Human impacts in Medit

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I want to thank everyone who gave advice on sources for the seminar presentations I must do on human influences in the fynbos and the maquis.  I am finally finished and ready to present on Wednesday.  It was a formidable task to undertake for a concise summary of human influences over time in the Western Cape fynbos and the Mediterranean rim maquis.  There are volumes of research articles on very specific problems and issues in very specific locales, and it was quite a task to derive a cohesive overall picture of current land uses and both positive and negative ecosystem impacts for these two areas.  Nevertheless, it is done, such as it is.  I want to especially thank Tony for the Bradshaw Foundation website.  What a kick that was, and a really nice source of information on earliest inhabitants.  What a great teaching resource that would be for anyone teaching on the origins and journey of modern man!  I was asked what my two initial source books were: Peter Dallman’s Plant Life in the World’s Mediterranean Climates (which contains some good tidbits of human cultural interest) and Restoration Ecology, edited by Jelte Van Andel and James Aronson, particularly Chapter 14 on restoration of Mediterranean woodlands (which can be read online.)  If anyone is interested in the reference list I used for either habitat, I would be happy to forward it as an attachment in Word format.  Neither is very long ( 8 and 13 sources), as I had to pick and choose from the vast amount of sources, those which I could apply to the broader topics.  Quite a few are articles that can be read online if one has access to certain links, and a really nice source was a site provided by the FAO Corporate Document Repository on non-timber ‘forest’ products of the Mediterranean: very informative and interesting.  (Bear in mind that the use of ‘forest’ is not the Sierra or Redwood Coastal forests that we westerners think of, but woodlands of varying density closely associated with chaparral species in a somewhat narrow zone along the rim.)

 

Again, many thanks.

 

I am curious if any of the west coast gardeners are showing particular pest or disease problems from our prolonged wet/cool spring or the subsequent jump into summer.

My biggest problem has been a severe case of Peach Leaf Curl (which I would no doubt have avoided if I had not run out of Sulfur spray and forgotten to go back and finish the dormant spraying).  I also had a bit of fire blight on my red pear, which I summarily pruned out.  Oh yes, and a massive case of rose rust on my one hybrid tea, which I was able to get a handle on by almost completely defoliating it after it had leafed out and started to bloom.  To look at it now, one would never know.

 

Happy Trails!

Karrie Reid

Folsom Foothill Gardener

Zone 9

 

P.S. I am currently attempting to root Ceanothus ‘Gentian Plume”, a really choice plant in my garden.  So far, everything looks good as I am using the UC Davis Arboretum’s protocol.  If anyone is interested in planting one out this fall, let me know.  I am doing 12 cuttings at the moment.