Soooo Spring, you mad?

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.

You can see the real purple of the flowers near the centers.

Next we had those yellow irises that also refused to be photographed.

Is that a yellow Iris in bloom or are you just….oh…it’s an iris…

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.

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.

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.

Tradescantia virginiana – Widow’s Tears

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.

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.

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 11^th. 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 10^th.

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.

I knew it was bad when I saw the dandelions making an ark.

Welcome back to the first May edition of Lost in the farmer’s Market, and you’ve heard me repeat that old rhyme ‘April showers bring may flowers’ but what’s been going on this week is well completely ridiculous. Fortunately despite being bunkered by an obscene amount of rain, thunderstorm activity and two separate hailstorm events I managed to catch the super storms on camera and collected the precipitation report.  Now I hope all you gardening-maniacs out there are sitting down because we received an average rainfall of 5.3” between Monday and Wednesday alone, and an additional 0.2” last week so that’s a total of 5.5” which is literally some crazy weather. On Tuesday we received about three inches which included high winds, violent electrical activity and Hailstones that looked like this guy below.

Yes that’s for reals, they were irregular hailstones no real size but roughly about the diameter of a dime.

It seems as of late we get a hailstorm yearly now and that’s probably a validating point for climate change. But anyway, here’s some pictures from the front porch of the ranch of the deluge in action.

See those weird ‘spheres’ in the picture? They aren’t lens flare or moisture on the lens that’s light reflecting off the hail as they ricochet off the roof.

For comparison, I bring you the rare and elusive Roof-Waterfall, right up there next to seeing a double rainbow and in mystified fashion pondering what it means.

Yeah so the weather was kind of a big deal, the amount of rain overwhelmed the new drain system briefly and flooded the rear deck. Fortunately as part of flood preparedness I had already elevated all electrical devices several inches above the deck and water proofed everything else as well so no damage to be had.  Or so I thought, I went to get the mail on Wednesday afternoon.

At the time this pooling seemed harmless, I mean the front sidewalk was under an inch of water the lawn was clearly saturated and then…

I had not realized at the time the front lawn is on a slope, in fact the entire property was on a slope. None of the pictures show it but all that water rushing from back to front exerted enough force to suck six bricks out of the front bed by the curb and wash them down the street almost to Ireland Drive. When I discovered this while maintaining the front bed initially I thought the mailman had hit the beds again and perhaps busted a few bricks and discarded them. A neighbor told me he’d seen the bricks up the road a bit and well sure enough… But that leads to the discovery of something else of note. During all that the antique rose on premises decided to bloom and I think it is the most spectacular rose bloom I’ve ever seen. Older photographs indicate it’s never produced a triple-bloom before like this but judge for yourselves.

I left the garden scissors in this image to show how giant this flower is.

So in the aftermath of the ‘Uber Storm of  Spring 2014 the following pictures were taken of the garden. As you can figure, if the rose bloomed despite the conditions then other things did also and so the glory of spring really came into its own after the fact. So lets make with the garden floral show.

Check it out; the Rhubarb has finally after five years matured enough to bloom! The flowers aren’t open yet but now you know what to look for.

There are many Irises on the property, and originally they used to bloom blue but they have become dominated by white and yellow varieties, expect a picture of the yellow ones soon.

The ornamental sage plants in the curbside bed were undamaged and responded to the deluge by blooming more.

The Arapaho Blackberries are in full bloom this year and looking good.

While not in bloom, the foliage of this rescued Heuchera is worth a look. Its unique coloration is visible from a distance and its eventual bloom is no slouch either. Every year this garden perennial gets better and is solid proof of what you get when you place a plant perfectly. Some of the readers might remember I salvaged this plant off the roadside after some landscaper dumped it in the Haymont section.

Also while avoiding a sudden downpour on Wednesday I snapped this picture of one of the rabbits that passes through the property while taking shelter in the shed.

I never knew rabbits ate wisteria, looks like they've become double useful!

But photographs aside I bring to all of you the first Skye Project Test Garden Challenge. That’s right, this one all started with a comment made by a visitor to the Farmer’s Market booth a few months back when it was too cold to really plant anything. As I recall the conversation went something like the following.

Me: “Have you tried installing rain barrels to bring your water bill down?”

Customer: “No I haven’t.”

Me: “Well you know they come in a variety of shapes colors and sizes or at the least there are the big fifty-five gallon ones the county sells for thirty-five dollars…”

Customer: “I don’t think I like them.”

Me: “Why not, you said you had a high bill for watering…short of a soaker hose or irrigation system that can really cut a garden increased water bill.”

Customer: “It’s just that they’re so ugly!”

Me: “I’m sorry what?!”

From there you can guess how the conversation went but still yes I realize rain barrels are not exactly pretty. I know the county ones are basically large black pickle barrels and thus are definitely not pretty but it got me thinking. If appearance is a problem how can we as gardeners fix that? We’re incredibly inventive folk right? So that brings us to the 2014 Garden Challenge, how would you make your Rain barrels more attractive?

