If June is this hot, I dont want to think of August

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. Despite our alternating wet and bone-dry weather, the normal duties of a gardener continue onwards with our reward being the usual bragging rights and the harvest and or photographs we take of the beautiful splendor laid out in our yards. For this post I will answer some questions posed during the garden tour and you will be to see some garden photos of stuff that might just blow your mind!  During the tour someone didn’t understand why I use a sifter to sift my compost. The visitor in question stated that she simply just applied her finished compost as is and didn’t see the value of sifting it. I suppose this is a relative thing but, sifting does increase the quality of the finished product and it does remove undesirable materials from the mix. The following photographs will show you what I mean.

This is the final product.

 Sifted Compost is far finer, has no coarse particles and almost resembles potting soil while losing no nutrient density. Inevitably because a lot of dead plants end up in my compost as a result of my growing business my compost has a LOT of perlite, vermiculite, coco fiber and peat moss in it. These ingredients make my compost kind of spongy and almost light enough to be used as a potting soil outright.

Chunks & Lumps #1

The sifting process keeps stuff like the above out of the final product, because who wants rubber bands and twist ties poking out of the soil in a garden bed?

Chunks & Lumps #2

The sifter also keeps pebbles, sticks and other heavier debris out of the final product. Some might say this isn't a good thing, except where I am I already have very sandy soil, I dont need or want the drainage and the sticks and such can pose problems in maintaining soil quality. Fortunately this stuff gets recycled as a bottom layer in the composter for drainage purposes.

Chunks & Lumps #3

This is the main reason to sift, all of what you see in the picture inside that plastic bin is roots, stuff that wont break down, bits of plastic, larger rocks, slow composting leaves and other stuff that can mess with the pH of the finalized compost or create unwanted air pockets that can damage plant growth where the compost is applied. out of every 20 or so gallons of raw compost about 4 gallons will be stuff that I really dont want in the finalized compost. So this is why I sift my compost, I end up with a much safer final product that can be added to the garden soils with a minimum of further modification. The one thing sifting doesn't change is the amount of weed seeds in the soil, but of course as that old Rolling Stones song goes, "You cant always get what you want, but if you try some times you get what you need." When it comes to compost no truer words have ever been spoken.

Despite what you hear on garden shows honey bees aren't the only pollinators.

The above picture also relates to a question asked on the tour, if the test gardens got a lot of honey bees at the test garden and this might be garden blasphemy but I cant say that I do. I get a fair amount of carpenter bees, bumble bees, moths and butterflies but not honey bees. Instead I get what you see in the picture. dead center in the picture if you look closely, that is a Mason Bee (Osmia sp.) which could be any one of up to two-hundred individual species. Mason bees are short ranged, never foraging more than about three hundred feet from wherever they've built their nest, are not aggressive and are solitary, each one pretty much acts like it's own hive. They do tend to build nests together, but will not use each other's nests. Much like Cicada Killer Wasps ( Sphecius speciosus ) They pretty much keep to themselves, though you can encourage their behavior by providing the right habitat. In my case I make sure there are plenty of easy to access nectar producing flowers, and there is access to natural clay in the yard. In return they pollinate reliably and with a minimum of fuss. It's a good arrangement, I do what I was already going to do, and they move the pollen around, no one gets stung or swatted and everyone's happy.

Datura metel 'Canary' in full bloom

Technically I'm showing off this plant twice, but in this picture the flower is in full bloom, and it has a feature I've never seen before on a tube flower, Canary has four separate petals making it a quad-tube and technically it verges on five due to the deformed petals inside the flower. Much to my surprise it seems to get pollinated just fine by ants (at night) and mason bees during the day. The scent is nice and the color is well the gorgeous cream you see, though the flowers before opening are more yellow which is probably where the name comes from.

Lantana, proven butterfly crack since forever!

Yeah that's right, that lantana in the picture was a volunteer that does wonders for attracting pollinators. It's flowers are pretty and after a few years it started attracting these "hefty bois". Seriously look at the size of that one, he's very healthy which is a good sign. For note that is a male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly ( Papilio glaucus ) which is endemic to most of the eastern half of the united states. These butterflies show up in early-mid summer and that they stop in the yard is a very good sign that things are going well.

Pasta sauce made with Sungold Cherry Tomatoes.

This is the last photo for this post and it answers a ton of questions I get at the farmer's market about the low to No-acid tomato varieties I sell there. Yes you can make a tasty tomato sauce out of cherry tomatoes and it will be quite flavorful, but chances are it will end up a yellow or orange color which isn't a big deal, at least the way I see it anyway. Sungold tomatoes ripen to a rich apricot-orange color so the sauce is the same albeit darkened by cooking ad the effects of adding other ingredients. This pot of Sauce was made using mainly stuff harvested from the garden with the exception being the olive oil used in it. If you all are interested I can post the recipe, just comment and let me know.

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:

Agastache, Golden Jubilee: 3” - $3.00

Aloe, Vera: 4” - $4.00

Basil, Sweet: 3” - $3.00

Basil, Thai: 3” - $3.00

Basil, Mirihani: 3” - $3.00

Etruscan Santolina: 3” - $4.00

Sage, Common: 3” - $3.00

Valerian: 3” - $3.00

Flowers:

Balloon Flower, Astra Mix: 3” - $4.00

Coneflower, Feeling Pink: 3” - $4.00

Coneflower, Pow Wow White: 3” – $4.00

Datura, White Ballerina: 3” - $4.00

Lily, Formosa: 3” - $4.00

Lupine, Carolina: 3” - $4.00

Mexican Sunflower: 4” - $4.00

Salvia, New Dimension Blue: 3” - $3.00

Salvia, Silver: 3” - $4.00

Tobacco, Flowering: 3” - $3.00

Fruits & Vegetables:

Cotton, Mississippi Brown: 3” - $4.00

Okra, Red-Burgundy: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Special: 3” – $4.00

Peppers, Assorted: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Assorted: 3” - $1.00

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 thirteenth LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 12th of July. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.