This one sprouted about a month ago:
The other one is just starting to sprout.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Groundnut update
The groundnuts I potted up in December are up and growing.
This one sprouted about a month ago:
This one sprouted about a month ago:
Monday, February 6, 2012
Native Seed Sources 2012
It’s that wonderful time of year when flower catalogs arrive daily on the doorstep. What a world of possibility exists in them! I have spent almost four weeks poring over the beautiful pictures and tempting descriptions. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is now time to be more hard-nosed about what I can actually grow, and I have started ordering. Because it is hard to find seeds for native edible plants, I thought that you folks might like to know where I am getting mine.
I just ordered a bunch of wildflowers from Prairie Moon Nursery for the meadow garden I’m making in the backyard. Some of them are edible, like Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum). I also bought a packet of Common Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia), that I plan to grow hydroponically in troughs. As a bonus, they also sent a *FREE* packet of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). I may not use these seeds, as I was going to liberate some locally growing milkweed from my neighbor’s meadow down the street instead. I really like Prairie Moon; their seeds are high quality, their prices reasonable, and their service is prompt.
Last time I grew Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), I got tubers from Whole Foods and planted them. They grew very well. I would do that again except that Whole Foods doesn’t seem to be carrying them at present. So I will be ordering Jerusalem Artichokes from Nichols Garden Nursery. Other companies have Jerusalem Artichokes also (like Johnny’s or Shumway’s), but they will only ship them in the fall. Nichols will ship them in April.
Nichols also carries Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata), which is one of my all-time favorite spring salad greens. My kids love it too – it grows abundantly, and they go out to the garden and graze on it straight off the plant. Johnny’s carries Miner’s Lettuce also, but it is more expensive.
I won’t get these until fall, but I order Camas (Camassia species) from John Scheeper’s. They have high quality bulbs and pretty good prices too.
This year, I’m trying something new with Yampa (Perideridia gairdneri). This is a western plant used for its root. It is really hard to find seed sources for this, but I did find it at From the Forest using Google. I have never ordered from this person before; I will let you know how it comes out!
I just ordered a bunch of wildflowers from Prairie Moon Nursery for the meadow garden I’m making in the backyard. Some of them are edible, like Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum). I also bought a packet of Common Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia), that I plan to grow hydroponically in troughs. As a bonus, they also sent a *FREE* packet of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). I may not use these seeds, as I was going to liberate some locally growing milkweed from my neighbor’s meadow down the street instead. I really like Prairie Moon; their seeds are high quality, their prices reasonable, and their service is prompt.
Last time I grew Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), I got tubers from Whole Foods and planted them. They grew very well. I would do that again except that Whole Foods doesn’t seem to be carrying them at present. So I will be ordering Jerusalem Artichokes from Nichols Garden Nursery. Other companies have Jerusalem Artichokes also (like Johnny’s or Shumway’s), but they will only ship them in the fall. Nichols will ship them in April.
Nichols also carries Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata), which is one of my all-time favorite spring salad greens. My kids love it too – it grows abundantly, and they go out to the garden and graze on it straight off the plant. Johnny’s carries Miner’s Lettuce also, but it is more expensive.
I won’t get these until fall, but I order Camas (Camassia species) from John Scheeper’s. They have high quality bulbs and pretty good prices too.
This year, I’m trying something new with Yampa (Perideridia gairdneri). This is a western plant used for its root. It is really hard to find seed sources for this, but I did find it at From the Forest using Google. I have never ordered from this person before; I will let you know how it comes out!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Potting Groundnuts (Apios Americana)
I dug up some groundnuts a couple of weeks ago from my garden because I was afraid that the voles would get them all.
Some are in the fridge, awaiting springtime, but I thought I might pot some up just for fun and grow them under lights. It is really the wrong time of year to do this, but I have a spirit of adventure. And its mid-winter and I need to grow something!
These groundnuts are “wild-type” groundnuts that I bought from Tripple Brook Farm a few years ago. I actually ordered the “cultivated” groundnut strain that was developed by Bill Blackmon at Louisiana State University, but they couldn’t ship me those for some reason and I got the wild-type instead. This strain has pretty small tubers, as you can see, about the size of a fingernail. Now that I know what groundnuts look like, I’m going to scout around the wilds to try to find some tubers with better size.
I potted the groundnuts in some old Miracle-Gro potting mix that I had on the porch. It was all frozen together in a giant lump in the bag. Normal people would probably take this as a sign that they should stop, but I went and got the cold-chisel and a hammer and broke it apart into bits that I brought inside to thaw out.
I put the groundnuts into 4” nursery pots, watered them well, and put them under lights. I’m planning to transplant them back to the garden if/when they grow.
If you want to be inspired about groundnuts, you should read this great article about ground nuts by Tamara Dean that I found today while I was surfing around.
These groundnuts are “wild-type” groundnuts that I bought from Tripple Brook Farm a few years ago. I actually ordered the “cultivated” groundnut strain that was developed by Bill Blackmon at Louisiana State University, but they couldn’t ship me those for some reason and I got the wild-type instead. This strain has pretty small tubers, as you can see, about the size of a fingernail. Now that I know what groundnuts look like, I’m going to scout around the wilds to try to find some tubers with better size.
I potted the groundnuts in some old Miracle-Gro potting mix that I had on the porch. It was all frozen together in a giant lump in the bag. Normal people would probably take this as a sign that they should stop, but I went and got the cold-chisel and a hammer and broke it apart into bits that I brought inside to thaw out.
I put the groundnuts into 4” nursery pots, watered them well, and put them under lights. I’m planning to transplant them back to the garden if/when they grow.
If you want to be inspired about groundnuts, you should read this great article about ground nuts by Tamara Dean that I found today while I was surfing around.
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