Water management addendum:

Salts

As gardeners and horticulturists, we talk about salts the way the chemists do
we are talking about a crystalline solid formed by a positive and a negative ion

table salt is sodium chloride, nice clear white crystals sitting in a shaker jar
pour that salt into water and the bonds split
the salt dissolves into solution
sodium and chloride become ions swishing and swashing around,
tucked within the H2O
sodium ion is charge positive +
chloride ion is charge negative –

an ion, by the way, is an electrically charged particle
the particle can consist of just one atom,
or it can consist of a group of atoms – polyatomic, a molecule
for example, sodium chloride is one atom of sodium to one atom of chloride
if the salt was ammonium nitrate, that would be one ion of ammonium and one ion of nitrate
ammonium is NH4 (one nitrogen and four hydrogens)
while nitrate is NO3 (one nitrogen and 3 oxygens)

we can now call that water solution full of ions an electrolyte,
meaning it conducts electricity
kinda the same concept as a car battery
or the special vitamin water or sports drink that says it replenishes your electrolytes
or the cells in your body with sodium and potassium coming in and out all the time
we are all skin bags of water, filled with bits of charged ions

now go look on any fertilizer or potting mix label

ammonium nitrate salt
ammonium ion is positive, nitrate is negative, easy

potassium sulfate salt
Potassium is positive, sulfate is negative, easy

calcium phosphate salt
calcium is positive, phosphate is negative, easy

all those -ATES: sulfate nitrate phosphate
theres gotta be a pattern
yeah it just means theres some oxygen in there cause oxygen loves to bind with others
sulfur and oxygen – sulfate
nitrogen and oxygen – nitrate
phosphorus and oxygen – phosphate

if you are ground water running through limestone channels or quarries
for sure you will pick up some of that calcium and magnesium in the limestone
then that water is called ‘hard’, and it forms deposits on the kettles and things called ‘scale’

if you are ground water running through sodium rich soils
then you will pick that up too
and become sodic or saline or salty
maybe somebody will put you in a pond, and evaporate the water
then bag that salt and sell it to passerbys and traveling caravans

if you are rain water, that is pretty pure stuff for the most part
unless you picked up some burnt stuff particles on the way down from the clouds
some bits of sulfur or nitrogen from the volcano or the power plant…

in general
as a gardener and nursery person, you want minimize the salt buildup in the soil
a little bit of salts (fertilizers) is good right?
yes, but you want a balance, you want just enough, not too much of a good thing
which becomes a bad thing

imagine you have the soil chock full of sodium ions
and the plant stops absorbing the other ions altogether
no more magnesium and calcium and iron and copper and potassium and zinc
all it gets is sodium
not good, gonna get sick
plant goes caput, and your career as a grower goes down down down

time to time you may have to leach the soil, or add other things to compensate & balance for
the distribution and quantity of ions
the amount of salts

last thing
just to be technical and make the high school chemistry teachers happy
a negative ion is called an anion
and a positive ion is called a cation, a ca+ion

We had a nice draw freehand style draw at the Sunnyside Conservatory

talked about different ways to shade a tree

and how freehand requires a loose throw it all out there approach

in contrast to the more accurate but rigid to-scale type drawings

Lets take the basic plan we had from our one point perspective

and develop it into an isometric drawing

where that nice 90 degree angle is now 120 degrees

and much of the drawing is done with the help of the 30-60-90 triangle

it is all to scale – so that is pretty easy

but to be fair – it is not really a perspective

in the sense that things far away are small, and things close up are big

still, it does convey the three dimensional imagery,

and helps the viewer to understand what you are visualizing

for the outdoor space

Remember to use the 30 degree angles!!!

And measure correctly! Start with pencil…

Okay that about does it! So instead of a rectangular patio in the middle, thought it would fun to pop it up into some kinda structure. And the thing in the back of the garden, not sure what that is either?! Practicing the basics of an isometric drawing – YES! Good planning? – Maybe not… But I got my Italian cypress trees ready to screen the neighbors! Lets go to ink.

Now wait a second. What are you doing?! What is this strange mess of a garden?!? Stop this nonsense! Go back! Go back!

Are you serious at all!? Who would want to have such a place in their backyard? Well, at least you get the idea – an isometric drawing. Now it is your turn. Let’s go!!!

So frame your picture first. The edge of the paper is the frame. But when you are outside framing, stay focussed. Do not get distracted by the blurriness at the periphery, stay in the frame.

