IN FALL AND WINTER, deer can do a lot of damage to garden trees and shrubs–and those don’t recover so soon, if at all. Autumn seemed like prime time to get some help in minimizing the impact of deer in our landscapes from Marne Titchenell of Ohio State University, a wildlife program specialist in OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
First an anecdote: A recent September weekend, during a workshop in my garden, one attendee commented as he looked around at all the mature shrubs and big swaths of perennials: “You must have a fence, because otherwise this garden wouldn’t be here,” he said. Because it’s mostly hidden in the surrounding woodland tree line, he hadn’t spied the fence itself yet, but he just knew: It’s a deer-free zone.
A fence isn’t practical for every garden, but thankfully a range of other tactics are possible, from barriers that are less ambitious to erect, to repellents, to a smarter plant palette than I have and more. Marne shared various strategies in the October 10, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast. Read along as you listen in, using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
q&a: preventing deer damage with ohio state’s marne titchenell
Q. I know that “know thy enemy” is one of the prongs of success that you preach in wildlife control. Let’s start with getting to know the white-tailed deer, which east of the Rocky Mountains and actually most everywhere in the country except the Southwest, I believe, is the primary deer species In North America. Many animals haven’t done so well with human development, but why have deer done so well?
A. You’re right. First of all we’re talking about a
The website greengrove.cc is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
Everyone loves falafel—it’s a year-round staple, and the frozen options at Trader Joe’s make it incredibly easy to prepare. But today, you should probably rid your freezer shelves of any Trader Joe’s falafel: In the company’s third food recall this week, on July 28 Trader Joe’s recalled its fan-favorite Fully Cooked Falafel after being informed by the supplier that rocks were found in the food.
The Asian longhorned beetle (ALB; Anoplophora glabripennis) is not easy to miss – adults of this large, black beetle with white spots, black and white striped antennae, and blueish feet are between 1 and 1 ½” long (Fig. 1). ALB larvae are equally striking as the large, white segmented larvae can be nearly 2” in length (Fig. 2). Established populations in the U.S. are found in Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio, and a new infestation was recently found in Charleston County, South Carolina.
The spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) (SLF) is the latest non-native species to take hold in the U.S. This planthopper is large (about a half-inch long) and originally from several countries in the Far East. It was first found in Pennsylvania in 2014, and active infestations are now established in Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and as of just last week, North Carolina. SLF has not been detected in South Carolina, but it is an insect for which we need to be on the lookout.
First, the disclaimer. I know I said the plant is specifically Pinus strobus ‘Nana,’ and that’s how mine came to me, but here’s the wrinkle: ‘Nana’ is kind of a grab-bag name for many relatively compact- or mounded-growing Eastern white pines, a long-needled species native to Eastern North America, from Canada to Georgia and out to Ohio and Illinois.Today, you can shop for named varieties that are really compact, with distinctive and somewhat more predictable shapes, like‘Coney Island’ or ‘Blue Shag’ (to name two cultivars selected by the late Sydney Waxman at the University of Connecticut, who had a particular passion for this species).I could have pinched the tips of the new growth, or candles, by half each year to keep
I’d first read of the tactic being used commercially, particularly in greenhouse growing, to improve yields from less-vigorous varieties like some heirlooms, and counter certain tough conditions or diseases. Now it’s available to the home gardener, too–and you don’t even need a razor blade or grafting clips of your own.The extensive article I wrote last January on tomato grafting explained all the steps, with help from a video from Ohio State.Our plants did fine; the grafts took easily, once the initial awkwardness of the slice-and-dice-and-reconnect motions were semi-mastered. Matching up rootstock (which you behead) with a scion (the top of another plant, the one you want the tomatoes from) was the
REGINA BRETT IS MANY THINGS: a breast-cancer survivor; a onetime single parent; one of 11 kids; a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for her commentary in “The Plain Dealer,” Ohio’s largest newspaper. And an author, of the bestselling “God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours,” just out in paperback.
All these animals are usually lumped in the general catchall of “nuisance wildlife,” but it’s critical to know specifically who you’re up against, to do the best possible job at prevention, or to devise a safe, sane and humane solution, if the unwanted animal is already in residence.For advice, I called Marne Titchenell of Ohio State University. She is a wildlife program specialist in OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and when I read about the popular workshop she gives to gardeners called, “The Good, the Bad and the Hungry: Controlling Nuisance Wildlife in
That’s the sort of “advanced” question I’m wondering about now, after a little episode with a packet of leftover collard seeds that I was feeling so smug about—a feeling that quickly changed to dismay a couple of weeks into their sorry time outdoors.When taking inventory, first I refer to the general guidelines for how long seeds last, summarized generally in the chart above, and detailed in this article on estimating seed viability. I always suggest a germination test of an
Joseph and I are two peas in a pod, you see, but also apples and oranges. Joseph, who gardens in Michigan, and I are both seed-catalog madpeople—but we’re mostly mad about different catalogs, and different items.Back on the first of December, I wrote to Joseph, author of “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener,” to ask him if in, say, a month he’d be ready to talk about the latest catalogs.Silly me.“I just finished puttin
All Things Plants: It was our mutual friend Dan Long of Brushwood Nursery (gardenvines.com) who introduced us, and I am so grateful to know All Things Plants’ founder Dave Whitinger. He’s in Texas and I’m not—but the common threads we always find when we get together spell kindred spirit. I was the guest on his popular podcast this week (do you subscribe already?). Beekman 1802 Boys: One half of “The Amazing Race”-winning, goat-farming, cheese-making Beekman 1802 Boys was my colleague at Martha Stewart, and we keep in touch across the rural New York State counties betw
THE BANG-BANG SOUND FROM THE WOODS this time of year—it’s hunting season!—always reminds me of who isn’t welcome in my garden, thanks to a tall fence. Keeping deer out, or choosing plants that are somewhat less palatable for the areas where you cannot bar them, was the topic of this week’s podcast.