Hi there everyone and welcome to The Daily Gardener and thank you for listening. I'm your host Jennifer Eblin. It's August 15th. Today we remember the man who helped to establish the Natural History Museum in Vienna and will also learn about the Swedish botanist who specialized in Mycology will salute the American botanist who wrote the Calendarian a marvelous phonological record and will also recognize a fanciful botanical illustrator who anthropomorphized flowers in his book and will also honor a husband and wife team who created a magnificent arboretum in the middle of the country and will celebrate National Relaxation Day today with a poem that celebrates a feature that most gardeners would love to have in their gardens a little running brook And we'll grow that garden library with a book That's all about the little things that we put in our homes to make it extra cozy and personal And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a man who created the term ecosystem and his words still challenge us to see our Gardens through a much bigger lens, but first let's catch up on some greetings from gardeners from around the world and today's curated news Well today I wanted to start out by sharing a garden feature that was shared in the Facebook group for the show This was a photo that was shared by Mary Klein and it was of one of her rain swales You know I don't know about you guys, but up here in Minnesota We've been getting tons of rain and we need it So that's the upside and if you'd like to create a feature in your garden that will help your garden process rainwater more efficiently You should really consider a swale now the picture that Mary shared of the one in her garden is a perfect example And if you'd like to see it the next time you're in the Facebook group for the show Just type in swale and Mary's picture will pop up now in case you're having a hard time imagining what a swale is Just imagine a dry riverbed and I always think of swales as being paisley shaped But they don't have to be now if you have natural low spots in your garden That might be the perfect place to install a swale Just follow the contours of your garden and use the swale to help you direct rainwater and another benefit of installing a swale Is that they filter runoff and that's very important now?
You can have all kinds of fun landscaping around your swale You can install plants that like wet feet in the deeper areas of the swale or along the sides and Generally speaking native plants or even prairie plants feel especially at home in fast draining soil So all along the edge of the swale is a perfect opportunity to try out some new plants in your landscape Now the main thing to keep in mind if you're interested in installing a swale is that the purpose of the swale is to slow down The water and to make sure more of it gets into your garden So imagine you have a hillside garden Well, they're perfect for swales or as I mentioned earlier imagine you have some low spots in your garden Well, you're gonna save yourself some digging because essentially if you have to start on a flat surface with a swale You're essentially digging a trench or a ditch So wisely working with the contours of your garden is a good thing to do with a swale Finally if you're looking for some swale inspiration, don't forget to check out Pinterest or even Instagram There are so many images nowadays of beautiful swales in the garden and I'm confident if you do your homework You'll find your inspiration from some of those images All right, that's it for today's Gardener greetings Now if you'd like to participate in the Gardener greeting segment All you need to do is join the Facebook group for the show or you can send me an email with your garden pictures Your stories your birthday wishes and so forth. My email is Jennifer at the daily gardener.org That's Jennifer at the daily gardener.org Here's today's curated news. This is a piece from Connecticut Public Radio and they featured the ground cherry Here's an excerpt some vegetables are just fun and we've been growing ground cherries for years This tomato family vegetable looks like a mini version of a tomatillo It's a sprawling two-foot plant that produces an abundance of green turning to brown papery husks and Inside the husk is the fun part small cherry sized fruits mature from green to golden Unwrap the husk harvest and snack on the fruits and they taste like a cross between a tomato and a pineapple They're sweet and delicious and something kids really love Now I was talking to Patricia Newport at the start of the summer because I accidentally bought some ground cherries on one of my first trips To the garden center and I was a little worried because I know that ground cherries are a bit of a commitment Once you have them you probably will have them for years in your garden because they self-seed themselves But I decided to give it a go in part because my mom made this passing comment about how grandma had them in her garden And then on the other hand I had a friend talk about how much she and her kids enjoy harvesting and eating ground cherries Anyway, this post from Connecticut Public Radio does a very good job of introducing you to the ground cherry So if you'd like to check it out All you need to do is search for the word ground in the Facebook group for the show and this post will pop up Well today on the blog I re-shared a post that I wrote last year and it was all about the turmoil that my garden went through after having our shingles and our Citing replaced and guess what I'm about to go through it again up here at the cabin In fact, we just had the roof done I was so impressed they got it done in one day and in about six weeks We'll be going through the entire process again getting new siding on the cabin here And that's something that we desperately need to do because the woodpeckers up here are something else And they have packed baseball sized holes in the back of our house. They're relentless And in any case, I'm very excited to get it done But I'm not so excited about all of the trauma that my garden will go through So rereading this post from last year was a great reminder to me anyway I thought you'd enjoy hearing an excerpt from this post here goes I Always remind new gardeners that we never garden alone We garden in partnership with mother nature and in this partnership mother nature will have her way now Sometimes we may feel like we win, but I kind of think it's like the first time you play go fish or some other game with your kid They just think they won in any case I'm using all of this chaos as an opportunity to address some crowding in my garden beds And in some places after the terrible storm came through everything is just gone And I suppose I could also see it as an early start on fall cleanup The one thing I'm grateful for is the replacement of this very large 14 by 20 foot arbor.
