The Saint Paul Audubon Society has a short new booklet available, listing native plants that are excellent host plants for native insects. The list is particularly meant for the middle third of Minnesota.

Why should you care about helping out the bugs? Because that’s what native birds want to eat, so if you want to have birds in your yard, you need to encourage insects, too.

As the SPAS website puts it, “As birds and other wildlife are increasingly displaced by human activities, native plant gardens become important mini-refuges. Native plants attract native insects, the food source for 96 percent of songbird nestlings.

“Some native plants are better than others at attracting insects. The Audubon Society booklet spotlights 51 native trees, shrubs, vines, flowering plants and grasses that provide the most benefit to birds and others in central Minnesota.”

The Plant Sale will have 28 of the 51 listed plants available, from chokecherries and hazelnuts to leadplant and little bluestem. SPAS volunteers will be putting an extra sign above any plant that’s included in the brochure.

We’ll have copies of the brochure at the Plant Sale (check the Master Gardener’s desk or the Info Desk under the central stairway), or you can read it ahead of time on the SPAS website.

Do you love to veggie garden, but find an overabundance of food at harvest times? Or do you have some extra garden space and are not sure what to do with it? Do you want to try to grow some new veggies, but don’t know if you will like them? Well, I have a solution for you! Be a hero and Plant a Row!

Plant a Row for the Hungry is a public service program that encourages gardeners to plant an extra row of produce each year and donate the surplus to local food banks, soup kitchens or service organization to help feed the hungry. According to the very nice lady who answered the phone at The Emergency Foodshelf Network, an organization that helps to supply our local foodshelves, those in need will often focus on buying staples because fresh produce is more expensive than staples. She said that any local food shelf would be thrilled to receive a fresh produce donation.

The Plant a Row for the Hungry movement was started in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1995 by Jeff Lowenfels, a garden writer, who asked his readers to plant a row of vegetables for Beans Cafe, a local soup kitchen. The program was so successful that it was introduced nationwide. Since then, American gardeners have donated over 14 million pounds of produce to local organizations.

Other organizations, in conjunction with the front yard gardening trend, have joined the movement also. Churches are digging up sections of their lawns and planting gardens in an effort to support members in need and to stock up their own foodshelf pantries, with any extras going to local organizations. Churches have found an added benefit of the garden being an excellent teaching tool for their youth groups.

Businesses are allowing sections of their lawns to be dug up so that employees can garden during their lunch hour. Some businesses are even supplying the seeds, basic tools and some compost as a morale booster and a way of encouraging employees to get or stay active.

With the diversity of the local population, don’t just plant the regular stuff; this is your opportunity to plant all of the neat varieties you were always curious about planting, but didn’t quite know what to do with.

Some vegetables that would be fun to try:

Bitter Melon — bitter fruit used for stir-fries, soups and medicinal teas
Swiss Chard — dark green leaves with brightly colored stems to enliven your garden and at $2 for a four-pack, a great deal! Plant two for yourself and two for your “row.”
Mustard Greens — dark green nutritious leaves, and another great deal like the Swiss Chard.

Give any or all of the heirloom tomatoes a whirl, because who doesn’t love a fresh, vine-ripened tomato in the summer time? You already know a couple of my favorites: Sungella and Mexico Midget. But why not try Black Krim and Roma as well?

And don’t forget the herbs. Important in cuisine and not typically thought of when thinking about food donations. Some plants to consider from the herb section would be:

Vietnamese Coriander — easy to grow, good producer and versatile in cooking
Culantro — a fun herb that is used in many cultures
Oregano — essential to Italian cooking, leaves can be used fresh or dried
Basil, basil, basil! — What garden and kitchen is complete without basil? With so many to choose from, just pick a couple and try. I always have Thai basil and Sweet Genovese basil in my garden.

If you’re a gardener without much space, you can still join in by container gardening or planting in your front yard.

The Emergency Foodshelf Network lady also gave a couple of tips about donating veggies:

1. Call the foodshelf first to let them know you will be dropping the produce off.
2. Avoid Friday dropoffs, as there are usually no distributions over the weekend and it would most likely sit in the warehouse/office. Therefore, my recommendation would be to harvest over the weekend and drop off on a Monday or Tuesday.

