As native grasses such as little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium and cvs., Zones 3–9) and prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis and cvs., Zones 3–9) increasingly gain traction in gardens, exotics such as miscanthus (Miscanthus sinensis and cvs., Zones 4–9) are losing favor because of their invasive tendencies. But not all exotic grasses are troublesome and need to be avoided. Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis × acutiflora and cvs., Zones 5–9) is a natural hybrid of C. arundinacea and C. epigejos, which are both nonnatives and prolific self-sowers, but the hybrid rarely sets fertile seed—a major plus for an exotic grass, right? So why are other reed grasses—‘Karl Foerster’ aside—so underused? To answer that question is to understand the phenomenon of ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass (C. × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’).
how to grow a wide world of peppers, with adaptive seeds’ sarah kleeger
21.07.2023 - 22:27 / awaytogarden.com
SOMEWHERE LIKE MEXICO might come to mind first, if the question asked is about the places that peppers originate from. When the answer you get is “Denmark,” though, things get interesting.And that’s where the seed for ‘Liebesapfel’—the pepper that began Sarah Kleeger and Andrew Still’s fast-growing Capsicum annuum collection—arrived from, or more specifically, Germany via Denmark.
On their first Seed Ambassadors trip to search out potentially Northern-adapted seed from Europe in 2006, Sarah and Andrew carried ‘Liebesapfel’ (left) back to the New World themselves—though admittedly to their Oregon farm that’s far north of the species’ native range in the Americas. Soon after, when they founded the Adaptive Seeds catalog, the pepper was on their first list of offerings.‘Liebesapfel’ is the kind of pepper that makes you smile: a ruffled, squat red pimento type that’s sort of the miniature cheese pumpkin of peppers, shape-wise. “It was the first one we got, and we fell in love with it,” says Sarah. No wonder.
The seed, shared along with other treasures by the couple’s friend Søren Holt of Frøsamlerne, the Danish seed-saving organization, had originally been developed by a small seed company in Germany. ‘Liebesapfel’ is very early to ripen, at about 70 days—and that’s no accident.
Those years in Europe helped, and especially in the Danish climate, says Sarah, who describes Denmark as “a bump in the sea where it’s often gray, windy and cool.”
It was good practice for what the pepper would experience in its new homeland with Adaptive Seeds, where it now shares the pages of the 2015 catalog with 16 other peppers, both hot and sweet.‘Gypsy Queens,’ is one that Andrew is working on “dehybridizing,” which involves sowing seed of a
36 Beautiful Mexican Flowers You Must Grow
Explore the rich floral tapestry of this enchanting country with some of the most stunning Mexican Flowers that you must include in your collection!
How to Grow and Care for Organ Pipe Cactus
Icon of the southwest, organ pipe cactus (Stenocereus thurberi) is one of the best known species of cacti in the United States.Reaching up to 26 feet in height and 12 feet wide, this slow
Mashua, yacon, oca: growing edible andean tubers, with help from peace seedlings
The pre-Columbian Indians of the Andes domesticated more starchy root crops than any other culture, but only the potato caught on as a staple worldwide.“The others have seldom been tried outside South America, yet they are still found in the Andes and represent some of the most interesting of all root crops.…” said a 1989 report called “Lost Crops of the Incas: Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation” from the National Research Council.“They come in myriad colors, shapes, and sizes,” the report added. “T
A rainbow of peas, with peace seedlings
The evolving rainbow of peas at Peace Seedlings—with more colors to come—got its start with decades of breeding by Alan Kapuler, Dylana’s father, a longtime public-domain plant breeder and the founder of Peace Seeds.(More on him, and on some of the other combined Kapuler treasures, from marigolds and zinnias to edible Andean tubers like oca and yacon, to a rainbow of beautiful beets, is at the end of this story.)“We’re doing a lot of crosses and selecting ourselves now, too,” says Dylana of the work she and partner Mario DiBenedetto continue in collaboration with Alan and his wife, Linda, in Corvallis, Orego
How to grow garlic (and 2 new ones i'm trying)
