Bloom-tastic!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. First off, I would like to thank everyone who attended the garden tour on the 19^th. Getting the gardens ready for the tour was quite a challenge and it was wonderful to have all of you on site. I know that it was abnormally warm, and if you missed the tour I am still planning another one in October, when the temperatures hopefully will be cooler and you all get to see the progress made since the spring. It’s perhaps ironic now that we didn’t get any real rainfall since the tour, and the temperatures have broken 100 degrees several times in the last two weeks. While your lawn will survive this, I would recommend considering additional irrigation for your fruit-bearing trees and shrubs to ensure good productivity. Now, I did promise a photographic tour of the gardens for those who missed the spring tour but before we get to that (the next post), I’d like to dedicate this post to blooming plants in general.

 

Echinacea purpurea 'Cheyenne Spirit'

Alright, you know I remember this cultivar being way redder than it is, but the bright fuschia colored blooms are plenty welcome in my garden any day of the week.

Hypericum perforatum 'Hypearls' - Saint John's Wort

Most dont know that St John's Wort is a evergreen garden perennial with some of the most bright-yellow flowers on the block. This specimen was rescued from the woodland part of my gardens and has made an impressive recovery.

 

Asclepias tuberosa - Butterfly Weed/ Pleurisy Root

 Butterfly weed is a herbaceous perennial that normally blooms in a showy shade of orange ans produces large quantities of nectar which the butterflies love.

 

Portulaca grandiflora - Happy Hour Peppermint Purselane

 What's not to love about a succulent garden flower that while being annual is utterly immune to heat and drought? Peppermint Happy hour and it's erratic broken flower colors liven up any planting imaginable and it may come back from seed too.

 

Hemerocallus fulva - Tawny Daylily

 Although it does vary in shades of orange from tuber to tuber, tawny daylily can take care of itself and needs very little gardener intervention. You normally see these plants used as part of plantings on the interstate, fortunately I had a colony of them on the property that I used to make this planting as seen.

 

Lilium hybrid - 'Serious Blacko' Lily

 Yes, I bought this lily because the name was so hilarious and I got to say 'serious blacko' in a funny action movie actor voice without it sounding racist. Just you wait until the 'Rio Negro' lilies bloom!

Monarda didymus 'Purification' - BeeBalm

This odd variety of beebalm is immune to most drought, seems not to get diseases and blooms light pink, the down side is that it's eating a sector of the garden.

Lantana camara - West Indian Lantana

This plant is a volunteer that just happened to volunteer in an area that badly needed color. You can see two differing species of butterfly lapping up it's nectar.

Opuntia cacanapa 'Ellisiana' - Spineless Prickly Pear

Ah, cactus flowers, you've got to love how something so unapproachable and rugged can produce such a pretty delicate flower and more so that the prickly pear flower in terms of physical anatomy is identical to those on the purselane, just way bigger. It's as if certain cactus and succulents said 'nah, we've got a good thing going, no weird flower stuff!'

Datura metel 'White Ballerina' - Angel's Trumpet

The white flower is stunning, but the dark blue-green foliage just makes it stand out even more. Datura as noted in my last post are evening/night bloomers so this big trumpet flower is there to bring in the moths. For note Datura is poisonous.

Oenothera biennis - Common Evening Primrose

This is one of the few times I've attempted a night time photograph but since evening primroses dont open until the mid-late evening this was necessary. This specific plant is about three and a half feet tall and has just started to bloom, a few flowers will bloom per day. It takes two years for a plant to get to this point as this specific species of primrose is a biennial. I should also note these plants have deep taproots and should not be transplanted in the second year as the shock may kill the plant. Common Evening Primrose will resow itself from seed though not necessarily in the same place as it's seed seems to travel.

