The Garden Buzz

Spanish Moss: Pretty Parasite or What?

Even if you don't live in the south chances are you've been a bit curious about Spanish moss, that ubiquitous fixture of southern landscapes, like a thousand trailing gray beards through which lace curtain light filters the heavy humid air. It's the gauzy, dreamy stuff of stories gone southern Gothic.

Spanish moss growing with dogwood flowers

While it loves live oaks with their ambling lateral branches it seems to attach itself to anything not moving, you'll see it hanging in just about any tree or shrub. 

But on a practical note, is it a parasite? Does it kill trees?

In a word, no. 

Spanish moss on tulip magnolia tree

Neither moss or lichen, Spanish moss is an epiphyte, or air plant, a member of the bromeliad family and a cousin of, off all things, the pineapple. Although it attaches itself to trees, it absorbs nutrients and water from the air. It can grow so abundantly that it shades out a tree's foliage and decreases growth, however it won't kill the tree.

Spanish moss glows with autumn leaves

In the old days Spanish moss was used for stuffing mattresses and car seats, before that it was woven into clothing. Nowadays you'll see it used in floral arrangements, craft items and oddly enough in reptile cages for bedding.

No matter, I love how it performs a little visual alchemy romancing even the most ordinary street. I love the jarring effect of its grizzled gray scarves draped from autumn leaves or better yet the waxy blooms of the tulip poplar tree.

You can order live Spanish moss to grow your own. The websites profess that all it takes is regular misting with water, even claiming you can grow it outside its southern range. Whether this is the case, I guess the question is, would you really want to?

 

Garden Sleuthing: Down South for the Winter Again

After some tense moments at the parking permit office, I now feel settled in my "Savannah Getaway", where they advertise you can "live like a local". I'm in an upstairs apartment across from the Colonial Cemetery so when I walk the dog at night the ghost tours keep me company.

Parking here is important mostly because you walk everywhere and that car needs to sit some place while you do it. Now that the secondary residential sticker is firmly planted on my car I can breath easier and save my quarters for extra-large iced teas (with a splash of pineapple lemonade) from Parker's.

Last year I was a bit giddy getting away from the winter, although it was the winter that never quite was, but this year is different. I have mixed emotions, as I miss my new neighborhood and there's the matter of the house we are building in it. Hopefully all the big design decisions are behind me while I escape the cold. And note to potential burglars, I may be gone, but someone's home.

It's still winter here but my garden sleuthing has already begun in earnest. Henry-dog and I just found a sweet little "tree lawn" planting. For those of you that aren't familiar with this term, the tree lawn is that narrow strip of soil between the closely plotted homes of the historic district and the often bricked or cobbled streets of Savannah.

With space at a premium, those with a bent for gardening, grow what they can in these petite spots, packing them with annuals, tropicals, palms and azaleas. I thought this one was certainly maximizing theirs in a charming way.

Charming tree lawn planting in Savannah

      

So when we think there isn't room in our gardens for one more plant, maybe we aren't looking hard enough!

While I'm in Savannah I'll be posting lots of pics of great gardens that may be southern but still have lots of ideas that are totally "tranplantable".  I have lots of writing projects to work on when I'm not I larking  around. I may have a very interesting announcement...hmmm.

Of course my daughter ( thesis project is close to finished she tells me) and I will be eating our way through the city and surrounding areas. And I'm sure there's a Charleston trip ahead with all those beautiful windowboxes among other garden inspirations. Stay tuned.

 

Seed Sowing Even When It's Snowing

 

I've always heard that January 8 is the worst day of the year; a day when people are the most depressed, coming down from the high of the holidays. It's a day when marriages fail, therapist's schedules book up and people find the thought of winter unbearable.

On January 8 even those that garden look forlornly out the window to a bleak landscape of dead grass or a frozen tableau of impenetrable snow. But did you know this is a great time for sowing seeds?

Not the fiddly way with trays and flats and tiny little pockets of soil. Winter sowing is way too easy, so easy I can't believe everyone up north isn't on to it.

In a nutshell you take used milk jugs or other similar shaped plastic containers, cut them almost in half leaving a hinge, fill halfway with moistened soil, plant your seeds, label, re-tape leaving the cap off and sit them outside in all the elements and wait for the magic. For more detailed instructions and great photos check out this wonderful website,www.wintersown.org

On the site there are all sorts of suggestions about the vast array of seeds that can be sown this way. I found that the more difficult seeds; especially perennial seeds that need pre-chilling, stratification and other complicated steps are the most rewarding for the winter sowing method.

Shasta Daisies are easy to winter sow

Once you done your sowing you just stand back and let nature do the work. With minimal effort I've been able to grow large numbers of plants like Shasta Daisy, Basket of Gold, Columbines, etc for the mere price of a seed packet. 

Most importantly, I can get my hands in a little potting soil and rummage through my seeds in the middle of winter. Gardening may not solve everyone's woes, however seeing the jugs out there lined up in the snow so full of promise goes a long way when the cold wind is blowing and cabin fever runs hot.