Rhode Island Feeds

Have you ever read something on the Internet and thought to yourself, “Cool. But way too much trouble. On the other hand, I wonder if it works…” That’s what I thought to myself when I first read about the Love Apple Farm tomato-planting method.

Click through for the details, but I can summarize with one word: “fishheads.” (That is one word, right?)

Fishheads from the Love Apple Farm website

Planting tomatoes with fishheads in the holes sounded pretty darn crazy to me the first time I read it. But I made the mistake of bookmarking the page, and during the dark, cold days of winter, I returned to it while fantasizing about fresh tomatoes. “How hard could it be,” I thought, “to snag some fishheads and give it a try?”

[That’s how Extreme Vegetable Gardening starts, you know. First you’re fantasizing about  fresh summer tomatoes, and the next thing you know, you end up with a garbage bag full of flounder bodies in the freezer. It’s a slippery slope.]

As it turned out, it was a lot harder to find fishheads than I originally imagined. The first place I looked was the local seafood shop. “Fishheads?” replied the perplexed clerk. “We get all our fish as fillets from Boston. No fishheads, sorry.”

Boston? They’re on the ocean in Westerly, RI and they’re getting their fish from Boston?

I then proceeded to make a nuisance of myself with the waitstaff of all my favorite local restaurants. I would ask, and they would all gamely traipse into the kitchen to ask the chef, and they would all came back shaking their heads sadly. I spent a fortune in tips that week.

Then I vaguely remembered that there are few fish wholesalers in Tiverton, and my brother lives there, so I asked him to ask around. That’s when I first heard the term “flounder racks.” This is apparently what is left of the flounders after they get through filleting them. My brother found a guy who would be willing to give me a mess of flounder racks. I sent off an email to the guy immediately. He never replied.

Finally, I remembered that there were a few local fishermen who set up at the Stonington Farmer’s Market, so one fine Saturday morning, off I went. That’s where I found Bob, Captain of the JennyLynn out of Stonington. We set up a date to meet at the dock later that week. Bob came through! I left the dock with a five-gallon bucket of flounder racks!

Of course, it was still two weeks from Memorial Day, the official tomato-planting date. So I spent a lovely hour piling individual flounder carcasses into a garbage bag, separated with sheets of waxed paper, and stuffing the whole stinky mess into the downstairs freezer. Yum.

But I did it. Last Saturday, I planted my tomatoes the Love-Apple Farm way, with a flounder rack in the bottom of the hole. (By the way, it’s darned hard to pry frozen flounder bodies apart, waxed paper or not. I ended up chiseling them apart with a screwdriver and a hammer. Extreme Vegetable Gardening indeed.) I will keep you all apprised.

The red clematis growing on my back fence - believed to have died as mentioned in my June 2009 blog entry, started to show signs of growth earlier this spring. I actually had to walk to the next street...

Jewelweed: photo: Brandeis University

Here’s HerbDoc with a  fascinating use for one of our most common wild plants:

Botanically known as Impatiens aurea, Jewelweed is a member of the genus Impatiens and is widely distributed throughout New England.  It’s actually listed as a wildflower and not a weed per se, and the succulent, annual plants are tall and branching with swollen joints. The stems are somewhat translucent, and the leaves are thin, ovate and spring green in color.  The flowers are slipper shaped and orange, and the plants bloom from July to September.  These plants are often called Touch-me-nots because the ripening seed capsules explode upon the slightest touch, and old-timers say that they will be found in damp, rather fertile soil usually in the same area as poison ivy.

This wildflower is said to contain tannin which makes it very useful for application to the skin.  It’s a wonderful preventive and remedy for poison ivy.  Simply cut the entire plant at ground level and roll it back and forth to release the green juice; then rub the juice over the affected skin.  It is said that if you know you’re going to be working where poison ivy is present and if you apply the Jewelweed first, that it will prevent the rash from occurring.  I can only attest to using Jewelweed after the fact; after a few applications, the rash disappears.  When my children were small, I often boiled several plants, let them steep into a tea and froze the juice into ice cubes.  I found this was useful for treating and cooling the itchy poison ivy rashes.

In addition to being a great medicinal herb, Jewelweed is beloved by hummingbirds and offers them a source of nectar when other flowers have disappeared from the garden.

Peace Layanee DeMerchant

With the recent rains and wonderful weather, there has been an onslaught of new growth from both our wanted plants and our unwanted weeds. Please weed your own plots and around your plots, and take a few minutes to do at least part of a community area.

