Blueberries and Yacon

It was a busy beautiful day at the VegHeadz garden today with the main event being Jeannie and Linda planting eight blueberry bushes to create a small blueberry orchard.  We chose to plant Rabbiteye blueberries because of their adaptation to our area, and because they bloom later, helping protect them from damage to early blooms by a late frost.

Blueberries:  Two different varieties of the same type (Rabbit Eye or Southern Highbush) are needed for pollination.  The same type is necessary because the two types bloom at different times, with Highbush about a month earlier than the Rabbiteyes, making cross pollination unlikely between the two types.  More bushes make it more likely for good pollination to take place.     

We planted four tried and true varieties of Rabbiteye—Powderblue, Ochlockonee, Brightwell and Tift.  They were planted about five feet apart in two rows on either side of the newly refreshed swale above the forest garden.  Fine pine bark chips were used as the planting medium after the holes were dug to provide good drainage and to help provide the acidic pH blueberries prefer.   It’ll be fun to watch them grow and to learn how to take care of them—and of course to sample the berries.  

For all you need to know about growing blueberries in your yard, see the Blueberry Gardener’s Guide:  https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/MG359.  By the way, it’s time to fertilize your fruit trees.  Fertilizing in February, April, and July is recommended for most dooryard fruits.  Organic fertilizers, such as Citrus Tone, and Holly Tone are suitable for most varieties.  Holly Tone is used for grafted citrus and blueberries or any other fruit that prefers a more acidic environment, while Citrus Tone can be used for most other fruit trees

Yacon, peeled on left, corms on 
right with a yacon “potato”
at the bottom

Yacon:  Peggy and Terry dug a bunch of yacon tubers and rhizomes.  Yacon has two underground growths—the brown skinned edible tubers, which look like small sweet potatoes, and the red corms or rhizomes, which are knobby growths just below the soil surface under the plant, and are the part used to propagate new plants. 

To propagate yacon, the corms should be cleaned and dried and allowed to sprout.  Peggy advises that in our temperate climate the dry red tubers are planted in the spring. She just skipped that part and left them in the ground, and now the corms are sprouting and ready to plant.  Every eye in the corm has the potential to make a stalk.

The plant grows into a small 3’-4’ clump with slightly fuzzy light green leaves.  The edible tuber —Apple of the Andes—grows all year underground.  Harvesting in fall includes digging the whole plant to get the 4”-6” brown tubers the size of a good baked potato.

Bugs and rot may decrease the potato tuber yield, but the red corms are prolific and spread moderately. Peggy will be potting up a couple dozen of these for the May plant sale and there’ll be some available in the garden for those who wish to plant them at home.  Choose any sunny spot with nutrient-rich soil that is well drained. As a general rule, if the location is good for tomatoes, it's good for yacon. Plant the sprouted rhizomes in a hole about 2 to 3 inches deep with the sprouts pointing upward.   We got our original yacon start from Regine Maligne-Lynch, local perennial gardener.   It’s time to pass it on.

Yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) is a perennial daisy from the Andes.  It is rich in vitamins and trace minerals and is said to have many health benefits due to the inulin it contains, providing low glycemic sweetness and supporting digestive microbes.  The tubers can be eaten raw or cooked in most recipes for potatoes. They can be peeled and eaten fresh, sautéed or boiled, just to name a few.  They are crunchy and sweet—sweet enough that they can be used to make syrup and jelly or powdered and added to baked goods.  Their crunchy sweetness has been compared to apples.  

We had a visit from Extension Agent Trevor Hylton and advice on a variety of subjects including pruning fruit trees and fertilizing tea camellias.   

Mike is working on replacing deteriorating wood on our pergola/arbor and Peter and Glenn added Peter’s spiffy angle brackets to the grape arbor to provide decorative interest and support for the structure of the arbor.  

Pruning and weeding continue and plenty of planning for soon to be planted spring crops.  Peggy rotated the pruned Roselle bushes to a different spot, Linda and Laurie worked on the pollinator beds, BJ pruned the blackberries, Nancy and Camille began freshening up the patio garden with new pots and new plants, and Janis pruned dead material from tender perennials in the forest garden.   

So much going on, so many pleasant talks and interesting information and satisfying laughs.   It was a good day.   

