Specimen Spotlight: Aronia

Aronia (Aronia melanocarpa)

Black chokeberries - Source

Although this plant is a native to North America there are relatively few people who know about it. Please let me introduce you to the producer of the original superfruit, Aronia melanocarpa. Superfruit it may be, but, to those who have tried the fruit, it is best known as black chokeberry (not chokecherry - totally different plant) because of its super power: ultimate power pucker. Let's continue on to see what this plant is all about.

• Superfruit - as mentioned, this was the first fruit to be called a superfruit, meaning it is incredibly beneficial for one's health. It is now coming back into the spotlight, having been rediscovered and starting to be re-hyped. New hype or old, the bottom line is that this fruit provides great things to your body, such as normalize blood pressure, strengthen blood vessels, support natural immunity, and delay the effects of aging, just to name a few.
• Antioxidants - going along with the superfruit portion above, aronia berries have been shown to have one of the highest antioxidant levels found in fruit. Plus, in addition to providing the most and best antioxidants, they also enable the blood's capacity to carry antioxidants.
• Native - aronia is a shrub that natively grows in eastern North America: 

  

  Native distribution in green - Source

• Plant alternative - aronia is recommended as an alternative plant for some landscape plants that have been classified by some groups as invasive species, including winged euonymous, privets, some honeysuckle species, buckthorn, and some viburnum species.
• Perennial
• Blossoms!
• Edible - as mentioned, the fruit is often not regarded as edible when fresh picked, due to its intense tartness. However, when mixed with other foods or made into a juice or jam, that is when it really begins to shine.
• Food coloring - the dark blue juice can be used as a high quality, stable, natural food color
• Tolerant - it is disease, drought, pollution, and insect tolerant. Add to that list soil compaction, salt, mine spoils, and heavy metals tolerant. All in all, aronia is a very difficult bush to offend.
• Heavy metals safe - unlike other plants, aronia does not put heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, and tin, into the fruit. This means it is safe to eat the fruit even when the ground around the plant contains those heavy metals.
• Minerals - some elements that are needed in trace quantities by the body can be found in aronia berries. Some of these elements are manganese, copper, molybdenum, iodine, boron, and cobalt.

References

• http://aroniapoland.com/superfruit
• http://aroniapoland.com/scientific-publications
• http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Aronia+melanocarpa
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aronia
• http://www.hort.net/profile/ros/arome/
• http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_arme6.pdf
• http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/aronia-berries--the-new-antioxidant-super-fruit-195008315.html
• https://vipasuite.com/resources/dyn/files/783678zc0720b24/_fn/ORAC_R2+Fruit-Vegetables+2010.pdf?disposition=inline
• http://www.raintreenursery.com/Berries/Aronias/
• http://onegreenworld.com/Aronia/338/
• Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, pg. 84, 97, 101, 106, 108, 125

My Fruiting Plants

I am often engrossed in the plants that I have growing in my yard, as well as the plants that are growing the yards around mine. Most of that contemplation falls back to trying to determine how to acquire my own samples of the neat specimens that I have noticed in my neighbors' yards. However, upon reflection, I wanted to just list out what plants I have in my own yard that produce fruit, if for no other reason than to recognize just how far the yard has come since I first started "fixing" it after moving in over five years ago.

