July; a month that clearly has no idea what it's doing

Welcome back to a shortened episode of Lost in The Farmers Market. As some of you out there may have noticed there was no episode last week. We decided due to workload that it was a wise idea to take that week off and do a ‘half’ post this week for the same reason. Normal episodes will resume next week and this brings us to the current topic.

As you’ve noticed we had a long stretch with no appreciable rain, the latest thunderstorm on Thursday dropped 0.8” on the test gardens and spread that across a few hours. Some would consider a thunderstorm that takes several hours a bad thing however for the purposes of irrigation and replenishment of ground water a slow rainstorm is actually better than a heavy fast one. One of the obvious reasons a rainy day beats a series of short heavy down pours is that rain over time tends to produce less flooding problems. Now to be fair several days of heavy rain will still cause floods just not of the same sort where water is raging though neighborhoods from a torrential downpour that’s also tossing hail.

I’ve said before that thunderstorms are good for the garden and agriculture in general because with the rain comes a slight dose of atmospheric nitrogen. This nitrogen does not stay but it is there just long enough to green everything up for a few days. I might add if this nitrogen is applied over say a few hours…there is a greater chance for your plants to capture and use more of it, also the slow rain ensures that the soil is moistened to a deeper level than might be possible in a short downpour. In fact a short storm poses a greater chance to increase soil loss by the movement of water. What you have is a debate on how much is enough. The test garden rain barrel water levels were at 50% before as the recent and frequent waves of random thunder-showers have done much to keep the irrigation water supply full.

There is the subtle effect of water passing through the soil structure that we must be wary of. Nutrient loss is a common problem in sand-heavy soils that comes from a lack of organic matter and the tendency of sandy soils to lean towards the acidic side of the pH scale. The varied degrees of Acidity in a given soil will allow or prevent your plants from accessing certain critical nutrients. For instance at a pH of 4.0 Nitrogen, Calcium, Molybdenum, Phosphorous, Potassium, Sulfur, Manganese and Boron are limited in their availability to your plants and yet at the same pH Iron, Manganese Zinc, Copper and Cobalt are fully available to a potential that may be toxic.  Ironically your ambient soil pH if kept between 6.0 and 7.0 will auto balance what nutrients it has with exception for any generally low nutrient where the pH is not affecting it’s accessibility to your crops.

On a local Level I have talked about how calcium deficiency causes blossom end rot in tomatoes in general but is especially problematic in paste tomatoes. In this case the regular rains are somewhat of a mixed blessing. On one had regular rain means good growth and fruit formation, but on the other hand with every rain my responses to blossom end rot are being washed away.

The quandary here is that the quickest acting materials at hand are reduced in effectiveness by drenching rains. The slowest acting ones are too slow to do anything in the short term. So the response is simply to increase doses of the short term solution (calcium carbonate) and couple it with a median response material (crushed eggshells) and apply a long term solution (agricultural lime). All three things are organic, all three things have the same effect over time and all three leave no lasting side-effects on the local environment. Rain or not, sometimes it takes a creative and multiple stage strategy to defeat nutrient problems in the field.

But enough about the battle against nutrient deficiency,  as always the conversation shifts from plant information to the activity at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market. This weekend weather wise is set to be quite nice with temperatures in the 90’s and modest humidity but a very low chance of precipitation. I would say that is rather fortunate as it makes for some good market weather. The Fayetteville Farmer’s Market is located at 325 Franklin Street in downtown Fayetteville. The market is open on Wednesdays from 2:00 pm through 6:00 pm and on Saturdays from 9:00 am through 1:00pm. I might add I maintain a table at both market days and my plant selection varies a bit between so, I can assure you it’s always interesting. I might add this week there are some new selections and this is just the start, as I mentioned a few times before, once we hit mid-July through August the strange plants start appearing at the booth including rare and unusual houseplants. The plant list for the Saturday Market is below and there may be some random extras not listed that make it to the table.

