Thursday, October 29, 2020

Strange Days Indeed!

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, and although this post is just a full week late there is a good reason for that. The fall tour was on Sunday the 18th and the preparation work for it was pretty serious as were  demands for additional hours by my day job. Additionally, in that same time period I posted my 50th garden video to Youtube and was working on where to go from, there and how to announce what the channel would be doing in 2021. You can see my garden videos at the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/user/curacaovexxor/videos

Well anyway, I figured out what direction to take the garden videos, and also figured out what needed to go on this blog and am still working like a dog at my day job. The tour went well but the garden wasn’t as ready as I would have liked but they say an artist is never happy with their work or something like that.  So as you all can tell it’s both Autumn and Hurricane season which makes for oddly bizarre weather in the southeast, one day it’s like summer, then it’s raining and humid as hell, then it’s raining and cold and then cold at night only and the randomness just goes on and on. What some of you readers out there might not know is that you can plant your cold-season crops as late as mid-November. Also if you have a large enough pot your crops don’t expressly have to go in the ground so there are alternative options for planting something pretty, for food or a mixture of both. Our first official frost date is December 1st so we have an entire month to get down with the gardening. Typically the frost date can vary by plus or minus a week but that’s still most of November. In light of this I am planning an expansion of the vegetable patch and that will be covered in the next post. In mirror of the cold-season crops you can plant now, my Youtube channel is covering cold-season crops exclusively so you know what you are getting into. The next six videos will cover Kohlrabi, Red Cabbage, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, Japanese Mustard, and Mustard greens respectively. There will be two episodes posted per week so all of your garden info will be ready to go. But enough of this talk of videos and garden stuffs, how about some garden photographs!




This year I decided that my growing tray winter annuals would be Snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus), these are the pink ones. I also planted red ones and white ones all of the Liberty series, since Pansies and Violas really don’t cover the pinks or the richest of reds these potted annuals will fill the bill. Plus only bumblebees can get at their nectar which encourages them to stick around.

 


Here is a picture of the last of the Giant Mission Marigolds (Tagetes erecta), but unlike prior pictures a close up of the fabulous chrysanthemum flower heads. This right here and the fact they get three feet tall is why I bought the slightly overpriced seed. If the marigolds had a king, this would certainly be it.

 

 

Canna Lilies (Canna generalis) are a common sight in the south, though normally they are of the red-blooming variety. I originally got these specimens from a relative and they persevered in a less than ideal spot until they were moved into the crescent bed where they are recovering and expanding rather nicely. I actually thought they were orange or red, but the Canna which bloomed last year proved me wrong.

 

 

I know I posted this picture in the last post, but I’ve managed to get a fair amount of seed from these morning glories (Ipomoea purpurea). If they breed true the red-yellow combo might be something big and very cool, you can expect more updates on this in the future.

 


With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

Fresh Produce:*
Soup Kit: Parsnip: $6.00
Soup Kit: Turnip: $6.00

Food Plants: (3” Peat Pots)
Arugula: $3.00
Cabbage, Ruby Perfection: $3.00
Celery, Tango: $3.00
Collards, Carolina: $3.00
Kale, Lace: $3.00
Kale, Lacinato: $3.00
Kale, Marrow Stem: $3.00
Kale, Red Russian: $3.00
Kale, Scotch Blue Curled: $3.00
Kale, Winterbor: $3.00
Kohlrabi, Cossack: $3.00
Swiss Chard, Mixed: $3.00
Spinach, Avon: $3.00


Herbs: (3” Peat Pots)
Black Fennel: $3.00

 
Coming Soon:
Garlic Bulbs
Ginger
Seasoning Packets

*You can special order a specific vegetable by the pound if you want anything specific that is in the soup kits or any specific herb contained in the seasoning packets. Vegetables are sold by the pound and seasonings are sold by the ounce when sold individually.

We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff!  You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the twentieth LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 30th of October. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

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