Organic Farming and CSA

By pbarnett

I attended one of JSU’s Brown Bag Lunch discussions on Wednesday, November 19. This well-attended session featured Simon Bevis of Noah Valley Farm discussing organic farming and his CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription program. The benefits of raising chickens, composting, pest control, and cover crops were among topics covered. For more information on Noah Valley Farm, see this article in Publix’s Greenwise Market newsletter.

Fall Color Revisited

By Ms Sherry

fall colors, balloon flowers

summer blooms, balloon flowers

Hope that you all have put some pansies in the ground and have ordered your daffodils to be planted soon. While we are enjoying those wonderful pansy faces, we can still enjoy the remnants of fall color in the garden. Many of the leaves have finished their show and are now spread all over lawns and sidewalks, waiting to be raked. Others are still turning, extending the leaf changing season a little longer. The Japanese Maples, especially the dwarf ones, are like small explosions of color all over the yard. We often think of fall color only in terms of trees and their foliage but fall color can also occur close to the ground. One of my favorites to provide an extra burst of fall color is the balloon flower or Platycodon grandiflorus – which is a mouthful for such a delicate little perennial. This summer bloomer comes in a variety of sizes and colors, from a dwarf which grows only 8 inches tall (‘Misato Purple’) to ones that grow more than two feet tall. Balloon flowers will begin to bloom in early summer and will continue all summer if you keep the spent flowers pinched. The flowers first form a bud which resembles a balloon – reminding me of a small purse; the buds then open up to flowers that look like little stars. Although the most commonly seen color is a blue - purple, balloon flowers also come in pink. There is even a double-flowered one. I have had the tall blue ones, the pink ones, and the dwarf purple; the dwarf purple did best for me. My biggest problem was the creatures who ate the roots – possibly voles (who snacked on everything in my garden). Balloon flowers don’t seem to be troubled by insects or disease and I have had them for about five years lining the front of the border. They do like water during the growing season and will tolerate full sun but like most Southerners prefer some rest from the hot afternoon sun. Balloon flowers take a little longer to break their winter dormancy; if you are one of those folks who forget where you planted something you may want to mark their home in your garden. If you dig up one accidentally, just put it back. It is important to pinch the spent blooms from your balloon flowers to keep them blooming but don’t take the whole stem off. For me deadheading flowers in the garden is a very therapeutic task. It brings me up close and personal with the blooms and appeals to the neat freak in me who rejoices in a tidy garden.

In the fall the leaves of the balloon flowers take on a bright yellow hue (with a touch of orange), adding one last vibrant burst of color to the front of the flowerbed before dying back completely. Photos above show this charmer in summer and fall. Balloon flowers are one of the dearest perennials for the summer garden – they are not hard to find and will bring you much joy next summer (and next fall).

Fall Color Revisited

By Ms Sherry

Fall Is a Many Splendored Thing

By Ms Sherry

a fothergilla glows in the sunlight

Fall 2008 has been one of the best I can remember for fall color. As a Master Gardener I know that there is a scientific explanation involved in the color change in the leaves. For me, personally, the color change is one of nature’s greatest spectacles. A daily walk around the garden makes me think I am watching a work of art in progress as I see not only a range of colors – different reds, oranges, and yellows—but also variations in the colors themselves. Each day brings a new shade to a particular plant. Riding along the interstate this time of the year becomes a treat as the hillside resembles a painting with the colors of fall blending into each other. A neighborhood tree with vibrant oranges and yellows framed against a bright blue sky is a traffic stopper.  This brilliant fall show (and the knowledge that I will be soon be raking up all those wonderful leaves) makes me wish that the colors will never fade.

One of the plants that consistently provides a vivid show is the fothergilla. I purchased this wonderful deciduous shrub in the spring many, many years ago with no knowledge of the special treat that the fall would bring. In the spring there is a sweet smelling white flower that blooms before the leaves come out. Fothergillas enjoy protection from the afternoon sun in the hottest climate zones and like moist, acid soil; the mature one in my yard is probably about seven or eight feet tall and almost as round. (There is a smaller fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’ which grows only to 3 to 5 feet high and around.)

What a treat to look out the window each morning to watch the fothergilla change colors. If you plant one, place it where you can get a front row seat for the fall spectacular!

Think Pink!

By Ms Sherry

mature beautyberry in my sister’s yard in South Carolina

During the fall we traditionally think of the usual seasonal colors of orange, bronze, and yellow. But let’s expand our horizons and think pink, bright pink to be more specific – the bright pink of the fruit of the American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana).  A gardener friend once described beautyberry fruit as the color of a cheap pink lipstick. Although that seemed to be a rather unkind remark, that description was on target.

Beautyberry is a deciduous woody ornamental shrub that will grow in full sun to part shade; it does require watering as I found out when mine died from not enough water. Other than requiring water during the growing season, beautyberry bushes seem to be fairly undemanding being untroubled by insects or diseases. Reaching about six feet in height and five feet around, it needs ample room in the landscape (as you can see from my photograph of a mature beautyberry). Beautyberry makes a nice plant for a woodland garden but it also makes a great border. (There is a lovely border of beautyberry bushes at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.) As the brightly colored fall berries and the summer blooms (little tiny purple flowers) appear on the current season’s growth, prune in late winter about the time you prune your butterfly bushes. Beautyberry bushes can be pruned like nandina, removing a third of the oldest canes;  the whole thing can even be cut to the ground – which is something I was never brave enough to do. Since much of the beauty from this shrub, however, comes from its arching branches, place it in a spot where you don’t need to take a pruner to keep it in bounds.

As you stroll the garden shop aisles, think pink! Bright pink in the garden provides just the right accent next to the wonderful shades of autumn. As I have said before, try it ‘n you’ll like it. 

(Some information to write this blog was obtained from THE SOUTHERN LIVING GARDEN BOOK)