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

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

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

3x Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Eggplant, Louisiana Long Green, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Pepper, Lemon Drop, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x 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, Carolina Wonder, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tomato, Brown Berry, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Martino’s Roma, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tomato, Rainbow Cherry Mix, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Tomato, Red & Yellow Currant, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Reisotomate, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

3x Horned Melon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Vine Peaches, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Herbs

4x Basil, Sweet, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Blue African, , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil, Thai, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Basil, Cinnamon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Basil, Red Rubin, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Artemesia, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Chives, Common, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Fennel, Black, 7” pot ($6.00)

3x Lavender, Hidcote, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Rosemary, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Thyme, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Ornamental:

1x Passion Vine, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Coneflower, Cheyenne Spirit, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Rudbeckia, Golden, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Muscadine, Copper

Red Egyptian Onions

With the end of the plant materials list for the Saturday market we bring to an end this week’s episode of Lost In The Farmers Market.  Feel free to ask about any of our content at the booth or through this blog. As always, keep ‘em growing.

I knew it was bad when I saw the dandelions making an ark.

Welcome back to the first May edition of Lost in the farmer’s Market, and you’ve heard me repeat that old rhyme ‘April showers bring may flowers’ but what’s been going on this week is well completely ridiculous. Fortunately despite being bunkered by an obscene amount of rain, thunderstorm activity and two separate hailstorm events I managed to catch the super storms on camera and collected the precipitation report.  Now I hope all you gardening-maniacs out there are sitting down because we received an average rainfall of 5.3” between Monday and Wednesday alone, and an additional 0.2” last week so that’s a total of 5.5” which is literally some crazy weather. On Tuesday we received about three inches which included high winds, violent electrical activity and Hailstones that looked like this guy below.

Yes that’s for reals, they were irregular hailstones no real size but roughly about the diameter of a dime.

It seems as of late we get a hailstorm yearly now and that’s probably a validating point for climate change. But anyway, here’s some pictures from the front porch of the ranch of the deluge in action.

See those weird ‘spheres’ in the picture? They aren’t lens flare or moisture on the lens that’s light reflecting off the hail as they ricochet off the roof.

For comparison, I bring you the rare and elusive Roof-Waterfall, right up there next to seeing a double rainbow and in mystified fashion pondering what it means.

Yeah so the weather was kind of a big deal, the amount of rain overwhelmed the new drain system briefly and flooded the rear deck. Fortunately as part of flood preparedness I had already elevated all electrical devices several inches above the deck and water proofed everything else as well so no damage to be had.  Or so I thought, I went to get the mail on Wednesday afternoon.

At the time this pooling seemed harmless, I mean the front sidewalk was under an inch of water the lawn was clearly saturated and then…

I had not realized at the time the front lawn is on a slope, in fact the entire property was on a slope. None of the pictures show it but all that water rushing from back to front exerted enough force to suck six bricks out of the front bed by the curb and wash them down the street almost to Ireland Drive. When I discovered this while maintaining the front bed initially I thought the mailman had hit the beds again and perhaps busted a few bricks and discarded them. A neighbor told me he’d seen the bricks up the road a bit and well sure enough… But that leads to the discovery of something else of note. During all that the antique rose on premises decided to bloom and I think it is the most spectacular rose bloom I’ve ever seen. Older photographs indicate it’s never produced a triple-bloom before like this but judge for yourselves.

I left the garden scissors in this image to show how giant this flower is.

So in the aftermath of the ‘Uber Storm of  Spring 2014 the following pictures were taken of the garden. As you can figure, if the rose bloomed despite the conditions then other things did also and so the glory of spring really came into its own after the fact. So lets make with the garden floral show.

Check it out; the Rhubarb has finally after five years matured enough to bloom! The flowers aren’t open yet but now you know what to look for.

There are many Irises on the property, and originally they used to bloom blue but they have become dominated by white and yellow varieties, expect a picture of the yellow ones soon.

The ornamental sage plants in the curbside bed were undamaged and responded to the deluge by blooming more.

The Arapaho Blackberries are in full bloom this year and looking good.

