Who told April showers to come in May?!

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmer’s Market! Now I know some of you are wondering why there was no episode for the last two weeks and the simple answer is a combination of the lead up to finals and a unique situation at the headquarters that required heavy documentation. Finals are still going on but, the special situation has been photo documented and you get to see it here for your garden your entertainment and education. But first I have to say that the 4^th annual Sustainable Garden Tour had a good sized crowd this year the weather cooperated and I’d like to personally thank everyone who offered a location for participating as tour sites. For those who attended the tour I’d like to thank you also for checking out and supporting some of the local bastions of sustainable practices. We’re hoping to offer the 5^th annual tour in either late September or October so stay tuned for announcements on the Sustainable Neighbors site for more information.

             In terms of the City market things are progressing as normal, despite the somewhat unpredictable weather however you might have to look to find my booth now. In the last two weeks there’s been an acoustic schism between me and the folks up top. It was about thirteen to fourteen months ago that I started bringing a small speaker to the market every Saturday to play a random selection of jazz, blues, R&B and funk just to spice up the area. Part of the reason was that the music being played by the Transit museum over the loud speakers wasn’t really right for a city market atmosphere. The other reason was that I was so far down in the parking lot that the music offered came in as low and distorted so there had to be something to fill the void. So over the summer of 2014 I experimented with what the customers liked trying a number of genres and took requests as any good DJ should. The final result was a Jazz blend that met the tastes of a wider audience and offended none with a selection that keeps growing to this day. All was good, and I was set to add another clip of songs to the mix for the summer of 2015 until the market before last. I was approached by Mr. Daws about the market rule prohibiting “Competing music”. There was a short discussion and of course we had a problem.

            My music was not a problem for the last thirteen months, it certainly was still playing within the same volume range and there were no curse words or inappropriate terms in the music so what indeed was the problem? The Museum had been playing their own mix over the loudspeakers at a growing volume and had been given a few of music CD’s by a vendor or two.

The problem with that is that it means only a handful of individuals were picking the music, none of them were ever professional DJ’s and so the music mix was wrong, the beats didn’t match, the tempo and tone was often off and it still is not energetic enough to inspire a buying mood. But anyway, now it’s months later and suddenly my jazz selections were an issue for no good reason. It literally made no sense two weeks ago and it does not now. The smart thing for the Transportation Museum to do was to ask for say three to six songs from every vendor,  in MP3 format and then use something like winamp or an MP3 player to make a shuffled  playlist so everyone's songs get some play and no one can complain about the mix because everyone has skin in the game. One set of selections per vendor, a new set every six to twelve months. Each time you switch the songs must be different. I might add for the sake of record keeping it would probably be wise to keep formal song playlist records for the 6-12 month mix periods.

            Since I doubt the above fair solution will ever materialize, I do recommend that if you’re at the market, to bug the folks in charge about it or, that they allow vendors at the ends of the market space to play music under the following conditions:

1.      Music selected MUST be acceptable for a general audience. (ie no profanity, racial slurs, or themes that one would not want to expose young children to.)

2.      Eligible vendors must be positioned at the edge of the market layout map where their music does not interfere with the provided music due to distance.

3.      Eligible vendors must only use directional speakers and restrict volume to reasonable levels.

4.      Eligible vendors must submit monthly play lists to the museum staff for evaluation for quality standard checks.

But anyway that’s what I think of the current mess at the City Market, but wait this is a blog about gardening right? Well, lets get to that, first off are some pictures from the garden and then that project that I photo-documented.

Salvia officinalis - Common sage

 It's not common you see sage in full bloom in the warmer climates bit it seems that this one out at AME Mt Zion church is doing so. I chalk this up to a perfectly cold winter.

Rhododendron maximum - Great Rhododendron

As noted to visitors on the tour this is the site's only rhododendron, and after several years of clearing out competition and encroaching vines this one bloomed.

Pisum sativa var. saccharatum 'Snow Bird' - Snow Pea 'Snow Bird'

 The snow pea crop has surprisingly benefited from the irregular weather and is rapidly reaching the harvest stage.

