Philadelphia Master Gardeners Warm-Up in a New Space to Celebrate Graduation!

~ Jessica S. Herwick

It was an unassuming, but legendary winter day for the Penn State Extension Philadelphia Master Gardeners. A few weeks ago, on January 10, 2015, active Master Gardener members, some having graduated more than 10 years ago, gathered just around the corner from Independence Hall at The Penn State Center on Sansom Street, to celebrate their newest members - the Graduating Class of 2014. Surrounded by fresh flowers, a buffet lunch, and of course, the famous blue & white Master Gardener pins engraved with the name of each proud graduate, the Philadelphia Extension Master Gardener Class of 2014 celebrated 38 trainees from 16 different zip codes from Philadelphia, Bucks and Delaware Counties who now proudly call themselves Master Gardeners. 

Trainees completed a rigorous course which included weekly classes and the completion of volunteer service hours in order to earn their certificate, pin and active member status in their respective counties. Anna Herman, Master Gardener Coordinator, spoke proudly of the graduates:

 “Many members of the class jumped right into active roles on committees and in leadership to the organization - from organizing and running the plant sale to taking on responsibilities for two new demonstration gardens – The Food Forest Orchard and the new Pollinator Demo Garden at Awbury Arboretum. One of our new graduates even co-taught one of our units for this year’s training (on Green Infrastructure).”

The next graduating class of Master Gardener trainees has already begun their studies and will be the first to

utilize the Penn State Center for classes and workshops. Until recently, the training classes were held at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. However, the Class of 2014 graduates earned some bragging rights as the first to hold their ceremony at The Penn State Center, a building that recently opened back in April, 2014 and still has that “new car smell”. It houses several offices, workspaces and meeting rooms (with a working kitchen!) for Penn State Extension Philadelphia educators, programs and volunteers, as well as the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture and Penn State Outreach.

The Philadelphia County MG Coordinator, Anna Herman, another rather newly-welcomed addition to

the Penn State Extension family, celebrated a few ‘firsts’ of her own. This graduating class was Anna’s first group of trainees, and her first graduation ceremony since taking on the coordinator position in 2013. She led the design and management of the evolving training program which includes Penn State core classes combined with additional coursework geared toward urban gardening initiatives such as “Strategies and Support for Gardening with Youth”, “Urban Vegetable Gardens 101”, and “Green Infrastructure”.

Anna orchestrated the graduation event along with Jackie Simon (4-H Youth Development) and a group of volunteers and steering committee members from previous classes of MG graduates. The ceremony followed coffee, tea and guest speaker, Rebecca Hayden Kennedy, the Region IV Project
Specialist for the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST), who discussed the growing Watershed Stewards Program. After graduates were made official, a short but sweet awards ceremony thanked those active Master Gardeners who went above and beyond to support the programming throughout the past year. Lively conversation ensued while seasoned Master Gardeners got to know their newest members and enjoyed the lunch and dessert buffet from Di Bruno Brothers. It was a heartwarming afternoon for such a chilly January day! 

                      

Find more information about the Master Gardeners or how to become a Master Gardener here:
http://extension.psu.edu/plants/master-gardener/counties/philadelphia/master-gardener-application/master-gardener-program-information-2014

Find more images from the 2014 Philadelphia Extension Master Gardener Graduation Ceremony here: (under photos in graduation album on our Facebook page.)
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=228404963836345&ref=content_filter

Eating on the Wild Side: Selecting the Most Nutritious Varieties of Fruits & Vegetables

Stephanie Rukowicz

Just in time for seed ordering season, some food for thought. Which varieties of fruits and vegetables offer the most nutrition? Last month, I attended the Selecting Seeds for Healthy Vegetables workshop at the Penn State Extension office. It featured discussion of Jo Robinson’s Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health and an investigation into which seed vendors offer specific nutrient dense varieties. The majority of attendees were urban farmers looking to select the best varieties to grow and offer to their communities.

As a broad summary of the text, Robinson discusses how, historically, cultivated plants have been bred for maximum flavor, appearance, storage and durability, with little thought given to nutritional content. Over the past several thousand years, nutrition has been bred out of our food. Only recently have scientists started investigating bioavailability of phytonutrients (like antioxidants), sugars, and proteins.

Workshop attendees spent time researching which specific varieties noted by Robinson are currently offered in 2015 seed catalogs. High Mowing Organic Seeds included the greatest overall number of varieties listed by Robinson (see below for a catalog excerpt of High Mowing's beet varieties).

The four circled beet varieties are said to be highest in phytonutrient content
(except from page 8 of High Mowing Organic Seeds 2015 Catalog).