Camille and Nancy have been
moving pots, dumping old soil which
had become infested with ants,
and cleaning and preparing pots with
fresh soil.  The patio garden will 
be refreshed and interesting this
spring.  

Terry and Jeannie with a 
wagon full of blueberry plants 
and soil amendments.  Let the
planting begin! 

Linda is getting a large container 
garden ready for new plants

Janis is cutting back the dead pigeon 
Peas.  We hope they’ll come back,
 but the freeze this winter might
have done them in.  

It’s so much fun spending time in the garden with
VegHead friends.  

The blueberry patch.  Next will be
cardboard and wood chip mulch
throughout the blueberry area to
keep down weeds, prevent
erosion and retain moisture.  

Peggy is digging up Roselle to 
rotate it to a different spot.  We’re hoping
it will sprout from the roots.  So far 
we’ve had to plant it from new
seedlings each year.  

Attractive angle brackets give support 
and add interest to the new 
grape arbor.  

Berms and Swales

Digging the original swales at the
 VegHeadz garden in 2018

Preparation for the planting of a small blueberry patch is under way at the VegHeadz garden. In preparing a site to plant the blueberry bushes, the question of berms and swales came up. One of the Florida Friendly practices recommended by UF/IFAS is to use rain gardens, swales, and berms to catch and filter stormwater runoff.   When the garden was redesigned about five years ago, a series of berms and swales were created perpendicular to the slope of the garden to mitigate erosion occurring during heavy rains. There are a number of reasons to dig swales, which are just shallow ditches, and to back them with berms, which are just earthworks that are created from the soil removed from the swale area.The first reason, of course, is to control the flow of water on the surface of an area. A swale is cheap and easy, requiring only a shovel and your labor. The swale is dug along the contour line of the land so that the water is distributed evenly throughout the length of the swale and is not allowed to erode or accumulate at one spot. This slows the water down and allows it to percolate into the soil along the length of the swale for storage. Planting trees and shrubs along the swale is important to this process, because the trees help to absorb the water that is being stored, and the roots stabilize the berm and the area around the swale.Additional benefits of a berm and swale system are to treat water quality using soil, vegetation and microbes; reducing the total volume of stormwater runoff; increasing infiltration and groundwater recharge; and they can be a an attractive part of the landscape and improve biodiversity. This is a simple and low tech method to irrigate an area. As the water is absorbed into the soil, it is stored there until it is used by area vegetation. This also captures nutrients and organic matter that flow down the slope, and keeps these materials from flowing into area water bodies to increase algae blooms and create pollution.  The berm is a convenient place to put the dirt that is removed from the swale, it allows the swale to hold more water in the event of a heavy downpour, and it provides a place to plant things that needed a more arid growing environment. Over a period of time organic matter accumulates in the swale, and it may need to be dug again, either completely or partially. This is what brought up the subject in the VegHeadz garden. Once the blueberries are planted, it would not be a good idea to re-dig the swale, because blueberry roots could be damaged in doing so.  We are digging and cleaning out the swale now, before planting the blueberries. The soil that is dug from the swale is rich and full of nutrients which have accumulated there as water has percolated into the soil, and from organic matter that has decomposed there.  It can be added to the existing berm or deposited in other areas of the garden.The contour of the property is easily determined with the use of a simple A-frame level which can be built of long straight sticks, scrap lumber, bamboo, or purchased 1x2s.

All that is needed are two long pieces of wood or bamboo approximately the same length, and a third shorter piece.  Line up the bottom of the two long pieces, so they are flush and then secure them together at the top with a screw or twine or some other method. Measure the same distance up from the bottom on both legs and place a mark.  Secure the third piece of wood across the two legs at the mark on each leg, creating a crossbar.   

There are two options for finishing the A-frame level. One way is to secure a bubble, spirit, or carpenter’s level to the crossbar. The second is to suspend a weighted string or plumb bob from the top of the “A,” and locate the level center point of the crossbar.  These two methods are explained in detail here and here.

