Useful Plants Nursery Newsletter: Elderberry, Comfrey, Planting 101

Useful Plants Nursery Newsletter: Elderberry, Comfrey, Planting 101

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Thu, 2009/10/01 - 11:23 |

keith

October 2009 Newsletter

This berry will be your best friend come cold and flu season.

Plant of the Month: Elderberry

We simply never tire of talking about elderberries.

A great companion plant that provides shade and habitat for many other plants, elderberries are excellent as a pond, riparian or woods edge plant, or as a hedge plant. Beautiful large clusters of ivory white flowers in early summer are followed by heavy clusters of black berries in late summer or early fall. Elderberry plants can achieve huge yields of up to 25 gallons of fruit from a mature shrub.

Elderberry fruit is renowned for its antiviral properties that can reduce the duration of colds and flu and can even have prophylactic effects against viral organisms. Elderberries may yet be our first line of defense against a bird flu epidemic. Many natural cough syrups use elderberry syrups as their base. Elderberries also make wonderful meads, wines, and preserves. The flowers are medicinal as well, being noted for reducing fevers.

For use in daily life try these ideas:

Add fresh elderberries to baked goods such as spice bread, chocolate cake, or berry pies. Withhold some liquid a cook a bit longer and enjoy the slight crunch and flavor of the berries.
For Kombucha lovers, add fresh or dried elderberries during the last week of the fermentation process for a delightful flavor and nutrient boost.
If you have a large harvest, juice the berries up, mix with raw honey and freeze for use during the cold and flu season.

Let your food be your medicine. Especially when it comes from your own yard, fresh and nutrient-dense. See our 'Plant of the Month' sale below.

For more elderberry info, click here.

There's nothing quite like a home-grown fig.

Useful Plant Recipes

Figs

Figs are hard to improve upon, so keep the preparations simple.

Cut your fresh figs in half lengthwise. Top them with a small dollop of chevre goat cheese and put them on the grill skin side down for just a couple minutes. They cook fast ad the cheese softens quickly if you put the lid on the grill. A little fresh thyme mixed in with the goat cheese is a nice addition. Serve immediately.

Place about 1 1/2 cups sweet Marsala wine in a pan with a sweetener of your choice. I don’t like foods real sweet, so I go light. Simmer for about 5 minutes uncovered. Turn off heat and place about 10 fresh figs cut in half into the sweetened wine, stir and turn off heat. Let them sit in the wine for about an hour or more, stirring gently occasionally to make sure they are all getting coated. Remove figs with a slotted spoon and reduce liquid to a syrup. You can serve the figs alone drizzled with the syrup or over something like vanilla ice cream drizzled with syrup. Very simply, very delicious.

Chef, teacher, author, and useful plants enthusiast, Mary Lane, shares recipes from her newly released book Divine Nourishment, A Woman's Sacred Journey with Food.

Click here to view Mary Lane's website.

Fall is for Planting!

October Plant Sale

For the month of October we're offering 20% off our entire stock of elderberries. We offer numerous named varieties for heavy fruit production. See the elderberry section of our website for variety info.

Sale price is $12.00 for a 1 gallon pot and $20 for a 3 gallon pot.

Also, for the month of October we're offering 20% off 3 gallon or higher figs. See the fig section of our website for variety info.

That's $24 for a 3 gallon fig.

Visit our website to reserve now and we'll arrange pickup/delivery.

Chuck Marsh, permaculture designer, UPN founder, and all-around rascal!

Ask the Chuckster

Useful Plant Advice from Chuck Marsh

What amendments do I put into the hole when planting my new tree?

First of all I recommend a soil test of the area where you plan to plant. You can get boxes and instructions from your extension agent and in NC the test is free. If you need help interpreting the test, send us a copy and we can help translate the test into specific amendment amounts.

In WNC, soils are very low in phosphorus. Phosphorus contributes to root development, flower bud formation and winter hardiness. It’s best to add this nutrient at the time of planting by mixing it into the backfill soil. Use rock phosphate, colloidal phosphate, or bone meal. The later two contain calcium so don’t add these to blueberries, cranberries, or lingonberries. Use ½ cup for a 1 gallon plant a cup for a 3-gallon plant and a cup and a half for a 7-gallon tree.