Robinson generalizes that the closer a variety looks or tastes to its relative found in the wild, the more nutritious it should be. Often this means that a more nutritious variety is more colorful in appearance (think purple potatoes over white) and possibly less sweet or more bitter (think Granny Smith over Golden Delicious). She recognizes that there are exceptions to the rule, noting the example of white-fleshed peaches having twice the nutrients than yellow-fleshed. The choices are not always intuitive, so she recommends shopping with a list to select the most nutritious varieties.

A short list of varieties for seed selection can be found on her EatWild.com site (http://www.eatwild.com/PDF%20files/Eating%20on%20the%20Wild%20Side%202014%20Garden%20Picks.pdf), with a more in-depth list found in her book.

Not ordering seeds this year? Robinson also offers tips on how to select varieties for maximum nutrition when shopping at the grocery store as well. A PDF of Robinson’s Shopping Guide for optimum health can be found on her site (http://www.eatwild.com/PDF%20files/EatingonWildside_ShopList.pdf).

To learn more about the book and the author's research, listen in on an interview she did in 2013 with NPR's Science Friday (http://sciencefriday.com/segment/11/29/2013/eating-wilder-foods-for-a-healthier-diet.html).

Your Lovely Tree is Dying from the Inside Out

Kimberly Labno


I consult with urban dwellers on their horticultural needs. Recently, I met a client with two gorgeous mature white oaks flanking the entrance of his Center City residence. One of the trees had a fungal growth at the base, about 12 inches in breadth and maybe 1.5 inches in height, and it had been routinely removed for appearance sake by the owner's house staff. The tree had an overall strong canopy. Even though the wound was shallow and there was little wood rot in the trunk, I knew the tree was dying.

                                                               (courtesy of RHS)

The tree fungus is Ganoderma sp., commonly known as shelf or bracket fungi. The fungus causes what is called butt rot and root rot. It has significant impact on oaks, and potentially especially those near the end of their life expectancy of 65-85 years old - note this expectancy is based on trees in naturalized settings, not urban tree pits. The visible fungus is a fruiting body, which means that the fungus is systemic.

If it helps, you can visualize a flowering shrub with infected roots and flowers in bloom- the fungus has established in the base and/or roots of the tree and the visible fungus is the flower in bloom. There is no cure and removing the fruiting body has little to no impact on control of spread, outside of reducing the number of spores released that may enhance disease spread from say tens of millions to just millions in number. The plant is dying from the roots outward. Eventually, the tree will show signs of sickness like leaf dieback and discoloration. Based on the literature, the lifespan of a tree with this fungus is something on average like between several and ~ 10 years. In natural settings, most trees with this rot meet their end from breakage or toppling in winds/storms.

The client was a sad about losing the trees and although the tree was leafing out well and he could play a waiting game for the infected tree to die- and infect the neighboring oak, he choose to seek removal estimates from professional arborists. The arborist concurred with my diagnosis and outlook and recommended replacement trees that are probably familiar to many as reliable street trees.

To learn more, here are a handful of references.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/foresthealth/pubs/oakpests/p43-45.html

http://extension.psu.edu/pests/plant-diseases/all-fact-sheets/oak-diseases

http://extension.psu.edu/pests/plant-diseases/all-fact-sheets/hazard-trees

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=98

http://www.arborilogical.com/tree-knowledge-articles-publications/ganoderma/

Constructing a Small Rain Garden

Constructing a Small Rain Garden

By Pat Vance

The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) has made a strong commitment to controlling erosion and excess run-off in the city, including some imaginative and innovative large-scale projects. I found an inexpensive, simple PWD project I could do in my own yard with just a shovel!

The house I moved into a few years ago had a half-sized basketball court in the backyard. I briefly considered removing it until I calculated the expense and work involved. Then I decided to

make the best of it. However, after a couple of heavy rains, I realized I would have to do something about the rain water run-off.

I consulted a web site from the PWD with guidelines for building a rain garden. 

Here is the url:

http://www.phillywatersheds.org/whats_in_it_for_you/residents/how-build-rain-garden

A rain garden is a swale or depression surrounded by a berm, positioned where rain run-off can be temporarily held until it can infiltrate into the ground.  Rain from impervious surfaces such as roofs, parking lots, or the occasional basketball court can be diverted into the garden rather than causing erosion or ending up in the storm sewer. The water is held only temporarily. A rain garden is not a pond or water feature. The water will drain into the ground over a fairly short time.

There is a link on the PWD site for a PDF with guidelines for building a garden. It lists some guidelines for the selection of a good site:

1. The garden should be at least 10 feet from building foundations. This guideline is the most important to follow, even if it means that rain garden may fall short in some of the other considerations.

2. Position the garden to accommodate most, if not all of the water draining from the surface. In my case, if I built my garden along the entire edge of the court, I would place it too close to the foundation of my house. So I restricted the size accordingly.

