City Gardener

It was a lovely day for a cycle ride in May. I was happy to be able to cycle to volunteer for a few hours at the Conservatory Greenhouse on the U of M's St. Paul campus. There, I was allowed to pick chores from a list written on a white board in the head house , or control room of the Conservatory. Among the tasks were vine maintenance and pest contol - with and without chemicals. Along the way I saw lovely and amazing orchids in full bloom.  Desert-adapted orchid When I think of  orchids  the image I have in my head is that of an epiphytic plant clinging to the branch of a tree in a damp jungle. But I was surprised to discover the existance of an orchid growing in the rocky granite soil of the desert room. The plant is native to Kenya and South Africa where it grows in full sun on rocky outcropings. The leaves are stiff and spiky like an aloe plant. The flower spikes can be up to 2 meters tall; I suspect height is so that pollinators can locate them in the rocky environment where

Some zombies are real - if one includes black sooty mold in the class of zombies. They are nearly impossible to eradicate, and they will always bounce back from a beating. Like Sisyphus and his stone the most frequent activities seem to be repetitive, trying to keep the existing plants in good condition. Never mind expanding the garden with new plants or hardscape features, just staying at "zero" takes a lot of effort. As a volunteer, my work allows the greenhouse staff more time for higher-level tasks. Moldy windows and sills Today my assignment at the U of M Conservatory greenhouse was to clean sooty mold off from window glass, and to clean debris that has collected on window sills. I've written about  this topic before , and I reiterate the subject to highlight the constant attention to detail needed to keep the environment clean for the plants to continue to thrive in a confined space. The picture isn't pretty, but I show it again on my blog to emphasize the ever

It's springtime at the University of Minnesota Conservatory Greenhouse where I've been volunteering. Outside the door is a small terrace garden of cacti that survive the winters here in St. Paul. Among the residents of the terrace are three characters native to western Minnesota, near Buffalo Ridge and the high prairie plateau that stretches through the central plains of the Midwest. Other non-native residents surviving in this south-facing sheltered spot are a few Mexican agaves, aloe, Colorado tree cactus, and lace cactus (Echinocerus reichenbachii). Echinocerus, lace cactus Our western Minnesota native: Opuntia macrorhiza, paddle cactus Opuntia fragilis, brittle cactus Pelecyphora vivipara (formerly Coryphantha vivipara), ball cactus  Opuntia macrorhiza, native to Minnesota Fragile cactus, native to Minnesota Pelecyphora vivipara (formerly Coryphantha vivipara), ball cactus Ball cactus, native to Minnesota

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

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, and even toxic, to many of the pests

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