The Meadow Project

Prairie Clover

Catherine Zimmerman is on a mission. But it's not the same one she started with.

Catherine will tell you that the fully green and resplendent lawn used to be her mission. That was before she made the connection with her perfect green lawn and her now-missing fireflies. She changed her ways, however, and is eager to share the lessons she learned.

From "How Fireflies Forever Changed My Life:"

In the fifteen years since I stopped piling on the pesticides, there has been growing scientific evidence connecting pesticide exposure and health concerns.  The EPA reports that in the United States 95 percent of lawn pesticides are possible or likely carcinogens.  In Canada, over 80% of the country has enacted bans on cosmetic lawn and landscape chemicals.  The film, A Chemical Reaction, tells the story of the grassroots efforts in Canada that eventually brought about a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the ban.  The court decision was based on the Precautionary Principal: “When an activity could harm human health or the environment, precautions should be taken, even when there is not absolute scientific proof or consensus.”

Elementary students explore in an outdoor classroom meadow.

Our dangerous (and sometimes enforced through neighborhood ordinances) addiction to green lawns is costing us not just our gold but our health and our clean water. Catherine has a small, more than half-funded project she wishes to accomplish to help educate others about the dangers of the American lawn and the joys of doing something...different.

You can read about what Catherine is up to by clicking on the links below--take them in order, they'll make more sense! If you'd like to contribute, click on "The Meadow Project" at the top right of my blog. Even if you can't contribute, consider sending this link to friends with similar interests. Donations start at only $5.

There are plenty of people out there who have no idea how badly we need bugs. We need them for pollination, to feed other creatures we love such as birds--in fact, life on this planet would cease to exist if we wiped them all out. By foregoing "lawn" and establishing urban "meadows" instead, we are really just practicing self-preservation--with a little aesthetics thrown in for good measure.

Sources: How Fireflies Forever Changed My Life, Urban & Suburban Meadows

Photos: © Catherine B. Zimmerman
Twitter: @meadowproject   Facebook   Support the Project!

Eye Candy: "Hidden Beauty of Pollination"

Enjoy. That's all I've got to say. And if you've got the bandwidth, use full screen. Oh, and watch out for the baby bat. :)

Pork With Squash and Pineapple

From Alex at Ombailamos: 

One of the best ways I've found to do an end run around weeknight dinnertime stress is to break out Ye Olde Slow Cooker. This week it was put to good use.

Not long ago I had some leftover baked squash. It was not enough for a meal on its own, and needed some protein. I added some commercially-prepared pulled pork and a star was born. But the sauce to pork ratio on that product was a little off (needed more meat and less sugar). This week I had two Delicata squash in need of employment. I decided to take the pulled-pork invention a little further.

The playlist:

• just under 4 lbs of pork shoulder, a.k.a. Boston butt;
• 2 onions, peeled & cut into eighths;
• 2 Delicata squash, cleaned, cut into chunks, and mostly peeled;
• 1 6-oz can of tomato paste;
• 1 snack cup of pineapple tidbits in juice;
• 8 cloves of garlic, peeled and cut into rough chunks;
• seasonings (to taste): 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce, 1 tsp ancho chili, 1 tsp Satay seasoning from Penzey's, 1/4 tsp red chili flakes, 1/4 tsp ginger

The process: cut pork in half to fit into slow cooker. Rejoice in the layer of fat that was hidden by the packaging. Schmear it with all the tomato paste. Throw in the vegetables. Toss in the spices and seasonings. Dump the pineapple & juice over the top. Cover and heat through for an hour on High, then turn down to Low and go to work. It'll be smelling heavenly when you get home.

Wine pairing: we drank "Obsession," made by Ironstone Winery from the Symphony grape (white, something between a riesling and a moscato). Delicious.

What I've learned about slow-cooker pot roasts over the past couple of years:

• do not use very lean cuts of meet. This I know from painful experience.
• do not cut vegetables very small (they will dissolve).
• do not add much liquid - half a cup, max; and make sure it has flavor: broth, beer, wine, juice - not plain water.
• do fill up the cooker. There is no such thing as "too many" vegetables, and my best results are with tubers, bulbs, and roots.
• do be liberal - in fact, be lavish - with seasonings.
• do tear the meat apart as soon as you get home, and let it continue to soak in the accumulated liquids till serving time.

