Ain't no time for the summertime blues!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The Farmer’s Market. For this week’s episode we are spotlighting a specific garden annual that is native to the United States. If you believe the agricultural chemical companies this annual plant is one of the scourges of the perfectly trimmed lawn. Then again I like to suggest that the perfectly trimmed lawn is the scourge of the landscape as it is thoroughly impossible to maintain because it is unnatural. The very idea of having a neatly mowed lawn around your property comes from the deception of wealth.  Anyone who was rich enough did not need to grow a garden to supplement their food supply and thus could afford to demonstrate their wealth by having a lawn. In practice lawns serve no real purpose other than erosion control, and realistically the amount of fertilizers and chemicals needed to maintain a lawn is prohibitive. Of course, the golf industry isn’t helping at all, as they often get legal allowances that let them skirt drought restrictions and chemical runoff laws. 

All that leads us back to the topic, what is a gardener to do about drought, and what specific crop is commonly found as an annual in your lawn. The answer is a group of plants commonly called the Purselane group, their scientific name is Portulaca and they are a native succulent annual that prefers the hot season and tolerates a wide variety of poor soils. You may have seen Purselane before at the garden center because fancy-flowering versions look like the picture below.

Portulaca sp. – Flat leaf Purselane [Variety unknown]

Purselanes are known for their large ‘cactus’ flowers, but this variety has been bred to be exceptionally flamboyant. The specimen pictured was cultivated from a stem cutting. Fortunately Purselane is easily cultivated from stem cuttings and responds well to rooting hormones. But commonly Portulaca will self-propagate from seed and if sown in the right spot will form regular mats of vibrantly colored flowers. The most common variety of Purselane grown this way is commonly called Moss Rose, and it’s scientific name is Portulaca grandiflora. Moss Rose is edible, but the thin needle like leaves are hard to harvest and so moss rose is primarily used as a annual ornamental.

Portulaca oleracea – Flat leaf Purselane (Red Grunner and Goldgelber)

            The flat-leaf Purselane group is known as Portulaca oleracea. Flat-leaf Portulaca has wide flat leaves that are easy to harvest and make for a great crunchy addition to a salad or if you have enough of them and interesting thing to add to a stir-fry. It is only very recently that the Industry has picked up on these easy to grow plants and begun hybridizing a wide array of bloom colors. Fortunately purselanes are easy to grow, drought resistant, and free of pests so they make for a good garden option. With that said below you will find the Market list for both Wednesday and Saturday.

The Fayetteville City market occurs twice weekly at the Fayetteville Transportation Museum on 325 Franklin Street. The Wednesday market runs from 12:00 to 5:00 pm and the Saturday Market runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. If you look below; the new plant list for this week includes some new selections.

 Vegetable

4x Purselane, Red Gruner - $4.00

4x Purselane, Goldgelber - $4.00

3x Pepper, Flashpoint Habanero - $3.00

8x Pepper, Novelty - $5.00

Fruit

3x Tomato, Pink Stuffer - $3.00

3x Tomato, Grand Rapids Cherry- $3.00

3x Tomato, Traveler 76 - $3.00

3x Tomato, Black Krim - $3.00

3x Tomato, Cherokee Purple - $3.00

3x Tomato, Brandywine - $3.00

Herbs

2x Sweet Basil - $3.00

4x Cinnamon Basil - $3.00

2x Milkweed (A. tuberosum) - $ 4.00

2x Milkweed (A.incarnata) - $ 4.00

Specials

2x Small Aloe Vera - $3.00

6x Medium Aloe Vera - $4.00

2x Large Aloe Vera - $6.00

They said it'd rain...all it's done is fail.

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmer’s market or LITFM for short. Due to workload in real life there is no real post this week however I do have the Plant list for the Saturday market and some nice pictures from the test garden. So despite the lack of normal content enjoy the following garden-licious filler.

Santolina chamaecyparissus - Levender-Cotton

Many of the customers at the farmer's market ask me just what the flowers of Lavender cotton look like and when it blooms. The picture above was taken this week and those flowers should persist roughly until the real heat of August slows things down and may return again sometime in autumn.  The flowers of Lavender-cotton are held on thin stalks and are the brightest shade of yellow imaginable but lack any noticeable petals.

