Follow My Garden's Growth at My New Community Plot: See Everything I Do Over the Year - From Weeding, To Soil Preparation, Planting, Tending, Harvesting and A Lot More!

Follow My Garden's Growth at My New Community Plot: See Everything I Do Over the Year - From Weeding, To Soil Preparation, Planting, Tending, Harvesting and A Lot More!

This year I finally got my community garden plot. I inherited and over-grown plot covered in weeds and wire grass. The fence needed to be replaced and it was in need of lot care and repair.

But it is mine! The first 6 episodes show you how I took it from its neglected over-grown 20-25 foot plot turned into something I am really proud of. If you don't have room or land... you might want to look for community garden plots in your area. Check out the videos for more information and watch me build and grow my community garden.

My Community Garden Plot Episode 1: 

I Finally Got It!, Fencing, Vinegar Brush Killer & Weed Block 

I finally got my 20 x 25 foot community garden plot after a long wait. I will be doing a season long series on how I manage the plot, plant, tend and deal with pests. Some of the space will be used by kids for their first garden and I will show off some of other garden plots in the community. This episode covers quick fencing, vinegar weed & brush killing and putting down weed block. The grunt work.

My Community Garden Plot Episode 2: 

Filling the Beds Cheaply, Planting and a New Gardener! 

I finally got my 20 x 25 foot community garden plot after a long wait. In episode 2, I show you how to cheaply fill your beds and some of the problems I am encountering. My goal is not to have to spend a lot of money to fill the beds this year. The plot has cost about $225 so far to get it in shape. And Leena, a new gardener, starts getting her plot in shape too. She is three!

My Community Garden Plot Episode 3: 

8 Kinds of Raised Beds, A Watering System & Progress 

This is Episode 3 for my community garden plot. I will be doing a season long series on how I manage the plot, plant, tend and deal with pests. The 12 beds are just about prepared. I show you how to use containers to make raised beds. There are 100's of ways to get a garden ready for vegetables. I have covered about 8 ways to prepare the beds in the last 2 episodes. I also show you the beginning design of my container water system that uses a drip hose and eventually a rain barrel.

My Community Garden Plot Episode 4: 

Planted Tomatoes & Peppers, Grow Bags, A Drips System & More 

This is Episode 4 for my community garden plot. I will be doing a season long series on how I manage the plot, plant, tend and deal with pests. The containers were planted with peppers and tomatoes. I started some 7 gallon grow bags with a shredded leaf mix for the containers soil. I am experimenting with a drip systems and Leena waters her garden and enjoys a wheelbarrow ride.

My Community Garden Plot Episode 5: 

Fencing, Trellising, Determinate Tomatoes & A Hose Tip

This is Episode 5 on my community garden plot. I will be doing a season long series on how I manage the plot, plant, tend and deal with pests. Some quick tips on making it easier moving a hose through garden, staking determinate tomatoes, trellis types, and I raise my fence by two feet. The member told me deer can jump 4 foot fences. And a general updated on the growth.

My Community Garden Plot Episode 6: 

Epsom Salt, Tomato Nutrients, Eggplant Flea Beetles & Growth 

This is Episode 6 on my community garden plot. I will be doing a season long series on how I manage the plot, plant, tend and deal with pests. I show you nutrient lacking tomatoes, talk about nutrients, how to use Epsom Salt, flea beetles on eggplants and the progress of my plot. I also show you white patches on zucchini leaves... it is perfectly normal.

Episode 7 will be put out this week. That episode and future episodes can be found on my YouTube Channel!


Good Luck with Your Garden, Gary (The Rusted Garden)

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Piedmont Savanna Restoration @ Hebron Road

STAR indicates Preserve location,
ARROWS point to surrounding "urban interface"

                                                        The Hebron Road Plant Conservation Preserve, in the Piedmont of North Carolina, is actively managed with the goal of restoring open, savanna-like habitats and a naturally-occurring suite of rare plants. At this site in particular this goal poses many management challenges.  The site is ringed by development including well traveled roads, an elementary school, and a massive subdivision. All these factors make prescribed burning difficult.  

Evening prescribed Burn conducted March 29, 2012

North Carolina has smoke management guidelines that must be followed when conducting prescribed burns.  Our site has a very narrow set of conditions under which it can be burned, meaning only a few days are available each year.  In order to capitalize on one of these infrequent events, in 2012 we burned at dusk, with direct input from the National Weather Service.

4/10/2015 after most recent prescribed fire.
Redbud (Cercis canadensis) and Dogwood (Cornus florida) flowering in background
Brown unburned patches are mostly Indiangrass (Sorghatrum nutans)

The site was burn again in Spring 2015 (regular fires are needed to control woody plant growth, encourage flowering of rare perennials, create seedbeds for germination, etc).  Like many other "growing season" burns, the fire did not consume the undergrowth entirely across the the site.  The most open, grassy areas burned less completely than those where hardwood leaf litter predominated.

