Light greens gone until next year...

I can’t believe how quickly the leaves have dropped from the trees over the last few days. It seems that I just took this photo in mid-October, when the woods were just starting to change color. Now on November 1st, when I look outside my windows, the large Maple trees have shed their golden canopy and the petite Japanese maple stands naked with scarlet plumage at its feet. The old oaks refuse to give up half of their pointy, reddish-brown leaves, just to extend the raking season for me.

Actually, nature was right on schedule as the leaves on the ground provided the annual ‘crunchy noise’ ambience for the trick or treaters last night.

Clean Hands Spritz

Yield: 1 ounce

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon plain aloe vera or lemon witch hazel
1/8 teaspoon tea tree oil
24 drops of essential oils of lavender, lemon, cinnamon, peppermint and/or thyme (use 2 or more for good action and a
balanced aroma, and also because these oils are potent).
4 drops of grapefruit seed extract

Mix all the ingredients in a 1-ounce glass spray bottle (available at natural food stores and online or reuse a bottle that something else came in).

Shake well before using.

Spray 2 or 3 times on dirty hands and rub them together.

Note: Use this to sanitize hands on the go. It has an indefinite shelf life. Add a handwritten label for a nice touch—use an address label or simply tape one on with clear shipping tape. Give bottles of this spritz as gifts during the winter holidays or when colds and the flu are rampant. —Easy Green Living by Renee Loux

More than a whispering...

I know that I felt a hint of fall in the air a few weeks ago before there were any signs, at all.
Now, I am sure that autumn is lurking, even as we try to celebrate the last summer holiday, Labor Day. Earlier, the rainy days came and were followed by clear and sunny ones with no humidity. The oaks are starting their long process of dropping leaves and my show-off Japanese maple is shifting to a brighter red. Still, we will be a bit in denial as we drag out the BBQ and hot dogs, trying to believe that the warm sun is still a summer one.
I should be sad, but I look actually look forward to the beautiful brights and tawny tones of this coming season. Hiking, actually walking, in the Rollins Savanna near my house gives me the full, fall experience with the high grasses, dried and tanned by the sun, sky-high, yellow flowers—prairie dock, late sunflowers—that fall scent of so much green turning to crunchy brown—gravel underfoot, birds flitting, swooping or riding high. It is the full 360 degree show of autumn. Enjoy the long, sultry weekend and what’s to come.

Specialty catalogs offer a selection of lily bulbs

1. McClure and Zimmerman. Call 1-800-883-6998 or order online at www.mzbulb.com. Highlights: ‘Casablanca’; a popular and fragrant white Oriental lily.
2. White Flower Farm. Call 1-800-503-9624 or order online at www. white flowerfarm.com. Highlights: ‘True Colors Mix’; pure, bold colors light up your garden like a firecracker.
3. Brent and Becky’s Bulbs. Call 1-877-661-2852 or order online at www. brentandbeckysbulbs.com. Highlights: Lilium Regale; great for the evening garden.
4. Old House Gardens. Call 1-734-995-1486 or order online at www.old housegardens.com. Highlights: ‘Black Beauty’; gorgeous turk’s cap flowers of dark raspberry, edged in silver—long lived and ‘indestructible’.
5. Van Engelen. Call (860)567-8734 or browse their website at www.vanengelen.com. Highlights: Asiatic Pixie lilies; short, sturdy stems.

Rain hogs

I have become more interested in rain gardens this year because of the huge amount of water that has fallen this spring.
I think we actually broke a record for June. I have talked with so many people who have diverted their excess water into garden beds, ponds and even little creeks that connect the ponds. David Husemoller from www.EarthWildGardens.com was featured in the GreenHouse page in the Chicago Sun-Times on 7.04.09. He practices the art of sustainable landscaping and offers many native water loving plants such as Blue Flag Iris, Cardinal Flower, Obedient Plant, Cup Plant and Golden Alexander, through his company, Earth Wild Gardens. Give it a try!

One more question...

Amy Stewart, author of the new book, ‘Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities,’ answers one more question for Green House in the May 31st issue in the Chicago Sun-Times.


GREENHOUSE: Do you really believe there are wicked plants or are they just misunderstood?

AMY: A little of both. Take a really invasive plant like kudzu or loosestrife or killer algae (Caulerpa taxifolia). These plants get around with our help.
They are opportunists; they do what they are designed to do, which is to reproduce. We are the guilty party in these horticultural crimes; we're the ones who drove the getaway vehicle. They just make themselves at home wherever we happen to bring them.
And coca (Erythroxylum coca) is an interesting example. Cocaine has fueled a global drug war and ruined countless lives, but Andean farmers argue that coca leaves were chewed as a mild stimulant for centuries, whereas cocaine is a European invention dating back only 150 years. The position of some farmers is that they should be allowed to continue to grow the plant they've always grown, and we should go deal with our cocaine problem at home. Now, there are arguments to be made on both sides of that debate, but it's an interesting point. On its own, coca is nothing more than a shrub. It's what we do with it that changes everything.
But a plant like ratbane (Dichapetalum cymosum or D. toxicarium), which is so toxic that it's used as a rat poison and as a chemical weapon? That's not misunderstood—that's terrifying!

Sign of spring

The white flowers of the Bloodroot are always a marker of spring for me. I planted them in a partially shady spot under a small Japanese Maple tree. Luckily, they have multiplied every year. This spring I counted more than a dozen blooms. Within a few days, the flowers will drop their petals and their lily pad-shaped leaves will unfurl. We all made it through another long winter...