Native Edible Fruit and Nut Trees

There are two types of gardeners I encounter on a regular basis; those who are interested in edibles, and those who are interested in natives.

I’m interested in both. Since many natives are excellently adapted to the climate, if they bear something edible – I want them.

What needs to happen is for Mr. Native to marry Miss Edible… and then we’ll have a wedding of no-care delicious.

So… are you ready? Let’s take a look at a few good native edible fruit and nut trees, starting with a classic.

Pecans

Pecans are a staple of the south, though they’re not exclusively a southern tree.

The native range of pecan. (source)

Thomas Jefferson and George Washington both planted pecan trees on their properties, since they were rightly enthusiastic about this uniquely American nut.

They’ll adapt across a wide range of growing zones. According to some sources, they’ll even manage up into Canada.

As a nut, the pecan is buttery and delicious. Trees aren’t always easy to come by, but nuts can be germinated pretty easily, though it allegedly takes a decade or more for the resulting seedlings to bear. You’ll also want to plant two trees to ensure pollination.

Once established, pecans need only moderate care. Watch out for tent caterpillars in the spring.

Though they take a while, pecans are worth planting. The trees are attractive hardwoods that provide shade in summer and a good yield of high-value nuts in the fall.

Mayhaws

Across much of the nation you’ll find a variety of native fruit trees in the Crataegus (Hawthorn) family. The small, apple-like fruits are named “mayhaws.”

Mayhaws are edible raw or cooked, but are most commonly used to make delicious jellies.

Check with your local wild forager or Native Plant Society to see which mayhaws you can grow in your area. The trees are tough, though most varieties tend to like moist conditions.

If you miss picking the fruit, be assured that your local bird population will happily stand in the gap on your behalf.

Beyond being a useful edible, Hawthorn trees also have medicinal value in the treatment of heart disease.

Mulberries

Children adore mulberries.

It’s no secret that I love mulberry trees.

Unfortunately, many of the mulberries that are grown here are not the native “red” mulberry that first greeted the colonists. Our native variety (Morus rubra) is threatened by cross-breeding with introduced species from China and Europe. All the more reason to plant one.

The tree grows quickly and the fruit is delicious and abundant, plus they’ll grow from New York to Miami, so chances are you can grow one in your yard.

Chestnuts

Chestnuts used to be the reigning nut-producing powerhouse of the great North American forests… until the Chestnut Blight wiped out almost every single specimen across the nation in the early 1900s.

Fortunately, some headway has been made in blight-resistant varieties. One notable cultivar is the Dunstan chestnut. I’ve planted four of them in my yard so far. The nuts are large and sweet enough to eat raw, plus the trees are attractive. Chinese varieties are smaller with variable nut quality, so why not plant natives?

(CLICK HERE to discover two more species over at The Prepper Project.)

Bizarre facts on hawthorns

I found a nice hawthorn tree recently, growing in miserable soil and still bearing fruit. I need to get some going in my nursery before too long. They're great trees.

That said, my friend Louise recently sent me some terrifying info on hawthorns that I figured I'd pass on.

Thomas the Rhymer, the famous thirteenth century Scottish mystic and poet, once met the Faery Queen by a hawthorn bush from which a cuckoo was calling. She led him into the Faery Underworld for a brief sojourn, but upon reemerging into the world of mortals he found he had been absent for seven years. Themes of people being waylaid by the faery folk to places where time passes differently are common in Celtic mythology, and the hawthorn was one of, if not the, most likely tree to be inhabited or protected by the Wee Folk. 

In Ireland most of the isolated trees, or so-called 'lone bushes', found in the landscape and said to be inhabited by faeries, were hawthorn trees. Such trees could not be cut down or damaged in any way without incurring the often fatal wrath of their supernatural guardians. The Faery Queen by her hawthorn can also be seen as a representation of an earlier pre-Christian archetype, reminding us of a Goddess-centred worship, practised by priestesses in sacred groves of hawthorn, planted in the round. The site of Westminster Abbey was once called Thorney Island after the sacred stand of thorn trees there.

