May All The Way!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. Here we are, it is finally May, that miracle month that isn’t exactly spring anymore but isn’t quite summer yet. Mother’s Day is right around the corner and as we all know the threat of frost is replaced with the threat of pop-up thunder storms. Why, just looking out your window demonstrates the magical time of year because everything is so green and growing so fast it’s not even funny. But of course, that brings us to the first post of May which is two days late because I am busily preparing the test gardens for visitors on the 19^th. This isn’t an excuse, but a statement of fact as it takes time to really clean up the effects of two off-years and push back the ‘jungle’ to make certain parts of the gardens presentable as they should be. I know in the last few years we had a full-out garden tour with multiple locations, but as we discovered getting locations on the tour wasn’t easy as not everyone was confident enough in their garden to want to host visitors. More so, the complexity of keeping the locations reasonably close to each other proved a daunting task. This year Sustainable Neighbors opted to offer a single-location garden event once or twice a month so in in the month of May if you are interested in touring the Botanical Test Gardens you can RSVP at the Sustainable Neighbors site listed below:

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/events/260917171/

The tour is on May the 19^th which is a Sunday and is between 2:00 pm – 5:00pm, You can RSVP and get the address for the tour on the 12^th as a updated notification through our meetup group. Or you can visit my table at the Fayetteville City Market on the 18^th to get the address information.

The most common question I get in regards to the tour is “why should I go?” The answer is fairly straightforward, you will get to see plants you’ve never seen in the landscape before. additionally, via the tour book you get to see the evolution of a garden over the course of a decade and, you will discover methods to crate a garden that perhaps you are not familiar with that may just help you solve your gardening difficulties. If that doesn’t whet your appetite for touring my gardens in specific there will be a few amusing stories, some free plants given away (some in pots, some have to be dug) and a fun quiz, ‘Weed or not a Weed’ which won’t be too difficult but may challenge your established notions of how we define weeds. I look forward to seeing all of you on the tour and I hope that my gardens can help you in the fullest.

Now onto the best part of any LITFM blog post, the garden photographs and this week as a teaser there are some pictures of the gardens that will get your creative gardening drive going as they are teasers for the big tour this month.

In a prior post or two I spoke about 'Reversion' this is an excellent example.

 Reversion is when a plant reverts to it's original form as a result of environmental stresses or some other factors that make it's original form more advantageous than the form we have cultivated. Int he case of the Fringe Bush ( Loropetalum chinense 'Rubrum' ), this shrub for whatever reason is trying to revert to it's normal green coloration. The reversion will mean that the fringe bush's green parts will grow noticeably faster than it's purple parts and if left unchecked the entire hedgerow of fringe bushes could all go green. On that last part it is purely my theory that when a few of a specific type of bushes revert in larger group and suddenly they all start going green it may be due to the plant's foliage and roots touching which spreads the reversion through chemical triggers and hormones. This is why any sudden patches of solid green in an otherwise colored plant group should be handled immediately.

Teaser Alert! This Amaryllis will be faded by the time the tour happens, but the garden it is in may be in bloom.

This one is for my Pepperheads at the market.

I get asked fairly often what the status of my super-hot peppers is and this picture and the next few should answer the question. The plants for sale are developing and have been put out for 'sunning' to get them ready for sale, the crop plant's status is next.

 

Burn Baby Burn! Fayetteville Inferno!

 The Fayetteville Inferno plant is looking real good, lots of pretty foliage and the first flower buts are already on the plant, I'll probably have to move it away from other peppers so I can harvest some pure seed this year.

Good Ol' Aji Limon, look at the heavy base branching.

 Aji Limon has been my favorite go-to spicy/hot pepper for general use for most of a decade. The plants are fairly vigorous and tolerant of heat, but a bit wary of drought.

'Roid Rage Basil!

Commonly called Lettuce-Leaf Basil ( Ocimum basilicum 'Lettuce Leaf' ), this is a selection of sweet basil for comparatively massive leaves. If  I recall right from the test gardens in the 1990's this was the basil that got to three or four feet tall and was stopped from getting taller because someone snapped off the growing tip. Either way, these plants will be MASSIVE, and they are under  limited trials to test their viability in southern gardens. In case you are wondering, the following basils have already been tested.

Sweet Genovese - Passed

Cinnamon - Passed

Thai - Passed

Red Rubin - Inconclusive

Lemon - Failed

'Pesto Purpetuo' - Inconclusive

Spicy Globe - Failed

Boxwood - Failed

Magical Michael - Inconclusive

Sweet Dani - Inconclusive

Blue African - Passed

Holy - Potential Invasive

Mirihani - Currently being tested

Lettuce Leaf - Currently being tested 

Milkweed or Plerusey Root at the age of about 9 years.

 The Milkweed ( Asclepias tuberosa )pictured above is is the single oldest herbaceous perennial in the Botanical test gardens with a close second being the Indian Pinks ( Spigelia marilandica ) and in third a Swamp Mallow ( Hibiscus moscheutos ) planted by the mailbox. By the time of the tour the milkweed will be in bloom and it's offshoots that have popped up in the bed behind it will be noticeably tall. This plant has a funny story attached to it that I'll tell visitors on the 19th.

Teaser Alert! The Triangle bed...

 The triangle bed is a story unto itself that I will be telling during the tour, for the time being however it is pictured so that you can get a feel for some of the heavy work done to get the gardens ready because it most certainly did not look like this last year. A major change is that every plant in the bed has a metal tag with it's common name on it. There are a few other changes you will find out about on the 19th.

