Growing Clean Air

      
House plants have added beauty and warmth to our homes, offices and buildings for many years. Researchers have also found that certain house plants can improve the air we breathe.

During the energy crisis of the '70s, people were encouraged to insulate their homes and offices, add caulking to walls and ceilings, and add more weather-stripping - all of which is effective in conserving energy resources.

But sealing our homes, offices and buildings has also contributed to what is now called "sick building syndrome." Gases from synthetic materials can be trapped inside well-insulated buildings. Some researchers believe there is a link between long-term exposure to these chemical vapors and an increase in a number of diseases, including allergies; asthma; eye, nose and throat irritations; fatigue; headache; nervous system disorders; respiratory congestion, and sinus congestion.

Several common house plants are believed to help clean the air in our homes and offices by removing trapped chemical vapors. Here are ten of them: rubber plant, Dracaena, English ivy, ficus, Boston fern, Spathiphyllum (peace lily), corn plant, Schefflera, weeping fig, and spider plant.

Now you can enjoy having plants in your home and work place - and breathe a little easier at the same time.

Why Do Earthworms Surface After Rain?

Earthworms laying on sidewalks or streets after a heavy spring rain has become commonplace, but why do they do this ... and could they be a travel hazard?

Researchers hypothesize several reasons why heavy rain storms bring crawlers out of their soil homes.

For years scientists seemed to think the only reason earthworms came to the soil surface after a good rain was to prevent drowning in their water-filled burrows.

This is not true as earthworms breathe through their skins and actually require moisture in the soil to do so.  Earthworms are unable to drown like a human would, and they can even survive several days fully submerged in water.

Soil experts now think earthworm’s surface during rain storms for migration purposes.  "It gives them an opportunity to move greater distances across the soil surface than they could do through soil.  They cannot do this when it is dry because of their moisture requirements."

Certain species of earthworms surface to mate, but only a few of the 4,400 existing species, making it unlikely that mating is a primary reason for widespread surfacing.

Another explanation involves rain drop vibrations on the soil surface sounding similar to predator vibrations, like that of moles. Earthworms often come to the surface to escape moles.

Rain can set up vibrations on top of the soil like mole vibrations.  Similar to how earthworms move upwards and out of the way when predator vibrations are felt, they could move in a similar way for rain vibrations.  Similarly, humans create vibrations when "fiddling" for bait earthworms.

To coax worms from their burrows, fishermen run a piece of steel or a hand saw across the top of a stake, which causes a rubbing sound to occur as the stake vibrates.  Earthworms are then moved to the surface, much to the fisherman's delight.

Can Drought Affect Worms?

It is essential that worms live in a moist environment, but during drought conditions, life is certainly more difficult for a worm.  Earthworms dig deeper into the soil where it is moister when conditions are dry. They will do all they can to avoid extreme temperature fluctuations.

Earthworm Swarming

New research published in the journal Ethology revealed that earthworms form herds, swarming together to make "group decisions." Earthworms use touch to communicate and interact, according to scientists who performed experiments on earthworm swarms outside of soil.  Research confirmed that social cues among earthworms influence behavior.  Exactly why earthworms have come to form herds is still being investigated, but it is possible that worms swarm to protect themselves. Protection from weather elements hasn't been ruled out.

Esperanza

As its common name “esperanza” (Spanish for “hope”) seems to suggest, Tecoma stans is our great hope for showy flowers during the heat of late summer.  The long-blooming esperanza is  a multi-branched shrub which can grow several feet high. Its abundant green foliage makes it an attractive landscape plant, even between bloomings. Leaves are several inches long and lanced-shaped with serrated margins.

Intermittently, from April to the first hard freeze, esperanza has profuse clusters of large bright-yellow trumpet-shaped flowers. The ones in our yard seem to have some of their branches in bloom almost continuously from mid summer to late fall. This plant is widely used for commercial landscaping in this area, because it so heat- and drought-tolerant.

Yellow is the usual color of Tecoma stans flowers. Other common names are “yellow bells” and “yellow trumpet.” However, an orange-colored variety also has been propagated for the nursery trade.

