Tropical Depressions, Not a Problem.

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market.  Today we have a bunch of garden photographs taken between the rain showers that are due to the current tropical depression situation. It seems the Hurricane season started early and refuses to relent as this is three weeks almost in a row where it’s been solidly rainy enough to prevent work in the gardens. But of course a lot of work has been put into this blog’s youtube channel LITFM Garden Shorts and as of this posting we have reached our thirteenth video which you can watch below.

But with the video covered let see some garden photographs, first up is a three-piece set showing the stages of flowering, and fruit set on a prickly pear cactus (opuntia ellisiana & humfusa). Since the Thorn-less Prickly Pear and the normal thorny variety differ only in approachability they effectively produce edible fruit in the same way as each other.

 

Prickly Pear cactus flowers are such a cheery shade of yellow.

Open flower with nearly ready buds and a forming flower bud.

After the flower is spent, these  odd protrusions form into the fruit, they turn red when ready.

This variety of Daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) is called ‘Gentle Shepard’…I think, it was slated to be in the memorial garden but that didn’t happen. Now it’s a part of the compass garden and this flower is starting to fade. You can tell daylily flowers are on the way out when they start getting those translucent patches in the petals. The clear spots mean the cells are breaking down and soon it’ll go entirely mushy. The rain is not helping blooms last unfortunately.

 

Daylilies are a lovely addition to any garden, but I prefer the classic types.

Irish Eyes Rudbeckia (Rudbeckia hirta ‘Irish Eyes’) was a subject of one of my recent videos called ‘A tale of Two Asters’ and here it is in full glory, which is ironic since they are commonly called Gloriosa Daisies. If you look close you can see the individual opened flowers in the central disk which is taking on a cone shape, proving that Echinacea and Rudbeckia share traits, and are probably closely related that their species should be merged.

 

Irish eyes, named for it's bright green centers is still a Gloriosa Daisy...so Green Eye Susan?

 This is the Aster video I did for reference.

For comparison here is a shot of traditional Black Eye Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), which also has the cone shaped center. Notice how it’s actual flowers in the cone open from the outside first and work their way inside to the center? This is a biological adaptation to stagger the maturation of its seeds so that they don’t all get eaten at once increasing survival chances. Tahis feature also reduces the amount of nutrient and energy needed to mature any one set of seed at any given time, basically economy mode for plant reproduction.

 

Commonly called Black Eye Susans, the name isn't a reference to domestic abuse as some have suggested, it's a reference to an English poem, I cover that in the video above.

Remember how I was selling a select few Shirogoma Sesame seed plants under the variety (Sesamum indicum ‘Shirogoma’)? Well this is what the plants look like and their flowers are surprisingly large and showy, almost like white New Zealand Impatiens flowers.

Yeah the flowers aren't open but the plant is cool to look at, not sure what I'm going to do with the harvested seeds though.

Now here is something you don’t see every day, I suppose since it was rainy this tiny little Mason Bee (Osmia sp.) was too wet to fly or just taking a nap. Either way it picked a good place because Signet Marigolds (Tagetes tenuifolia) clearly have no shortage of flowers and pollen. Despite what the Honey industry would have you believe, there are hundreds of pollenating species that can replace the introduced European Honey bee, agriculture wont collapse if they disappear. If they did perhaps Big-Agra would finally have to seriously reconsider how they’ve been doing things and what they’ve taken for granted.

 

This variety of Marigold is called 'lemon Gem' either for it's bright happy bloom color or that it's fully edible and it may have a lemon-ish flavor.

Last on this photo list we have an image of what the Zebrina Mallow (Malva sylvestris ‘Zebrina’) looks like in full bloom. I did say that it’s perennial, it’s leaves look like old school geraniums and so do the flowers…kind of!

 

Honestly, I've grown to like this mallow,the pink/darker pink color combo is really striking and once it started blooming it seems that it does not want to stop!

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:

Food Plants:

Amaranth – Early Splendor: $3.00

Okra – Baby Bubba: $3.00

Pepper – Assorted: $2.00 (Sale)

Tomato – Assorted: $2.00 (Sale)

Herbs:

Herb, Agastache – Golden Jubilee : $3.00

Herb, Basil – Eritrean: $3.00

Herb, Basil – Wild: $3.00

Herb, Basil – Holy: $3.00

Herb, Coneflower – Pow Wow Wild Berry: $3.00

Herb, Cuban Oregano: $3.00

Herb, Cuban Oregano – Cerveza & Lime: $3.00

Herb, Horehound  : $3.00

Herb, Italian Oregano: $3.00

Herb, Roselle – Thai Red: $4.00

Herb, Rue: $3.00

Herb, Sage: $3.00

Herb, Tansy: $3.00

Herb, Thyme – English: $3.00

Ornamental Plants:

Black Eye Susan – ‘Prairie Glow’: $3.00

Castor bean – ‘Impala’: $3.00

Cotton – Erlene’s Green: $3.00

Cotton – Mississippi Brown Lint: $3.00

Cotton – Red Foliated White: $3.00

Marigold – Pineapple Crush: $3.00

Marigold – Signet Red: $3.00

Milkweed – ‘Hairy Balls’: $3.00

Coming Soon:

[TBA]

Due to the current Covid-19 situation and the state’s requirement that all citizens are not to gather in groups of more than ten, the weekly Sustainable neighbors meeting is online. Please check the sustainable neighbors Meetup.com page for more info about how to attend our online meeting.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

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 and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This brings to a close the eleventh LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 26^th of June. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.