While not in bloom, the foliage of this rescued Heuchera is worth a look. Its unique coloration is visible from a distance and its eventual bloom is no slouch either. Every year this garden perennial gets better and is solid proof of what you get when you place a plant perfectly. Some of the readers might remember I salvaged this plant off the roadside after some landscaper dumped it in the Haymont section.

Also while avoiding a sudden downpour on Wednesday I snapped this picture of one of the rabbits that passes through the property while taking shelter in the shed.

I never knew rabbits ate wisteria, looks like they've become double useful!

But photographs aside I bring to all of you the first Skye Project Test Garden Challenge. That’s right, this one all started with a comment made by a visitor to the Farmer’s Market booth a few months back when it was too cold to really plant anything. As I recall the conversation went something like the following.

Me: “Have you tried installing rain barrels to bring your water bill down?”

Customer: “No I haven’t.”

Me: “Well you know they come in a variety of shapes colors and sizes or at the least there are the big fifty-five gallon ones the county sells for thirty-five dollars…”

Customer: “I don’t think I like them.”

Me: “Why not, you said you had a high bill for watering…short of a soaker hose or irrigation system that can really cut a garden increased water bill.”

Customer: “It’s just that they’re so ugly!”

Me: “I’m sorry what?!”

From there you can guess how the conversation went but still yes I realize rain barrels are not exactly pretty. I know the county ones are basically large black pickle barrels and thus are definitely not pretty but it got me thinking. If appearance is a problem how can we as gardeners fix that? We’re incredibly inventive folk right? So that brings us to the 2014 Garden Challenge, how would you make your Rain barrels more attractive?

What I did at the test gardens was to buy several of those hanging planting pouches, and plant them out with  red, purple, and red and white petunias as well as some moss rose in pink and pink & white varieties. Then to hold the plating backs up I secured a length of chain around the neck of the barrel and held it in place using a joining link, and installed six heavy S-hooks to hold the sacks up. The results are pictured below but keep in mind the sacks got a little beat up by the rain so I’ll take a later shot after the plants get going.

Right side: (from right) Bravo Red Petunia, Samba Fuscia & Peppermint Moss Rose.

Center: (from right) Bravo Purple Petunia, Picotee Red Petunia.

Left Side: (from right) Bravo Red Petunia, Samba Fuscia & Peppermint Moss Rose.

For note what you can’t see is on the end of that dangling chain in the left side picture is a hanging basket filled with Bravo Red Petunias. So, why did I pick the layout and colors? Well red flowers tend to attract Humming birds as some of you may have seen this is what the entire back deck looks like. All the hanging baskets are filled with petunias, which left the rain barrel lacking. By the middle of summer I expect this to look incredi-epic. Seriously as you can see below that’s a lot of tomatoes growing up and a lot of petunias growing down, my back deck may disappear for a few months because of this.

I told you all at the market I went a bit overboard, and some of you thought I was joking too!

But that’s just a fraction of the challenge I want to see what all the readers do.  Will you take up the challenge and try something for 2014?  Make sure to take pictures at the start and as your project grows.

With all that said, the market is on this weekend and it looks like the weather has broken. Saturday is supposed to be rather nice with a high of 77 degrees a slight wind and no noted chance of rain. In short, this is perfect weather for the Farmer’s Market. Now the market is located at 325 Franklin Street in the parking lots of the Fayetteville Transportation Museum. The Museum is located in downtown Fayetteville and the Market runs from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm though given the time of the year it may run a bit over if there are enough folks at the market.  Also for note we will have a presence at the Wednesday Farmer’s market at the same location which runs between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm on Wednesdays weather permitting. But enough of this market stuff here is a list of what we will be carrying this week at the market.

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.

Black Magic Fertilizer

That’s right you’ve heard about it in trials all summer. This specially formulated liquid fertilizer was made and tested at the test gardens using natural ingredients and no chemicals. The result explosive growth, great harvests and of course no environmental side effects! We’re making batches of this stuff to order, at $6.00 per gallon of fertilizer.

