A Day In the Life: Natural Alternatives to Chemicals

Welcome back to your weekly edition of Lost In the Farmer’s Market, a balanced garden guide for navigating the often confusing world of sustainable, organic garden practices. Today’s topic is about natural alternatives to the usual cadre of chemicals sold by the average garden center. At the article’s end is a bit about the urban farm tour coming up and what we at Lost in the Farmer’s Market are doing there. But before we get to the main topic or the farm tour here is this episode's plant spotlight!

Blue African Basil - Ocimum kilimandscharicum × basilicum 'Dark Opal'

This Blue African Basil is growing on my front porch in a 6" pot it makes for an excellent long-season potted plant when used to mark the edges of boundaries.

Blue African Basil has been one of my long-standing favorites since I first saw it sold by Gilberties Herbs back in the 1990's. Back then it was somewhat rare and hard to get but now  you see it more regularly and occasionally you do see it sold by Bonnie Plants. As the botanical Latin name suggests this basil is a cross between Dark Opal basil and Camphor basil which means it has a higher camphor content but some or all of the appealing values of the Dark Opal basil. The overall flavor is a bit more pungent which makes for some powerful pesto, and thus it's best use is with pasta and vegetables or in stews that need extra aromatic and seasoning power. In general however it serves a useful role as a source of pollen and nectar for pollinators and hummingbirds and as seen in the picture above it's blooms are no slouch in the looks department. Occasionally a well grown stand of blue African basil can be mistaken for lavender from a distance due to the similar bloom color. Lastly is the sheer size, blue african basil takes on an teardrop shape over all and can form a large herbaceous shrub by the time it is killed by frost in our climate. As a final note it is commonly stated that Blue African Basil is sterile, however from tests in the Skye Project Gardens and reports from other gardeners this is not entirely true at least in North Carolina.

Now without further ado, we bring you the main topic of today's post, six natural alternatives to chemicals.

Beer Traps

Slug Genocide! This trap was placed about a week ago as a last-ditch effort to kill off anything that might be eating my marigolds as it had already eaten my Tobago seasoning peppers. This trap in total had 47 slugs in it the next day when this picture was taken...in short we now know the culprit.

Before you ask; the beer trap does not refer to a policeman parking his cruiser near a local bar on a Friday night. But considering what these do the critters they catch probably think it is darn close. The beer trap is an oddball way to handle one or two specific pests slugs/snails and certain types of roaches. The idea behind it is simple as noted below:

1. Acquire a few pot saucers of the plastic type with low edges.
2. Place around your garden in the evening with the saucers buried in the soil up to their outer lip or alternately mound the mulch up around the saucer.
3. Fill partly with the cheapest but highest alcohol content beer you can find, 6% is ok, 8% is good 12% might be a bit much.
4. Check saucers the next day.

Simply put for some reason that is unknown to me, slugs in particular are attracted to beer, and thus with beer traps out they wander in hit the booze and die. The higher the alcohol content the more likely the slugs are to outright dissolve in your beer trap and thus no worries about cleanup. The traps can be hosed out and used repeatedly thus allowing you to reduce slug problems and monitor pest populations. Additionally you may see a variety of critters in the traps such as roaches, wasps, gnats and pill bugs.

Glass Cleaner

 These aphids never knew what hit them, serves them right for messing with my chicory plants!

Yes Windex is a responsible pesticide as it turns out it is the ammonia in this largely inert household cleaning solution that takes down flying pests effectively. Products like Windex that use ammonia are largely effective because they volatilize rapidly. The target insect when hit will breathe them in and suffer complete respiratory failure depending on size instantly or within a few minutes. This is especially effective against singular wasps and aphids. Another nice effect of glass cleaner is that it often disallows the target insect flight probably due the weight of the fluid or simply because it softens the wing membranes. If using glass cleaner on a aphid problem make sure to water the plant thoroughly and have the pray bottle set to mist as opposed to stream then carefully douse the pests. Aphids often will die in place for the most part while a few may fall off but the effect is the same one less pest.

Rubbing Alcohol

Got a plant covered with what appears to be a number of scales or tiny little gross looking cotton swabs? If you said yes the rubbing alcohol is the pesticide for you. The two insects mentioned above are Scale Insect and Mealy Bugs both of which pose a problem even to high end pesticides due to their body coatings. The scale insect forms a waxy protective cover once it settles down on a plant and this coating is largely impervious to most pesticide applications. The mealy bug forms a waxy fuzzy sort of coating that repels liquid and thus a number of pesticides don’t work on these bugs.

Rubbing alcohol preferably Isopropyl 90% however effectively kills both on contact and has no lasting effects on the subject plant. The key is to apply some rubbing alcohol to an already damp cloth and then wipe the offending insects of your plant, the alcohol kills any eggs or immature insects it comes into contact with and the wiping action kills off the adults. A secondary bonus is the fact that rubbing alcohol also will kill off any sooty mold or powdery mildew on your plant caused by the excretions of aphids, mealybugs and or scale insects it also will dissolve the honeydew also. Not bad for a mere topical disinfectant.

