Decembers um....what have you!

Season’s Greetings,

Welcome to the second holiday episode of Lost in the Farmers Market or LITFM for short. Today we have a merry cavalcade of gardening delights, as noted last week the topic this week is the most festive plants that almost anyone can grow. That’s right just two weeks away from the big day of merriment we are talking Euphorbias, that plant species typified by the Poinsettias. Little did you all know it is a diverse and interesting family of which we have some interesting examples here at the test gardens kept as house plants. But Before I get into the topic of the day I must first talk about the weather and the precipitation report. This week as of Wednesday, we had 0.9” of rain spread across two days (Monday and Tuesday) and in between we had at least two frosting events. This is part of the major system that has caused a lot of trouble in the Midwest and Northwest. For our purposes it only gave rain which ensured a lot of crops were sufficiently toughened to handle the cold. We’re not out of the woods yet as far as cold is concerned as winter seems determined to make things difficult this year. Stay tuned for further precipitation information and remember one thing; just because its winter does not mean your cold seasonal crops are stopping their growth light fertilizer doses can go a long way to helping them establish stronger root systems.

Euphorbia pulcherrima - Poinsettia

Of course what is a discussion of the Euphorbia family without a brief overview of its most well-known member the Poinsettia. For those who haven’t studied this plant in any detail the history of the poinsettia is a bit tragic. The first culture to cultivate them was the Aztecs, but unfortunately when the Spanish Conquistadores showed up the destruction of the Aztec culture and recoded history was almost absolute. We still do not to this day know the Aztec name for the poinsettia, but we know it got its modern name from Robert Poinsett who recognized the plant and brought it back to Europe. That said poinsettias are photo-sensitive plants. That is much like chrysanthemums and Christmas/Easter Cactus they require certain lighting conditions to bloom. More so Poinsettias blooms aren’t what you think they are. The colored ‘petals’ are actually bracts or specially adapted leaves that simulate the effects of petals while still photosynthesizing. The little yellow things at the center of these ‘blooms’ are the actual flowers which are well…not so pretty. Most if not all euphorbias bloom this way and it’s a very specific biological adaptation.  As house plants it’s not hard to keep a poinsettia alive after the holidays, you just have to treat it as though it’s a regular house plant, and water enough keep the soil moist but not too much. Keep it in a bright but warm area for winter and then once the danger of frost is passed you can put it out as with the other temporary outdoor house plants.

Euphorbia milli ‘Fireworks’ – ‘Fireworks’ Crown of thorns

Next in line is the Crown of thorns a Euphorbia that is named due to its blooms. The name Crown of Thorns is a biblical reference to the crown of thorns commonly seen upon the head of a crucified Christ. The flowers on crown of thorns are always at the tips of the plants, typically deep blood red and form a red crown like shape. So you have a plant with spines, and what looks like a bloody crown, pretty easy how someone got the idea to name it that. What you don’t know is that crown of thorns is one of the pet-resistant plants due to the large obvious thorns. You treat Crown of Thorns as if it were a cactus which means limited watering and bright light. It can go out for the summer and if enticed to bloom Hummingbirds and butterflies to approve of its copious nectar. While not a plant to put in the ground in our climate it is a good long term house plant. I might add that the variety pictures ‘Fireworks’ also features variegated leaves which in my outlook makes it even more attractive because something is going on all year round. What is not visible is that typically Crown of thorns will have a brown or gray-brown sort of skin on the stems. Fireworks has a red-orange colored stem that almost makes the stems look like they are made of some sort of wax. Sometimes the dimensions of a house plant must extend beyond a bloom and include foliate and texture.

Euphobia tirucali ‘Firesticks’ – ‘Fire sticks’ Pencil Cactus

Move over Scotch Broom and let Euphorbia take over! The pencil cactus is actually a succulent and a member of the Euphorbia family.  Unlike the others in this entry the Pencil cactus is virtually leafless and has a reedy appearance that to a certain degree mimics either grass or Mares tail (equisetum). In the home it’s a accent plant that fills the general role of an accent plant for a bright area that doesn’t need the dangling habits of something like a philodendron. Typically I’d use Pencil cactus in lieu of a Christmas tree and dangle a bit of holiday stuff on it such as miniature bulbs and such and the plant is generally a good sport about it being rigid enough to tolerate my festive shenanigans. I can assure you there will be a picture of this when it’s completed. As a house plant it asks for little though putting it out for the summer causes it to color up in all shades of red, orange and yellow thus earning the name ‘Fire Sticks’.

