August 21, 2019 Living Mulch, the Patron Saint of Olives, George Celery Taylor, Adelbert van Chamiso, Dorothy Cadberry, Mary Bowerman, August Prose, Medicinal Herbs by Rosemary Gladstar, Cardinal Flower, and Taking an August Break
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Monologue
How do you start adding living mulch to your garden?
One of the simplest ways is to look for the bare spots in your garden.
Look for the open areas and start there.
Look under your shrubs.
Look along the edges of your beds.
Instead of adding another layer of mulch, add plants.
Think about planting these living mulches in terms of plant families, or planting en masse. This is what the naturalists and ecologists do naturally; They think about plants in terms of population.
New gardeners tend to think of A PLANT and not A PLANTING, so think bigger. Think community. Think about the way you see plants occurring naturally.
Even the weeds tend to show up with their brothers and sisters. If one finds a purchase, they send out an Evite. The next thing you know, there’s a family reunion of Canadian Thistle or Creeping Charlie, and you get to be the host.
With this in mind, it’s right about this time of year that I remind myself how much I like the giant allium. And, how I fervently wish I had planted that allium as a member of a very, very, very large extended family; the Everybody Loves Raymond kind of family, because one can never have enough allium.
Botanical History On This Day
Feast Day of Saint Bernard Tolomeo is honored as the patron saint of olive growers, his abbey at Monte Oliveto long surrounded by venerable olive groves.
1891 George “Celery” Taylor died, the Scottish immigrant whose cultivation of celery transformed Kalamazoo, Michigan, into the celebrated “Celery City.”
1838 Adelbert von Chamisso died, the German poet-botanist who named the California poppy and blended science with verse on a global expedition.
1987 Dorothy Adlington Cadbury died, a Quaker botanist devoted to pondweeds, phenology, and stewardship, and who also served as a director of the Cadbury company.
2005 Mary Bowerman died, the Mount Diablo botanist whose lifelong study and advocacy preserved thousands of acres of California’s native landscape.
Unearthed Words
August rests, full and satisfied—lines by Joseph Wood Krutch and Helen Winslow capture the month’s late-summer abundance.
Grow That Garden Library™
Read The Daily Gardener review of Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs
Buy the book on Amazon: Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs
Today's Botanic Spark
1966 A gentle reminder from a Pennsylvania columnist—to enjoy a “no-gardening” garden in midsummer, and remember why we grow beauty in the first place.
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And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
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