The Quickenin'

Welcome back to another springtime episode of Lost In The Farmer’s Market. This week’s post is dedicated to the best of spring, and that means lots of photos from the garden of things now in bloom. There is a reason behind the photo-heavy post, as next Sunday, is the 4^th Annual Sustainable Neighbors Garden Tour and we have five locations with the test gardens being one of them. You can expect that the tour is going to be quite informative and certainly one heck of an experience for all who attend. It is a free-form tour so, with exception to the initial meeting point, you can visit all the other locations in whatever order you like.

Iris germanica - Unknown variety

I’ve told the story a few times, but for those who have not heard it, the property has several colonies of iris. Originally according to photographs they were all blue, but now they’ve become white or yellow with the majority being yellow. It’s not that I mind but they seem to have bloomed very early this year and so you all get a show sooner rather than later.

Iris germanica – Unknown variety

This white blooming iris was given to me as a small tuber and originally bloomed white with splotches of blue but seemingly has reverted to plain white. It may be a byproduct of soil pH or chemistry.

Salvia nemerosa ‘May Night’ – Garden Sage (Ornamental)

I bought a few of these some time back because they were on sale and stuck them in the mailbox bed in the hopes they would do really well and they have. I figure by the time of the tour they may be out of bloom so this is a sneak peek.

Artemesia absinthium – Wormwood

Visitors at the booth sometimes don’t believe me when I say the growth and performance of Artemesia is incredible in a neglected sunny spot. The key feature here is that central stem, it’s literally thicker than a man’s thumb after three years of growth and annual shearings’. These are the plants the small cuttings, seedlings and bagged packs of artemesia come from, just two plants, much like how all the rosemary comes from one really huge plant.

Aquelegia x hybrida – Columbine ‘ Barlow Doubles’

The establishment of a permanent stand of columbines in the shady section of the garden is one of the long-standing successes of the garden. These columbines were grown from seed, and just this one stand keeps returning amidst a section of the garden known for unusual variety. The thing that makes this significant is that in New Jersey columbines are everywhere and incredibly easy to grow. In North Carolina they need specific siting and care and it takes time to get a stand of them to establish. Much like with the lupines, you can expect a lot of 'duds' and false starts and then finally it's off to the races.

Sedum sp. – Sedum ‘Lemon Coral’

Supposedly this species of sedum is ‘annual’ and yet this cluster appears every year in the shady rock garden in the exact spot. They never bloom and they peek through the pine straw in April, nestled against the white granite rock they are easily missed by the unwary.

Admittedly, I’ve got a record of what these are somewhere, but they came with a pennington wild flower mix and between them, the monk’s hood (aconitum), the Evening Primrose (Primula biennis) and a few other things they just appear on the edge of the crescent garden with regularity. I like them, but unlike most of what’s in the crescent garden these guys are also untagged.

The production area aka “the racks”.

This is where plants that get sold at the market get sunned and acclimated to our weather. Admittedly this is not a new picture as things have changed since this was snapped about a month ago. But I figured I would show some of you who hear me refer to ‘the racks’ at the market what I meant.

With all that garden blooming photography handled now it’s time to talk about the City Market. The Fayetteville City Market is located on 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville. The market runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm on Saturdays and from 12:00pm to 4:00pm on Wednesday afternoons. The official opening of the market was last week and we’d love to see more of that find attendance. For note, the market is located on the grounds of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum so come on down and check it out. Below is this week’s plant list.

Southward Skies: A northern guide to southern Gardening

Southward Skies is a pocket-sized guide to gardening in the Carolina region. It will guide you through the process of having a productive garden in our region using a year-round format that matches the timing of what you should do and what time of the year you should do it. Unlike a lot of garden guides Southward is written in a way that can help even the most discouraged gardener to find success. Southward Skies has been tested by gardeners in other states ranging from as far south as Naples, Florida, as far north as Dorset, Vermont and as far west as Reno, Nevada. As a general guide you can’t lay hands on a better collection of tips, tricks and methods. A copy of this book costs $25.00 and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed. The EBook version costs $10.00 and is available through Amazon.

Herbs:

4x Basil, Holy – 4” pot ($3.00)

6x Basil, Sweet - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Basil, Thai - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Lavender, Lady Anne - 4” pot ($3.00)

4x Lavender, English – 4” Pot ($3.00)

1x Sage, Common - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Rue - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Oregano - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Artemesia - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Summer Vegetables:

6x Eggplant, Early Black Egg - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Okra, Red Burgundy - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Ancho - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Bhut Jolokia, - 4” pot ($5.00)

2x Pepper, Flashpoint - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Pepper, Sweet Banana - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Black Krim - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Brandywine - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Cherokee Purple – 4” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Rainbow Cherry – 4” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, San Marzano – 4” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Underground Railroad - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Rosemary

Bloody Dock

Purselane, Golden

Purselane, Red

Aloe Vera

Fig, Negronne

Fig, LSU Gold

Fig, Ischia

Grape, Copper Muscadine

Milkweed, Orange