Euphorbia tithymaloides – Devils Backbone or Redbird Cactus

At one time this species of Euphorbia was called Pedilanthus tithymaloides but recent changes in plant families due to the use of genetic testing have found that the pedilanthus family is in fact genetically Euphorbia. That said the devils backbone is named for its unique colors and the zig-zag pattern of this plant’s stems. The old saying ‘Crooked as the Devil’s Backbone’ comes to mind as the probable origin of the plant’s name. If one considers the brilliant red flowers and the probability that in its native environment the stems and leaves took on a red color at the end of the summer and you have a entomology of a name. As a house plant this euphorbia requires occasional watering and bright sunlight and will tolerate some drafts but not freezing. You would treat this plant the same as any other euphorbia in that you water regularly starting in spring through mid-fall then lay off it watering only when the soil is dry from mid-fall through winter. It can go out for the summer and may benefit from full sun exposure if you can keep up with its watering needs. In India this plant is being researched as a source of petro chemicals to make a plant substitute for petroleum fuel. In addition it has been noted that Devil’s Backbone has promise in agriculture for its ability to tolerate toxic soils.

Euphorbia mammilaris variegata – Indian Corn Cob Plant

“Hey Now! Is that a Euphorbia or are you just happy to see me?”

“No it’s a euphorbia….now get off my lawn you pervert!”

At least this is how I imagine the conversation might go with a sufficiently large Indian Corn Cob plant. This particular member of the Euphorbia family is an oddball for sure. Not only is it slow growing but it’s one of the Euphorbias that most resembles a true cactus and even has ‘spines’ to look the part. What you do not know is that the spines are actually modified leaves, and a close inspection will reveal that.  As far as the plants listed today go this is the most intolerant of being wet. It expressly requires periods of dryness between waterings and tends to get root rot at the drop of a hat however; once it gets growing it’s an easier alternative to a true cactus. I might add it has an odd coloration and texture that resembles some sort of albino Indian decorative corn. You can put it out for the summer but it has to come back in for the colder parts of fall and spring and cannot withstand our winters. Supposedly some can get this plant to bloom but I’ll believe it when I see it, and with that said we move on to one little foot note in the test gardens.

Not bad looking, it took three pounds of fruit or about a pound per pound of brew. The initial brewing container has it's liquids (mostly sugar-laced fruit juices). poured off into the container above and the fruit bits, contained in a nylon straining bag are squeezed of  most of their liquid. This creates a sort of fruit-pulp residue after all strained fluids are moved to the fermentation vessel (carboy) above. the residuals are re-hydrated somewhat with hot water and then are added to the worm bin. I call this mutual benefit, the worms get what amounts to compost-candy and well the rest of us get a lovely starting batch of what may be wine in a few weeks.

That’s right folks there is the batch of Ground Cherry Wine underway after the slightly fermented juices were moved to the primary brewing vessel. Despite the addition of green grapes and that the ground cherries were either orange or yellow it comes off an odd color at this stage. As the batch ages the color tends to change and darken. You can expect more information as this late winter-spring beverage continues fermenting. Now of course we move on to the topic of what’s happening at the market this week. As you may know I’ll be present and accounted for despite the poor forecast at the Fayetteville City/Farmer’s Market. The market is located at 325 Franklin Street and typically runs between the hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm. The Market is located in the front parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. Of course what LITFM post would be complete without a list of what’s coming to market this week?

Southward Skies: A northern guide to southern Gardening

This is the second edition of my book, which was published using data compiled from several years of test garden operations. It’s written to aid gardeners of all skill levels in successful garden methods that are targeted for the south east but had proven to be a valued resource for gardens across the weather coast. It’s certainly a good gift for that gardener you know or for yourself if you’d like to have a reliable field guide. The book costs $25.00 and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed.

Black Magic Fertilizer

That’s right you’ve heard about it in trials all summer. This specially formulated liquid fertilizer was made and tested at the test gardens using natural ingredients and no chemicals. The result explosive growth, great harvests and of course no environmental side effects! We’re making batches of this stuff to order, at $6.00 per gallon of fertilizer. You can either order it at the market and pick it up the next week or have it delivered to your home in the Fayetteville area for a delivery charge of an additional $2.00.

Fresh Cut Herbs

Bundles of Fresh Rosemary, short stem

Bundles of Fresh Rosemary, Long Stem

Bagged Fresh Rosemary No stems

Bundles of Fresh Eucalyptus
Small Rosemary Wreath, fresh cut.

Plants

4x Spineless Prickly Pear

6x Morris-Heading Cabbage Collards

3x Georgia Collards

1x Stonehead Cabbage

2x Savoy Cabbage

This wraps up another edition of LITFM, there are two more episodes left in the month and as you may know we’re keeping it to festive topics for the month next week is the last of those topics because in our final update of 2013, we will be publishing the Sky test garden results. I admit that’s a little boring, a post about numbers but I’m sure some of you out there want to see the data.  So expect more house plants next week and as ways keep ‘em growing!

