Gardening In Winter

     Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, where we were going to continue our discussion of pruning things in the winter. Unfortunately that post is delayed because as it turns out I have to order a piece of equipment online as it is out of stock in the store. Go figure that this happened and it seems to be the theme of the last few months complete with a sad “waa-waa” sound effect. Now this means I will have to cover something else for this slightly delayed post and that will be some garden photographs. I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again, just because it is winter does not mean no gardening can be done. The first day of spring this year is on March 20th. The last frost date for zone 8A which is most of Fayetteville is April 21st-30th, so with that in mind we know how much time we have for winter operations before the weather warms and the mosquito brigade starts being a problem again. The catch here is that our winter weather has been colder than prior years and there is no reason to suspect this will change for 2021 if all of January is any indicator. He have 95 nearly-guaranteed cold weather days left in the winter to early-spring season to work with and now is the time to do those effort-heavy labor projects.

The Winter garden at the test gardens is proof that you can have something going on in the winter.

    For today’s post there is a topic substitution while I wait for the new powered tool to arrive * Tim Allen Grunting noises intensify!*. If you planned your garden well then you should have something to harvest right now in the dead of winter. So let me show you what is in my garden at the headquarters right now.

    Those of you who hit up the market in fall of 2020 know that for the first time in several years I offered spinach plants for sale. They were not a good seller, which seems par for the course from prior experiences. I don’t know why folks don’t like spinach much but the surplus did not go to waste. These four plants were planted in a 14” pot and placed out with no expectations. They weathered frost and rain and all the cold temperatures and they are finally starting to get some size. I imagine with a bit of fertilizer in the next two months I might have something harvestable later. Maybe this is the big secret to growing spinach in zone 8A, plant in October, and let them be until late winter/early spring.

    Now this is a surprise, I never got any Rainbow Lacinato Kale to the market in 2020 and the undersized seedlings were thinned for the largest and best looking plants and stuck in the veggie garden in a big block. They look nothing like Dinosaur kale, the seed packets for them said they were variable in color and shape but, I didn’t see this coming. The picture does them no justice as they are this deep purple-green color that is quite fetching. A win for weird food plants for sure!

    The Swiss Chard I planted is showing some strange mutations as well. I planted the green type almost exclusively as a spinach substitute for when I make Henbit curry in the spring to add bulk greens to it. Well some look normal and some have these beautiful more spinach looking leaves and I am not upset about this at all. Could this be the next big variety or just a happy little accident in the seed packaging process of my supplier? Either way this just more healthy greens for me to harvest.

    Here is another biennial I sold at the market, ‘Ruby Perfection’ Cabbage. It wasn’t a great seller but then the seedlings were not very dramatically red. This more mature specimen and the other three in its row are fantastically red-purple, everything a red cabbage should be and also they indicate by color the soil is definitely acidic in pH. 

    Red Russian Kale is another variety I sold at the market; it is also known as ragged jack. It comes in a green form and some other variants but none get the extravagant purple color that this one does. It also seems to make for the best kale-bean soup base as the leaves have more chew and crunch despite cooking. Red Russian isn’t as crunchy as Dinosaur Kale but a delight nonetheless.

Accipiter cooperii

    Here is our last picture, this is a Cooper’s Hawk spotted just beyond the train tracks behind the Transportation Museum during the market on Saturday the 23rd of January. It isn’t the best picture I’ve ever taken, but still, everyone should know there are several species of Hawks in our region and they are beneficial in that they eliminate certain animal pests that might damage crops or livestock.


    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!



Aloe deltoideodonta ' Sparkler' - Checkerboard Aloe

    That scientific name is quite the mouthful of Latin!  These members of the Aloe family get their name from the almost square spots on the leaves which in contrast to the grey-green leaves. This unique aloe is fairly easy to grow and does not ask for much other than occasional water and mild fertilizer (monthly) during the growing months (May-Sept). It is unclear if this particular aloe yields any medicinal gel, but it certainly is a unique addition to your collection. The two things you should never do with a succulent or this aloe is to allow the plant to sit in a puddle of water or to keep its soil constantly wet. The second thing is to never expose this plant to temperatures below 35 degrees as it can suffer frost damage which may introduce disease and cause the aloe to decline. As a final note, Checker Board aloes do best when potted in clay pots and only require repotting every 2-5 years or as needed. Pot-bound aloes will produce offsets more frequently than aloes that have ample room for their roots.


