Irish Eyes, Potato Eyes

Friday, February 24, 2012

A quiet morning here on the mountain. The temperature started at 21° before daybreak and has moved up to 25.2° Not a whisper of wind this morning and the red skies I thought I would see remain the same gray from two hours ago. The Channel 3 weatherman, Gary, just said the storm is moving into southern Vermont now and this may turn into the first substantial storm we have seen here since before Thanksgiving. The barometer is at 29.32 and has started to drop.

An indicator of how bad the economy is seems to be seed and plant catalogs this year. Over recent years I have tried to let companies know that I use on-line catalogs and try to save trees. This year, however, I am receiving a number of catalogs I've never seen before and one of these is Irish Eye Garden Seeds from Ellensburg, Washington. This company sells organic seeds and also organic garlic and seed potatoes. I have mentioned an interest in potato varieties before and often you have to resort to the Internet to get some of varieties. I have also mentioned Peaslee's in Williamstown, VT, Johnny's Selected Seeds in Maine, and Jim Gerritson's Wood Prairie Farm, also in Maine. Locally I have had some luck at Guy's Farm and Yard, Agway, and also Depot Farm Supply in Essex.

The interest in fingerling type potatoes seems to be growing and I notice that the supermarkets are selling two pound bags of smaller potatoes for $4.95 which suggests the interest and willingness to pay remains steady.



With the availability of seed potatoes comes a good amount of info available in stores and on-line on how to grow potatoes. I think they are an easy crop to grow as long as you understand their nutritional needs, forget about the use of lime and have a contingency for critter involvement. Deer will eat the plants in summer and will dig the potatoes out in fall. Insects keep you busy in between but there are organic ways of dealing with them.

Here are images of Red Patriot, Russian Banana, All Blue and Yukon Gold to serve as example of what is available to try. There are dozens of other varieties too. While the snow deepens by nightfall today, give potatoes a thought for spring planting. If space is short at your house, try just a couple in a large container while you understand what plants look like and what typical production is by fall. It's a great project for kids but kids and adults alike find great fun pulling tops and finding out what grew all summer!

Red Patriot

Russian Banana

All Blue

Yukon Gold

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where bluebirds yell at me for more food at the feeders even though they were fed at 6.

The picture of the little potato gardener up top is Alex when he was 10. He's 19 now and stands a head above me. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also George Africa
On Twitter at vtflowerfarm
Always ready to help you grow your green thumb!

Moving Daylilies

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A nice morning here on the mountain. 22.6°, windless, quiet down the road at the log landing, noisy at the bird feeders. My friends are coming in for their newly placed breakfast buffet of sunflower, cracked corn and mixed seed treats. I'll get back later today with some peanuts for the blue jays but I want to get the cameras set up first to get some better pictures of the gluttons that jays are.

It's been four full years that we have been at our nursery on Route 2 in the village and one might think that by now all the plants from here at the house would be moved. It just doesn't work that way when you have a two person business. As we enter year five, we shake our heads in disbelief but that's nothing compared to the fact that Gail and I started gardening together in Shelburne in 1983. Our first joint task was planting a hundred eggplant in early June on a day that turned so cold it was spitting snow instead of welcoming summer. Looking back, I guess that should have been a harbinger to what was to come.

So here we are, thinking seriously about spring planting and scared about what is going to happen with sales. As I ever so slowly finish up income taxes it's a sad reminder to what we didn't sell last year. Those floods in May and then Hurricane Irene really kept customers away and sales were off by numbers that startle. No wonder we are still tired as there was a lot of rebuilding that is yet to be completed and deposits to the bank were few and far between at the beginning and at the end of the season. Sales were off by almost 30% for the year but factually customers can't get to a place without a road and Vermont suffered some of the greatest devastation in America.

But despite the sadness, farmers are built to rebound. They have to. I used to say that farmers had great confidence but now I describe them as resolute because I think it's a stronger statement of bucking up to adversity and moving along.

I haven't counted but I know that here at the house there are over 200 different daylilies left to move and 2012 is the year for this. This picture shows one of the gardens that needs to be dug and moved and when worker bee Michael gets out of college in May, this will be one of his early chores. We'll dig the clumps, divide them and then plant some in pots for resale and we'll line the rest out in the gardens to grow along for future sales. These are big old clumps so I'll probably help with the tractor getting them out of the ground.

Over near the peony display garden there are about 50 daylilies including 25 that Alex picked out back when he was nine and just interested in hybridizing. Almost every daylily he picked from catalogs to grow along has become a good seller and that shows the good eye he has for color and vitality. I also have +20 late bloomers I purchased from Olallies in Newfane Vt. These are very nice daylilies from an old and very nice nursery that faced the same flood challenges we did as their road was washed away too. Southern Vermont really took it heavy and there are still places that need attention down there.

