The Daily Gardener is a weekday show.
It will air every day Monday - Friday
(I’m taking weekends off for rest, family, fun, & gardening!)
The show will debut April 1, 2019. The tagline for the show is thoughts & brevities to inspire growth.
Shows are between 5 - 10 minutes in length.
The format for the show begins with a brief monologue followed by brevities.
The Brevities segment is made up of 5 main topic areas.
1. Commemoration: Here, I dig up fascinating people, places, and events in horticulture and share them with you. This is the “On This Day” #OTD portion of the show helping you feel more grounded and versed o n the most enchanting stories from the history of gardening.
2. Unearthing Written Work: This is made up of poems, quotes, journal entries, and other inspiring works pertaining to gardening
3. Book Recommendations: These are the literary treasures that will help you build a garden library, strengthen your gardening know-how and inspire you.
4. Garden Chores: A Daily Garden To-Do; improve your garden one actionable tip at a time
5. Something Sweet: This segment is dedicated to “reviving the little botanic spark” in your heart - to paraphrase botanist Alexander Garden; to add more joy to the pursuit of gardening.
The show sign-off is: "For a happy, healthy life: garden every day"
There are a few easter eggs in the show for Still Growing listeners. I still start the show with - "Hi there, everyone" and I end the show by saying the show is "produced in lovely, Maple Grove, Minnesota”.
The music for the show is called “The Daily Gardener Theme Song” originally dubbed “Bach’s Garden". I wrote it on Garageband. It will be available as a ringtone for your smartphone through the show’s Patreon page.
If you enjoy the show, please share it with your garden friends. I would so appreciate that.
Sep 16, 2019
#NationalIndoorPlantWeek is this
week!
Be sure to follow my friend, Lisa Steinkopf - the @HouseplantGuru- on
twitter for a chance to win copies of her books and some
houseplants. And remember, it's all week long - so Happy Indoor
Plant Week. Go get yourself something new for the Indoor season
which is just around the corner if you live in a colder
climate.
Brevities
#OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of Charles V of
France who died on this day in 1380.
He commissioned his cook, Guillaume Tirel, to create the first
cookbook. The full title of the book is an exceptionally long one.
In English, it translates to:
"Hereafter follows the [recipe collection] describing the
preparation of all manner of foods, as cooked by Taillevent, the
cook of our noble king, and also the dressing and preparation of
boiled meat, roasts, sea and freshwater fish, sauces, spices, and
other suitable and necessary things as described
hereafter."
As the Culinary World was getting underway, it is interesting to
note that during Charles V's reign, the first forks were found to
be included in an inventory. And gardeners with some knowledge of
mushrooms will find the death of Charles V intriguing; some
historians believe that Charles V died as a result of eating the
highly poisonous amanita mushrooms.
#OTD Today is the birthday of the Scottish
plantsman Robert Fortune who was born on this day in
1812.
Robert Fortune's name is inextricably bound to China and to tea and
the tea plant, Camellia sinensis.
For centuries, China had a monopoly on tea. They, alone, grew the
plants. They made black tea and green tea, and the rest of the
world had no idea how they did it.
By the 1700's, the British had started enjoying exports from China:
porcelain, silk, and yes, tea. But, China was not interested in
goods from Britain.
The lop-sided relationship was a problem.
This is where Robert Fortune enters the scene. By the early 1800's,
he was a trained botanist learning at the hem of some of England's
finest gardens and he gets hired to go to China by the Royal
Geographic Society the RGS. At the time, China was off-limits to
foreigners. So, in order to collect plants, Fortune figured out a
way to blend in: he shaves his head and wears clothing like the
locals, he picks up some of the Mandarin language and he learns
about China more than any other westerner at the time. China is
vast and Fortune stayed for three years before returning home to
England.
When he returned, Fortune wrote about his time in China and he drew
the attention of The British East India Company. They were serious
about obtaining tea plants from China. And, they were
desperate to learn how to make tea. So, they wisely select Fortune,
with his unique combination of botanical and Chinese
expertise, and they send him back to China.