Justin & I severely pruned back the enormous marjoram/oregano (we’re not sure which) plant on the lowest rung of the terrace. We left some cuttings and some bound topped leaves in the box on the picnic table. Please feel free to take it. We also pulled up some wild garlic/wild onion (again, not sure which) and that’s in the box, too.

Be careful in the terrace to not pull up any real plants. I think it’s fairly obvious what is a plant and what is a weed. On the squash mounds, most of the seeds have sprouted, but the mounds are covered in small weeds. The area by the bees needs some work and remember to cut any knotweed you see.

Thanks for all your work in the garden, it really looks lovely!!

k!

Spring just isn't complete without the umbrella foliage of the Mayapple,Podophyllum peltatum, and its' proportionately huge bloom under the parasol. It is a lovely spring flower and if that large flower isn't enough, this herbaceous perennial produces a fruit in... Layanee DeMerchant

Clematis at its best

Isn’t the above clematis a thing of beauty? It’s one of the Montanas, growing with obvious gusto on a fence not too far from where I live. Whether you say Clem-A-tis or CLEM-a-tis, chances are if you’re a gardener, you grow at least one of these vines. I’m a big fan, because there are just so  many cultivars to choose from.

A few years ago, I discovered a terrific clematis nursery on Cape Cod that has a mind-boggling online catalog. I never  imagined there was such variety – so many colors, flower shapes and sizes, growth habits and bloom times! I tend to prefer clematis that bloom throughout the season. I am particularly fond of viticella “Polish Spirit,” which is vigorous and beautiful, especially when clambering through shrub roses. By the way, this is an ideal situation for clematis, most of which like their roots in the shade and their leaves in the sun. It also benefits from the regular feedings I give the roses.

Viticella "Polish Spirit"

These vines have been around for a very long time. We know that they were seen in European gardens in the 1500s. It seems that the dreaded “clematis wilt” began to rear its ugly head in the early 20th century. Then, as now, growers did not have an effective weapon against this disease, which renders plants wilted and moribund, seemingly overnight. Clematis wilt is actually a fungus, Ascochyta clematidina, and is spread by spores. It is more of a problem during wet weather.

The best defense against clematis wilt is to remain vigilant and cut off and dispose of all affected stems. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet, and cut the entire plant down to the ground. The good news is that wilt does not affect the roots, so the plant will likely survive. I had a “Perle d’Azur” that was stricken two summers in a row. I cut it back but no new growth emerged during those two growing seasons. The third year, it came back and was unscathed by the fungus.

My Perle d'Azur - what a comeback!

At this time of year in Rhode Island, the clematis are starting to strut their stuff. When we are driving somewhere, to my husband’s chagrin,  I sometimes  screech to a stop in front of particularly beautiful specimen.  Pausing to simply admire is, in my mind, the right thing to do.

If you have a question about what the combination for the lock is, enter the old combination here as the password to retrieve the new combination.

Hello Gardeners!

I wanted to bring your attention to the forum areas of the website. I’ve added a couple forums that I think will be helpful over the season. Feel free to also leave notes on the bulletin board at the garden, too.

Note that recent posts in the forum are located in a list on the left side of the site. To go to the main forum page, click the forum icon on the top list of icons.

Also, please note that I’ve added a couple of new forums. If you’re out of town and need someone to water or otherwise care for your plants, post a note in the “Out of Town?” forum.  If you would like to alert Renee to items that are okay for her to harvest and take to Camp Street Ministries, leave a note in the “Donations to Camp Street Ministries Forum.” This way she can subscribe to the forum and get notes emailed to her or she can check on thursday nights, make a list and then take care of business Friday mornings.

To write a post in the forum you do not need to be registered. So far there has been little spam, but if the spam increases over time, then I will have to require registration. For now, if you want to leave a message as a guest,  include your name and plot number in the body of the post.

According to the calendar, we’re a week ahead of last year and even slightly ahead of May’s full moon, but we couldn’t wait another minute to start planting. And according to the temperature – hot! – we’re right on schedule. I do wish our timing didn’t seem to consistently coincide with the very hottest days [...]

If you aren’t sure what the lock combination is, use the old combo as a password to access the new combo.

Layanee DeMerchant

It’s spring, and your cover crop has grown! What now? All you do is…

Shovel

Do a quick turn of the wrist

Plop the upturned cover crop back into the hole where you dug

And give the soil a good shovel hacking to ensure that grasses don’t come back during your growing season.

Now that nutrients in the soil are fixed, beds are ready to go!