I also recommend adding greensand to the hole at the same ratio as the phosphate. Greensand adds potassium, the K of the NPK, and 60 micronutrients.

I generally don’t add organic matter into the planting hole because I like to encourage the plants to get established in the native soils. You can, however, loosen the soil. Take a fork and crack the soil in the bottom and the sides of the hole as well as a foot to 18 inches out. This allows the roots some loosened soil to be able to spread out into.

If the soil is very heavy clay, add 10% pine bark soil conditioner, which can be acquired at any garden center. For blueberries, add up to a 5-gallon bucket full of the pine bark soil conditioner as they like lots of organic matter.

Adding a little lime to most plantings is a good idea except for blueberries. Never add lime to acid loving plants like blueberries. Again, check your soil test and the nutrient needs of the plants you are working with.

Initial watering of the newly planting tree:

An initial watering in of plants with a compost tea or a seaweed mixture helps stimulate root growth and biological activity in the soil and eases the transplant shock. It’s worth the time and effort to do this for the benefits it brings. I use Nature’s Nog seaweed concentrate. Just add water. You can even dip the roots of the plants in before planting.

Other important thoughts for fall planting:

Remember, don’t dig any deeper than container depth. One of the biggest mistakes people make is to plant too deeply, which can starve established shallow roots of oxygen. Better to err on the side of too shallow.

If your area is known to have a problem with voles, I recommend mixing some sharp gravel into the hole. There’s also a commercial product on the market called Volebloc, which is expanded slate with sharp edges made in NC. The sharp edged rocks keeps the voles away from the roots of the plant.

I’ve heard of using mushroom compost to improve the soil in my gardens. Is this a good idea?

I’m not big on mushroom compost as it contains an abundance of chemicals used in commercial mushroom production as well as high amounts of lime. I’d be careful what you used this on and as a rule, never use it on blueberries.

Earthworm castings are a much better choice. They stimulate biological activity in the soil, providing nutrients, minerals, beneficial bacteria, and soil microbes. They encourage air, water, and nutrient retention in the soil and often contain valuable worms and worm eggs. Because the humates are predigested, you’ll notice benefits right away.

You can top dress the soil with ½ in. to 1 in. of this material, mix it into your garden, or use it in potting mixes for potted plants. For trees and shrubs you can certainly make it part of your regular fertilization procedure.

Send your questions for the Chuckster to info@usefulplantsnursery.org.

Sandwiched on all sides by houses, this little orchard pay dividends for years.

Testimonial of an Urban Gardener

Two blocks north of the civic center in a very urban neighborhood of Asheville, NC is a wonderful example of inventive food production. Mary Beth Gwynn’s house takes up most of its tiny postage stamp lot in Montford, one of Asheville’s trendier neighborhoods. The footprint of the house didn’t leave much room for gardening but Mary Beth has used every inch. She even removed a narrow driveway in order to make more room for plant life. Who needs car parking when you can have gardens!

Inspired by edible gardens rich with ornamental beauty, Mary Beth brought in piles of soil, fertile compost, and deep mulch and packed her small yard full of herbs, edible veggies, flowers, vines growing up the side of the house, and ten window boxes. There are even runner beans growing up the utility pole where a patch of ground in the sidewalk was left open from some utility company work.

Once infected with gardening fervor and enthusiasm for how much one can grow in such a small area, Mary Beth asked her neighbor if she could reclaim a trash-filled, kudzu-covered patch of land between their houses. The terraced area now boasts a vegetable garden, which this year alone grew six heirloom tomatoes plants, kale, okra, arugula, peppers, eggplant, and a vibrant strawberry cluster that threatens to take over the whole patch.

But Mary Beth didn’t stop there, as there was another area crying out for something green and growing. She wanted edibles with fairly low upkeep so her landscape designer, Evie von Seldeneck of Mantis Gardens, recommended edible plants from Useful Plants Nursery. The one-time land-fill now boasts six figs, planted along a west-facing retaining wall, four paw paws, and eight blueberries.

It’s a match born of cooperation and inspiration and reaps benefits for all. The neighbor gets a much-improved yard, a share of the produce and fruit yield, and a meaningful collaboration with a new friend. Mary Beth gets to surround herself with edible plants and feel that special connectedness that plant stewardship can bring. It’s a win-win situation for all. There are even neighbors and passersby who stop and marvel at the bounty in her small yard. “I can’t believe I’d ever see okra growing in the city,” they say - and the inspiration is passed on.

