Making It Grow Minutes

During the twenties, thirties and through the forties tons of asparagus vegetables were shipped to northern markets.

My husband’s mother, born in 1901, said that when she was young and sat down at the dinner table with her numerous brothers, sisters, maiden aunts, parents and guests, the children often gave out a collective groan when the cooks appeared with platters of asparagus. “Oh, Momma, asparagus again!”

When Hurricane Hugo came through South Carolina, Sumter County was really hit hard. The magnificent Swan Lake Gardens lost several hundred pine trees exposing camellias and azaleas to unwelcome sunlight. But only a few bald cypresses were lost. If you come across a young bald cypress, shake it and you’ll find that is flexible, even adult trees are not brittle like pines. The ones in water with their interlacing knees have a giant support system in play protecting them against strong winds, even hurricanes. In ice storms, they again have an advantage over pines as they are deciduous and have no needles for the ice to accumulate on and cause the trunks to break. You can grow bald cypress in a regular landscape – they don’t make knees in ordinary soils – just buy a bale of long-leaf pinestraw for mulch.

Dendrochronology is the study of information obtained from tree ring growth. It is used in several different fields – archaeologists can date wooden artifacts, dendrologist – tree scientists – can use tree rings to determine the local climate. But perhaps the most interesting is climate science. Professor Dave Stahle of the University of Arkansas told us at his talk at the Congaree National Park that the Lost Colony, called that because none of the original settlers survived, was ill-fated due to several factors but one fact that scientists have established is that those people who were trying to grow crops to feed themselves had no chance of a good harvest as they sadly were dealing with the drought of fifteen eighty-seven through sixteen hundred. Tree ring analysis shows that fifteen eighty-seven was the driest year in eight hundred years.

I attended an outdoor lecture at the Congaree National Park last month, an appropriate site as Dave Stahle, Professor of Geography at the University of Arkansas, and the world’s authority on bald cypress gave the talk, and the Park is home to the state-record holding cypress tree. Stahle takes very small and minimally damaging core samples from trees and studies them to age trees and document climate change -- he has sampled trees that are two thousand years old. The science of dendrochronology is studying information derived from tree ring growth. These ring samples allow to date exactly what years had normal, above normal, or subnormal rainfall as the rings are larger or very small depending on how much the tree grew. In our part of the country, bald cypress are the oldest trees and provide the most information.

If you feel cramped or overwhelmed, you should visit the Congaree National Park right outside of Columbia. Of its 26,000 acres, the core protected area is fifteen thousand acres.

You can easily see large majestic bald cypress trees if you walk the boardwalk at the Congaree National Park. But retired DNR wildlife biologist John Cely who has explored the Park extensively, you might enjoy his blogs (at Friends of the Congaree Swamp) had found large cypress inaccessible except by boat and took Professor Dave Stahle, the world’s expert on bald cypress, to that area. Professor Stahle took tree cores from the largest of those trees to get information on their age and the climate they had grown in for probably over a thousand years. The oldest cypress trees Dr. Stahle has found are in the Black River preserve in North Carolina and are over 2,000 years old. The size of bald cypress doesn’t necessarily indicate their age; ones that grow in nutrient poor wet soils grow slowly.

If you go to mig.org and watch the Nov. 9 show, you’ll learn about Food Share and how getting fresh food to people became even more critical during the pandemic. When people get their box every other week, they get recipes, too. Forty percent of us have gained weight during the pandemic; lack of exercise, eating “comfort foods,” and finding it harder to get fresh foods. The meal we cooked on that show was delicious, and I looked at the Food Share website to see if I could find more recipes. Boy, oh, boy -- what a treasure trove. I’m going to start fixing some of these meals, get healthier suppers for my family, and expand my repertoire and recharge my interest in cooking at the same time. Who can resist “garlic smashed sweet potatoes with parmesan cheese?”

Christa Gonzalez of U S C Medical School, Columbia, joined Clemson’s Rural Health Agent Ellie Lane on a recent sMaking It Grow program talking about how access to fresh food and its preparation are critical for our citizens’ health. One in eight South Carolinians has been diagnosed with diabetes and each year a larger percentage joins that group. Gonzalez and Lane talked about the Food Share program available in most of our state – every two weeks participants get a box of fresh food – and recipes on how to prepare healthy meals with those items. Gonzalez leads the culinary medicine program at the medical school in Columbia –all students get some instruction in that topic. Extension’s Rural Health agents have on-going programs helping people control diabetes and hypertension; knowing about Food share can be part of that work.

Food Share began in Canada and has now spread across our country as the need for affordable fresh, healthy food has become more critical. Food deserts affect many rural or inner-city areas, and with the pandemic, all these problems have been exacerbated. Thanks the U S C school of Medicine, a grant from Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and a cadre of local volunteers, people in many areas can get a small or large box of fresh, healthy food every two weeks. Two persons involved came to Sumter recently to explain how citizens with chronic health problems can make improvements to their lives using this program -- and we fixed a delicious, healthy meal from a Food share box. If you’d like to see that episode, go to mig.org and watch the Nov. ninth show.

