I am the NIGHT!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. This post is going to obviously be a lead-up to Sunday’s garden tour and as such the topic will mirror to some degree last week’s post. Before we get into the tour-teasing photographs I’d like to talk about the use of Night-blooming plants to supplement your garden. Despite what you might want to think just because the sun has set does not mean your garden is any less active, certain creatures continue doing what they do regardless of time of day where as some are daytime only and night time only. Certain plants have biologically evolved to bloom late in the day to provide nectar for these night preferring species. This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are numerous species that don’t become aromatic until the temperature begins to drop ever so slightly at night. For those who know me well, I plant several species of night blooming flowers just as much for the night critters as much as for the fact that my garden is still something of note at night. Some commonly available examples of night-blooming perennials, biennials and annuals that you can use in your garden are as follows;

Evening Primrose – Oenothera species.

Angel’s Trumpet – Datura metel

Four ‘O Clock – Mirabilis jalapa

Evening-Scented Tobacco – Nicotiana sylvestris

Devil’s Trumpet – Brugmansia species

Moon Flower – Ipomoea alba

Night Phlox – Zaluzianskya capensis

I am absolutely certain there are others but the above listing contains every night blooming plant I’ve ever successfully grown or seen grown in the Sandhills region of North Carolina. Another reason to grow night blooming plants aside from the wonderful scent is that they do attract several species of moth which come to feed, but not necessarily to lay eggs. In the growing years at the test gardens where I grew Datura near Tomatoes and Peppers, I noticed that I never had hornworm problems in those given years. It could be that by feeding the moths, they simply don’t prefer to lay eggs where they get a nice meal or it could be that by feeding them, they then end up being picked off by bats, since two types of bat visit my yard nightly. Either way, the scent from the Angel’s Trumpets is heavenly, and the big flowers are simply gorgeous. Likewise, I notice that the now naturalized Evening primroses that appear in the yard attract both assassin bugs (a vicious predator) and night flying pollinators so it’s a double win for the test gardens. It is certainly something to think about when you think about biodiversity in your yard, but let’s move on to this week’s pictures.

 

What could this handsome and vigorous plant be? You'll have to either go on the tour to find out@

 I did warn about teasers and heres the first one, the above plant which is clearly some type of bush self-sowed itself in a pepper pot probably by way of bird, survived the winter and is currently planted in the ground some where in the garden.

Now that's some strange looking compost

Hey look this compost comes with instructions!

These two pictures show how well recycled paper that is first crumpled up and soaked over night breaks down in one year. The compost was grey and scentless but full of small worms and somewhat crumbly in texture. Not sure I would try this again since as you can see in picture two, it didn't fully break down and I can actually read the print on some pages.

This Amaryllis will likely be faded before the tour so here it is at it's peak.

This amaryllis was supposed to be red or pink and clearly said 'To hell with that noise!' not that I'm complaining. this bulb was kept in a 6" pot for a full year before being planted at the beginning of April, I'd say it's very happy.

Well...hello there, what are you?

Another mystery plant you will have to go on the tour to find out the identity of, but here's a hint, it's a perennial native to this region and is almost never grown in a garden despite being well behaved and not at all invasive.

 

Sneak Peek, are those beans in your garden or are you happy to see me?

 I set up this trellis yearly for those little beans down there, but what are they? The answer is a simple one those are Purple Hyacinth Beans ( Dolches leblab/ Lelblab purpureus), also in this bed are Spanish Flag ( Ipomoea lobata ) a semi perennial relative of moonflower, potato vine and morning glories. The color will be outrageous later in summer.

What is that?

I'm going to leave this evergreen perennial's identity to the imagination until the tour.

Hey Iris, dont threaten me with a good time!

 I thought this photo was worth including because few have seen an Iris seed pod. It's not all that common that Irises get successfully pollinated and this patch of Iris was one of the earliest donations to the test gardens. These irises have been at the location depicted for almost ten years, and when I got them they were blue with splotches of white and slowly faded to pure white. Just yesterday I transplanted this entire batch to the crescent garden.

Pot-binding, definitely not kinky at all.

The above picture is a textbook example of long-term pot-binding. Pot-binding is when a plant is in a given pot for so long that it's roots just keep circling forming dense unhealthy mats that need to be sliced up during repotting or planting just to give the plant a chance at being anything close to healthy. If you dont loosen or damage the roots there is a chance said roots may keep blindly going in circles. In the case of this Century Agave ( Agave americana ) those thick white roots are actually offsets and I planted this slow-growing perennial in the nick of time.

This part is a bit sad.

Accidents happen, that's just the nature of gardening. The creature seen isn't a snake but actually a Slender Glass Lizard ( Ophisaurus attenuatus ), I accidentally cut the poor creature in half while digging the new beds for the white irises mentioned earlier. Now in case you are wondering you can easily tell a glass lizard from a snake by the fact that they have eyelids and will blink. Thye have no venom and prefer flight to attacking a person. Slender Glass Lizards are beneficial because they eat invertebrates, arthropods, other lizards and small snakes. While this particular individual's accidental death is unfortunate it does highlight another hallmark in the growing biodiversity of the test gardens. Creatures like this do not set up shop in places that are poorly managed obviously there is enough food and a desirable environment to host such animals. Where I have accidentally killed one, I suspect there are others that I have not seen keeping pests in check.

More info on this beneficial reptile can be found here:

http://herpsofnc.org/slender-glass-lizard/

For the record in the last few years it has been confirmed that there are a small population of green tree frogs, southern toads, Fowler's toads and varied forms of small lizard on site. In addition to this there is the Barred Owl ( Strix varia ) that comes through at night, the two species of Bats that come through and the mated pair of Hawks. So that's definitely a success story wrought with ten years of effort.

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, 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. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

Plants & Stuff Available Now:

Herbs:

Basil, Sweet: 3” - $3.00

Basil, Thai: 3” - $3.00

Etruscan Santolina: 3” - $4.00

Garlic, Jerimiah’s Heirloom  3” - $3.00

Lavender, ‘Elegance Purple’: 3” - $3.00

Lavender, ‘Elegance Pink’: 3” - $3.00

Self-Heal, Pink Lace: 3” - $3.00

Rue, Marbled: 3" - $4.00

Tansy, (Feverfew): 3" - $3.00

Fruits & Vegetables:

Peppers, Tabasco: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Thai Dragon: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Oxhorn: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Ghost: 3” - $4.00

Tomato, Black Cherry: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Carolina Gold: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Chocolate Cherry: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gardener’s Delight: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gold Nugget: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gold Millions: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Paul Robeson: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, San Marzano: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Sungold: 3” - $3.00

Garden Perennials:

Salvia, New Dimension Blue: 3” - $3.00

Coming Soon:

Tobacco, Night-Scented

Tobacco, Lime Tree

Balloon Flower, Astra Blue

Balloon Flower, Astra Pink

Balloon Flower, Astra White

Lily, Formosa

Basil, Cinnamon

Basil, Mirihani

Coneflower, Cayenne Red

Cotton, Mississippi Brown

Datura, Black Currant

Datura, White Ballerina

Okra, Red-Burgundy

Pomegranate, Dwarf: 6"

These days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions then I will be there to answer your questions. Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to sign up for anything or join anything, you can come on in ask for us and join the meetings. 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.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

                        This brings to a close the tenth LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 31st of May (three times the LITFM action!). There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

*On the 19^TH of may there will be a garden tour at the test gardens I’ll have the tour book ready for viewing so visitors can see what the soil looked like back in 2009 when I started the new test gardens.