There have been many articles written about these movements and trends over the last few years, but here are a couple of current ones to get you started. If you are interested in more information about container, frontyard or urban gardening, see my next Tomato Talk article coming out next week.

• Plant a Row for the Hungry
  Garden Writers Association article, including Plant a Row (PAR) hotline number.
• Bad Economy Spurs Interest in Gardening
  Times Daily article about Survival Gardens, the modern Victory Garden.

So, what else did I learn from my glorious tomato experiment (see the previous Tomato Talk article for background information on my year of the tomato)?

Tomatoes and basil go really well together, not only in cooking, but in gardening too! As I was trying to lay out my garden last year to accommodate the wealth of tomatoes, I thought I was going to have to sacrifice some of my herb space, but I remembered something about companion planting and decided to give it a whirl.

Luckily, the herb that I had wanted to plant the most of last year, basil, was a great companion plant, perfect for planting between tomatoes. As the tomatoes grow, they shield the basil plants from the worst of the midday sun while the basil actually provides the tomatoes with a fuller, yummier flavor. Besides the Sweet Genovese and Thai basil that I usually grew, I decided to try a wide variety of basil because I had so much space to fill between the tomatoes.

When planting tomatoes and basil together, you don’t have to add more space between tomatoes - keep the same 18-36 inches as usual. Then, right in the middle of the space between tomato plants, put one basil plant, continuing this pattern all the way down. It’s an easy (and tasty!) way to add some new character to your tomato gardening experience.

Some basil types that I tried last year and recommend include:

Opal basil - beautiful dark leaves, slight peppery taste, makes a wonderful colorful addition to salads

Lemon basil - has citrusy flavors folded into the basil taste. Use in pesto or salads for a yummy flavor

Spicy Globe basil - beautiful plant, small leaves, perfect for French dishes

And don’t forget to include Sweet Genovese basil and Thai basil in the mix also. Thai basil is fantastic for Thai food, Asian stir fries and is essential for Vietnamese pho. For cooking and growing tips on basil and other fun herbs, check out www.TheHerbFiles.com.

This year, I will definitely be trying companion planting with basil again. On my “to try” list for this year are: Serrata, Napoletano and Red Rubin. Of course, Sweet Genovese and Thai basil have a permanent home on the list.

If you have any other basil suggestions, feel free to leave a comment or find me at the Brandy Tang booth at the Garden Fair of the Friends School Sale. All of the basils mentioned in this article are available at the sale.

Other helpful resources: List of Companion Plants - A Wikipedia article on plants that assist in the growth of others, whether attracting beneficial insects, repelling harmful insects, providing nutrients or in some cases simply providing shade or support.

This article is from last year’s Plant Sale catalog. As we head into the last few weeks before this year’s sale, I thought I would share the article here as a reminder of permaculture principles. –Pat

By Dan Halsey, Paula Westmoreland and Nick Jordan

Urban agriculture is exciting many folks for many reasons: sustainability, beauty, good food and personal and community well being. Cities (and suburbs) can and do produce a lot of food! Milwaukee, Detroit, and Havana are compelling examples.

Edible forest gardens are one of the most productive and delightful approaches to urban/sub-urban agriculture. A forest garden contains a range of perennial food plants artfully arranged to provide beauty, delicious and diverse food, and other good things that we get from urban trees and perennial gardens (shade, privacy, greenspace). Most urban/sub-urban trees need frequent replacement, so why not start to turn our Twin Cities into edible forest gardens? Our children will thank us!

Permaculture is a powerful set of tools for creating and grow­ing edible forest gardens. It is the design and cultivation of en­sembles of perennial plants that work well together and embody the diversity, stability and resilience of healthy ecosystems.

Permaculture is based on careful observation, clever design, thrifty storage and use of energy and materials, and faith in the power of biological and renewable resources to solve problems.

Getting Started with Edible Forest Gardens

So, how do you get started on a forest garden? The first step in any garden design is to state your vision and goals. Be as specific as possible and write in present tense.

