Welcome back to Lost in the Farmer’s
Market where we apparently longed for more stable spring temperatures and Mother
Nature took offense and instead gave us stable summer temperatures. Seriously, it went from torrential
thunderstorm downpours with hail and flooding and sideways rain to 90 degree
weather and humidity so heavy that you thought the air was composed of a thick
soup broth. But despite these difficulties the noble and tireless gardeners of
the world must continue on maintaining those dreams of having positively
incredible gardens and bountiful harvests. For today’s topic we continue the
photographic extravaganza because we can and that’s the excuse we are sticking
with dangnabbit!
So first we have the redo pictures
of stuff that wasn’t being cooperative for whatever reason the last time I
snapped the pictures. Some of you will remember that at the end of April One of
my black petunia pictures didn’t quite turn out. Here is the replacement image.
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| You can see the real
purple of the flowers near the centers. |
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| Next we had those yellow
irises that also refused to be photographed. |
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| Is that a yellow Iris
in bloom or are you just….oh…it’s an iris… |
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| Petunia spp. And Tagetes
erecta – Common Petunia and African Marigold |
But what is this? Not redo at all
but an update, for those of you who have been to the ranch lately you’ve seen
this old barbeque grill thing lying about not in use. I salvaged it last summer
while at a jobsite with the intentions of making it the fire pit but then
actually got a real fire pit and discarded the original idea. So finally as the
failed plant count piled up I piled the dead plant bits and the associated soil
into this thing and capped it with some fresh soil then planted annuals in it.
Blue Petunias and yellow African marigolds. For note the white PVC pipe goes
all the way to the bottom of the ‘planter’ and is used to deep water that
entire section of the garden. For note, in the 80’s and 90’s this form of
marigold was called African marigolds, somehow ad of late they are now called
American Marigolds, I still don’t get why the new name came about but they are
surely some underused plants in the garden. In this case the marigolds should
get rather tall and the petunias should trail down the sides of the planter.
Opposing colors against the black planter should make for one hell of a
display.
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| Asclepias tuberosum –
Milkweed, Pleurisy Root |
This is my perennial stand of
Milkweed which was started form seed some five years ago and despite changes to
the garden has remained right where it is ever since. As some of you might
know, Milkweed due to its very long taproot tends to respond terribly to
transplanting. So, the original bed included this plant, then when the bed was
reduced and changed from a triangle shape to a rectangle shape this plant was
dormant and forgotten and well it seems to do better right where it is anyway.
I’ll have pictures of the blooms when it happens.
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| Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Barlow
Double’ – Barlow Double Columbine |
Looking good! That’s right the next
time someone says you can’t grow columbines in the south…print out the above
picture and tape it to their face! I grew this little one from seed purchased
at w whim from the burpee rack at bLowes in year two. Much like the milkweed it
took some time to establish but now this perennial has adapted and blooms like this
yearly. The trick is really good soil and filtered shade with preference for
little direct sun.
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| Tradescantia
virginiana – Widow’s Tears |
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| Tradescantia
virginiana – Widow’s Tears |
You probably see these guys all
over the place and never bothered to worry for what they were. They’re more common
than dandelions a true perennial and are quite prolific while forming dense
colonies that can be quite attractive. They are somewhat persistent and thus
hard to eradicate but then they aren’t all that poorly behaved as far as wild
perennials go. The most common wild flower color is that impressive blue you
see above but every now and again you see the occasional bicolor mutation as
shown in the second picture.
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| Santolina virens – Green Santolina or, Green Lavender Cotton |
These three plants were planted
about two months ago and have put on all this growth you see in that time. Each
were no bigger than the santolina plants I sell and they have already doubled
in size at least and show no signs of slowing down. As I say at the market
Santolina loves hot dry locations. Hopefully by the end of the summer these
little perennial dynamos will have filled this edge of the garden making for an
incredible scented border.
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| Lycopersicon
esculentum ‘Mexico Midget’ – Mexico Midget Cherry Tomato |
This is what a mature Mexico midget
tomato actually looks like. Ton one side is a Black Krim and to the other is a Cherokee
Purple. The Mexico Midget was grown from a volunteer seedling that emerged in
the mother plant’s pot at the end of last year and was overwintered in front of
the kitchen window then planted out on April 11th. What you see is
just the beginning, as I’ve said before the Mexico midget is indeterminate,
will produce an insane number of vines and then produce copious amounts of
cherry tomatoes. It was the winner for productivity in last year’s trials and
so it’s already making some records for insane growth. It is possible that the
resulting fruit may be quite unique this year as this plant may be a biological
cross between Mexico Midget, Underground Railroad and Paul Robeson which may
explain the crazy-vigor. I will not know for sure until the first ripe fruit
are off the vine. As a closing note to the garden topics the rain barrel
challenge is still on and my planter sacks survived the super rain we had so
now it’s a matter of watching the plants grow.
As some of
you may already know the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market is going on this weekend
as it does every Saturday 365 days a year. The weather is supposed to be near
90 degrees with about 70% humidity but otherwise sunny but because of the
roughly 30% chance risk of rain we may find some respite from the heat due to
cloud cover even if it does not actually rain. I might add there has been no
measurable precipitation since the turbo-downpour last week so there will be no
precipitation info this week. The market
is located at 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville and there’s no shortage
of parking in the area. But of course here is this week’s plant and materials
list for Saturday the 10th.
Southward Skies: A
northern guide to southern Gardening
This is the second
edition of my book, which was published using data compiled from several years
of test garden operations. It’s written to aid gardeners of all skill levels in
successful garden methods that are targeted for the south east but had proven
to be a valued resource for gardens across the eastern coast. It’s certainly a
good gift for that gardener you know or for yourself if you’d like to have a
reliable field guide. The book costs $25.00
and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed.
Vegetables
2x Asparagus, Gallon pot ($6.00)
2x Bloody Dock, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
3x Borage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Pepper, Sweet Banana , 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Pepper, Pimento, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Pepper, Carolina Wonder, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
3x Tomato, Amana Orange, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Tomato, Brown Berry, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
1x Tomato, Cherokee Purple, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
1x Tomato, Tlacolula, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
3x Tomato, Black Krim, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
1x Tomato, Martino’s Roma, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Tomato, Mexico Midget, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
3x Tomato, Paul Robeson, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Tomato, Rainbow Cherry Mix, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Tomato, Red & Yellow Currant, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Tomato, Reisotomate, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Tomato, San Marzano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Tomato, Underground Rail Road, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
Fruits
6x Strawberry- Ozark Beauty, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
Herbs
4x Basil, Sweet, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Basil, Thai, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Basil, Cinnamon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Basil, Red Rubin
2x Bee Balm, Lambada, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Chives, Common, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Fennel, Black, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Mint, Chocolate, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Lamb’s Ear, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Lavender-Cotton-Green, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Marjoram, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
3x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Parsley, Italian, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
2x Tansy, 3.5” pot ($3.00)
Coming Soon:
Genovese Basil
Black Hungarian Pepper
Striped Togo Eggplant
Louisiana Long Green Eggplant
Early Black Egg Eggplant
Triple Crop Tomato
With the posting of the plant list this brings to a close
another episode of lost in the Farmer’s Market. I hope to see some of you on Saturday as the tomato mayhem moves intoa n interesting new phase consisting of the really wild and crazy varieties.
