Dorian, The Hurricane that wasn't

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. As you might have noticed it is now officially hurricane season, Dorian lazily meandered up the coast and kept those of us in the Fayetteville area bunkered for about a day and a half. Others were not so lucky such as Wilmington the Bahamas and cities along the coast in general. I know it’s 2019, but I am going to say this, if you are told to evacuate do so, hurricanes are only getting more frequent and more destructive. Flash flood warnings are no joke, and you should heed them very seriously. From what I can tell so far both my neighborhood and the test gardens lucked out but I am sure that there are some who were not so lucky.  I urge you to consider your fellow countryman who has been put in a position of need by a weather situation like a hurricane and donate to a charitable organization like the Red Cross. Public Service Announcement aside, today's episode of LITFM will largely be garden photos and some info on plants and such as the weather deteriorated rapidly cutting into photo time for this post.

Identification unsure other then it's some type of tree frog.

 While driving around at work on Wednesday this little frog fell from the sky onto the back window of the company vehicle I use to do my job. I pulled over, snapped a picture of the little guy and then carefully set the likely terrified frog free by getting it off the car and carrying it to a nearby tree where it's colors would blend in.

Hurricane preparations, I do this just about every time there is a hurricane wind advisory.

I cannot stress the importance of making sure to secure objects pre-hurricane as they can become projectiles if the storm is bad enough just like with tornadoes. All potted crops are placed on the ground where ironically they are guaranteed to get watered really well. Event he accent planters are given this treatment, just in case.

Punica granatum 'nana' - Dwarf Pomegrante

This picture was taken in a brief lull in the storm on Thursday evening. Firstly it proves to me that I will have some fruit this year (yay!) but also that Pomegranates produce fruit on new growth which should help you readers out there determine where and when to prune.

Ricinus communis - Castor bean, seed, pods and stalks

This picture was taken to illustrate how many seeds you can expect to get from a single castor bean plant. Those are three seed stalks, and normally if the Castor Bean plant is healthy, it'll flower, produce seed then branch and repeat the effort. When the pods are brown and dry it's safe to harvest the seed. Optimally there are three large seeds per pod, and you only have to peel off the spiny exterior and  pull away the protective covering. From one plant, I now have two or three times as much viable seed as I could buy in any single seed packet and the plants aren't even done. Expect a close up of the crazy patterns on the seed soon.

Look carefully in the center of the picture!

Some readers and visitors at the market dont believe me at all when I say I have a special arrangement with the wild rabbits that visit my yard, I dont bother them, and they dont bother my crops. I also do my best not to scare them away though most of the time I can pass a few feet in front of them and they wont flee. The trick is not eradicating weeds so they have something they prefer to eat.

Capsicum annuum 'Fayetteville Inferno' - Fayetteville Inferno Hybrid Pepper

This is the big one, the source of all those blindingly hot peppers you were told about. Fayetteville inferno is no joke and this specimen has a almost 1.5" caliper central stem on it. Before Dorian it was loaded with green peppers and you know all that storm rain will do amazing things for productivity across the board. I plan to try and clone this one, lets see how that turns out.

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:

Rue, Marbled 3” - $4.00

Sage, Common 3”: - $3.00

Santolina, Etruscan: 5” - $6.00

Santolina, Etruscan: 3” - $4.00

Flowers:

Common Mallow ‘Zebrina’: 3” – $4.00

Coneflower, Feeling Pink: 3” - $4.00

Coneflower, Pow Wow White: 3” – $4.00

Coneflower ‘Green Twister’: 3” – $4.00

Coral Bells, ‘Marvelous Marble’ 4.5” - $5.00

Foxglove, Camelot Lavender: 3” – $3.00

Foxglove, Camelot Rose: 3” – $3.00

Rose Mallow ‘Luna Red’: 3” – $4.00

Rose Mallow ‘Disco Belle Pink’: 3” – $3.00

Rose Mallow ‘Disco Belle White’: 3” – $3.00

Salvia, New Dimension Blue: 5” - $6.00

Fruits & Vegetables:

Peppers, Ornamental ‘Black Magic’: 4” - $4.00

Peppers, Ghost: 4”- $3.00

Coming Soon:

Sparkling Blue Kale

Dinosaur Kale

Scotch Blue Kale

Cilantro/Coriander

Swiss Chard

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 eighteenth LITFM post of the year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 20^th of September. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.