I have an edible forest garden that produces apples, cherries, raspberries, blueberries and some vegetables. I spend a few hours each week maintaining and harvesting. It provides me with fresh fruit and vegetables during the summer months, some to give to family and friends, and some to freeze for winter use.

The next step is to create a base map of your site. Measure your site, locate your house, sidewalk, trees and other permanent objects on your map. Identify the patches or areas where you would like to locate your forest garden.

After defining your goals and creating your map, make a site assessment. Is the area you’ve selected capable of producing what you envision? What are your assets? What needs improvement? Is there enough sunlight? Enough water? How healthy is your soil? You can always make improvements and that is usually necessary, but fighting the natural tendencies of your site takes more time and money than building from what you already have.

Observation is critical during the site assessment. Check the sun/shade patterns at different times of the day and different times of the year. Go out in a rain storm and see how water flows across your site. Test your soil and check for areas of compaction. Then, based on what you find, look again at your goals and vision and make adjustments if necessary.

Designing an edible forest garden

An edible forest garden mimics the structure and function of a forest so that you have all the advantages of a healthy forest—self-renewing fertility, stability, and abundance—while providing for human needs.

In an urban area, the edible forest garden usually has six layers:

• A low canopy layer of dwarf fruit trees
• A shrub layer of berries and nuts
• A perennial layer of herbs and vegetables
• An edible groundcover layer
• An edible root layer
• A vine layer

The high tree canopy usually found in a forest can be omitted to allow enough sunlight for growing a variety of sun-loving fruits and vegetables.

As we design and locate our plants in the forest garden we create relationships between different elements in the garden ecosystem. To produce fruit we need plants that fix nitrogen, accumulate nutrients, attract pollinators, provide habitat for beneficial insects, repel pests, and protect the soil. In perma­culture, we refer to these communities of plants as guilds or polycultures.

As you plant your edible forest garden, keep a few rules in mind. Forest gardens flourish in fungal-dominated soils; use wood mulches and compost tea to promote soil fungi. Include a diversity of plants with different root types and root depths to support a diversity of soil organisms. Include a diversity of plants blooming throughout the season to support the pollinators and beneficial insects you need to maintain a healthy garden.

It will take a few years for your garden to evolve and weave together the community of organisms to make it a healthy system. Once this happens, your work will shift from being the “manager” to being a “participant” in the garden ecosystem you have helped create. This is when the real fun begins!

Guild Examples

Honeycrisp (or other dwarf apple) fruit guild

• White wild indigo, a nitrogen fixer
• Alpine strawberries, an edible ­groundcover
• Daffodils, a pest repellent
• Comfrey, which accumulates ­nutrients and provides habitat for beneficial insects

Blueberry polyculture

• Blueberries, an edible fruit that creates a protected ­microclimate for another fruit
• Lingonberries
• Bunchberry, a medicinal groundcover that accumulates calcium needed for fruit ­production

RESOURCES

Good books to get started on forest gardening:

Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway

Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke

How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield

For an introduction to permaculture:

Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren

Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison

The Permaculture Research Institute Cold Climate has workshops, skillshares, work and learns to get people up and going.

Ecological Gardens applies ­permaculture design in its landscaping.
Other landscapers are also beginning to do this.

Where to get plants:

Friends School Plant Sale will be selling all of the plants listed here.

Other places to look for plants:
Oikos Tree Crops
Raintree Nursery
Edible Landscaping
One Green World

Belatedly, here are the promised plans for the green-roof birdhouse mentioned in the catalog. This design is appropriate for wrens or chickadees.

Thanks to Judy and Carol for creating the plans and test-building them!

Green-roof birdhouse plans (PDF, 578K)

“The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing something better than they have ever done before.”

–Vita Sackville-West

As promised in the catalog article Year One: Growing Vegetables, here are a couple of my favorite recipes for using kale and Swiss chard.

Kale & Apple Saute

Dense, tart apples such as Zestar!, Haralson, Granny Smith and Honeycrisp work best in this recipe.

