It may surprise you, but rain gardens are a type of xeriscape.


Do you know any other edible plants that would grow in a xeriscape? 
Let us know in the comments!

How to grow bay laurel

Bay laurel plants can be grown from seed or cuttings. The easiest way is to buy a bare-root tree. These trees are dioecious, so some are male, and some are female. Since we mostly grow them for their leaves, this isn’t a problem. If you want berries, however, you’ll need one of each to get a crop.


These shrubs lend themselves very well to the home garden in USDA Hardiness Zones 8 through 10. You can also grow them as containerized indoor plants. A 5-gallon pot is big enough. Bay laurel prefers full sun to light shade. If grown indoors, it will need lots of bright direct sunlight.


Bay laurel prefers slightly acidic soil with good drainage. These trees benefit from wind protection, so select a site with that in mind. You can use bay laurel as a topiary, shaping and twisting it to your heart’s delight.


Bay pests and diseases

Bay laurel trees protect themselves against most pests and diseases. Soft scale (Coccus hesperidum) and jumping plant lice (Trioza alacris) are two insect exceptions. Phytophthora root rot and leaf spot and shot hole disease make also occur.


Yellowing leaves on bay laurel often mean they need more nitrogen. A lab-based soil test is a good idea.


Other laurels

And what about those other laurels? It is not safe to assume they are all the same. Some of them are poisonous. And others can be a real headache.

Tree roots may surprise you.

We used to think trees looked pretty much the same underground as they did aboveground. We once thought trees sent taproots deep into the earth to suck up water and nutrients and hold themselves upright. All of those things are true except for the first one. Now we know that most tree roots extend laterally far more than horizontally. Most tree root systems extend 4 to 7 times the diameter of the aboveground portion. The root system of a mature oak can extend up to 250 feet! We also know that they communicate and exchange nutrients with neighboring trees, but that's another discussion. Today, our garden topic is root plates.


What are root plates?

Root plates are the combined disk-shaped mass of roots and soil immediately surrounding the trunk of a tree. If you have ever seen a tree knocked over by a strong wind, you have probably seen a root plate. ​

How can we help our trees?

So, what can we do to keep our trees from falling over?

• Mulch 2-4 inches deep around trees, but not touching the trunk.
• Avoid rototilling or digging near trees.
• Top-dress around trees regularly with aged manure or compost to maintain healthy soil and provide food for your trees.
• Minimize heavy traffic directly under trees.
• Install trees where their roots won’t damage sidewalks, driveways, or building foundations and need to be cut.

Did you know that corn, sunflowers, and wheat have root plates? I didn't either.

How to grow nutmeg

You can grow nutmeg from seed or start with a seedling. If you get an untreated nutmeg fruit for growing, place it in a paper bag and put it in the refrigerator for up to 45 days. Stratification of the seed in cold triggers hormonal changes that help the plant grow properly. Soak the seed in water for 24 hours prior to planting. Then plant the seed one inch deep in loose, nutrient-rich soil. Keep the soil warm and moist. You should have a nutmeg sprout in six to eight weeks.


Nutmeg can be grown in a large container (10 gallons is ideal). If you put nutmeg trees in the ground and have more than one, space them 30 to 40 feet apart.


Nutmeg trees prefer hot, wet weather, neutral soil, and good drainage. You’ll need to keep the soil moist but not soggy. Dry soil and nutmeg trees don’t mix. Two inches of water each week is a good standard for these trees. And mulching around your nutmeg tree (but not touching the bark) will help retain moisture and stabilize temperatures.


Top dressing around your nutmeg tree with composted manure will provide many important nutrients. You can also use a standard fertilizer or fish emulsion.


Nutmeg trees grow best in dappled shade with four to six hours of direct sunlight and 77–86°F temperatures.


Nutmeg tree problems

Once established, nutmeg trees have few problems. Holes in seeds indicate cocoa weevils are present. Anthracnose leaf spot and thread blight are the two most common diseases. You can use a Bordeaux mixture or fixed copper to prevent both.