Hawthorn is at its most prominent in the landscape when it blossoms during the month of May, and probably the most popular of its many vernacular names is the May-tree. As such, it is the only British plant which is named after the month in which it blooms. As 'Thorn' it is also the most common tree found in English place names, and the tree most frequently mentioned in Anglo-Saxon boundary charters. It has many associations with May Day festivities. Though the tree now flowers around the middle of the month, it flowered much nearer the beginning of the month, before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

The blossoms were used for garlands, and large leafy branches were cut, set in the ground outside houses as so-called May bushes and decorated with local wildflowers. Using the blossoms for decorations outside was allowed, but there was a very strong taboo against bringing hawthorn into the house. In the early 1980s the Folklore Society's survey of 'unlucky' plants revealed that 23% of the items referred to hawthorn, more than twice as many instances as the second most unlucky plant. Across Britain there was the belief that bringing hawthorn blossom into the house would be followed by illness and death, and there were many instances of hapless children being scolded by adults for innocently decorating the home. 

Mediaeval country folk also asserted that the smell of hawthorn blossom was just like the smell of the Great Plague in London. Botanists later discovered that the chemical trimethylamine present in hawthorn blossom is also one of the first chemicals formed in decaying animal tissue. In the past, when corpses would have been kept in the house for several days prior to burial, people would have been very familiar with the smell of death, so it is hardly surprising that hawthorn blossom was so unwelcome in the house (click here to keep reading)

Fairies, the Black Death and priestesses. Sold yet?

The sea bean is BACK!

Check it out:

Last year I took a short sidetrack into germinating sea beans and wrote about it here.

I originally had the plant growing up bamboo canes I'd attached to my back porch; however, the vines kept hitting the hot metal roof and dying back. Then in the fall, the plant froze to the ground and I thought I'd lost it.

Not so!

A month or so ago, it started growing again from the base and I've moved the pot to the garden. I thought about transplanting it directly into the soil but I'm afraid the move might kill it, so I left the plant in its pot.

Maybe we'll get our own home-grown sea beans this year. Now if I can just get the ocean to come a little closer...

(Today's plant geek interruption is now concluded. Please return to your regularly scheduled survival gardening.)

What a beautiful thing

My daughter found a caterpillar the other day:

What a beautiful little creature.

Usually we think of caterpillars as being the "ugly" babies that grow up into lovely adults... but in the case of this fellow, I don't think you could get much lovelier. That color looks like a Miami beach house.

I was able to identify it as the larva of a "White-dotted Prominent" moth. You never know what's going to show up when you provide habitat.

These guys aren't really beneficial. I don't care, though - I'd never seen a caterpillar that looked like he was carved from fine jade.

I wonder if I could take it to Lowes and get that color matched?

From the Inbox: What Are These Plants?

I received the following e-mail yesterday and asked if I could answer it here.

I think the info is worth sharing.

Hi David:)

Thank you for all you do at the base group. I really enjoy learning. I have let my back lot just do it's thing the past couple of years and now I'm finding interesting things that in the past were probably mowed or cut back. Now the task at hand is to start identifying them before I make decisions to make room for other things. Could you help? Also what guides would you recommend so that I can learn how to identify them myself? I think I found muscadine grapes and wild black berries as well. The black berries are MUCH smaller than when I go picking at a farm though. Perhaps I'm mistaken?

This one is the tree I mentioned. The berries start green but progresses to red and then a dark purple.

The 2nd plant is taking over the yard and is growing in a large mass of lantana under trees. This is the first time I've seen them.

The third looks like a small cactus

The 4th I think might be spurge nettle?

Thanks for your help if you can. Looking forward to the next meeting.

K.

First of all, I have to say: those are darn good photos.

Most of the plant ID pictures I get are blurry. One of these days I'm going to poison someone because I was trying to figure out a nebulous pixelated photo and got a canna mixed up with an oleander.

Seriously - you take better pictures than I do. Can I outsource my photography from now on?

In the first photo, K has definitely found something in the Rubus family. It's an edible blackberry of some type, though nailing down the exact species is tough. Taste them and if they're good, encourage them!

The second plant is a laurel cherry. Though it has lots of edible relatives, including the wonderful black cherry, this plant is poisonous. Don't eat them! The way to tell the difference between the laurel cherry and the black cherry? Look for little "beaks" or points, at the end of the fruit. If it has those, it's poisonous. The laurel cherry also has leaves that smell strongly of maraschino cherries or almonds when crushed.

That's cyanide. Mmm... NOT!

