That Crazy Mad Max Vibe

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, and wow what an interesting series of events have occurred in the last two weeks. For those living in their bomb shelters we had a fuel shortage what had most gas stations out of gas, with long lines at the ones that had any at all. Surprisingly gasoline didn’t get rationed (it really should have), and an advisory had to go out to actually tell people not to put gasoline in plastic bags. Yes you read that last part right, the Consumer Product Safety Commission actually had to issue an advisory over this. Ironically the pictures everyone had seen as it turns out were several years old from an incident in Puebla Mexico where a few guys tried to steal extra gas from a gas station. Go figure, but the Hoarding was real, much like with the toilet paper panic in 2020, people lost their minds and started hoarding gasoline by putting it in every container possible. Yours truly saw antique looking plastic kerosene containers, three liter soda bottles and a bevy of not-close-to-legal containers used. It was unreal and to a certain extent it’s still going on as I write this. Of course the fuel shortage is ironically kind of good for the pollinators since fewer lawns get moved and more weeds get to bloom which means more food for the bees and such. Still if I recall right the entire Mad Max series was based on a crippling fuel shortage, and really if I start seeing weirdos about town in weird leather outfits I think we’re in some hilarious trouble. With that said this post is still a bit late, but we’re going to handle two topics. Firstly I’m going to talk about the worst tree you could ever plant and then compost, the best soil amendment you could ever produce. 

So first the photographs below were taken during that odd wind storm we had in April, the subject is a Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana). Some of you out there might groan, but I’m going to cover the history of this strange tree that everyone had a frenzy for and now it’s just an artefact of an earlier time.

So this specimen located in Downtown Fayetteville NC lost about a third of it's crown in a recent storm. We had thunderstorms and wind, but no ice and this ting just split right at the branch crotch angle. It was lucky, around the corner another Bradford literally snapped off just above the root line. Others around town shed bits like ti was going out of style.

The scientific name Pyrus is a derivative of the word Pome which refers to the shape of the fruit in the genus, the second specific epithet calleryana derives from the first person to proliferate this specific species. the second part of the botanical Latin name is derived from Joseph-Marie Callery, who sent specimens of originating stock of these plants to Europe from China in the first half of the 1800’s. These trees out nor arrive in the United states until a bit over a century later; it wasn’t until the 1960’s that a USDA facility in Glendale, Maryland introduced a cultivated form of the tree and they became popular with landscapers afterward because they were cheap, could handle being transported and grew fast. In 1966 though the tree gained extra popularity when Lady Bird Johnson planted one in Downtown Washington D.C.  The New York Times got in on the action when they published the following; "Few trees possess every desired attribute, but the Bradford ornamental pear comes unusually close to the ideal." This was good and well because the trees added more accessibility to those who wanted to beautify their properties. Bradford pears had some key advantages over other trees, they grew fast, in spring their white flowers absolutely covered the plants in color making them look like they’d been snowed on. There was the fall color to consider as they turned a decent shade of red before dropping their leaves in the autumn. Bradford Pear leaves as the organic crowd knows are really good compost (Don’t all good plant stories involve compost?) fuel they break down  fast and the resultant soil is ready sooner rather than later.

If there wasn't a picture you would not have believed me. This Bradford was seriously growing roots into it's own branch crotch probably because there was a pocket of dirt or consistent moisture. Bradford Pears might be the idiots of the tree world.

 

But the story of the Bradford Pear isn’t all cookies and sunshine, this tree had problems, it wasn’t the perfect candidate for use everywhere that everyone thought it was. The first problem came from the flowers, which smelled kind of bad, some have likened their smell to rotting fish, cement gone bad and some even said it smelled like semen. I don’t know about that last one or what exposures it takes to authoritatively judge that, but yes the flowers smell bad.

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2015/04/24/401943000/whats-that-smell-the-beautiful-tree-thats-causing-quite-a-stink

You can see where the branch angle was weak and the wind sheared it right off, though it's news to me that Bradford Pears come with a cup holder.