Many people have used nutmeg and mace from the grocery store, dried, ground, and bottled. Like many other edibles, homegrown or simply freshly grated, nutmeg and mace add new layers of taste and fragrance to your baking.

If grown from seed, it will take six years before you get a crop. You can also grow star anise from a branch cutting. These trees prefer loamy, slightly acidic soil (pH 6.0–7.5) and constant moisture. Your star anise tree will grow best with one inch of water each week, allowing the soil to dry out between waterings.


Top dressings of aged manure or compost can ensure your star anise gets the proper nutrients in spring and summer. Do not feed your tree in autumn or winter.


You can also grow star anise as a hedge, but it will require regular pruning because of how quickly it grows. Pruning star anise generates amazing smells!


Unripe fruits are harvested and left to dry. They can be stored for years in an airtight container.


Problems associated with star anise

Because of the oils that make star anise so fragrant, insect pests are not a problem for this tree. Alternaria blight and downy mildew, however, can cause problems. Use neem oil or fixed copper to prevent these problems.


Did you know that star anise used to be used to make Tamiflu? I didn’t, either.

Eggs are elliptical and pale yellow, larvae are white with dark heads, and pupae are small and cream-colored.


Palestriped flea beetle lifecycle

Mated females lay eggs in the soil near the base of food plants each spring. When they hatch, larvae move into the soil where they feed on roots for 2 or 3 weeks before pupating. Pupae match hatch mid-summer through early autumn. There can be up to three generations each year.


After pupating, adults emerge and begin feeding on the underside of leaves. As temperatures drop, adults look for sheltering dirt clods, plant debris, and weeds to protect them through winter.


Palestriped flea beetle damage

While the larvae chew on the roots, adult beetles are the ones that cause the most damage. Palestriped flea beetle feeding looks a lot like shot hole disease. It can also be mistaken for cavity spot. As beetles gnaw on the underside of leaves, the damaged areas die off and create small irregular holes. When this feeding occurs on seedlings and young plants, the damage can significantly reduce yield over the life of the plant or kill them outright.


How to control palestriped flea beetles

Pesticides generally don’t work against flea beetles. You can reduce the likelihood of them setting up shop in your garden by keeping attractive weeds away from your plot. By attractive, I mean members of the same plant families the beetles prefer. You can use that same logic turned around by employing trap crops to lure palestriped flea beetles away from garden plants you’d rather they left alone.


Monitor seedlings twice a week for signs of palestriped flea beetle feeding. Knock any beetles you find into a container of soapy water. Once plants are established, a little damage won’t cause significant problems.

Other members of the tea family have the same characteristics. A couple of North American natives are Georgia’s Franklin tree (Franklinia alatamaha), which is now extinct in the wild but still cultivated as an ornamental, and Loblolly-bay (Gordonia lasianthus), found throughout southeastern North America are both members of the tea family. But what about that cup of tea?


Tea plant basics

Tea plants (Camellia sinensis) are evergreen shrubs that can grow six feet tall. They have deep taproots and use a lot of water. This makes sense because their native regions get an average of 50” of water a year. Those regions are also a lot warmer than, say, Minnesota. Tea plants can be grown outdoors in Zones 7-12 or indoors year-round. Because tea plants have large taproots, they need large containers.


There are four unique tea plant varieties. Chinese small leaf tea (C. sinensis var. sinensis) and Chinese large leaf tea (C. s. var. assamica) are the most commonly grown tea varieties. There are thousands of cultivars.


Tea plants grow more slowly and produce the best flavor at higher elevations. They prefer moist, nutrient-rich, slightly acidic soil with a pH of 5.5 to 6.5 and full sun. It may take 4 or 5 years of growth before you start harvesting leaves from your tea plant, but it will grow and produce for another 40-100 years.


Harvesting tea leaves

Harvesting tea leaves can be a labor-intensive process. Young tea plant leaves and terminal buds (flushes) are harvested by hand to make high-quality tea. Lesser teas are harvested by machine. Depending on the local climate, harvesting may occur twice a year or as often as every week or two.