By the way, all drawings here are done in thick black marker or thin black pen for easy visibility and contrast. In your drawings use the black pen for final, and pencil for the guidelines or converging lines so that you can erase them later.

Then you figure that in the distance is the horizon. Somewhere way out there is a flat line. You looking straight at it.

On that horizon, set your sight on one point. The point of infinity so to speak. Stay on that point. It is way out there. All lines are going to converge at the point far far away.

Now draw in all the lines that are converging. You can be exact and draw every line five degrees apart. Or you can be a little sloppy like I was.

Now we are going to draw in our rectangular backyard. You are looking from your house out the back. Depending on how you draw it, the yard is going to be narrow and long, or wide and short, or something in between. You’ll be standing way inside it, or a little outside of the yard.

Let’s move that point of infinity a little higher, a little above the horizon line, and see what happens. Maybe a better angle?

Okay, lets draw a yard full of things using these lines and the point. First time out so lets draw a generic plan that is symmetrical geometric and sorta formal. We will all draw from the same plan view. What is it? I’m not sure. A couple rows of trees. A couple of square things in the middle, and maybe a water wall fountain or a cow watering trough in the back? You have artistic and designer liberty.

Lets give it a few tries. First one a little lopsided and awkward… But arent we all?

That was horrible! Well I did see a little bit of improvement. Some shading. Feeling some comfort. Alright try again! Another set!

What was that!? Palm trees? And what’s that triangular texture in the middle square? I don’t know… little pyramids? Just playing with textures and designs. Take it easy! Sketches only! Now go practice your perspectives, everywhere!

Addendum to Insects chapter 7 of CMGH:

Words and concepts to know, in order of appearance:
Invertebrates; ecto and endothermic; ptera; beneficial insects; butterfly host plants; parthenogenesis; integrated pest management; proper pest identification.

This for me is one of the best chapters. The chapter is well written, so I will simply add a few details and stories. We could go on for infinite pages with regards to the study of bugs. A more broad term that covers all of the creatures in this chapter is invertebrates – creatures without backbones. This includes the insects, the arthropods with the hard shell and jointed legs like spiders centipedes and pill bugs, as well as the slimy things like snails and slugs. That would actually be a better title for this chapter – Invertebrates.

In the olden times we were taught cold blooded and warm blooded. The warm blooded was all the good cute noble animals like dogs and people and lions. Whereas the cold blooded was the creepy snakes and salamanders and bugs and stinky fishes. So if a person behaved in a real clandestine non emotional and despicable manner, we would call them ‘cold blooded’. We associate this trait with the ‘lower’ animals called reptilians and crawly things.

The whole idea is that warm blooded creatures can regulate their own body temperature so that it is above the ambient outside temperature; it is 50 degrees outside but your internal temperature is around 98 degrees. Whereas cold blooded creatures are dependent on the sun to heat things up and get them moving. When it is cold they just sit still. They crave the heat. That is why we find the rattlesnake sun bathing on the asphalt roadway, and the blue belly lizard doing pushups on the rocks.

Well nature is of course a bit more complicated than our boxy dichotomies. Tunas and white sharks have heat exchangers that make them warmer than the surrounding water and so they are extra speedy. That is good for chasing down anchovies and salmon and leaping out of the water in pursuit of seals. Bumble bees can also buzz themselves warm on a cold morning so that they can go harvest nectar for their babies, grasshoppers warm up their throats before singing. If you are a snake or a turtle that lives in the tropics, it is likely that you are warm blooded all year round, cause it is hot outside. The more proper terms we use these days for creatures with regards to regulating their metabolism and temperature is ecto and endo thermic, poikilotherm and homeotherm.

In addition to chewing and sucking mouth parts there is also the sponging mouth parts common to flies.
https://dipteramouthparts.weebly.com/characteristics-of-sponging-mouthparts.html

There are so many bugs in the world that we will make some generalizations as we discuss their structures and characteristics. Know that there are numerous exceptions as well as millions of bugs we have not yet named and probably know very little about. To start with, the names of the insect orders is indicative of their wings. ptera meaning wing in ancient Greek.

So Coleo ptera (the beetles) means sheath wing. Many have a cool shield of a pair of harder wings on top we call elytra, with the clear membranous flying wings below. If you have ever held a lady bird beetle and watched it open the upper flaps and fly away then you know what I am talking about. Like a car with doors that open up ‘scissor’ or ‘butterfly’ style.

Lepido ptera (butterflies and moths) means scale wing. If you have caught a butterfly and had it leave little pieces of its wing scales on you that is the ticket. Scales that rub and flake off.

