The August Heatwave

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market.  This post is a bit late mostly due to work and the harvest season however I think you will find the photos discussed this time totally worth it. I should also mention that Blogspot has changed some of it's formatting so until I work out the kinks expect that the formatting of these posts may be a bit off for a while.

This tiny little Green Tree Frog popped out of my 'Cerveza & Lime' Cuban Oregano plant as I watered it and game me some serious 'side-eye'. They dont much like chlorinated tap water and I was watering with a hose. If you see these frogs in your garden it is a sign that you have a healthy ecosystem and you are doing the right thing.

Another bit of evidence that I am doing my ecosystem right, in the upper right next to the black pole holding up these two grow bags is a little Green Anole Lizard. These critters eat a LOT of bugs, and that helps me out. The trick to getting them, frogs and toads is to provide natural places for them to hide from things like birds, and domesticated cats. I spot several of these little lizards per month during the warm season so that means certain insect populations are kept in check.

Ripe fruit charts are where it is at. Here we have a ripe super-hot pepper chart. Notice the weird shapes of each type and the variations in an given harvest. Only the Lemon Drops are ever consistent, Fayetteville Inferno's are always sort of tri-lobed, Red Fatalii's are stretched and cylindrical roughly, Chocolate Fataliis are skinnier and more curva-licious than their Red Fatalii cousins. Golden Carolina Reapers are chunky as hell, while the Mad hatters are weird, tri-lobed and the lobes extend out like little pepper-feet. Its a mad world of peppers certainly, but I'm still shipping these to Fowler's Barbecue in town so they should have hot sauces soon.

Here is a handy fig chart, you can see the differences between the types all in one picture! Folks at the market were very concerned that the White Ischia were not ripe but as you can see figs ripen to a whole lot of differing colors. White Ischia ripen to like green if not green-yellow, Brown turkeys aren't always brown, and can have purple tinges, Magnolias are a weird taupe-tan color. Chicago Hardy can be brown, or a dirty brown sand color while Celeste can be a myriad shades of brown with red tinges. It varies greatly and so do the ripe sizes of fruit.

I never quite got the south's obsession with planting Crape Myrtles everywhere as a solution to everything. Yes I get they dont get diseases, can grow in crap soil and pretty much nothing short of a act of god kills them. The flowers aren't that great and then there's the fact their seeds are viable and they escape cultivation. Well this flower cluster with rain droplets from a brief rain shower changed my mind somewhat. This wont make me want to plant more of them but I can kinda understand why folks like the flowers now.

Some of you probably knew this was coming. This is what the 'Hairy Balls' Milkweed seedpods look like and well, if your balls look like this you need to talk to a doctor immediately! The plants get to about six feet tall and the flowers  hang upside down and only bumblebees seem to like them, so hair balls plant plus hairy bumbles...weird combination!

Muslin Bags are used to protect ripening figs from Grey Catbirds who are smart enough to observe me picking fruit and know it's food I'm picking. They don't usually figure this out immediately, but about halfway through the season they start pecking at figs and absconding with potentially saleable fruits. This is the inexpensive and organic solution, apparently the bags fool them into thinking the figs aren't fruit at all, or maybe it makes them look terribly unappetizing.

 

I do not as of the time of writing this know what species of Grasshopper or Locust this is. I found it in my 'Iron and Clay' Cowpeas that were knocked over by Tropical storm Isaias, this critter stood nice and still for the camera and was easily five or so inches long. It is the largest of it's type I've ever seen in the test gardens.

 

Much like tomatoes, figs can burst and split if they are ripening and receive too much water in a short period. This White Ishcia fig has fallen victim to heavy rain fall and practically exploded. Typically these figs are washed, inspected and frozen as soon as possible. I never take these to the market because they have no shelf life in a fresh state and will turn to pulp in processing.

The above are all Magnolia figs, at varied stages of ripening, the three in the back row are in the soft or firm ripeness stage while the one on the left is at soft-ripe stage and is about to burst. The fig on the right is soft-ripe and has begun to burst due to excessive rainfall. Sometimes the protective muslin bags I use can worsen this.

Here is a recent LITFM video about Pineapple Verbena.

This video is about the living Dinosaur plant known as Horsetail.

Ah, and here is a video about Carrots!

Last but definitely not least for this blog update we have a LITFM video covering Okinawa Spinach.

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:

Food Plants:
Peanuts, African Runner: $3.00

Herbs: (3” pots)
Black Fennel: $3.00
Chocolate Mint: $3.00
Horehound: $3.00
Mountain Mint: $3.00
Oregano: $3.00


Herbs: (5” pots)
Agatache, ‘Golden Jubilee’: $4.00
Cuban Oregano, ‘Cerveza & Lime’: $4.00
Horehound: $4.00
Oregano: $4.00
Oregano, Italian: $4.00
Roselle, ‘Thai Red’: $4.00
Thyme, English: $4.00

Herbs: Special Offer
Rosemary, Prostrate: $6.00


Ornamental Plants:
Coneflower, ‘Pow Wow Wild Berry: $4.00
Milkweed, ‘Milk Maid’: $3.00
Milkweed, ‘Passionate’: $3.00
Zinnia, Golden Star: $3.00


Coming Soon:
The Fall Crop Lineup: Kale, Collards, Mustard, Chard!