    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 second LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned for our next post on or about the 5th of February. Don’t forget to check out of YouTube videos at LITFM-Garden Shorts.

I am the NIGHT!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. This post is going to obviously be a lead-up to Sunday’s garden tour and as such the topic will mirror to some degree last week’s post. Before we get into the tour-teasing photographs I’d like to talk about the use of Night-blooming plants to supplement your garden. Despite what you might want to think just because the sun has set does not mean your garden is any less active, certain creatures continue doing what they do regardless of time of day where as some are daytime only and night time only. Certain plants have biologically evolved to bloom late in the day to provide nectar for these night preferring species. This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are numerous species that don’t become aromatic until the temperature begins to drop ever so slightly at night. For those who know me well, I plant several species of night blooming flowers just as much for the night critters as much as for the fact that my garden is still something of note at night. Some commonly available examples of night-blooming perennials, biennials and annuals that you can use in your garden are as follows;

Evening Primrose – Oenothera species.

Angel’s Trumpet – Datura metel

Four ‘O Clock – Mirabilis jalapa

Evening-Scented Tobacco – Nicotiana sylvestris

Devil’s Trumpet – Brugmansia species

Moon Flower – Ipomoea alba

Night Phlox – Zaluzianskya capensis

I am absolutely certain there are others but the above listing contains every night blooming plant I’ve ever successfully grown or seen grown in the Sandhills region of North Carolina. Another reason to grow night blooming plants aside from the wonderful scent is that they do attract several species of moth which come to feed, but not necessarily to lay eggs. In the growing years at the test gardens where I grew Datura near Tomatoes and Peppers, I noticed that I never had hornworm problems in those given years. It could be that by feeding the moths, they simply don’t prefer to lay eggs where they get a nice meal or it could be that by feeding them, they then end up being picked off by bats, since two types of bat visit my yard nightly. Either way, the scent from the Angel’s Trumpets is heavenly, and the big flowers are simply gorgeous. Likewise, I notice that the now naturalized Evening primroses that appear in the yard attract both assassin bugs (a vicious predator) and night flying pollinators so it’s a double win for the test gardens. It is certainly something to think about when you think about biodiversity in your yard, but let’s move on to this week’s pictures.

 

What could this handsome and vigorous plant be? You'll have to either go on the tour to find out@

 I did warn about teasers and heres the first one, the above plant which is clearly some type of bush self-sowed itself in a pepper pot probably by way of bird, survived the winter and is currently planted in the ground some where in the garden.

Now that's some strange looking compost

Hey look this compost comes with instructions!

These two pictures show how well recycled paper that is first crumpled up and soaked over night breaks down in one year. The compost was grey and scentless but full of small worms and somewhat crumbly in texture. Not sure I would try this again since as you can see in picture two, it didn't fully break down and I can actually read the print on some pages.

This Amaryllis will likely be faded before the tour so here it is at it's peak.

This amaryllis was supposed to be red or pink and clearly said 'To hell with that noise!' not that I'm complaining. this bulb was kept in a 6" pot for a full year before being planted at the beginning of April, I'd say it's very happy.

Well...hello there, what are you?

Another mystery plant you will have to go on the tour to find out the identity of, but here's a hint, it's a perennial native to this region and is almost never grown in a garden despite being well behaved and not at all invasive.

 

Sneak Peek, are those beans in your garden or are you happy to see me?

 I set up this trellis yearly for those little beans down there, but what are they? The answer is a simple one those are Purple Hyacinth Beans ( Dolches leblab/ Lelblab purpureus), also in this bed are Spanish Flag ( Ipomoea lobata ) a semi perennial relative of moonflower, potato vine and morning glories. The color will be outrageous later in summer.

What is that?

I'm going to leave this evergreen perennial's identity to the imagination until the tour.