That's on the side of our house Now initially I had started growing several different varieties of clematis on it But then I switched and settled on golden hops when I was going through my hops phase Well over the past few years I've decided I'm not a fan of hops on this arbor The vines are aggressive and sticky and the sap can be irritating to the skin And I wasn't a massive fan of the color either because I chose golden hops And they just didn't go with the siding on the house now My student gardeners are going to come and help me cover the area with some landscape fabric Because I think that's what it's going to take to keep the hops away They are vigorous and then after a season of rest I think I'll go back to one of my all-time favorite shady climbers the climbing hydrange up Now they're slow growing and it's going to take a while for them to get established But once they do man, are they pretty and if you think hydrangeas make you swoon wait till you see a wall of climbing hydrangea It's scrumptious Alright, that's it for today's gardening news Now if you'd like to check out any of my curated news articles or original blog posts for yourself You're in luck because I share all of it in the listener community for the show on Facebook It's called the daily gardener community So there's no need to take notes or search for links the next time you're on Facebook Just search for daily gardener community up in the search bar where you'd look for a friend And then once the community pops up just request to join I'd love to meet you in the group Here's today's brevity's today is the birthday of the Austrian naturalist and botanist Carl von Schreiberz who was born on this day in 1775 Now the Austrian Empire had a special affinity for plants and horticulture And they funded expeditions regularly to collect new materials for their natural history museum Many famous botanists were involved in these expeditions including Carl Philip von Martinis Now in 1806 Carl von Schreiber became the director of the museum And although he was an excellent botanist and a collegeist his heart belonged to minerals and meteorites One of Carl's smartest moves was to make Leopold Tratonic the curator of the museum Herbarium Which was founded in 1807 and for over 40 years Carl grew the museum and then sadly things took a bad turn In 1848 during the revolution in Vienna the Natural History Museum caught on fire Protesters not only destroyed the library that Carl had carefully built But they also destroyed Carl's home since his living quarters were right inside the museum The destruction of the museum was too much for Carl. It broke his heart Carl immediately retired And he died four years later And today is the birthday of the botanist Elias Magnus Frees who was born on this day in Sweden in 1794 now the area where Elias grew up in Sweden was rich in fungi and his luck would have it His father was a self-taught botanist put those two things together And it's no wonder that Elias Frees developed a lifelong interest in mycology In fact Elias developed the very first system that was used to classify fungi So we remember him for that and if you google Elias Frees You'll see there's a wonderful picture of him as an octogenarian if you're a Harry Potter fan Elias looks like he could have been Dumbledore's best friend Elias was a happy botanist and he worked tirelessly until the day he died in February 1878 and today is the birthday of the American botanist John Tory who was born on this day in 1796 John was the very first American botanist to study the floor-up of New York State and the area that John botanized included what is now Greenwich Village the area of the Elgin Botanic Garden, which is now Rockefeller Center and Bloomingdale, which is now the Upper West Side of Manhattan as well as Hoboken, New Jersey Now one of the things we remember most about John Tory is his calendarian which was his Phenological record where he documented his plants. He recorded the species the location They were planted in and the date of their first bloom. It was kind of like a baby book for his plants Well, historically speaking farmers have often kept similar records so that they can track their planting seasons and growing cycles And Thomas Jefferson did the same thing as John Tory in a book.
