River Bamboo

Friday, February 3, 2012

Photo by Rick Gush

Arundo, also known as river bamboo, is abundant in Italy.

I know this plant is a pestiferous weed that really has caused some serious trouble by out-competing native riparian ecologies, but I still think of it as a crop plant that I look after in connection with my garden. River bamboo, Arundo donax, is also known as arundo, though everybody here in Italy calls it canna or cane.

I use arundo as garden stakes and, although I need more than my own little stand can provide, I still manage the little arundo stand that is growing above my garden as if it were a forestry project.

The first thing to remember about arundo is that it is a pest that should not be spread negligently. The severed pieces of roots will re-grow very easily, so the roots or stems should never be disposed of in a waterway of any kind. (Not that I can think of much that I think is appropriate to be disposed of in a waterway … maybe a glass of water or perhaps some breadcrumbs brushed off the front of my sweater?)

The most important fact about arundo crop management is that there is a relationship between the mass of roots and the capacity of the plant to produce full-size shoots. The biggest shoots can be about 2 inches in diameter at the base, and those big shoots make the generally most desirable garden stakes. An overcrowded patch will reduce the tendency to produce full-size canes, so good arundo forestry practice is to prune out all of the undersize and crowding shoots. A cane’s size is determined by the size of the shoot when it first emerges from the roots. Smaller canes will never increase in height nor diameter.

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Pomegranates

Friday, January 27, 2012

Photo by Rick Gush

 

The pomegranate (Punica granatum) tree growing in our garden is the only one of our fruit trees that I grew myself. That's because rooting pomegranate cuttings is just so easy.

Six years ago, I took some cuttings in the fall from a pomegranate growing in a neighbor's yard and stuck them in a pot of sand over the winter. When I took them out in April, the cuttings had all leafed out and formed roots. Pomegranates don't seem to have root problems like plum, peach and apple trees, so there was no need to graft a fruiting scion onto a rootstock, and I could just plant the new, young pomegranates wherever I wanted. I gave most of them away, and the one that I kept is now a very attractive 7-foot-tall, braided, triple-stem tree that started producing a few fruits two years ago.

Pomegranates are unusual in that the suckers aren't always bad. Pomegranates are naturally multi-stemmed shrubs/trees, so leaving a number of the suckers on does no harm. Because I wanted to grow a triple-stem, braided trunk, I let everything grow for the first few years and then selected the three biggest stems to braid into the eventual trunk. Now, I do cut off the suckers and lower side shoots; actually, I cut them back to a few inches but leave some foliage because I think having a lot of leaves growing up and down the trunk helps add to the overall pumping power.

Although pomegranates grow most notably in semi-tropical locations, such as the Caribbean and Central America, they will tolerate a lot of cold and will grow like weeds in places like San Diego, Calif.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Texas; and Virginia. The plant is originally from the Middle East, and it's still hugely popular there.

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Sweet, Sweet Fennel

Friday, January 20, 2012

Photo by Rick Gush

Finnochio, or fennel, is now one of my favorite vegetables.

I never ate Florence Fennel, also known as Sweet Fennel or finocchio in the Mediterranean, before I moved to Italy, but now, it’s one of my favorite vegetables. I know the herb fennel from the wild stuff that grows all over the place in California, but Florence Fennel is the garden variety that develops a big, swollen bulb at the base of the stems.

When I was a kid, I used to eat all sorts of wild fennel during my walks in the hills; the new shoots were very nice (tastes like licorice), and the seeds were pretty good, too. Florence Fennel has the same taste, but the green growth is shorter and more abundant, and the swollen bulbs are tremendous, having celery-like consistency with a light licorice taste that becomes more sophisticated when cooked. I like to eat this vegetable raw, steamed or roasted in the oven. I use the green growth as I would use the herb fennel, mostly adding it to coleslaw.

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