When 2021 says to 2020 ‘Hold my beer’

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, this post was delayed by computer issues. For those who didn’t check the last sparse post, I thought my computer had a bad mother board, but this wasn’t the case. I got a replacement installed it and the problem persisted. I then had to order a new central processing unit and wait for it to arrive which took more than two weeks. Then I had to sit down and install the darn thing…more time lost. Then the holidays hit and well you can imagine how much damage that did to the bi-weekly update schedule. But here we are in a new year which hopefully will be better than 2020. Um…once we get past the rioting and looting at the capitol…and the inauguration and…whatever craziness follows that. You know what, let’s just get on with the garden stuff, at least we don’t have to worry about petunias starting an armed insurrection against the year’s garden plans.

 

Ok, so it’s winter and some of you are thinking, ‘it’s winter! The frost has hit and hit and hit again and hit a fourth time sort of like a Wiley Coyote cartoon’ and you are not wrong. However winter offers a unique opportunity to handle some hard work minus the bugs, and minus the heat stroke! That is a two for one deal if you ask me. Winter is a great time to apply additional mulch, and undertake structural pruning. Structural pruning sounds kind of complicated but it is really just any major pruning of shrubs, bushes or trees that you want to do to remedy any problem that can’t be solved readily during the growing season. So for instance with Dogwoods (Cornus), structural pruning is best done in the winter or early spring before bud break while you can see the actual limbs of the tree without the leaves in the way.  So for instance, when you have Carolina Cherry trees (Prunus caroliniana), which are a semi to full on invasive evergreen tree that is found everywhere in the Carolina region. The method and timing of pruning is very different than with a Dogwood. Carolina cherries despite being in the cherry family are not unlike the Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana), in that they produce a lot of fruit and flowers but the fruit isn’t useful and the flowers are a bit bland. Carolina Cherries have fruit that isn’t edible because the seed, twigs, leaves and pretty much everything contains hydrocyanic acid which is poisonous. The fleshy part of the fruit is so miniscule that it’s not worth the effort to extract and thus the tree is not useful in general. As if the aforementioned wasn’t bad enough, using it as firewood is questionable. The only useful aspect of Carolina Cherry is that it a semi-hardwood, and for woodcraft it is quite useful. Additionally for a tree that grows as quick as Carolina Cherry it unlike Bradford Pear does not suffer from weak branch angles of exceptionally weak wood so it stands up to the weather.

This Carolina Cherry is healthy, but it's curved lean is a problem. Sometimes things need to be pruned because of the long term issues they will create if allowed to continue.

With all the aforementioned said, Carolina Cherries are best pruned during the winter before they bloom and drop their cherries. These trees are evergreen, which has its uses but its aggressive reproduction is a problem. If you must have these trees around, you can selectively prune them to take out branches that are hanging over structures or are shading out areas of your garden beds.  In the case of the test gardens we have a cherry problem where two or three trees are shading out the memorial garden. Now in this case, I have to prune the trees pictured below because of their shape that they are hanging over a garden bed and that they keep dropping seeds in the memorial bed.

 

 

From a front angle shows the height of this nuisance tree, and it is obviously not alone.

The second way to deal with tree problems like this is called Prairie Stripping. Before any of you think this involved X-rated stuff, Prairie-Stripping is an age old practice where you cut a 2-3” band through the bark, phloem, cambium and sapwood exposing the heartwood. This effectively girdles the tree but leaves it standing which can completely halt seed development and may or may not kill a tree within a few weeks to a few months.  You might use this method when you lack the means to take down a tree that’s less than thirty feet tall when you don’t have a method of otherwise removing it from the landscape. The tree if killed will decompose normally and other than periodic cleanup of fallen branches will basically stop being a problem. Winter should not be an idle time for you gardeners out there, the seed catalogs are arriving and we’re darn close to when you start your hot-season seeds (February).  So all of you folks out there who read this can get that head start on the crucial pruning of the year and stay tuned for our next episode which will be up over the weekend because this one is turbo late.

 

 

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.

 

Fresh Produce:

Soup Kit: Parsnip: $6.00
Soup Kit: Turnip: $6.00
Garlic Bulbs: $1.00
Seasoning Packets: $2.00
Shallots: $2.00
Parsnips, 1lb: $4.00
Turnips, 1lb: $3.00
Onions, 1lb: $3.00

 

January House Plant Collection: 

Haworthia 'Fat Albert': $8.00
Haworthia 'West Jogo': $7.00
Devil's Backbone: $7.00
Sausage Spurge: $4.00
Starfish Sansevaria: $7.00
Aloe 'Sunset': $8.00
Aloe 'Checkerboard': $8.00
Rhipsalis, Slender: $7.00
Rhipsalis 'Drunkards Dream': $7.00

 

House Plant Spotlight!

Haworthia cymbiformis F. variegata ' Fat Albert'

Hey hey hey it's Fat Albert! This neat little member of the Haworthia family's scientific name is Haworthia cymbiformis 'Fat Albert'. While it does make one heck of an entrance in any succulent collection, it's famous for its leaves which are roughly triangular in cross section. The leaf tips have a neat little biological feature where they are clear to allow a limited amount of light in so that photosynthesis can occur but the plant doesn't cook in the heat. This is a lot like living stones or Lithops in that this plant's shape and features does make it a pseudo mimicry, but then how many perfectly triangular and green rocks do you know of?  Care for this one is easy, water when dry, do not let temperatures drop below 40 degrees, and do not expose to frost. After the threat of last frost in spring you can gradually introduce this plant to full sun, and keep it out doors until roughly September. If you do this, you might have to repot this succulent yearly. Make sure your potting mix drains well, which means you can use regular potting soil with a dash of sand added. Do not let this plant sit in a puddle of water as it will get root rot and that may be a death sentence. Haworthias tend to have white or pink flowers during the winter, they can be quite showy if a plant is big enough to produce multiple stems.

We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff!  You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.

 

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

 

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This is the first LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned for our next post on or about the 22^nd of January. Don’t forget to check out of YouTube videos at LITFM-Garden Shorts.