Ep 178. Remember-Learn-Grow and Love

In this episode, Mary Stone discusses the importance of native plants, mentioning Blaine Rothauser's work and including native plants in a previous project. 

Then, we chat about the beauty yet invasiveness of Japanese Knotweed and the beneficial native Orange Jewelweed. And hope that plants from other countries become integrated into our environment as the balance of nature adapts. 

A reflection on the anniversary of 9 -11 and recounting a story about Cheryl Woodruff Brooks, author of Chicken Bone Beach, leads to Hope for the day we look upon each other as one with nature and the world.

We wrap up with a history of Comfort Zone Camp, a grief camp for kids that grew after 9-11, and encouraging listeners to make a difference by volunteering to plant native plants and take better care of our land and each other. To Remember, Learn, Grow, and Love.

Thanks for tuning in!  

Links to related Episodes and Blog Posts: 

 September Roadside Beauties – Blog Post 

Remember - Learn - Grow and Love – Blog Post 

 Ep 118. Bottlebrush Buckeyes Hide Tree Knees

Other episodes featuring Blaine Rothauser:

 Ep 101. Woodcock Dance-Making a Meadow

 Ep 123. Keeping Lighting Pollinator-Friendly

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I'd love to hear your garden and nature stories and your thoughts about topics for future podcast episodes. You can email me at AskMaryStone@gmail.com. 

You can Follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook and Instagram #MaryElaineStone.

Episode web page —Garden Dilemmas Podcast Page

 Thank you for sharing the Garden of Life,

Mary Stone, Columnist & Garden Designer

More about the Podcast and Column:

Welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights, and Discoveries.

It's not only about gardens; it's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learned from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So, let's jump in in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about.

Thanks for tuning in, Mary Stone
Garden Dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com
Direct Link to Podcast Page

Transcript

Ep 178. Remember-Learn-Grow and Love

Keywords

plants, garden, native, plants, chatted, hydrangea, volunteering, mentioned, camp, years, blaine Rothauser, episode, dilemmas, day, pollinator, stems, morristown, Hope, white, photographs, mary stone

Speakers

Mary Stone (100%)

Mary Stone

0:00

Mary, Hello, fellow lovers of all things green. I'm Mary Stone, and welcome to Garden Dilemmas, Delights and Discoveries. It's not only about gardens. It's about nature's inspirations, about grasping the glories of the world around us, gathering what we learn from mother nature, and carrying these lessons into our garden of life. So let's jump in, in the spirit of learning from each other. We have lots to talk about. 

Mary Stone

0:23

Hello there. It's Mary Stone on the screen porch, and it's relatively quiet out here. I think the cicadas are back in the ground, but I do hear those nighttime chorus singers that are lingering through the day making their peaceful sounds. The sky is bright blue, and the air is crisp, just like it was on the day of 911 in 2001 and today is September 11. Many years later, many of us recall where and who we were with that day. My friends Elsa and Jean were visiting from Texas, and I had an early client meeting while driving. I heard about the second plane when we knew it wasn't an accident, but an attack. Our world changed, but time has passed with less media attention given to the anniversary of the tragedy, which recalls a story from a few years ago I'd like to share related to the topic of native plants. 

Mary Stone

1:22

But first, I want to thank those who reach back after last week's chat about the nighttime chorus of garden insects, I heard from Blaine Rothauser, who you may remember. We featured his gorgeous photographs in episode 101, Woodcock Dance and Making a Meadow. And then we had his expertise in episode 123 Keeping Lighting Pollinator Friendly. I hope you tune into those if you haven't done so already. Anyway, he has been traveling and counting critters. I think that's what you do, right? Blaine. I should mention Blaine as the senior technical consultant and senior ecologist, as well as a threatened and endangered species specialist for GZA in Fairfield, New Jersey. And as I mentioned, an accomplished photographer. So, Blaine kindly wrote - another great episode, Mary you landed the dismount, and he went on to tell me about his travels doing biodiversity surveys of all taxa groups. So, grasshoppers, crickets, tree crickets, katydids and all other orthopterans have been in my brain lately. I really appreciate the timing. And then he went on to share that he lived near the Morristown airport 30 years ago, so the episode about the cicadas was dear to him. Keep him coming. 