What I did at the test gardens was to buy several of those hanging planting pouches, and plant them out with  red, purple, and red and white petunias as well as some moss rose in pink and pink & white varieties. Then to hold the plating backs up I secured a length of chain around the neck of the barrel and held it in place using a joining link, and installed six heavy S-hooks to hold the sacks up. The results are pictured below but keep in mind the sacks got a little beat up by the rain so I’ll take a later shot after the plants get going.

Right side: (from right) Bravo Red Petunia, Samba Fuscia & Peppermint Moss Rose.

Center: (from right) Bravo Purple Petunia, Picotee Red Petunia.

Left Side: (from right) Bravo Red Petunia, Samba Fuscia & Peppermint Moss Rose.

For note what you can’t see is on the end of that dangling chain in the left side picture is a hanging basket filled with Bravo Red Petunias. So, why did I pick the layout and colors? Well red flowers tend to attract Humming birds as some of you may have seen this is what the entire back deck looks like. All the hanging baskets are filled with petunias, which left the rain barrel lacking. By the middle of summer I expect this to look incredi-epic. Seriously as you can see below that’s a lot of tomatoes growing up and a lot of petunias growing down, my back deck may disappear for a few months because of this.

I told you all at the market I went a bit overboard, and some of you thought I was joking too!

But that’s just a fraction of the challenge I want to see what all the readers do.  Will you take up the challenge and try something for 2014?  Make sure to take pictures at the start and as your project grows.

With all that said, the market is on this weekend and it looks like the weather has broken. Saturday is supposed to be rather nice with a high of 77 degrees a slight wind and no noted chance of rain. In short, this is perfect weather for the Farmer’s Market. Now the market is located at 325 Franklin Street in the parking lots of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. The Museum is located in downtown Fayetteville and the Market runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm though given the time of the year it may run a bit over if there are enough folks at the market.  Also for note we will have a presence at the Wednesday Farmer’s market at the same location which runs between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm on Wednesdays weather permitting. But enough of this market stuff here is a list of what we will be carrying this week at the market.

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.

Black Magic Fertilizer

That’s right you’ve heard about it in trials all summer. This specially formulated liquid fertilizer was made and tested at the test gardens using natural ingredients and no chemicals. The result explosive growth, great harvests and of course no environmental side effects! We’re making batches of this stuff to order, at $6.00 per gallon of fertilizer.

Vegetables

2x Asparagus, Gallon pot ($6.00)

3x Bloody Dock, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Borage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Pepper, Sweet Banana , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Pepper, Pimento, 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)

2x Tomato, Tlacolula, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Black Krim, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Paul Robeson, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

10x Strawberry- Ozark Beauty, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Strawberry- Ozark Beauty, 5” pot ($4.00)

Herbs

3x Basil-Sweet, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Basil-Thai, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil-Cinnamon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Borage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Horehound, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Lamb’s Ear, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Lavender-Cotton-Green, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Marjoram, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Tansy, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Chocolate Mint

Bee Balm

Red Rubin Basil

Genovese Basil

Black Hungarian Pepper

Striped Togo Eggplant

Louisiana Long Green Eggplant

Early Black Egg Eggplant

Rainbow Cherry Tomato Mix

Red & Yellow Currant Tomatoes

Mexico Midget Tomato

Triple Crop Tomato

…and the above is just the beginning!

This draws to a close the first rain soaked episode of LITFM in the month of May. It may be a cruel irony that after our weather everything outside is literally super-green. It also stands as a good reason to have a rain barrel when you consider how much of that water could have been stored and used. But anyway, just remember one thing, after a rain like this always check on your potted plants that have saucers as they may not drain fully. Standing water in that case may promote root rot or encourage mosquitoes to breed in the water. For pots outside without a means of drainage you can carefully set them on their side to let the water runoff, though this may take upwards of an hour for larger pots.  So with that said, Keep ‘em growing!

P.S.  I missed the exact date but LITFM has now had 10,651 page views!  Keep them garden visits coming folks and thank you for reading.

April Showers bring a case of the soggies.

Welcome back to another fine spring episode of lost in the farmer’s market where we seek out the great truths of urban farming and present them here for your beneficial usage. As you might figure we have a lot going on this week in Fayetteville as we are rapidly approaching the dogwood festival and as such it’s a heavier than average week for yours truly. Today’s episode will feature an abbreviated discussion about color in plants and an equally abbreviated Market list since the list has to cover more than one market day.

           

Color is often one of those things that acts as a criminal accessory to impulse buying. We know that with the right colors in the land scape you can causes more whiplash injuries then a spontaneous topless carwash. The fact is we live on color, our perception of it literally colors our lives and the way we see true color sets humankind in apart the rest of the animal kingdom. So of course I have to unravel one thing those of you out there who read this may not realize, colors can lie too. Take for instance the presence of the color black in terms of plants. Typically we associate the color as a desirable trait in a flower, as tulip mania and some of the latest orchid breeds will attest. Likewise true blues in some species are very hard to come by, and attaining such a color for instance in the rose family is somewhat of a holy grail. The question is, is that bloom really the color we think or is it so close we refuse to see the truth? To prove that colors can lie I bring to you the first example down below.

