from the new west blog: preventing mildew and malaise
Toss Those Smelly Children Into the Garden
By Jill Kuraitis, 6-11-08
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Let’s face it - we’re going to have more time at home this summer, what with gas prices, airline tickets and pretty much everything else too expensive for us to leave. Which is too bad, because the kids are out of school about now, and lots of parents – except those obnoxious saintly types - are dreading a long summer of trying not to have to amuse them.
Restricted driving = fewer opportunities to get their stinky feet out of your house and off to….somewhere else.
Of course, they may turn into little videogame robots, which in a way could be a relief – especially if you have a soundproof basement with its own refrigerator – but we all know modern kids have a nature deficit and it’s up to us to do something about it.
Even the governor of Idaho is all het up about this. June is “Great Outdoors Month,” as declared by Gov. Butch Otter, who said last week that it concerns him that young people spend half as much time outdoors as children 20 years ago, and too much time on electronic media.
Didn’t you know you’re supposed to be outdoors with them, tossing worms around?
Don’t despair, though; I have a once a week project for them that has all sorts of benefits: they can spray your garden with milk.
I know this news is a terrible shock, but with warm weather expected this weekend, a region-wide explosion of the dreaded Powdery Mildew fungus could exfoliate the gardens of the Rocky Mountain West.
The endless, wet, stormy, unpredictable, endless, snowy, rainy and did I mention endless spring might take a turn toward summer any minute now, and when soggy plants sitting in soggy ground suddenly dry up, conditions for mildew are prime.
Let me just point out that since you’re stuck at home all summer with your unaffordable car up on blocks, you don’t want to add to your misery with a depressing view of your leafless garden.
Put off that Prozac prescription and get ready for the mildew, which we may not recognize easily. It isn’t as common in the drier western climate as it is in the swamps of the southern and eastern states. Keep any eye out so the roses don’t infect infect the lilacs and perennials… not to mention those veggies you’re growing to save some more cash.
I’m telling you, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. I can tell because my prize hedge of shrub roses, normally covered in blooms by early June, are white and sickly with the mildew, despite my forays into the squishy, freezing cold garden to frown at them.
According to my late mother and now confirmed by organic-gardening experts, a weekly spray of diluted skim milk (1 part milk, 9 parts water) will reduce the severity of powdery mildew by up to 90%.
Folk wisdom says that milk is a natural germicide and plant immune-system booster.
If you don’t dilute the milk enough, you will get Garden Funk, a technical term meaning another, unnamed fungus which smells like Army socks.
Also, if you don’t rinse down the kids enough after you set them this task, you will get Kid Funk, a technical term meaning…..well, you already know this part.
[End of article]
letter to the editor
Chapel Hill (NC) Newspaper
June 11, 2008
Solutions exist if we apply the science.
Humankind is surely experiencing the fulfillment of a Chinese proverb: "We live in interesting times." Many of our brilliant scientists report that God is a delusion. On the other hand, intuitive and gifted believers regularly tell us that these scientists themselves suffer from a form of delusional atheism. No one knows, I suppose, which of these groups is correct.
I am one of those people who believes the family of humanity can use God's gift of science to take the measure of any global challenge and find solutions that are consonant with universal values. But, before we can move forward to reasonably address and sensibly overcome a challenge to human wellbeing and environmental health such as global warming, that challenge needs to be openly acknowledged and widely discussed. I suppose it is a function of my life experience to suggest that we accurately "diagnose" whatever the challenge is before proceeding to implement "treatment" options.
If great spiritual and scientific leaders are somehow on the right track when realizing, "The Earth has a human-induced fever and could overheat," then at least one available treatment option is to carefully and skillfully examine the extant scientific evidence related to global warming and to make necessary changes in human behavior, both individually and collectively.
All of the above serves to set the stage for our consideration of a question. How can politicians and economic powerbrokers in the human community be empowered to muster the "political will" necessary for addressing human-driven climate change as well as for providing the substantial economic incentives and financial capital necessary to overcome this potential global threat to life as we know it and the integrity of Earth?
-- Steven Earl Salmony, Chapel Hill
Regarding the mildew problem, a couple of months ago I bought a product that proclaims itself to be safe. Since using it I have no signs whatsoever of fungus problems. I'll look in my garage and see if I can find it and report back its contents.
Regarding the cool wet weather, it seems that Gaia's Pacific Decadal Oscillation, not man, is to blame. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/ideas/bal-id.climate25may25,0,3477149.story
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Water temperatures in the North Pacific are changing, and NASA climatologists say the patterns they've seen in recent months may affect temperature and rainfall trends in the United States for decades to come...They could produce more dry weather for the parched Southwest and Southeast, and cooler temperatures with even more rain than normal in the Northwest, the upper Midwest and the Great Lakes.
...scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California report that the water temperatures of the North Pacific have now entered the "cool phase" of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a natural cycle that can last for 20 to 30 years.
The warm and cool phases of the PDO are similar to the warm and cool phases farther south in the tropical Pacific known as El Nino and La Nina. But the PDO cycles last much longer - decades, versus 6 to 18 months for an El Nino or La Nina.
When the two are out of step (say, cool PDO, warm El Nino) their effects on distant weather events are blunted, scientists believe. But when they're in sync (cool PDO, cool La Nina) their effects are combined and amplified.
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I found the product. It does not say that it is 'safe' only that it is compatible with organic use. The active ingredient is Neem Oil. What I like about it is that there is no visible residue after application.
Comment By Karen Taylor, 6-12-08You may have answered my lingering puzzlement over what's preventing my flowering crabapples from flowering. Leaves curl but not as dramatic as leaf curlers. No visable sign of bugs, but white powder stuff all over. Could it be?
With the price of milk going up it may not be a "inexpensive" fix however!
Anyone out there have a good way to get rid of white flys?
Karen, Neem Oil is very effective. Spray the leaves and the soil around the tree.
Comment By Karen, 6-22-08Better late than never... Thanks.
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