1 apple, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1/4 teaspoon curry powder (optional)
1 lb kale, tough stems and ribs removed and leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 cup water or broth
Salt to taste

Heat oil in a large pot or saute pan over moderately high heat. Then saute onion, stirring occasionally, until golden. Add apple and curry powder and saute, stirring, until apple is almost tender, about 2 minutes.

Add kale and water and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until kale is tender and most of liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Season with salt.

From Linden Hills Co-op

Pasta Alfredo with Swiss Chard

Serves 4. Ready In < 30 minutes

1 pound Swiss chard
8 ounces uncooked penne pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic -- minced
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese -- divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper

Remove stems and center ribs from Swiss chard. Coarsely chop; set aside.

Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 3/4 cup cooking liquid. Set aside; keep warm.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, and saute 30 seconds. Add Swiss chard; saute 3 minutes or until wilted.

Combine the reserved 3/4 cup cooking liquid, ricotta cheese, 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper in a small bowl; stir well.

Combine the pasta, Swiss chard mixture, and ricotta cheese mixture, and toss well. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

From cdkitchen.com

Freshly picked Swiss chard is also great when it’s just cooked with a little water and not much else, as in this recipe from simplyrecipes.com. Remember, it will cook down a lot, so don’t be afraid of the big pile that goes into the pan:

1 large bunch of fresh Swiss chard
1 small clove garlic, sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp water
Pinch of dried crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon butter
Salt

Rinse out the Swiss chard leaves thoroughly. Remove the toughest third of the stalk, discard or save for another recipe. Roughly chop the leaves into inch-wide strips.

Heat a saucepan on medium high, add olive oil, a few small slices of garlic and the crushed red pepper. Saute for about a minute. Add the chopped Swiss chard leaves. Cover. Check after about 5 minutes. If it looks dry, add a couple tablespoons of water. Flip the leaves over in the pan, so that what was on the bottom, is now on the top. Cover again.

Check for doneness after another 5 minutes (remove a piece and taste it). Add salt to taste, and a small amount of butter. Remove the chard to a serving dish.

In the 40+ years that I have gardened, I have seen increases in the selection of plants, mulches, herbicides and pesticides available to home gardeners. I have also seen decreases in natural pollinators, increases in public health concerns regarding water pollution from herbicides and pesticides, increased information about invasive species, and changes in the demographics walking around gardens. All these changes have prompted me to propose the concept of “responsible gardening.”

As gardeners, we can be stewards of a small, personal patch of the earth. We can take our own actions to increase plants available to pollinators, butterflies and other beneficial insects, birds and other animals, while enjoying our own harvests of food and beauty. We can share this beauty with our family and neighbors.

For example, my garden is on a corner in a suburb without sidewalks. Many people and animals pass my garden on a daily basis. I’m delighted to see them enjoy the plants, birds and butterflies that are daily visitors to my garden. Strangers frequently comment to me on what they see, ask for names and samples of particular plants, and tell me that this garden gives them joy. Neighbors engage in discussions about plants, herbicides, pollinators (mason bees), and water pollution. My garden has become a focal point for community, and I am delighted.

Responsible gardening is making decisions that improve your stewardship of your personal garden, and at a minimum, do not contribute to the harm of anyone or anything in your community. Gardening decisions include your choice and placement of plants, use of herbicides and/or pesticides, and use of mulch. These choices can impact your community, and are addressed as questions and answers below. Websites are listed to encourage people to find more information on specific topics, and help people make informed decisions.

Plant Choices

What should I do with plants that are toxic to people and/or animals?

We grow poisonous plants because we enjoy their appearance or fragrance, their use as food (e.g. cherry – eat the fruit only), and their contributions to improving the physical conditions in our homes (shading, boosting humidity, moderating wind and providing privacy).

We should remember that adult humans, children, and animals do not always have the same responses to poisonous plants.

Inform yourself about toxic plants, using the Friends School Annual Sale catalog, the my other post on poisonous plants, and some of these web sites for information about toxicity to animals. Decide whether there are nontoxic plant alternatives that will satisfy you, and/or where your toxic plants can be safely placed (e.g. not on the boulevard).