Di ptera is the flies. Di is two winged so they have two wings, one pair. But actually they do have four wings, but two are reduced to a funny weird structure that resembles a pair of dumbbells or small clubs called halteres. Used for balance. They fly with amazing agility so that when you are about to swat them they angle away super fast. Well, all those eyes help too.

Hymeno ptera is membrane wing. In this group are the bees and wasps with four wings, all membranous but often with hooks that clip them together for extra flight control. In this group are also ants, which most of the time do not have wings except for when they are breeding, swarming, and dispersing.

Hemi ptera is half wing. For the most part the hemipterans have half a wing looking solid, the other half looking membranous. The backs of them have a distinct criss cross X. If you have bedbugs I am sorry, they are a Hemipteran parasite that feeds with a pierce and suck stylet of a beak of a mouth part. A little confusing is that there is a group tucked within the Hemiptera called the Homoptera. Homo ptera meaning same wing. They used to be their own Order but are now subsumed within the half wings. This is a huge group full of plant feeders that you as a gardener will get to know well as time passes. And not in a good way.

Silver fish and firebrats are the order Thysanura. Thysan ura is tassel tail. For those funny looking appendages that stick out at the tail end. Every I am sitting at the computer writing they always scurry across my paper notes and I get distracted to squash them.

And so on with regards to names and ancient Greek and Latin… A little bit more local color:

Scary looking bugs that you want around the garden:
One is the devil’s coach horse beetle you often come across in the compost pile. They are really scary looking and your first reaction will probably be ‘kill it’. But they are ’good’ in that they feed on baby slugs. So let them be. Another one is the larvae of the syrphid fly that loves to eat aphids. Aphids are not your friends in the garden, the larvae of the syrphid fly is your friend. Again, just cause something looks like a sluggy wormy inching-along-thing does not make it ‘bad’. Lastly check out the larvae of the lady bug beetle. Yes we know the ladybugs are good, but its juvenile stages are good as well. But they look nothing like the adult, and some people even call them ugly. All the bugs in the garden that help the gardener with their duties we call beneficials. They are the ones we inadvertently kill if we spray a broad spectrum non selective insecticide.

Bugs that saved an entire ecosystem:
A little south of San Francisco is a large and wild park called San Bruno Mountain State and County Park. It is pretty nondescript and most of the time it looks like a dried out hunk o rock smack in the way of a bustling and hustling urban metropolis we call the Bay Area. Most people have driven by it thousands of times as they cruise on highway 101 up and down the peninsula without ever wanting to go up there. At one point at the base of the mountain was the dump where all the garbage went. At another point folks who owned it wanted to scalp off the whole top of the mountain to use the rock as fill – to fill in the bay for development and real estate. These days it is protected thanks to the efforts of local peoples like David Schooley and also because of the endangered species like the San Bruno Elfin butterfly and the Mission Blue butterfly who make their home there. Both butterflies have specific host plants the caterpillars feed on in order to complete their life cycle. The Elfin larvae eat stonecrop Sedum, and the Mission Blue larvae eat lupines Lupinus.

If you have never been to this park it is worth a walkabout to the summit or any of its trails. Hopefully on a clear day with no fog so that you can see the surrounding areas from a high ground. It is a neat reminder of how things have looked for the past three five or maybe even ten thousand years. It is the oldest part of the tip of this peninsula that remains relatively unchanged. Not paved, not built on, not dredged, not dug up. Just still plants, rocks, bugs, and some animals. Same as it always ever was. Back in the day fellow from UC Davis Dr Ward recorded about thirty species of ants from the mountain. 30 species! In the city, probably just the one species of ant – the little black ant that comes a wandering in your house, the argentine ant.

Bugs with noteworthy reproductive habits:
There are numerous kinds of aphids – little round soft bodied bugs that suck plant juices. As they feed they often act as vectors for plant diseases. They are known for this trait called parthenogenesis whereby they reproduce asexually at an extremely rapid rate. Did you read the stat from the book? 1,560,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 aphids per female for the April to October season. All clones of the mother. Except that the mom makes both male as well as female clones of herself. One heptillion, 560 hexillion. Nuts. Parthenogenesis is also used by some bees, flies, ants…So you either find a mate or go at it alone. Total dominance.

Bug control:
Like we have discussed all along. Integrated Pest Management is the key. The first step is always proper identification of the pest, as well as the host plant it is feeding on. Then, you can start to monitor regularly, and consider your options to keep the pests’ population levels under control.