Home Grown, Made Easy: Part II

Welcome back to another episode of Lost in the Farmers Market.  This episode will continue the discussion on home grown food by covering recommendations of plants that are fairly fool proof in the Sandhills region and in most gardens in general, Also, In case you missed it last time LITFM now has a video series on Youtube. That’s right; I am producing videos that are about three minutes on average. The videos are garden oriented and are all about a specific plant in the test gardens. Where there is history it is included, the botanical Latin is included and you can expect all kinds of neat facts, I even include some of my own gardening history and experiences. As of this writing there are six videos available and the most recent one is below.

Now getting on topic growing your own food, part of the difficulty in doing this is the understanding that plants will produce at different times. So of course to supplement your diet you will have to grow multiple crops at the same time all with differing production periods. So for instance it is known that summer crops will include Figs, Rabbiteye Blueberries, Ground cherries, Husk Tomatoes, Rhubarb, Peppers, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Beans, Cowpeas and, Carrots. You can also stretch some varieties of Kale into the summer to make sure you get your greens. Known spring crops can include the cold season vegetables such as Kale, Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Turnips, Mustard greens, Chard, Spinach, Lettuce, Chicory, Dandelions, Radishes and in terms of fruit Strawberries and Lowquats. There are a slew of other spring and fall crops but I’ve only listed what does best in the Sandhills of North Carolina in Zone 8A.

 Fall harvested crops can include the expected cabbage family crops and salad greens, but also things like potatoes, while some figs will ripen late, there are also Persimmons and Dessert Kiwis to consider for late producing fruit crops. Winter is largely the dominion of whatever you planted in late supper or fall, plus whatever you managed to successfully dry, can or freeze and store. Admittedly canning is a very detailed topic that literally deserves its own post, I do encourage all of you readers out there to check out the process of canning as it may turn out to be a critical skill given the government lockdowns and the Pandemic going on.

What I have not covered as part of your home-grown plan is forage foods. Forage foods are generally ‘weeds’ that are safely edible that can be used to supplement your nutritional uptake with no risk of being poisoned. Fortunately prior blog articles on LITFM have covered this in detail and I even included one of my favorite recipes.

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:

Food Plants:

Okra – Baby Bubba: $3.00

Pepper – Aji Chinchi: $3.00

Pepper – Hungarian Paprika: $3.00

Pepper – Inferno: $3.00

Pepper – Pasilla Bajio: $3.00

Pepper  – Shishito: $3.00

Pepper  – Siracha: $3.00

Pepper  – Sweet Banana: $3.00

Sesame – Shirogoma: $3.00

Tomato – Cherokee Purple: $3.00 (Medium-large)

Tomato – Chocolate Cherry: $3.00 (Cherry)

Tomato – Glacier: $3.00 (Large Cherry)

Tomato – Gold Rush:  $3.00 (Yellow Cherry)

Tomato –Jelly Bean: $3.00 (Small)

Tomato – Mountain Spring: $3.00 (Medium)

Tomato – Pink Accordion: $3.00 (Large) (Limited Quantity)

Herbs:

Herb, Agastache – Golden Jubilee : $3.00

Herb, Basil – Eritrean: $3.00

Herb, Basil – Wild: $3.00

Herb, Basil – Holy: $3.00

Herb, Coneflower – Pow Wow Wild Berry  : $3.00

Herb, Coneflower – Primadonna Rose : $3.00 (Limited Quantity)

Herb, Horehound  : $3.00

Herb, Italian Oregano: $3.00

Herb, Rue: $3.00

Herb, Sage: $3.00

Herb, Tansy: $3.00

Herb, Thyme – English: $3.00

Ornamental Plants:

Angel’s Trumpet/Datura – ‘Black Currant Swirl’: $3.00 (One left!)

Black Eye Susan – ‘Prairie Glow’: $3.00

Castor bean – ‘Impala’: $3.00

Cotton – Erlene’s Green: $3.00

Cotton – Mississippi Brown Lint: $3.00

Cotton – Red Foliated White: $3.00

Cranesbill – ‘Vision Violet’: $3.00

Mallow – ‘Zebrina’: $3.00

Milkweed – ‘Hairy Balls’: $3.00

Coming Soon:

Herb, Cuban Oregano

Herb, Cuban Oregano – Cerveza & Lime

Herb, Roselle – Saint Kitts & Nevis

Herb, Roselle – Thai

Pepper – Biquinho Red (Limited Quantity)

Pepper – Biquinho Yellow (Limited Quantity)

Due to the current Covid-19 situation and the state’s requirement that all citizens are not to gather in groups of more than ten, the weekly Sustainable neighbors meeting is online. Please check the sustainable neighbors Meetup.com page for more info about how to attend our online meeting.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

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 and join the meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market.

This brings to a close the tenth LITFM post of 2020; stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 12^th of June. There will be more garden updates and other cool stuff.