Eating Sunshine

August 2011
Pickaway to Garden
By Paul J. Hang
Eating Sunshine
“Plants enable us to eat sunshine.” Wow! What a thought! Doug Tallamy said that. Wish I had. The next time you bite into a juicy tomato, a crisp apple or corn on the cob, you’re eating sunshine! Even in the dead of winter, if you’re eating a helping of frozen green beans or canned peaches you’re eating sunshine, the sunshine that shined the summer before. Plants, and their fruits (including seeds), roots and shoots, are like batteries storing up sunshine for future use. They trap the energy of the sun and when we eat them that energy is transferred to us. Plants of course are storing up that energy for their own survival and that of their species, not for us. We, as we are wont to do, intervene and use their energy for our own survival.
Sunshine comes to us not just as light and heat, it also drives photosynthesis. It beams energy to us even in ways that are not obvious to our senses. Radioactivity and perhaps other forms of energy yet unknown are streaming onto our planet from Ole Sol. It truly is the source of life.
Not to be too homocentric but anything that eats a plant is sharing in the past sunshine. Insects, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, even fungi and micro-organisms use the energy stored up by plants. Burning coal, wood or oil is also a way of using the energy of past sunshine (and carbon) stored in plants, albeit from years or even millions of years ago. In a roundabout way even eating a steak is also a way of eating sunshine. The steer ate plants and, even though not efficiently, passed on that sunshine to us, even though not willingly. It’s also true of other mammals we eat and even fish. Ummmm, that sunshine can be delicious!
August is a sunshiny month and we see the ripening of all kinds of plants. Capture that sunshine and eat all you can. Too much to eat now? Can, freeze, or dry it. Store up all that saved sunshine for future use. You don’t have to just eat plants to get some use from that saved up sunshine. Flowers, some herbs, gourds, dried seed heads, to name a few plant products, can transfer that sunshine to us through their scent, visual, tactile, even auditory attributes.
August brings the Green Corn Moon also called the Grain Moon which is full on the 13th. Corn and grain are tiny little sun batteries that, stored properly, can last quite a while. Even the full moon is reflecting sunshine on us. The earth intercepts just a fraction of the energy sent out by the sun. Capturing some of that solar energy that hits the ground offers promise of meeting some of our energy needs. As solar collector and battery technology advances we will use more of the sunshine that we get now and rely less on the stored up sunshine of oil and coal. Save it for a rainy day. In the meantime, we can be thankful for the efficient solar collectors and batteries that are plants.
The sun drives the wind. It distills the oceans, bringing rain. With so many benefits coming from the sun it’s no wonder ancient people worshipped, and some current ones worship, the sun as a god. So enjoy the sunshine that August offers. Make hay while the sun shines. Have a sunny disposition. Find your place in the sun (but use sun screen). Have a heaping helping of helio. Or, how about a sunshine sandwich?
Things to do in the garden:
Water and weed. Water and weed. Weed. Weed. Weed. Pull all that crabgrass, that is rampant this year, before it goes to seed. Take heart though the first good frost will kill it.
Plant the seeds of carrots lettuces, spinach, radishes, turnips, kale mid-month, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage early in the month.
Harvest your bounty regularly. Preserve for winter. Store up those sunny energy bunnies.
As plants die back clean up the debris so bad insects and disease don’t have a place to over- winter.
Want to have a new garden next year? Now is a good time to prepare the site. Cover the area with black plastic, thick cover of newspaper or even old carpet. Anything that will block the sun will leave bare earth come spring.
Disbud your mums and dahlias for bigger blooms and fertilize. Side dress (fertilize) peonies with a balanced fertilizer such as 10-10-10 or 12-12-12.
It is time to plant biennials and order bulbs for fall planting and blooms next year.
A hot damp August (will the rain never stop?) can bring on fungus attacks. If August turns out that way, keep beds thinned out so adequate air circulation is provided. And don’t water in the evening. If not damp, but dry, water well and mulch.
Need gardening advice? Call the Gardening Helpline 474-7534 or PCMGVhotline@yahoo.com.
Other resources are ohioline.osu.edu and, to read a weekly discussion of problems facing those of us who “grow things” check out bygl.osu.edu. Buckeye Yard and Garden Line (bygl) is a real education. You learn for instance that problems you may be having with certain plants those problems are being experienced by others. Experts discuss what to do. It is updated weekly.