Last year's growth of Smooth Coneflower (Echinacea laevigata) stands tall in one of the unburned patches (4/10/15)

4/19/2015 regrowth of Ironweed (Vernonia sp) after prescribed fire. 

The Preserve was established to protect a remnant population of the federally endangered Smooth Coneflower (Echinacea laevigata). When acquired, all the Coneflower stems were found along the roadside.  Slowly, but surely the population continues to expand at the site. Importantly many of the current plants are now found further away from the roadside and the threats that come with it.


 (left): Vigorous patch of Smooth Coneflowers (06/11/14) established from seed collected on-site. Boulders of diabase rock are present.

E. laevigata seedling sprouting after fire (04/07/15)

Narrow-leaf Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve var. concinnum)
seedling sprouting after fire (4/07/15)

Several other rare plants found on the Preserve also appear to benefit from the restoration and management activities. The Narrow-leaf Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve var. concinnum), listed as Threatened in North Carolina and known from only a handful of sites in the Piedmont, is expanding. 

Narrow-leaf Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve var. concinnum)
Fall flowering, Durham Co, NC (10/10/11) 

Erect Bindweed (Calystegia spithamea)
Spring flowering, Durham Co, NC (05/14/15)

Erect Bindweed (Calystegia spithamea), considered a "watch list" species in NC, occurs at the Preserve at what appears to be the easternmost location documented in North Carolina.  This low growing species doesn't appear to compete well as vegetation becomes taller and more robust in the absence of fire. Another rare plant found on the site, Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum), also reaches its approximate eastern occurrence in North Carolina here and thrives with fire. I previously discussed this species http://ncplantcon.blogspot.com/2014/08/prairie-flora-in-north-carolina-all.html

Prairie Dock sprouting after spring fire@ Hebron Road Preserve

Prairie Dock flowering @ Hebron Road Plant Conservation Preserve
Fall Flowering (8/23/14)

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more news soon...

 The Adelaide Potters surface decoration and printing workshop was fab with such a great group of peeps. Our day was jam packed! Thanks so much for the invite Jan Twyerold and for the pics from my handy assistant on the day Anna Couper and Stephanie James Manton! We had a fab time looking at influences, getting a bit tech with surface marking ideas and getting down to it with image prep and screen making. Cheers all, here's some of the results.

and a final piece raw glazed and fired to c9 in reduction.

A big shout out to the lovely Euan Craig who was guest editor for the Mag last month, my awesomeness friend and photographer Derek McClure Photography stepped in with some lovely portraits and shooting around my studio, a couple of his pics were chosen for the layout.

All up I'm happy with the layout a nice simple clean grid, it's quite strange being one step removed from the design process tho.

It wouldn't be a blog post without mention of lil birdie!

He's popped up in Aspire a local lifestyle mag! And when I get some c6 white clay back in stock, the beakers will be back in production ;) Well that's a catch up for now… more news soon, stay in touch for quick snippets on the dreaded facebook ang walford ceramics or instagram angelawalford

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Going with the flow or against the grain? The promise of vegetation for protecting beaches, dunes, and barrier islands from erosion.

 Our latest barrier island review article was published in this month's issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment  http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/140218.  As part of the Coastal Barrier Island Network, we worked with an integrative group of coastal scientists including ecologists, engineers, and landscape remote sensing specialists to examine the role of vegetation for protecting coastlines.  Traditionally, coastline protection has been largely engineered to maintain structural stability and protect property.  However, we propose that ecological solutions can be mixed with engineering to create more resilient solutions as storms and sea-level pose threats to coastal stability.  Our article also made the front cover!

 

This summer we will continue with research investigating three dune building grasses: Ammophila breviligulata, Uniola paniculata, and Spartina patens.  Grad students Joe Brown and April Harris spent the last few weeks potting thousands of plants for greenhouse and field experiments.  Through a series of experiments they will determine species responses to salinity, drought, sand burial, and competition.  This work will contribute to our understanding of how different species shape barrier islands in response to climate change. 

 

April and Joe planting for greenhouse experiments.

 

Planting for field experiments on Hog Island, Virginia.  Winds were >20 mph that day, so we all received a free exfoliation.  The area was cleared of all vegetation prior to planting.  We will simulate overwash on one half of the plots to quantify how individual species respond to sand burial.

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Benefits of Pruning Peppers: Several Examples with Control Plants

Benefits of Pruning Peppers: 

Several Examples with Control Plants

There are several reasons you may prune peppers. One reason is to develop stronger sturdier stems. This helps plants manage high wind areas and better support heavy crops of peppers. Removing the main growing tip will also create more side-shoot growth in 98% of pepper varieties. I found a few that don't seem to like pruning like 'Banana' peppers. This will create a bushier plant that will branch out and flower more.  The more flowers, the greater the yield of peppers.