So if you happen to stop by come May and don't have anything planned for the day, I'll be happy to exchange labor for daylilies as we move along, Maybe I will be surprised and things will be more positive but yesterday after I started to write this I went to Montpelier and in one day the gas prices went to $3.69.9 and I saw people on ladders changing prices ever higher. My research a month ago said $4.50 in Vermont by Memorial Day and more than $5 a gallon by July 4th. It isn't necessary but it's a reality.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where I can hear a beagle barking across the balsams chasing a rabbit. I don't know who is hunting here today. My sport will be installing a new dishwasher for Gail.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm

On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens (Like?) and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Helping everyone grow their green thumb!

Valentines Day Flowers

Valentines Day
Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Already past six here on the mountain and Karl the Wonder Dog has already been outside for a walk and is back in front of the wood stove snoring dog dreams and offering up an occasional involuntary leg movement as if thoughts of chasing a rabbit have taken over his mind. It's still dark out and the lights along the snow fence since Christmas provide a guide through the morning darkness. I'm actually glad we walked earlier as there has been a line of tractor trailers going by since we got in. They are all headed to the logging project down the hill and this morning their responsibility is transporting wood chips to the electric plant in East Ryegate. The first trucks will be loaded and on their way in less than two hours and the sound of the chipper will continue until about 4 tonight when it's time to shut it down and perform daily maintenance for tomorrow morning's repeat performance. When the project is completed, an old sugar bush will have been cleaned up and a crew will appear with plastic tubing by the mile and get things ready for maple sugaring season. This is big business in Vermont and last year a record setting million gallon production brought smiles.

Gail has worked for her good friend Jerome of Jerome the Florist in Barre for three days now. If you're down that way today and need an arrangement or cut flowers for a loved one or one you wish would love you, stop by. Gail is always squirreled away in a corner but she loves to help and although she returns home each day with an obvious tiredness, there is a leftover story and a big smile that makes me know they all worked hard and had fun. Each year some people just kind of show up to help on a process of flower prep, flower arrangement, sales and deliveries that you actually have to see to understand its complexity. Bazillions of flowers go out the door in a short amount of time. Yes, love is in the air but it takes a lot of busy hands to move through the holiday. Thankfully the weather has been good this year and although flower deliveries had to be covered this past weekend due to the cold, yesterday and today are better.

Each year around this time I write about a favorite perennial flower, Bleeding Heart or Dicentra. I have written about it on The Vermont Gardener many times before so for this year, in kind of a tax time laziness, I just want to reference previous writings if you are interested. If you are not, I'll understand. Just the same, warm Valentine's Day wishes. Be sure that before the day ends you have not forgotten anyone. Love is a funny thing but just caring about people is the real thing!

Fringed Bleeding Hearts
Two Friends
Valentines Greetings


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where yet another truck just headed to the chip site. They downshift before making the turn in front of our house and I can count trucks without even looking. Busy day!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Always here to help you grow your green thumb!

Biologicals and Blue Jays

Thursday, February 9, 2012

7 AM and I just returned from a morning walk with Karl the Wonder Dog. It's 9° right now but 5° if you factor in the 2 mph breeze. The sky is clear and the sun is rising above Peacham Pond suggesting it will be warmer by noon. February is a busy time for the animals and birds of the adjacent fields and woodlands. Coyotes, which I have been studying lately, mate this time of year and lately they have been frequenting a compost pile I have out back. Red squirrels mate now too and as Karl and I exited the back door this morning, three ran right between us chasing each other in a frenzy that forgot safety. Sometimes love is like that. Barred owls call each other frequently now and for consecutive nights I have been outside listening for them but oddly they have been silent this year.

As I walked by the compost pile last night I thought for a minute about all the questions gardeners bring to us every summer--plant questions about discolored leaves with strange looking spots or colors or curls, or dried edges or falling leaves. Many of these problems are related to the assortment of fungal issues that I feel can be dealt with if you grow your soil before you grow your plants. Building good soil is a long affair and Gail and I are not proud of what we have at the nursery but we are happy with our progress. Our soil there is comprised of four different types with thick clay predominant. Amendments are called for and we work in as much as we can gather up.

