September At Last!

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, as you may have heard, the Governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper has moved us to stage 2.5 in terms of easing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. This of course means we are getting closer to normalcy, and this is a good thing. It does not however mean that we should relax too much as a disease as easily spread as Covid-19 can just as easily resurge. It has been proven that there are differing strains around and there is the possibility of getting the virus more than once. However in terms of gardening now is the time to get your fall seeds started. You want to sow the things that take the longest to mature right now so that they are up and developed so that they can withstand frost and the cooling fall weather without damage.  I always start with some Swiss Chard and the oddball species of Kale, then Collards and move on to everything else. This year I will be offering things I have never offered as saleable cool-season crops before and you should stay tuned to find out what’s going on.

 

In different gardening news the Autumn Botanical Test Garden tour is coming up. I am shooting for the 18^th of October between the hours of 2pm and 5pm. It is hoped that by then we will have seen another reduction in the Covid-19 restrictions and the weather will cooperate. If not, expect to bring masks, and the Rain Date for the event will be the 25^th of October, just before Halloween. By then I can assure you there will be plenty of fall delights for your gardening fancy and you get to see what’s going on in the test gardens. I can tell you this, 2020 despite politics and other crazy things that happened has been an amazing harvest year, so you can expect some impressive information and some ideas that flip the script when it comes to gardening. But let’s move on from the shameless promotions to talk some crazy-good garden stuff.

 

Before I get into this week’s garden photographs I do need to talk about two interesting garden conversations that I had this week with a few Sustainable Neighbors members. Firstly, I sent out a note telling folks that now was the time to begin sowing fall seeds. One of the replies was essentially ‘What are you sowing?’ and I didn’t specifically answer the question there. Later on the same day I was talking about it to a different Sustainable Neighbors member and the answer I gave was ‘I don’t like to tell folks what is being sown before it’s germinated.’ At the time I followed up with ‘it creates production problems when some folks try to reserve or order entire trays of seedlings.’ You would think that isn’t a bad thing but, it really isn’t good for business and here is why. When you have a horticultural production system you accept that there is a certain amount of loss, seedlings die, cuttings fail, somethings simply never grow and that’s an accepted part of the industry. I am a small grower who has limited margins and can’t afford to pull the same kind of stunts that someone like Metrolina Greenhouses or Bonnie Plants does. It isn’t plausible to reserve an entire flat of Rainbow Lacinato Kale because I know that 100% germination rates are rare, and even if I got 100% germination I would still likely lose 20% to after-germination causes like ‘failure to thrive’ and pathogens. Even after that some plants don’t survive transplanting to larger pots and some don’t survive ‘sunning’.  For the estimated 60% that do survive they make up smaller more vigorous batches of crops that are almost artisan in the way they are cultivated and cared for. The quality you the customer sees at the Tour or on the table at the Farmers market is leaps and bounds above the majority of my competition and I am certainly crushing big box left and right in that department.  There is one other ugly part of the industry that needs to be mentioned here. Customers are fickle, no not all of you, just the ones who want to order large numbers of things generally speaking. Historically I cannot count the number of times I’ve been approached and a customer has ordered a large number of something didn’t want to put down a deposit and never showed up when the product was ready. This is despite being told said product was ready they don’t tend to turn up. In business you do take risks, but you never take on stupid-risk, because it tends to burn you in the end. A case in point, several years back I started selling Fig bushes. They were being sold because the person who ordered them and promised up and down that he would come and get his order never turned up so I was stuck with sixteen figs (White Ischia, Brown Turkey, LSU Gold) that the buyer by all accounts had bailed on. I held the plants for several months and then when I stopped getting any replies I put them up for open sale. The plants sold rapidly, and the risk paid for itself so I could buy badly needed equipment for the lab. Ironically who do you think turned up as if a year hadn’t passed late the next spring asking for sixteen plants he hadn’t paid one red cent for?

 

I know what some of you might be thinking, ‘why didn’t I make him sign a contract or agreement?’ Simple, that’s a bit more corporate and hard-edged than I like BRN to be. I’m a local grower, who also now sells locally grown fruit and vegetables in-season. If I am in a situation where I need to make a customer sign a written agreement; then my image as the local alternative to big box suffers. I become like them and that is not how BRN is run. BRN is local, part of the community, and we are both accessible and accountable. This means that I never count my seedlings before they germinate and of course reserving entire trays of things is not an option. The economics of it aren’t good for the consumer and they aren’t good for BRN either. As some of the visitors to the Market might have noticed, I keep a seasonal rotation of things so that customers are treated with new and interesting things year-round. This is why reserving trays of stuff or specific tray orders aren’t a thing…well that and the production facilities are not that large. But anyway let’s get on to the garden pictures.

 

 Here we have a evening shot over the roof of the house with some great cloud formations. Technically not a garden picture, but some times the skies steal the show.

Giant Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans 'Caitlan's Giant'), this larger than normal variety of Bugleweed has much larger leaves and presumably bigger blue flowers. I've got it in a 8" p[ot until I can figure out where to plant this one. It seems to not care about full sun, though I imagine care is identical to normal bugle weed.

The bottom of a fully ripe Kadota fig. These are the figs used to make Fig Newtons and they're purple-red on the base almost like Brown Turkey but lighter than Black Mission.

The top of a Kadota fig is green-yellow and this picture doesn't quite do it justice.

From the side you can see the real color transition on a Kadota fig, they are very pretty. Shame this one is getting eaten!

Here we have the difference in coloration between 'Zanzibar' and 'Impala' Castor Beans. The Zanzibar Castor beans in the ground have reached a height of eight feet tall as of this writing. They are almost trees, maybe they can survive winter in our climate, wouldn't that be something?

After growign the plants and harvesting the seed I can see why one would proclaim 'Open Sesame' in regards to the at times troublesome seed pods of Sesame plants. I harvested dozens of pods from two plants and for my efforts all I got was maybe a quarter ounce of seed. Still it was fun to grow it and the Sesame seed plant's flowers were pretty.

 

Lastly, here is a LITFM video that talks all about Figs, it's the longest one I've produced at nearly 19 minutes but is totally worth it.

 

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.

Food Plants:
Mustard, Red Giant: $3.00
Kale, Lacinato: $3.00
Celery, Tango: $3.00


Herbs: (3” pots)
Black Fennel: $3.00
Oregano: $3.00


Herbs: (5” pots)
Oregano, Bristol Cross: $4.00
Oregano, Italian: $4.00


Herbs: Special Offer
Rosemary, Prostrate: $8.00


Ornamental Plants:
Coneflower, ‘Pow Wow Wild Berry: $4.00
Milkweed, ‘Milk Maid’: $3.00
Milkweed, ‘Passionate’: $3.00

 

Due to the current Covid-19 situation and the state’s requirement that all citizens are not to gather in groups of more than ten, the weekly Sustainable neighbors meeting is online. Please check the sustainable neighbors Meetup.com page for more info about how to attend our online meeting.

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

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 and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the seventeenth LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 18^th of September. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.