 

But this isn’t all; with flowers which do help the pollinators in spring but with it comes the problem of fruit. Bradford pears produce tiny inedible fruit that only become edible after they have been hit by a frost or two. Realistically the fruit are about the size of a large pea maybe and the birds get at them making a bigger mess. Where the fruit falls can make a mess and pose a slip hazard, then there’s the issue of the seeds coming up where they are not supposed to and the plant escaping cultivation. Did I mention that Bradford Pears are currently considered invasive? Well as it turns out this garbage-tree is considered invasive in the eastern and Midwest regions of the USA because its fast growth allows it to out-compete native species. It is known that this tree has escaped cultivation in at least 152 counties in 25 states in the United States and the escaped types are all wild interbred types that may have even reverted enough to regain their thorns and fruiting spurs. But wait its worse, as it turns out Bradford Pears are impressively short lived as street trees because their average life span is twenty-five years. This is assuming their other greatest weakness does not come into play and end them sooner. You see without proper pruning to cut out forked branches and crossover branches, the fast growing speed comes at the price of weak branch-crotch angles and weak wood in general. As if this wasn’t bad enough after storms like the one we just had Bradford Pears are the most likely tree to have been wrecked especially in high wind conditions, torrential downpours or any weather with ice involved.  This makes them susceptible to ‘shattering’ which may or may not be a biological evolution to asexually reproduce. If one of those branches lands the right way it ‘might’ survive and take root. I wouldn’t bet money on this happening but it could explain the strange proclivity of these trees to fall apart at the slightest of storm winds. There is supposedly an ‘improved’ form of Bradford Pear called the Cleveland Select Pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Cleveland Select’) which realistically still has the same kinds of problems and is literally a terribly false hope for a crappy street tree.

A close up of the foliage and unripe fruit of a Bradford Pear.

Enough about failed street trees, let’s get down to the nitty gritty, the straight dirt, that’s right compost. Compost is as individual as the gardener’s preferences are. There are composting systems that are incredibly diverse ranging from models that spin on a specialized rack to make turning easy to those that roll on the ground, and then there’s the cone shaped ones that can compost bones, the standing bin types and let’s not forget the ones that are designed to handle dog feces. It’s all a very diverse field of options that all have their benefits and disadvantages. Today I’m going to talk briefly about the unit in the Test Gardens which is a standard bin type composter made of black recycled plastic and has a capacity of 80 gallons or roughly about 12 cubic feet. Well due to a conversation in the Sustainable Neighbors Text chat I thought I’d talk about the process I use with some pictures to show what I mean. The basic rule of composting is that you need four things, moisture, soil, green material, and brown material.  The soil which ideally should already be moist introduces the soil borne organisms that will break down the green and brown stuff to make nutrient rich compost. The soil also forms the core basis of the final compost but still should always be about a third of the mix. The soil part can be up half if you are using some especially fast decomposing green material such as grass clippings, or very fast decomposing items like spoiled fruit or leaves like those from spoiled produce, Bradford pear, or a Mulberry.

 

The first few shovel fulls of compost always tells you what the rest is going to be like. Although there is a bit of an Ant issue, the compost is light, airy, dark in color and clearly full of remaining bits of the process like the eggshells you can see in the lower center of the pile.

 

This is my finished product, due to the use of potting soil instead of regular soil my compost has a lot of perlite in it and weighs a lot less than conventional compost but it's no less useful and nutrient dense.

 

            Greenery as noted before are typically grass clippings from moving the lawn, but can be any green material, such as spoiled produce from your kitchen, soft clippings left over from pruning or even crop plants that are effectively spent for the purposes of food production. The greens tuff is essential because it introduces nitrogen based compounds that can accelerate decomposition of the brown materials and will draw in decomposers to the pile.

 

I had to turn the composter over to get at the remaining chunks of compost so that the materials can be turned and the bin re-seated on it's pad of cardboard and newspaper.

 

The brown stuff is typically materials like fallen leaves that have turned brown and are usually crunchy in texture. Brown materials can include limited amounts of pine straw, wet newspaper, wet cardboard, wet tissue paper, and vegetable scraps that are not high in sugar. The brown materials are the longer-lasting food source for decomposers and will often be the last things to break down in a compost pile. Some of the brown materials may even be recognizable a year later, for instance Pineapple skin and tops can persist in the compost for a year plus.

 

The remaining half of the material in this been has been put back in to form the basis of the next 6 cubic feet of compost. For note under the bin is a layer of cardboard and newspapers that keeps root intrusion to a minimum.

Now that we've covered the compost here's some photographs from the gardens.

Alabama Blue Collards overwintered nicely and are about to go gangbusters.

On the left you have store-bought spinach leaves, on the right are homegrown ones from the test gardens, there is no doubt which is better.

This is the first frog seen in the test gardens this year, and it's always a good sign when our amphibian friends are about since they eat a LOT of bugs that might otherwise be a problem.

