The Quickenin'

Welcome back to another springtime episode of Lost In The Farmer’s Market. This week’s post is dedicated to the best of spring, and that means lots of photos from the garden of things now in bloom. There is a reason behind the photo-heavy post, as next Sunday, is the 4^th Annual Sustainable Neighbors Garden Tour and we have five locations with the test gardens being one of them. You can expect that the tour is going to be quite informative and certainly one heck of an experience for all who attend. It is a free-form tour so, with exception to the initial meeting point, you can visit all the other locations in whatever order you like.

Iris germanica - Unknown variety

I’ve told the story a few times, but for those who have not heard it, the property has several colonies of iris. Originally according to photographs they were all blue, but now they’ve become white or yellow with the majority being yellow. It’s not that I mind but they seem to have bloomed very early this year and so you all get a show sooner rather than later.

Iris germanica – Unknown variety

This white blooming iris was given to me as a small tuber and originally bloomed white with splotches of blue but seemingly has reverted to plain white. It may be a byproduct of soil pH or chemistry.

Salvia nemerosa ‘May Night’ – Garden Sage (Ornamental)

I bought a few of these some time back because they were on sale and stuck them in the mailbox bed in the hopes they would do really well and they have. I figure by the time of the tour they may be out of bloom so this is a sneak peek.

Artemesia absinthium – Wormwood

Visitors at the booth sometimes don’t believe me when I say the growth and performance of Artemesia is incredible in a neglected sunny spot. The key feature here is that central stem, it’s literally thicker than a man’s thumb after three years of growth and annual shearings’. These are the plants the small cuttings, seedlings and bagged packs of artemesia come from, just two plants, much like how all the rosemary comes from one really huge plant.

Aquelegia x hybrida – Columbine ‘ Barlow Doubles’

The establishment of a permanent stand of columbines in the shady section of the garden is one of the long-standing successes of the garden. These columbines were grown from seed, and just this one stand keeps returning amidst a section of the garden known for unusual variety. The thing that makes this significant is that in New Jersey columbines are everywhere and incredibly easy to grow. In North Carolina they need specific siting and care and it takes time to get a stand of them to establish. Much like with the lupines, you can expect a lot of 'duds' and false starts and then finally it's off to the races.

Sedum sp. – Sedum ‘Lemon Coral’

Supposedly this species of sedum is ‘annual’ and yet this cluster appears every year in the shady rock garden in the exact spot. They never bloom and they peek through the pine straw in April, nestled against the white granite rock they are easily missed by the unwary.

Admittedly, I’ve got a record of what these are somewhere, but they came with a pennington wild flower mix and between them, the monk’s hood (aconitum), the Evening Primrose (Primula biennis) and a few other things they just appear on the edge of the crescent garden with regularity. I like them, but unlike most of what’s in the crescent garden these guys are also untagged.

The production area aka “the racks”.

This is where plants that get sold at the market get sunned and acclimated to our weather. Admittedly this is not a new picture as things have changed since this was snapped about a month ago. But I figured I would show some of you who hear me refer to ‘the racks’ at the market what I meant.

With all that garden blooming photography handled now it’s time to talk about the City Market. The Fayetteville City Market is located on 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville. The market runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm on Saturdays and from 12:00pm to 4:00pm on Wednesday afternoons. The official opening of the market was last week and we’d love to see more of that find attendance. For note, the market is located on the grounds of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum so come on down and check it out. Below is this week’s plant list.

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. A copy of this book costs $25.00 and we do take checks for this item, you can even have it signed. The EBook version costs $10.00 and is available through Amazon.

Herbs:

4x Basil, Holy – 4” pot ($3.00)

6x Basil, Sweet - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Basil, Thai - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Lavender, Lady Anne - 4” pot ($3.00)

4x Lavender, English – 4” Pot ($3.00)

1x Sage, Common - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Rue - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Oregano - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Artemesia - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Summer Vegetables:

6x Eggplant, Early Black Egg - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Okra, Red Burgundy - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Ancho - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Bhut Jolokia, - 4” pot ($5.00)

2x Pepper, Flashpoint - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Pepper, Sweet Banana - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Black Krim - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Brandywine - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Cherokee Purple – 4” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Rainbow Cherry – 4” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, San Marzano – 4” pot ($3.00)

5x Tomato, Underground Railroad - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Rosemary

Bloody Dock

Purselane, Golden

Purselane, Red

Aloe Vera

Fig, Negronne

Fig, LSU Gold

Fig, Ischia

Grape, Copper Muscadine

Milkweed, Orange

Soooo Spring, you mad?

Welcome back to Lost in the Farmer’s Market where we apparently longed for more stable spring temperatures and Mother Nature took offense and instead gave us stable summer temperatures.  Seriously, it went from torrential thunderstorm downpours with hail and flooding and sideways rain to 90 degree weather and humidity so heavy that you thought the air was composed of a thick soup broth. But despite these difficulties the noble and tireless gardeners of the world must continue on maintaining those dreams of having positively incredible gardens and bountiful harvests. For today’s topic we continue the photographic extravaganza because we can and that’s the excuse we are sticking with dangnabbit!

So first we have the redo pictures of stuff that wasn’t being cooperative for whatever reason the last time I snapped the pictures. Some of you will remember that at the end of April One of my black petunia pictures didn’t quite turn out. Here is the replacement image.

You can see the real purple of the flowers near the centers.

Next we had those yellow irises that also refused to be photographed.

