- Author: Trisha Rose
I stroll pretty frequently through our neighborhood with dogs in tow. Many of my neighbors are gifted gardeners and I get a chance to check out and share in their summer bounty. While some of the "suburban farm plots" are shutting down for the season, others are still pumping out the tomatoes and squash. 'Bearss' Lime and 'Improved Meyer' lemon trees are bearing next to a driveway, volunteer squash are flowering by a hose spigot, baby lettuce is keeping company with Kranz aloe and bags of tasty tomatoes and squash appear at my front door along with peppers. Even okra grown from seeds brought in from Northern India is growing very well in the August sun.
Besides all this, one of my neighbors just brought over a dozen fresh eggs naturally colored in shades worthy of an Easter Egg Hunt. This hard working gardener has lots of that great by-product of chicken life she uses throughout her own salad bowl garden and orchard of fruit trees. And she lets a local beekeeper use a back corner for hives which produce lovely honey they both share.
Lots to see here when I put on my walking shoes and start looking around. It's a great way to stay in touch with my neighbors and share in their success as gardeners both literally and visually.
- Author: Edward Walbolt
I am occasionally inclined to take a cutting off of the more unique plants I come across when I am out and about. Recently as I walked on the Linear Park bike trail, I came across some foliage which happened to be on the other side of a private fence in someone’s backyard. I just wanted a cutting, but I found myself asking a question about garden etiquette. Is it socially acceptable to conduct guerilla propagation of someone else’s garden foliage, even if it is only cutting a few nodes of someone else’s Salvia officinalis when no one is looking? Guerilla propagation at first glance seems perfectly fine; I don’t think that I would much mind someone stopping by my yard for a snip here or a cut there as long as the people acted in a respectful manner. My initial suspicions only allowed me more thought about the topic. Not everyone is so outwardly nice, and some people might take exception if they caught an intruder in their garden snipping a branch off their favorite Salix herbacea or Hedera helix. It occurred to me that most guerilla propagators are probably a lot like me and figure that fellow gardeners are nice, and would be flattered that someone would like their selection enough to take and propagate with it. Almost as certain as I am of that, I am also assured in today’s divisive society that the other half of the gardening population would be a little offended, almost intruded upon if their garden was attacked by a stranger with sharp objects. As any credible amateur gardener/scientist would do, I put my theory to the test to see if indeed gardeners are a mirror of regular American society or something different. I asked 10 different gardeners their opinion about guerilla propagation and how it would make them feel if a stranger was taking cuttings of their handiwork. It appears that gardeners are a more generous and giving bunch. Eight out of the ten responses indicated that gardeners feel a sense of pride when other people wanted the fruits of their labor. The scientific moral of this blog is that gardeners are not at all like the general population, we are much kinder, gentler, and more giving. Happy Gardening!