He called the calendar Now if you'd like to see John Tory's Calendarian and it's really fascinating to look at I've put a link to it in today's show notes because the New York Botanic Garden has digitized this manuscript So you really should check it out if you get the chance and here's a fun little piece of trivia about John Tory The mountain known as Tory's Peak in Colorado is named for John Tory and Today is the birthday of the illustrator Walter Crane who was born in Liverpool on this day in 1845 Today gardeners fondly recall Walter thanks to one of his most stunning works a book called a floral fantasy in an old English garden it was published in 1899 Walter's book was actually intended to be a children's book But as I like to say it became a beloved book by children of all ages for gardeners It's really something of a graphic novel telling the story of the secret life and society of flowers in Walter's world the flowers are personified for example the dandelion is portrayed as a bold knight His shield is made of a large dandelion blossom and the fox gloves are a lively group They're comprised of cousins and brothers and sisters Today Walter's book continues to appeal thanks to his beautiful artwork and the allure of the enchanted realm that he created Complete with fairies the four seasons old man time knights and other creatures now There are 46 illustrations in Walter's book and original copies of this book are very rare and they sell for over a thousand dollars But luckily for you you can view Walter's entire album for free using the link in today's show notes And finally today is the birthday of the co-founder of the Bickle-Hoped Arboretum Robert Earl Bickle-Hoped who was born on this day in 1914 Robert and his wife Francis created an arboretum around their family home in Clinton, Iowa During the 1960s and 1970s Robert and Francis watched as Dutch Elm disease claimed the beautiful Elm-lined streets in Clinton in response They began planting a diverse range of trees on their own property, which was 10 acres now Robert and Francis were exceptionally disciplined when it came to planting trees on their property They grouped all of their trees by species and today the Bickle-Hoped Arboretum has a lovely collection of trees including ash beach, birch, crab apple, elm, hickory, honey locust, linden, magnolia, and oak And they also have a very beautiful conifer collection Which is regarded as the crown jewel of the arboretum and it features many rare and dwarf conifers In total the Bickle-Hoped Arboretum boasts over 2,000 different species of plants and just this week The Bickle-Hoped Arboretum is writing a new chapter They're cleaning up the damage from the derecho, the widespread and severe windstorm that blew through the Midwest earlier this week on Monday Now as a result of the derecho the Bickle-Hoped Arboretum lost 28 trees and many more were damaged in the hurricane force winds Now the first course of action for them is cleanup and then they'll have to take down trees that need to be addressed immediately Because they've been so compromised In any case, it's truly a new chapter for the arboretum And if you happen to go to the Bickle-Hoped Arboretum, there's a poignant sculpture of Robert and Francis near the entrance They're standing side by side as Francis places one foot on a shovel that she's holding in front of her I love that sculpture In unearthed words, today is National Relaxation Day So take a deep breath and imagine the movement of water as you listen to the words in today's poem Here's the Brooke by the British poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson I come from haunts of coot and hern I make a sudden sally and sparkle out among the fern to bicker down a valley By thirty hills I hurry down or slip between the ridges By twenty-thorps, a little town and half a hundred bridges To last by Philip's farm, I flow to join the brimming river For men may come and men may go, but I go on forever I chatter over stony ways in little sharps and troubles I bubble into eddying bays, I babble on the pebbles With many a curve, my banks I fret by many a field and fallow And many a fairy forland set with willow weed and mallow I chatter chatter as I flow to join the brimming river For men may come and men may go, but I go on forever I wind about and in and out with hear a blossom sailing And hear in there a lusty trout and hear in there a graling And hear in there a foamy flake upon me as I travel With many a silvery water-break above the golden gravel And draw them all along and flow to join the brimming river For men may come and men may go, but I go on forever I steal by lawns and grassy plots I slide by hazel covers I move the sweet forget-me-nots that grow for happy lovers I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance among my skimming swallows I make the netted sunbeam dance against my sandy shallows I murmur under moon and stars in brambly wildernesses I linger by my shingly bars, I loiter round my