their red caps and white spots.

Flirting with Pawpaws

I have a weird obsession with pawpaws. I think I first heard about this plant years ago from a coworker at Gray Barn Nursery, and it's never completely left my mind. Asimina triloba is a deciduous fruit tree that seems like it would belong in the tropics, but it's actually native to eastern North America. When I was told about the flavor of this fruit -- a creamy blend of banana, mango, and pineapple -- I was hooked. That sounds (almost unbelievably) delicious. I also feel cheated because I spent the first two decades of my life in the dang Midwest and no one told me about this tree!

Years later, I still haven't tasted one, though I do still fantasize about it. It's tricky, because pawpaws are fruits that need to be eaten at the perfect ripeness, and they don't stay fresh for very long. I've always wanted to try growing them, but I haven't sought them out (yet). However, I've been thinking about it again after seeing pawpaws in the news:

The Promise of Pawpaw

Issues like climate change, economic inequity and access to food have brought more attention to this creamy fruit and its resilient tree.

The New York Times

Pawpaws are the northernmost member of the mostly tropical custard apple family, kin to soursops, cherimoyas, sugar apples and ylang-ylangs. Nutritionally these sweet, rich fruits are a lot like bananas — high in vitamins, minerals and energy-supplying calories. (They are not related to the papaya, even though papaya is sometimes called pawpaw.)

“Everybody in the botanical world, everybody in the environmental world — they’re all familiar with the pawpaw,” said Matthew Dain, 28, of the New York Restoration Project, which helps manage green spaces and gardens in New York City.

The group has recently increased its focus on pawpaws, distributing trees and spring seed-starting kits. Pawpaw trees stay small enough to fit a couple into small city plots — at least two varieties are needed for cross-pollination — and can withstand the already prevalent effects of climate change, like warmer temperatures or more pests and diseases.

(Read the full article here.)