As for the third plant, that looks like lantana berries to me. They're supposedly edible when completely black, but I haven't tried them. Green Deane writes about lantanas here. Worth reading.

The third plant is a cactus. It's a prickly pear of some sort. Edible and delicious, provided you can deal with the spines properly. Cut them out or toast the pads over an open flame. I like these cactuses a lot, especially in chili.

As for the final plant, it is definitely a spurge nettle. They have roots that are edible cooked, but the edibility of the leaves is unknown. Don't touch them - they hurt! With spurge nettles growing on your property, chances are you can grow their much more edible cousins, chaya and cassava.

There are a lot of wild edibles out there. Keep your eyes open and you never know what you'll find.

As for guides, I like this one.

I also like EatTheWeeds.com.

All the best,

David the Good

Oh shoot!

I don't think this bamboo is a clumper...

The original plant is the 3' tall clump at the bottom right of the photo. I planted it a couple of years ago and have no idea where I originally got it, though I thought I had obtained a nice clumping type.

Last year it grew a couple of feet upwards from its original height of about a foot... then this spring it totally surprised me by putting up these massive canes.

Guess it's time to close down my nursery, give up on the food forest and move. Hehhehheh.

Crash Gardening, Episode 3: Easy Pest Control

Okinawa spinach is HERE! Get It today at the 326 Community Market!

THIS WEEK:

Finally, the Okinawa spinach plants are ready for market!

Okinawa spinach is a delicious perennial green that loves the heat and also looks quite ornamental.

See pictures and a plant profile over at Grower Jim's. Here in North Florida it needs some protection to stay alive through the winter, but I've kept it along the south wall of my house for a few years without covering it. It's one of the best greens we grow... too eat it is to feel healthy.

Also, I still have a limited amount of 3-gallon Southern Highbush blueberries. They sold well last week and everyone that tasted the berries was impressed.

I'll be at the 326 Market in Ocala today.

My wonderful selections include:

OKINAWA SPINACH: $5.00

SELF-POLLINATING BEAUTIFUL BLUEBERRIES: $15.00

APPLES (Anna and Dorsett) $20.00 

PEARS $20.00

POMEGRANATES (Various) $20.00

FIGS (Various) $20.00

MULBERRIES (Black and Everbearing - very limited supply) $20.00

NECTARINES (UF Varieties!) $20.00

JAPANESE PERSIMMONS (SOLD OUT)

MUSCADINE GRAPES (Black and Green) $9.00

THORNLESS BLACKBERRIES $9.00

BABY MORINGA TREES $8.00

CHINESE GREEN TEA $8.00

CASSAVA $5.00

Stop on by before I sell out. The plants have been moving fast and I'm almost out of mulberries again.

The 326 Community Market runs every Thursday from 3 - 7PM and is really easy to find.

Google map is here. Their Facebook page is here (with lots more photos and info):

My prices are good and my gardening advice is free.

Beyond what I carry, there are also folks selling melt-in-your-mouth Florida peaches, goat milk cheese and soap, handcrafts, recycled pallet wood furniture, fresh lemonade, ice cream, dolls and lovely homemade greeting cards (seriously - this gal does nice work - buy her cards - at $1 each, they beat Hallmark!), crafts, vegetables, baked goods, homemade jams and jellies (really good), local raw honey, farm eggs, rabbits, homemade birdhouses, butterfly plants and more.

The other week I also got some fresh homemade ice cream from Jersey Creamery. Amazing.

It's a great group of people and very friendly... the way a local market should be.

Come on down!

New Page: Discover What You've Missed in my New Newsletter Archive Page

Wait... you haven't signed up for my Florida Survival Gardening newsletter yet?

I won't spam you, but I will share more than I share on the blog with those that sign up.

Sometimes it's hard to connect with people personally via an open blog like this one. I get spammers, drive-bys and visits from Russian bots in the night... but with the newsletter, I know I'm reaching real people.

I generally send out the newsletter every few weeks and include closer looks at plants that really shine in Florida, plus give you news on where I'll be speaking, what I'm currently excited about and also share some of my crazier experiments and discoveries.

I'd love you to be in the club, so I'm now posting my old newsletters on a new page in the navigation bar up top so you can see what you've missed so far. Here's... the... ARCHIVE!

Read on through, then sign up!

