This Week's Podcast: A Replay: A Driving Passion Meets a Moveable Feast

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     There are few genera of plants that bear flowers in every color: from white to red to orange to yellow, tan, green, aqua, blue, purple, violet, brown and even near-black. One genus that does is Iris. Kelly D. Norris is a 25-year-old iris expert, horticulturist, plant breeder, and plantsman from Iowa. He tells us that there are not only a huge range of colors, there are also species and varieties for every growing condition, from alpine iris to water plants. He claims that there are some for shade, as well, but I wouldn’t try any in deep shade. (Two for partial shade might be Iris cristata and I. tectorum.)
     Kelly is the award-winning author of three books including his latest one, A Guide to Bearded Irises: Cultivating the Rainbow for Beginners and Enthusiasts. He edits Irises: The Bulletin of the American Iris Society. He is the youngest person to receive the Iowa State Horticultural Society’s Presidential Citation, Award of Merit and Honor Award in the organization’s 150-year history.  In 2011, the Perennial Plant Association presented him with the Young Professional Award, recognizing early contributions to the advancement of herbaceous perennials in America. 
     A decade earlier, when he was 15, Kelly talked his parents into buying an Iris nursery in Texas, packing 40,000 bare-root rhizomes into a semi and driving them to Iowa. "It took 325 man-hours to plant [them]," he said. He currently manages what came to be the Rainbow Iris Farm , a seven-acre nursery owned by his family. (Learn more from Kelly’s website.)
     We talk about bearded irises, their history and care. For example, these irises have to be lifted and divided from time to time for peak performance. But I couldn’t resist asking about iris borer – I’ve never grown the bearded irises without these pests – the grub of a moth. Kelly says I should move – there are no borers west of the Rocky Mountains. How do they deal with borers at the nursery? Fire – they burn the fields in early spring to destroy the old leaves and most of the eggs and overwintering larvae that hide in faded bearded iris foliage.
     Bearded iris? How did they get that name? Here’s the skinny on the source of the moniker. Some iris species do not have beards, some do. These fuzzy little appendages at the top center of the falls, the part of the flower (tepals) that grow downward, are thought to be pollinator guides – kind of like “WELCOME MATS" for bees.

This Week's Podcast: A Replay: Native, Organic, Sustainable and Beautiful

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      Nate McCullin is the Horticulturist and Facilities Coordinator for the New England Wild Flower Society and can most often be found at the society’s “Garden in the Woods” in Framingham, MA. This place, which is open to the public, is a living museum with over 1,000 wild plants, including some 100 species endangered in New England. Nate is one of the young people helping this woodland jewel grow.
     North American and local habitats from the region are represented along with the species that live in those communities. There is a woodland walk, meadow garden, bog, lake, living fern catalog and limestone rock outcrop. Recent additions include the “Idea Garden” and “The Edible Garden.” Propagated native plants are grown on site in the “stock beds” and at Nasami Farm nursery and offered for sale.
     The garden was originally a private property begun by Will C. Curtis in 1931 when he purchased 30 acres to create his dream of a “big wildflower sanctuary in which plants will be grown, their likes and dislikes discovered, and the knowledge gained passed on in an effort to curb the wholesale destruction of our most beautiful natives.”
     Thirty-four years later Curtis and his partner Howard Stiles deeded the property to the New England Wild Flower Society. The Garden was then expanded to 45 acres with plantings along new trails and in extended habitats. The beauty and charm of the original “naturalistic” Garden, with winding paths and a choice collection of rare and beautiful plants, are still hallmarks of the garden today, but the prime directive has altered over the years. Now the plantings are exclusively native, and the garden incorporates the latest organic and sustainable practices.
     Nate has taken it upon himself to develop a compost tea program. The soil at the Garden in the Woods is so great after having chopped leaves added to the woodland beds year after year for decades, that using compost tea as a soil drench isn’t really necessary. However the brewed tea is used to prevent diseases and to reduce transplant-shock as propagated plants from the beds are moved into the garden or into containers for sale.
     Examples of Nate’s achievements are shown in the photos, left. On the far left is a detail of untreated Monarda (bee-balm) disfigured by powdery mildew. On the right is an example of the same variety wetted with compost tea early in the season.
     Nate just built a large compost tea brewer. Giant gauze “tea bags” filled with compost from the garden are lowered into water that is vigorously aerated with three large aquarium pumps. The microorganisms are “fed” with humic acid, simple sugars, rolled oats and a product like powdered kelp or fish Hydrolysate. The tea is brewed for 24 to 48 hours depending on temperature, and used within four hours.
     Brewing compost tea at home to improve the health of your soil and plants may or may not be realistic (although it can be done). Nate’s brew is used in the garden and sold to members who bring empty gallon jugs to the garden on compost tea days.
     For more information on compost tea brewing and supplies, visit some of the sites suggested by Nate McCullin.
    The Compost Tea Brewing Manual
    Compostwerks information and supplies
    Earthfort information and supplies

This Week's Podcast: Gardening Equals Living: Margaret Roach

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Margaret Roach is the former garden editor of Martha Stewart Living magazine and the Editorial Director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. And since she retired from corporate America, she has become one of if not the most influential voices in gardening. She is to gardening what Barry Lopez or Aldo Leopold are to nature writing. There are few people writing today, who are talking about what I might call “truth in gardening.” We both hope that someday, gardens will also be recognized in America as the works of art they can be.

Margaret is not an HGTV-type -- “Gardening is not outdoor decorating,” she says. We talk about how, although gardening is a living metaphor for all parts of life, it is still treated like it is only a hobby. This philosophy is chronicled in her new book, The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening and Life. Parables, she says, are stories with intent.

This Week's Podcast: A Rebroadcast: Straw Bale Vegetable Gardening with Joel Karsten

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     He buys bales of straw, about 48” long x 24” tall and 18”wide. Then he goes through a process of conditioning beginning by completely saturating the bales with water. He adds nitrogen in any form, for example, well-rotted chicken manure, washes that into the straw, and continues to hydrate them for about 10 to 12 days.

      This month, Joel’s new book, Straw Bale Gardens: The Breakthrough Method for Growing Vegetables Anywhere, Earlier and with No Weeding on the topic will be published. Learn more about this innovative technique: strawbalegardens.com.