Sand Plum Trees

Sand Plums (August 2010)

I've gotten some questions about our sand plum tree.  HERE is a previous post where I talked about the process of making jelly from it.

Sand plums are native to the mid-south and the southeastern parts of the United States.  When I was growing up in East Texas, my dad and I would visit a large sand plum thicket every summer and take the plums to my grandma to make jelly with.  We were heartbroken when one year we found that field freshly bush-hogged and a for sale sign up.  The trees were gone.  So when we were looking at houses 9 years ago, I was delighted to find one that already had a couple of mature sand plum trees growing on the property.  Visions of sand plum jelly danced in my head as we signed the papers to purchase.

These trees are native to our area.  As with most natives, they require very little attention.  We've never had any disease or insect issues.  Even Japanese beetles ignore them for the most part.  They can grow in almost any type of soil and once established, do not require watering.  That's my kind of tree!

HERE is a great source of additional information about these trees.  I found some for sale HERE, but I haven't done business with them.

Sand plum tree budding out (early March 2011)

Sand plum tree blooming (late March 2011)

Sand plum tree blooming (late March 2011)

The tree puts on a show of white flowers in March and then litters the yard with white confetti in April.  The local bees seem to really appreciate the blossoms.

Green sand plums (May 2010)

Sand plum tree (May 2010)

By May, the fruits of the bee's labor start to show up.

Ripe sand plums (August 2010)

Sand plum tree (August 2010)

In August, the fruits start to redden up.  When they are a deep, dark red they are ready.  To harvest, I generally shake the tree vigorously and the ripe fruit fall to the ground where I pick them up.  The unripe fruit stay on the tree for the most part.  They don't get super sweet, but have great flavor when combined with the sugar in the jelly.

Weekly Gardening Outlook: Flowers everywhere!

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

Dandelions

 It's one of my favorite times of the year.  The days are warm, the nights are cool, the sky is a deeper blue than any other time of year, and the first flowers of the year are popping out everywhere.  Shown above is one of the many dandelions popping up around my garden.  The entire plant, including the flowers, leaves, and roots is edible.  The flowers are awesome eaten fresh, with a sweet, honey suckle flavor.  They can also be battered and fried or used to make wine.  I'm not a big fan of the greens as I find them bitter, but many like them in salads or lightly boiled.  The roots can be used to make tea, but I've never done it.

When harvesting any wild edible, make sure you know what you're picking and only harvest it from areas that you know have not been treated with chemicals.

Further reading HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Strawberry flowers

Green onions sending up scapes

Nanking cherry blossom

While I love the greening up outside and all of the flowers, it is worrisome.  We are having an unseasonably warm spring having not had a freeze since late February.  To put that in perspective, our average last frost date is April 21st.  We still have a month of frost danger.  If a freeze comes in, it will zap all of the flowers and really damage the subsequent fruit production.

That said, if it holds off and doesn't freeze we are looking at a monster crop of strawberries this year.  Each of my 77 transplants is loaded with flowers as depicted above.  This is perfect growing weather for them.

The green onions have sent up scapes (leafless flower stalks), which is to be expected.  Onions are biennial plants in that they produce seed in their second year.  I started these plants from seed early last spring and am pretty excited to complete the process of gathering my own seeds from plants that I started from seed.

The Nanking cherry bushes are blossoming in their second year.  While it is usually recommended to remove blossoms for the first few years on fruiting perennials, Nanking bush cherries are so hardy though, that we expect get a small crop from them in their second season.

Sand plum tree blossoming out

Transplanted volunteer cilantro

The cilantro have tripled in size in the last week.  I wasn't so sure that they would handle the transplanting well, but they are doing great.  They really like a moist soil, so I've kept them well watered using water from the rain barrel.

Chickens finishing up their work in the garden

Our chickens dug up and ate every weed from the beds, then leveled the soil back out.  This is one of those win/win situations.  They apparently don't find the strawberry plants appetizing and being planted in the blocks protected them from being scratched up.  I put the upside down aquarium over the cilantro to protect them from the chickens while they were in there.

"Crash" and flowering daffodils

A good dog or two is a must in the backyard garden/ranch.  Our two Brittany spaniels keep predators away from our chickens and catch rodents that try to invade the garden.  It took a little doing to teach these bird dogs to not chase the chickens, but they got it eventually.

Chicken and Egg Report:

We are remaining at four eggs per day. In the next month or so, we will get new chicks to eventually replace our current flock.

Weather Outlook:

-Cooler. Highs near 60 every day. We may see a light frost Sunday evening. A chance of rain today and Saturday and then again on Tuesday.
-Ten day forecast

What's Being Harvested:

-Not much right now other than wild edibles.

Junior Master Gardeners

Junior Master Gardeners garden and compost demonstration sight

I recently completed the USDA Master Gardener training and will blog about that experience in the near future.  To repay the organization for training me, some volunteer work is required throughout the year and one of the projects I elected to volunteer for is Junior Master Gardeners.  They are a cooperative program between Master Gardeners, 4H, and the USDA extension office.  Their goal is to teach and develop a love of gardening in youth.

A week from last Saturday, my four year old and I attended our first meeting and we had a BLAST!  There were 40-50 kids there ranging in age from one to seventeen.

Finding Shiitake mushrooms 

My boy and the log stack 

They had a log cabin style structure of white oak logs that had been inoculated with Shiitake mushroom spores.  It was placed on the cooler, shaded north side of the building and an automatic sprinkler system kept the logs moist.  The kids got to find harvestable mushrooms on the logs and eat them for a snack later.

Click HERE for some info about growing your own Shiitake mushrooms.