After being picked, leaves are allowed to wilt for a while. Then they are bruised or torn. Among professional tea producers, they are disrupting or macerating the leaves. Damaging the leaves this way allows enzymes to start oxidizing or breaking the leaves down. Next, leaves are rolled between human hands or crushed by machinery. Then the leaves are heated to halt oxidation. This process is called the green kill. The leaves are then dried completely, packaged, and sent to grocery stores, restaurants, and tea shops.


Tea plant problems

Tea plants are susceptible to bacterial diseases, including crown gall and bacterial canker. Nematodes and caterpillars commonly attack tea plants. But the biggest threat to tea plants comes from fungi. Anthracnose, armillaria root rot, black rot, and damping-off are a few fungal diseases that strike tea plants.


Like camellias, tea plants make lovely additions to tea gardens, patios, and sunny rooms, depending on where you live.

Check your milkweed plants regularly for those tiny black specks. And remember, if you are planting milkweed for monarch butterflies, be sure to plant native varieties, not tropical varieties. It matters a lot if you’re a monarch.

Large yellow underwing lifecycle

Adult moths generally fly from July to September, but those flight patterns have expanded in recent years. Females lay clusters of tiny, pearl-like eggs in the soil or on host plants. If you were to look closely, you would see that these eggs look ribbed or have a netting pattern.


Eggs start white but soon turn grayish-pink. After they hatch, these tiny caterpillars may feed a little bit, but the real damage occurs as temperatures rise. Just when your tomato, spinach, and strawberry plants are coming to life, cutworms emerge at night, devouring young leaves and severing new stems. After eating their fill, they return to the soil. There, they surround themselves with hard, rust-colored oblong cases where they pupate. Adult moths emerge 2-3 weeks later, and the cycle begins again.


Host plants

Adult large yellow underwings are attracted to butterfly bush, ragwort, and red valerian. But it is larval feeding that causes all the damage. Larvae feed on the stems and leaves of young plants. The following plants (and other members of the same families) are commonly used as food by large yellow underwing larvae:

•   Beets (Beta)
•   Broccoli and cabbage (Brassica)
•   Carrots (Daucus)
•   Grapes (Vitis)
•   Lettuce (Lactuca)
•   Rhubarb
•   Spinach
•   Strawberries (Freesia)
•   Tomatoes and potatoes (Nightshade family)

Carnations, chrysanthemums, dahlias, dandelions, freesia, gladiolas, sweet violet, and grasses are also vulnerable to cutworm feeding. But planting calendula in your garden will help to deter these pests.


Controlling large yellow underwing moths

These flying pests are attracted to lights at night. If you feel so inclined, you can sit on the porch with a butterfly net and put an end to their destructive ways with a container of soapy water or a garden shoe. Or, you can go out at night with a flashlight and handpick the buggers before too much damage is done. You might also use a garden claw to gently disturb the soil around affected plants. The larvae tend to stay near the surface, so you may be able to find and remove those pests that way. Drench tests can also flush cutworms out of the soil.

Lectins as toxins


The toxic warfare response may be what triggered Mr. Gundry's belief that lectins cause human disease. Lectins are toxic in specific situations. They are the reason why beans and other legumes are difficult for us to digest. That’s why we cook them. The heat breaks down the lectins (among other things).



Can lectins hurt me?

Some plants contain enough lectin to cause illness or even death. Castor oil beans are one example - but who wants to eat those? ​

In most cases, we typically can not eat enough lectin-containing plants to hurt us. 


As always, take sensational media with a grain of salt. And cook your beans.

We’ve all heard more about pandemics in the past couple of years than anyone would care to know. But the plants in your garden are in a PAN-demic of their own. PAN is short for peroxyacetyl nitrate. [You can see why we call it PAN.]

PAN is second only to ozone in its toxicity to plants. As a type of air pollution, it is hardest on small plants and young leaves.


What is PAN?