Yes. Baptisia australis is the Perennial Plant of 2010, voted by the Perennial Plant Association. I thought this flowering shrub with pretty bluish green foliage and tall flower stalks was very attractive when I found it in a local...

You might be interested in a update on the North Stonington (CT) Garden Club’s plant sale, which was held on Saturday, May 8th (yes, same day as the East Farm Festival).

We had, as always, a successful plant sale. But of particular interest to local gardeners, it seemed, were our heirloom tomato plants.

If you missed my earlier post, I raised almost 300 heirloom tomato plants to be sold at the North Stonington Garden Club’s annual plant sale. We held a poll, in which the public was invited to help select the varieties. Ultimately we had 12 different varieties of heirloom tomato plants, including Chocolate Cherry, Amish Paste and Pineapple, to name a few.

Below is a shot of our tomato tables as we set them up for the plant sale. I figure this was taken around 8:45 am, 15 minutes before opening.

Below are the same tables by 9:15 am, only 15 minutes after the sale started.

It was a tomato feeding frenzy. We sold almost 300 plants in about 15 minutes. Color me stunned. I’m thinking next year we’re gonna need a lot more tomatoes!

Like champagne and strawberries, rare plants, garden antiques, and garden accessories satiate the appetite. It was with a sense of adventure and a penchant for both plants and plant accessories that my gardening and golfing friend, Lois, garden pictured here,... Layanee DeMerchant

Last year, around this time, I planted a small globeflower plant in the sunny spot of my front garden. I was able to enjoy a couple of flowers for a very short time. 5.22.09 Trollius europaeus is a perennial in...

One of my greatest gardening anxieties is caused by waiting to see if thrips have taken over the roses. To me, there is nothing more insidious or disheartening than a thrip infestation. It usually occurs during spring and summer because these insects prefer to feed in rapidly growing tissue, which means new shoots and flower buds. Once you have them, it is discouraging because they are difficult to control. If you don’t realize they are feeding on your roses there may be no blossoms left to enjoy by the time you notice the problem.

Rose bud showing signs of damage by thrips.

My first experience with thrips was three years ago. I am usually very vigilant about my garden, especially the roses, taking a walk through every day looking for problems. Having had little experience at that time with roses I did not get too upset when I noticed some less than perfect rose buds…nature isn’t perfect, is it. After about a week it became clear to me that there was something very wrong. All the plants had buds that looked similar, but it wasn’t a fungus and there was no sign of insect pests so I didn’t have a clue as to how I could solve the problem…or how serious it was. By this time, the damage was done and when the roses bloomed most of the petals looked singed on their edges. Here’s what to look for: check all buds regularly for signs of thrips, because you’ll see the damage before you see any thrips.

If buds have spotty discolorations or browning edges on the petals or withering sepals (green “flaps” covering the bud)…or simply look slightly deformed or not “swollen”…you probably have thrips. Of course, finding thrips will confirm your suspicions, but this is easier said than done because they feed deep inside buds.

You might find some on close inspection or by peeling away some outer bud petals. Adults are tiny, elongated insects measuring only 1/20 of an inch, but they are distinctly recognizable when seen up close…even without a magnifier…as they crawl around.

So what can you do? Well, the answer is, very little. Although thrip damage is unsightly, thrips do not warrant the use of toxic insecticides, especially since they feed deep inside the buds, are very tiny, and have great mobility. Narrow-range oil, neem oil, or pyrethrins combined with piperonyl butoxide can be somewhat effective for temporary reduction of thrip populations, but only if applied when thrips are present and damage first appears. Some folks recommend organic remedies…which you can find on the Internet…but none have been proven to be completely or even significantly effective.

Pruning off infected buds is probably the best control method because all insects in the bud are removed and by the next budding cycle thrips will no longer be active. But for me, the solution was prevention. I use a systemic insecticide containing imidacloprid in early spring and never have I have never seen a thrip again. All is well, although I still hold my breath until I am certain the threat is past.

Waves of excitement have washed over me all spring long – it’s really been such an extraordinary season with so much coming into bloom early and then lingering. Since it’s all been about two weeks ahead, we’re on track now for the first week of June blooms – and right on time (?) the Chestnut [...]

A new study shows the danger of pesticides in our kids food:

“Exposure to pesticides used on common kid-friendly foods — including frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries and celery — appears to boost the chances that children will be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, new research shows.” (MSNBC)

This kind of news grants fresh urgency to the school garden movement. SCLT’s after-school education programs, and other similar programs established or starting across America, empower kids about food through teaching them a lifelong skill – organic food growing practices.

Help your kids: buy (or grow!) organic foods to keep them safe!