Due to the current Covid-19 situation and the state’s requirement that all citizens are not to gather in groups of more than ten, the weekly Sustainable neighbors meeting is online. Please check the sustainable neighbors Meetup.com page for more info about how to attend our online meeting.

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

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 and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the sixteenth LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 21st of August. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

Oh October, well played you saucy month!

Welcome back to another episode of LITFM,  and we were planning a post about how to  plant a tree but unfortunately a material shortage put that planned event on hold while the property was prepared for the garden tour in two weeks. For note the Sustainable Neighbors Garden tour is on November 2^nd, so if you want to be a location on the tour or attend the tour please sign up at the sustainable neighbor’s site below.

http://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/events/212065332/

The container garden persists even in winter as this picture demonstrates. Lettuce, radicchio and Japanese red giant mustard all occupy spots in this winter container garden. The last of the peppers and eggplant are there just to squeeze a few more fruits out of the plants.

Striped Togo eggplant. As the fruit mature they eventually turn all-orange, which makes them kind of cool as a Halloween decoration. At his point they are super-bitter as the seeds inside are nearly mature and ready for harvesting.

A very large male Wolf Spider. I found this guy in the dining room barely moving because it was probably cold, so using a drinking glass and a piece of cardboard I got him back outside in the sun where he could warm up.

Amaranth 'Love Lies Bleeding' - Amaranth did super-good this year but this patch of love lies bleeding was from seed sown early on that finally germinated.

All those zinnias I planted in mid summer have paid off, as this Monarch butterfly visited and sat still long enough for me to snap this shot at close range.

             The weather looks gorgeous for the market this Saturday and possibly for the Wednesday beyond. The Fayetteville Farmers Market is a year-round event that runs from 9:00am to 1:00pm on Saturdays and 2:00 to 6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Also there are a few farmers who set up for fourth Friday and indeed we have really good market coverage if any of you are willing to come on down to the biggest farmers market in the region.

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.

Perennial:

1x Grape, Copper Muscadine - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Cold Season Crops

6x Romaine Lettuce, “Rouge d’Hiver” - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Romaine Lettuce, “Parris Island Cos” - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Bibb Lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Radicchio, “Rossa di Verona” - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Mustard Greens, India - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Mustard Greens, Japanese Red Giant - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Cabbage, Copenhagen Market  - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Cabbage, Savoy – Perfection Drumhead  - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

6x Collards, Georgia Southern Creole - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Kale, Redbor/Red Russian - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Snow pea, Snowbird - 3.5” pot ($3.00)

This brings to a close a somewhat short episode of LITFM, hopefully by next week we'll have something really cool for you to consider, and if not....FARM TOUR the week after!

Summer is that you?

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The Farmer’s Market. So here we are on the first official LITFM episode of the summer of 2014. Imagine that, we’ve come through some very strange weather as there was that brief drought period, and now constant thunderstorms some of which featured very violent winds and hail. Personally I find this odd weather to be the result of climate change but then that’s just me. Never before have I seen such alternating flood/drought periods or for that matter hail as often as in 2014. Granted what I just said is personal opinion which isn’t science fact and thus we move on to some actual science fact; this week’s episode.

As we know it’s now summer and of course we had that bit of drought but fortunately the recent series of thunder storms finally made their way to the region of the Test gardens and the storm event on Monday delivered a 0.5” of rain with the storm on Thursday adding another 1.5” for a total of 2.0”.  Not bad for a post drought rainfall it’s certainly enough to replenish the rain barrel water supply. For this week’s post we’ve got some garden photographs that answer some of your questions at the farmer’s market booth.

Blue berries tomatoes developing note the nice purple shoulders but green underside.

A few days later the bottoms begin to turn and we have this reddish coloration.

So I had to post up two developing pictures of the same blue berries tomato plant to show to those who doubted a blue tomato exists that yes it does and it's incredibly glorious. I know it's only going to make cherry tomatoes but I still have plans to processes the little buggers and make something "purple-mato" out of it.  It's just plain fun to watch this plant develop and despite all the plants being tagged by roman numeral only to be able to pick this one out without trying because of fruit and foliage color. Will this tomato return next year more likely than not.

Chichorum intybus - Chicory

I don't precisely recall who asked me about it during the tour but chicory has wonderful blooms as you can see. They tend to last through summer and are a good feature to support pollinators in the area. Now that you see the blooms I'm sure you might think you've seen them along the highways somewhere. Typically chicory is indeed a nearly indestructible roadside weed. It's taproot is much like the one found on the dandelion it reaches deep for moisture and has no issue finding it.