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

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

Lavender, ‘Elegance Pink’: 3” - $3.00

Rue, Marbled: 3" - $4.00

Tansy, (Feverfew): 3" - $3.00

Tobacco, Night-Scented: 3” - $3.00

Tobacco, Lime Tree: 3” - $3.00

Flowers:

Balloon Flower, Astra Blue: 3” - $4.00

Balloon Flower, Astra Pink: 3” - $4.00

Balloon Flower, Astra White: 3” - $4.00

Datura, Black Currant Swirl: 3” - $4.00

Datura, White Ballerina: 3” - $4.00

Lily, Formosa: 3” - $4.00

Fruiting Shrubs:

Pomegranate, Dwarf: 6" – $8.00

Fruits & Vegetables:

Peppers, Tabasco: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Thai Dragon: 3” - $3.00

Peppers, Sweet Marconi: 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:

Basil, Cinnamon

Basil, Mirihani

Coneflower, CheyenneSpirit

Cotton, Mississippi Brown

Okra, Red-Burgundy

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 eleventh LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 14th of June. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

April Showers and whatnot!

Welcome back to another episode of lost in the farmers market! Despite the gaps in our update schedule we have a good first episode of April for you here and it starts with two cool images from the field. As some of you know half of gardening is finding those odd things that make your garden go from rank and file to masterpiece. Some of these interesting facets of nature though are what comes before the plant emerges.

The wonders of nature can be as complex as a fully grown plant or as simple as these seeds. The Asian Winged Bean has quite interesting bronze and brown colored seeds.

Most people don’t think that calla lilies have any place in the garden, these black calla lilies sure are one of the incredible symbols of spring.

The second item is this guy. I bet some of you out there never thought that you could grow Calla Lilies in this climate as a perennial but you can. This gardener has done so and as you can see this variety is exotic and striking. But beyond the plants is the use of statuary and metalwork in the garden. For many metalwork in the garden means odd statues or fences but for this gardener she has a statue with a interesting sentiment.

I spotted this in a client’s garden just this week and thought it’s hard to argue with that!

Plants and statuary aside there is this bad news from capitol hill. It seems The president assigned the Farmer Assurance Act which in reality should be called the “Mega Corporate GMO force-feeding act” for it’s clear effect on the landscape of the GMO battle. The original article that came to my attention is here at this address below.

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/27/farmers_and_food_safety_advocates_lead_monsanto_backlash_partner/

I can say this is not a good sign but more so it means we need to be a bit more vigilant about our purchasing and materials. Political maneuvers aside I would like to talk about something that is kind of related, and that is grain. I’ve gotten a few questions about how much area someone might need to grow a crop of a specific grain. After digging through university websites and various growers associations around the United States I’ve finally got an answer for all of you urban farmers out there who want to give it a go.

Corn - For the home owner this average is about 35 lbs per 100 square feet roughly. From that final estimate you can ascertain what a ten square foot plot (3.5 pounds?)might yield if managed well.

Barley - Barley was an easy one; literally it takes 100 square feet to produce 10 pounds of barley grain on average. This space-efficiency means that the average gardener in a 10 square foot garden could be producing a pound that could be stored for winter.

Rice – Rice is a conundrum, we think it requires standing water and yet this is really part of the traditional cultural care to reduce the competition as most weeds cant grow in the standing water. Cultural practices aside you could likely produce a pound of rice with aggressive fertilization practices in a 15 square foot area if you mimic the flooded fields. If you skip on the flooded field effect then you may be able to produce a pound of rice in about ten square feet. For note unlike with dried beans sold at the grocery store, rice sold at the store will not likely sprout as it’s been hulled already.

Wheat – Remember wheat grows best when soil pH is more towards the alkaline side, and then within certain limits of weather. For backyard use a 100 square foot plot might produce about 5-6 pounds of grain. Scaled down, that means a more manageable 10 square foot plot might produce about a little over a half pound of grain in theory. I might add this is calculated for modern wheat varieties, Kamut and the older heritage varieties might have better results.