Websites listing SAFE (nontoxic) plants for humans:
www.calpoison.com/
Ohio State University Non-Toxic Plants list (PDF)

Website listing SAFE (nontoxic) plants for animals:
www.aspca.org safe plants page
www.sniksnak.com safe plants page

Website listing TOXIC plants for animals:
www.aspca.org toxic plants page
www.sniksnak.com toxic plants page

What is meant by disease-resistance or disease-tolerance, and what plants do these terms apply to?

The term “disease-resistance” refers to the ability of a plant to escape infection by a particular plant disease-causing organism (pathogen). The term “disease-tolerance” refers to the ability of a plant to grow without severe symptoms of the disease that has infected it. In other words, these plants will produce a crop, regardless of any particular disease symptoms. Specific disease-resistance / tolerance / or susceptibility is genetic.

These terms are applied to economically important crops, such as tomatoes, grapes, cherries, etc.

Below are examples of some disease-resistance terminology for tomatoes.

V = Verticillium wilt disease
F = Fusarium wilt race I
FF = Fusarium wilt races I & II
N = Root know nematodes
T = Tobacco mosaic virus

A particular tomato cultivar with disease / pest resistance genes will be described as Cultivar (xx), e.g.: Roma (VF) is the Roma tomato. Roma is resistant to the tomato diseases Verticillium wilt disease and Fusarium wilt race I. If no information is provided, assume that the cultivar is either susceptible to everything, or has not been tested, e.g. Brandywine (none).

What if the plant I want to grow has not been evaluated for disease-resistance or susceptibility, or has been evaluated as disease-susceptible?

Many plants, including heirloom varieties of popular plants (such as tomatoes) have not been evaluated for disease responses. If you choose to plant these or identified susceptible varieties, just realize that they may become infected with a particular plant disease, which may reduce plant growth or your harvest. If your plants become infected, and you choose to use an herbicide or pesticide, you can impact water quality, pollinator populations, and possibly your own health.

I am planting a hummingbird and/or butterfly garden. Are there any things I should take into consideration regarding my plant choices?

There are many things to consider in creating a hummingbird and/or butterfly gardens. Some of these websites should be helpful:

www.rubythroat.org
www.thegardenhelper.com
Hummingbird Gardening guide (University of Wisconsin PDF)
www.butterflywebsite.com
www.butterfly–garden.com

Remember to check on the toxicity of particular recommended plants, if young children and/or pets can be exposed to these. For example, Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica) is a highly rated hummingbird nectar plant, but is toxic when eaten in large quantities.

What are “invasive species” and why should I care?

“An unofficial definition could be that an invasive species is a species that does not naturally occur in a specific area and whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” From www.invasivespecies.org

Invasive plants are plants that can thrive in regions outside their natural range, and can replace native species of plants. Examples in Minnesota include buckthorn and purple loosestrife. www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov

You should care because invasive species crowd out native species and reduce the biodiversity of a region. You are aware of invasive animal species in Minnesota, including zebra mussels. The seeds of many invasive species can be spread by birds and animals, resulting in an increased distribution of the particular plant. Growing identified invasive species in your garden contributes to the spread of the invasive species, and is irresponsible.

You can learn more about invasive species at these websites:
Minnesota DNR
www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov

Products Available to Gardeners

Are there downsides to using herbicides and/or pesticides in my garden?

Herbicides and pesticides contribute to water pollution and a reduction in natural insect populations, including pollinators (bees and moths). If you have not harvested as much fruit or vegetables as you expected, it may well be due to a pesticide-caused reduction or elimination of a pollinator.

Are all garden mulches equal, except for their price?

• Garden mulches are not equal in their impacts on the environment and/or dogs.
• Rubber mulches are flammable, and they contribute to water pollution by leaching toxic chemicals.
• Cocoa bean mulch is toxic, but attractive to dogs. Dogs eat the mulch and can be poisoned.