PAN occurs when sunlight hits car exhaust and industrial gases. We won’t get into the chemistry of it or the different types of PANs. It’s enough to say that hydrocarbons interact with nitrogen in the air, creating problems for plants. PANs occur in high-traffic areas and industrialized regions.


Vulnerable plants

Like other garden issues, not all plants are affected equally. Beets, cane fruits, celery, dill, endive, escarole, fennel, lettuces, melons, oats, peppers, pinto beans, potatoes, spinach, sunflowers, Swiss chard, and tomatoes are all vulnerable to PANs in the air. If you live in an area where PAN might be a problem, broccoli, cabbages, corn, cucumbers, lima beans, onions, radishes, sorghum, and wheat should perform better than more sensitive plants.

Predatory mosquito development

Predatory mosquitos start out like other mosquitos. White, football-shaped eggs are laid in tree cavities and other spaces that contain water. They also use all the other stagnant waters that pesky mosquitos use: flower pots, pet watering bowls, patio furniture, and tires. Mosquito eggs are the size of a grain of sand.


The eggs hatch into larvae. Predatory mosquito larvae go through four growth stages or instars. As they grow, they feed on anything nearby that moves, including each other. And this presents a problem.


The problem with predatory mosquitos is that you generally haven’t been able to buy them. Unlike our cheery ladybugs and voracious praying mantis, predatory mosquitos don’t take kindly to mass commercial breeding programs. They simply eat each other. Instead of hundreds of helpful predators, you’d end up with a handful of overfed gluttons. Scientists are working on this. For now, the best thing you can do is maintain a healthy environment with lots of biodiversity and use pesticides judiciously.


While Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) will kill biting mosquitos, it doesn’t seem to affect their predatory cousins.

Protecting your plants

Healthy plants can protect themselves better, so keep them well-fed and watered. Also, the damage occurs most often during warm, humid days with no wind. Monitor air quality in your area and give your plants a light shower from the hose on days with poor air quality.


You can also help your plants (and yourself) by learning about the industries currently or recently active in your area (or upwind). And think about how you spend your money. Are you supporting companies that protect the environment or opting for cheap stuff?

Where to grow tree collards

Tree collards should be three feet apart. And they will readily cross-pollinate with other members of the cabbage family. Tree collards grow best in nutrient-rich, slightly alkaline soil.


Tree collards thrive in dappled shade and prefer protection from afternoon sunlight. They do not grow well in full shade.


Tree collards are relatively drought tolerant but perform best in well-aerated soil with regular mulching and top dressing. And they’ll grow bigger and better with regular irrigation in summer. It’s always a good idea to have your soil tested by a reputable lab before fertilizing. Adding too many nutrients can cause more problems than nutrient deficiencies.


Tree collards pests and diseases

These plants are relatively trouble-free. Imported cabbageworm butterflies are the primary pest of tree collards. Handpicking the caterpillars and extermigating the eggs are your best control methods. Snails and slugs are less of a problem than seen on their shorter cousins. And aphid infestations tend to be localized and short-lived. Let the ladybugs and other beneficial insects take care of those pests for you. Ladybugs won’t be able to do anything about the deer and other herbivores, though.


Powdery mildew is a common problem for tree collards, so maintain good airflow and keep your plants healthy.


To keep your tree collards attractive and productive, it’s a good idea to prune out stems as you harvest leaves. If you want your tree collards to reach full height, you may want to stake them upright. When growing naturally, they tend to fall over, creating an arching tangle similar to a blackberry bramble.

We’ve all heard social networks help us to be healthy and successful. It ends up that trees have been networking quite intimately for a very long time.


Tree networking takes two forms. They frequently share nutrients indirectly, using soil microorganisms as go-betweens. And they fuse their root systems in natural root grafts, called anastomoses.

How do roots graft?

Natural root grafts occur when relatively small roots of two different trees come into contact with each other. As they grow, they fuse, creating mutually accessible cambium layers and vascular bundles that allow them to share water, nutrients, and the products of photosynthesis. 


Why does this happen?