Is that a yellow Iris in bloom or are you just….oh…it’s an iris…

Petunia spp. And Tagetes erecta – Common Petunia and African Marigold

But what is this? Not redo at all but an update, for those of you who have been to the ranch lately you’ve seen this old barbeque grill thing lying about not in use. I salvaged it last summer while at a jobsite with the intentions of making it the fire pit but then actually got a real fire pit and discarded the original idea. So finally as the failed plant count piled up I piled the dead plant bits and the associated soil into this thing and capped it with some fresh soil then planted annuals in it. Blue Petunias and yellow African marigolds. For note the white PVC pipe goes all the way to the bottom of the ‘planter’ and is used to deep water that entire section of the garden. For note, in the 80’s and 90’s this form of marigold was called African marigolds, somehow ad of late they are now called American Marigolds, I still don’t get why the new name came about but they are surely some underused plants in the garden. In this case the marigolds should get rather tall and the petunias should trail down the sides of the planter. Opposing colors against the black planter should make for one hell of a display.

Asclepias tuberosum – Milkweed, Pleurisy Root

This is my perennial stand of Milkweed which was started form seed some five years ago and despite changes to the garden has remained right where it is ever since. As some of you might know, Milkweed due to its very long taproot tends to respond terribly to transplanting. So, the original bed included this plant, then when the bed was reduced and changed from a triangle shape to a rectangle shape this plant was dormant and forgotten and well it seems to do better right where it is anyway. I’ll have pictures of the blooms when it happens.

Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Barlow Double’ – Barlow Double Columbine

Looking good! That’s right the next time someone says you can’t grow columbines in the south…print out the above picture and tape it to their face! I grew this little one from seed purchased at w whim from the burpee rack at bLowes in year two. Much like the milkweed it took some time to establish but now this perennial has adapted and blooms like this yearly. The trick is really good soil and filtered shade with preference for little direct sun.

Tradescantia virginiana – Widow’s Tears

Tradescantia virginiana – Widow’s Tears

You probably see these guys all over the place and never bothered to worry for what they were. They’re more common than dandelions a true perennial and are quite prolific while forming dense colonies that can be quite attractive. They are somewhat persistent and thus hard to eradicate but then they aren’t all that poorly behaved as far as wild perennials go. The most common wild flower color is that impressive blue you see above but every now and again you see the occasional bicolor mutation as shown in the second picture.

Santolina virens – Green Santolina or, Green Lavender Cotton

These three plants were planted about two months ago and have put on all this growth you see in that time. Each were no bigger than the santolina plants I sell and they have already doubled in size at least and show no signs of slowing down. As I say at the market Santolina loves hot dry locations. Hopefully by the end of the summer these little perennial dynamos will have filled this edge of the garden making for an incredible scented border.

Lycopersicon esculentum ‘Mexico Midget’ – Mexico Midget Cherry Tomato

This is what a mature Mexico midget tomato actually looks like. Ton one side is a Black Krim and to the other is a Cherokee Purple. The Mexico Midget was grown from a volunteer seedling that emerged in the mother plant’s pot at the end of last year and was overwintered in front of the kitchen window then planted out on April 11^th. What you see is just the beginning, as I’ve said before the Mexico midget is indeterminate, will produce an insane number of vines and then produce copious amounts of cherry tomatoes. It was the winner for productivity in last year’s trials and so it’s already making some records for insane growth. It is possible that the resulting fruit may be quite unique this year as this plant may be a biological cross between Mexico Midget, Underground Railroad and Paul Robeson which may explain the crazy-vigor. I will not know for sure until the first ripe fruit are off the vine. As a closing note to the garden topics the rain barrel challenge is still on and my planter sacks survived the super rain we had so now it’s a matter of watching the plants grow.

            As some of you may already know the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market is going on this weekend as it does every Saturday 365 days a year. The weather is supposed to be near 90 degrees with about 70% humidity but otherwise sunny but because of the roughly 30% chance risk of rain we may find some respite from the heat due to cloud cover even if it does not actually rain. I might add there has been no measurable precipitation since the turbo-downpour last week so there will be no precipitation info this week.  The market is located at 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville and there’s no shortage of parking in the area. But of course here is this week’s plant and materials list for Saturday the 10^th.

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 eastern 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.

Vegetables

2x Asparagus, Gallon pot ($6.00)

2x Bloody Dock, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Borage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Sweet Banana , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Pimento, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Carolina Wonder, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Tomato, Amana Orange, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Brown Berry, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tomato, Cherokee Purple, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tomato, Tlacolula, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Tomato, Black Krim, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tomato, Martino’s Roma, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Mexico Midget, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Tomato, Paul Robeson, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Rainbow Cherry Mix, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Red & Yellow Currant, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Reisotomate, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, San Marzano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Underground Rail Road, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

6x Strawberry- Ozark Beauty, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Herbs

4x Basil, Sweet, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Thai, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Cinnamon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Red Rubin

2x Bee Balm, Lambada, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Chives, Common, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Fennel, Black, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Mint, Chocolate, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Lamb’s Ear, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Lavender-Cotton-Green, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Marjoram, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Parsley, Italian, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tansy, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Genovese Basil

Black Hungarian Pepper

Striped Togo Eggplant

Louisiana Long Green Eggplant

Early Black Egg Eggplant

Triple Crop Tomato

With the posting of the plant list this brings to a close another episode of lost in the Farmer’s Market. I hope to see some of you on Saturday as the tomato mayhem moves intoa n interesting new phase consisting of the really wild and crazy varieties.

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!