The next part is where this post gets very interesting. Lat year I constructed a terrarium so I could bring some greenery into the house in a form where care and maintenance was reduced. The first two plants proved to be a 50-50 sort of success as one died and the other has gotten much larger. After uniting the dead plant with the compost pile and potting up the overgrown plant (an aralia) the pair were replaced by an aloe and a haworthia while two small succulents in 2" pots were also placed in the terrarium to mature. About six months later I noticed yellow-white nodules visible in the soil that seemed inter-connected and they were growing. I figured, it was soil based fungus and it posed no threat and indeed that assessment was accurate. As it turned out the nodules were a fungal colony that came in with the soil or the initial plant selections and it had expanded to grow throughout the soil substrate of the terrarium. Then the first of them began producing the fruiting structure we call a mushroom. I didn't quite catch all the phases of that on camera so when the second growth began to appear I paused LITFM updates until I caught the entire process on camera. For note the species of fungus is called the following and the pictures below document the life of a fungal fruiting body.

Leucocprinus binbaumii  aka Lepiota lutea - Houseplant Mushroom

This fungus is common in humid areas and often gets into potting soil mixtures, I cannot say if it is toxic so I do not advice making a snack of it but carefully handling one certainly will not cause any ill effects so at least it's not contact-toxic. The larger mushroom photographed took about four days  from emergence to collapse and that seems to be fairly consistent. All of this opens the door to wondering if one could propagate edible mushrooms in a terrarium at home intentionally and such may be the focus of a later LITFM.

But if your easily bored you can sum up the entire fungus group with the video below!

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/other-toons/video/shrooms.html

The end of the first 'bloom' -  05-03-2015 10:37pm

First 'bloom' sags after spore drop - 05-04-2015 2:23 PM

See the white patch on the rocks behind the mushroom, that is where the spoors drifted after release mostly.

Emergence of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-07-2015 2:02 Pm

Elongation of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-08-2015 6:22 PM

Growth of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-09-2015 1:50AM

Elongation of 2nd 'Bloom' -05-09-2015 8:05 AM

Elongation of 2nd 'Bloom' -  05-09-2015 1:19 PM

Rapid growth of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-09-2015 6:37 PM

Rapid growth of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-09-2015 9:16 PM

Cap Expansion of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-09-2015 11:09 PM

Cap Expansion of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-10-2015 12:09 AM

Cap Expansion of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-10-2015 12:26 AM

Cap Expansion of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-10-2015 1:06 AM

Full Cap Expansion -  05-10-2015 8:51 AM

Collapse of 2nd 'Bloom' - 05-10-2015 1:30 PM

So how about that, you have now seen the entire fruiting cycle of the Houseplant Mushroom! The next time you see some strange mushrooms growing in a potted plant now you know what they likely are and don't have to worry about a thing. So that's it for this episode of Lost In The Farmers Market, See you next time!

Summer on the Horizon!

Welcome back to another fine episode of Lost in the farmer’s market where today we will be presenting the farmer’s market plant list early, and talking about how to grow a specific vegetable that seems to be on a lot of our fellow gardeners minds that’s right for today’s episode we will be talking about growing potatoes. But before we get in to the fine art of growing your own vodka plants, I’d like to take a moment to show you some shots from the garden to show you gardeners out there some plants worth considering for your own back yards.

What is spring without an obligatory rhododendron? This one is part of the shady rock garden and has not bloomed once since I moved to North Carolina.  Rhododendrons do work in North Carolina but require special placement and soil considerations.

Bloody Dock is a perennial member of the Rumex family its better known relative is the Sorrel you see in the gourmet greens at the supermarket. Typically this plant is grown as an ornamental however the young leaves are plenty edible but do require either to be sliced fine in salads or cooked a bit extra in stews.

Pesto Purpetuo Basil is one of those basil varieties that has sweet basil flavor but produces no flowers so all leaf all day all night. You can get these plants out at Eastover Garden Center.

This is Red Rubin basil one of my old time favorite red-purple basils because of it’s true to form mutations. In any given batch of seed most will come out the color above but a few might have reverted to green or have freckles. In the kitchen it is used the same as sweet basil and makes for a wicked looking but good pesto.

Penstemon or Beardtongue is a tough perennial that blooms in dramatic reds, pinks and associated shades like you see above. There are dozens of varieties on the market and this is just one of many but all are worth every penny in the garden.

Many people think of sage as the kitchen herb and forget the ornamental sages are quite expressive in the garden. This variety is called ‘May night’ and is heat, drought, neglect and resistant to deer grazing damage. Additionally they happen to be readily available and are rather inexpensive.

