Welcome
back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. This is the second post
of March which by no measure of irony comes just two days after the first
official day of spring which was Wednesday the 20th. So, as I always recommend, do not jump the
gun and plant everything outside just yet, we can still have a freeze all the
way up to the Easter weekend which is April 19th through April 21st.
In short, we have a little way to go but, while you have to be careful about
your warm season crops you can start to harden off your cold season stuff so
it’s ready to go into the ground over the next three weeks or so. For note, cold season stuff you can plant
includes, lettuce, carrots, parsnips, cabbage, broccoli, kale, radicchio, mustard,
turnips and some types of peas. Now this
leads to a question that I get somewhat rarely, ‘why do some plants freeze and
die and others survive a front that killed everything else nearby?’ Well the simple answer is that some plants
have biological adaptations that allow them to survive frost and cold with
little or no damage. This protection is at a cellular level were some plants
have
 |
| Leather Leaf Mahonia (Mahonia beali) prevents front damage by having both a waxy coating on it's leaves but rigid leaf structures full of fibrous lignin which makes it harder for frost to reach and freeze the water in the plant's vascular system and within it's cells cytoplasm. |
The
simplest answer for this is that freezing in general effects an organism on the
cellular level by preventing the flow and or transfer of water between cells
and in vascular pathways. This water once it freezes causes cells to burst
which leads to that black color you see on plants that have frozen and thawed.
This is literally the cold-induced equivalent to a bruise except the tissue
destruction is far worse. Some plants
however have chemical compounds in their sap, and in the water stored in their
cells that effectively lowers the freezing point for water so that they cannot
as easily freeze. Literally some plants produce a biological equivalent to
anti-freeze or something akin to alcohol. Before any of you get too excited
about the idea of inebriated plants and consuming them, the reality is that it
takes very little of these compounds to alter the freezing point of water
within the plant.
 |
| Longleaf Pines (Pinus palustris) have waxy coating on their needles that allow them to survive low temperatures and freezing to a certain degree. The waxy coating on a plant's leaf is called a cuticle. |
Likewise,
plants also counter freezing with waxy coatings on their leaves (e.g. pines)
and stems which also makes it harder for them to freeze. A third method is the
geometry of the plants as is seen with some forms of cacti and succulents which
may arrange their needles and spines in such a way to create airspaces where
the temperature is controlled to a certain degree. This is the result of
genetic selection for trails that increased the survivability of a given plant
species which often produces interesting plant forms that most buyers at a
garden center don’t fully appreciate or understand. The discussion of how plants combat freezing
ties into your garden planning by way of considering how wind travels through
your yard which will tell you were cold and warm pockets might be allowing for
better placement. One of the interesting
ways to spot where the wind forms temperature pockets is to look for where
leaves swirl about in a cyclone like circle near structures or the placement of
beds. Additionally, looking for spots where fallen leaves are thickest can
often tell you that the wind is depositing them there due to the way it flows
through your yard. Living windbreaks are the best way to control the movement of
the wind and a good way to mitigate hot and cold pockets short of dramatic
landscape alterations. But let’s move on to this week’s photographs from the
field;
 |
| In numerous conversations and lectures I have called mosses an indicator plant because they only tend to appear where two specific environmental conditions are met. It has to be consistently moist and the soil has to be compacted to some degree for moss to reliably germinate and form colonies. the presence of moss is part of a naturally occurring terra-forming cycle where the moss will colonize an area and build up organic matter as it grows which then is colonized by other weeds that further defeat the compaction that initially may have left an area barren. |
 |
| The above are the blooms of 'Kolibri' Kohlrabi plants in their second year. Honestly the deep purple stems, grey-green leaves and cheery yellow flowers are quite a combo. |
 |
| Some varieties of Camellias bloom in the later winter and serve as the final indicator that spring is coming. This specimen is in full bloom right now. |
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. 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:
Soup
Kit, Parsnip - $5.00 (Not available after
March 30th)
Soup
Kit, Turnip - $5.00 (Not available after
March 30th)
Garlic,
Whole bulb - $1.00 (Not available after
March 30th)
Garden Plants:
Lettuce,
Cimarron, 3” - $3.00
Mustard,
Red Giant, 3” - $3.00
House Plants:
Coffee
Plants, 4” - $6.00
Flowering
Maple, 4” - $3.00
Flowering
Maple, 6” - $5.00
Polka-Dot
Plant, 4” - $3.00
Coming Soon:
Basil,
Cinnamon
Basil,
Sweet Genovese
Cilantro
Carrot,
Amarillo
Carrot,
Atomic Red
Carrot,
Black Nebula
Carrot,
Lunar White
Garlic,
Jerimiah’s Heirloom
Lettuce,
Parris Island
Parsnip,
Hollow Crown
Peppers,
11 varieties (TBA)
Potatoes,
Dark Red Norland
Tomatoes,
12 varieties (TBA)
Pomegranate,
Dwarf
Spice
Bush, Calycanthus
Coneflower,
Cayenne Red
Coneflower,
PowWow Wildberry Mix
Datura,
Black Currant
Datura,
Indigo (rare!)
Datura,
White Ballerina
Lupine,
Carolina
Milkweed,
(Asclepias tuberosa)
Whorled
Milkweed, (Asclepias verticillata)
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 sixth LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should
be posted on the 5th of April. There will be more garden updates and
other cool stuff.