Vegetables

2x Asparagus, Gallon pot ($6.00)

3x Bloody Dock, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Borage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Eggplant, Casper , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Pepper, Sweet Banana , 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Pepper, Pimento, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Tomato, Amana Orange, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

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

1x Tomato, Cherokee Purple, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Tlacolula, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Black Krim, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Tomato, Paul Robeson, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Fruits

10x Strawberry- Ozark Beauty, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Strawberry- Ozark Beauty, 5” pot ($4.00)

Herbs

3x Basil-Sweet, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Basil-Thai, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Basil-Cinnamon, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Borage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Horehound, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

2x Lamb’s Ear, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

1x Lavender-Cotton-Green, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Marjoram, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

4x Oregano, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Sage, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

3x Tansy, 3.5” pot ($3.00)

Coming Soon:

Chocolate Mint

Bee Balm

Red Rubin Basil

Genovese Basil

Black Hungarian Pepper

Striped Togo Eggplant

Louisiana Long Green Eggplant

Early Black Egg Eggplant

Rainbow Cherry Tomato Mix

Red & Yellow Currant Tomatoes

Mexico Midget Tomato

Triple Crop Tomato

…and the above is just the beginning!

This draws to a close the first rain soaked episode of LITFM in the month of May. It may be a cruel irony that after our weather everything outside is literally super-green. It also stands as a good reason to have a rain barrel when you consider how much of that water could have been stored and used. But anyway, just remember one thing, after a rain like this always check on your potted plants that have saucers as they may not drain fully. Standing water in that case may promote root rot or encourage mosquitoes to breed in the water. For pots outside without a means of drainage you can carefully set them on their side to let the water runoff, though this may take upwards of an hour for larger pots.  So with that said, Keep ‘em growing!

P.S.  I missed the exact date but LITFM has now had 10,651 page views!  Keep them garden visits coming folks and thank you for reading.

Despite some Bad news, The show goes on!

Welcome back to another Episode of Lost in the Farmer’s Market, your weekly guide to sustainable property management techniques and general plant geek mayhem. This weeks episode will unfortunately feature few if any images and I cannot say that the following episodes will be any different, as we open this episode with some bad news. Some time in the late afternoon on Friday of last week the BL2 HQ, often referred to here as ‘The Clark Ranch’ was broken into and ransacked. We lost our camera and a few other things but comparatively we lucked out as far as Burglaries go. Now this means that unfortunately this block may be using existing stock images on fine or no images at all as we cannot take pictures to show off projects or things seen in the field. We will of course to continue with the quality literary works but, sadly the images of garden geek action no can do. With this in mind, we bring you now to this week’s topic and ask that you bear with us while we make due during the current situation.

Today I’d like to talk about the effect of rain and weather on your watering schedule. I think most gardeners have been at that point where they look outside and see it’s raining a bit perhaps from a pop-up thundershower and breathe a sigh of relief that they don’t have to water the crops for at least another day.  But you have to wonder what it is after a brief rain that makes your plants go from wilting drama queens to examples of excellent gardening care in such a short time. The answer is simple enough, no not soil moisture but sheer humidity. You would be surprise how little a plant, even a cutting of one wilts if the humidity is very high. Part of this is because the plant is losing less moisture then its outside surfaces are taking in. This complete state of wetness also reduces the ambient temperature somewhat lessening heat stress for long enough to get past the days apex heat in theory.  So basically what you see is a natural response to the plant not suffering as much from heat and moisture loss.  It’s a win-win for everybody you do less work and your plants look great for a while. The down side is that a brief shower is no real match for a drenching rain or you actually going out and watering so often the effect is temporary and has the nasty side-effect of stirring up the mosquitoes. 

