Korean BBQ Chicken Thighs
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1.5 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons gochujang - Korean chili paste
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon finely minced ginger
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
For garnish: sesame seeds and sliced green onion
Add all of the ingredients including the chicken to a large Ziploc bag or a shallow dish. Toss to coat the chicken.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
When you are ready to eat preheat the grill to medium-high heat.
Cook for 5 minutes, flip and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes or until fully cooked.
Serve immediately with green onions and sesame seeds if desired.
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How Trees Could Save the Climate
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A study by the University of ETH Zurich looked at how many more trees could grow on Earth and how much carbon they could absorb from the atmosphere. The answer: The planet has 3.5 million square miles of land, nearly the size of the United States that is not being used by people and could support forests. If trees were planted on all of that land, when they matured they could store about two-thirds of all the carbon that human activity has pumped into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.
Trees are linked to climate in two ways. Through photosynthesis, trees and other vegetation remove carbon dioxide emitted by human activities by storing carbon in their trunk, leaves and roots. Fewer trees means more CO2 remains in the atmosphere. Dead trees also add greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere, releasing them when they are burned or decompose.
While planting a tree wouldn't solve climate change, it would be a huge help. What kind of tree should it be?
You want a tree that is going to survive in your climate with the minimum amount of maintenance. To have a meaningful effect, a tree must live at least 10-20 years. It takes that long for a tree to build up enough foliage so that it can have a substantial impact on the environment. You also want a tree that grows tall rather than short. The bigger the tree, the more carbon storage.
With that in mind, oaks can be great in the Northeast, while ficus trees might work better in southern California. Non-invasive species like the ginkgo are good options too.
Getting your tree to reach its full potential requires plenty of soil volume and ample room to grow. Fast growing trees such as poplar and birch are not the best choice because they have a shorter life span.
The Arbor Day Foundation has plenty of tools, like a best-tree finder and a hardiness zone look up, to help identify the right tree for the right place. The Department of Agriculture's I-Tree lets you design your optimal tree placement. Another idea is to simply walk around an arboretum or botanical garden to get a sense of what you like.
Putting a tree in the ground is only the first step in a decades-long process. As important as planting a tree, is taking care of a tree.
This 42-inch Bur oak tree will reduce atmospheric carbon by 1,466 pounds in 2019. How significant is this number? Most car owners of an "average" car (mid-sized sedan) drive 12,000 miles generating about 11,000 pounds of CO2 every year. A flight from New York to Los Angeles adds 1,400 pounds of CO2 per passenger.
Combating climate change will take a worldwide, multifaceted approach, but by planting a tree in a strategic location can each reduce our individual carbon footprint. Pictured here a newly planted Kentucky Coffeetree.
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August. The misery month. The fall before the fall. Pooped-out petunias. Monster weeds. However you want to describe it, August is a gardener's sorrow. If only the daffodil optimism of spring and the salvia fireworks of summer would last forever. But they won't; we're headed into shorter, yet deathly hot days. And everything in my garden already looks bruised and beaten.
With the hustle of spring and vacations in summer, gardens have to peak in the heat of August because most people don't get a chance to sit back and enjoy the garden until then. I have come up with a plan. And in one word, it's sedum. Sedum are perennial ornamental flowering plants that love the heat and come in every imaginable color and shape, including chocolate brown. They fill in bare spots made by early summer plants that have died, drooped or browned. A few of my favorites: S. Matrona (shiny red stems and huge pink flowers), S. Autumn Fire (upright clump with rose red flowers), S. Neon (bright rose pink flowers on gray-green foliage).
In designing the garden for August, rely more on texture and foliage than seasonal flowers. A garden needs to have year round integrity. You need to have structure- trees and shrubs- to hold the garden in place and make it feel grounded. If those things are taken care of, August can take care of itself.
If you have a garden bed that looks terrible, clean it up and then to fill it go to the garden center and plant a lot of one kind of plant- it could be sedum, or a pretty perennial like coneflower, or hardy grasses. Gardeners should buy the biggest plants they can find and plant them en-masse. Planting a swath of a single variety will create a color-block effect. If that was the only thing you had in August, it would still be beautiful. Cherry tomatoes, there's an idea. Consider the possibilities of little dabs of color in the garden or on the patio. They'll look great next to the sedum. And then you can eat them. August is looking better.
Sedum Matrona in September
Many plants require cutting back for aesthetics. Salvia, pictured here, should re-bloom if dead headed.
Four-lined plant bug can be a problem in August. Cut back damaged plants to the ground before winter and destroy.
Coneflowers add color and attract pollinators.
August is when hardy perennial grasses really look beautiful and are starting to turn color, a reminder of the change in the season that's ahead.
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Thanks for reading.
Happy Planting!
Faith Faith Appelquist President & Founder
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