More than 150 plant species exhibit natural root grafts, according to researchers. There is debate about whether this occurs due to overcrowding or if plants purposefully graft their roots onto neighboring roots. There is also debate whether this action is beneficial or verging on parasitism. Most researchers lean toward the mutually beneficial explanation. Potatoes and strawberries frequently graft their roots onto neighboring plants of the same species. Surprisingly, some natural root grafts are between different species.

Benefits of natural root grafting

Natural root grafting provides several benefits to all parties involved. Those benefits include improved stability and water and nutrient sharing. These benefits help keep neighboring trees healthy, making them more resistant to wind and herbivore damage. In one study, trees with natural root grafts were found better able to recover from a spruce budworm attack.


Tree root grafting allows groups of trees to share water and nutrients. It also forces them to share soil-borne pests and diseases, such as Dutch elm disease and apple proliferation. 


For me, this is yet another example of the amazing processes going on underground. I was stunned to learn that plants can hear. I wonder what will be discovered next.

Plants respond to heat

When plants are hot and dry, they protect themselves by closing pores found on the underside of leaves. These stomata control the rate of gas exchanges used by plants in photosynthesis. This respiration can be slowed by as much as 50% during periods of extreme heat. Unless your plants are drunk.


Pints and plants

Recent research has found that many plants can thrive during drought if they are given ethanol. Ethanol is alcohol. It ends up that plants produce alcohol when they don’t have enough water. This fact led some researchers at the RIKEN Centre for Sustainable Resources Science to wonder if the same processes could be used to protect plants.


Alcohol abundant and cheap to make. Did you know that U.S. bars mark up their alcohol by an average of 400-500%? But back to the plants.


Researchers compared wheat and rice plants that had been treated with alcohol to those without. The plants were deprived of water for a couple of weeks in summer. Only 5% of the untreated plants recovered, while 75% of the alcohol-treated plants were able to resume growing once watered. Those are some significant numbers!


The scientists radio-tagged the alcohol so that they could see where it went within the plants. Plants that were given alcohol started behaving like they were in a drought even before the water was cut off. This helped them to be better prepared than their teetotaling brethren. Not only did they make better use of the water they had, but they also used the alcohol to create sugars to provide themselves with energy and perform more photosynthesis, even though their stomata were closed.


Now, this doesn’t mean you should go around giving your pumpkin plants shots of tequila. That would be a bad idea. What it does mean is that an occasional spilled beer might not be such a bad thing and we should all be on the lookout for more specific instructions as the research continues.

Bacterial soft rot destroys more crops than any other bacterial disease. 


Commonly occurring in cruciferous, cucurbit, nightshade, and onion families, bacterial soft rot also causes severe pitting in carrots.

Aloe vera as medicine

There are more claims about the medicinal uses for aloe vera than I have room to list. As is usually the case, most of those claims are false. While we would all love simple answers to common problems, life rarely works that way. Claims that sound too good to be true generally end up being false.


The compounds found in aloe vera provide conflicting results. For example, one compound found in aloe vera, alprogen, reduces inflammation and allergic responses, while another component, acemannan, does the opposite. In 2002 aloe vera sap was banned as an OTC laxative by the US FDA. However, reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tell us that topical applications of aloe vera do provide the following benefits:

• Reduce acne after washing with soap and water.
• Alleviate pain and speed healing from burns and cuts.
• Ease herpes simplex, lichen planus, or psoriasis.

As for all the other claims, research is still ongoing. We will have to wait. While we wait, there’s no reason we can’t grow and enjoy these lovely burn treatments.


How to grow aloe vera

Aloe vera plants are easily grown from leaves taken from parent plants. Just pull off a leaf and stick it in moist soil. These plants take well to containers. Just be sure to allow the soil to dry out between waterings. Overwatering can kill an aloe vera. It can also attract fungus gnats. If you start seeing gnats, sprinkle crumbled mosquito dunk on top of the soil and water it in. The Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria found in these dunks kill fungus gnat larvae, along with mosquitoes.


