All this about March

Welcome back to the last episode of lost in the farmer’s market for March 2014. March as you all know has been a kind of crazy month with the weather being cold, wet, warm or wet and cold and more different cold. Yet April is right there just about a day or two away and I don’t know about you but it’s looking pretty nice! For today’s slightly delayed post I thought I’d break with the planned content and post up a few pictures of spring goodness in action.

So we start with a simple Hyacinth.

For note when it comes to bulbs what you see above is the true Hyacinth in circulation. Hyacinthum orientalis is the only readily circulated member of the hyacinth group. Two other plants are called hyacinths but are not true hyacinths and those are the Grape Hyacinth and the Woodland Hyacinth. Since I do not have a picture of the latter please note that the woodland Hyacinth's scientific name is Endymion hispanicus.

And move the topic to a grape Hyacinth

Grape hyacinths  Muscari neglectum are not nearly as aromatic as their larger cousin the oriental hyacinth and not as prolific as the woodland hyacinth but they are a solid option for planting bulbs in this climate. Paired with white daffodils they have similar bloom times and nice contrasting effect.

But perhaps a peach blossom might suffice for spring

Well the  fruiting trees are blooming so this is a good and definite sign that spring has finally arrived. In this case I think this is a peach bloom but since I focused the picture on the flower but not the rest of the plant the identification details are not clear enough.

Because some of you asked here is a picture of the tomato crop as they are right this moment.

 A few of you asked about tomatoes at the booth and I thought it'd be good to show the crop. This is four of about six trays of tomatoes. All kinds and sorts int heir 3.5" pots and labelled. Most have true leaves and are  perhaps three inches tall  as you can see they've been turned so they're leaning inward away from the sun. Once night time temperatures stabilize and remain at about 50 degrees these guys will go outside for final growing.

As you know the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market occurs every Saturday between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm. The weather forecast says that there’s a high probability of rain this weekend but barring persistent torrential downpours I plan to still show up anyway. The market is located on 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville and is typically located in the frontal parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum.  Given the possibility of rain the market may be condensed around the front entryway to the market and so please look carefully the market may not be as obvious as normal. With that said the following will be available this week.

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. You can either order it at the market and pick it up the next week or have it delivered to your home in the Fayetteville area for a delivery charge of an additional $2.00.

House Plants

1x Dancing Bones Cactus ($3.00)

5x Aloe Vera ($5.00)

Garden Plants

1x Cabbage, Savoy, 1 gallon pot ($3.00)

8x Dinosaur Kale, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Cabbage, Tatsoi, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Mustard, India green, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Lettuce, Freedom Mix, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Lettuce, Romaine, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Raddichio, Crimson, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Swiss Chard, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Herbs

3x Green Lavender-Cotton, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Black Fennel, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Hyssop, White , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Bloody Sorrel, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Oregano, Bristol Cross

3x Rosemary, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Horehound, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tansy, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Lamb’s Ear, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

40x Ozark Beauty Strawberry, 3.5” pot ($3.00) ( April 12^th)

6x Ozark Beauty Strawberry, 5” pot ($5.00) (April 12^th)

10x Martha Washington Asparagus (April 5^th)

10x Dark Red Norland Potato (April 5^th)

Tomato, Amana Orange

Tomato, Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad

Tomato, Black Krim

Tomato, Blue Berries

Tomato, Brown Berry

Tomato, Hillbilly Potato Leaf

Tomato, Japanese Black Trifele

Tomato, Martino's Roma

Tomato, Paul Robeson

Tomato, Purple Calabash

Tomato, Rainbow Cherry Blend

Tomato, Reisetomate

Tomato, San Marzano

Tomato, Tlacolula

Well this brings to a close the last post of March, I hope you liked the photographs and next week the topic will go back to plants we will be carrying this year.  That is assuming some strange weather phenomenon or some other garden topic does not side track the conversation. We’ve got a few days of warm night time temps in the 40’s up ahead though, and the thunderstorms mean a weather front for our benefit so make sure to take full advantage of it all if you can. As always folks keep ‘em growing!