 [Picture coming soon, original turned out to be blurred]

Petunia  - ‘Crazytunias’ Black Mamba 

Now that’s a nice petunia isn’t it? This series of petunias came in several varied colors and bicolor blends yet this was most striking. A black petunia is something to see as the foliage is that usual medium green, the foliate is still a bit sticky as is the norm for the petunia family and yet these large flowers…would they even still attract pollinators? I mean pollinators go by color too don’t they? The answer is yes and no in that order, pollinators will still find the flower regardless of color because they do not expressly rely on sight. Additionally even if they did most fo them will probably perceive the flower in a differing color then we do. This is of course where our eyes lie to us consider a picture of the same flower but this time with the camera’s flash turned on to reveal more color information

Petunia  - ‘Crazytunias’ Black Mamba  (Flash On)

            Yep, and there it is, the flower isn’t actually black at all, in fact it is an incredibly dark purple that really is only perceptible up close or with sufficient illumination. How about that, your eyes just fooled you. Not that it matters because the real truth is that there is no true black in the living members of the plant kingdom, which in turn makes say the search to produce a black orchid or tulip really just a sort of long term hoax. Yet we as gardeners fall for these sorts of color-frenzies all the time. Upon closer examination you might find whites aren’t strictly white, either which throws the other end of the spectrum out of whack. In fact one could say that there is no black and white in the plant kingdom but rather a spectrum of hues in between covering what we can perceive. Or in a nutshell something like this petunia below…all at once.

Crazytunia? Youbetcha!

There is always the option of setting your own illusion, rigging things to fool the casual passerby that yes you have plants in impossible hues. The method behind this is simply to combine textures and color contrasts to strengthen those primary perception colors into the illusion of being a pure color. Going from rough to fine foliage textures with some intermediate foliage can also strengthen the effect and further improve the overall presentation. Take the example of two plants growing side-by-side in my own test gardens as pictured below.

Black Fennel & Common Sage – Foeniculum vulgare purpurea / Salvia officinalis

The sage is a silvery-grey color that can pass for white to the casual observer, while the fennel as lush as it is appears to be a black mist of foliage. The Rhubarb in the background serves as a “normal” green to counter the other two plants.  The overall effect is that as you can see the sage practically glows in full sun while the fennel serves as a background to enhance the effect. I might add on the botanical side, the sage is more comfortable in a colder climate and it tends to get too humid for sage here in the Carolinas. The fennel is acting as a partial shade for the sage so that it gets less heat. The sage is actively keeping competitors from coming up beneath the fennel and so we have coincidental companion planting. So in short sometimes bringing out the color in your planet selection isn’t as much the actual color of the plants but how you place them with their neighbors that can sell the effect both physically and psychologically.

So with our short topic covered and considered it’s time to talk market, As you well know this weekend is that of the dogwood festival and as part of somehow the event organizers wrangled the Marshal Tucker Band for our Fayetteville Festivities. Downtown Fayetteville will be a hyper ultra-crazy madhouse on Friday and Saturday. If you’re planning to go get moving early, and in that light we will be present for Fourth Friday this month in the usual spot from 4:00 pm until 9:00 pm. Yeah that’s right selling plants by flashlight! We also will be present on Saturday morning between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.  All of this is at the Fayetteville Transportation Museum on 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville. Contrary to normal procedure I will not be posting a detailed plant list because of the two sale day’s back-to back. Also as some of you have just found out I will have a Wednesday Market presence at the city market for now and at the end of May in the FSU market, more on that as time passes pending research. Without further ado here is the plant list for Friday and Saturday.

Southward Skies: A northern guide to southern Gardening ($25.00 & signed)

Vegetables

Asparagus, Gallon pot ($6.00)

Bloody Dock, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Pepper, Sweet Banana , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Pepper, Pimento, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Pepper, Habanero, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tomato, Tlacolula, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tomato, Brown Berry, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tomato, Blue Berries, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tomato, Amana Orange, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tomato, Black Krim, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tomato, Paul Robeson, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tomato, Hillbilly Potato Leaf, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tomato, Cherokee Purple, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

Strawberry- Ozark Beauty, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Strawberry- Ozark Beauty, 36” pot ($4.00)

Herbs

Angelica, 6” pot ($4.00)

Basil-Sweet, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Basil-Thai, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Borage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Horehound, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Hyssop-White, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Lamb’s Ear, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Marjoram, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Oregano, Bristol Cross, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Tansy, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Well, this brings to a close our last episode of April 2014, although it is a compact episode I hope it got you thinking about both the topic and some of your garden choices. As a final thought…if April showers bring may flowers….what’s all this colorful stuff in my yard brought from March showers? As always folks Keep ‘em growing!