Design Is Not Opinion

Michael's Garden Column, 8.12.2012: Shady Lady Does Not Stain!

 

Click for printable version

This week the multi-layered editors at the NDN had their way with my column. In the interest of full disclosure then, here's the original text. As usual you can click on the PDF at the left to download the version as it appeared in the paper. And the paper has my column online, too., although it's the sullied version…

 

Help!

I started looking into Black Olive ‘Shady Lady’ pavement staining because I needed to complete a glossary entry in my book. Then, a longtime Pelican Marsh client witnessed heavy staining and much leaf drop from Shady Lady earlier this year.

Many residents said: “We can't take it! Cut them down!”

It's easy to see the frustration. 

Arboreal Objection

The lovely and excellent Black Olive is popular for many reasons. It is one of three major street trees in southern Florida (the other two being Live Oak and Mahogany), as I mentioned last month. Black Olive is a very clean, desirable tropical tree with a lovely fine texture. Leaf litter is easy to handle, and the tree is essentially disease-free–with two major exceptions. 

The smaller and most popular ‘Shady Lady’ variety reaches about 35x35 when mature. The much larger Black Olive, without the varietal name, is often called ‘the species’ in conversation. Black Olive is adorably called ‘Oxhorn Bucida’ by Doug Caldwell of the Extension Office. Those wacky scientists!

Oh. And this: Shady Lady does not stain pavement.

“But! But! I can prove it! I have stains!”

Well, of course you do.

Michael's Garden Column, 7.27.2012

 

Cats At Home in the Garden

Cats are among the things in life that truly interest me. And it's a good thing, as I seem to be some sort of 'cat-magnet'.

 

Anyway, this week an indulgent editor allowed me to go off the reservation and talk about our little 'pride' of felines and how they came to live here at Peace and Plenty.

As always, here's the PDF, Download 7.27.2012 Cats, as it appears in the print edition. And here's the copy, along with the faces of some furry beings.

A weekly column is a wonderful thing, giving structure to the week. On Friday, when readers see the latest, I am thinking about the next piece, often when I am in yoga class and should be concentrating on my breath.

Marlene Dietrich

We love fine writing here at msadesign. We also love writers able to look back on a well-lived life without being full of themselves.

Dick Caveet writes an occasional column in the NY Times which qualifies. Do read his piece on Marlene Dietrich:

She was raised a Protestant, but the war took her faith away. “After the horrors I saw and the preachers on both sides praying to destroy the other side, I refuse to believe those I loved and lost are floating around up there somewhere. If God exists, he needs to review his plan.”

Amen.

When Marlene Dietrich Wouldn't Stop Calling - NYTimes.com

Michael's Garden Column, 6.1.2012

Ever notice that the less someone knows about something, the more that same person thinks he's an expert? Well, turns out there's a name for that…grab Michael's column online here, or download a PDF of the newspaper. Download 6.1.2012 Experts Know Nothing.

 

Mike Wallace remembered - CBS News Video

Mike Wallace remembered

via www.cbsnews.com

I remember you - Roger Ebert's Journal

The first death that registered in my life was my Aunt Hulda, my father's sister, who was laid out in the front parlor and I was allowed to kneel at the coffin, cross myself, and say a prayer before this strange, pale, motionless body.

via blogs.suntimes.com

Nothing to add. Read this post.

Graft punk

Now this San Francisco-based group called the Guerrilla Grafters is challenging the very notion of the ornamental fruit tree. And they’re working outside the law (city officials don’t like rotten fruit on the sidewalk, nor the liability it suggests). They’re covertly grafting — a practice of connecting two branches in a way that will allow their vascular tissues to join together — fruit tree limbs onto the trunks of ornamental cherry, plum, and pear trees. (We’ve highlighted them before on Grist, but since NPR covered their illegal work again this weekend, I thought it was worth another mention.)

via grist.org

Many times when I am working through a plant list with clients, I hear objections about 'messiness': this tree, or that, is just too 'messy'. Sometimes I tell clients that every tree loses every leaf every year, and sometimes I throw up my hands.

People. Plants are not bubble wrapped.

Coming to America

It is a hard and lengthy task to become acquainted with the vagaries of the language, not to mention the forgotten or altered meanings of many words. Some of these vagaries are aptly illustrated by the story of the Frenchman who said to an American:

I am going to leave my hotel. I paid my bill yesterday, and I said to the landlord, ‘Do I owe anything else?’ He said, ‘You are square.’ ‘What am I?’ He said again, ‘You are square.’ ‘That’s strange,’ said I. ‘I lived so long that I never knew I was square before.’ Then, as I was going away, he shook me by the hand, saying, ‘I hope you’ll be round soon.’ I said, ‘I thought you said I was square; now you hope I’ll be round.’ He laughed and said, ‘When I tell you you’ll be round, I mean you won’t be long.’ Then, seeing me count my change twice over, he said, ‘Are you short?’ I did not know how many forms he wished me to assume: however, I was glad he did not call me flat.

via www.futilitycloset.com

I just love this stuff and futility closet keeps me well fed.