Sticky Traps

Some times available in garden centers the venerable sticky trap is an excellent tool for monitoring pest populations but also is a great way to lower flying pest populations. Normally a sticky trap is a piece of paper or plastic with a sticky coating on both sides that has a bright yellow or some times green coloration. The color serves as the main attractant as pests such as gnats, thirps, flies, whiteflies and some times aphids are attracted to the color and get stuck. The bulk advantage is that sticky traps are 100% chemical free, rarely hurt beneficial insects and can be used indoors and outdoors equally well.  Since the pests cannot get free of the traps when the trap becomes covered with stuff you can simply toss it out and there goes the pests with it!  Cheap, effective and totally environment-friendly.

Comfrey Symphytum x uplandicum ‘Bocking 14’

Comfrey seems to be the most unknown herb in the gardening world, many books to not cover it, few magazines praise it, in fact its cousin Borage gets far more press and often it is excluded also. So what exactly is this perennial good for? Comfrey is somewhat of a hyper accumulator which means it stores larger then average levels of nutrients in its leaves but also its roots exude a certain chemical that accelerates the decomposition of organic matter in the soil making it a great ally when you desire to speed up the progress of a compost pile. Lastly there are a few herbal medical uses for the plant.

How to make Comfrey Fertilizer

1. Harvest a cup of leaves.
2. Add to a bucket containing 1 quart of water (per cup of leaves).
3. Make sure the bucket has a lid and cover the bucket to avoid contamination.
4. Allow the leaves and water to sit undisturbed for at least a week.
5. Check bucket regularly until water has turned black or very dark brown.
6. Strain out the leaves and add to compost.
7. Resulting fluid in bucket is the high potency fertilizer.

Depending on the conditions where your comfrey was grown you may need to dilute this mix a little or a lot, but the resulting fluid is still an effective and 100% organic fertilizer.

In addition to being an inexpensive fertilizer the fluid can be used to accelerate the decomposition in a compost pile and be used to aid in breaking down tree stumps.

Pyrethrum Daisy Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium

 Also known as Dalmatian Chrysanthemum the Pyrethrum Daisy is a somewhat rangy plant with interesting foliage and cheery but typical daisy flowers.

The pyrethrum daisy is the source of the insecticide known as pyrethrum. Surprisingly it is a somewhat weedy looking plant with tall flower heads that identify that it is an absolute member of the daisy family. Pyrethrum as a pesticide is effective because it has a nearly instant kill effect but requires contact and yet has little residual action on its own and thus naturally made pyrethrum pesticide will have little ecological effect. In case you are wondering the part that supplies the pesticide is the flower heads. Opened flower heads like the ones in the picture can be picked and dried face down. Below is a recipe for making pyrethrum pesticide. The seeds of Pyrethrum daisy can be bought through Richter’s Herbs of Canada, but remember pyrethrum daisies are  not an easy plant to grow from seed so be patient.

How to Make Natural pesticide

1. Bring the three cups of water to a near-boil, but do not boil.
2. Put dried flowers in a muslin bag, cheese cloth or a straining bag.
3. Place the bag in with the heated water and allow steeping until water is cool.
4. Remove bag and empty flowers into the compost.
5. If you desire a pesticide that sticks more add 1 teaspoon of dye and scent free soap or glycerin or pure mineral oil per cup of fluid.
6. Store resulting pesticide in a dark bottle away from extreme temperatures and away from direct sunlight.
7. Your pesticide is ready to use once cool and transferred to a spray bottle. If you added a sticking agent make sure to shake the mixture in the spray bottle before using.
8. Put the resulting mixture in a dark colored bottle and store away from extremes in temperature and direct sunlight, you can transfer what you need to a spray bottle when you need it.
9. As a final note, rainy periods can cause a dilution of the concentration of pyrethrum in the plant; the best time to harvest blooms is during dry hot periods.

It’s that time again folks, the second weekend of May is coming up on us fast and that means it’s time for 4^th Annual Urban Farm Day down at the Fayetteville Community Garden on Vanstory and Mann streets in Fayetteville. The event is on May the 12^th between the hours of 10:00 am and 3:00 pm and admission is 10.00 per adult and kids 12 & under get in for free.  This fine family friendly venue is organized by the Sustainable Sandhills group with a few sponsors and is a showcase for all sorts of Urban farming techniques.

Why should you come on down, well LITFM will have a booth there and yours truly will be front and center to answer your questions and talk a little about what urban farming is, composting and any garden topics that happen to come up.  For note this is our fourth year of participation in the UFD event and the UFD yearbook can be seen at our booth. I also know the meetup group known as Sustainable Neighbors (aka the Neighborhood Grange) will be right next door with their own awesome booth.

At the LITFM booth we’ll have a few things going on:

1. Free Plant giveaway, curtesy of the FTCC horticulture department.
2. A rare copy of Desert Harvest for sale.
3. Our own Carolina Gold Compost Products.
4. The yearly Skye Project Horticultural surplus sale.