If you like the flavors of barbecue, adding pineapple to your slow-cooker pot roast can give you the same acid and sweet elements, without adding sugar or vinegar.

And, in my opinion, tomato paste is an essential component. I use it with any kind of meat because it adds color, brightness of flavor, and a richly savory complement to the protein - as well as helping to integrate the fat.

Don't fear the fat! This kind of preparation is better for you than anything fried. Damn tasty, too.

...This Just In

Based on the previous blog entry, thought this relevant.

On the damage of 2011's Mississippi River flooding:

"It would also be logical to accept periodic levee breaks or stop using the floodplain soil for agricultural crop production.* Instead the land could be converted to conservation use and restore the periodic water storage function to the natural floodplain."

                   ---Kenneth Olson, University of Illinois

*Emphasis mine. Truth hurts, sometimes.

Source: Efforts to Control Mississippi ...

Riparian Zone = Property Protection

Providence Canyon, Lumpkin, Georgia

Sometimes, I can be really astounded by the extent to which individuals can fail to imagine consequences.

Think back, if you will, to a time in your youth when you might have floated a leaf, a stick or a "boat" down a gutter after a rainstorm (or a creek, if you were lucky). It was amazing how quickly things moved, wasn't it? Sometimes you'd have to run to keep up. Sometimes running wasn't enough, and you'd lose sight of your ship, as it were.

Water is a powerful thing.

Locally, we typically experience about 80 inches of rainfall a year. Lately, we've had our share of "extreme" events where scattered storms drop six or seven inches within 24 hours. And because we are in a more mountainous zone, almost nobody's property is flat. Lack of flatness leads to accelerated water, which leads to slope "slippage" and loss of soil, which ends up in creeks and then in our rivers. Sometimes along with trees.

Currently, Transylvania County is facing a very large log jam in the French Broad River. Based on the paragraph above, I bet you can guess how those former trees ended up in the river. The river, now being obstructed by logs, is busily chewing into its banks to try to find an easier way of getting around the log jam. Individuals who have cleared their land all the way to the edge of the river are losing property in a hurry. Those with riparian zones are losing it more slowly. Roots equal soil-grabbing-mesh and defense against flash floods.

Many communities set ordinances that require "stream buffers" or similar terminology. These planted buffers are insurance against mother nature at her worst. They act as natural filters to ensure clean water for public use. They also provide benefits to fish and other aquatic life and even songbirds. Some property owners, however, can't imagine that leaving vegetation along the banks of a waterway is necessary. They view this requirement as government thievery of their property. They simply can't imagine that these rules are anything but interference with their "rights" to use their property any way that they wish.

This mindset is not new. As a race, we've been assuming we can control nature for centuries. Our handling of water resources has reshaped ecosystems, states and even continents. Rarely have we not achieved our water-rerouting goals in large-scale projects. [See the entry on the Aral Sea of former Soviet Russia, below.] What we are beginning to see on a global scale, however, is the inadequacy of these systems to compete with newly aggressive drought or rain events that give us far greater extremes of our usual diet of precipitation. Individual landowners are not immune to these same onslaughts.

One tree down....

One of the more dramatic examples of landowners not anticipating the end result of removing a bit of snag at the edge of a field is a state park in Georgia by the name of Providence Canyon. Given that most of Georgia is pretty flat, anything called "canyon" probably gives you an idea of What Went Wrong. Essentially, in an 1800's farming community with soft soils, farmers took none of the soil erosion prevention measures that we now consider to be good practice. Rainfall alone did the rest, first forming small gullies and washes and then growing into a massive scale in which groundwater became part of the problem as well. It is a stunning state park, with a great deal of geologic record on display for all to see. I highly recommend it!

Such an event could not take place in Transylvania County, since the clay soils here are far more resistant to the easy erosion of the Georgia Coastal Plain. But increased silting of the French Broad and the Davidson Rivers makes it clear that we do not have sufficient riparian zone in place to completely protect our water resources. Looked at another way, it is obvious that some landowners are losing their land to our rivers.

Healthy riparian zones can absorb more water than unhealthy ones, making riverbank areas more resistant to flooding. Without even knowing what types of plants are there, you'll know a healthy riparian area by its diversity of plants and wildlife, its more vertical banks, the brushy grasses and shrubs at its edges and the clear lack of exposed soils.