This time Fortune was on a much more specific mission and he knew
what he needed to do to. He went to China incognito; dressed as a
Mandarin. He had shaved the front of his head he
basically had extensions sewn in to the hair on the back of his
head so he looked like he has this amazingly long ponytail. He
looked 100% the part. Then, he hired guides to do the talking for
him and since there was no national language, it all flew under the
radar.
Once in China, Fortune immediately began visiting tea plantations.
He learned the methods and ways of harvesting tea plants to make
tea. He learned that green tea and black tea come from the same
plant; it's just the processing method that makes them different.
Thanks to the Wardian case, Fortune was able to get live plants to
India. All told, Fortune managed to smuggle out 20,000 tea plants
and ships them to India. He even managed to get some of the Chinese
tea farmers with their tools to leave China and help set up tea
production in India.
Sara Rose, one of the authors who has written a biography on
Fortune, said that what Fortune accomplished was no less than
the greatest single act of corporate espionage in the
history of the world.
Today, China is still the top tea producer with over 2.4 million
tons of production. Followed by India at a little less than half
and then Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam make up the next spots. So,
tea being grown outside of China is a direct result of Robert
Fortune and India, as the number 2 tea producer in the world
(behind China) was a feat that was accomplished in a less than two
centuries. And, again, it wouldn't have happened without Robert
Fortune.
#OTD 1835 Charles Darwin arrived at the Galapagos
islands on board a ship called the HMS Beagle.
Once he's on the islands, Darwin begins to check out all of the
varied and unique plants and it gets him thinking. The
experience basically shapes his theory of natural selection.
Unearthed Words
"But now in September the garden has cooled, and with it my
possessiveness. The sun warms my back instead of beating on my head
... The harvest has dwindled, and I have grown apart from the
intense midsummer relationship that brought it on."
- Robert Finch, Nature Writer
Today's book recommendation: The Chinese Kitchen
Garden by Wendy Kiang-Spray
Back in 2018, I had the opportunity to interview Wendy and it
remains one of my favorite conversations about growing and using
edibles from the garden.
The Chinese Kitchen Garden is half how to grow, half how to cook,
and half an amazing glimpse into the wonderful Kiang-Spray Family -
so that’s 150% worth of yummy, beautiful, love in one book.
As gardeners, sometimes we can get a little restless - searching
for a new variety - something new to try - and when nothing strikes
our fancy, we can feel unsatisfied. Well, Wendy's
introduction to Asian Vegetables is a spark and it opens the door
to growing a whole new cast of edibles. What I learned from Wendy
is that often the Asian vegetables she learned to grow and eat are
often upgrades from the standard varieties. Now THAT's
exciting.
If you are looking for something new to grow, if you’re a foodie or
if you want to start a kitchen garden, The Chinese Kitchen Garden
is perfect for you. And, if you want to check out my interview with
Wendy over at the Still Growing podcast, just search for Episode
601 and hit play.
During that episode, Wendy read excerpts from many of my favorite
parts in the book and she’ll also shares many of the Chinese
vegetables — like lotus root, bitter melons, stem lettuce, day
lilies, and Chinese cucumbers — and traditional recipes that will
make you drool. Finally, Wendy’s book is organized by season, so
handy - you’ll learn what to grow in spring and what to cook in
winter.
Today's Garden Chore
Make one last push to plant the trees, shrubs, and
perennials that are on your list or that you find discounted at the
store.
Do it now, so they can get established. And remember to water them
well. Depending on where you are at, you have 3-4 weeks before the
sprinkler system needs to get shut off.
Something Sweet
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
On this day in 1978, the New Castle News out of New Castle,
PA, shared an article written by Mike Finsilber with a headline
that read: Exhibit depicts female scientists.
"When curator Deborah Warner suggested to her superiors at the
Smithsonian Institutition that she put together an exhibit
documenting the accomplishments of American women in science in the
19th century, her superiors were skeptical.
Women scientists in the 19th century?
Would there be enough of them to fill an exhibit?
They doubted it.
Ms. Warner didn’t.
Yesterday her display opened in the Museum of History and
Technology, telling of, among others:
—Kate Furbish, the botanist who discovered the now-famous Furbish
Lousewort. It is now famous because it is endangered and for a time
threatened to block construction of the Lincoln-Dickey Dam in
Maine."
Thanks for listening to the daily gardener,
and remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."