Of course you can expect the same sort of Sustainable Organic Solutions you’ve come to know from this blog your reading as well as from those of you who have had landscaping work done through Bordeaux Light Landscaping. So come on down with your questions prepared and pay us a visit we’d love to meet you. As a final note, for all of you out there this, is the horticultural surplus plant sale list so you know what we will have, all stock numbers are current as of this posting you can email CN_BL2@hotmail.com if you  would like to ask to reserve some plant materials or want information on a specific plant.

2” Fiber Pots (2.00)

 4x Basil, Sweet

 4x Basil, Lemon

 4x Basil, Cinnamon

 4x Parsley, Italian

3” Fiber Pots (2.50)

 9x Eggplant, Purple Tiger
 3x Eggplant, Striped Togo
 6x Okra 'Emerald'

 2x Pepper, Cayenne

 2x Pepper, Habanero
 3x Pepper, Sangria

 5x Pepper, Tobago Seasoning

 6x Red Malabar Spinach

18x Tomato, Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter

3” Plastic Pots (5.00)

 1x Spear Sanseveria

4” Plastic Pots (3.00)

 8x Chinese Foxglove
 5x Desert Privet
 6x Eggplant, Black Beauty
 3x Eggplant, Hansel
 4x Lemon Bee Balm/ Bergamot
 4x Okra, Clemson Spineless
 4x Okra, Red Burgundy
 3x Pepper, Rainbow Bell Mix
 4x Pepper, Tobago Seasoning

11x Sedum, Northern Lights Mix
13x Star Tickseed
 2x Strawberry Spinach
 1x Swiss cheese Plant
 5x Vietnamese Coriander/Cilantro

6” Plastic Pots (4.00)

 3x Tomato, Brown Berry

 3x Tomato, Lemon Drop

 3x Tomato, Red Currant Hybrid

The Making of Black Gold

Spring is an amazing time of the year isn't it, right before your eyes you get to watch that which seemed dead spring to life and the seasons go from cold to warm in a span that seemingly is to short. With that in mind we at LITFM are prepared to bid April a warm farewell as this is the last article of the month and May looms large up ahead. Today we have another double-header combination of a plant spotlight, and main article. Originally I had planned for Orchid Primrose to be the plant spotlight but the plant isn't very photogenic, and half of the plant spotlight's value is a clear photo of the subject. In it's place is an interesting and under-utilized plant under the name of Annual Passion vine, Passiflora incarnata.

This is the first bloom from a pair of passion vines grown from seed purchased in a packet at Lowes, burpee apparently does not sell these seeds anymore, what a shame with a flower like that.

Now it is important to note that in literature the terms passion vine, passion flower and passion fruit all refer to the same species of plants and may be used interchangeably, however I’ll be using them in context, passion vine means the plant and so on.

First and foremost is the fact that most members of the passiflora species are aggressive climbers and use curling tendrils to scramble up any vertical surface be it a wall or another plant. The name ‘Passion Vine’ is derived from the physical aspects of the plant and is from the ‘Passion of Jesus’ in Christian theology. Roughly around 15^th or 16^th centuries Spanish missionaries noted the unique shapes found in this plant and in particular the flowers as symbols of the last days of Jesus and in particular his crucifixion.  The following parts of the plant were taken to mean specific symbolisms:

1. The pointed leaf tips were thought to represent the Holy Lance.
2. The tendrils that the plant climbs with were thought to represent the whips used in the flagellation of Christ.
3. The ten petals and sepals represented the ten faithful apostles, excluding St. peter the denier and Judas Iscariot the betrayer.
4. The chalice shaped ovary with its receptacles represented a hammer or perhaps the Holy Grail itself.
5. The 3 stigmas represented the three nails, while the 5 anthers below them the 5 wounds, for note four by nail one by lance.
6. The blue and white colors of the flower in radiating bands represented Heaven and Purity or a halo.
7. The flowers filaments represent the crown of thorns.

Biblical symbolism aside the passion vine is an easy to grow plant that sometimes is sold as “annual” passion vine. In fact as I mentioned before I got the seeds for the passion vine pictured above at Lowes in a Burpee seed packet, apparently that seed line has been discontinued. The seed are somewhat fickle to germinate as out of the 20 seeds only two germinated and those two were incredibly temperamental at first. With patience you can have some young passion vines suitable for careful maturing in a spot that receives some morning sun has good soil quality and regular water and fertilizer. I honestly don’t know if it would take anyone else two years to get a bloom out of these vines but the picture above was taken just a week prior to the writing of this article. Now why use passion vines, well the answer there is simple, the lobed foliage is a deep green color while the exotic and sweetly scented flowers are simply stunning. When you consider the custard-yellow colored fruit which is edible you get a wonderful plant that does a lot and asks for very little.

 

Onward to the main attraction, ‘The Making of Black Gold’, a brief discussion on how BL2’s compost product is made.  A number of you out there reading this may have had the chance to hear me speak about soil science on more then one occasion at the Neighborhood Grange / Sustainable Neighbors meetings. Compost is a very personal thing, everyone out there who has successfully operated a compost pile has their own way to produce it. Compost literally provides to you what you put into it, and to that end our own Carolina Gold is a specific mixture of key ingredients that creates a balanced compost product.