Timing: Sometime in the second half of October, ideally about five weeks before frost is in the ground, I plant the biggest cloves from the biggest heads of my July-harvested crop. (I eat the rest, whether while cooking up easy soups and tomato sauce to freeze in the late summer and fall, or through the winter from heads hung in net bags in my 45ish-degree barn loft, with some of the harvest peeled and frozen right now like this to use next spring and summer, when even the best-stored heads would have sprouted otherwise.)An expert 101 on how to plant garlic, and which type is best for your area. How deep? I poke the cloves, pointy side up, so that the tip is about 2 inches below the surface of the soil in my raised beds. Mulching at planting time in areas with cold winters is recommended, so I simply layer on some leaf mold or composted stable bedding, which also helps come spring in weed control (it’s essential to keep garlic beds weed-free!).How far apart? Spacing is
Growing dry beans, with sarah kleeger of adaptive seeds
While browsing the seed catalogs, I fell into a motherlode at Adaptive Seeds out in Sweet Home, Oregon, plus a comprehensive how-to article on the topic, by Adaptive’s co-founder Sarah Kleeger, all the way down to an analysis on a farm scale of how much it cost in manpower hours and supplies to grow them.Last year I intentionally grew dry beans for the first time in any semi-serious way, and it was so rewarding that this year the garden plan calls for more, more, more. Maybe you’ve been an accidental dry-bean grower like I had till then, leaving a tower of ‘Scarlet Runner’ standing until the big fat seeds spill
Peace seedlings’ world of ‘woddities’
No surprise that Corvallis, Oregon-based Peace Seedlings is an offshoot of his work, the undertaking of Alan and Linda Kapuler’s youngest daughter, Dylana, and her partner, Mario DiBenedetto.I got my new-favorite beet, 3 Root Grex, from Peace last season; you might recall my article about that multi-colored wonder. Now
Horizon herbs’ richo cech on the world’s basils, and eastern spring wildflowers
IF YOU DON’T HEAR FROM ME for a month or three, don’t worry: I simply got lost on a magical mystery tour of the Horizon Herbs website and catalog, a global collection that the Cech family of Williams, Oregon, has been growing organically and selling since 1985. I’ve purchased some gift certificates to share with you—but most exciting, I had the pleasure of a Q&A with Horizon founder and herbalist/seedsman Richo Cech, on matters ranging from the world’s basils to medicinal Eastern woodland wildflowers.
At adaptive seeds, celebrating diversity in kale, squash, tomatillos
As with many other blessings, I have my friends at the Organic Seed Alliance to thank for my introduction to Adaptive Seeds, which had a big year in 2013: Andrew and his partner Sarah Kleeger turned their entire farm operation over to seeds, closing their CSA; completed their official organic certification; and ramped up to double their seed assortment to 400 varieties—including 65 new to their catalog this year.View the pdf of the Adaptive catalog now Shop the catalog online Order a print catalog from adaptiveseeds [at] gmail [dot] com my q&a with andrew still of adaptive seedsQ. So a little background first, please, Andrew—a short history of Adaptive Seeds and what you and Sarah [photo above] are doing.A. This is our fifth catalog. We have been farming between Brownsville and Swee
It’s edemental! gorgeous, delicious grains for the garden, with sarah kleeger
Sarah, with Andrew Still, founded Adaptive Seeds in 2009 as a farm-based, organic seed company where they grow and harvest more than 80 percent of the seed they sell, including a beautiful assortment of grains and grain-like annuals that were the subject of our conversation.We talked about high-yielding and statuesque sorghum—perfect for porridge or even popcorn-style—and amaranths in a range of colors, plus flowering oil-seed crops like sunflowers, poppy seed, Camelina, and flax. We even got into some hints on cover-cropping for soil-building.Read along as you listen to the Jan. 28, 2019
Links i liked: plant consciousness; beaks adapt to feeder use; insectary strips on farms, & more
WE ALL KNOW that living organisms adapt over generations to their environments, but this recent example made me smile: A bird species in the U.K. (the great tit, above) have developed longer beaks in recent decades, Oxford University reports, perhaps as a result of their attraction to bird feeders provided by humans. (Photo from Wikipedia by Shirley Clarke of Fordingbridge Camera Club.)ebird and ‘all about birds’ sites have new lookSPEAKING OF BIRDS: My go-to resource for information on them, All About Birds from Cornell Lab of Ornithology, has had a redesign (look at the new species profile page for cedar waxwings, for instance). So has it