Mary Stone

2:36

When he sent the photos of the katydids, he wrote a PS that he wished I used more native plants at the Morristown airport. And he is right. I didn't use as many as I would have liked to, because they were not interested in native plants. And the project was, as I mentioned in the podcast, was very severe conditions where a lot of the native plants, I don't think would have done very well. It was a few years ago, and so the popularity of native plants has definitely increased since then. So that's a good thing. But I did manage to include a few woody plants in the lineup where I knew they would thrive, including the Hydrangea arborescens, known as smooth hydrangea, or wild hydrangea, that grows three to six feet with white flowers blooming on new woods, so they will glow at dusk and dawn, as was the theme of the garden design. We also planted Bayberry, which is Morella pensylvanica, previously known as Myrica pensylvanica. And then there's inkberry, which doesn't have much of a bloom, but it's a little shy white bloom. And the botanical name is Ilex glabra. And of course, my much-adored Bottle Brush Buckeye, Aesculus parviflora, we featured in episode 118 so we did have some native, beautiful plants there. So anyway, thank you, Blaine, for writing in and sharing those photos. 

Mary Stone

3:47

And I want to move on to this week's reflection from 911 a few years ago. And it starts like this. Hello, fellow listeners and readers. Talk about a shift. The Chill is in the air, and it feels like we've returned to school. For me too, as I registered for a fiction workshop at Warren County Community College, it felt nostalgic going back to school, familiar butterflies and all. There's a process of obtaining a student ID, I had to ask an 18-year-old classmate about how to do I must mention, though that there were other more than millennials in the class. The desk person at the library, also a student, handed me the paperwork, date stamped 911 bringing a reflection of that day and the wisdom to remember, learn, grow and love. 

Mary Stone

4:38

Do you recall that day? I asked the young man, no other than people were crying. He revealed he was four at the time. We chatted about the day and how it brought a wave of patriotism and acceptance of each other, no matter our cultural differences. How sad that much of the camaraderie is lost today. He nodded in agreement. Such a kind young man of mixed descent, 

Mary Stone

5:04

I look forward to the day we look upon each other as one, one with nature, one with the world. Maybe it sounds cliche. Perhaps as wishful thinking. I think of it as Hope. What does this have to do with gardening or nature? The Garden of Life. Previously, we chatted about September roadside beauties, Knotweed that came from Asia, but it's invasive, and the other jewelweed, a native remedy for poison Ivy. Both are beautiful. Let me share the story, which is kind of fun because there's a bounce back to the wild hydrangea. 

Mary Stone

5:41

Tammy asked if there was such a thing as wild hydrangea. Tammy is from Marshall Creek, Pennsylvania, and there is Hydrangea arborescence, commonly known as smooth hydrangea, or wild hydrangea, as we mentioned earlier. And it's native to the woodlands of the Northeast, but it blooms in the spring. The plant Tammy noticed gracing roadsides this time of year is Japanese knotweed, also called Asian knotweed, which tells its origin. The showy, white lacy plants are seen in swathes from late summer into fall, and it is magnificent looking with white sprays covering shamrock green, smooth-edged leaves, though shrub like fallopia japonica is not a woody plant, but a hefty herbaceous perennial in the buckwheat family. Its hollow stems look bamboo like growing 10 to 13 feet. Sadly, it's very invasive, though pollinators are pleased with the plethora of plumes. 