Spartanburg Extension horticulturist Drew Jeffers joined Making It Grow recently to discuss the South Carolina Certified Landscape Professional certification program. Extension experts present self-paced, on-line trainings on such topics as turf selection and maintenance, proper planting techniques, tree selection and installation, disease and insect identification and control, as well as irrigation and environmentally sustainable practices.

My oldest daughter had asthma when she was young, and we had to be careful when getting a Christmas tree that it wasn’t fragrant. And now days I know several people with severe allergies to perfume, lit candles, or other smells. So a wonderfully fragrant tree might be wrong for your family. At the South Carolina Christmas Tree Association website, the farms list the types of trees they have available. You can make decisions about which farms have the trees best for your needs by first going to Clemson’s Home and Garden Information Center and search for Selecting a Christmas Tree, Fact sheet 1750. They list all types of trees and tell you the complexity or lack of fragrance, how strong the branches are, shades of green with certain hues, and how well the needles hold on.

If you search “South Carolina Christmas Tree Association,” you’ll find ways of locating a farm near you. Click on “Member Farms” for the address, hours, types of trees available, and other services like premade garlands. Most have bow saws for you to use to cut your own tree and help you get trees out of the field. Usually they’ll put your tree on a shaking platform to remove any loose needles or debris before bundling your fresh tree to prevent wind damage. If it’s more than an hour after your tree is cut before you get home, saw off one more inch and immediately put it in a bucket or the stand filled with water. Check that water daily – fresh trees are thirsty and will keep their needles and fragrance longer when well hydrated. Don’t mist trees, water does not mix with electric lights.

The South Carolina Christmas Tree Association is a group of farmers who grow Christmas trees. Trees are a crop, a renewable resource. They add oxygen to the environment and when disposed of properly return nutrients to the soil, serve as temporary brush piles where small animals shelter, and even improve fish habitat in water ways. If you get a locally grown tree, the carbon footprint is as small as a reindeer’s print in the snow. On the other hand, artificial trees are made of plastic, and the carbon footprint travels from the oil fields to the manufacturer, the retailer and to your home. They never really break down instead becoming part of the microplastic pollution damaging the earth. Find a Christmas tree farm near you and take the family for a trip that will last in their memories for ever.

When my children were little, going to get a Christmas tree was a great family adventure. With eleven-foot ceilings, we wanted a great big tree and kept a bamboo pole as a guide and we’d strap it to the top of the car to take in the field with us. Back then, lots of farmers planted Eastern Red Cedars, a great native tree for wildlife, but very prickly if it dries out. Nowadays, Search the South Carolina Christmas Tree Association website to find a wide variety of trees to pick from and if they offer sturdy stands, garlands, or premade wreaths. Talking about those trips brings back fond memories for me and my kids – why don’t you start a Christmas tradition with your family this year with a safe and exciting shopping trip in the great outdoors.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. If you are plagued by deer, there are two groups of bulbs made to order for your yard. First, any of the Narcissus genus members – daffodils, jonquils, and narcissus and also the Lycoris members. Some accounts say that Lycoris radiata was taken from China to Japan to plant around rice paddies as it contains poisonous compounds thought to keep rodents away. And lest we forget that all medicines once came from plants, it is part of a huge study in China where it’s being grown for the compound Galanthamine, an aChE inhibitor used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. It works better than manufactured products as it also helps improve efficacy of that compound by modulating the receptor sites.

I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Another Lycoris species often found in older gardens has a wonderfully amusing common name – Naked Lady Lilly, Lycoris squamigera. The naked part of its name is because just like with spider lilies, the Naked Lady Lily just springs up out of the ground without any foliage associated with the stem supporting the flowers. The pink is very soft but not pale and is large enough to hold its own in a container by itself. I’m not a big fan of glass containers as you see stems, stems, stems and more stems, but with Lycoris squamigera you would need just two flowering scapes to fill a small florist type glass vase. My clump is growing in part shade which all the Lycoris with seem to appreciate, i guess that’s one reason they seem perfectly at home when planted in South Carolina gardens.

Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. Spider lilies are one of my favorite garden flowers for arrangements. The multiple flowers at the top of a single stem have long slender petals; they’re large but with their airy presence don’t dominate your artistry. If you’re using Oasis, a k a, wet floral foam, you’ll probably need a skinny dowel or pencil to poke a hole into the oasis first so the stem won’t collapse when you try to push it in. For amaryllis, which have hollow stems, you’ll need to buy dowels – they’re expensive, cut to the length you want and insert into the stem, then wrap the bottom of the stem with floral tape as it will curl up otherwise. For daffodils, just use wooden skewers from the grocery store to strengthen their hollow stems when making a centerpiece for socially-distanced dinner party for four.

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. I don’t think the person who gave the common name Hurricane Lily to what I’ve always called spider lilies, Lycoris radiata meant to cast aspersions on them -- These spidery looking blossoms often do pop up overnight a big rain – thus the Hurricane Lily moniker. Extremely persistent, the foliage emerges after the flowers. comes after the Unlike most bulbs, which you plant two or three in a hole two to three times time the height of the bulb, Lycoris should be buried with the top of the bulb slightly above the soil, just like you plant amaryllis in your garden; both are in the family Amarylidaceae. Many people report their spider lilies don’t always bloom each year. Too much water, too much fertilizer, planted too late? It may be like number twelve of a dozen reasons babies cry, “Lord, only knows.”