July 9, 2019 Mulch Placement, Colonel Henry Wallace Johnston, Nikolay Vavilov, George Shull, Emily Dickinson, Answer July, Lives of the Trees by Diana Wells, Wheelbarrow Garden, and Samual Smithers as Plantman

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Monologue

Here's a little primer on mulch placement.

Keep mulch away from the bases of plants and trees.

Trees can be harmed or killed by mulching too heavily around the trunk. Perennials and other plants can also be smothered or damaged by heavy mulch around the crown. Mulch is a wonderful tool in the garden, but it pays to pay attention to placement.

Botanical History On This Day

1926 Henry Wallace Johnston was celebrated in the Green Bay Press-Gazette for growing “ice cream on a vine.”
At Palm Lodge Tropical Grove in Homestead, Florida, Johnston—dubbed Florida’s Burbank—cultivated more than 8,000 tropical plants, including Monstera deliciosa, whose fruit tastes of banana, strawberry, and pineapple, and welcomed tens of thousands of visitors each year, Henry Ford among them.

1941 Nikolay Vavilov was sentenced to death by a Soviet court.
Though spared execution, the great plant geneticist died of starvation in prison two years later, a tragic loss to agricultural science and humanity.

1942 George Shull retired after transforming American agriculture.
His work with hybrid corn increased U.S. crop value by an estimated $150 million—yet Shull never profited personally from his discovery.

Unearthed Words

Emily Dickinson speaks directly to the season in her poem “Answer July.”
In a brief exchange, July reminds us that summer’s heat is not excess, but fulfillment—the promise of spring kept.

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener review of Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History by Diana Wells

Buy the book on Amazon: Lives of the Trees by Diana Wells

Today's Botanic Spark

1963 Marvel introduced Plantman, the botanist Samuel Smithers, transformed by lightning and ambition.
Though defeated by superheroes, Plantman’s final lament—about humanity’s treatment of the natural world—feels uncomfortably prophetic.

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