Thunderstorms play a different role in comparison to rain showers because they often deliver a comparatively greater amount of rain over a short period of time. This extra precipitation can be the cause of flash flood warnings and sometimes severe soil erosion. But thunderstorms do just one very important thing, they ionize atmosphere wherever they are, and by doing so draw atmospheric nitrogen, into their precipitation and by way of their rain deliver tiny amounts of nitrogen to the land. If you have ever noticed the day after a thunderstorm everything is super green, it’s because of the nitrogen. Nitrogen is pretty capricious, it dissipates so quickly that the USDA Soil Lab wont even test for it because they know it wont be in the sample by the time it gets to the lab in any useful amount.  I might add it has been noted in some reputable publications that being downwind of a thunderstorm and thus receiving the spike in humidity it causes is sometimes enough to get a weak greening effect. Not bad at all if you consider those may showers we talk of in rhyme and those night time and afternoon summer storms are actually doing you a double-favor. Rain itself is a godsend because it can flush the water-soluble pollutants out of the soil (such as salt) with successive rains as well as aid plants in developing a deep root system and support better yields.

That said watering from water storage devices does trap some of whatever trace elements are in the rain, but not any useful amount of the nitrogen. However in most cases unlike water pulled from a well or a municipal source collected water tends to be closer to pH neutral except in regions with heavy pollution. This makes collected rainwater an important resource for transplanting and deep irrigation while tap, well or municipal water is somewhat better for use during droughts. The chlorine in tap water actually serves a surprising use in the garden as it can be applied to aid in calcium uptake in vegetables or fruits such as those in the nightshade family to avoid blossom end rot. Admittedly it’s a bit of an expensive solution when compared to dolomitic or hydrated lime but it does in the right measure with a set amount of dissolved Epsom salts aid in countering some soil deficiency issues.

The last and perhaps most important aspect of this topic that needs to be addressed is the ‘Deep and Infrequent’ principle of irrigation. Basically it has been proven that watering a little but more frequently benefits your plants less then if you water heavily but infrequently. The reason for this is that shallow watering does not promote deep roots. Basically what happens is your garden plant if watered shallowly will develop most of its roots near the soil surface and thus be more subject to drought and heat related stress. Additionally soil nutrient depletion may occur over time ruining the longevity of a garden plot. Now the deep and infrequent concept holds that you would like to have 1” of water per week total at least. There are little devices you can get to measure the amount of water you are applying in inches at most hardware stores but it’s better to get a actual rain gauge and monitor weekly rainfall amounts to get a feel for your own specific area. Deep and infrequent is important as a watering method because you are ensuring that a larger column of soil is being wet by the applied moisture. The effect is that your plant’s roots radiate out through the soil strata more evenly and thus are better prepared to suck up every drop of moisture that comes their way as well as being better able to get at any near ground water that might be below. This even rooting zone translates to more uniform nutrient uptake and improved drought, pest and disease resistance as the plants are stronger overall. In the end this all translates to a sigh of relief in the drought season for you because you know that those plants out there can handle the brief periods when you cannot add extra water and no rain is forthcoming. In short, you and nature have struck a deal, and it’s mutually beneficial.

Despite the summer heat I am still manning the booth down at the Fayetteville Farmers / City Market in downtown Fayetteville. Keep in mind the venue is open rain or shine with the proviso that obviously violent storms are about the only thing to impact the market being open. The market runs from 9:00 am through 1:00pm and is located at 325 Franklin Street. As always there will be great handouts about soil conservation and wildlife management and of course copies of my book Southward Skies.

5x Burgundy Okra

2x Nankeen Cotton

5x Ghost Pepper (Sweet)

12x Banana Pepper (Sweet)

11x Red Carolina Wonder Pepper (Sweet, Bell)

3x Chinese Ornamental Peppers (very hot)

2x Large Beef Steak Tomato

6x Small Beefsteak Tomato

1x Roma Tomato (Cooking Type)

1x San Marzano Tomato (Cooking type)

1x Sedum (Groundcover)

-plus whatever else fits in the truck!-

Next week

4x Spear Sanseveria (Houseplant)

4x Sangria Pepper (Ornamental)

3x Litchi Tomato

Available Soon

3x Red Peter Pepper (Spicy)

4x Green Carolina Wonder (Sweet, Bell)

1x Peperomia Verticiliata (Houseplant)

15x Egyptian Onion

With all that said thank you for continuing to support our humble endeavor by reading this page, and commenting when you do. Next week’s topic will cover another aspect handling the summer heat as well as a related bonus topic focusing on plain cool plant stuff.