Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, this episode comes in the aftermath of Daylight Savings Time and a strangely powerful storm front that has rolled through the Southern United States. Hopefully all you readers out there heeded the weather information and took appropriate precautions to protect yourself and your property from damage. That isn’t counting the mental chaos that DST tends to cause by artificially getting you out of bed an hour early than is normal. According to numerous weather-related sources, we know that the longest day light period in Raleigh is Fourteen hours and Twenty-six minutes during the Summer Solstice. The Shortest day by comparison is just Nine Hours and Thirty-Three hours long during the Winter Solstice. This means that DST isn’t actually doing anything that wasn’t going on before the invention of the clock. This year’s summer Solstice is on June 20th, and out Winter Solstice is December 21st which is only really useful in Agriculture, because it allows growers to predict when certain plants that bloom based on increasing or decreasing photo-periods will do so. It helps us gardeners because we know there will be a little bit more daylight when we get home from work to handle a few short chores. How you use it is up to you but for me, I say we need to abolish the pretense of DST. According to Healtheuropa.eu, and a few other sources, your body’s internal clock isn’t based on DST. It functions based on the normal cycles of night and day that our planet does, and indeed we somewhere, somehow, always know what the natural time is…unless something screws it all up. The loss of an average of 15-30 minutes of sleep is enough to throw our internal timekeeping into disorder which increases the chances of a stroke or heart attack and may cause an increase of distracted or drowsy driving which can lead to a fatal vehicle accident. Some states in the USA have abolished DST, Hawaii and Arizona specifically. Also territories such as American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands do not observe DST. It figures that the most chill tropical places don’t do it and even the one state that’s often referred to as the ‘Nursing home’ state doesn’t either. But then, who really profits from DST anyway other than those who make timepieces, and maybe cellphone makers?
In acknowledgement of the First day of spring which is the 20th or this Saturday, I have some spring blooms from the test gardens for your viewing pleasure. First off are these lovely Camellias (Camellia sassanqua), I do not know the specific variety, but they are always lovely and a sure sign that winter is nearing its end.
Next we have these Daffodils (Narcissus triandrus ‘Thalia’), they open sort of butter-cream colored and turn solid white. You can see all three color states in this photo.
What is a discussion of spring without a traditional yellow Daffodil (Narcissus sp)? Ths cluster of specimens punch through a ground cover of Chocolate Chip Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans ‘Chocolate Chip’)in late winter, they are the first to bloom usually and have multiplied and done well.
Here we have a bunch of ‘sorbet’ series Johnny-Jump-Ups (Viola tricolor ‘Sorbet Fire’) in a pot with a Lace Kale (Brassica oleracea var. sabellica) plant. The color contrast was intended to brighten the winter and it’s still doing that…even as we approach spring.
This is a common Dandelion (Taraxicum officinale) which was intentionally planted. I keep a few of these plants around to bring in the pollinators since they bloom on and off year-round.
More Johnny-Jump-Ups (Viola tricolor) of the sorbet series, with a Lace Kale, that is bolting. Remember how I mentioned bolting is usually bad thing? Well in this case I’m letting it happen to provide pollen and nectar for various early pollinators.
Yeah, I make a LOT of use of Violas, I don’t recall what variety this is but the red was so striking that I had to work it into the garden plan.
This lovely but spiny plant is Wintergreen Barberry (Berberis julinae). It is known for its very pretty yellow flowers in late winter but also for its spiny leaves and rigid and sharp spines on the stems. If you need an area blocked off by a living wall this is your plant!
My lone specimen of Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium). This plant has somewhat spiny leathery leaves and is kind of slow-growing. When this Mahonia is in bloom though, the flowers which appear in late winter smell sort of like lemon dish soap. One plant can scent up large areas which is really nice and can help fight off the winter doldrums.
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.
This Week's Market List:
Soup Kit - Parsnip ($6.00)
Soup Kit - Turnip ($6.00)
Just Onions ($3.00, 1lb)
Just Parsnips ($4.00 1lb)
Spring Veggies: ($3.00 each)
Parris Island Romaine Lettuce
Cherokee Lettuce
Cimarron Lettuce
Lollo Rosso Lettuce
Black Magic Dinosaur Kale
Red Russian Kale
March House Plant Collection (ON SALE!)
Starfish Sansevieria
Aloe 'Checkerboard'
Aloe 'Walmsley's Bronze'
Haworthia tesselata
Haworthia 'West Jogo'
The plant sale’s last week is this week.
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 brings to a close the sixth LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 2nd of April. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.
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