Once you have created your level, you are ready to find the contour of your property.  Place the A-frame upright on the ground where you want your swale and mark the foot of one leg with a flag. We’ll call that the first leg. Rotate the other leg around until the frame reads level either with the bubble in the carpenter’s level or with the weighted string at the center mark on the crossbar, depending on which method you have chosen. Place a flag at this point, the second leg. Keeping the second leg in place by the flag, now rotate the first leg around to find the next level point and mark that. Keep going as far in each direction as you like, marking each point, and connecting them with a smooth curve.   For multiple berms and swales down a slope, measure each location individually as the variations in elevation will differ from one level to the next.   This is your level contour where you will dig your swale. Dig the swale the depth and width that you prefer, keeping the bottom of the swale as level as possible. The swale should be closed at each end unless it is being used to direct water to another area. The final step is to run water into the swale to make sure it flows evenly along the entire length of the swale and to make any adjustments necessary if it does not.   

Photo from Santa Cruz Permaculture.com

Wednesday in the Garden

Graphic from USDA

Two items of discussion were on the forefront in the garden on this beautiful spring day—garden rotation schedules and the “Three Sisters.”

The nucleus of the garden rotation schedule we have developed and use at the VegHeadz Garden was obtained from a number of sources and there are many online. Just google garden crop rotation schedules. The trouble is, almost all of them are for more temperate areas and they only have one growing season. So using them as a basis, we had to expand the idea to account for a second season. Many of the rotation schedules are just divided up into four categories—fruit, roots, leaves, and legumes. Ours does much the same, except we have summer legumes and winter legumes which made it necessary to be careful about rotation order to take advantage of nitrogen fixing by the legumes and to use it where it’s most needed.  Another consideration was making sure we didn’t plant small seeds soon after harvesting sweet potatoes due to the allelopathic chemicals left by the sweet potatoes which reduce germination.  

Of course nothing is perfect and some things don’t fit neatly into categories. We have changed the rotation order on the schedule on a number of occasions as gardeners noticed discrepancies or better ways of organizing the rotation so we could achieve our goal which  is to get it as functionally and beneficially as good as possible. 

The current version is available in two forms under resources in the left side bar. We hope you’ll consider using a rotation schedule in your garden.  Planting the same crops, or even crops of the same family, in the same place year after year will increase diseases and pest pressure.  

The Three Sisters   — the planting of corn, beans and squash together, is an item of perennial interest in our garden, and to many gardeners. We have tried it on a number of occasions with limited success. An IFAS article contains much useful and historical information.   Of particular note is the third reference at the bottom of that article which refers to a detailed publication from Cornell University about the Three Sisters.  It is meant as a teaching tool for children ages 9 to 12, and would be great to use in conjunction 4-H or  a school garden.  It also contains a very detailed description of how to plant the Three Sisters as the Iroquois Indians did. We’re going to try it this year. The Cornell publication is available here: 

https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/c/10116/files/newlogoThree-Sisters-Exploring-an-Iroquois-Garden1-199h8hj-xupent.pdf

Wednesday in the Garden

Welcome to Joanne, Linda, and Camille

 The VegHeadz turned out in  force on this beautiful slightly foggy morning. Everyone could just feel spring in the air. We enjoyed a visit from our excellent and supportive Extension Agent Mark Tancig. 

We welcomed three new VegHeadz and look forward to learning from them.  After a WOW session and tour of the forest garden, we all picked a task and set to work.

The arbor will be ready for planting grapes by the end of February, and blueberry bushes have been ordered to establish a new blueberry patch.

Spring never fails to quicken the hearts of gardeners, and to furnish opportunities to learn something new. It’s a very rewarding time of the year.

Peter and Mike are figuring out how 
to replace some rotting boards
on our old arbor.  It was moved 
here from Second Harvest when
they discontinued their onsite
garden.  

Our new garden coordinator, 
Cathy Alfano.  Already doing 
a great job.  And a big thank 
you to Carole Hayes who excelled 
as coordinator for the previous two years.
 

Mary is weeding the Sunflower
tripods.  The Giant sunflowers
we plant as trap plants make a
huge difference in reducing 
damage from leaf footed bugs.  

Busy, busy

Laurie is freshening up the
main pollinator bed with many of
the perennials there already 
sprouting.  Other pollinator 
attractors are scattered throughout
the garden.  

We caught Cathi turning the 
compost bins early before 
anyone else arrived.  A nice pile of 
finished compost is ready to
boost new plantings.

Nancy and Jeannie are transplanting
yarrow to elsewhere in the garden
from where it grows 
vigorously under the bat house.  

Peggy and Linda are pruning 
The dwarf Black Mulberry.  It’s 
already sprouting new leaves.  And
thank goodness so are our 
denuded citrus trees.