Trees

1. Apple - no idea what kind. It is a mature, standard apple that provides apples that are good for pretty much everything that we have tried to do with them. They ripen up right around the first week of October.
2. Peach - again, I have no idea what kind it is. It is a mature, standard tree. Like the apple above, it was part of the yard when I acquired the home. But the peaches are delicious. They do best for fresh eating, but, unfortunately, that only lasts so long.
3. Plumcot - I do not remember the variety name, but a plumcot is a hybrid of a plum and an apricot. The natural occurrence of this particular hybridization has been documented many times over the past couple of hundred years, but Luther Burbank is credited with determining how to make it happen. Plumcots are the stepping stones for other, more recent, hybrids, such as apriums, pluots, and peacotums. I love the fruit on my plumcot. The tree is a semi-dwarf and has been in my yard for... hmmm... I guess it has been about four years now. It is part of the first group of fruit trees that we added to the yard.
4. Cherry - I believe it is a Stella which is a red sweet cherry. It is also part of the first group, and, like all of that group, is a semi-dwarf. Around here people regularly complain about having cherry trees because they "have" to spray in order to have "good" cherries. Honestly, I love living in this area because there are so many very large cherry trees that produce loads of delicious cherries that the owners do not want. Anyway, the whole problem is that the cherries will often have a tiny worm in it. The worm is technically called a Cherry fly maggot, but the word maggot has such gross associations with it that I much prefer cherry worm. We just put the cherries through a cherry pitter and eat them whole or freeze them to use in pancakes and smoothies. If you do not actually see the worm, it is not really there, especially since it tastes like cherry. More for me. Perfect. Growing up, there was a huge mulberry tree in my yard that was the same - it had little worm-thingies crawling on the fruit. Oh well, it all tasted good. And you certainly could not tell in the mulberry pie. Anyway... moving on.
5. Apricot - just like the cherry, I do not know what variety it is. It is part of the first group. Since it blossoms before any other tree that I have, I often get just a few apricots because of late frosts. And because the tree is still quite young. I'll have to see how much it produces in a few more years to see if it is the late frosts that are really the culprit.
6. Pear - also part of the first group. It is a Twentieth Century Asian. I had not eaten Asian pears prior to picking some fruit from this tree. So far the fruit is almost more like a sweet apple than a pear, very crisp and round. But quite tasty. Especially when we give it a chance to ripen all of the way before getting impatient and eating it early.
7. Nectarine - it is also part of the first group. It is a Fantasia. The fruit has been super delicious, but they always look kind of weird with strange folds and shapes. But, as I am not one to let looks deter me, it still tastes great, which is the whole reason for growing nectarines. The yield has been rather paltry, but it is probably because the tree is still pretty young and small.
8. Apple - this is a Wynoochee Early variety. It is part of the second group of trees that I planted this spring. It is a semi-dwarf. I do not yet know how the fruit will taste, but it is supposed to be very good for an early apple.
9. Pear - this is a European pear, with the well-known pear shape - long, thin neck swelling into a round ball at the bottom. It is a Seckel, also known as a Sugar Pear. It is often known for the fact that it and Bartlett strangely find each other incompatible for pollination. I have never found an explanation as to why they do not pollinate each other, just that they do not. It is also part of the second group.
10. Quince - the quince is a pome, like apples and pears, with a core containing multiple, small seeds. The variety is Mellow, a Ukranian variety that has a tendency towards dwarfing, so it should only grow to eight or ten feet tall. I am looking forward to seeing how well it fruits in this area and how it tastes. It is part of the second group.
11. Medlar - also part of the second group, the variety is named Marron. The fruit has been popular in Europe since the Middle Ages, is chestnut brown in color, and is said to have the taste and texture of spiced applesauce. The tree only reaches six to eight feet in height. Another that I am looking forward to trying out.
12. Plum - another one from the second group, the cultivar is Brooks. It is said to produce very large, sweet, dark purple fruit. The fruit is great for fresh eating, preserves, canning and drying. Interestingly, this variety was the main variety in Oregon's dried plum industry. Hopefully it does just as well in Utah.
13. Fig - I count this as one of my trees because, well, it is mine and it is a tree. It is a Negronne and also came in the second group. I picked a specimen of that variety because it was labeled as being small and suitable for growing in a container. My hope is to eventually plant a fig in a warm microclimate in my yard, but before then I would like to become more acquainted with figs in general, as they seem to be quite different from the pome and drupe varieties with which I have experience. So, currently, I have this in a large pot out in the garden. It seemed somewhat slow to get going, but now that it is better established and the weather is quite warm and sunny, it seems to be thriving.
14. Peach - seedling that started growing in our compost pile. It survived the removal of the compost and is now in its second summer. I am letting it grow mostly just to see what happens.

Shrubs

1. Currant, Black - I have had one of these bushes for three or four years now. The berries have been less than desirable in my opinion, but the rest of the family really likes them. I think that I need to plant another black currant to improve pollination and thus have better fruit production.
2. Currant, White - two plants added last summer. They both have strings of "pearls" that are about the size of small peas. As the fruit has not yet ripened, I do not know how well I will like the fruit.
3. Currant, Red - one plant, of the Red Lake variety that I added last spring. I have not yet had fruit from it, but there is some this year. When it ripens I will try it out.
4. Gooseberry - I have one bush. This is its second summer. Last year it put on a few fruits, but this year it did not even flower. A friend says that happens when it is not watered sufficiently, which may have been the case at the very start of the growing season. But I really want to get a good crop of gooseberries. They look so tasty!
5. Aronia - this is their first summer and, even though I know it is better to pluck off any fruit, I have left the berries to ripen. And there are quite a few! I expect both plants to give me nice, dark, tart fruit that I can freeze whole and then add to my fruit smoothies for its nutritional benefits.
6. Elderberry - I think this is the plant's second or third summer, but it might as well be its first summer in my yard. I did not know much of anything about elderberry bushes when I bought it, and so it has been transplanted a couple of times and not really treated with much in the way of care and consideration. Now that I know a little more, I have been helping it get its roots under it, so to speak. It is a European variety that has been selected to be very decorative while still putting on plenty of flowers and fruit. Maybe next year I will get to try the fruit.
7. Seaberry - I have three plants, one male and two female. They are sometimes called sea buckthorn. A friend said that these plants send out a lot of suckers, have really large, sharp thorns, and the fruit is sour. I planted these this spring, so all I can say so far is that they do have long, sharp thorns. I am not too worried about the suckers. And sour fruit is fine because I can just mix them with my green grapes which are really sweet but not overly flavorful so they make a nice natural sweetener.
8. Rugosa rose - planted last year, I hope to get a good crop of rose hips, based on the hips that have formed already.
9. Serviceberry - this year these plants really put on the blossoms and the fruit. I started picking around the first week of June and am still picking the berries as they ripen. I have four plants and have picked about a quart of berries from each plant so far.
10. Goji - recently planted. I had another goji for about three summers. It never reached more than six inches in height. This new goji was two feet tall when we planted it, so it is already far and away better than the last. Hopefully I will get to try homegrown goji berries next year.

Canes

1. Blackberry - they do noticeably better when you let them become established as opposed to moving them around a couple of times each summer.
2. Red Raspberry - I do not know what varieties I have, but they produce very well. We have about four rows, each about twenty-five feet long, plus a few new tranplants growing in the chicken garden.
3. Boysenberry - I am hoping to finally get a good taste of our boysenberries. In the past we only had one plant and would only get five or six berries from it. Last year we added a whole row and, as long as they do not get lost in the garden jungle, we might get a couple of handfuls of berries.