The bucket is used to hold horticultural waste such as plant parts and soil while the Tupperware container is kept in the fridge and is used to store kitchen scraps.

The process starts with kitchen scraps and horticultural waste from normal greenhouse operations which are collected in special sealed containers and then added to a pre-composter. The pre-composter is simply a 35 gallon lidded trashcan with holes in the bottom. 

 The Pre-Composter is a simple affair, a 35 gallon wheeled and lidded trashcan used to hold composting materials.

The pre-composter serves as an area where initial decomposition can occur while decomposers such as worms can introduce themselves to the compost and be protected from predators. The pre-composter is emptied only when it is full to the brim with materials and this may take a few months to do depending on the season.  Once the precomposter is added to the main bin, regular applications of soil and grass clippings complete the effect while alternating layers of straw and pine straw maintain aeration.

What you see here on the left is the actual compost pile with it's pinestraw 'cap' still on, to the right is the leaf mold pile, which will be moved over once the main pile is emptied.

Looking more like an mangled lump then a compost pile this is the 'slow burn' pile, a larger pile where large branches, excavated soil and anything else that will take longer then a year to rot.

 The best tools to manage a compost pile are a rake, shovel, pitchfork and wheel barrel, as these four tools allow you to do all functions with a minimum of strain on yourself, I do recommend long-handled tools to make life easier.

The total time for everything the naturally decompose is about eight months, so the following spring after the pile was last emptied it has shrunk to half it’s original height and the cap of pine straw is carefully removed. Once the cap of pine straw is removed the next step is to collect the compost material and use a shovel or pitchfork to move it into a wheelbarrow in preparation for sifting or application

 Now with the pine straw cap removed you can see the good stuff underneath, apparently nearly a year of decomposition has done wonders to the stuff in this compost pile.

Now this is an ancient debate amongst gardeners, to sift or not to sift? I personally prefer sifting because it takes all the chunks and bits out however you can use raw compost as a soil amendment, the problem is it may or may not look very good in the picture below you see my basic sifting setup. The wheel barrel on the left holds the unsifted compost from the pile, the silver-gray bucket has the sifting screen,  the beige tub is where the sifted compost goes when the bucket is full, and the black nursery pot is used to hold the 'chunks' left over from sifting. The sifting screen isn't very fancy, in fact it's a piece of bent hardware cloth, that drapes inside the bucket but also hooks around the edges of the bucket. If you look carefully at the tailgate of the truck you will see a pair of black gloves, I generally wear those in case of fire ants, they're the rubber coated type.

 Finally BL2's infamous green pickup truck, that vehicle that strikes fear in the hearts of bad landscapers everywhere makes it's first cameo appearance in the blog.

 Sifting is accomplished with a side-to-side rocking motion or hand motion effectively shaking out all the fine and medium particles in the compost while leaving the coarse and large ones atop the screen. Eggshells however have to be re-crushed and passed around the screen as they rarely break down enough to pass through the mesh. The final product will of course have some visible eggshell bits which adds calcium to the soil which encourages good soil structure and fertility.

 The screen is incredibly simple, yet it works quite well, it's draping nature makes sure the bucket never fills beyond 4 gallons.

The finished compost product due to the sifting is more regular, the particles are even and, as a bonus it blends everything in the compost evenly so there are no areas of clay, lumps or other irregularities. This blending also serves to ensure that the final product has less variation in fertility and quality. As the picture below attests, in short what comes out of that sifting process is black gold.

Now I defy you to tell me that isn't some good looking compost, makes me want to go plant something right now!

The final stop in the process that produces 'Carolina Gold' is the measuring, as noted before the sifted compost is stored in Rubbermaid storage totes of the 18 gallon size. For sale the compost is packed in gallon/4.5 pound bags like the one sitting on the lid, and is distributed to BL2 customers upon request by either tote or by bag. About 30% of all compost produced is used in the test gardens. It is a little known fact that the reinforced mound bed whose center mound is raised some two feet is centered over a pile of Carolina gold a foot thick the lower portions of the bed are over 4" thick layers. 

Bag it and tag it! This is the next to last stop for our prize soil conditioner,  the next stop is in a garden somewhere near you perhaps.

In short, the way we produce compost at BL2 is one of many ways to make compost. In my decade of time as a landscaping professional, I have seen dozens of types of composters and several times as many methods, styles and concepts. The fact is not a single one is wrong, they are all different and they all have advantages and disadvantages. My way is angled to someone who has the tools but not the time to fuss over a compost pile but also has no shortage of good materials to feed said pile and ample amounts of pine straw.  I should note for all of you that there are several major forms of compost pile as noted below.

1.      Open Pit Type – literally a open it in the ground

2.      Single Bin Type – A single chicken wire bin held up by stakes (the type I use).

3.      Multi Bin Type – Multiple bins allowing for easy turning, typically made of treated lumber, plastic resin or sometimes concrete dividers.

4.      Rotating Barrel – popular in some places the barrel does help make turning easier, and comes in two varieties, horizontal and vertical rotation types.

5.      Mound Type – The opposite of the pit type,  this one is heaping pile capped with soil or mulch.

Additionally it is important to note the dos and don’ts of managing compost piles.

