Favorite Plants: Illinois Everbearing Mulberry

Posted on May 16, 2012 | 1 comment

Of all the types of trees planted at Larrapin, the Illinois Everbearing Mulberry is one of the favorites. About three autumns back, I ordered two from Starkes Brothers Nursery in Missouri and planted them in the far chicken paddock. It was one of those permaculture “stacking”  ideas: shade in the pasture, snacks for the chickens who *love* the wine-colored berries that fall easily when ripe, valuable food for songbirds and potential distraction from other fruit, possible future pies for the farmers, and the clean-up services of the chickens for the same berries which stain wildly if tracked in the house.  The trees have accomplished all this already—except the pies—and it looks like this year could even be the pie year.

They grew quickly that first year they were planted. But when the garden had to be relocated to the middle paddock to escape the deer invasion, the two bushy trees were in a bad spot to cast too much shade. So against all tree growing wisdom, Mendy and I dug them up the following fall, cut them back drastically, and replanted in the northern chicken paddock where they would provide shade, but to the chickens, not the garden.  Truth be told, I didn’t expect them to live and planned to reorder their replacements that next year. But with faithful and attentive watering to make up for their abrupt relocation, they made it.

This third spring, they are covered far and wide with green berries (above). There is just no comparison with the amount and size of the named mulberry cultivars and the wild ones, though the latter are still important to wildlife. On this tree  a few berries are getting ripe already. I can’t show you those because I ate them.

Really, I take breaks from gardening, so sit on the folding chair in their shade while leisurely scanning for ripe berries and snack away. Any I drop, or accidentally knock off, are instantly devoured by the hens hanging about for just that possibility. Last summer, in the mornings I’d let out the hen girls and they would jog, chicken-run style and bloomers a-waving, to the trees to eat the berries that fell overnight. Needless to say, there aren’t any left to get tracked in the house…which normally is a major consideration when planning where to plant a mulberry tree. I can’t think of a better tree for a chicken yard.

When many berries get ripe, I hope to use the trick I learned from the blog over at Midwest Permaculture and put out a few clean sheets on the ground under the trees and shake.  (Obviously, the chickens will be locked up during this event or else quite a rodeo would ensue…) Until then, the chickens lounge in the deep shade of the bushy trees—which also keep their water buckets cool…and then I dump the water buckets to give the trees some extra water (more stacking!!), snack on a few more berries and get back to gardening.

What are the favorite trees you have planted or want to plant?  Please share your thoughts on the Facebook page!

—A Larrapin Garden.  Please  subscribe to get the posts by email most Wednesdays. You can also get bonus links, giveaways and recipes by “liking” the Facebook page or following on Twitter.  And if you are in the Fayetteville, Arkansas area, you can share the herb garden’s bounty via Green Fork Farmers Market—an online & drop-by market on Wednesdays featuring all naturally-grown products.

A Larrapin Garden’s Going To Market!

Posted on Apr 28, 2012 | Comments Off

You know how there are some things you really, really want to do in life. Having a farmers market booth has always been like that to me. I have some great news, A Larrapin Garden is going to be a part of the newest farmer’s market in Fayetteville. I’m so pleased to share this announcement:

There is a new and unique farmer’s market getting set to start in Fayetteville. Green Fork Farmers Market will open every Wednesday from 4-7pm in the breezeway of Nightbird Books on Dickson Street starting May 9th. You can drop by and select from naturally-grown, handmade and local items. Some of the products that will be available this year include beef, chicken, pork, eggs, honey, microgreens, vegetables, herbs, herbal products, plants, and baked goods.

What makes Green Fork Farmers Market a first in the Fayetteville area is you can also select and reserve your order online for pickup at the market. The other first is the focus on all naturally-grown products.

The online system adds convenience for you if you need to know ahead what’s available and  just drop by to pick up your order on the way home from a long day. On the other hand, you can also drop by to chat with your foodie friends and favorite farmers a bit, see what the growers have available on their tables, stop by Nightbird Books for a good read, and get a cup of coffee, glass of wine, beer, and delectable food from BHKKafe.

The website (link below) tells more about this special market and how it works. Please visit and click the “Sign In” tab at the upper right to register as a customer. That way you’ll get the Saturday evening email that lets you know what is available that week and that online ordering is open. You have till Monday midnight to get your pre-order reserved.

Green Fork Farmers Market will have a special sneak-peek market on Thursday, May 3rd at the Walton Art’s Center kickoff of Artosphere before Michael Pollan’s talk that night. (Parking at the WAC parking lot will be free that evening with a donation of nuts or peanut butter.) Visit anytime from 4-7 in front of the Walton Art’s Center. Music from 3 Penny Acre too!

 Sign up — before Saturday at 3 p.m. to get the sneak-peak market email — but sign up soon to be a part of Green Fork Farmers Market:

http://greenforkfarmersmarket.locallygrown.net/welcome

It’s free to sign up and no obligation to purchase. Can’t wait to see you there!

Roses & Springtime

Posted on Apr 18, 2012 | Comments Off

Beauty is an ecstasy; it is as simple as hunger. There is really nothing to be said about it. It is like the perfume of a rose: you can smell it and that is all. —W. Somerset Maugham

I think WSM speaks a truth, but forgot a few things too! This rose, for example, is a beauty to both smell and see. The petals feel like silk and make exquisite rose-infused honey. The thorny canes are sheltering a cardinal’s nest with three turquoise-sprinkled-with-chocolate eggs. The rose itself came from Austin, Texas and that springtime trip is a wonderful memory…  The perfume of a rose, can hold a lifetime of memories..and yes, is indeed an ecstasy of beauty!