Vines

1. Grape - the varieties that I currently have are as follows: Concord, Glenora, Canadice, Reliance, and a mature green seedless that was here when I moved in.
2. Hardy Kiwi - they were just listed as a self-fertile female (how does that work?) hardy kiwis, so I have no idea as which named variety they might be. I have two and this is their third summer. I have yet to see any flowers, much less fruit, but this is also the first year that there has been significant growth. Past years there were some watering malfunctions and they apparently do not grow very well without a good amount of sunlight and sufficient water.
3. Akebia - this is its first summer. I had two, but one just withered and died one week. :-( I will need to acquire another in order to get the fruit.

Wish List Plants

I love looking at One Green World and Raintree Nursery catalogs, going through the large selections of all kinds of plants, but most especially the perennial fruiting plants. It is almost the same as going through the Christmas catalogs when I was a kid, the only difference is that I might actually get some of the plants. Anyway, the result of the plant ogling is that I have created a list of plants that I really want to try growing in this area and finagle into doing my bidding (mwah hah hah), i.e. grow tasty fruit that makes my belly happy.

• Honeyberry, a.k.a. "Blue Honeysuckle"
• Goumi - I have a friend in the neighborhood who grows these and they seem to do okay, especially the part of the bush that gets more sunlight. But the fruit production is only so-so. The flavor reminded me of pie cherries (sometimes called "sour" cherries). I really like that goumis are nitrogen fixers, too.
• Jostaberry - hybrid of gooseberry and black currant
• Black raspberry, purple raspberry, yellow raspberry - I just want to add more colors and try the different flavors
• Shipova - hybrid of mountain ash and pear
• Black apricot - naturally occurring hybrid of Prunus armeniaca and P. cerasifera
• Peacotum - hybrid of peach, apricot and plum
• Paw paw - produces the largest edible fruit native to America, plus some say the fruit tastes like vanilla custard. Yeah, I want one... or maybe two.
• Persimmon - I want to really try to promote native American fruit, 
• Mulberry - I grew up with a mulberry tree and I really enjoyed them. And maybe it will keep the birds out of the cherries.
• Pomegranate (in a pot) - exotic plant that would heighten my hard core grower status just by having one. Actually getting fruit from it would just be gravy. Sweet, delicious gravy.
• Jujubes - I think that name just sounds cool, which is enough for me to want to grow the tree. Add on the fact that it produces edible fruit and I'm convinced. It needs hot summers to ripen which makes me wonder why it is not regularly grown here because it has been plenty hot.
• Maypop - native to the eastern U.S., it is a passionfruit vine that dies back in the winter and pops out of the ground in may. The flowers are exquisite and exotic. Plus, I want to eat my own passionfruit.
• Almond - my favorite nut might taste even better if I could grow my own
• Yellowhorn - nitrogen-fixer that produces small nuts. Another nut tree that does not take up most of the yard.
• Bamboo (specifically Phyllostachys nuda) - building material, edible, just plain neat.
• Blood orange (in a pot) - some of the best tasting fruit that I have ever eaten. With this and the pomegranate I could really get started on my indoor orchard.
• Prickly pear - I know it grows wild in much of the western U.S., but I have seen and tasted how much better the fruit is when it gets a modicum of attention. And the results were delicious.

Do you grow or have you grown any of these plants? How did it go? Would you recommend any of them? Why or why not?

Specimen Spotlight: Sunflower

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

Field of sunflowers - Source

Sunflowers are well-known by most people. You can often see them in fields that you pass as you drive along. Many people will grow a few in a garden. Let's explore the benefits of these North American natives.