I hope the grain information helped, all of the numbers are reverse-calculations from numbers on the acre level. Admittedly I’ve never tried to grow grain in the test gardens mostly due to a lack of interest but this doesn’t mean you should not. At the very least corn is very easy to grow and non-GMO varieties are easy enough to get.

Bud break for flowers of a Rabbiteye blueberry.

Initial budbreak is still quite pretty but the later stages are no less attractive.

Final flower emergence on rabbit eye blueberries confirms that they are indeed a member of the Ericaceae group or in english the heath family.

I wanted to include this timed photo of flower emergence on the stand of blueberries at the test gardens. It is normal for rabbiteye blueberries to have emerged by now and they do add a unique color and dorm to the gardens. As noted in an earlier post my blueberries never quite went dormant and seem to have just flatly resumed growing. As far as fruiting plants go, thankfully blueberries are very tolerant and inexpensive for a gardener of any skill level to use. The down side is you need at least two or three to ensure pollination. On the other hand the bumblebees and honey bees love the flowers of the rabbiteye blueberries so, they can be part of your early spring plan for providing food to pollinators. But in other sectors the last of the cabbage family crops are rolling in and this week we pulled this record haul of reg giant mustard.

Total weight, 6lbs, 1 ounce. the longest leaf int he batch measured at 16" the heaviest leaf was approximately two ounces due to it's unusually thick stem.

Not bad really, in fact despite my earlier thoughts, I may yet pull another harvest from the mustard crop before the summer crops go in the ground. Even so by sheer bulk the mustard yet again by length of harvest period and sheer volume even when proportioned to match the other cold seasonal crops still out produced everything. Red Giant is a keeper for next year, and I hear through Marsha Howe that it even did incredibly well on the bridge. But of course this is not the only plant available in the gardens for eating.

Paris Market Carrots at their sweetest and ready for harvest. I can either grow them on at this point or pull them at this size.

This is a Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus ), it's a edible relative of the Artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus). 

The Cardoon above has taken a few years to get to that size and it's finally turning into something substantial. The cardoon itself is considered the wild originator of the artichoke and it's spiny inflorescence can be eaten the same way if treated with care. Personally  I don't know if I'll let it bloom or make some wild artichoke dip, we will have to see how that works out even so it's quite a interesting foliage plant. Now speaking of things related to edibles I thought it would be cool to show some of you out there what flowering ginger looks like.

Flowering Ginger in 1/2 gallon pots.

For note Flowering ginger as far as I know is not edible, but it's sweetly scented flowers are gorgeous and it self-propagates rather well. The plants pictured above will be part of BL2's annual plant sale so yes you can get some of your own rather soon. Also they are perennial from zone 7 southward so these guys are your ready replacement for Canna.  As a final note for this double-wise episode, I have the latest find in a garden center that has been added to the collection.

Opuntia cylindrica cristata - "Emerald Idol Prickly Pear"

As the caption notes this is a member of the prickly pear family, and it's clearly also a monstrose form cactus. Now, typically the cylindrica group of the opuntia family has a very specific look; essentially a overall cylindrical stem with occasional branches and some have pseudo-leaves. A monstrose form like this tends to result from a  mutation of a growing tip where the 'stem' or pads don't elongate normally creating a bizzare form like what you see. The 'cristata' part of the name notes that this plant forms a crest of sorts. I picked this one up because it reminded me of the other monstrose cactus I already have but I know that opuntia tends to grow much faster so it makes for a greater demonstration of cactus care. In the long term expect periodic comparison photos of this cactus. for note upon getting this one home I repotted it into that pot you see with plenty of root room. Opuntia grow really fast when fertilized so I expect this one to be owning that pot soon.

This wraps up a double-episode of Lost in the farmer's Market but don't worry, tune in next time to see some more garden mayhem and a peek at the BL2 production lines as well as a little bit about soil testing. As always folks Keep 'em Growing!