Getting to touch and feel the produce

Hand painted garden markers

They each painted their own rock to go in the garden.  They helped weed the garden area and added them to the compost piles.  They got to plant kohlrabi, lettuce, and three kinds of potato.  

Peanut sprouter next to the last of last season's spaghetti squash

Sprouting peanut.

They each got to make a seed sprouter to take home so that they could watch firsthand a seed become a plant.  The assembly was simply 3-4 fresh peanuts in a jar with some damp yarn.  A plastic wrap cover was added to maintain the moisture level.  We are going to plant these peanuts into the garden this year to give him ownership of  his own garden plot area.  A couple of side bonuses are that these peanuts will add nitrogen to the soil and we might get to eat some peanuts.

Cooling down and enjoying a snack.

At the end they got some simple worksheets to do while they enjoyed a healthy snack that taught them about roots, fruits, seeds, and leaves.  This was a great experience and we will definitely be back next month.

Weekly Gardening Outlook: Spring has sprung!

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

Honey bee visiting some inaptly named dead nettle

The purple topped dead nettle seen above is a winter annual that seems to be everywhere right now.  Despite its name, it is not a nettle and does not have any stinging parts.  It's in the mint family and the whole plant is quite edible, making an interesting seasonal addition to salads.  As with harvesting any wild edible, make sure you know what you're picking and only harvest it from areas that you know have not been treated with chemicals.  Click HERE for further reading.

Newly planted strawberry plant in cinder block

Newly transplanted strawberry plants in blocks

Late last year, I quit picking off the runners on my strawberry plants and allowed them to infiltrate the main garden area and root new daughter plants.  This past weekend, I transplanted about 50 of these into the blocks that form my raised beds.  It's hard to beat the price (free!!!).

Transplanted volunteer cilantro seedlings

Mint emerging in a cinder block

 While transplanting the strawberry plants, I saw some seedlings with familiar leaf shapes.  I tasted one of the leaves and confirmed that I had some volunteer cilantro seedlings coming up!  I transplanted them into a suitable location.

The mint comes back every year, as seen to the right.  It is very hardy and invasive, so never plant it in your main garden.  Always make sure it is segregated as in my cinder blocks.  Also, don't buy mint.  Find someone that has some and get a cutting.  My mint was established by cutting a piece from my in-law's plant and sticking the cutting into soil.  A little water over a couple of days and it rooted and took off!

Freshly harvested green onion

The green onions persisted all winter and are now growing rapidly.  They add a great flavor to many dishes.

Garlic showing some freeze damage, but putting on new leaves

Asparagus emerging in mid-March

The asparagus is beginning to emerge from the bed we helped a customer plant last year. The owner could harvest a few spears right now, but they decided to give the bed a second year to become well established.

Sand plum tree budding out

My old sand plum tree and the six Nanking cherry bushes that I planted last year are budding out and will soon be covered in leaves.  The plums aren't very good for eating fresh as they have large pits and thin flesh, but I do make jelly from them every year though.  The cherry bushes should produce fruit this year and I'm very excited to see how they taste.  Look for a report on that later in the year.

Chicken and Egg Report:  

We are averaging four eggs a day now.  After transplanting the strawberry plants and covering the cilantro seedlings, I allowed the chickens into the garden.  They very efficiently scratch up the soil and dispose of any weeds or grubs and other insects they can find.

Weather Outlook:

-Highs in the 70's, with overnight lows in the 50's.  A slight chance of rain on Saturday.  Absolutely perfect weather to be out in the garden.

-Ten day forecast

What's being harvested:

-Green onions

-I should have already planted lettuces, but procrastinated.  Get it in the ground if you haven't already.

Late Winter Garden Update

Two fullsized ice chests stacked on one another in 20" of snow.
-February 9, 2011

Wet January and February
-March 1, 2011

After a dry and mild November and December, we've had a wet and wild January and February, including a near record 20" snowfall and wide temperature swings from -18 degrees up into the low 70's.

A day after the snowfall, we experienced -18 degree temperatures.  Northwest Arkansas is in zone 7, but we got temperatures down into zone 5!  Fortunately, the 20" of snow was on the ground and provided some insulation.  We'll wait and see what damage was done to our perennials by the extreme cold snap.

Scotch kale growing in a cold frame

Swiss chard growing in a cold frame

Despite the extreme low temperatures, the Scotch kale and Swiss chard are flourishing in the straw bale cold frame.  I am very impressed.

Daughter strawberry plants in need of transplanting

The uncovered strawberry plants suffered some freeze damage, but again the heavy snow cover insulated them through the worst of it.  They are putting on new growth and are in need of transplanting into the blocks.

Evergreen bunching onions putting on new growth

With the recent warm weather, the green onions have exploded.  Onions being a biennial plant, they should put on seed in this second year.  We will wait and see how the seed production affects edibility.

Chickens newly feathered and laying eggs again

Eggs!

During the heavy snow, the chickens mostly stayed in their house, because they couldn't get around in it.  They didn't seem to be affected by the cold much as long as they had a draft free house to huddle in.  Since coming out of their molt, the hen's egg production continues to fluctuate between 0-6 eggs per day with an average of around 3 eggs a day.  Hopefully as the days grow longer, they will pick back up to 5-6 eggs a day.

Daffodils emerging

One of the traditional signs of early spring, the daffodils are starting to come up.  With almost two full months left before our average last frost date in late April, this is concerning.  The early warm spell will cause a lot of early flowering crops (peaches, strawberries, etc.) to get going early and their blooms are likely be nipped by frost.  Could make for some light early fruit harvests this year.