• Edible - flower buds, petals, seeds, sprouts ← especially tasty!
• Bird friendly - birds love to perch on sunflowers once the stalks begin to stiffen. They also love to peck out the seeds in late summer and fall. FYI, there will be a lot of sunflowers coming up in that spot in the spring because more seeds tend to fall out than are actually eaten by the birds.
• Poultry plant - naturally, sunflower seeds are good for chickens and other poultry. Most chickens will eat the seeds straight from the heads. Chickens and ducks will enjoy sunflower starts or the new leaves on larger sunflowers, however, chickens especially tend to turn their beaks up at the larger, older leaves because they are not as tender, as long as they have other alternatives. They also like sunflower petals. Besides food, when many are grown together they provide a shady area for chickens to scratch around or have dust baths. And, when they have grown a few feet, sunflowers are sturdy enough that you do not need to worry about poultry damaging them.
• Rabbit friendly - rabbits like to chew on the shells and eat the seeds. They will also eat the young plants if they do not have access to much in the way of green plants, but it is best to not let them eat too many
• Wind break - especially great when you need a wind break now and not in ten years, although do not expect it to do as much as a wind break using trees. However, it does an admirable job of protecting small shrubs and herbaceous plants. Sunflowers work especially well if you are able to plant them on an elevated location, thus increasing their effective height and, in consequence, their ability to block the wind.
• Green manure - this refers to a cover crop that is grown with the intent of being used also as a means of adding fertility to the soil via decomposing plant material. Sepp Holzer includes sunflowers as one of the species in a list of good green manure plants because of the large amount of leaves in a relatively short time.
• Slope stabilization - used in a mix of other plants to improve steep slopes' ability to remain in place and absorb moisture during rainfall, thus preventing erosion and soil fertility loss.
• Honey plant - bees like sunflowers because they provide a lot of good pollen and nectar, and the resulting honey is reputed to be quite delicious
• Insectary - not just bees like sunflowers. I have seen many different types of insects stopping by the sunflower snack bar. Lacewings and parasitic wasps are also known to be frequent visitors of blooming sunflowers.
• Sun trap - when organized in a U-shape with the open end facing south, you can create a sun trap as a means of creating a warm microclimate inside the U.
• Nutrient accumulator - sunflowers will find trace amounts of calcium, manganese, copper, and zinc in the earth and then store these minerals in their leaves. When the leaves die and decompose, the minerals become readily available to other plants.
• Mulch maker - the leaves and thin stalks are especially good as mulch
• Medicinal
• Flowers! - besides fresh flowers, you can also dry the flowers for decorative uses
• Poles - last year's sunflower "trunks" work great as tipi trellis poles
• Drought tolerant - when well established
• Full sun - um, yeah, sunflower. 'Nuf said.
• Inner pith - the inside of the stalk is one of the lightest naturally occurring substances and is used for all kinds of things, including life-saving devices
• Dye - flowers can be used to make a yellow dye. A purple-black dye can be made from the seeds of a certain variety used by the Hopi Native American tribe.
• Fuel and kindling - when dried, the stalk can be used as fuel for a fire. The resulting ash is high in potassium. The branches and the seed shells are good kindling.
• Fiber - found in the stalk, it is used to make both paper and fine quality cloth
• Roots - these can go as much as ten feet deep and also have a significant lateral spread
• Tall - not all sunflowers are tall - I have one variety that only reaches two feet - but some varieties can get to twelve feet or more in height.
• Companion - while not friendly towards potatoes or pole beans, sunflowers typically grow very well with cucumbers, melons and corn.
• Heliotropic? - this means the movement of a plant part in relation to the position of the sun. A common belief is that sunflowers follow the movement of the sun through the sky. While this is true for unopened flower buds, once the flower opens it remains in a fixed location.
• Phytoremediation and rhizofiltration - these big words mean that sunflowers are used to clean up the environment, such as removing toxins from the soil and harmful bacteria from water. They were even used to clean up Chernobyl and are in use in response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
• Latex - some development programs are in place to create a variety of sunflower that can be used to manufacture nonallergenic rubber
• Allelopath - some varieties exude a substance that deters other plants from growing in the vicinity of the sunflower. I must add, though, that it does not seem to affect much in my garden except potatoes and pole beans.

References

• Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening, pg. 38, 58, 60, 61, 64
• Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture, pg. 39, 41, 133, 136, 170,  203
• http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Helianthus+annuus
• Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening, pg. 7, 16, 20
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helianthus_annuus
• Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard, pg. 127

Specimen Spotlight: Apple

Apple (Malus domestica)

Malus domestica - Source

The ubiquitous apple tree is actually one of the basic teaching plants used to instruct aspiring permaculturists about plant guilds. The apple tree guild is quite often one of the first guilds explained to help people understand what a plant guild is and how it works. One reason is that so many people are familiar with apple trees. Hopefully the following list will add some new info to your mental database on apple trees.

• Edible - each cultivar is edible in its own special way, some for cider, some for applesauce, some for apple pie, some for fresh eating, some are multipurpose, etc.
• Medicinal - both the fruit and the bark are said to have medicinal properties
• Tree - as an apple matures, especially if it is standard size, it provides more and more of the benefits that most any tree supplies to its vicinity, such as wind protection, vine support, bird refuge, shade, significant leaf litter, weather moderation and microclimate generation, wood for fuel or lumber, and much more. I will repeat some of this in the list, just in case some readers miss the above benefits.
• Insectary - when blossoms are on
• Nutrient accumulator - this is common for most trees, as they have significantly larger root systems than other plant types, however apples are especially good at accumulating potassium in their leaves
• Wildlife habitat - as mentioned, as a tree it tends to be befriended by birds, as well as other wildlife.
• Fodder - rabbits really like to eat the bark and buds off of pruned branches and twigs
• Woodworking - apple wood is a hardwood that is fine-grained and is often prized for woodworking projects. It is also a good selection when making tool handles and canes.
• Fuel - the wood makes an excellent fuel, burning long and even. Apple wood chips also considered as a great wood for smoking meats, making slow-cooked barbecue, or even grilling.
• Aesthetically appealing - in other words, its pretty, especially when it is covered with blossoms

  

  Apple tree with blossoms

• Teeth cleaner - the descriptive word is dentrifice, which means that eating a whole raw apple will actually help clean your teeth and gums as you eat it.
• Yield - dwarfs and semi-dwarfs typically produce one to two bushels of apples in their third or fourth year. Standard trees produce four to five bushels after five to eight years.
• Hardiness - different cultivars have different levels of hardiness. There are cultivars for as cold as zone 3 and as warm as zone 8.
• Storage - they can keep for up to six months in a cool location. Beware to not store them with potatoes, as this causes them to lose their flavor. Also, carrots and potatoes stored with apples will acquire a bitter flavor. Apples store better if wrapped in maple leaves or if the apples come from a tree that was surrounded by a lot of clover.

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple
• http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Malus+domestica
• http://www.ask.com/explore/smoking-apple-wood
• http://voices.yahoo.com/4th-july-bbq-grilling-wood-chips-flavor-guide-381281.html?cat=22
• http://www.almanac.com/plant/apples
• Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
• Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening

How to Use Science to Understand Plants

This video, although UK-oriented, is great at providing some good, detailed information about plants and how they function. My whole family watched and enjoyed it.

BBC Two - Gardener's World - The Science of Gardening

Also, go to the episode's web page for a lot more information and explanations.

