I am one of those people who don't understand Twitter. I know what it is, but I just don't get why anyone would want to follow the minute by minute exploits of a 60 year, cranky, arthritic gardener. I know I am not interested.

So it is, it seems with blogs. Does the world need another gardening blog. Definately not. Still, it is fun to write. And Lord knows I am opininated on plenty of gardening subjects.

Let's take rototilling?  Why is it so darn hard for gardeners to realize that rototilling is not a good idea.  In fact, it is a very destructive thing to do.  It rips up the soil food web, especially the all important fungal network which holds and builds carbon in your soils. 

We rototill for outmoded reasons. Stop doing it. It is not good.

Hard to kill, easy to fool

JEFF LOWENFELS
GARDENING

(05/27/09 16:55:51)

Horsetail has reared its ugly head. It can't be killed with Round-Up or other weed killers (which you should not be using anyway). If you rototill it up or otherwise pull, tug and break its roots, more plants appear. It is unkillable, simple as that. It comes and goes depending on the soil community in your garden.

However, horsetail is easy to fool and it is real simple. You let the plant green up and then you cut it back near or at ground level without disturbing the roots. A new plant will appear next year, but not again this year. Again, the trick is to not disturb the roots.

Depending on the area, you have several weapons to choose from. A weed-eater is always effective. Consider a hoe, but don't go into the soil with it. Sometimes it is just as easy to kneel down and just pick the suckers by hand or cut them with scissors or clippers.

The second half of the trick is to remove what you take down.

Horsetail spread by roots as well as spores. Removing the tops gets the spores out of the garden. Horsetail do best in soils that are fungally dominated, the kind of soils that trees, shrubs and perennials prefer. If you see it in your perennial beds or around trees and shrubs, at least know you have the right kind of soils for these plants. If you find a lot of it in your vegetable gardens, on the other hand, then you need to fix that soil to be more bacterial.

Next on deck are the dandelions. Let's get one thing straight about dandelions too. They are going to win. This is because right now, every 18 month old plant is capable of producing five or six flowers -- and that is during the first flush, forget the August run. And forget the plants that are older and can produce 8, 9, 10 flowers, each one containing 50 to 100 seeds. You do the math. I have. It is an impossible battle to win.

So what to do? Well, there is no question the old fashioned, broadleaf, chemical warfare tactics are out. These are not safe and not prudent and surely not sustainable. Read the labels.

Right now the hottest tool on the market is a clove based product that will surely kill the tops of dandelions if not the roots as well. You will get a brown spot where the spray hits the lawn, but at least you are safe and so is everyone who walks on the lawn for the rest of the season. This stuff really smells like clove. Don't let kids play with this stuff and keep it away from pets. Both may be attracted by the clove perfume.

Of course there is hand digging. You can get some pretty good exercise digging dandelions. There are all sorts of forks and tools to aid in the task. Fiskars has updated the UpRoot with a new weeding head and dropped the name. Whatever you choose to use, don't try and get them all at once. Spend 15 to 20 minutes at night. Put on a set of headphones or earbuds and after a couple of weeks, you will have made a big dent,

One thing that is important is to remember the rule of battle: Never give a dandelion an even break. Do not let the flowers go to seed.

Pick off flowers if you do nothing else. Again, a weed eater may be your tool. Simply bending down and hand picking works. And, it goes without saying that you should mow your lawn before the flowers open up, but surely before the darn things go to seed and infect even more of Alaska.

Finally, this is a good time to get clover as the lawns have not thickened up yet and it is easier to see and less developed right now.

A thatching rake, a bit of time on your hands and knees and you can get the stuff. Personally, I have made my peace with clover since it always stays green, doesn't need mowing as often as grass and is adding nitrogen to the soil as a result of its relationship with Rhizobia or nitrogen-fixing bacteria. My advice is to do the same.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. You can reach him at teamingwithmicrobes.com or by calling 274-5297 during "The Garden Party" radio show from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on KBYR AM-700.

Copyright © document.write(year)Mon Jun 01 2009 12:23:19 GMT-0800 (AKDT)1900 The Anchorage Daily News (www.adn.com)