(One of these days I might try to get you to buy some "FloriDa Surviving Gardens VitaMin PilLS That ReaLLy WorK To BOOOOST FailiNG Energies!1!" but chances are... I won't.)

Update on growing peaches from seed

As I illustrated previously in a weird cartoon, growing peaches from pits is easy and worthwhile. Germinating peach pits is easy - it just takes a little time.

This is the time of year to gather local peaches from Farmer's Markets and roadside stands and start growing your own. Make sure they're moderately local fruit, however, as varieties grown up north may not meet the chill requirements here in Florida. (Of course, you could try anyhow - let me know if you have luck!)

My peach trees are almost done with their first crop. The fruit was absolutely superb in flavor, and we harvested at least a dozen fruit off one of the two trees I planted out back. The other tree wasn't as precocious in its fruiting as the other and is also holding its single fruit for longer. Perhaps one will be an earlier season bearer and the other will be a few weeks later. That's how it seems at this point, since the one tree is picked out and the other hasn't finished yet.

Very exciting, and a good testimony to the value of genetic diversity on a homestead.

Remember, these trees are still LESS than TWO YEAR OLD.

They're almost 10' tall at this point and have completely beaten the 6' tall trees I planted three years ago from potted and grafted nursery stock.

To fight nematodes, I've thrown lots of compost around their bases, including mustard and cabbage greens, which both reputedly beat back our tiny creeping enemies.

Another interesting thing about these seed-grown peaches: the shape of the tree is naturally growing  in a multi-trunked vase shape that's quite easy to pick. I'm not going to prune them at all and we'll see what happens.

Even if I lost both of the tree at this point due to nematodes, I'm only out a little bit of time... and we've already enjoyed a nice basket of peaches.

Other trees worth trying to grow in this fashion: plums, nectarines and cherries, if you can find any from low-chill trees. If any of my cherry trees manage to fruit, you know what I'm doing with the resulting pits.

Now go - find some peach pits to plant! Follow the stratification method in the comic linked above and you won't be disappointed.

Gardening Without Guilt

Are you a new gardener? 

Close-up photos of healthy plants will keep people from seeing how rough the REST of your garden looks.

Are you an experienced gardener?

Then you will share the same experience: failure.

Over and over again, you will have failure. It happens.

Some years a late frost will destroy your salad garden. In other years, fire blight will attack your pear trees.

Sometimes weird things happen… and they happen to both expert gardeners and complete newbies. Gardening without guilt should be the goal of every homesteader. Sometimes things work out… and sometimes they don’t. But you keep going, no matter what.

Let’s Talk About Failure

Let me tell you about some of this year’s failures in my garden.

Right now, I have five mulberry trees. Two of the ones I planted seem to be unimproved varieties. I thought I was getting trees that would bear nice, big fruit… instead I’ve gotten pathetic little berries. I get plenty of them, sure – but they’re not what I thought they’d be. After two years of waiting… I’m disappointed.

Caveat emptor.

In my potato bed, I’ve now discovered that fire ants have taken a liking to my plants. I’ve got yellow and wilting potato leaves everywhere. I pulled a couple up the other day to see what was happening… and the root systems were full of fire ants. I’ve never read anything about fire ants wrecking root systems, but now I know they do. And once I googled the problem, I discovered that other gardeners have had the same problem.

Does that make me a failure?

At growing this year’s potatoes… yes.

But should I feel guilty?

Not at all.

Every failure is a chance for us to reassess our gardening methods, our pest control, our crop varieties and our own thinking. It’s good to fail now, before things get any uglier in our country. If you’re not actively growing and learning now, you might be in for a rocky road in the future.

What if I’d needed to feed my family on those potatoes because there was nothing left in the grocery stores? I’d be in big trouble. Yet because the fire ants decided to strike now, rather than in 2016, I’m able to reassess and take charge of their control for next year.

Let’s Talk About Crazy Schedules

Some years you’ll miss the best planting window for a specific crop.

There are things more wonderful than perfect gardens.

I brought a tour through my place a few weeks ago. It was ostensibly a food forest tour, but I also took the group through my annual beds.

This spring they looked rather pathetic. One long bed of salad greens going to seed, a couple of beds of patchy kale and cabbages, some sugar cane just coming up, a little block of mustard, a weedy herb bed… let’s just say it wasn’t the best showing for a professional garden writer.