Specimen Spotlight: Grape

Grape (Vitis vinifera, V. labrusca)

Grapes! - Source

I certainly hope that you have had the chance to eat grapes some time in your life. If not, you have been missing out. Grapes have been in use for food and ferment for a long, long time. And, like most food crops, they taste best when you can successfully grow your own. I have been blessed to have a city lot that already included a mature grape vine on an arbor when I moved in. However, one seedless green grape is not enough for my family and me, so we have since added five more vines comprising four different cultivars with plans for two more in the near future. What good are grape vines besides providing delicious grapes? Read on and learn.

• Edible
• Deciduous vine - provides shade in the summer and lets light through in the winter
• Drought tolerant - when well established
• Wet tolerant - can handle long periods of precipitation
• Light-colors friendly - sets fruit earlier and heavier when grown against a light-colored surface
• Guild member - nicely fills the vine niche in a plant guild
• Trellis-needy - wild grapes use trees as trellises to climb up above the canopy cover and get the light they need. While you definitely can send your grapes up a convenient trunk, it makes any type of harvest much more difficult. I recommend using a trellis, arbor, pergola, or similar device over which your grape vine can sprawl above ground. Grapes are also susceptible to many types of mildew and other fungi diseases, so dangling them above ground helps prevent these problems by allowing increased airflow.
• Shade-maker - as mentioned earlier, grape vines provide great shade. One of my vines turns a pergola into a shady room.
• Cooler - in the hottest part of summer that shady room is typically fifteen degrees cooler than the non-shaded parts of my yard, due in part to blocking the heat of the sun with broad leaves. However, a great deal of the coolness is created through transpiration, where the grapes loses water through opening in its leaves. This water absorbs heat and carries it away as it evaporates, creating a nice cool environment.
• Chicken friendly - chickens like grapes: the fruit, the leaves, even the tender new stems and tendrils, so it is best to have an established grape vine with most of the vine up out of the chickens' reach.
• Manure-lover - grape vines that receive well-rotted manure as a mulch during the growing season and in the fall have shown to consistently produce up to 30% more fruit than other methods.
• Propagation - easily grown from cuttings about a foot long with a bud near each end that are then planted in soil, burying about two-thirds of the cutting; be sure to water well and keep moist for the first few weeks.
• Hardiness - grape cultivars vary widely in what winter temperatures they can survive and still produce well the following growing season. Some can reliably handle zone 3 winters, others thrive in zone 7 or 8, and everything in between. Know what zone you are in, what microclimates of which you can take advantage, and research the recommended zones for the grape cultivars you want.
• Frost tender - grapes are frost tender after the buds begin to swell in the spring. In this area with the varieties that I have my grapes tend to not "wake up" until May, which helps immensely in preventing damage from most of the late frosts.
• Smaller seedless? - your seedless grapes are typically going to be smaller than commercial growers because they often add synthetic growth regulators to get larger fruit.
• Is it ripe? - my first year with a grapevine I was unsure of how to tell when the fruit was ripe, made difficult since it produced green grapes. My experience is that a grape is ripe when it tastes good. Don't be afraid to taste-test for ripeness. :-)
• Harvest - use small scissors or pruners to clip the cluster off while supporting it with the other hand. If you are going to pick a lot of grapes, it is best to do it in the morning when it is cool.
• Let in the light - let sunlight shine on the fruit clusters to promote ripening and prevent pests that would like nothing better than a sweet snack in a shady spot.
• Pruning - pretty much everyone that I have ever talked to about grapes says that pruning grapevines is a necessity for good production. Around 90% of the branching stems should be pruned off when the vine is dormant. When you prune, be sure to leave buds because they are where flower clusters (which, hopefully, become sweet, delicious grapes) emerge in the spring.
• Bird friendly - for some this is not a benefit, but birds really like seedless grapes (there seem to be enough seedless ones around me that they turn their beaks up at grapes with seeds). And they like hiding out in and flitting around in grapevines, especially when the vines are trained over arbors and pergolas.
• Medicinal
• Toxic to dogs - so do not let your dogs eat your grapes!
• Basketry
• Privacy - use a grapevine on a chain-link fence to make it a little less see-through
• Dye - yellow, from the leaves
• Oil - from grape seeds

References

• Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture, pg. 34, 103, 145, 215, 244, 245
• Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard, pg. 82, 133
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpiration
• The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!, pg. 100
• The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country, pg. 235-236, 320-321, 323
• http://viticulture.hort.iastate.edu/info/pdf/cultivars08.pdf
• Garden Wisdom and Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Plant, Grow, and Harvest, pg.  247-248, 252
• Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space, pg. 243-247
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape
• http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Vitis+vinifera
• http://fossillady.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Make-a-Grapevine-Basket

Specimen Spotlight: Dandelion

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Dandelion seeds waiting for a breeze

Everyone has seen and can easily recognize a dandelion flower. The leaves are pretty well-known, too, as are the seed puffs that cause many pristine lawn owners to shiver with fear and/or rage when in the hands of a child. However, the dandelion is one of Mother Nature's potent tools for fixing problem soil. Let's take a look at what this plant can do.