Achillea millefolium - Yarrow (Medicinal)

Yarrow is one of those self-naturalizing herbs that has a lot of bloom color options and can handle heat, drought and other general environmental nastiness once established. It does also as you can see bloom and thus is good for the pollinators. However only white blooming yarrow with the scientific name above is considered medicinal. There are many yarrow varieties bred to have differing colored blooms but the white blooming types are the most durable.

Cosmos bipinnatus - Garden Cosmos

Admittedly these little cosmos were not even sprouted at the time of the tour and as soon as they emerged all these mushrooms emerged  did what they needed to do and disappeared a few days after leaving the cosmos unharmed. My best guess here is that the mycelium for these mushrooms came in with the soil I used to raise the soil level in the bed. Some would not approve of such happening however it told me that the soil was already inoculated and now there will be beneficial fungi in the soil that may aid in converting the soil I used into topsoil. This natural balance is a good thing actually you want stuff like this to happen. By the way the chicken wire screen over the seedlings was there to prevent squirrel damage.

Cucurbita ??? - Unknown volunteer squash plant

Visitors on the tour saw where I was actively training a squash plant that had volunteered up into a dogwood tree and here is a photo of it's first bloom. While not precisely the most showy bloom only squash seem to have that perfect yellow-gold mixture.

Monarda sp. "Lambada" - Lambada Bee Balm (old)

Monarda sp. "Lambada" - Lambada Bee Balm (new)

So some of the visitors to the booth had been asking what the bee balm I sold would look like in the landscape. and here are two pictures, the one up top is an older and somewhat unhappy cluster in the shady rock garden. Notice it's a tad paler and the leaves are larger while the plant is a bit shorter. The lower picture is a new cluster planted in the crescent garden it's colors are more vibrant, and it's much taller to the point I could not get the whole picture in frame. Needless to say Bee Balm is very versatile and for those of you who nabbed some of these plants your in for a treat.

The Horticultural Turret

For those who've had th chance to look through the test garden yearbook you might notice this is the second time I have constructed a circular raised bed on the property. The original was the "Figgy Turret" which contained the first fig on property a Celeste type. This time I went with making it a physical, feature that was noticeable day and night that served to grow food crops. Int his case you can see tricolor and molten fire amaranth growing within the bed. Amaranth is related to spinach for note and is cooked the same way.

Sanseveria trifaciata - Snake Plant

So in the last week or two I posted a picture of these strange stalks emerging from my snake plant. I could not tell what they were but the looked like flowers for sure. The stalks had little clear droplets of sweet nectar on them and it seemed that that was a wrap for a botanical oddity but I was wrong. I found my self walking through the lab smelling this ultra sweet hyacinth fragrance...and suddenly realized the snake plant had bloomed. the flowers are short lived wispy things that smell incredible. None of my manuals mention the bloom as if the authors have seen them so hey a first for LITFM.

Capsicum anuum - Mixed peppers

Speaking of errors and omissions, what I originally thought was a pot of sangria peppers turns out to be a pot of sangria peppers and a single black pearl pepper. That's right the sangria when solid green and some how a black pearl pepper seed got into the mix. Honestly this is the sport of volunteer/seeding incident I can live with.

Although the weather looks a bit strange this weekend I do still suggest you come on out to the Fayetteville farmer's market. It's rather wise to bring along a umbrella just in case of a shower but beyond that the Fayetteville farmer’s market occurs Wednesdays between 2 and 6 pm, and on Saturdays between 9am and 1 pm. The market is located at 325 Franklin Street in the front parking lot of the Fayetteville Transportation museum. I’m now present at both market days so you now have two opportunities per week to hit up the booth for info or plants. As you can see int he plant list for Saturday the first of the summer plants are showing up at the booth with several selections from the black eye susan (rudbeckia) and the coneflower (echniacea) groups.

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 Eggplant, Louisiana Long Green, 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)

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

3x Tomato, Martino’s Roma, 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)

1x Tomato, Underground Railroad, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Cucumber, Armenian, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Cucumber, Poona Kheera, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Melon, Horned/Kiwano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

2x Ground Cherry, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Herbs

2x Artemesia, Wormwood, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x 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)

3x Chives, Common, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Fennel, Black, 7” pot ($6.00)

2x Lavender, Hidcote, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Parsley, Italian, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Rosemary, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Thyme, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Ornamental:

2x Passion Vine, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Echinacea, White Swan, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Echinacea, Magnus, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Echinacea, Cheyenne Spirit, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Rudbeckia, Irish Eyes, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Rudbeckia, Golden, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Rudbeckia, Summer Sun, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Black Hungarian Pepper

Potatoleaf Hillbilly Tomato

Japanese Black Trifele Tomato

Grape, Bronze Muscadine

This wraps up this somewhat late episode of LITFM, I hope to see some of you at the market and well lets look at the weather in a positive light. The drought is give or take over so at least that's not a problem, keeping up with mowing the grass however might be.