Many gardeners are impatient and many garden centers are pleased to sell expensive chemical products guaranteed to erase problems without telling what else they might erase. The world of biological controls is growing and there are some interesting things to research and consider to meet your needs. Yesterday I was reading the Bioworks site and learning what new things they offer. Back in the days when we grew lilium by the thousands we were interested in controlling fungi on our lily bulbs and found a Bioworks product named RootShield. The product is OMRI certified (Organic Materials Review Institute) so it can be used safely for food we eat and still do the trick dealing with problem fungi. I'm not suggesting that we eat lily bulbs although some do, but I am recommending the use of biologicals instead of "kill everything and anything" chemicals. During the remaining winter months, research some of the available biologicals and consider them this year. Your first reaction might be that they are expensive but wouldn't the bees and butterflies you enjoy be a sacrifice too if the only place their names could be found was on a list labeled "EXTINCT"?

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where a single young blue jay is sitting on the platform outside my office window yelling at me to bring out some seeds. He has the makings of a fine blue jay politician, yelling for change but not looking in the right direction.

Have a nice day!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook at Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
And always helping you grow your green thumb!

Finding New Things

Monday, February 6, 2012

A morning here on the mountain with many weather changes. An hour ago it was ten degrees warmer than right now. The sun may be shining and saying "Good Morning, America" in Eastport, Maine but it's a dreary day here. The wind has come up and it's forcing the temperature down so we're at 13.9° right now with the wind chill. Karl the Wonder Dog has been out twice but the bite of the wind was more than he cared for. I agree.

A local logger is cleaning up a very nice old sugar bush just down the road from us and that means wood chips for a nearby power plant, firewood which he works up mechanically, and also logs. The logs go to sawmills in Maine because there just aren't many left here in Vermont and those that are left have specialties. When you go to a mill, hardware store, box store, etc. and buy a piece of lumber you might complain about the price but you have to stop for a minute and think through the process. Kinda like buying a gallon of milk if you're a complain-about-price person. It's a lot of work to get the board from a tree in the woods to the board you want to buy. Logging is one of the most dangerous professions going and it's not easy work to boot. Anyway two log trucks just headed out after stopping in front of our house here and taking off their snow chains. They have easy sailing now except for school bushes that they will start meeting in half an hour as they cross into New Hampshire.

Just before the logger in charge of this cutting started, he stopped by to introduce himself. The 80 acre piece will take all winter to finish but with no snow this year, everything can go quicker. The land belongs to a family named Chase from Barre and they are all good people. There is a deer camp on the property and I remember my father in law used to go there at the start of deer season every year for an afternoon shot of whiskey. He has passed on now, and Henry, the owner and family leader, is hunting in a different world now having left last year at age 91. For Ralph, the visit was an annual affair, one of those things he had to do and he'd be gone some time as there were stories to share, some repeated annually. Sometimes in summer he'd go down to see if Henry was cutting wood and he'd ride the old John Deere 320 down as if it was a car or truck. Ralph is gone and now I have that tractor but the stories didn't come with it. Good stories.

So anyway, what's the point of a logging operation in winter and a blog entitled "Finding New Things"? When loggers, or even homeowners like you, begin to reopen forests that have been closed for some time, it's like someone unlocked a new world. The first summer you can walk where trees once stood and look at the ground and make mental comment on how good a job the logger did (or didn't do) caring for the balance of the environment. The thing that's guaranteed to prevail is your notice of the sunlight no longer blocked from entering the land and it's that opportunity that makes the difference.

After year one, many seeds will have germinated that had been dormant for many, many years. Wildflowers will be included and you will be surprised during years two and three with the beauty that you never knew existed. This piece of property is adjacent to Marshfield Reservoir and there is no doubt that the wild orchids that I find once in a while will begin to surface. Trilliums, both erectum and undulatum will probably be everywhere in 3-4 years and bunches of bunchberries will be covered in white next spring and red berries by the next fall.These are guesses but I have seen this happen repeatedly and know it will happen here too.

When spring awakens land that you know, take a hike on a piece of newly logged forest and keep an eye on what grows. State forests most always have a new piece you can walk. I'll bet you'll be surprised. Right now three blue jays and two doves are surprised that it's 7:30 and the feeders are empty. Have to get going here. From the mountain above Peacham Pond, good wishes for a nice day. Think about "finding some new things".

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens (please "Like") and also George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Always helping you grow your green thumb!

Business Thoughts in Horticulture

Thursday, February 2, 2012

22.5° here on the mountain this morning with a 4 mph breeze and a slow-to-start sunrise above Peacham Pond. There's a while left before the sun really gets going and the weatherman says expect to see lots of gray clouds by 7:30. It's Groundhog Day too and that's a different story as the very few woodchucks we have around here are fast asleep and not thinking at all about any media hype with guys wearing protective, bite-proof gloves and stovepipe hats and yanking their round, buggy eyed brethren out of sleep for the cameras. I'm sure you've seen this courageous behavior before.