• Insectary - "Provide a vital source of early pollen for bees and other beneficial insects that feed on garden pests" (Garden Wisdom and Know-How). And it continues to provide nectar and pollen throughout the growing season. And it is a special friend of the much-beloved lady bug, as well as the lacewing, both of which eat up many "problem" bugs.
• Perennial
• Reproduces via seeds and root crowns.
• Low maintenance - as far as plants go, the dictionary definition of low maintenance could read: "See Dandelion." Thrives on neglect.
• It also thrives on removal attempts because the perfect-green-grass-yard fanatic that tries to dig it out, will, more often than not, leave enough root for the dandelion to grow back, in addition to adding more dandelion seeds into the soil.
• Thrives on TLC - in the rare occasions that a person decides to grow dandelions intentionally the leaves get enormous! 
• Nutrient accumulator - one of the best at "mining" a variety of nutrients, it will pull up phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, and silicon.
• Spike root - loosens up compacted or clay soil and adds organic matter
• Fodder - chickens and rabbits both enjoy dandelion greens
• Medicinal
• Edible
  • It is a decent source of calcium (147 mg/cup cooked)
  • The root, leaves and flowers are all edible and there are many different ways to eat them. The most common use is to use the leaves raw as salad greens. Pick them before the plant flowers to reduce the bitterness.
  • Blanching - covering to prevent sunlight - results in white leaves that are much less prone to being bitter
  • Can be forced to provide greens in the winter. See Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long by Eliot Coleman, pg. 140, for instructions.
  • Will store in the fridge for up to a week
• Grows fine in most, if not all, soil types, including acid clay.
• Early colonizer in disturbed areas
• Old farm texts included dandelion in a cover crop mix to prepare the soil and maximize its fertility
• Cold frame friendly - can be grown all winter long for the greens when covered in this method

References

• Garden Wisdom and Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Plant, Grow, and Harvest, pg. 226, 439, 447, 448
• Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture, pg. 24, 95, 131, 132, 136, 141, 142, 157, 169, 187, 189
• Back To Eden, pg. 123-124
• Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles, pg. 15, 23, 94-95
• Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, pg. 6, 41, 82, 140, 171-172

Specimen Spotlight: Serviceberry

Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.)

Saskatoon berries and
foliage - Source

Serviceberries provide a nice snack while hiking in the mountains around here where they grow natively. Many people probably have not even thought about the potential gained by including serviceberries in the yard. They start small but can grow into small trees if left to themselves. Here are the other things that I have learned about serviceberries.

• The fruits, when ripe, are dark purple with a bluish bloom on them that children like to meticulously rub off as a means of entertainment prior to eating. Not that the bloom affects flavor in any way. It is just something that I have noticed many children doing. :-)
• The birds and other animals like the berries, too. The birds seem to leave them alone until late in winter when other food sources are gone. I don't know if this is because they really do not like them or if the birds know that the berries, albeit somewhat withered, will store on the plant until needed.
• On that note, the fruit still tastes really good when it ripened fully and then slowly dried out on the branch. In our climate at least, the serviceberry fruit does not go bad when left unpicked. It just dries up, condensing its flavor and sweetness in a pleasant way.
• The fruit tastes best when the plant has had plenty of moisture, but the plant can handle drought pretty well when it is well established.
• In the spring, around April or early May, the plants will put on white blossoms that are a great early food source for any insects that may be out looking for a meal.
• It likes full sun, but I have seen it growing just fine in dappled shade.
• Pioneers used serviceberries in pies and jam. Native Americans ate them raw, dried like raisins, or as part of their pemmican. Everybody of that time ate them when they had them.
• The hard serviceberry wood was used almost universally, according to the book Wild Berries of the West, to make arrows, spears, and a myriad of other items.
• The fruit can be used to make a purple dye.
• It provides bird habitat and, if you are willing to share, food.
• It fits the shrub niche nicely when trying to determine what plants to add to a plant guild.
• Chicken friendly!

References

• Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening, pg. 91, 107
• The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants, pg. 207-213
• Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 Natural Foods, pg. 206-207
• The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country, pg. 329
• Wild Berries of the West, pg. 122-125
• The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!, pg. 116, 120
• Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture, pg. 164, 165, 169, 198-200, 218, 221
• Free-Range Chicken Gardens: How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard, pg. 55, 132

Specimen Spotlight: Rhubarb

Rhubarb (Rheum x cultorum)

Rhubarb used to be ubiquitous in backyards across America, providing one part of the strawberry-rhubarb combo used in jams and pie. It is an easy-to-grow perennial that also functions as an ornamental with very large green leaves on long stalks. It is beneficial for more than just making it so one can make great pie. I have listed below a few other roles for rhubarb.

• Edible - stick with the stalks, the rest should be considered poisonous

  

  Rhubarb with flower stalks

• Fodder - unlike humans, chickens can eat the leaves with impunity, and love to do so
• Mulch maker - the huge, soft leaves are great for outdoor carpets
• Perennial - one of the first plants up in the spring in my yard
• Insectary - sometimes you end up with a female plant that puts up flower stalks. These stalks are pretty tall and are covered with flowers that insects love.
• Partial shade to full sun - more likely to be tolerant of some shade when it has the springtime to wake up and grow before being overshadowed by a tree or other deciduous perennial.
• Propagate by clump division
• Medicinal - especially the root

Plant Roles: Nutrient Accumulator

Some plants have the ability to put down deep roots and pull up nutrients into their leaves. These leaves then return the nutrients to the topsoil when they die and decompose, at which point the nutrients are freely available to other plants. Because of their ability to do this, these plants are called nutrient accumulators, accumulating specific nutrients and then releasing them upon decomposition.

Nutrient accumulators are an important facet of a self-fertilizing garden. Necessary nutrients that are missing from the topsoil can be collected and shared out. The nice thing is that these plants' natural abilities and tendencies do all of the work. Many of these plants focus on specific nutrients, so, by determining which nutrients are missing you can determine which plants to add. Once added, these plants will begin to mine for the critical nutrients.

