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Showing posts from November, 2010

A tree is not a tooth

J.J. Levison, 1909 in the journal Mycologia , 1(2): 77: Everyone recognizes the necessity of filling a decayed cavity in a tooth. Everyone knows that the decayed material in the cavity must be removed in order to prevent the destruction of the whole tooth and that the opening must then be filled in order to keep out the further accumulation of injurious substances. Still, there are some who might be surprised to hear of scientific tree "dentistry," or tree filling, although the underlying principles and necessity for such treatment are alike in both human beings and trees. As recently as 1974, the US Forest Service recommended "shaping the wound into a vertical oval" and applying "commercial tree dressings such as orange shellac or those with an asphalt base."  Proper disclosure: the Forest Service has cautioned readers that the advice in "Your Tree's Trouble May Be You!" might be out dated. By the 1990s, "tree dentistry" was

Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkins in the city

Tree Walk: Sexy Trees of the Marigny Calendar

A recent Candy Chang project really wowed us.  Candy has generously given us permission to reprint the Sexy Trees of the Marigny Calendar post below.  The original post can be read here .  Text below and photographs are courtesy of Candy Chang. Living in hot New Orleans has made me appreciate the simple kindness of tree shade like never before. The city lost over 100,000 trees after Katrina, and many neighborhoods roast in the sun. To promote tree planting in my neighborhood, I collaborated with local nonprofit Marigny Green to create the Sexy Trees of the Marigny 2011 Calendar. Marveling at the sexiness of a Live Oak tree (now featured for the month July), I photographed local trees and paired them with maps and fun facts to promote Marigny Green’s great work. Marigny Green is a neighborhood volunteer committee of the Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association. They promote sustainable living through local initiatives on tree planting, biking, energy-efficient lighting, a

Then & Now: Bleecker Street Cherry Trees

The row of cherry trees ( Prunus serrulata 'Kwanzan', I think) in the NYU garden on Bleecker Street bloomed spectacularly this spring.  The trees were under-planted by several herbaceous perennials including tulips. The above scene was photographed in April and the one below in November.  The difference is dramatic but no less colorful. Read more about Kwanzan cherries at University of Florida IFAS Extension.

Park-adjacent living

Watch out Central Park: Families are flocking to more intimate neighborhood parks around New York City , wrote Rebecca Morse for The New York Observer Playground (November/December 2010). Thank you to managing editor Shaina Feinberg for permission to reprint the article.  The accompanying photographs of Teardrop Park in Battery Park City are our own. Living within blocks of Central Park is the New York City dream, reflected in literature, in movies, in advertising campaigns—everywhere, it seems, except reality. Only those who live here know the deep, dark secrets of the most famous city park: that its size and breadth can make planning play dates a pain; that adjacent Upper West and East Side real estate can be more like unreal estate; and that, like the sidewalks they head into the green to escape, this park is packed. In recent years, New Yorkers in the know have turned away from the center to smaller parks that combine a quiet accessibility with familiarity and a neighborhood f

Autumn color on the High Line

Not having a garden, I have photographed plants growing on the High Line to share in this month's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day hosted by May Dreams Gardens .  For more information on the planting at the High Line visit the park's website.  (Note: these photographs were taken at the end of October 2010.) Three flower maple (Acer triflorum) on the 10th Avenue Square (taken by R. Idrus). Smooth sumac ( Rhus glabra ) near the Diller-Von Furstenberg Sundeck. Also near the sundeck, 'Raydon's Favorite' aromatic aster ( Symphiotrichum oblongifolis ). Golden-colored thread-leaf bluestar ( Amsonia hubrichtii ) in the Chelsea Grasslands (taken by R. Idrus).

Call for books: Ethnobotany of trees & forests

First Nations Garden of the Montreal Botanical Garden Ethnobotany is study of the relationship between people and plants, wrote Gabriell DeBear Paye, in Cultural Uses of Plants: A Guide to Learning about Ethnobotany .  The word ethnobotany is a combination of ethno , meaning "people" or "cultural group," and botany , meaning "the study of plants." Inspired by the responses (thank you to Les of A Tidewater Gardener and Vicky of  TGAW ) to our recent post about the comeback of the American chestnut , we've decided to make a list of books with (North American) trees and forests as central characters and to review them here . We are calling on you our readers to suggest books in the comment section as well as on publishers and authors to send us copies of your books for a review on the blog.  We look forward to hearing from all of you! Glass wall of cones (tamarack?), First Nations Garden of the Montreal Botanical Garden Here's our readi

American chestnut (soup) poised for a comeback

Image: American chestnut ( source ) This post's title was taken from "The Root of the Matter" by Tom Christopher (Martha Stewart Living, Nov. 2010) about the loss of "emblematic American trees" as a result of chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, emerald ash borer and Asian long-horned beetle, sudden oak death, and mountain pine beetle (via climate change).  Christopher noted that the American chestnut ( Castanea dentata ) "is posed for a comeback" as a blight-resistant species courtesy of wheat genes. Read Christopher's entire article here . Recently I drank cream of European chestnut ( Castanea sativa ) soup and look forward to a local version of this earthy soup .

Munich awash in carotenoids, too

Have you seen the Fall Color in NYC photographs on our Facebook page?  The numerous honeylocusts, green ashes, and London planetrees in our NYC neighborhood are full of yellow and orange leaves.  The leaf pigments responsible for this coloration are carotenoids.  (Red and pin oaks show brown leaves in the fall as tannins are revealed with the breakdown of carotenoids and chlorophyll.)  Most trees in Munich are also exhibiting yellow fall color.  A friend commented that she missed the red fall color so common in the U.S. northeast. Horse chestnuts ( Aesculus hippocastanum ) are brilliantly yellow along museum row near the Technische Universität München.  A row of street trees in the neighborhood near the Theresienstr. U-Bahn (subway) station are not to be outdone. A willow ( Salix ) growing along Kleinhesseloher See (Kleinhesseloher Lake). And a European beech ( Fagus sylvatica ) near Karolinenplatz is colored bronze!

More Farm City 2010: mobile garden and diy hydroponics

In addition to the people-plant interaction of Roussel Giraudy figural wheat sculptures , I saw Tattfoo Tan's S.O.S. Mobile Classroom and Boswyck Farms's soda bottle hydroponic planter tutorial. Intrigued by bicycle-based commerce he saw in New York and in India, Tattfoo Tan developed a mobile garden workshop-on-a-bicycle -- the S.O.S. Mobile Classroom -- to "engage visitor by doing workshop and providing a real to life scale model of what a mobile garden and a compost bin would be by hauling all the necessary equipment along."  Hens travel with the classroom. The hydroponic system showcased by Boswyck Farms was geared towards children.  But it was a great starter for a hydroponic newbie like me!  The first step is to cut off the top one-third of a large plastic bottle.  A soda bottle was used in the demonstration.  Remove and cut a hole in the bottle cap and thread through several pieces of rope for irrigation.  Recap and add growing medium to the top one