by James Urbaniak

Created on: September 20, 2009

Gardening teaches many lessons. It teaches patience, perseverance, an appreciation for harmony in nature and the balance creating an ecosystem brings to the world. I didn't anticipate I would learn communication skills from my garden though. While I knew of gardeners who regularly talk to their plants and was sometimes guilty of having the occasional heated one-sided dialogue with my own plants, my communication skills would eventually play an actual life or death role in the survival of part of my garden.

After a career move brought me to Pittsburgh, my wife and I purchased a home with a substantially large piece of property and lots of natural resources at my disposal to aid in the building of my dream garden. I was determined to create a wonderful English-style herb and tea garden. Furthermore, I would concentrate on growing endangered indigenous plants, as much as possible. I was excited by the challenging task ahead.

I began slowly, researching plant species which would do well in the local climate and soil; determining what varieties I might prefer, evaluating the placement in the garden of various flowering plants for fullest impact of height and color combination. My preference was to establish this herb and tea garden by planting seeds, whenever possible and by collecting seed heads of necessary plants throughout the neighborhoods, wherever available. In acquiring endangered indigenous plants, I turned to specialty catalogs. Often, these particular seed purchases were expensive and in some cases, seeds were only available during certain times of the year. I was OK with this. I had the patience and desire to see my garden grow over time and was not one of those fair weather gardeners, who expects everything to spring up overnight, for my immediate gratification.

Black cohosh or Actaea racemosa, as it is known by its scientific name, is a member of the buttercup family of flowering perennials. The plant was used by Native Americans of the region in a tea form to treat lung conditions, fevers, female maladies and a variety of other ailments. The mature plant provided low, lush green ground cover with spiky white blooms, reminiscent of a miniature fire works display. As it so happens, black cohosh is also extremely challenging to grow, requiring a very specific order of changing temperature conditions to even germinate. This accounted, in part, for its having become an endangered regional plant species.

After keeping the seeds in a dark, cold refrigerator

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