Toby Hemenway, in his book Gaia's Garden, has a list of eighty-four plants that are nutrient accumulators for

Lamb's quarters - Chenopodium album

one or more of a dozen different nutrients. Some are typically considered weeds, such as dandelion, Lamb's quarters, and red root pigweed. Others are well known herbs, like chives, parsley, savory, and fennel. And some are even typically used for their flowers, including flowering dogwood, geranium, marigold, lupine, primrose, and tansy. As you can see, the list of nutrient accumulators covers quite the gamut and includes many multipurpose plants, which is perfect for permaculture.

Plant Roles: Insectaries

An insectary is a plant that attracts beneficial insects. Just as we desire to use certain plants to fulfill certain roles, we also want the benefits that come from thousands and thousands of little workers. The best way to invite these helpers to our yards and gardens is to supply them with the pollen and nectar they like to eat.

There are a few that I know of off the top of my head that grow well in Utah County and function well as insectaries. These include yarrow, mint, dandelion, comfrey, sunflower, violets, cosmos, clover, and lobelia.  And, of course, these function best as insectaries when you let them bloom. Hopefully it is obvious why that is so. This list is by no means comprehensive. I have included below three other lists - I am sure that there are many more that can be found in a web search - of plants that make good insectaries.

OrganicGardening.com has a long list of both annual and perennial insectaries. Along with that list, they also include an article about using flower borders as a means of encouraging beneficial insects to hang around your garden beds. They include their top eleven choices for insectaries to use in these beneficial bug flower borders, which I am eager to learn about and probably include in my own yard and gardens.

Going with a similar idea, the USDA's National Agroforestry Center (NAC) recommend using conservation buffers. These conservation buffers are similar to OrganicGardening.com's insectary flower borders in that they should include plants that appeal to beneficial insects. In addition to explaining about conservation buffers, the NAC also has a list of beneficials, what pests they help manage, and which plants those beneficials find particularly inviting. After just glancing through that list, it would seem that plants belonging to the Aster family (Asteraceae) have the most insect appeal and it would be hard to go wrong in adding some species from that family to your insectary collection.

Finally, Mother Earth News online has another list of both annuals and perennials, including some woody plants, that you can go through and use to determine what to add to spruce up your yard and increase your good insect vibes. The list also indicates each plant's scientific name, which is great when you are trying to get a particular plant from a nursery or find the right packet of seeds. Some of the plants even are linked to sources of images and/or more information to help you become more familiar with that particular species. And, at the bottom, is a list of some of the references that were used to generate the list, in case you would like to dive deeper into learning about insectaries and their benefits.

Invasive Plant Species?

Quite unintentionally, I came upon a lengthy discussion based on a couple of blog posts by Sue Reed: http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/permacultures-internal-contradiction/ and http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/invasive-plants-in-permaculture. The comment sections on these two posts are, not surprisingly, very long with some quite determined language. However, it is a great opportunity to get a lot of resources to study ecology and how plants interact with each other and other organisms. I heartily encourage everyone to read at least some of the comments. Eric Toensmeier and Toby Hemenway even pitched in to share their views. The main back-and-forth is about the use of invasive plant species, specifically within the philosophy of permaculture.

Much of the disagreement came down to the need for, and the total inability to truly have, a specific definition of the term invasive species. Coming up with a definition is so difficult because there are so many variables. And the time length needed to be able to understand all of the effects of plant immigration is, at the very least, in the thousands of years range. Do native species ever count as invasive? Is a plant invasive if it is filling a niche or providing a necessary role?

There are many other questions besides these. In general, the answer to whether a specific species is invasive and if that is a bad thing when viewed from the ecological long-term perspective seems to depend upon which question a person gets hung up on, so to speak, and determines for himself what the line is that everyone else should not cross. And since that is an individual decision, it makes it really hard for there to be a general consensus on what to do and where to stop.

Okay, to sum up, a so-called invasive species will begin arriving in a new area and begin to spread. Over time, typically a few years or less, this new species will begin to displace or kill off a so-called native species, meaning a species that existed in that region for an arbitrary length of time prior to the arrival of the "invasive" species. Sue Reed's question was this: why would permaculturists intentionally plant a known invasive species since that species causes harm to the native ecological balance?

My first thought was that I needed to find out which plants are considered invasive in my area. I could not find a list of invasive plants. There is a USDA-sponsored list of noxious weeds. But noxious weeds are not necessarily invasive plants. The Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System has a list of reportedly invasive plants that are found in Utah County. But even that list comes with a notice that the plants reported as problematic are not necessarily problematic in Utah County, just somewhere in the U.S. That makes the list somewhat less than helpful. So my search has not turned up anything other than the noxious weed list. I am sure that there are species in Utah County that many would call invasive, but I am not able to easily find a list. If you know of a reputable invasive plants list for Utah County, or even the whole state, please provide a link in the comments.

Warning: Blogger is now stepping onto his soap box.

Now, for my opinion on the matter. I mean, that is why you are reading this post in the first place, is it not? I have read about the issue from the standpoint of traditional conservationists and native plant enthusiasts. And I have read what well-known permaculturists Toby Hemenway, Eric Toensmeier, and Peter Bane have to say about utilizing invasive species. I agree with the comments that both Toby and Eric made to Sue's posts, to the effect that intentionally introducing a species into an area where it is known to be "invasive" is not okay. Importing non-native plants that are not known to be "invasive" in order to augment or fill a role within a plant community is okay, even encouraged when there is no native plant that will do the job. Many of us are planting in urban and suburban areas. This land has already lost its natives and by introducing beneficial plant communities we work to prevent the increasing sanitation of wild or semi-wild lands and to produce food and goods for humans. As we are able to use the land around our homes and in our communities to provide more of our needs, we reduce the amount of land "somewhere else" that must be denatured to supply us.

