A few neat things from Friday’s issue of Science:

• Some bacteria use nitric oxide as a weapon against toxins in the soil or host organisms.
• Wind energy could be a viable alternative for China, if they are willing to make the investment.
• I’m not sure how to summarize this. I just think transposons are neat.

I went to Lowe’s on Thursday night to pick up some supplies for the new container garden. Unfortunately the fungus gnats (and the battle to get rid of them) decimated most of the existing plants. Only the basil and rosemary survived, and those are still not looking too well.

Still, I miss having growing things, so I’m going to try again my plan is to plant the following:

Lettuce mix (cut and come again) with Arugula thrown in
Snow Peas
Dill
Sage
Oregano
Thyme
Chives

The seeds are from a variety of sources.

I’ll be planting in stages, and will probably get some self watering container mix and trying out a non-organic potting mix for the non-self watering containers, since I seemed to have so many problems with the organic stuff before. (Unfinished compost can be bad stuff.)

On a final note, I saw some carnivorous plants at Lowe’s today: venus flytraps, purple pitchers, and one other type. They were in little plastic terrariums. I also saw some seed kits with biodegradable pots. I didn’t get any of these items, but I was tempted. I really should not be left alone in garden supply centers.

On that note, I will leave you with this image, from Le Jardin des Plantes Utiles in the Montreal Botanical Gardens.

To anyone who has lost a loved one today or any other day, my deepest condolences.

I’ve made some updates to the French Resources Page on this site. Most of them are speaking resources that allow you to find native speakers with whom to practice.

I’ve also added two lists of gender endings that I have used to help me figure out common patterns of gender. The first list is from about.com, the other is hosted here. There’s a good bit of overlap between the two, but also enough differences to make it worth noting both sites.

And below is a gratuitous picture of the flags of Montreal and Canada from my last trip.

I went to Boston in June to see some friends. I finally got around to processing my photos, all of which are from the Boston Public Gardens.

The full set is here.

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Oh, ce livre est tellement triste. Je suis heureuse que je l’aie lu, mais je ne sais pas si je peux le relire.

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Apparently the New York Botanical Garden is putting on an exhibit on edible gardening until September 13th. There are some additional pictures in this blog post by Rosalind Creasy. The diamond idea is actually pretty cool. I may have to try that one day when I actually have ground to garden on.

McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers by Rose Marie Nichols McGee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I actually skimmed this, rather than reading it outright. I suspect, however, that I will want this book in my permanent reference library. There’s a lot of detailed information about exactly what sort of requirements these plants need for proper container growth. I just wish it spent a bit more time talking about container soil.

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The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants by Peter D’Amato

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Savage Garden is a fascinating and comprehensive treatment of the world of carnivorous plants. D’Amato is the owner of the California Carnivores nursery, and he clearly conveys his passion and extensive knowledge to the reader. Throughout the book, one gets the feeling that he wants nothing more than for you to share his wonder and to be successful.

D’Amato begins with a discussion of the basic concept of what is a carnivorous plant, which is more complicated than one might at first assume. D’Amato points out that even petunias, which are not considered carnivorous and thus are brought up only in passing, trap insects that might otherwise do them harm. This book concentrates, however, on semi-carnivorous plants, which digest prey by enlisting the help of bacteria or insects such as assassin bugs, and true carnivores that produce their own digestive enzymes.

The care of carnivorous plants is somewhat specialized—but the basics are easy enough to master. Although they are found throughout the world, most have rather specific growing environments: they like sun and acidic soil that is wet, low in nutrients, and through which slow moving water flows. If grown in culture, the water should be highly purified water obtained through reverse osmosis—perhaps the biggest barrier towards growing carnivorous plants. Growing media seems more easily obtained from suppliers of orchid media. Several species require terrariums or other protected spaces, but many can be grown on windowsills or in bog gardens. D’Amato covers any specialized needs under the listing for each individual plant.

The book is organized by genus, beginning with the venus flytraps. Remarkably, there is only one species within this genus, which is native to only a small portion of —believe it or not—the Carolinas. Likewise, cobra plants (a variety of pitcher plant) are native only to Northern California and Southern Oregon. North America features prominently in The Savage Garden, and D’Amato points out that North America probably has the widest variety of carnivorous plants in the world.

In addition to venus flytraps and cobra plants, D’Amato discusses pitcher plants from all corners of the globe, dewy pines, rainbow plants, sundews (perhaps my favorite of all the varieties discussed), butterworts (or pings, which are also quite lovely), bladderworts (a primarily aquatic genus that preys upon small water animals such as daphnia), and a few plants that simply don’t fit elsewhere, but are fascinating nonetheless.

Eventually the individual descriptions of varieties and cultivars does become tedious, but once in a while there are gems, such as his description of the flowers of the bladderwort Utricularia sandersonii: “Miniature orchid-like flowers with faces of angry little bunny rabbits….” This particular variety is accompanied by a photograph, and the flowers are just as D’Amato describes.

The book is full of color photographs of numerous carnivorous plant varieties. This fact is all the more impressive since all of the plants have been grown either by D’Amato himself or by his nursery.

Finally, I would encourage you to take the time to read the appendices. Many species of carnivorous plants are endangered due to habitat destruction or over-exploitation by enthusiasts and collectors. In many sections, D’Amato writes about the plight faced by carnivorous plants in the wild, but I think he does so most poignantly in a brief anecdote tucked into the appendices.

Whether you intend to grow carnivorous plants or not, I highly recommend reading The Savage Garden.

And yes, the title is a reference to one of Anne Rice’s novels.

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Most languages have false cognates: words that look similar in different languages but have different meanings. I’m familiar with many of the ones for English and French—which are often referred to as faux amis or false friends. I recently encountered a new set of faux amis, though: balade and balader.

While there is a french word ballade (feminine) which means ballad, balade (also feminine) means a walk or a ride, and balader means to go for a walk or ride or, in its transitive sense, to take someone or something for a walk or ride.

Adding to my confusion was the fact that the French word for podcast, in addition to podcast (probably masculine), is baladodiffusion. I’m guessing baladodiffusion is feminine since diffusion is feminine, but I could be wrong. Baladodiffusion is also sometimes abbreviated as balado, and an iPod or walkman is a baladeur (masculine) (but walkman [masculine] is also used).