Aside from the numerous false claims about what aloe vera can do, overwatering and poor drainage can result in several diseases, including aloe rust, anthracnose, bacterial soft rot, basal stem rot, fungal stem rot, leaf rot, and root rot. As always, aphids can turn up in your aloe plants.


Even though aloe vera can’t do all the things claimed in popular media, they are still attractive, useful, and easy plants. Every home should have one. And once you do, you can start taking leaves off and creating gifts for family and friends.

The fruit is a botanical berry and can become heavy enough to break branches, so supporting poles may be needed. The bark, leaves, and twigs of pawpaws contain natural insecticides (acetogenins) that keep most pests away. Fruit flies and whiteflies may still show up. Zebra swallowtail caterpillars love to feed on these trees, but this is generally not a problem for the trees or the caterpillars, and the toxins consumed provide natural protection against predators for the adult butterflies.


Caring for a papaya tree

Common diseases associated with papaya trees include anthracnose, black leafspot, papaya mosaic virus, phytophthora blight, and powdery mildew, along with the dreaded papaya ringspot virus.


Before you start working with a papaya tree, you need to know that the latex from unripe fruits can be extremely irritating. Many people learn the hard way that they are allergic. Sadly for those individuals, this latex is commonly used as a meat tenderizer.


Did you know that you can use papaya seeds as a pepper replacement? Now you know.

Apple proliferation might sound like a bumper crop of Granny Smiths, but it’s far more sinister than that. Sadly, I couldn’t find any images I could use.


Apple proliferation (AP) is a devastating plant disease that can result in crop losses of up to 80%. It is spread by apple proliferation phytoplasmas (Candidatus Phytoplasma mali). There are quarantines for this pest in Canada and the U.S. While AP mainly attacks apple trees, it also occurs on Asian and European pear, hazelnut, and plum trees, along with dahlias, hawthorns, magnolias, and roses.


What are phytoplasmas?

Phytoplasmas are a type of bacteria known as mollicutes. Mollicutes are unique in that they do not have cell walls. Instead, they have a multi-layered membrane. Phytoplasmas were discovered in 1967. Most phytoplasmas contain a single mysterious protein. Studying these 1 μm life forms has been difficult since no one has been able to grow them in a lab to date. For reference, the plastic wrap in your kitchen drawer is probably 10 μm thick.


How the disease spreads

Phloem-feeding insects such as cherry leafhoppers, planthoppers, and psyllids are responsible for spreading apple proliferation. AP can also spread through natural root grafting. Natural root grafting occurs when the roots of different trees end up pressed against each other. Over time, the vascular tissues of both root systems come into contact with each other and begin sharing nutrients. There is debate about whether or not this is a survival mechanism. We may explore that another time. For this discussion, those natural root grafts can spread disease.


Research has also demonstrated that infected trees emit unusually high amounts of a chemical that actively attracts psyllids, increasing the spread of disease to neighboring trees and shrubs.


Apple proliferation symptoms

Symptoms of apple proliferation change with the seasons because the phytoplasmas migrate within the tree. In the winter, they head south into the root system. As temperatures rise and the sap moves upward into twigs and leaves, so do the phytoplasmas.


Symptoms also vary depending on the species infected and how long the infection has been present. This condition may appear in only some branches. It may disappear altogether for a couple of years before returning. No one knows why, but it may be related to the fact that there are more and less virulent strains of this particular phytoplasma.


The most common symptoms of apple proliferation are small tasteless fruits with longer stems, witches’ broom, leaf rosettes, enlarged leaf stipules, shortened petioles, and dwarfism. Other, less common symptoms include increased suckering around the tree base, chlorosis, and downward leaf cupping. Leaves may also be smaller than normal and brittle. In autumn, the leaves of infected apple trees will turn red rather than yellow.


AP Management

There is no known cure for apple proliferation, so prevention is the only option. Infected trees must be removed and destroyed. Luckily, there are APP-resistant rootstocks, so look for that when tree shopping. And if apple proliferation is occurring in your region, do your best to control those psyllids and leafhoppers.


The adventure never ends.