Mary Stone

6:36

Some call it fleece flower, monkey weed or donkey rhubarb. Another roadside beauty in September is orange jewelweed, also known as spotted jewelweed. I look forward to seeing this annual native to North America along the streams and creeks and trenches along the road. Native Americans use the leaves juice as a poison ivy rash remedy. I've done that too. They grow three to five feet tall and have almost see through and succulent like stems. The flower shape reminds me of foxgloves, though they dance on the tips rather than ride along the stems. When I was researching the impatience compensis, which is the botanical name, I learned about a unique feature that I had not heard about, which gives them the name Touch me not. When the inch long seed pods ripen, they explode. With just a light touch, the pods promptly peel back and fling out tiny seeds. Whoever thought a plant could be such fun? And on the column post which I'll put a link in the show notes, there's a link to a video showing just how that happens. It's so much fun. 

Mary Stone

7:41

Maybe it's a far-reaching wish that plants that found their way here from other countries become integrated into our environment as the balance of nature adapts, that perhaps their invasive status becomes no longer so, as hopefully wildlife learns to use the imported plant for sustenance, so that native plants are no longer squelched. Maybe a dream. But let's not forget our roots. For most of us, we are imports, too, which brings a memory of a few years ago, when I attended a nonfiction workshop hosted by hippocampus magazine in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I had the joy of meeting Cheryl Woodruff Brooks, who wrote a book Chicken Bone Beach, a Pictorial History of Atlantic City's Missouri Avenue beach. She came upon the idea when she marveled over an exhibit from the chicken bone beach collection photographs by a self-taught photographer named John W Moseley of Philadelphia. In her book, Cheryl explained, while so many images of the publicly accepted African American history have shown struggle, pain, humiliation and dismay. John Mosley's photographs depicted joy, laughter, family, fun, community and love. 

Mary Stone

8:53

As we were chatting, she asked what I did for a living. Get out you make a living designing gardens. Cheryl whips out her phone and scrolls for photos. I love to garden. She shared the creative layout of a plot that she has at the community garden near her, explaining how she plants something new each year. One year she had put sunflowers in the middle of the garden, which the birds loved. I gave you the seeds. The least you can do is not poop on my vegetables, she joked. So this year I didn't put the sunflowers in the middle. I tried beets. Isn't that terrific? So let us remember, learn, grow and love in this garden of life, Garden dilemmas? AskMaryStone.com.

Mary Stone

9:38

So as we reflect back on the years gone by, there certainly has been a lot of changes in our world, some very disturbing ones that are going on, and it gives us feelings of helplessness. But I want you to think and feel there is Hope if we all do our part in being kind to each other and being kind to our earth by planting native plants. And not using chemicals that harm wildlife and harm plants, because there are these alternatives that we can make a difference about. I've mentioned volunteering for Comfort Zone Camp, which is a bereavement camp for kids and young adults. I'm heading out for a camp weekend this weekend. After 911 the founder Lynn Hughes of the Virginia based camp, knew she had to offer camps in the New York tri state area to help families. Now it's their 25th year, and they provide weekend camps for free for families in many states nationwide. I've camped with some of the 911 kids who lost a parent. Many became volunteers. One, Katie Pereira, became a staff member for comfort zone, helping to change lives. 

Mary Stone

10:47

So that's one thing we can do, is volunteer for something that means something to you. And it doesn't have to be as organized as volunteering for an organization. It can be a matter of volunteering to just take better care of our land and each other. So thanks so much for coming by. I always enjoy our time together, and I hope you have as well. And if so, please share the podcast with a friend or two so more can join and learn and grow in the garden of life. It means so much as does your visit each week and your kind words. I appreciate them so much. Have a great day. See you next time. 

Mary Stone

11:24

You can follow Garden Dilemmas on Facebook or online @gardendilemas.com and on Instagram at hashtag Mary Elaine Stone. Garden Dilemmas Delights and Discoveries is produced by Alex Bartling. Thanks for coming by. I look forward to chatting again from my screen porch, and always remember to embrace the unexpected in this garden of life. Have a great day.