Coreopsis pubescens 'Sunshine Superman' This coreopsis effectively escaped cultivation, but isn't really invasive and the cheery flowers are always delightful.

 

Speckled Chestnut Mushrooms, I bought these from another vendor at the FFayettevilel City Market. Your read that right folks we now have a Mushroom vendor!

 

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.

 

Summer Veggies & Herbs: ($3.00 each)

Sungold Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Chocolate Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Lemon Drop Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Sweet Hundreds Cherry Tomato (Sale $2.00)

San Marzano Improved Paste Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad (Sale $2.00)

Paul Robeson Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Cherokee Purple Tomato (Sale $2.00)

Walla Walla Sweet Onion

 

6" pot Sungold Tomato (Sale $3.00) 

6" pot Chocolate Cherry Tomato (Sale $3.00) 

 

Pepper, Sweet Banana

Pepper, Poblano/Ancho

Pepper, Habanero

Pepper, Golden Bell

Pepper, Ghost ($4.00)

 

Wonderberry (Limited Quantity)

Ground Cherry (Limited Quantity)

Cotton, Erlene's Green (Limited Quantity)

Okra, Jing  (Limited Quantity)

 

Basil, Emerald Tower

Basil, Dolche Fresca

Basil, Rutgers DMR Devotion

Oregano

Mountain Mint

 

 

Ornamental Stuff: 

Zanzibar Castor Beans

Mexican Sunflower 'Fuego Del Sol'

Flowering Tobacco 'Saratoga Lime'

 

Coming Soon: 

Comfrey (Mid summer)

 

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 tenth LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 28^th of May. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

The end of November

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The Farmer’s Market. As all of you who read this web log have noticed we are in the midst of a holiday week and for those of us still in college we are in the grips of finals. Last week’s episode did not occur because of a lack of time to devote to a proper episode and so last week’s and this week’s episodes will be combined into an uber holiday episode.

The garden topic for this post is the holy grail of composting; leaf mold. Leaf mold is a byproduct of the composting process that occurs when a layer of leaves from hardwood trees or broadleaf conifers is compressed at the bottom of a compost pile into a compact golden-brown material similar to peat moss. There are many ways to create leaf mold but there are few ways to get the nutrients in the material just right. Typically what would happen is that a gardener might have a three-bin compost pile and during the fall they would collect and place Maple and Oak leaves in the two empty bins then use the contents of the full bin to make a soil cap over the leaves. The later addition of other leaves, soil and grass clippings in the spring would normally create the perfect atmosphere for the creation of leaf mold at the bottom of the bins. Typically it takes 10-12 months to create good batch of leaf mold.

The Sand Hills region unfortunately is somewhat erratic on plentiful sources of good hardwood tree leaves. For instance the area of the test gardens has no access to Oak, Maple or any serious supply of Ginko leaves. As proven in earlier posts pine straw will compost and from a leaf-mold layer but it’s more acidic than peat moss which is something I am trying to avoid for the obvious reasons. For today’s post I’m going to show you how to use a local substitute and how leaf mold is made in a container no less. In the case of this leaf mold project I used Fig Leaves, Compost, spent Potting Soil, this week’s fallen leaves from the lab and, the residual liquids and solids from cleaning out the French press. But below is a step by step guide to the process for your consideration.

The fig leaves are down due to our cold weather making for a useful resource.

Why Fig Leaves? Well, firstly I have an abundance of them also in prior years it was found they break down nicely in the pre-composter. I realize that figs are not a hardwood plant but neither is Ginko and from what I understand Fig leaves impart a bit of alkalinity to the soil where they decay so they may help the process of producing balanced leaf mold.

The act of crushing up leaves for composting can be done by a lawn mower with a bag attachment on or you can just run over piles of leaves with the mower set at its highest cutting height.

Crushing up the Fig leaves in this case is optional; I did it to mimic the process of crushing and or moving the leaves to the bin. I started with a cubic foot or so of fig leaves and crushes them up by hand to less than a quarter the volume and lined the bottom of the container with them. This is where the leaf mold should form in a few months.

Scraps from the lab and eggshells from the kitchen.

Inevitably all gardeners have a compost bucket, and the one that’s used in the lab is on the left in the picture above. The materials in the bucket are already growing mold and are in a state of decay which acts as an inoculant for the leaves. The contents of the bucket go on top of the leaves so that these decomposing molds are introduced to the pile of “food” in the bucket. The eggshells are introduced in the next step.

