Showing posts with label Purselane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Purselane. Show all posts

Thursday, September 15, 2022

A Breif Forage Interlude

 Welcome back to the Lost In the Farmer’s Market Blog. I thought it'd be a nice change of pace to do a post covering some photos of flowering plants in the test gardens. Don't worry your fun forage foods will be posted after this so you are getting two posts this week.


 

Cosmos suphureus or Sulphur Cosmos, while mine were planted late, they are in bloom and that means more of them next year. Thank you Tiffany for giving me the seeds.

Skyscraper Pink Salvia, a relatively new perennial salvia hybrid is doing pretty good.

Mystic Illusion Dahlias - This type of Dahlia have a almost-black foliage and extra bright flowers to contrast.

Oregold Rose - This is a hybrid rose with a pretty bright golden yellow flower color, they aren't as vigorous as I have hoped but they are doing well enough.

Salvia farinacea 'Victoria Blue' - Mealy Cup Sage at the beginning of it's bloom.

Petunia x atkinsiana 'Pretty Grand Red' - Petunias at the end of the season

Abelmoschus esculentus 'Baby Bubba' - This compact form of Okra like all okra has a pretty flower that is worthy of notice. Okra are in the Hibiscus family.

Antirrhinum majus 'Liberty Red' - Snapdragons are actually perennial and these ones have been persisting for at least two years and are evergreen in zone 8A.

 

Ruellia simplex - Mexican Petunias, they're cheery and need to be containerized but they are nice.

Zinnia elegans - Common zinnias are always a cheery part of the garden.

Zinnia elegans - This fireball orange one begged to be photographed.

Zinnia elegans - So did this intensely red one.

Allium tuberosum - Garlic Chives in full bloom.

Cleome hassleriana 'Sparkler Blush' - Cleome are an amazing annual flower.

Tagetes patula ' Strawberry Blonde' - French Marigolds You all heard about this one and here's a macro lens shot of it.



Portulaca oleracea 'Rio Grande' - Purselane is both edible and pretty, but here it is showing off  it's big flowers.

 

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.  In addition to being able to process card payments we now take CashApp payments so your payment options for my product have tripled. With that said; if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic fruit, herbs, flowers and perennials, 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.

 

 

For those of you wondering what plants are going to be at the market this weekend here is the list.

 

Fresh Produce:

Pepper, Lemon Drop

Pepper, Fayetteville Inferno

 

Garden Stuff: ($3.00)

Cabbage – Early Jersey Wakefield

Collards – Green Glaze

 

Cilantro – Vietnamese

Cuban Oregano – Cervesa & Lime

Fennel – Black

Hoan Ngoc

Sage – Pineapple

 

 

Coming Soon:

Kale

Mustard Greens

Garlic Bulbs (Mid-September)

Soup Kits (October)

 

How to stay in Contact with Us!

 

Our group’s online presence has migrated to Nextdoor.com. All you need to keep up with all our activities is to have a Nextdoor account and to look for the ‘Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville’ group and ask to join! You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join us! Feel free to ask all your garden questions of our knowledgeable membership and post your cool garden pictures.

 

Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville

 

Also please take a gander at the Youtube version of this blog:

The Videos: Look Here

>Newest videos (1):Cleome

 

Meetings still going on! We now meet at LeClair’s General Store on the First and Third Thursday of every month. Our next meeting is on September 15th between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. We are in the back room so come on in and join us for a fun garden chat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

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