To view our entire plant list, click here.

Lush comfrey patch ready to harvest for fall fertilization.

Notes from a Plant Geek (A monthly guest column)

Cultivating Comfrey for Compost

by Lee Wolfe Warren

At our farm, we grow comfrey in every spare nook. This deep-rooted perennial comes from Europe but has long been naturalized here. Its leaves are large and dark green, and the plant also boasts purple or blue flowers which nod over in clusters. It flowers from May to August and will produce four cuttings through the season.

Comfrey has long been used medicinally and is most renowned for its ability to heal wounds, stings, sprains, and inflammations of all kinds. Known commonly as “knitbone,” it is used for healing broken bones in people and animals. Probably due to its high mineral content and the photochemical allantoin, it stimulates cell reproduction.

In addition to its medicinal properties, farmers have traditionally fed comfrey to livestock as a rich source of minerals, especially in spring when they need a boost after a long winter with no greens.

Because comfrey is so deep rooted, it draws nutrients into itself from the subsoil and it’s NPK profile rivals that of commercial fertilizers, especially in the potassium department.

Come fall the comfrey starts to deteriorate in preparation for winter die back so at this time of year, I cut it all back for use in the following ways:

Fertilizer for Fall Plantings – Cut up comfrey leaves and put right into the hole of any fall plantings.
Mulch – Using the substantial leaves as mulch around plants provides a nice layer of mulch that will break down into nutrients over the winter.
Liquid fertilizer - Also called compost tea, this is a wonderful way to use comfrey. Put a bunch of comfrey leaves in a bucket or barrel and weigh it down with a rock or brick, fill with water, and let it rot. In a few weeks the liquid will be ready for applying to to all your plants, inside and out. I sometimes add nettle or even other garden weeds to this compost tea to increase volume.
Compost Pile Additive and Activator – Adding comfrey leaves to a compost pile, especially one that’s high in carbon material, will add a rich green matter to enhance breakdown and increase the potency of the finished product.

Comfrey is easy to grow, tolerating a range of conditions, and once established is tenacious and enthusiastic. It spreads from the roots and even a tiny piece will produce a new plant. Its lush foliage makes a wonderful ornamental addition to the garden - just make sure you put it in a place you’d like it for a long time to come. When getting established, it loves lots of manure, compost, or even diluted urine as a fertilizer.

Lee Wolfe Warren is an herbalist, writer, homestead farmer, and ecovillager. She is co-manager of Imani Farm and a cofounder of Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood, both located at Earthaven Ecovillage. She is also the editor of the Useful Plant's Nursery Newsletter.

Until Next Month...

Thanks for reading this month’s newsletter! We are sincerely grateful for our loyal customers and partners who are as committed as we are to the work of ensuring that our world stays intact and abundant for future generations. We hope that this newsletter gives you some tips, strategies, and inspiration to continue in that work and devise your own approach to edible landscaping and ecological restoration. Until next month,

The team at Useful Plants Nursery

In This Issue

Plant of the Month: Elderberry

Useful Plant Recipes

October Plant Sale

Ask the Chuckster

Testimonial of an Urban Gardener

Notes from a Plant Geek (A monthly guest column)

Until Next Month...

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UPN at market.

October Events
Every Saturday in October (3, 10, 17, 24, 31): Asheville City Market, Charlotte Street, 8 AM – 1 PM.

October 2, 3, 4: Octoberfest, Old Fort, NC, from 9 am to 8 pm daily. Join us at this wonderful authentic crafts festival in this small traditional Appalachian town 30 minutes from Asheville.

October 11: Village Harvest Festival at Earthaven Ecovillage, Black Mountain, NC. Earthaven is the home of Useful Plants Nursery. Come to the festival to see our nursery and a variety of useful plant installations.

Wednesday deliveries to Greenlife are at 5 pm in the lower (gravel) parking lot of that store. Please call us to arrange an order and we'll meet you there with the plants.

You can also purchase plants at our nursery, open 7 days a week by appointment (call 828-669-6517 or email info@usefulplants.org to schedule a visit).

Useful Plants Nursery • 1041 Camp Elliott Road • Black Mountain • NC • 28711

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