Maybe eventually the hardy kiwi of Massachusetts will become well integrated into that ecosystem. Maybe it will die out. We don't know. But, as long as we do not supply human needs from the lands already set aside for that purpose, then more and more land, including, eventually, that forest strewn with hardy kiwi, will continue to be stripped of both its natives and exotics, its natural state altogether, and will be turned into a factory farm or a monocultured, manicured forest.

I am now going to go check on my two hardy kiwis.

Thoughts? Let me know in the comments section.

Specimen Spotlight: Borage

Borage (Borago officinalis)

Borage - Source

Borage is often best known for its pretty blue flowers, and for good reason, too. However, as is common with most plants, borage can fill more roles than just visual appeal.

• It is included in the group of dry weather friendly plants, meaning that, once well established, it can hold its own against hot, dry days with little or no water. On top of that, unlike many desert plants that can take the heat but not the wet, borage happily continues on its merry way through long periods of precipitation.
• It has the benefit of being a nutrient accumulator. It will send down roots deep into the soil to find minerals and nutrients that are beyond the reach of other plants. Those minerals and nutrients are pulled up into the leaves. Later, when the leaves die and decompose at the ground's surface, those nutrients and minerals are made available to other plants. Borage is especially good at retrieving potassium and silicon, both of which are important to many plants.
• People are not the only ones who enjoy the blooms that borage produces. Insects, most especially bees, find the flowers to be a very attractive source of pollen and nectar.
• Interplanted with comfrey you receive a synergistic effect in providing mulch making and weed suppressing benefits. This comes, in part, from borage's indeterminate growth habit, meaning it does not have a standard height at which it stops growing. It is more likely to flop over parallel to the ground, just like indeterminate varieties of tomatoes, and start growing vertical branches. This technique, so to speak, accomplishes three things. First, this immediately shades more of the ground, inhibiting the ability of weeds to germinate and grow. Second, more of the plant is now in contact with the ground which hastens decomposition and improves mulch making when the plant dies. And third, this allows borage to spread seeds over a wider area - it is supposed to readily self-reseed. The following year many borage seedlings will sprout and grow, shading out weeds.
  
  Borage also does well as a mulch maker due to its large, green, soft leaves, like comfrey, that shade the ground and provide quality mulch in a hurry.
• In Jessi Bloom's book, Free-Range Chicken Gardens indicates that chickens typically prefer to leave borage alone. This is most likely due to the thick "fuzz" on the leaves.
• On that note, people typically do not care for the leaf fuzz, either. So, since the leaf is perfectly edible, the suggested way to eat them is to add them finely chopped into a salad. The leaves are said to have a flavor similar to cucumber. However, they are best eaten fresh, as they lose their flavor and color when dried.
• Peel, chop, and use the stems like celery.
• Some foods that mesh well with the texture and flavor of borage are green salads, most vegetables, salad dressings, pickles, cheese, fish, poultry, and iced beverages.
• Additionally, the flowers are reputed to be one of the few truly blue natural edible substances. They have a sweet taste, sometimes also having a bit of the cucumber flavor that the leaves have. As is typical with edible flowers, they are often used as a garnish or with desserts. And they can also be used to create an edible blue dye, which apparently turns pink when mixed with an acid.
• Borage has traditionally been grown not just to eat, but also as a medicinal herb. Jethro Kloss, in Back To Eden, explains how borage can be used in the healing of a myriad of maladies. You can look at Wikipedia.org and Plants for a Future to learn more.
• Sometimes borage pretends to be a biennial and will not flower the first year. Be patient and encourage new seedlings by keeping the ground moist, especially through the use of mulch around the seedlings once they have begun to poke up.
• Garden Wisdom and Know-How has the following bit of trivia:

  "Borage has a reputation for invoking courage. In fact, ancient Celtic warriors preparing for battle drank wine flavored with borage to give them courage. They believed their fears would vanish and they would feel elated. (The effect was probably due to the wine, not the borage)" (pg. 258).

  In days gone by, ladies would embroider borage flowers on handkerchiefs as 'favours' for knights in the joust, or to drop for soldiers to collect as they march off to war.
• There are many plants that enjoy a friendly relationship with borage. Some of these include cucumber, tomato, squash, strawberry, and members of the cabbage family in general. It has been reported that most garden plants grow better and have better tasting produce when borage is grown as a companion plant with them.
• Besides promoting plant health, growth, and production, borage is also used to repel some pests. One common use is having borage and tomatoes together, which apparently deters moths whose larvae are the tomato hornworm.

Resources

• The Ultimate Guide to Permaculture by Nicole Faires
• Free-Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom
• Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway
• Back To Eden by Jethro Kloss
• Garden Wisdom and Know-How compiled by Judy Pray
• Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte
• The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith
• Sepp Holzer's Permaculture by Sepp Holzer
• Plants for a Future, Plant Database: Borago officinalis
• Wikipedia.org: Borage
• USDA NRCS Plants Database: Borago officinalis
• Missouri Botanical Garden: Borago officinalis
• Dave's Garden, Plant Files: Borage. See this page's comments section.
• RHS Plant Selector: Borago officinalis