Hey Iris, dont threaten me with a good time!

 I thought this photo was worth including because few have seen an Iris seed pod. It's not all that common that Irises get successfully pollinated and this patch of Iris was one of the earliest donations to the test gardens. These irises have been at the location depicted for almost ten years, and when I got them they were blue with splotches of white and slowly faded to pure white. Just yesterday I transplanted this entire batch to the crescent garden.

Pot-binding, definitely not kinky at all.

The above picture is a textbook example of long-term pot-binding. Pot-binding is when a plant is in a given pot for so long that it's roots just keep circling forming dense unhealthy mats that need to be sliced up during repotting or planting just to give the plant a chance at being anything close to healthy. If you dont loosen or damage the roots there is a chance said roots may keep blindly going in circles. In the case of this Century Agave ( Agave americana ) those thick white roots are actually offsets and I planted this slow-growing perennial in the nick of time.

This part is a bit sad.

Accidents happen, that's just the nature of gardening. The creature seen isn't a snake but actually a Slender Glass Lizard ( Ophisaurus attenuatus ), I accidentally cut the poor creature in half while digging the new beds for the white irises mentioned earlier. Now in case you are wondering you can easily tell a glass lizard from a snake by the fact that they have eyelids and will blink. Thye have no venom and prefer flight to attacking a person. Slender Glass Lizards are beneficial because they eat invertebrates, arthropods, other lizards and small snakes. While this particular individual's accidental death is unfortunate it does highlight another hallmark in the growing biodiversity of the test gardens. Creatures like this do not set up shop in places that are poorly managed obviously there is enough food and a desirable environment to host such animals. Where I have accidentally killed one, I suspect there are others that I have not seen keeping pests in check.

More info on this beneficial reptile can be found here:

http://herpsofnc.org/slender-glass-lizard/

For the record in the last few years it has been confirmed that there are a small population of green tree frogs, southern toads, Fowler's toads and varied forms of small lizard on site. In addition to this there is the Barred Owl ( Strix varia ) that comes through at night, the two species of Bats that come through and the mated pair of Hawks. So that's definitely a success story wrought with ten years of effort.

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.

Plants & Stuff Available Now:

Herbs:

Basil, Sweet: 3” - $3.00

Basil, Thai: 3” - $3.00

Etruscan Santolina: 3” - $4.00

Garlic, Jerimiah’s Heirloom  3” - $3.00

Lavender, ‘Elegance Purple’: 3” - $3.00

Lavender, ‘Elegance Pink’: 3” - $3.00

Self-Heal, Pink Lace: 3” - $3.00

Rue, Marbled: 3" - $4.00

Tansy, (Feverfew): 3" - $3.00

Fruits & Vegetables:

Peppers, Tabasco: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Thai Dragon: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Oxhorn: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Ghost: 3” - $4.00

Tomato, Black Cherry: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Carolina Gold: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Chocolate Cherry: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gardener’s Delight: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gold Nugget: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Gold Millions: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Paul Robeson: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, San Marzano: 3” - $3.00

Tomato, Sungold: 3” - $3.00

Garden Perennials:

Salvia, New Dimension Blue: 3” - $3.00

Coming Soon:

Tobacco, Night-Scented

Tobacco, Lime Tree

Balloon Flower, Astra Blue

Balloon Flower, Astra Pink

Balloon Flower, Astra White

Lily, Formosa

Basil, Cinnamon

Basil, Mirihani

Coneflower, Cayenne Red

Cotton, Mississippi Brown

Datura, Black Currant

Datura, White Ballerina

Okra, Red-Burgundy

Pomegranate, Dwarf: 6"

These days I am generally at Leclair’s General Store once a week, for the weekly Sustainable Neighbors meeting at 5:30pm through 7:00 pm. If you have questions then I will be there to answer your questions. 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 ask for us and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

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

                        This brings to a close the tenth LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 31st of May (three times the LITFM action!). There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

*On the 19^TH of may there will be a garden tour at the test gardens I’ll have the tour book ready for viewing so visitors can see what the soil looked like back in 2009 when I started the new test gardens.