1.      Do use vegetable scraps.

2.      Do use potting soil.

3.      Do use dried brown leaves (dropped leaves in autumn are perfect.)

4.      Do use Leaves that are still green. (think grass clippings.)

5.      Do NOT use fats, or meat. (May attract vermin)

6.      Do NOT use bread. (May attract vermin)

7.      Do NOT keep pile wet. (will cause odor and may stop all decomposition)

8.      Do NOT use wood. (May attract termites)

As a final note for soil conservation and composting remember this, every time I see the Department of Agriculture at an public event they have these neat little pins that say "No Farm, No Food."  and I agree but when it comes to preserving the soil I would insist they should say "No Soil, No Farm, No Good!".

Thank you again for tuning into a somewhat long post on composting, I hope you enjoyed the look at composting and the way we make compost at BL2. Next weeks article will be about fertilizer alternatives.

Feed your head? No feed the soil first!

Welcome back to another edition of Lost in the Farmer’s Market albeit delayed due to a spring cold, and today we have a double-header. First on today’s list is a plant spotlight for a very interesting house plant and then the main feature.

In the business it is not hard to come across odd things at suppliers and in garden centers, the hard part is remembering that you are in these places to buy things for clients and not for yourself. I admit while walking through the green houses of a supplier in search of purple heart plants I saw something I just had to buy. The plant in question was a far cry from what I was looking for and thus we have today’s plant spotlight, and the plant in question is Spear Sanseveria. For all you botanical latin fans out there you might recognize the word ‘sanseveria’ as it is the first part of the name Sansevera trifaciata or as we commonly know it, ‘snake plant’ ‘Devil’s Tongue’ or ‘Mother-in-Law’s Tongue’.  The spear sanseveria however is a differing animal; instead of having broad flat leaves with banded green and white striations the spear instead has round leaves.  By round I mean cylindrical, with a pointed tip no less that of course is where the ‘spear’ part of the name comes from. For all of you out there who need to know the botanical Latin name for the spear sanseveria is Sanseveria cylindrica. Like its more common cousin, the spear sansevera grows from an underground rhizome and is suited to long periods with no watering. The spear sanseveria however has evolved a form that reduces the surface to volume ratio of the exposed leaves and thus they survive well in the sweltering heat of their native Angola with little problem.

 Honestly this picture does spear sanseveria no justice, the above is three growing tips from a single rhizome.

In home cultivation this plant is rather rare to see as it is very slow growing and absolutely does not tolerate constantly moist soil. Not unlike an aloe, if kept wet to long the plants will rot and fall apart, and also are quite happy in a pot for a very long time without repotting. The soil mixture for these plants if you can get one, should definitely be cactus soil but barring the ability to buy that try to make a soil mix that has some fine gravel and about 50% sand in it to mimic now nutrient arid soil. One thing that is worth noting, indoors in a somewhat shady location this plant is able to go without water for up to two months, and about two weeks if grown in a hot and brightly lit area. Once the weather warms in the summer and stays above 60 degrees at night these houseplants can be moved to the hottest areas of your garden as temporary displays. Cuttings of this plant can be taken in the same manner as other sanseverias, cut a roughly 3” piece off a leaf tip, allow it to dry for a day or two, dip the cut end in rooting hormone and insert half way into any decent potting medium then be very patient, as it may take weeks to root. If you are resistant to disfiguring your plants by lopping off stem tips you can also wait for the plant to naturally form smaller offsets or ‘pups’ as they are some times called and split those off when repotting. Lastly if all of the above did not blow your mind, note that the Sanseverias are in the Asparagus family, though I must admit I have no idea if they are edible or not.

Now with all that covered today’s topic, is an extension of the week before last, where I covered how one turns under a green manure crop. But what does one do if they did not sow a green manure crop what do you plant then? The answer is simple you perform a few easy actions to get your soil ready.

 

 1. Remove all mulch and any plants in the bed area.

2. Loosen the soil and Use a shovel turn one side of the bed’s soil over, make sure to dig to a depth of 6”.

 3. Add any kind of soil modifier you need to, like lime for example.

4. Replace turned soil and repeat process on other side, then smooth out the soil and top dress bed area with compost, or soil amendment and blend into upper 1-3” of soil surface.

5. Smooth out the soil and apply old mulch if still in good condition and/or new mulch as needed. You may also plant  your crops as needed in your newly mulched areas at this point.

6. Water the bed to allow the soil to settle and to ease transplant shock for your crops.

In short with just a little time management and planning one can revitalize a soil  if no green manure crop is available but more then that with a little planning one can also have an excellent crop in the ground sooner rather then later and extend the season by a few weeks.  It is worthwhile to note that the lime used above is agricultural lime,  this particular form is an easy spreading non-burning type that essentially is finely crushed limestone. The soil amendment seen in step 4 is my own compost, about 1" of it. For amendments most nutrient rich compost products will do good examples include mushroom compost, black kow, black hen or even something as inexpensive as scotts topsoil without the fertilizer. Your own compost of course whould only be applied if it is as well decomposed as seen in the picture above where no chunks of what you have composted are readily visible. With all luck, you'll be feeding your soil and for all that effort, your woil will feed your crops which will feed you.