Mr. Yuk, AKA Sara Barsel, Ph.D., is a local scientist, educator, and passionate gardener. She volunteers for the Friends School Plant Sale as Mr. Yuk because she values the plant sale, maintaining healthy life forms, and responsible gardening.

by Jessica Hanson

I think I was about 10 years old when I planted vegetables for the first time in my parents’ garden. I thought I would put seeds in the ground, they would grow, and a few months later I would pick all the delicious vegetables that had sprung up. It sounded so easy and simple, but I was obviously in for a rude awakening. As most of us know, nothing about gardening is ever that simple. We wind up with insects, fungi, rabbits and weeds that have no regard for our master gardening plan. The forces of nature seem to have a mind of their own.

While modern commercial farming uses industrial-strength fertilizers and pesticides to fight these forces of nature every step of the way, most small-scale gardeners these days skip the weed killers and chemical fertilizers in favor of more earth-friendly alternatives. After all, a love for nature is what drives so many of us to garden in the first place. We use compost, we pick the caterpillars off the tomatoes and drown them in soapy water, we leave out partial cans of beer for the slugs. We get down on our knees and weed by hand. And weed. And weed some more, even though the weeds are always back a few days later, just as prolific as before.

What do we love about gardening when it is so much work? Is it the satisfaction of watching something beautiful grow? Providing ourselves and our families with nutritious food? The meditation that comes along with taking an hour to get our hands dirty and interact with nature? What about observing the interactions going on within the natural world? Learning about nature through direct experience? Learning how to work with nature instead of against her?

I remember the first guided plant walk I went on in junior high biology; I must have been about 12 by then. The guide at the nature center stopped and pointed to plantain (Plantago major), a common weed growing along the side of the road, and said that the First Nation peoples of Minnesota had used that plant as a styptic to stop bleeding. This knowledge struck me hard, and I don’t think I paid attention to anything else during the rest of the walk. Instead I saw plantain everywhere we went, a common weed that I had pulled out of the garden before with distaste, but now it suddenly had a purpose. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What is a weed? It is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” With my new knowledge, plantain had virtue. I couldn’t wait to cut myself sometime soon so I could rub some on my cut!

I realized that other weeds might have functions as well. I remembered playing in a patch of creeping charlie on the side of our house as a little girl and thinking that the purple flowers were so special. When I showed them to my dad, he explained to me that creeping charlie was not a valuable plant, but instead a weed and a pest. Could he have been wrong? I pulled out a field guide and learned that creeping charlie had once been used to clarify beer. Even though I wasn’t going to be clarifying beer anytime soon, this common plant now had purpose for me as well. This was only the beginning for me. I decided that plantain and creeping charlie might not be the only common weeds with hidden virtues. Maybe, just maybe, everything in nature had value.

It’s been 20 years or so since that revelation, and since then I’ve learned that every weed in my garden has a purpose that was important to someone or another throughout history. Some of them were carried by European colonists across the Atlantic so they wouldn’t be without these precious herbs in their new home. Some of them are packed with more nutrition than spinach. Some of them I use in my acupuncture practice to treat arthritic pain, fibroids, and seasonal allergies. I tincture my weeds in vodka, I pickle them, I roast them, I sneak them into soups and salads. And of course, I make a first aid salve from plantain and homemade beer with creeping charlie. For me it’s all part of learning to work with nature instead of against her. And nature, after all, is a pretty good teacher. I can’t wait to learn what else she has to teach me.

Jessica Hanson is on the Board of Directors at the North Country Herbalist Guild. Visit www.nchg.org for more information about their valuable monthly meetings. For more information on using the wonder of weeds, check out these resources: A City Herbal by Maida Silverman; Stalking the Healthful Herbs by Euell Gibbons; Rose Barlow’s website at www.prodigalgardens.info; and Steve Brill’s website at www.wildmanstevebrill.com.

Members of the North Country Herbalist Guild will be available in the Herb section to answer questions during the sale.

By Mr. Yuk

Some of the plants sold at the Friends School Plant Sale have the “Mr. Yuk” tag on their cards on the sale tables, to identify them as poisonous plants. Here are a few comments from Mr. Yuk, to clarify issues about poisonous plants. These comments refer only to the plants, and not to plants treated with an insecticide, which might render any plants poisonous or dangerous.

These comments do not address allergies to particular plants, medicinal uses of some plants, or tolerances and insensitivities to particular poisonous plants.