Yet we still had a spring garden planted. The only thing most Americans planted this year was their fat butts in front of the television.

My wife and I had a new baby, I re-launched my edible plant nursery, I created an in-depth survival gardening audio course, drew a book on survival crops and seed-saving, built a mist house for propagation, plus ran a radio production business, all while teaching at various events across the state.

Yeah. The kale is patchy. But I planted some, and that was an accomplishment.

If you’re a business owner, a homeschooling stay-at-home mom, a homesteader or a 40-hour-a-week employee, you know it isn’t easy to pack in a spring garden. Yet you do it anyway. And if at some point you lose your job or the economy collapses, you’ll have the time to double-down on your gardening – and you will succeed, because you’ve honed your skills under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Let’s Talk About Keeping Things Perfect

No. Just no. Photo credit.

I know.

Ms. Perfect has an incredible, perfect tomato patch down the street.

And Mr. Amazing built his grape trellises so they’re aligned exactly with Polaris.

There’s nothing wrong with making things look good… but a lot of what “looks good” has nothing to do with productivity or functionality.

(CLICK HERE to keep reading over at The Prepper Project)

Sunday flowers

This blue walking iris was purchased while I was on a date with my wife, antiquing in Micanopy.

These yellow "tiger" irises came from my parent's home in Ft. Lauderdale. They traveled with me to Tennessee, then back to Florida, then back to Tennessee... and finally to here. The original plants at my parents' home are older than I am and still thriving - just as my parents' marriage is still thriving, a fact for which I always continue to be grateful.

This orchid used to belong to my wonderful little sister Alean, who left it behind when she moved Way Up North. I snagged it, and three years later, it's blooming for the first time.

Many of my plants have stories. They remind me of loved ones, of familiar places, and sometimes of painful experiences.

Even in loss, though, there is the knowledge that the pain isn't permanent. Today I choose to focus my thoughts on higher, nobler and more wonderful things than the bitterness, selfishness, contention, pain and hatred that defines this sphere.

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

-Philippians 4:8

Blueberries!

We went picking blueberries at B&G Blueberries in Ft. McCoy yesterday. The flavor is wonderful and the owners are some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet this side of heaven.

Bill is a personal friend and has been a good advisor on my own blueberry growing as well as being a great mentor when I launched my nursery.

Here is their picking schedule:

Opening dates for the June season will be announced in late May ($2.50 per lb.). Check our answering machine for any changes to these dates.

We sell plants, (Blueberry, peach and nectarine trees, grapes, figs, raspberries), also fertilizer & pine bark.  Pre-picked Blueberries – Call for details.

From Silver Springs go east on SR 40 to CR 315. Go left 5 1/2 miles to NE 100 St. Go left and follow the Blueberry signs ¼ miles to B & G Blueberries.

Please call us at 352-236-4410, or Email us at WDH47@embarqmail.com if you have any questions. (If you now do email, let us know, we’ll send your notifications by email.)

The Halls - Bill, Gail, Danny, Dorothy, Justin, Micah, Rebekah, Ben, Jason, Robin, Savannah, and EmmaLee. - B & G Blueberries

If you're within an hour of Ft. McCoy, make sure you sign up for their e-mail newsletter and get picking dates e-mailed to you.

As for the berries we picked... here's the remnant:

Survival Plant Profile: Mulberries

I remember the first time I saw a mulberry tree. Growing up in South Florida, we were used to oranges, grapefruit, mangos and avocadoes. But… a blackberry that grew on a tree? Wild!

I was 10 years old. My little brother Brian and I were visiting our friends Rachel and Miles, who were eight and seven. Rachel took us down a little alley behind her house to show us the tree. We picked fruit and purpled our fingers and lips… totally amazed by the delicious abundance.

Rachel is now my wife; and though we no longer live in South Florida, we did take a trip back a few years ago and asked Rachel’s mom if the tree was still at the end of the alley. Sadly, it had been removed – but a far-sighted neighbor had taken cuttings before its demise and planted them across the street in an empty lot. We took our children for a walk and found the trees in full fruit. All of us came home purple and happy, our baskets loaded with berries.

In my yard in North Central Florida, I’ve planted a half-dozen mulberry trees and will soon plant more.