P.S.

While it is true that friends don’t let friends buy Christmas trees, Real friends help bury the bodies.

Spring Showers bring...soaked gardeners

Welcome to the glory of spring and the promise of summer! We are reapidly approaching that point in the year when the grass demands mowing, the birds are out there singing like crazy and the soil is warm enough to support your summer crops. The rain is regular, the nights are cool and the mosquito population isn’t quite up and running. In short it’s one of the best times of the year to be a gardener. The test gardens themselves are rapidly evolving into something of a state of unmatched beauty as the dormant plants for the most part are awakened and going about business. Much has been done but even more remains to be done and that brings us to another episode of Lost in the Farmer’s Market.

Before I start into the details of our first test of the year, I’d like to share some pictures from the gardens that I thought you might enjoy.

Yellow German Bearded Iris  (Iris germanica)in all it's glory, these guys are so bright, you can see them from across the property.

Exploding ourward in a ball of blooms is the inflorescence of the herb Chives or Allium schoenoprasum.

Even the blackberries are in the springtime act as they are coated in blooms, The bloom also reveals that blackberries are in the rose family

As you may have heard the first experiment of the 2013 year was a growth comparison between various soil mixtures to see what if any effect the use of Bio-char would have on a basic crop. In the case of our test we used four Radicchio plants of similar size, and created four different soil mixes one of which was spiked with a set amount of bio-char. Photos were taken at three-day intervals to visually chart the subject plant’s growth and at the end of the study the plants were each measured for width and height. Notes regarding observations on soil moisture retention, and overall vigor and color were also kept just for the sake of later review. I might add the Radicchio plants selected were of a dark red variety for the express purpose of determining health and nutrient deficiency.

03-22-2013 - A motley bunch they are, but then again for Bonnie plants which are notoriously under-developed not too bad.

03-28-2013 - The end of their first week and all is well

04-02-2013

04-08-2013 - From this point on most of the test plants get over their exposure caused coloration and start shifting back to green.

04-14-2013 - This was about when I realized the soil mixture seemed to be trying out every other day you can see the odd downward pucker in all the plants.

04-20-2013 - I goofed a bit on this one, you can see my boot in the picture.

04-26-2013 - The last day of the trial. It is clear the compost soils beat the pants off the coco fiber soil.

As a side note not a single one of these plants was given fertilizer, just rainwater from the rain barrel nearby. It's a funny thought but these photos also show a sort of time-lapse display of the weeds growing below, and it's funny to see whats down there. How many can you Identify?

In case you were wondering, in the picture from left to right the plants had the following soil mixtures; Coir fiber soil mix, straight compost, Compost with worm castings added, and Compost with worm castings and bio-char. It is also clear through the alternating sequence of pictures that the compost, castings and bio-char plant developed faster and was larger. Now obviously this was just a test to see the relative effectiveness of such a treatment, but at least in a laboratory setting bio char seems to clearly do something. In fact as far as leaf greens are concerned if I could get a hold of enough of the bio char to do a planting row test using winter crops I’d gladly do so. In short I do think the Bio-char is useful; there is also evidence to suggest its introduction alone has a clear and visible effect on plants.

I might add as an afterthought once the trial was over the radicchio plants were repotted into bowl planters so they could grow on and hopefully make a good salad item later. They currently reside on the front porch and the root development in all the compost plants was noticeably better then that of the plant in the coir fiber mix. The bio-char plant however had only marginally better root growth as compared to the other compost types which suggests that bio char may make additional nutrients available in amounts that encourage steady growth. Stay tuned for our next trial which is the creation of a anti-erosion berm.

Just as a note to all you readers out there, I will have a table at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market this weekend. The Market is located on 325 Franklin Street, and will be open on Saturday between the hours of 9am to 1pm. As with the last two weeks I’ll be present and teamed up with the Sustainable neighbors, so you can come on by the sustainability booth and get some cool info and ask any garden questions you might have. As promised here is the plant list of what will be available for sale at the booth.

Cucumbers & Melons: Kiwano (2x), Armenian Cucumber (1x), Poona Kheera Cucumber (1x).

Leaf Greens: Red-Leaf Amaranth (3x), Turkish Rocket (4x).

Herbs: Blue African Basil (2x), Siam Basil (2x).

Ornamentals: Castor Bean “Red Weed” (3x)

Fruit: Strawberry (1x).

Tomatoes: Heirloom Cherry Mix (5), San Marzano (6x), Gold Rush Currant (1x), Red Currant (1x), Red & Yellow Currant Mix (1x), Sweet Pea Currant (1x), Mexican Midget (1x), Solar Fire (1x), Underground Rail Road (1x).

