The following, updated article was first published in a slightly different form in The American Gardener (journal of the American Horticultural Society) in 1999; and subsequently in the LA Alternative Press*, in two parts, in February and March, 2003.
THE STRESS TEST
We quiver. We squeal.
We kneel at their altar. "Aren't they the living end?" we exclaim at the
fabulousness of plants and flowers. But if our admiration is sincere,
it's soon peppered with qualifications: "If only they'd grow in my clay
soil." "If they were blue, they'd match the bridesmaids' dresses." And
so on. The fact is, we seem unable to accept our loved ones for what they
are; instead, we're always itching to improve them.
What's surprising
is how often the attempts involve torture.
Like this advice from
a popular French science magazine circa 1910: Wind your vegetable patch
with copper wire, then zap it with electricity to increase your vegetables'
girths. Intensive culture, the technique was called, soon parodied by
Celine in Death on the Installment Plan.
In America, in the
same decade, some fertilizer companies advocated amending the soil to
improve yield. Nothing amiss there -- until you learn the magic bullet
was radium. Irradiation was tried again as years passed, and poisons,
too, derived from colchicums to increase plant chromosome number and size.
Among the latest improvement methods in the high-tech arsenal? Shooting
plants with gene-insertion guns and rubbing them with bacteria.
Given this context,
the very latest blip on the radar screen of plant improvement should seem
positively tame: simply subjecting them to stress -- that is, limiting
the amount of water and fertilizer we give them. It's the old `less is
more' theory, and I, for one, have bought into it. But the Stress School
of Gardening has few adherents as yet, and it seems unlikely we'll ever
recruit those who prefer to fondle their plants, play them Mozart and
Bach, and generally -- dare I say? - - smother them with love. Nor will
we attract those who consider plants sleek pieces of furniture -- elements
in an exterior design. Still, there must be gardeners out there with open
minds willing to entertain the possibility that tough love can improve
a garden's character.
The idea is not as
twisted as it appears. With rain and water supplies dicier than ever,
it also may be an idea whose time has come. In practice, with the right
plants and within important limits, stress can lead to extraordinary pay-offs
-- starting in your orchard, herb garden and vegetable plots.
A MATTER OF TASTE.
Take
the Eureka lemon tree in my garden, for instance. It's never been fertilized
and is watered only once a month. Yet every spring and summer I'm up to
my elbows in intensely-flavored fruit. If your soil is in fairly good
shape, tomatoes, too, can benefit from similar treatment. With little
or no high-nitrogen fertilizer applied to the plants, more energy goes
into making fruit instead of foliage. Less fertilizer can also mean less
need to water -- and more scrumptious tomatoes. Likewise, parsley and
arugula and basil grown on a lean diet develop leaves with real texture
and twice the taste appeal of pampered plants. Size and yield are often
smaller, but unless you're interested in cultivating water, you'll be
treated to the essence of what you're after. Your food may actually be
more nutritious, too: a USDA soil scientist has found that the excessive
use of nitrogen fertilizer -- from any source, organic or inorganic --
can significantly reduce the vitamin C content in vegetables such as chard,
green beans, and kale.
Benign neglect can
benefit more than your palate. I once overheard a woman complain that
the perfume of American lavender bushes couldn't compare with those she'd
smelled in the south of France. Having once lived near Nice, I can say
with pride that the fragrance of California lavenders can be every bit
as fine -- as long as we have a lighter hand with the watering can and
bed them in coarse dirt. My Lavandula dentata, intensely fragrant,
sticky with essential oils, thrives in unamended soil on rainwater alone.
LONG LIVE STRESS!
Another
perk of joining the Stress School of Gardening is that from a biological
standpoint, many plants actually fare better with less. In a 1995 report
in California Agriculture, reseachers showed that excessive use of
nitrogen fertilizer on nectarine trees increased the fruits' susceptibility
to insects and disease. "Deprived" plants and trees may also live longer
than their overindulged counterparts. For example, acacias planted in Southern
California are frequently overwatered, resulting in root rot and an early
demise -- the trees usually live about 20 years, rather than their natural
lifespan of 30.
Hold the fertilizer.
Hold the water. Stress -- or kindness?
Succulents, too, will
be longer-lived if the plant cells are allowed to slow their division rate
and go dormant during the natural dry season. This can have an unexpected
-- and touching - - bonus: You could be in the position one day to bequeath
your long-lived plants to your children as precious heirlooms. Maybe they
don't appreciate your Pelargonium carnosum at the moment, or that
hairy thing you've been raising from seed. One day, though - - when you're
long gone over the rainbow and they're as mature and sensitive as you are
now -- they will smile down upon your old-man cactus (Cephalocereus senilis)
and think fondly of you.
