Welcome back to another episode of
Lost In The Farmer’s Market, where we take a look into varied topics regarding
sustainability, horticulture and organic practices. This week’s episode was delayed by a few days
for a few good reasons. First off, I had to research the topic a little and
make sure that I was clear on it so that when I wrote this article you would
have the best possible ideas. The second reason this post was delayed was
because I needed to verify the details of the 7th Annual Sustainable
Neighbors Garden Tour. Yes, you read that right, the tour is back for it’s
seventh year and after the winter we had you can expect this tour to be a proper
shot in the arm to get rid of that lingering cabin fever. The basic details are
posted on the Sustainable neighbors site at Meetup.com but the short run down
is that we have two confirmed locations and the tour will be on the 6th
of May between 1:00 and 5:00pm. I do admit that we did delay the tour so that
the host locations could recover from the winter’s ravages since normally it
would have been in April but a combination of the weather and schedules
prompted the change to a later May date. If you want to go to this event hit up
the Sustainable Neighbors event page below:
Today’s
actual topic is about something we all have heard of as gardeners but often
have a hazy concept of. In the article before last we tackled the issue of what
defines a ‘weed’ and in this post we will tackle what defines an ‘invasive
species’. To be fair the word invasive is defined very clearly by the USDA and its
definition in terms of an invasive plant can be found at the link below.
These
days the term invasive is used frequently and often with little consideration
of how broadly applied it can be. I have personally heard someone call
dandelions (Taraxicum officinale)
invasive when they simply are not because by USDA definition they meet none of
the benchmarks of invasiveness. Likewise, I have heard the term applied to
species that are actually native and simply are well-suited to an area such as
plantains (Plantago major) when in
fact these plants are native herbs that when they over-proliferate it’s usually
because of an entirely different problem than invasiveness. The fact is that an
invasive species is one that is not native and has a characteristic or
characteristics that allow it to over-proliferate damaging the survival of
native species. A good case in point is Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica) which is not actually bamboo and is a perennial
evergreen shrub belonging to the Barberry family (Berberidaceae). This means that Heavenly/Sacred Bamboo is related
to other borderline OR outright invasive introduced species such as Oregon-Grape
(Mahonia aquifolium) and Japanese
Barberry (Berberis thunbergii). The
tell-tale trait of a member of the barberry family is that the flesh of the
roots is almost always bright yellow. In the case of Heavenly Bamboo, if you don’t
believe it can be invasive check out these pictures I took of an entire colony
that had to be removed while I was at a landscaping job a week or so ago.
 |
| On the right is the cluster that makes up the shrub and on the concrete walkway is a three-foot long runner where this nandina tried to invade other areas. |
 |
| This is a cluster of shoots that were mostly underground coming off a colony of Nandina, I pulled a few stems that had managed to get allt he way under the sidewalk too. Never before have I seen nandina this aggressive. |
As
you can see with the two images, the Heavenly bamboo was acting like actual
bamboo and even to this day I am still finding fragments of the nandina
colonies I removed. Now by comparison, the nandina on my property is displaying
none of the traits pictured, through it is spreading by way of sowing seed. The
invasive status can sometimes be a response to the environment, a genetic trait
that goes from passive and dormant to active and dominant or it could be that
someone just selected the wrong parent stock. This is why new varieties are
often tested in field conditions for a few years before they are brought to
market so that bad traits are discovered early and weeded out. However as is
seen with brightly colored leaf variegation, there is always that small chance that the
older stronger pure green foliage genes may activate and suddenly your nice white-marbled
Osmanthus is suddenly all-green and not so special anymore.
For
note this is where the advertising starts because it keeps the Test Garden’s
supplied and running tests so you don’t have to. 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. Barring bad weather, I’ll be
there selling the following spring offerings while supplies last.
Plants
Available Now:
Kale,
Lacinato/Dinosaur – $3.00
Kale,
Scarletbor - $3.00
Peppers,
Sweet Banana - $3.00
Peppers,
Tobasco - $3.00
Peppers,
Red Peter - $3.00
Peppers,
Giant Marconi - $3.00
Swiss
Chard - $3.00
Tomato,
Brandywine - $3.00
Tomato,
Black Krim - $3.00
Tomato,
Golden Jubilee - $3.00
Tomato,
Glacier - $3.00
Tomato,
Mountain Spring - $3.00
Tomato,
Sungold - $3.00
Tomato,
Sweet 100 - $3.00
Basil,
Genovese - $3.00
Basil,
Thai - $3.00
Burnet,
Salad - $3.00
Chives
- $3.00
Fennel,
Bronze - $3.00
Lemon
Grass - $3.00
Lavender,
English - $3.00
Oregano,
Italian - $3.00
Parsley,
Italian - $3.00
Rue
- $3.00
Shiso,
Red - $3.00
Tansy
- $3.00
Thyme,
English - $3.00
Mulberry,
Dwarf (2 gal pot) - $15.00 (last one in stock)
Raspberry,
Heritage (2 gal pot) - $15.00 (last one in stock)
Figs,
(assorted) (1 Gallon pot) - $15.00 (last one in stock)
Coming
Soon:
Santolina
(aka Lavender-Cotton)
Hops,
Zeus
Hops,
Cascade
If
the market isn’t your thing or your schedule does not allow you to go there my
premium exotic house plants can be purchased in attractive clay pots with
unique embellishments at LeClair’s General Store. LeClair’s General Store is
located on 1212 Fort Bragg Road in Fayetteville North Carolina.
This
is their Facebook Page:
The
Visit NC page’s Listing:
These
days I am generally at the store at least twice a week, maintaining stock
and/or delivering new materials so if you go to visit the store there is a fair
chance I’ll be present to answer your questions. If not, you can always send me
questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to
what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.
This brings to a close the eighth
LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted
roughly around the 2nd of May assuming another one of PWC’s substations doesn’t
explode again pitching all of Fayetteville into darkness….again.
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