Welcome
back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. Before we dive into this episode of LITFM I
would like to make a last call for a Sustainable Neighbors annual event.
Tomorrow, which is Sunday the 12th of January at 2:00pm at Leclair’s
General Store Sustainable Neighbors will be hosting its Annual Seed Swap Event.
If want seed varieties that you’ve never seen before, come on down! If you’ve
got seed varieties you’d love to share, Come on down! Hell, come on down if you’ve
got no seeds and want to get some groovy seeds to start your garden right in
2020! This is an open door event all are welcome and we would be glad to have
all of you. Now, onto today’s topic, as per tradition at LITFM, I often like to
debunk concepts that are common in the gardening and agriculture field and part
of today’s post is flatly debunking the heck out of the belief that nothing
blooms in the winter and a winter garden is bland and has nothing going on.
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| Viola tricolor - Johnny Jump Up |
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| Viola tricolor - Johnny Jump Up |
The above two images disprove two common gardening misconceptions at once. Firstly,
that you can’t have bright colors in the garden all winter long, and that you
need a fancy rain barrel so rain catchment isn’t an eyesore. Pansies and Violas
both are frost proof in our climate come in a wide variety of colors and can
fill almost any bland spot in the garden. As an added bonus they love cold
weather, may resow themselves and will freely hybridize over time. As if that
were not enough the flowers can be candied, or eaten in salads making them a
winter food item. As for the rain barrels you see That the test gardens have
pretty bland looking black plastic rain barrels of the type that you can buy at
low cost from the Agriculture Extension’s soil and water office. However few
have thought of putting those hanging plastic bag planters on the sides to
break up the outline of the barrels so they can be pretty or have thought to
place basket planters in the tops of the rain barrels to add extra color. I
urge all you readers out there to reconsider how you use garden space in 2020
to see if you can maximize the usage of space without compromising the
productivity of your garden operations.
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| Fragraria x ananassa 'Ozark Beauty' - Everbearing Strawberry |
Despite
what a lot of garden guides say, in our climate strawberries prefer the colder
months and may stop producing in the dead heat of summer. Most strawberries
have white flowers but a selection have pink and even red colored blooms and
this can add some delightful color to the winter garden in the form of fruit
and blooms. It is false to assume that you only have one option when it comes
to strawberries and also to assume that they too cannot possibly be pretty. Of
course the trick to good strong strawberry plants is ample nitrogen and good
soil which is why the pictured specimen is growing in a large tree-pot. Also on
the lower right hand side of the picture is a volunteer flowering tobacco plant
(Nicotiana sylvestris) which is
supposed to be a frost sensitive annual, and it didn’t get the memo. In the
lower right are Danver’s Red-core carrots (Daucus
carota subspecies sativus) which seem to do well next to the strawberries.
The contrast in leaf shape is its own form of decoration plus two-thirds of
what’s in there is a food plant.
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| Pisum sativum var. saccaratum 'Oregon Giant' - Oregon Giant Snow Pea |
Snow Peas are a species of pea that are given little consideration in the garden because they are often overshadowed by more famous species such as Shelling peas and other types of Sugar peas. However snow peas are the most cold tolerant of the lot and will take frosts and produce peace in the dead of winter. Their white pea blossoms are a welcome sight at a time when little else is blooming and few food crops are so massive. Batches of these guys can be grown in 14" pots with a small tomato cage as support and they will be perfectly happy. The trick is ti get them started while it's still warm in September along side whatever Swiss chard, Carrots and Radishes. This late start time means that they don't compete for space on seedling trays with members of the cabbage family whom should be started a month earlier in August. For note there are several varieties of Snow Pea that have been tested in the botanical test gardens such as Taichung (pink flowers) and, Snowbird (White flowers with rare pink blush), so there are options out there.
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| Camellia sasanqua - Variety Unknown |
What
indeed would a southern garden be without the Camellias? Sasanqua-type camellias
bloom in the dead of winter, and come in single, double and triple forms and
may produce viable seed too. If you like rose blossoms, but hate that roses don’t
do much in the cold months Camellias can provide your cold-seas color fix and
they make nice cut flowers. The only thing they don’t seem to do is have a
scent, but then that’s where other flowers like pansies come in. I should also
note that Camellia sinensis is the
source of black and green teas and having one of these shrubs will add function
to your already stately and evergreen camellia bushes.