You know a friend when…

Posted on Apr 14, 2012 | Comments Off

..they know you well enough to send a card like this.  Thank you Charity and best of luck with all the goings on at Chicken Moon Farm!

Spot the hammer?

Posted on Apr 7, 2012 | 1 comment

The rooster's name is Handsome...

One thing I’ve learned over the years is how handy it is to paint tools I use in the yard BRIGHT colors. That way I don’t lose them in the grass/leaves/woods/garden as often. And if I do leave them lounging around on the ground, well even the chickens can help me find them. Thanks Handsome!

Another great thing about fall planting

Posted on Apr 3, 2012 | Comments Off

Larrapin Potager Snapshot: April 1, 2012

In Northwest Arkansas, like many areas of the South, their are really two distinct garden seasons: Spring/Early Summer & Fall. In between there’s a stretch of heat in late July to late August that not a lot is going on except hunkering down and hanging on till cooler weather comes back. This year we’ve had the earliest Spring many folks have ever seen, which can make a farmgirl feel way behind, even though it’s still, technically, a couple weeks before the last frost date. Luckily, the stuff I planted last fall makes the garden feel full and well underway, despite the nagging question of unpredictable Spring weather and how behind schedule I may/may not be.

Spring weather always creates a challenge for me and the super early spring of 2012 adds another layer of guessing. Is it going to stay so warm that it’s way past the best planting times for cool spring crops? Hard to tell. Some springtimes will turn cool and rainy, so things like spinach, kale, beets, and other cool-season crops will go and go. Meanwhile, if you have jumped the gun and put out the heat lovers like tomatoes, beans and squash, they sit there and look cold, miserable and begin to molder, etc. On the other hand, if it stays mostly warm and sunny, then you have the *chance* for amazing early crops. It’s all a kind of gamble. In fact, I think gardening is an excellent cure for those tempted to gamble because every planting you are rolling the dice on about ten different variables. It drives me crazy, but I love it!

One garden gambling technique we call “the landing party.”  If you ever watched the old original Star Trek like I did as a kid, you couldn’t help but notice when the crew was going to ‘beam down’ to a new planet there were always a couple anonymous cast members that accompanied the higher ranking crew. Usually fresh faced and blonde guys. They also usually didn’t come back. Landing party. So around here, I’ll sometimes put out a too-early test run of a crop to see what happens, while holding back transplants on the light table to replace them if they turn out to be…yikes, landing party! Buy hey, Captain Kirk always won out one way or another!

Flowers on the Larrapin Kale

I’ve found Fall planting is often more reliable than Spring. Fall planted spinach, kale, multiplier onions, garlic have amazed me with their steady-on growth. Especially when we didn’t have much of a winter at all..check out the fall-planted kale—which we ate all winter— flowering like mad! In this case it’s great because that’s a special seed-saving patch and lucky for me the bees are giving it tons of attention. With fall planting you have that wonderful green, full-looking garden…even if you are way behind on getting much early-spring stuff in the ground! I love all that color. And in the event you need more color, you can always use a cute saki bottle on top of bamboo as a little marker for a new grape…a marker that also keeps you from poking your eye out on the bamboo!

Saki bottle as plant marker

How is your garden going?

Early Spring 2012

Posted on Mar 14, 2012 | Comments Off

"Flaming Fury" peach blooms, March 7, 2012

It’s so hard to start posting again after long absence, but I love keeping up with the yarden with this blog. Sharing it with you is a great joy too.

The past couple of months however were unusually busy getting ready for the Dig In! Food & Farming Festival which we had the first weekend of March here in Fayetteville.  We went from a little over a hundred folks in 2011 to well over five-hundred in 2012! It was thrilling to see that many folks show up because they are interested in eating local and naturally grown food, or want to start a garden, or wanted to see documentaries on both, or wanted to swap some seeds! That endeavor (plus a week of recovery where I could barely put words together…) kept me busy. So here I am today thinking: How on earth will I ever catch up?

Ok, I won’t catch up. But I can start now, again, yet again!

We barely had a winter at all this year and if one arrives now, it will be quite a shock to all the blooms and creatures who are going about full Spring preparations. That’s the “Flaming Fury” peach above. The pic above is from over a week ago. Still, as I watch Spring breaking loose, I wonder if the queen of winter might make a surprise appearance? The picture below was taken in 2010 a week later in March that we are now…

Mendy & the Snow Queen of late March 2010

But this year, everything’s Spring. The peach trees are covered in blooms, as is the old callary pear planted by the property’s prior owners. Both are literally abuzz with bees, plus butterflies and native pollinators. The Callery pear is known at my house as ‘the tree you almost cut down’  when Mendy refers to it. I wasn’t terribly fond of this older relative of the overplanted Bradford Pear that to me symbolizes “subdivision.” But once I saw the bees and butterflies and countless tiny beneficial wasps who will be helping me with garden pests later this year…I relented and the tree stands, beautifully. Since they are short-lived trees (up to 25 years, barring wind/storms that often take them down…and ours is approaching that age) and since it’s an early nectar source for bees, I relented and just planted an apple tree nearby as its eventual replacement.

Thanks for still reading the blog after this long absence. More to come!