Check back next week for our next article "The making of black gold" where we at LITFM crack open the compost pile and demonstrate how to turn raw compost that has been sitting undisturbed for almost two years into workable quality material. Also we will have a plant spotlight regarding the Orchid Primrose, a short-lived perennial that defies what you would expect from the primrose family.

Thank you for reading!

The annuals you thought you knew

Welcome back to another edition of ‘Lost In The Farmer’s Market’ your weekly guide to the world of organic gardening and urban farming.  Before we start with today's topic I’d like to take a moment to mention the name of the Neighborhood Grange has changed to Sustainable Neighbors, and a link to their meetup page is below.

www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

Now today, Lost in the Farmers market will be covering the issue of plants that are often mislabeled or identified. The first thing to know is that plants are illiterate, they cannot read their labeling and may not perform in the way you are expecting.  Some plants are commonly mislabeled by their life cycle and here are a few.

Dusty Miller (Centauria cineraria)

This member of the aster family is often called an annual when in fact it is a rugged semi-herbaceous perennial. The problem arises from the fact it is often used as a bedding plant along side obvious annuals. A well kept stand of dusty miller can keep weeds down and form the foliage contrast for any perennial border along side hardy chrysanthemums (dendranthema morifolium).

Lantana (Lantana camara)

Lantana is a verbena relative that is noted for its upright habit as opposed to verbena’s trailing creeping habit. Lantana is often considered an annual due to how most people tend to use it but in truth with some protection is actually a semi-herbaceous or tender perennial. The issue is that a few zones south it’ becomes a reasonably reliable perennial where as we in north Carolina are right on the edge of it’s perennial range. Most garden centers don’t want to split hairs and thus it gets labeled annual.

Petunia (Petunia x hybrida)

The petunia in all its forms including wave, million bells and traditional forms all despite their labeling can in fact persist for years. The key factor is location, petunias can take on a perennial-like habit if provided good soil ample moisture and a spot near stonework were the stone or masonry can provide radiant heat in the colder seasons. A good layer of mulch never hurt however, I must admit petunias are durable but they’re more or less a tender perennial in North Carolina, and care must be taken if you want to keep them going for more then a year. Case in point, at the skye project’s test gardens is a calibrachoa or million bells that volunteered from seed in a potted cactus in 2007 at the New Jersey test garden and has persisted from the same root stock ever since, it survived the trip to North Carolina and gets larger every year. In short as of June 2012 this petunia will be five years old. I might add this plant receives less care due to it being in with a cactus, and does NOT come in for winter.

Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus)

The common snap dragon is often sold as an annual but in truth individual plants in the right conditions can persist for years. The key is soil quality, healthy layers of mulch and regular amounts of water. In the north typically a snapdragon will die back to the root or some part on the stem and return in spring making it an herbaceous perennial.  The thing about snapdragons is that they prefer cooler weather and cool soil, so in the south to successfully grow snapdragons as a semi-perennial one has to provide regular water ample mulch and plant them in partial shade.

Verbena  (Verbena x hybrida)

Verbena is a massive plant family including a wide number of garden plants such as lantana, lemon verbena aand vervain. This plant is often labeled as a annual however with the right conditions and care in the south it can overwinter in an evergreen form for use the next year. The key to overwintering verbena is to keep it maintained, cut away dead foliage and by all means if in a pot keep it watered when it needs it. It is noteworthy that the ‘Homestead’ varieties of verbena are said to be more durable and reliable as a perennial.

In short, yes there are some annuals that are plainly annual such as impatiens, portulaca and pansies/ violas and we must remember that the seasons in which they are at their best are somewhat short. However when you are out buying bedding plants this year remember to look for those that get you more bang for your buck. Even an annual that reseeds can effectively save you more time and effort then rebuilding a bed every year. But those few that persist may save a fortune over time in garden costs for plant material as long as to heed their care and install supporting permanent plantings your garden should be top-notch every season.

Stay tuned to LITFM for next week’s post “Feed your head? No, feed the soil first!” how-to photo journal of what it takes to re-enrich a production bed when no green manure is available.  Thank you for reading.

‘Keep ‘em growin!’

Who ever said manure had to be brown?

With spring comes renewal, and in that light the original article for today’s post was delayed due to both the holiday and the need to do a bit more data collecting to make sure it was up to snuff. In the place of ‘The annuals you thought you knew’ we have today’s topic. Today I’ve got a photographic article covering how to turn under a green manure crop. For those of you who have been to my booth at Urban Farm Day or at the Neighborhood Grange meetings, you will recall I spoke on the use of Mustard as a ‘green manure’.  For those unfamiliar to the term a Green Manure is sometimes called a cover crop, it’s role is to hold the soil during a period in which you are not actively producing a crop.  Cover crops are often turned under at the start of a growing season to return nutrients to the soil. Common cover crops include Winter Rye, Clover, Mustard, Vetch, Peas, Beans and, any ‘annual’ production crop.  With all that said here is the photo montage of me turning under my Red Giant Mustard crop, as it had all begun to bolt.