The mulberry tree has been praised and demonized… overlooked… fed to silk worms… discovered by hungry travelers… and planted by the Founding Fathers. It grows across most of the United States and is a consistent producer of delicious berries. The range is actually astounding, when you consider that mulberries live and fruit in states with blizzards and ice… and in Miami… where people suntan in February.

I’m always amazed when people pick on mulberries as “messy.” That’s like saying “you know, the Mississippi is a great river… what a shame it’s so damp!”

As I say regularly… that’s not mess! THAT’S FOOD!

Sure, songbirds sometimes eat the berries and then re-create Pollack masterpieces across the hood of your Honda… but that’s a small price to pay for mulberry pie… dried mulberries… mulberry brandy… mulberry cobbler… and smiling children with purple fingers.

This "Illinois Everbearing" mulberry is two years old and already bears gallons of berries.

I read – with horror – that some landscape-minded plant breeders have bred fruitless varieties. FRUITLESS! If I were them, I would watch the sky for lightning bolts. God makes one of the most productive and delicious fruits known to man… and you breed the fruit off it?

Okay – I’m done ranting. Let’s talk about growing these things.

Mulberries will grow in half-shade but prefer full sun. After the first year, they need basically no watering or care to survive. My kind of tree.

Something that’s really encouraging about the mulberry is that it has a juvenile period of almost zero, provided you grow it from cuttings or grafted trees. If you grow them from seed, it can take a decade to get fruit.

I’ve had tiny trees (not from seed) produce fruits. And when mulberries are young, they grow like weeds. They also respond very well to pruning. I’m trying different methods of tree shaping to keep the berries within reach for ease of picking. Untended mulberry trees can get tall quickly.

Not only are mulberries productive, they're also a beautiful shade tree.

As for varieties, that’s where things get complicated. Morus alba, Morus rubra and Morus nigra all look quite similar and hybridize readily, producing fertile offspring. In fact, Morus alba, the “white mulberry,” has been classified as invasive in some states due to its ability to hybridize with the native red mulberry (Morus rubra), threatening the species. 

The white mulberry is the famous mulberry of the Oriental silk industry. Though it’s called “white,” it has fruit that range in color from purple to pink to white. Their flavor is said to be less delicious than the “red” or “black” mulberry species, though the fully white mulberries have a nice honey flavor.

There are varieties of mulberries known as “ever-bearing,” since they bear sporadic crops throughout the warmer months, rather than having one gigantic crop all at once in the spring. I own one and it's wonderfully prolific over a long season.

One of my favorite varieties – for purely aesthetic reasons – is the Pakistan “long mulberry,” a tree that bears graceful 2-3” long fruit. Though my long mulberry is only 3’ high, it’s already bearing a few fruit.

Another use for mulberries that is now being rediscovered is its excellence as animal feed. Chickens and pigs will live happily on the abundant dropped fruit – and goats are inordinately fond of the tree’s leaves. 

If you have space… and you’d like fruit within a year… and you want happy children… grow a mulberry. Right now. Go get one – you’ll love it.

(NOTE: I stock multiple varieties for sale in my nursery - drop me an e-mail if you'd like to purchase your very own mulberry tree.)

SPUDOMETER RATING: 

4.5 Spuds!

Name: Mulberry
Latin Name: Morus alba, Morus nigra, Morus rubra
Type: Tree
Nitrogen Fixer: No
Medicinal: No
Cold-hardy: Yes
Exposure: Full sun to part shade
Part Used: Fruit, sometimes leaves
Propagation: Grafting, cuttings, seed
Taste: Very good
Method of preparation: Fresh, dried, jams, jellies, and in awesome cobbler (thanks, Rach!)
Storability: Poor
Ease of growing: Easy
Nutrition: Good
Recognizability: Low
Availability: Low

UPDATE - Farmer's Market Today! - UPDATE!

AFTERNOON UPDATE: Forget it, looks like the rain is clearing out. I'm going! 

See you there.

Rain should be sweeping through the state along with plenty of wind.

Batten down the hatches!

We need the water, but sadly... I won't be setting up my plants at the 326 Community Market today.

See you all next week. If you're stuck inside with nothing to do, I highly recommend you take some time and watch this video:

My rooster's head and feathers fell off. Will it survive?

Crash Gardening, Episode 2: Easy Florida Fruit Trees

Awwww yeah. Easy fruit trees. And olives. And airplanes.