creases And out again I curve and flow to join the brimming river For men may come and men may go, but I go on forever It's time to grow that garden library with today's book It's the Little Things by Susanna Sock This book came out in 2016 and the subtitle is Creating Big Moments in Your Home through the stylish small stuff This is one of my favorite books I love the botanically-themed cover And here's what Quintessence Blog said about Susanna's book Susanna successfully celebrates those details in our homes where we express ourselves the most and where our memories, our personality, and our style come alive And then here's what Vogue said about Susanna's book If the walls of your home could talk, what would they say about you? Turns out, a lot! That's the message in Susanna Sock's new book It's the Little Things Susanna details how the smallest design elements have the potential to make the biggest statements And I guess that's what I personally love about Susanna's book because she incorporates so many natural elements She brings the outside in and that's something gardeners love to do in their homes Now, just because we enjoy doing that or we want to do that doesn't mean that we're doing it effectively or to the level that we want And that's where Susanna's book comes in because it is chock full of inspiration And Ballard Designs said this about Susanna's book If you've ever struggled with how to decorate your mantle how to create an arrangement on a wall or how to create a moment in a small space this lushly photographed volume is a godsend This book is 272 pages of little stylish things that will create meaningful moments in your home You can get a copy of It's the Little Things by Susanna Sock and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $38 Finally, here's something sweet to revive the little botanic spark in your heart Today is the birthday of the English botanist and pioneer in the science of ecology, Sir Arthur George Tansley who was born on this day in 1871 Arthur's father had a close friend and fellow teacher who was also a botanist and it was this person who inspired Arthur to pursue botany From a legacy standpoint, Arthur is remembered for creating the botany publication New Phytologist which was named after an 1842 publication called The Phytologist So Arthur's journal was the New Phytologist With his journal, Arthur wanted British botanists to be able to communicate and discuss their teaching and research and it's thanks to Arthur Tansley that we embrace the concept of an ecosystem He introduced us to the term in 1935 Arthur defined an ecosystem as a community of organisms that interact with each other and with their environments by competing and collaborating over the available resources in order to thrive In doing so, they co-evolve and jointly adapt to external influences and listen to this quote by Arthur Tansley and see if it doesn't challenge you to think about your plants, your garden, and your world more broadly Arthur said, the whole method of science is to isolate systems for the purpose of study whether it be a solar system, a planet, a climatic region, a plant or an animal community an individual organism, an organic molecule or an atom Actually, the systems that we isolate mentally are not only included as part of larger ones but they also overlap, interlock, and interact with one another Isolation is artificial Now with that in mind, when we ask ourselves as a gardener what's wrong with this leaf or with this flower or the shrub or tree, etc we should probably be thinking more broadly what's going on with this garden, with this lake that I'm gardening by, with this community that I'm living in, with this land We honor Arthur Tansley every time we think bigger every time we remember that our gardens are part of a bigger ecosystem Today, the new phytologist gives the Tansley Medal to early career researchers working in the field of plant sciences The award is intended to increase visibility for the exciting work going on in all areas of plant science Thanks for listening to the Daily Gardener and remember for a happy healthy life garden every day The Daily Gardener is produced in lovely Wyoming, Minnesota with the help of Paige Mance, Brooke Beerbaum, Keanu Rayleigh, Matty Doyle, Natalie Ducker, and Eric Begay You can find the Daily Gardener on all your favorite social media You can follow the show on Instagram and listeners always have a standing invitation to join the free Facebook group for the show Just search for Daily Gardener Community the next time you're on Facebook and request to join All the stories and books that are featured on the show can be found over at thedailygardener.org The Daily Gardener.org And while you're there, be sure to sign up for my free Friday newsletter Last but not least, you can share your own Gardener greetings on the show by emailing me at Jennifer at the Daily Gardener I'm your host Jennifer Ebling and as always have a great day in the garden and we'll see you tomorrow