More Teasers?! You bet!

Well, you knew it would be like this, in the garden this lone Herbal Gentleman grows in a protected location after his recent transplanting. But what sort of herb is he? Is he evergreen or deciduous? If I water him does he get water or does the water get him instead? Will he be a feature of 'True Facts about the:" on LITFM? All you fine folks will get closure on the 19th, and this herb isn't the only mystery I'll be teasing, expect another next week.

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:

Agastache, Golden Jubilee: 3” - $ 3.00

Basil, Sweet: 3” - $3.00

Basil, Thai: 3” - $3.00

Etruscan Santolina: 3” - $4.00

Eucalyptus, Dwarf: 3” - $4.00

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

Lavender, ‘Elegance Pink’: 3” - $3.00

Sage, Common: 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

Potato, Dark Red Norland: 3" - $2.00

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

Milkweed, (Asclepias tuberosa: 4" - $4.00

Milkweed, Whorled: (Asclepias verticillata): 4" - $4.00

Coming Soon:

Basil, Cinnamon

Basil, Mirihani

Coneflower, Cayenne Red

Coneflower, PowWow Wildberry Mix

Balloon Flower

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 ninth LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 17^th of May. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff

Consumer Considerations

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market, this week’s topic is the same as every week; garden and sustainability stuff. Before we delve into the main topic I do have to talk briefly about safe shopping for organic and GMO-Free products .

So on this web log we often talk about what it means to be organic from the context of growing a garden but not from the perspective of what it means to buy organic at the store. Indeed there are a number of existing misconceptions about what Organic means and what genetically modified organisms (GMO) has to do in relation to the term organic. For instance, something that is GMO-free may not be organic, and something that is organic may not be GMO-free. The term organic only means that the ingredients used in the product in question were grown and processed in an organic fashion by the standards set down by either the USDA or some other organizational body. I make that distinction because the growing standards of the USDA are not nearly as stringent as those of the Organic Materials Research Institute (OMRI) or for that matter the standards of the Oregon Tithe. Just being declared organic without listing without listing whose standards you’re running under is a little like intended deception these days.

The common packaging in the supermarket doesn’t distinguish and the best protection a consumer has is to read the package carefully and then read the ingredients label to verify.  As a case in point, RW Garcia’s Big Bag of yellow Corn Tortilla Chips says it’s made of organic yellow corn and is Non-GMO project verified. When you actually read the ingredients information on the back it says the following.

Ingredients: Organic stone ground yellow corn, sunflower oil or non-organic corn oil, sea salt, water, trace of lime.

So the corn, being the main ingredient is organic, that’s good it’s hard to find GMO-free organic yellow corn these days but that part about the oil does worry me. If the non-organic corn oil is on this particular bag…is said corn also GMO-free? The only good news I can find is that this product was certified by guess who? The Oregon Tithe, who are one of the most ardent organic supporters out there so I can only hope I didn’t get the non-organic tainted bag and even if I did the oil isn’t GMO. For note I sent an Inquiry to W Garcia a bit before this post went up and am still waiting for a response. Admittedly I’m of the view that if a single ingredient in a product is tainted by GMO’s or is non-organic the entire product may as well not be certified as free of both. But pending the response from RW Garcia in this case I’m also withholding a judgment on the product. The point of all this is to remind you the reader that you should carefully scrutinize what you buy at the super market even if it says organic. You are the ultimate gatekeeper of your own health and it is your task to ensure that what you put in your body is at the quality level that you decide.

As it turns out this weekend is set to be pretty nice, with a low chance of rain moderate humidity and lots of sun. With such nice weather the farmer’s market is bound to be packed and as you regular readers out there know I’ll be down there this Saturday and the following Wednesday manning the booth with plants a-plenty. For those who don’t know about the market the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market is located in downtown Fayetteville at 325 Franklin Street in the parking lots of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. Parking enforcement down town takes the weekend off so you can part on the street or in the municipal lots nearby without problem and shop at the market for as long as you like. As always below is Saturday’s plant list for the 19^th of July.

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.

On Sale: (3x for 5.00)

1x Pepper, Jalapeno, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

2x Pepper, Habenero, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

2x Pepper, Sweet Banana , 3.5” pot ($2.00)

4x Pepper, Carolina Wonder, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

1x Tomato, Brown Berry, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

2x Tomato, Martino’s Roma, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

1x Tomato, Rainbow Cherry Mix, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

1x Tomato, Red & Yellow Currant, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

1x Tomato, Reisotomate, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

3x Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($2.00)

2x Eggplant, Louisiana Long Green, 3.5” pot ($2.00)

Vegetables

3x Cucumber, Armenian, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Cucumber, Poona Kheera, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Pepper, Lemon Drop, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

3x Horned Melon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Vine Peaches, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Herbs

3x Basil, Sweet, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Basil, Blue African, , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Basil, Thai, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Basil, Cinnamon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Red Rubin, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Artemesia, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Fennel, Black, 7” pot ($5.00)

4x Lavender, Hidcote, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Rosemary, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Thyme, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Ornamental:

1x Passion Vine, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Nicotina, Flowering Tobacco, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Rudbeckia, Irish Eyes, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Rudbeckia, Golden, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Muscadine, Copper

Red Egyptian Onions

With the plant list posted and the topics discussed this brings to a close another episode of LITFM. If you have any questions about our content feel free to post a message via this blog or stop by the booth at the farmers market.