Things do happen

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market. This episode will be cut short, in that last storm one of the pine trees at the test gardens came down. Thankfully the damage is not too terrible, but it’s going to be an interesting clean up project. Some would view this situation as a bad thing, I see it as an opportunity, the area where the tree came down was overgrown, and really needed a clearing. Also, perhaps once the clearing is completed maybe some new garden beds can be established back there. With that said I have some photos of the downed tree, and some interesting garden photos. 

So, let me talk about that downed tree for a moment. The tree actually had been dead for a few years and I did little about it because it was a thirty-foot tall pine that realistically I had no tools to handle. I did clean up whatever fell off it  but it was in an area bordering the old woodland garden which I had only begun to clean up and recover this year. At about 6pm on Saturday the 16th during some of that high wind gust activity with the rain and such I heard a series of loud cracking noises and cringed waiting for the secondary sound no one ever wants to hear, a loud thump followed by shaking of the house. You see trees dont fall quietly, the cracking is their branches shearing off, and the thump is them hitting the ground, any other sound with that means they hit a structure and that is the worst kind of sound.When the rain east off a little an hour or so later I ventured out to assess damage thinking "please dont let it be one of the hundred footers....please not the two crooked ones..." and at first I could not tell what fell. I looked at the two crooked trees and could not see anything but a few two-inch caliper branches had snapped off. No biggie, I looked at the other trees, and the same was true, small stuff, no big deal, and then I saw the downed tree in the photographs, the dead tree had snapped at about ten feet up and came down in three pieces of trunk. It's bulk landed roughly in the path behind the crescent bed but some of it's smaller parts fell on and around the old woodland garden beds and on a rare specimen plant in the woodland gardens. That specimen is a Coastal Doghobble ( Leucothoe axillaris ), that plant was the single most successful thing planted in the woodland gardens, and the first non-food producing shrub planted on the property back in 2009. Its a rare plant because you virtually never see them in nurseries, something about how they are kind of bland, yet make an incredible living screen that gets up to seven feet tall. Well anyway, it's a big mess, but thankfully nothing irreplaceable was destroyed or damaged.

This was the top few feet of the tree.

the largest section of trunk.

The trunk ended up landing mostly on the path between the rear of the crescent bed and the old woodland garden.

I know it's not clear, but about ten feet of the tree remains upright.

 

A different angle on the same thing but with the downed tree in the picture.

With all that tree damage covered,  for the first time I managed to snap several pictures of plants that were actively being frosted by cold weather. All of the following photos were taken late at night with the flash on during the frost on the 10th of November. These same plants shrugged off the two days of 25 degree frost we got on the 12th and 13th.  There is a certain level of beauty to the silvery glazing some of the plants got. While I have discussed the mechanism by which cabbage family plants counter freezing damage, the fact is that they also counter it in the same way they counter overheating and dehydration, wilting.

Frost on Dino Kale, and Scotch Blue Kale.

Frost on Collards.

More different frost on Siberian Kale and red giant mustard.

More frosted winter greens.

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:

All the Stuff:

Soup Kits: $6.00

Seasoning Packets: $2.00

Ginger, 4oz Packet: $2.00

Vegetables:

Collards, Green Glaze: 3” - $3.00

Mustard, Japanese Red Giant: 3” - $3.00

Kale, Scotch Blue Curled: 3” - $3.00

Kale, Dinosaur: 3” - $3.00

Swiss Chard: 3” - $3.00

Houseplants & Annuals:

Polka-Dot Plants: 6” - $5.00

Kalanchoe: 4.5” - $4.00

Coming Soon:

Whole Garlic

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 twenty-third LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 29^th of November. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

The end of June 2015

Welcome back to another episode of Lost In The Farmers Market. I have to open this post with a bit about weather safety. As you may realize, the recent weather has brought us a lot of rain, but also with it comes a bit of danger. As those of you who live in Fayetteville might have noticed, the thunderstorms while excellent at providing much needed rain, are also perfect conditions for high winds, potential tornadoes, flash floods and or hail. There is also the risk of downed trees, and flying debris to consider. In our last storm we received 1.6” of rain and the one before that 2” and the mega storm two weeks ago 3”, this poses several problems. The fertilizer you applied in your fields may have washed out, yet you’re getting a mega-dose of atmospheric nitrogen. Likewise with all the water flowing through you may have lost some topsoil. These storm cycles are excellent for certain crops such as figs but terrible for more delicate fruits. In the end I advise that all of you who read this remember to take caution during storms, the severe weather advisories seen on TV and the Radio are no joke even if the weird sound effects on the radio ones make them seem so.

With that in mind I did not attend the Saturday market this week because of the weather, we had a line of ugly storms come through on Friday evening and they persisted into the early morning hours of Saturday. Honestly, with the high daytime temperatures and the thunderstorm activity, I think we can officially call it Monsoon season. Despite this, as you know, we are in the middle of transfer season, the spring veggies are nearing their end, but the summer herbs, and perennials are just about to begin. I’ll keep a variety of peppers tomatoes and a few other odds and ends available, but expect more of the fine summer specials, and of course aloe vera plants in three sizes for your medicinal enjoyment. The new plant list should be available and posted up here later in the week.  In the next post I’m going to show you some tricks to help keep your garden irrigated in these difficult weather conditions. For this week I finish this post with a photo or two.

Aloe barbadensis/vera – Medicinal Aloe

This is ‘Big Mother’ the oldest aloe in the collection and the largest potted house plant I own. I’ve had this plant for about five years, and for most of that time it has been in an small 6” pot. The aloe plant was so heavy that it used to top over its old pot so I had to put it in a large thick-walled container made out of terra cotta and weigh it down with stones so it would not tip over. Earlier this year ‘Big Mother’ was repotted finally to a much larger 12” pot as seen in the picture. All the little aloes I’m selling came from this one plant and as you can see, this aloe is now free of pups.  Grown 100% organically, you will have a hard time finding healthier plants.

Adenium obesum – Desert Rose

The desert Rose is one of those plants that a plant enthusiast seeks out for the reward of its blooms. Sort of like a Holiday cactus in use, the Desert rose validates the effort to find one by blooming once a year with stunning blooms that are pink, red or some shade in-between. A well cared for Desert rose will bloom twice a year or in the case of mine twice a year and on every stem. The blooms can be so heavy that the stems bend and desert roses can get so large that they resemble a small shrub with corky bark. As for care, you barely water or fertilize this succulent and treat it like a true tropical. This puts a cork in the bottle for this weeks post, check back for another post later detailing the current plant selection and DIY irrigation tricks.