Now on to the topic at hand; for today’s main topic I will be discussing how to grow your own potatoes in your back yard. It is a common misnomer that potatoes take up large amounts of space and are hard to grow. The truth is that they are relatively easy but require special care and considerations as well as for your own sake special placement so you can get at your harvest bounty.  The first thing to know is that potatoes are not grown from planting tubers that have significant amounts of growths emerging from the eyes. In fact those eyes and a little slice of potato are what you want. Generally a potato left in a sunny window long enough will sprout in a few weeks and that is how the home owner can get a seedling potato. Now keep in mind some companies irradiate their tubers so they cannot grow so you want to try and get a seed tuber from an organic source or a farmer’s market.

This is representative of a white potato 'Slip' after some exposure to moisture and sunlight, note the eye growing roots.

In comparison, a Sweet Potato, which is in a different family then white potatoes grows it's starting stems as seen.

With a bit more exposure to moisture and soil medium a slip looks like this in about  ten days.

At fourteen days a potato slip's roots elongate greatly and the stems turn to find light.

At 20 days the potato slip has a working root system and pretty much with care can produce other potatoes with time.

A potato slip planted in a 1 quart pot at 28 days looks something like the plants above. When you hear of heirloom tomatoes with a "potato leaf" this is sort of what they mean, both plants are in the nightshade family and in theory it is possible to graft one onto the other.

At the test gardens this is how we grow our white potatoes. The tubers are planted in a 30 gallon nursery pot, and the top covered over with chicken wire as you can see. More soil will be added as the potato stalks grow to encourage side-shoots and further tuber development. The screen discourages squirrels from digging while the black pot keeps the soil just a bit to warm for most pests.

The three potato pots at the test gardens are raised on two pieces of paving stone so they can drain better, and arranged to catch the most sunlight possible. I might add they are very close to a source of water to facilitate watering if they go dry.

 Growing potatoes for your self is relatively easy, all you need to is provide plenty of room for the tubers, ample water and fertilizer. Protecting your crop from critters and pests is reasonably easy as most problems are very visible and can be remedied by any number of non-chemical means. Other possible methods to grow potatoes includes whiskey barrel planters, raised beds and this method as seen on the Urban farm tour some years ago.

 the brick structure in the middle is a Potato chimney, it uses the same principle as the  yam beds in the test gardens. A raised structure filled with the best soil possible that acts as a controlled environment to maximize production with minimized space. As a side note, that guy on the left doing all the pointing and talking, ignore him he's a total goofball.

This weekend you can come and speak to me in person at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market. The market is located on 325 Franklin Street and operates between the hours of 9am and 1pm, though if last weekend was any indicator we were there until almost 2pm. Barring significant rain I will be there and will have cool and unusual stuff. In fact to that point in two weeks or so I will be bringing Mountain Mint as one of the sale items. In case your not familiar, Mountain Mint is a well-behaved mint relative with all the same uses as normal mint except it grows rigidly upright.

Also I’ll be teamed up with the Sustainable neighbors, so you can come on by the sustainability booth and get some good information about sustainability, local foods, organics and heck even stuff about why GMO is so bad. As promised here is the plant list of what will be available for sale at the booth this week

Cucumbers & Melons: Kiwano (1x), Armenian Cucumber (2x), Poona Kheera Cucumber (2x).

Leaf Greens: Red-Leaf Amaranth (3x), Turkish Rocket (3x), Red Malabar Spinach (4x)

Herbs: Sweet Basil (6x).

Ornamentals: Castor Bean “Red Weed” (3x)

Fruit: Ground Cherry “Cossack Pineapple” (1x).

Tomatoes: San Marzano (4x), Mexican Midget (1x), Solar Fire (1x), Underground Rail Road (1x).

Eggplant: Nyakati (3x), Early Black Egg (1x), Turkish Italian Orange (2x), Louisiana Long Green (1x), Striped Togo (1x)

Potatoes: Dark Caribe (1x), Carola (5x)

Also I will have copies of Southward Skies Second Edition available for purchase at the market. The book is 120 pages of gardening tips tricks and information that is useful for gardeners of all skill levels. Each book is $25.00 and of course at request you can get it signed and pose any questions about it you’d like.

That said this wraps up another episode of lost in the farmer’s market, we’ll continue to post cool stuff up here as it happens so feel free to check back as the season progresses. Remember folks, all these spring rains are nice but it also means the weeds and the lawn grow faster so if your mower isn’t ready get set to kick some grass that aside as always keep ‘em growin!