Eggplant: Nyakati (2x), Early Black Egg (1x), Turkish Italian Orange (2x), Louisiana Long Green (2x).

Potatoes: Dark Caribe (5x), Carola (5x)

As you can see we’ve got some good stuff coming to the table this weekend but in the following weeks as things mature out on the growing Plot more will become available. Also, I might add that copies of the book Southward Skies will be available at the booth also.

That last brings a close to our first post in the month of May. I hope to see you all at the market and barring that stay tuned here to find out the results of our field tests and other cool stuff. Thank you for reading and as always keep ‘em growin!

Springtime Changes

Welcome back to another edition of lost in the farmers market where we look into the nature of organic gardening and it’s practicality for self-sustainability. Today is somewhat of a belated double-post. As some of you may know there has quite a bit of busy times over at the test gardens as control of the property has passed to BL2 and by extension LITFM. This of course means that for the first time in history we will be doing tours during the summer and our first on-site Sustainable Neighbors crop mob will be occurring in a few weeks. 

This is the area targeted for the crop mob.

As you can see this patch of earth has lost a lot of its viable topsoil and is in need of some serious repair. Originally those tree roots were buried but compaction and erosion due to vehicle traffic has ruined this area and it is our ambitious goal to recover it with an innovative anti-erosion project. It is my hope that some of you sustainable neighbors in the Fayetteville area can join in on this project when the time comes. I digress on that, the shift on control of the property has had me personally tied up for two weeks straight as soon as the work load lessened it was like spring was showing me that there was light at the end of the tunnel so here is an entourage of spring color for all of you to enjoy.

These are Bird’s Foot Violets. I planted them two years ago and thought they had died. They bloomed for the first time this year.

This is the tiny azalea often seen in the mailbox garden at the front of the property, it was dug early last year and moved to the shady rock garden where it bloomed for the first time.

This is a set of irises given to me by a client who had some to spare during my first year of operations as BL2. They once bloomed as a bicolor, blue and white but have become this pure white. This is the second year they have bloomed.

As promised in an earlier episode, here is a picture of those pincushion flowers planted last year. They came into bloom quite heavily this spring.

The blue columbines awakened late but are making up for lost time as you can see here.

This Coral Bells was a salvaged plant as it was found dumped by the side of the road near one of my client’s houses. I cleaned it up and put in this three gallon nursery pot with some improved soil and it over wintered rather well.

The coral bells is not a part of the shady rock garden and is part of the failed 'Mint hill'.

While not colorful the White Ischia figs broke bud first and already are bearing the largest figs.

Last in the group is the new growth of the Fetterbush in the shady rock garden. For note this is a Leucothoe axillaris, which is not the same as the rainbow fetterbush.

This plant stands as a example of making sure to put the right plant in the right place as it did horribly for three years where it was and then in the shady rock garden it’s multiplied it’s size several times. Much like the azalea mentioned before it’s rewarded me with heavy blooms and in this case dramatic foliage color.

Needless to say spring is a marvelous time it is the renewal of ones own faith in nature and I have to report that the nest in my hanging pansy basket from a earlier post has occupants, at last sighting there were four little eggs in the nest and visual confirmation of some sort of tiny bird possibly a wren. It seems they like that sort of basket and so I’ll leave it in position from here on out.

That last bit aside as some of you may know there was no Urban Farm Day this year, it seems Sustainable Sandhills decided to let the concept go. The good news is that along with Sustainable neighbors I am now going to help man the booth at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market which means the odd and exotic plants as well as copies of the book will be available through that venue. Now due to the odd winter and early spring weather my crops will be available in staggered fashion but if you stop by you can make reservations for items or ask about the status of stuff.

A close up of the bulblets expanding from the stem tips of an Egyptian or Tree Onion aka Allium proliferum. Sadly we are completely sold out of this plant for the time being though more may be available later in the year.

This weekend you can expect to see a LOT of tomato varieties, Angels Trumpet, Vietnamese Coriander, Chinese Foxglove, Flowering Ginger, Betony, Saint Johns Wort and whatever else looks ready to go and gets loaded on the truck on Friday evening! I can tell you this, it’s been a fantastic year for the crops and we went a little overboard with the seed so expect some varieties you may not have ever heard of.

That said the Fayetteville farmer’s market is located at the transportation museum in downtown Fayetteville and runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Sustainable Neighbors is present on Saturdays from 9 am through 1pm or the entire time the market is open. For note I will be keeping the same hours as sustainable neighbors so feel free to stop by and say hi. As a final note, next week the results of the soil test trials will be completed and available here on the blog so stay tuned for that info and as always folks keep ‘em growing.