What are poisonous plants?

Any type of plant may be poisonous: house plants, garden plants, woody plants or trees. A plant is “poisonous” if it contains a substance that causes chemical injury to something (human or some other animal) that ingests (eats, swallows, licks) or touches the plant. Occasionally, breathing in the scent of the plant or its burned parts can be toxic or irritating. We see this in Minnesota, where burning poison ivy releases the irritant oil, urushiol, into the smoke, causing internal problems for anyone who breathes the smoke.

Are there different types of plant toxicity?

There are three general categories that describe how poisonous plants affect humans and other animals. The time required for development of symptoms varies with the individual poison.

1. Lethal plants: Some plants are lethal if you eat, lick or swallow the poisonous part of the plant.
2. Plants that cause digestive problems or pain: Some plants will not kill you, but eating them can make you very uncomfortable.
3. Skin irritants: Some plants can cause itching, irritation, swelling, rashes.

Are all parts of a “poisonous plant” poisonous?

Plants generally have roots, stems (shoots), leaves, flowers, seeds or bulbs. Whether or not an entire plant or just parts of the plant are poisonous depends on the particular type of plant. In addition, the amount of poison contained in a plant can vary with the age of a plant, the season, and growing conditions. Last, whether or not a plant is poisonous depends on who you are (human adult, human child, or another type of animal.)

Why do plants have poisonous substances?

Plants contain poisonous substances for their own protection — to repel insects and animals that graze on plants.

Do the poisons hurt the plant?

No.

Are human adults and children affected the same way by poisonous plants?

Some plants are toxic to children, but are not lethal or irritating to adults. Because of their physical immaturity, children are more sensitive to many chemicals that do not necessarily cause the same reactions in adults. Remember that there are special formulations of drugs for children, and some medications are OK for adults, but not for children. Dosage is dependent on age, maturity of metabolism, health, weight, and other medications you may be taking. Similarly, plant toxins may affect different people differently.

What about animals?

Different animal species have different metabolisms and different populations of microorganisms living in their guts, which can detoxify some plant poisons, resulting in different sensitivity to plant toxins. For convenience, the plants at the Friends Plant Sale have only been classified with respect to toxicity to humans. If you have questions about animal sensitivities, you should check with your veterinarian.

How can I find out more information?

Many plants have the same or similar common names. This can be confusing and misleading when trying to identify poisonous plants. Latin names are the best way to insure that the information you are seeking applies to the plant you are concerned about. Many poisonous plant databases have plants identified by Latin names and common names, to help you find the plants of interest. Here are several online databases that are easy to use with either the common or Latin name. Remember that just because a plant is not listed, it is not necessarily nontoxic.

• Nationwide poison emergency number: 1-800-222-1222
• Minnesota Poison Control System: Plant Guide
• Cornell University Poisonous Plants Informational Database
• University of Pennsylvania’s Poisonous Plants Home Page
• Cornell University: Plants of special concern to animal species
• ASPCA: Ten Most Common Poisonous Plants

How can I garden responsibly with poisonous plants?

1. Inform yourself about the toxic plants and plant parts on your garden plants. 
2. Be aware of the population (human adult and child) with easy access to your garden.
3. Isolate plants that have lethal consequences, so that they are not easily reached by anyone who can be harmed by ingesting them. For example, you might plant monkshood and Datura in the backyard, where casual traffic will not easily encounter these toxic plants.
4. Choose to plant only edible or harmless plants in the front yard or any place that children will have easy access to these plants.
5. Because berries can be an attractive nuisance, choose to plant only those species that bear edible or harmless berries. 
6. Choose to plant nontoxic species that will grow in similar conditions and have similar appearances. For example, if you are planning a rainwater garden, high bush cranberry is a nontoxic alternative to winterberry.
7. Educate your children. Teach them to avoid eating or sucking on any plant parts until they have been positively identified as safe.

Mr. Yuk, AKA Sara Barsel, Ph.D., is a local scientist, educator, and passionate gardener. She volunteers for the Friends School Plant Sale as Mr. Yuk because she values the plant sale, maintaining healthy life forms, and responsible gardening.