Step 1: Determine if your cover crop is at the end of its usefulness, as seen here all of these mustard plants are bolting or going to seed which is a process one can’t stop once it has begun.

Step 2: Pull crops up if possible, if not simply use tiller to turn crops under.  If your pulling the crops like I did here note that the upper six inches of soil was dug up after the pulling and placed in a wheel barrel temporarily.

Step 3: Move pulled crops so they are easier to chop up; in this case I piled them up so I could take a manual edging tool to them to break up the leaves and shoots.

Step 4:  Oh the Humanity! Murdered Mustard Greens everywhere! Seriously between the trenching shovel and edging tool these mustard greens are chopped pretty good, they’ll decompose fairly quickly.

Step 5: Using a long-handled cultivator the next step is to mix the chopped greens in with the remaining soil in the planting bed. This helps introduce soil organisms to their new food source.

Step 6: Return the removed soil to the planting bed, if you recall it was moved there as part of step 2.

Step 7: Hose it down!  The purpose of this is again to encourage the organisms in the soil to find the chopped up mustard and to settle the turned soil. This step may or may not be as practical on larger bed areas though.

 Step 8:  Apply a mulch of some sort and allow the bets to sit undisturbed for at least 24 hours before planting. A high nitrogen water-soluble fertilizer or Lawn dethatching chemical solution can be used to accelerate decomposition but neither is greatly necessary.

This seems like a bit of work, but it is worth it, as the effect of turning the soil in this way returns nutrients to the soil also it has the effect of saving a bunch in fertilizers and soil amendments. In my case the mustard is perfectly edible and serves as a winter food crop until it becomes time to convert it in the way shown above.  For you grangers out there the bed pictures is one of my three high production beds two of three of which are a foot tall overall and nine feet long by three feet wide.  Since all of the high production beds are raised they all have heavily enriched soil that is 90% compost by volume. The advantage is that there is quite a lot of produce for a very small area the problem is that they are some times difficult to keep watered and I have to re-enrich them between crops. However the ecological foot print of the beds is tiny, virtually no fertilizer is ever used nor is any pesticides or herbicides as the height keeps most weeds out and the plants largely can defend themselves.

I hope this photo-post was useful to all of you if you like the idea of this sort of post let me know and I can do more, if you have any questions or comments feel free to ask. Next week LITFM will actually cover “The annuals you thought you knew”.  Thank you for reading.

“Spring Shenangins!”

April has arrived, and today’s article is sponsored by the makes of the Chia pet who have a new product, the Chia Pundit, available in the likenesses of Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olberman! The spacious noggin planters allow you plenty of room to grow enough of whatever you prefer to feed a small neighborhood!

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No, hold the phone that was not really a product but then again Chia pet did do an Obama and Clinton planter so who knows if they’re already brewing that up! Yes today is April Fools day and what could be a better way to highlight the date then to briefly talk about some odd garden devices that get a lot of press but have dubious value.

Topsy Turvy Tomato planter

This one looks great and all but it has one major problem, tomatoes don’t like wet foliage, and as of yet no average gardener can actually confirm the claim of bigger or better tomatoes. It’d be smarter and cheaper per plant to top-dress your beds with compost yearly, and plant your tomatoes an inch deep on the stem. additionally the claim of improved flavor and color by virtue of gravity is unfounded as the cellular-vascular system of most plants would inherently be pumping the good stuff right to the fruiting bodies anyway regardless of position.

Cow pots

Apparently someone somewhere thought making biodegradable pots out of cow manure was a good idea. While composted cow manure makes for an excellent source of soil replenishment, the cow pots seem a bit well much. The part that makes this odd is one has to ask, what do they use to clear out the plant pathogens and how exactly do they make the pots paper-like and firm?

Fertilizer Enhanced potting soil/ Garden soil

This is complete corporate shenanigans, I’m sure you have all seen that miracle grow commercial where they show this patch of terrible dirt and talk about how bad it is and how it will ‘Hold your plants back”. After the commercial talks about your soil and briefly about their product they go on to show a picture of a scraggly plant grown without their soil and a lush gorgeous plant grown with their soil.  The obvious scam here is that magically their peat-based fertilizer laced soil with stuff to aid in moisture retention will solve all the problems. The truth is good quality soil shouldn’t need integrated fertilizers or moisture retention product to produce those results.

Extended Control Pesticides/Herbicides

I’ll admit I don’t have much use for pesticides or herbicides except in the case of handling poison ivy, fire ants or the rare wasp/hornet’s nest that is in a bad location. However the real issue with the extended control products is the lack of extended control. For example in the industry it is a well known fact that a pre-emergent herbicide stops doing it’s job the moment the surface it its applied to is scratched or otherwise physically disturbed. Extended control pesticides and herbicides are the same, they stop working the minute the surface they are applied to changes. So spraying leaf litter beside your house for insects becomes useless the moment the leaves are blown away. Up to 6 months indeed, and the herbicides are no different but of course the makers of these products generally do not warn you of the exact things that counter their product’s strengths.

