Aug 28 2024 - The Life of My Lawn

 

I got to thinking about my lawn.  TruGreen is coming today and I always instruct them not to put weed control on the back garden.   I like my dog, I want to have fire flies in the summer, and think all the various insects and toads, etc that live here have some rights too. I have a front lawn that from the street looks like grass.  If you get up close, there's Creeping Charlie.  Pretty little round leaves and it never goes brown. It looks quite good in August from a green point of view.  I've tried putting in clover, but it hasn't flourished. I don't think it is as bad as other people think.  If one wants a monochrome texture, then "turf" is the standard.  That is maintaining a lawn to a golf course standard. When I look at those lawns, it bothers me as there is no where to focus, so one goes off to the edges to gardens, sidewalks and streets.  The gardens had better be wonderful to keep your attention.  Otherwise, the eye just continues down the street.  That's how my eye works.  As Millie and I go for a walk and pass Randolph's yard which is a corner lot, I am impressed with the great variety of plants that form the lawn.  It is a tapestry.  Right now there are tiny strawberry blooms in yellow.  In the spring it is violets and dandelions. Then it moves on to clover.  It seems more alive to me than most lawns.  I guess there's quite the journey to get to a naturalist approach of gardening, given our long ornamental history.  The wall of mirrors picture is here transformed into a bubble pattern, using Flaming Pear's Flexify software.

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June 1st 2023 - Who Invented the Lawn?

 

Someone had to invent the lawn.  Certainly indigenous people had better things to invent and hybridize - corn, wheat, potatoes, tomatoes, and so on.  We have much to thank them for in our current food crops.  Lawns?  They are a creation of a "sea of green."  - mostly a visual aesthetic - also a surface for sports. The term lawn started to appear in the 16th century.  And what does the original word mean?  It means heath, barren land, or clearing.  Exactly. We can guess it is the aristocracy that made lawns popular - this was particularly the case in England where that damp climate made lawn-growing easily possible.  For our perfect lawns of today, we have to skip to the Palace of Versailles where  André Le Nôtre designed the gardens and included a small area of grass called the tapas vert - "green carpet".   And then the lawnmower!  What they did before to achieve the "green carpet" seems tortuous.   Somehow, over time, the greatest lover of lawns is the United States, according to a Scientific American article.   "Americans have taken their landscape aesthetic around the world. American communities in Saudi Arabia have lawns in the middle of the desert. American embassies and consulates around the world have lawns. And when the Cultural Revolution swept through China, any lawns that had been established under American and British influence were pulled out. Lawns are American..." The most famous lawns in the world? Buckingham Palace Chateau de Versailes The White House Champ de Mars Wimbledon Centre Court Lord's Cricket Ground and finally, Windows XP wallpaper "Yes, this is a real place, and it’s located in Sonoma County in California. National Geographic photographer Charles O’Rear snapped it on his way home before submitting it as a stock photo. Called Bliss, it’s probably graced the insides of more than one billion PCs across the world. Don’t worry Miimo, you can’t catch the blue screen of death from eating the grass."   This is the lawn a few houses down- full of violets, dandelions and creeping charlie.  A delight in the spring. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

June 10 2022 - Popsicle

 

Popsicle® is a registered trademark.  I didn't realize that it played a big part in the Frozen Sucker War in the 1920s and 1930s.  This was a battle between Good Humor v. Popsicle.  The origin of the Popsicle sounds so cute: 'After a long day of play Frank went inside, but left his cup of soda with the stirring stick still in it out on the porch. The night got very cold, and when Frank went outside the next morning he found his drink frozen like an icicle.  Frank called his invention the “Epsicle.” It was a hit with the kids at school, and later with his own kids who called it “Pop’s ‘sicle.” The name was catchy and the treat was delicious, so Frank patented it in 1923 to share his Popsicle® ice pops with the world!  Epperson collaborated with employees of the Loew Movie Company to form the original Popsicle Company in 1923, and sold the product to concessionaires at amusement parks and beaches.   Ice cream and frozen novelties were popping up due to advances in refrigeration.  Christian Nelson patented the Esimo Pie in January 1922. Good Humor started by Harry B. Burt also produced a chocolate-covered ice cream bar. The Good Humor truck was everywhere in American neighborhoods.  Good Humor sued Popsicle Corporation.  It looks like Popsicle suede others. More lawsuits took place. Too many lawsuit events to list here and perhaps too many to understand it all. Defending patents was a full-time activity in the 1920s. Ice cream and fruit ices had various definitions in various states.  By October 1925, Popsicle agreed to pay Good Humor a license fee to manufacture what was called frozen suckers from ice and sherbet products. Good Humor reserved the right to manufacture these products from ice cream, frozen custard, and the like. But the Frozen dessert war continued on into the 1930s.  Popsicle put its foot into the ice milk product and that called for more law suits.  The definition of sherbet became the subject of the cases. Was it water sherbet or milk sherbet? Was the shape critical? This went on and on. Eventually, the Frozen Sucker War came to a peaceful end. Popsicle was allowed to continue manufacturing water ices in a keystone design and later developed new forms for its creation, including the familiar double-stick Popsicle. Ironically, today both the Good Humor Bar and the Popsicle are owned and manufactured by the same company, Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream. Read the full story starting HERE.  Where did Frank end up in all of this?  He died at age 89 in 1983.  There seems to be nothing about him after the popsicle invention.  What did he do after he sold the patent and went on to other things?  This is all that is quoted in the NY Times obituary:  In 1925, Epperson sold the rights to the Popsicle to the Joe Lowe Company of New York. "I was flat and had to liquidate all my assets," he recalled years later. "I haven't been the same since." There's nothing like a little clover to cheer up the day. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

The Grass is Green ... Right Now

I found out that firefly larvae spend their first year underground.  As I looked out at the lawn where they would be sleeping right now, I noticed the grass in the front lawn is green.  Its blades are poking out of the snow, making a pretty show.  Why does grass stay green?  How does it do this? Generally we grow cool-season grasses - a mix of full sun and shade species.  These would be fescues, Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass.  We get a dense turf with a deep-green colour that's considered easy on the eyes.  I expect that it is Kentucky bluegrass that is staying green in winter.  I haven't found out how that works.  I would think if the grass is green that means it isn't dormant. I find out that our nitrogen fertilizers are not really plant food.  Plants make their own food through photosynthesis with the end products being carbohydrates.  That's what is used by plants for energy and growth.  Are our fertilizers harmful to firefly populations?  We know that chemical pesticides and weed killers are harmful.  Firefly larvae live underground, and they are carnivores.  So if they aren't killed by the pesticides, they are impacted by the poisons in their food.  It has also been observed that the harmful chemicals in pesticides are also found in chemical fertilizers.  So it is thought that even fertilizers are harmful.  So natural fertilizers would be the route to go for fireflies.  Where do fireflies live in the day?  On the ground, so frequent mowing would disturb the local firefly populations.  Fireflies prefer to live in long grasses, so having some will bring a boost in population. And of course, native trees are another plant habitat for fireflies.  Pine trees are considered important because they provide shade and low light areas.  They provide litter that is important.  And finally, a pond or stream is also crucial to firefly populations. Today's image of abstract stars was taken on January 1st in Niagara Falls at the greenhouse gardens.