Developed and agricultural areas that reach all the way to the river's edge are just asking to have their soils transported to another location. It's what rivers do--move.

As communities, we pass legislation that requires riparian zones in order to protect the water resources we all make use of, regardless of whose property that water migrates through on its way to our taps. We require new development to filter stormwater off of parking lots before the water reaches community streams because such filtering is necessary to maintaining clean water resources. Zoning which requires developers to leave some land for the river bank essentially acknowledges that water resources are too important to not protect. Some more enlightened communities even consider the wildlife benefits of these zones because of members' desires to kayak, fish or add to their avian life lists.

These types of "regulation" or rules are there to protect us from ourselves. Our waters will always carry away what isn't rooted into place.

Sources: Wikipedia, GA State Parks, Georgia Encyclopedia, Ohio State University, Aral Sea

American Holly -- More Important Than Ever

The dynamics of our yard have changed.

Stump and naked ground where spruce once stood.

In our small neighborhood of small lots, the actions of neighbors can have a devastating impact on a landscape design and the wildlife that relies on it. This year, with justifiable reason, our neighbors took down a mature, kind of "fat" Norway spruce and removed a Leyland Cypress. The removal of the spruce was necessary because it had sort of eaten their tool shed (and you won't catch me weeping for the loss of a Leyland Cypress!). Since these two specimens were right next to each other, all of a sudden a major bird nesting spot and backdrop to our other plantings was gone. And, it seemed, almost overnight we had fewer birds spending time in our yard.

On the plus side, this upheaval has left our little American Holly (ilex opaca) much happier. [You can barely make out it's little head behind the coleus.] It still gets some shade, thanks to the large white pines to the south, but the amount of competition in the root zone has decreased dramatically. It now has the potential to become a much greater asset to our birds--much more quickly.

A holly cultivar with yellow berries.*

Aggressive management (mulching, compost, adequate water) of American Hollies can encourage growth of about 3 to 4 feet per year. At this point, ours is only about 4' tall. In the late winter of last year, I did some aggressive pruning of the roots because of possible girdling. Afterwards, I punctured the soil of the root zone--particularly where I had cut the roots--and stuffed compost in the holes, then applied new mulch. We were rewarded with healthier leaf development--next year should be a good year for our little tree.

American Hollies are not particularly tough trees, but in home gardens they can be an essential element of shelter for birds and small mammals in the southeastern and mid-Atlantic states. Reaching a typical height of 25-50 feet (specimens have reached heights of 100' or more), American Hollies can serve as the top layer of an evergreen habitat area. Cultivars can be selected if a smaller size is necessary. Decimation of our native hemlocks is making these hollies even more important than they were previously, and homeowner care of a couple of specimens can be essential to maintaining mature populations. These trees are not walnut tolerant, they don't tolerate fire well, they aren't so fond of drought--and yet they are the hardiest broadleaf evergreen tree available in the southeastern United States. They tolerate shade very well, though fruiting is more pronounced when the trees receive a bit of sun. These hollies also deal with salt spray well.

Bloom time is anywhere from March to June, depending on your zone and the severity of winter. Like all hollies, both a male and a female are necessary to fruit production. Holly gurus recommend one male to three female trees. Fruits ripen between September and December and stay on the trees most of the winter unless they are consumed by wildlife. But for me, the value of the berries is secondary to the value of the foliage. Evergreens provide protection during storms and from predators year-round, and nesting sites during spring/summer. Right now, we have berries on our winterberry holly, red chokeberry and green hawthorn--and not a one of those plants has a leaf to hide the birds who come to eat the berries.

The wood of the American Holly is very finely textured and nearly white. The slow growth of the tree makes it inappropriate for lumber harvest for the most part, however. The wood is tough, but not necessarily strong. Smaller projects like inlays or handles may use holly, and it takes stains exceptionally well, even black. It has been used for black piano keys and violin pegs.

*Holly cultivar photo courtesy @cfnursery -- Kevin Campbell. See his blog here!

Sources: LBJ Wildflower Center, USDA Forest Service, Wikipedia

Garden Kitty

Found this old shot while trying to re-organize the office. Doesn't look comfortable to me, but what do I know?