Chemical Industry ‘Problem Solver’ Books

Yes Ortho we mean you, you’re the worst offender, though Miracle Gro, and a few others are equally guilty. Obviously these books are good for their color pictures of the weed disease or pest problems. The books are bad in that apparently the solution to every nuisance no matter how trivial is to buy and use only their products

However today at LITFM, we are talking about preparedness.

As the weather grows warmer, and the rains will be come less frequent now is the bet time to start your last batch of slow-developing plants for summer and your most heat tolerant spring food plants such as lettuce. The gardeners reading this in more northern climates fortunately have more time to start their cool-season plants. Seed starting aside, now is an excellent time to transplant your seedlings to larger pots in preparation for their placement outside.  There is one phenomenon to note that occurs as a side effect of the act of transplanting seedlings. Your seedlings if grown expressly under a humidity dome will likely wilt when the dome is removed after transplanting, if watered well after transplanting then this form of plant-drama will pass.

Seedlings aside we all know the garden centers are brimming with vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruiting shrubs.  We as responsible urban farmers should pay more attention to the USDA’s last frost dates for spring which vary by region as noted below.

Last Spring Frost Date:

1. In the north Mother’s day or about May 15^th. (New Jersey)
2. In the south: Easter or about April 14^th. (North Carolina)

 And lastly remember to enrich your soils before plant, with compost or some sort of composted manure product in direct proportion to your soil use in the winter. If you grew winter crops, then use more enrichment to put back what you took out, and in respect merely top-dress as needed if you did not. Tilling is not a necessary process if you have an established bed but may be useful for building a new bed during the first addition of organic materials.

Just some events to note, on May 12^th is the Urban farm tour, I’ll have a booth and of course you can expect some cool stuff for sale and freebies!  In the next edition of Lost in the farmers market I will be talking about the annuals you thought you knew. As always if any of you readers out there have a question or want to request a topic be covered feel free to post a comment or request it at the neighborhood grange meeting. Lastly for you grangers reading this, a full list of plants for sale at urban farm day will be available at the meeting. Thank you again for reading, keep ‘em growing!

Wild Buffet: Part 2' Plants you didn't know you could eat!

Now that the obvious foods are out of the way it’s time to talk about the things you may not have realized you can eat. Today we have five common plants found in the landscapes of the eastern coast that can be grown by green and black thumbs alike.  Each one requires preparation, but all are easily identified in the field, and only one has any risk of poisoning with misuse.

Also to recap some of what was said at today’s neighborhood grange meeting, below is a list of recommended seed catalogs and local retailers.

Seed & Supply  Catalogs:

Botanical Interests  - Seeds

High Mowing  -Seeds

Johnny’s Seeds – Seeds & Supply

Richters –Seeds & Plants

Seed Savers - Seeds

Southern Exposure -Seeds

Totally Tomatoes - Seeds

Worm’s Way -Supply

Some Local Retailers:

Eastover Garden Center

3465 Murphy Road, Fayetteville NC 28312

(910) 321-6044

Flow & Grow

4521 Cumberland Road, Fayetteville NC 28306

(910) 423-3569

With all that said remember, now is the last time to effectively start your cool season seeds, and without further ado here are the forage foods!

American Yew – Taxus Canadensis

While American yew is not a common sight in the south as it prefers cooler temperatures up north it is often the replacement for podocarpus, and select types of cedar and juniper. Most of the plant is flat out poisonous; however the soft fleshy red coating on the seeds is edible. This fleshy coating should be handled carefully as the seeds themselves like the rest of the plant contain a powerful alkaloid.

Common Daylily – Hemerocalis fulva

Daylily grows like a weed in most parts of the eastern coast, up north the family is exemplified by the tiger lilies seen growing by streams and in the south by the day lilies planted along roadsides as erosion control. The flower buds can be pickled or dipped in batter and fried. The tuberous roots can be cleaned chopped and used like potatoes. For note all parts of daylily have a laxative effect so eat in moderation.

The Yucca Family

Yucca baccata (Soapweed)

Yucca glauca (Spanish Bayonet)

(Spanish Bayonet) Cut the young flower stalks into sections and boil for 25-30 minutes then peel off the tough outer rind season to taste and serve. The flavor of this preparation varies by the seasoning but most liken it to asparagus. The fruit of this yucca can be eaten raw or cooked. You may also collect and roast seeds at 375 degrees until dry then grind coarsely and boil as a non-flour type grain.

(Soap Weed)  Harvest the young flower stalks before the flower buds have expanded.  Cover one cup of buds with water and boil until tender which is roughly 15-25 minutes. Drain and chop coarsely then add pimentos or green peppers, several eggs and milk then cook like scrambled eggs.

Wax Myrtle – Myrica cerifera

The Wax Myrtle is also known as the Southern Bayberry. Surprisingly as we have no shortage of this plant in the southeast amazingly it is a source of greens, as the leaves can be picked at any time but are best in early summer.  Wash the leaves and dry the leaves in a shaded area then store in tightly sealed jars in a dark place. The leaves can be ground or crushed and added to stews and sauces for cooking and serving meats in the same way sweet bay might be used. The berries can be picked from late summer into winter as a seasoning and to provide a source of wax for candle making.