Capsicum anuum 'Sangria'- Sangria Ornamental Peppers

These guys survived all winter in a small 6" pot and have been transplanted up into a three gallon nursery pot. Fromt eh same seed batch one pepper bears the distinctive purple foliage while the other is plain green and the bright fuscia-pink peppers give away it's heritage. I bet by late summer this plant will be kind of epic.

Delphinum consolida.- Larkspur

A surprising volunteer, this is a Larkspur, I don't know which variety yet  but it came with the bag of Pennington wild flower seed I spread across the berm that forms the back bone of the crescent bed. Almost mistaking the young plants for a common dog fennel I almost pulled them up but decided to be lazy as they were not in the way. Talk about luck the bright blues are fantastic.

[Update: This plant is also known as Consolida regalis and is an annual.]

Hyssopus officinalis - Hyssop

No really, I went to snap a shot of the hyssop there in the back ground and the wind shifted and suddenly  a pair of narrow leaf coneflowers (Echinacea angustifolia) was all up in the picture. Some times not even trying the plants have a life of their own.

Asclepias tuberosum - Plerusey Root / Common Milkweed

The milk weeds get better and brighter every year and this year they are off the hook. It's like a spray of orange fireworks and the best part is some of the branches are coming up inside the garden bed.  As some might know I spent an incredible amount of time growing this clump from seed collected in new jersey before I moved to North Carolina and it's one of the greatest garden successes in the test garden.

Portulaca grandiflora 'Samba Peppermint' - Moss Rose

Samba Peppermint is a pink-white bi-color variety of moss rose and finally it's decided to bloom. The picture probably does it no justice but yeah for the sake of showing you what it looks like up close there it is with a picotee red petunia for background contrast.

Capsicum anuum - Purple Bell Pepper

In the upper right side of the pot you see a small plant emerging from beneath the pepper plant. The volunteer is one of three volunteer ground cherry plants that somehow got into that one pot. As far as volunteers go I'm happy to see them given the otherwise poor results from attempts at growing them in numbers.

O. basilicum var. thyrsiflora - Thai Basil

 Thai basil is often met with a bit of unfamiliarity and dare I say suspicion. Most customers don't know what to do with the typically scraggly plants and are unfamiliar with the scent and taste. But this is a picture of a mature specimen, as you can see if there is no competition Thai basil takes on a open bushy form and it's flowers are dark reddish in color while the petals tend to be pink. Humming birds love all forms of basil but are attracted to reds so Thai basil is good for you and them.

 But putting aside this weeks photos as some of you regular readers might know on Saturday the 31st I will be manning the table at the Fayetteville Farmer's market. The market is located on 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville and runs from 9:00 am through 1:00 pm. The weather is supposed to be quite nice tomorrow and so of course it's a good chance to get out without the risk of a freak downpour.  But enough of that, with out further delay I present this week's plant list.

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 Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Jalapeno, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

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

2x Tomato, Cherokee Purple, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Martino’s Roma, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

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

3x 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)

1x Tomato, San Marzano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

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

Herbs

3x Artemesia, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

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, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

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)

1x Lavender, Munstead, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Mint, Chocolate, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Marjoram, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Parsley, Italian, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Rosemary, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tansy, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Black Hungarian Pepper

Potatoleaf Hillbilly Tomato

Japanese Black Trifele Tomato

Louisiana Long Green Eggplant

Early Black Egg Eggplant

Angel’s Trumpet “Bloomfield”

Passion Vine

This wraps up the last LITFM episode of May and what a month it has been, from drown to drought to drenched and back to drought. Wasn’t the crazy weather supposed to be in March?! As a handy tip most plants require 8 ounces of water a day at a bare minimum to do well so even a little bit helps if it’s too hot or you’re too busy to thoroughly water. With that watering tip in mind tune in next week where we’ll show sneak previews of what you all will see on the Garden tour coming on Sunday June the 8^th.