What could be more rewarding?
How about the assurance
that your garden will fill -- slowly, but surely -- with plants etched with
character. Not for you the plump, look-alike physiques that come from sustained
artifice. Instead: the rich presence of unconventional aging beauties, whose
hardened bark and gnarled shapes are living testimony to their encounters
with storms, prolonged droughts and other life adventures.
If you're Zen -- or
had too many beers -- you can bend down and hear the poetry of stress.
It's not just plants
that benefit from stress. It can be good for gardeners, too. Think of
the money you'll save by not replacing all those pumped-up, pooped-out
plants, not to mention your savings on the cost of fertilizer and water.
You'll also have more
free time. For example, fewer plants will need staking: No longer fat and
leggy with excessive fertilizers and water, they'll be better able to withstand
fierce winds, or else they'll keep a lower profile on the horizon, away
from winds. And you won't need to spend hours driving out to the country
to find a patch of undeveloped nature, bcause your garden, over time, will
look more and more like the country.
One last side benefit:
your self image. No longer will you be a carpet to your plants, a slave
to their spoiled demands. It can be surprisingly liberating, and spill over
into other aspects of your life.
QUIBBLES AND CAVEATS.
It's
time now to be sensible -- and to avoid potential lawsuits. What constitutes
"stress" is obviously relative. To gardeners accustomed to lavishing their
plants with water and fertilizers, withholding a portion of either can hardly
be harmful. Still, there's a fine line between just enough stress and death.
Here are some common-sense guidelines. Choosing plants best
suited to your site is paramount. That means knowing where your plants are
originally from -- their preferred climate, soil, and exposure to sun. Species
native to your region are an obvious and safe bet, since they're used to
fending for themselves. But plants from similar habitats in regions throughout
the world also are likely to thrive on neglect. You'll also have more
success if you rely on species and heirloom plants. These plants are proven
survivors, whereas hybrids and their clones are frequently bred -- and often
in-bred -- to respond to fertilizers and water. They will not take deprivation
as well.Stress is relative, as
well, to a plant's age. Old and well- established plants in your garden
that are used to rich rations must be gradually weaned over the course of
many seasons -- if not years. Make sure new plants from a nursery are not
rootbound -- you don't want them to choke to death before they've had the
opportunity to be stressed. Also, if the weather is hot, protect new transplants
with shade cloth and regular watering until they've got their footing. Plants sown directly
from seed into the garden are excellent candidates for stress management
-- but only after they've had a solid start. Like transplants, water them
regularly until they're established. It's also wise to improve
your soil. Although Stress-ophiles don't favor fertilizer -- because we
don't believe in growing plants fast -- we do believe in compost and mulches,
because we believe in growing plants strong. Compost and mulch increase
the soil's fertility and its capacity to retain water. Other ways to improve
your soil without fertilizer include growing deep-rooted species, even weeds,
to extract subsoil minerals and nutrients; growing "green manure," like
beans, to fix existing nitrogen from the air; and letting the roots of dead
plants decompose in the ground to provide organic matter and improve porosity
-- the natural air spaces in the soil. Placement of plants,
too, can make a difference between a little healthy stress and too much.
Taking advantage of microclimates within your garden, for instance, will
help your plants' success with neglect. Another tactic: spacing plants closer
together, to maintain higher ambient humidity. There will be times
when you lose a plant or two, but is that such a bad thing? With the crucible
of stress as a test, you can focus on the plants that are as at home in
your garden as you are. The aesthetics of stress
aren't for everyone. (I like to call it the "Country Look," because the
image seems easier to sell.) This is a garden that can be plump and sleek
after a good rainfall, but there's no hedging the fact that it can look
wild at times and spare during dry spells when plants will naturally go
dormant. Yet think what that wildness invites, when the smell of dust and
plant resins fill the air, and lizards rustle for bugs under twigs and leaves.
This is the buzz of a real garden of Eden -- a captivating sideshow of native
fauna, birds, bees, butterflies, even pest-controlling bats -- where it's
not so much an improvement in plants that's been realized, but an improvement
in habitat. In light of ongoing
concerns about a global shortage of fresh water and contamination of ground
water and waterways from excess fertilizer, in view of reports of toxic
materials recycled into commercial fertilizer, there is now, more than ever,
a need to reconsider our horticultural practices. We could do worse than
to give our plants the stress test. With an estimated 85 million gardeners
in the U.S. alone, we could make a collective impact simply by putting the
screws on the plants we love. The gardening industry, with their ties to
petroleum companies, are not about to advocate this.
* Formerly known as the Silver
Lake Press
###
(c) copyright Elizabeth Stromme. All rights reserved.
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