The news has been all politics but my horticulture trade magazines spend January trying to project what the summer will bring. Gail and I read the forecasts in various journals and then spend a little time researching weather forecasts from continents far away. We usually do quite well with the forecasts and less well with the outcomes. Last summer was the worst.

I just read a brief and also general economic view in Nursery Management Magazine. There are clearly some positives from a government perspective but I'm not seeing it in Vermont. I stopped last night for gas and it was at $3.59.9 for Unleaded. A year ago yesterday the national average was $3.10, a month ago it was $3.26, yesterday it was $3.42 nationally but just the same I pumped in $85 to get to "F". A warm winter so far has kept heating oil costs under $4.00 a gallon here, and all the costs associated with running the winter sports industry in the east that consumes a lot of energy has flattened due to lack of snow. Internationally there are big and little challenges. China is gobbling a bunch of oil, Israel is short on natural gas as it's in between fields with one almost out and another half a year away from coming on line. The list goes on but it all impacts on US prices. What that means to horticultural endeavors is that sales will repeat 2011 at best and food sales will continue to rise with diesel prices.

We can preach "Buy Local" and we should as that effort is beginning to show more merit to buyers. The problem is getting people to change behaviors and think more about what they are doing. Yesterday in a grocery store I noticed large packages of flowers and pussy willows for sale for 3 packages for $15. It costs us $3. 95 a package equivalent just to grow those so by the time you account for harvest, packaging, delivery or waste/non-sale you almost have the store's sale price in costs. Not a good thing. As you shop, continue to learn about local resources and buy locally whenever you can. Be kind and don't ask for a discount before you start shopping.

Thoughts?


Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where blue jays scold me repeatedly for empty feeders as mourning doves compete with red squirrels for the leftovers on the ground. Gotta scoot, hungry birds beckon.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
On Twitter as vtflowerfarm
Here to help you grow your green thumb!

Farming

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A dark morning here on the mountain very much unlike usual February introductions. It's now up to 31.5° and freezing rain has been falling for a couple hours but ever so lightly here. The weather folks say it will change to all rain soon but since before daybreak the schools and businesses along the Connecticut River over near Wells River, Vermont and Woodsville, NH on up through Bath and to Littleton, NH have had delays due to ice. It has been a strange winter for sure. I was in Monroe, NH two days ago visiting a friend's farm and a brand new snowmobile groomer sat in a field surrounded by grass, not snow. It was a sad view and I am sure the club members feel the same way. Snowmobiling contributes a lot of income to the northern New England economy but not so this year.

The free standing, open concept barn pictured here is a big investment but clearly to me, a non-dairy farmer, the way to go. As I walked through the barn the heifers seemed extremely content and they all looked healthy and happy. The happiest animal of all was the Jersey bull pictured just below here as these are his ladies and he makes that clear.

I did not know until my visit but first calf Holstein heifers (the black and white cows if you aren't familiar) are usually bred with a smaller bull like a Jersey so the first calf does not present a difficult birth for the young mother. Every time I go to a farm or a farm show, I learn something new. The thing I learned long ago was to respect farmers for all that they do for us and never, never question the price of a gallon of milk. Whatever the price, it's probably still too low for what it costs to produce



The wind was blowing and it was cold on the day of my visit but the top of this barn is tight as can be. A garage door company is coming soon to install doors but the company has been very busy and "doors by Thanksgiving" is still a few weeks out. Once installed, this will be quite a package.

The owner/farmer told me that with this arrangement he can feed 75 head in half an hour. There is space for three times that many heifers so you begin to see the sense in this type building which affords the opportunity to use larger equipment to do more in less time. With the difficulty getting good (or any at all) farm help, this mechanization is even more important.

The perplexing thing about agriculture right now relates to fuel costs. I have read several horticultural trade magazines recently and here's the deal. By Memorial Day gasoline is expected to be in the $4.50 a gallon range and by July 4th it should be no surprise that west coast fuel prices will exceed $5 per gallon IF we don't end up in a shooting match with Iran. This is not a favorable thought. It has caused many farmers, even flower farmers like me, to rethink what they are buying and what they are selling and how. All farming has challenges so do what you can to continue to buy local and support farmers and businesses in your area.

Writing from the mountain above Peacham Pond where the temperature is now rising to 33° and the rain looks "all rain, no sleet". Best wishes for a good day. Drive with care!

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm
On Facebook as Vermont Flower Farm and Gardens and also as George Africa
OnTwitter as vtflowerfarm
Always helping you grow your green thumb!