3. The garden should be at least 20% of the surface area of the drainage area. The area of the space I had available was just slightly over 20%, but even if I had not been able to build a garden quite so large, I figured that whatever I did would be helpful.

4. Drainage should be adequate to allow infiltration of rain water collected. The PWD web site also includes a simple way to test this. Here's the URL:

http://www.phillywatersheds.org/whats_in_it_for_you/residents/infiltration-test

Remove the top and bottom of a coffee can and then push or hammer the can a couple of inches into the ground. Measure the side of the can above the ground and fill the can with water. Start a timer and one inch per hour, the site is adequate.

calculate the time it takes for the water to drain from the can. Repeat this test a few times to assure accuracy. If the drainage rate is at least

Now some guidelines for shaping the garden.

1. The depth of the swale should be 6-8 inches.

2. The height of the berm should be at least 4-6 inches.

3. The height of the berm above grade, should be no more than one-third the width of the berm. My berm was 3 or 4 inches high, so I made sure it was at least a foot wide.

To construct the garden, I placed a row of stakes along the court, and another row on the opposite side of the garden. I ran string between the rows of stakes and adjusted it to be level with the court. Then I measured the stakes at the outside of the garden for the height of the berm

A note of caution: Be sure it is safe to dig! Contact Pennsylvania One Call system by dialing 811 to be sure you are not disrupting utility lines! Hitting one would be extremely dangerous!

As I dug out the swale, I used a ruler to measure down from the string. As I removed the dirt from the swale, I placed it on the berms.

When I had the garden shaped correctly, I used a hose at full force to watch where the water flowed

from all angles of the court.

The final consideration: Which plants to use? All the usual considerations for planting a garden apply with one notable addition: the soil will be very wet at times, so be sure to choose plants that can tolerate that. The PWD pamphlet has a list of some possible native plants, but I decided to go with what I had available.

A friend was splitting a large patch of Japanese Iris, a plant that can tolerate high moisture. Another friend was splitting Athyrium or Lady Fern and I used those as well.

And the results? A resounding success! This inexpensive, simple project has drastically reduced the run-off from the court, and I have a garden that's lovely to look at.

America Recycles Day at PHL

Stephanie Rukowicz
On November 13th, in anticipation of America Recycles Day, Philadelphia International Airport organized and hosted many different local groups to present different methods of recycling to travelers and airport employees at the food court in Terminal B/C.

Benjamin Cromie, Master Gardener and consultant to the PHL recycling program, invited the Master Gardeners to set up a table at the event to talk about composting as a way to recycle food and yard waste. Ilana Grubin and I attended the event on behalf of the Master Gardeners and were pleasantly surprised by the number of employees and travelers who stopped by our table and took the time to talk with us about how to get started or to troubleshoot any issues they might be having.

Ilana showed off the compost sample from her at home bin.



The attendees had wide range of composting experience, from those who weren't sure what composting was, to others that already had a successful system in place. We talked to residents and assured them that yes, it is possible to compost in the city. The at home composting methods we talked about included:

• Prefabricated compost bins - Earth machines, tumblers
• Pile system - no equipment needed
• DIY bin system - create out of garbage cans or free pallets
• Vermicomposting - can be done indoors
• Trench composting - bury your food waste to improve your soil

 We promoted the city's yard waste recycling sites and also talked with a few people about the city's hearing on food waste recycling that took place the day before (Nov. 12th). The Philadelphia Prison System had a table next to us, and they were also talking about food waste recycling through composting, and the work they do at their facilities to divert tons of food waste from the garbage stream. Note that they offer free finished compost for pick up. The compost they make consists of food waste from prepared foods and wood chips from a neighborhood tree removal service.


Curby, the Streets Department Recycling

mascot, made an appearance at PHL.

The Streets Department had the most

popular table, as they were giving away

free blue curbside bins.

Here are some links with info about the city's hearing:

• ILSR
• CBS Local news
• Philly.com

 Although curbside food waste pick up (like that found in San Francisco) might be a long way off for Philadelphia, there are options for city residents who want to recycle their food waste, but aren't interested in maintaining an at home system:

• Bennett Compost offers $15/month weekly curbside pick up
• The Dirt Factory is open to University City residents twice weekly for drop off
• The Compost Coop is open to Fishtown and Kensington residents for an annual membership fee of $25-$50 for drop off, included in the fee is finished compost

For more information on composting:

• Penn State Extension Fact Sheet on Home Composting: A Guide for Home Gardeners
• Penn State Extension PowerPoint presentation on How is Compost Made?
• Oregon State Extension How to Build a Compost Worm Bin

For more on the extent of food waste in our garbage:

• Harvest Public Media's Tossed Out: Food Waste in America
• NPR's To End Food Waste, Change Needs to Begin at Home