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| Lunaria annua - Honesty, Silver Dollar Plant, Money Plant |
I
love it when I hear gardeners say ‘Aw, but nothing grows in the winter’ because
I know Money plant would love to have a word with that person. Lunaria is a
biennial meaning it emerges and grows one year and then produces seed and
flowers the next year. It is in the Cabbage family so parts of it are edible
and when it blooms it produces bright purple flowers. The flowers are followed
by the plant’s trademark papery seed capsules which are the size of Silver
dollars which is how it got one of its common names. Unlike other members of
the cabbage family, Lunaria isn’t nutrient intensive and will happily
naturalize where aver you sow the seeds and be a nice neighbor.
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| Narcissus pseudonarcissus 'Thalia' - Thalia Daffodil |
Daffodils
are one of the earliest to emerge bulbs that you can plant, they are aromatic,
and in the case of Thalia they also change color. Thalia emerges butter yellow,
and then fades to pure white and the petals may go semi-translucent. Aside from
snowbells and the next entry daffodils can add some serious early color to your
garden in exchange for minimal maintenance. Narcissus are also squirrel, mole and vole proof because they are very poisonous, and their scent tells those critters to get lost. You can plant other more vulnerable bulbs in with the daffodils for protection.
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| Iris cristata - Crested Iris |
You
don’t see crested Iris in gardens much, and I believe this one was a ‘distressed
plant rack’ rescue from bLowes. Its variety is unknown however, it emerges
super-early, we’re talking late November making it earlier than Daffodils if
you can imagine that. It blooms later however and it persists until late summer
as foliage. In contrast to other Iris who tends to be summer oriented this is an
option for earlier color and shape in the winter garden.
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| Agave americana - American Aloe |
If
course I had to show this plant. American Aloe isn’t actually an aloe but a member
of the agave family that can live for decades and get massive over time. It’s a
succulent with some pretty difficult spines that once established needs no care
(much like a prickly pear) and will reward you with a unique shape that can be
the center piece of a garden bed year-round. Starting with a small one (think 6”
pot) yields the best reward because you get to watch this native succulent grow
and develop. The blue-green new foliage and grey green foliage is interesting
to look at. The best part is if you look closely, you can see that the
developing leaves naturally are furled so tightly that they leave permanent
marks making for odd patterns that are never exactly the same on each leaf.
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| Abutilon megapotamicum 'Orange Hot Lava' - Flowering Maple |
I
sold a number of these plants in 2019, and will have them again in 2020. But
this isn’t about shilling for the market, instead if you notice this flowering
maple in the dead of winter still has its leaves and shrugged off every frost
we’ve had so far proving it’s hardiness in the garden. This relates to the
prior topic of alternative uses because this plant mimics a Japanese maple due
to its leaf shape making it a suitable alternative to an actual Japanese maple.
The bright fireball orange bell shaped blooms that appear all summer long are an
added bonus that liven up the garden when the plant’s foliage is overshadowed by
showier options. Just to be clear, flowering maples (Abutilon) are actually in the Hibiscus family and have no relation to the Maples (Acer). Oh and as a technology fact, the Computer brand named Acer, well the word Acer means 'Sharp' which isn't surprising since the Acern company is best known for producing computer screens. I admit a slight bias to that company's products due to the clever name.
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| Brassica oleracea 'Lacinato' - Dinosaur Kale |
As
a final thought for this post, the above demonstrates how you harvest leaves
from a cold season leaf green kind of plant. You cut the lower leaves off and
use those instead of harvesting the whole head because it will result in more
numerous harvests over time. It also removes the oldest leaves from the plant
facilitating its natural growth pattern while opening up air spaces below the given
plant to prevent disease.
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:
All
the Stuff:
Soup Kits:
$6.00
Seasoning
Packets: $2.00
Ginger,
4oz Packet: $2.00
Wormwood
Packets: $2.00
Lavender
Packets: $2.00
Pepper Packets:
$2.00
Garlic,
Whole Bulb: $1.00
Coming
Soon:
TBA
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 first LITFM post of 2020, stay tuned the next episode
which should be posted on the 24th of January. There will be more
garden updates and other cool stuff.
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