A steel pestle and Mortar can render eggshells to dust rapidly especially if they are dried thoroughly first.

I add pulverized eggshells as a source of calcium and as a soil enriching agent in the process. Adding them whole only takes up space and does not allow for a distribution of their benefits across the whole batch of leaf mold.

Spent potting soil and other disposable organic matter goes in next.

In this picture I’m shaking the soil off the roots of a dead Okra plant. You can see a rotting sweet potato in the trash can and now the active layer is beginning to take some shape. The potting soil is added as sort of ‘bedding’ layer for the decomposers such as the worms, millipedes and, pill bugs that inevitably came in with the leaves. It also acts as a moisture sponge for the entire mix.

A substantial layer of actual compost is the next part of the formula.

Someone might ask at this point why I am ‘wasting/using’ perfectly good compost at this point in the process. The answer is simple; compost is packed with microorganisms and decomposer critters. The use of an active agent in the mix ensures that the compost will continue to break down over time and will remain on track to completion.

More spent potting soil.

These two plants obviously died of exposure but their soil is likely to be full of critters that can help decomposition in the leaf mold. So another layer of inoculant is added. As most gardeners know you are supposed to layer your compost as is and this formula may seem a bit heavy on the browns but ultimately it’s supposed to mimic the act of composting during the winter when no greens are available.

 

The remnants of cleaning out the French Press a few times.

Even if you do not realize, the water and grounds left from cleaning out a French Press coffee maker are an idea and ultra-cheap fertilizer. The coffee-water itself will help feed plants but when you wash out a French press with dish soap you’ve added trace amounts of alkaline compounds which plants react to as though it was fertilizer. Believe it or not dethatching formulas are often recommended for accelerating decomposition in compost piles with excessive amounts of green matter. Using this coffee-water is almost the opposite we’re trying to decompose the brown materials so we’re using a differing material. After this point the can‘s lid is placed on securely and the can is placed in a sunny location in the lab.

In a few months I’ll have a nutrient rich material that can be used to transform a few square feet of the garden.  All of this is done at virtually no cost to me save for the price of patience and a place to site the compost container. When I crack this container in spring you can expect a write up about it here.

This holiday week is a pretty big week because on Thanksgiving is on Thursday, but also I have three public events this week and they are as follows and all are located at the Fayetteville Transportation Museum on 325 Franklin Street in Downtown Fayetteville.

City Market:     Wed, 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm

(Possible rain in AM only)

Dickens Holiday: Fri,  1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

(At transportation Museum)

City Market:     Sat,  9:00 am – 1:00 pm

(Sunny Weather)

So yes basically a busy holiday week, you can expect that I will have surprises at the booth on all three days and the list below will not completely reflect what may show up on any given day with exception to the cold-season plants and the sweet potatoes.

Southward Skies: A northern guide to southern Gardening

Southward Skies is a pocket-sized guide to gardening in the Carolina region. It will guide you through the process of having a productive garden in our region using a year-round format that matches the timing of what you should do and what time of the year you should do it. Unlike a lot of garden guides Southward is written in a way that can help even the most discouraged gardener to find success. Southward Skies has been tested by gardeners in other states ranging from as far south as Naples, Florida, as far north as Dorset, Vermont and as far west as Reno, Nevada. As a general guide you can’t lay hands on a better collection of tips, tricks and methods. The book is available on amazon.com as a digital book for the kindle and makes a good gift in print or digital format. The book costs $25.00 and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed. During the month of December we will wrap copies of the book at your request if you intend them as a gift.

Cold Season Crops

6x Mustard Greens, India - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Mustard Greens, Japanese Red Giant - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Cabbage, Copenhagen Market  - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Cabbage, Savoy – Perfection Drumhead  - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Collards, Georgia Southern Creole - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fresh Foods

Our ‘wilderness’ sweet potatoes are packaged in 2lb lots for $2.00 each in brown paper bags for your convenience. Novelty sized potatoes cost a little more but the bragging rights are totally worth it.

3x Novelty-Size, Sweet Potato (For pure bragging rights and silliness) – ($3.00)

2x Huge-Size, Sweet Potato (Good for use in pies)

3x Large-Size, Sweet Potato (Good for baking)

3x Medium-Size, Sweet Potato (General use)

2x Small-Size, Sweet Potato (For Recipes)

2x Tiny-Size, Sweet Potato (For recipes)

Holiday Splendor

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