Easy Container Gardening

Container gardening doesn’t have to be a big deal. You don’t have to buy expensive EarthBoxes(TM) (though they work nicely), sink a lot of money into a VertiGro system (though those also work well) or buy expensive pots from your local big box store.

Pineapples don’t like the frost so I grow them in pots.

Chances are, you can start container gardening with things you already have laying around your house.

So… why bother with container gardening? There are multiple reasons you might want to go down this path.

In some places, soil pests are outrageous or the native soil is poor. Personally, I’d change the species I grow and fight to use the dirt I have – but I’ve met many gardeners who prefer to bring in good soil and containers and simply skip fighting with the lousy stuff on their property.

I once saw this done to great effect at a little blueberry you-pick a few hours south of me in a hot, white-sand area of Florida. The owner had filled large containers with pine bark for his blueberries and they were thriving in a place where you’d normally have to do some serious soil amendment to make them happy. Beneath the rows of 30-gallon pots he’d put down commercial weed-block sheeting. No dealing with pH issues, no dealing with weeds and no dealing with soil pests like nematodes.

Additionally, if you’re growing tender plants, if they’re potted you can bring them in and outdoors as needed. I use this method to grow pineapples, starfruit, jabuticaba and other plants that get murdered by our frequent winter frosts.

Another reason to garden in containers is if you’re in a temporary living situation. For the wanderer, it’s easy to bring your containerized salad garden and some edible shrubs with you if you move. Containers are especially useful if you’re living in an apartment.

Here’s another example. My (amazing and beautiful) sister called me last year. She lives in an apartment and was interested in adding some fresh produce to her family’s diet. Earlier in the day she had gone to a plant talk and giveaway at her complex, coming home with a few tomato plants and other vegetables… so she asked me how I’d go about planting them.

My answer? 5-gallon buckets.

Drill holes in a bucket about 2″ up from the bottom. Throw some gravel or rough mulch in the bottom of the bucket and you have a water reservoir. Fill the bucket the rest of the way up with some loose potting soil mix and you’re ready to plant.

She followed my advice and it worked wonderfully – here’s some photographic proof:

Not bad for a tiny balcony!

Sources for free buckets include pizza and sub shops, house painters and bakeries. If you have to buy them, they usually run about $4-6 each. Not bad, really, but not as good as free.

If you get free buckets from a house painter, just make sure they were used for regular old latex house paint. It’s pretty non-toxic stuff and most of it is easy to wash out of a bucket. I’d avoid any buckets used for oil-based solvents or paints, obviously. (The proper term for gardening in containers that previously held toxins is “yuck,” but I’m not going to write “yuck” since it sounds juvenile.)

Bakeries often have 3-gallon buckets for icing. Snag those if you can. Often they have recycling programs, so you might have to talk them into letting YOU be the recycler on a particular batch of buckets.

Beyond buckets, you can also press various common items into service as container gardens. 55-gallon plastic drums can be cut in half and used, either lengthwise or around their waists. They tend to warp, so as soon as you cut them and put in your drainage holes, fill them with soil so they maintain their shape instead of getting weird and curly around the edges.

Another thought, if you’re not afraid of neighbors calling code enforcement – you can garden in old gutted refrigerators, chest freezers and dishwashers.

I know. Tacky as heck. But still… there’s a lot of growing space there... (Keep Reading over at The Prepper Project)

‘Extreme Levels’ of Monsanto’s Roundup Found on Iowa Soy

Hope you don't plan on eating mayonnaise anytime soon...

A study conducted on soybean plants grown on various Iowa farms has found unusually high levels of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide on the genetically modified crops.

The researchers looked at the accumulation of pesticides and herbicides on plants that had either been genetically engineered as “Roundup Ready” tolerant to glyphosate, the main herbicide in Monsanto’s Roundup; or they had been conventionally produced, but not GMO; or, they were soybeans that had been produced from organic seeds and growing practices.

According to the study’s findings, which are published in the June issue of the journal Food Chemistry, high levels of Monsanto’s Roundup were found on 70 percent of the GMO soy plants. The scientists recorded average levels of 9 milligrams of glyphosate per kilogram in the study samples, which is almost double what’s considered an “extreme level” of contamination.