Esperanza is in the same family as desert willow, trumpet vine, and catalpa. Tecoma stans is not found in Marshall Enquist’s “Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country,” because its natural range does not include the Edwards Plateau. However, it was collected nearby in Bexar and Hays Counties (“Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Texas”). It also grows from Trans-Pecos Texas to Florida, in Mexico, and in the Caribbean.

According to some taxonomists there is a western variety (T. stans var. angustata) found in the Trans-Pecos and a more tropical variety (T. stans var. stans) found in southeastern Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. The western variety has narrow, deeply incised leaflets. Whichever variety is sold in the local nursery trade seems to survive just fine in this area..

Judging from the natural habitat of the West Texas esperanza, this plant would prefer garden sites with full sun and good drainage. It is drought-tolerant. We rarely water our esperanza bushes.
Esperanza is not cold tolerant in the Hill Country and north. The bushes in our yard die back completely every winter, but they always send up new foliage in the spring. They seem to grow slowly at first, but begin to add foliage rapidly as the temperature gets hotter. Ours reach their flowering peak in late summer and early fall. We always look forward to their bright-yellow blooms.
In many local gardens, whitetail deer do not browse esperanza except during times of diminished food supply when overpopulation pressure becomes especially high.

The first time I was aware of esperanza in the wild was on the wall of a dry limestone canyon in northern Mexico south of Big Bend National Park. Despite months of severe drought in that area, its woody branches bore clusters of yellow trumpets. Last fall we saw it blooming along a very hot, dry stream bed in Big Bend Park.

Esperanza is as tough as it is beautiful. It even bloomed during last summer’s extreme heat spell.

From:  Native Plant Society of Texas

Ground Covering

If you're looking to add some low-growing plants to your landscape, consider using some annual flowers to provide a splash of bright color. Just as we vary flower and foliage size and texture to provide interest in a flower bed design, we should also consider plant height or relative lack of height.  

We've all heard the saying "can't see the forest for the trees."  The tall trees and understory brush are simply too dense a growth for our vision to penetrate. A clearing in the forest makes for a more beautiful view.  It is the same in a landscape or in a flower bed.  Quality design includes void, empty space, a clearing so we may see all there is to see and enjoy.  A void in the landscape needs a floor covering, for dirt can be considered ugly and may erode away.

 

 

Turf is an excellent floor covering for large areas of void.  Low growing annual flowers can provide the pizazz, the color contrast, the attention grabbing burst of color for smaller areas or areas within a flower bed of taller plants.

So You Want to Raise Chickens?

There are many lessons to be learned when keeping your chickens and the main one, I think, is - they either have a sense of humor or they're just inconsiderate! Here are a few things to watch out for..........

Although fed with an ample staple diet of corn and pellets, they are very partial to human toe nails. I therefore recommend you should forget fashion sense and wear socks when entering the pen.

Buttons to chickens look like large layers pellets. Do not bend over if you have a back pocket button.

Wherever you want to go in the pen, chickens will try and speculate your route and go ahead. This can cause you much harm (to self, not the chicken) by falling over them. It is one reason that all my chickens are named 'Getoutthebloominway'.

No matter how warm and cozy you have made their nest box. No matter how many hours it took you to build it, there is about a one in ten chance of them actually using it. Most prefer lawnmower grass boxes, coal sheds and nice little places behind 4' tall stinging nettles.

When introducing new chickens it might pay to do so at night. When they get up at dawn, they can't remember how many of them there were the night before and they just get on with it.

Chickens have a great appreciation for humans wishing to exercise. This becomes apparent if you want to pick one up. In a pen 40' x 40', they will give you at least an 800 meter workout.

One of their favorite games is 'Dare'. This is getting the worm out the ground before the spade goes in again.

Never live next door to a bar. Chickens are attracted to alcohol. Not drinking it, but they know that after a few drinks, the people in there are a soft touch for anything that's going (chickens look for the chance of a ham

sandwich or chips).

They will not drink their water from the supplied container when it's dirty. However, chuck the old water on the muddy ground, and guess where they will take their next drink from!

Again, chickens are very partial to human toe nails. It is not recommended to wear sandals in the pen.

Finally, you are strongly advised not to have a garden picnic within 5 miles of your home. They see that as their invitation.