Pruning ultimately lets you make a stronger plant that produces more. I will be doing an ongoing series based on the peppers I am pruning. I will be using control groups when available. Here is what my original pruned peppers look like, about 1 month later after their initial pruning. They are compared to un-pruned peppers of the same variety.

Here is the original pruning video if you would like to see how it is done. Pruning can be done many many many ways. This is just one way that I prefer.

If you are growing peppers indoors it is important to know when to transplant them outdoors or into larger cups/pots. Peppers really like warmth and should go out in the garden when the temperatures no longer get below 50 degrees F. If they are in cups, transplant them when they look like this...

Good Luck with Your Garden, Gary (The Rusted Garden)


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Purple (Not really) Bitter Cress (Cardamine douglassii)

Cardamine douglassii (04/08/15)
Durham Co., NC

Cardamine douglassii is sometimes called Limestone Bitter Cress, or Purple Bitter Cress. Neither name seems to be that appropriate (but common names rarely are),  First, it only rarely (maybe never?) grows directly on exposed limestone, and certainly never does so in NC. Second, the flowers are rarely purple, but nearly always appear pure white (but see below). For these provincial reasons, I prefer to call it "Douglas's Bitter Cress".

Douglas's Bitter Cress,
atypical "purple flower" variant
Granville Co., NC

Douglas's Bittercress is another plant species with restricted distribution in North Carolina, and which seems to be most abundant or widespread in the mid-western United States.  In North Carolina it occurs only in a few Piedmont counties, including Durham & Granville; these locations and the those in the Virginia Piedmont are significantly disjunct from the nearest populations to the west.  The habitat where I have observed the species is infrequently flooded floodplain forests. One of the sites supporting the species is shown below:

Cardamine douglassii habitat in Durham Co., North Carolina
Bottomland Hardwood Forest, lush cover of Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)
04/11/15, Cardamine just finished flowering

Like other Bitter Cress species, Cardamine douglassii is part of the Mustard or Brassicaceae family and produces slender tubular seed capsules, or "siliques", that are much longer than wide.

Cardamine douglassii in full fruit

Stems usually lack leaves for most of their length. Several accounts from other states indicate stems are hairy, but I have not observed that in North Carolina. Cauline leaves are usually found on the lower third of the stem, unlobed and usually toothed. Basal leaves are more heart shaped. Younger, non-flowering plants of these perennials produce only rounded leaves

Fortunately, the species seems to require little in the way of active management.  Localized threats to populations in North Carolina include construction & maintenance of water and sewer easements. installation of waterfowl impoundments, beaver flooding, and competition with invasive exotics, especially Japanese Honeysuckle. 

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Plum Thicket Part 1, American Plum

American Plum flowering amidst Eastern Red Cedar, and open grassland
Durham Co., NC April 15, 2015

American Plum (Prunus americana) occurs in scattered localities across the North Carolina Piedmont & Mountains but is generally absent or infrequent in the coastal plain.  Wide ranging across North America, it may have been cultivated by some Native Americans (see Havard 1895 in Bulletin of Torrey Botanical Club)

Showy, white, highly aromatic flowers develop before the leaves, and before most other deciduous species have leafed out in our area.

American Plum thicket of dense sprouts
invading a frequently burned "prairie-like" habitat

Small American Plum tree

American Plum tree with drooping branches
Note the sparse vegetation underneath vs.
dense grass growth outside

American Plum is infamous for forming dense thickets in certain open habitats. These thickets are due, in part, to its propensity to root sprout.  In the example shown here, sprouts are 3-5' tall and leafed out more fully than nearby mature trees, but no flowers were produced. Most have developed 10' or more from the main trunk and appear to be "invading" the open area, with the shortest sprouts along the leading edge.






The origin of these sprouts appear to be large Prunus americana individuals with well developed, widely spreading, and drooping branches, above twisted,multi-trunked stems. These small trees (see images following) produce significant masses of flowers. Interestingly, the space around the trunk(s) is clear of sprouts and other woody plants, possibly due to the density of the canopy or the species may be allelopathic.

The following sequence illustrates progressive stem development.   

Prunus americana sprout elongating above surrounding stems
Note resemblance to brambles or rose canes (to which they are related) 

Prunus stem undergoing height & diameter growth,
developing vertical dimension, showing well developed spur shoots

Small diameter tree with splitting bark, few shoots emerging directly from trunk

American Plum with massive (for the species) triple trunk

Progression of American Plum sprouts to trees,
with small sprouts (left), small tree flowering (middle), large flowering tree (right)

Well-formed & floriferous American Plum
Durham County, April 08, 2015

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