“Who says when Roundup contamination can be considered ‘extreme’?” asks the Environmental Working Group, “Monsanto itself. In 1999, the chemical giant defined an “extreme level” of the herbicide as 5.6 milligrams per kilogram of plant weight.”

(READ THE REST over at Organic Authority)

Soy is in almost everything. I don't eat it anymore, but for those of you that don't mind its estrogenic effects, genetically modified DNA, etc... maybe this will be reason enough to jump off the HMS Soybean in search of smoother sailing.

Grow your own food and stay away from corporate feed.

BLUEBERRY MADNESS! TODAY! Come on down to the 326 Community Market!

THIS WEEK:

I got the hook-up on some of the healthiest 3-gallon Southern Highbush blueberries I've ever seen. Big, solid plants that are already bearing luscious clusters of antioxidant-rich berries.

They're $15.00 each and worth every penny. I'm very happy with these and you will be too.

Come on down and buy a few for your berry patch!

Last week I had some of my favorite people stop by, including the Shepperds, Curtiss and his lovely wife (who has an amazing accent), and my new friends Kurt and Lisa from Forest Animal Rescue.

That said, I'll be back at the 326 Market in Ocala today with plenty of great plants.

My wonderful selections include:

SELF-POLLINATING BEAUTIFUL BLUEBERRIES: $15.00

APPLES (Anna and Dorsett) $20.00 

PEARS $20.00

POMEGRANATES (Various) $20.00

FIGS (Various) $20.00

MULBERRIES (Black and Everbearing) $20.00

NECTARINES (UF Varieties!) $20.00

JAPANESE PERSIMMONS (Various non-astringent) $29.00

MUSCADINE GRAPES (Black and Green) $9.00

THORNLESS BLACKBERRIES $9.00

BABY MORINGA TREES $8.00

CHINESE GREEN TEA $8.00

I'm also bringing:

Cassava, Chaya and FREE Mystery Seed Balls!

Stop on by before I sell out. The plants have been moving fast and I'm almost out of mulberries again.

Coming soon: goji berries, butterfly weed, okinawa spinach... and coffee plants!

The 326 Community Market runs every Thursday from 3 - 7PM and is really easy to find.

Google map is here. Their Facebook page is here (with lots more photos and info):

My prices are good and my gardening advice is free.

Beyond what I carry, there are also folks selling melt-in-your-mouth Florida peaches, goat milk cheese and soap, handcrafts, recycled pallet wood furniture, fresh lemonade, ice cream, dolls and lovely homemade greeting cards, crafts, vegetables, baked goods, homemade jams and jellies (really good), local raw honey, homemade birdhouses and more.

It's a great group of people and very friendly... the way a local market should be.

Come on down!

Plant ID Needed

What is this mystery flower? Any of you bright folks have an idea?

Tan Cheese Pumpkins for 2014

You may remember this guest post from last year in which rycamor talks about his amazing Tan Cheese pumpkins.

Since they blew my Seminole pumpkins away in terms of productivity, I decided to plant my own in the food forest this year:

I planted that pair on top of giant chunks of buried rotten oak (thanks for the idea, Leon) along with fresh hot manure and I'm hoping they'll grow irrigation-free all summer.

I also planted a bunch of other seeds in various places... some on top of rotten wood, some in just the ground and some with just manure. We'll see what happens. If rycamor beats me in yields this year I'm going to be gravely disappointed.

C'mon, grow!

Crime Scene Investigators: Small Mammal Edition

I was working on an article at my desk the other day when my daughter came in.

DAUGHTER: Dad?

ME: Yes?

DAUGHTER: We found a weird dead animal outside.

ME: Oh yeah?

DAUGHTER: Yeah. So we drew it. Look!

ME: Wow. Nice.

DAUGHTER: We're not sure what it is. Can you tell us?

ME: Looks like a mole to me. Where did you find it?

DAUGHTER: In the path in the backyard. The ants are eating it.

ME: You should catalog your find further. Here, take the camera and get some shots. I'm sure your mom will want to see them.

DAUGHTER: Okay!!!

I went back to work on my article and forgot about our strange conversation until I just downloaded the contents of my camera and found the following images:

Yep. Definitely a mole.

Subject matter aside, why do photos taken by children always look creepy as heck?

I love my kids. Life is significantly more hilarious with them around.