Of late I’ve been reading Jim Lahey’s ‘My Bread’ and watching Jamie Oliver’s ‘cooking at home’.  My dear friend Walt, a retired Mathematics Professor, gave me Jim’ original version of the no-work, no knead method as printed in the New York Times several years ago and I have been playing with it ever since.   His book has given me new incentive.  Watching Jamie toss herbs about at interesting times during his forays into cooking in brick ovens and such has led me to doing the same with Jim’s bread.  Thus, I have strange round loaves with rosemary stems on the bottom of the loaf and basil, thyme, mint, arugula, oregano and garlic chives in all kinds of fascinating flour mixtures. 

All this is to say that this fall is a wonderful time to plant your herbs, and they are all on sale at K and K.  I don’t know if I could cook a Sunday omelet or a pot of stew- or anything- without my herbs.  I have a perennial herb garden which pretty much takes care of itself.  I’ll be glad to show you how to do it, just stop by.  Feel free to bring a favorite recipe in with you.

John

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/jamie-at-home/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

Did you know that K & K is a certified wildscape environment?  We take a lot of pride in that.

Fall is around the corner, though it may not seem like it yet.  Now is the time to put down a heavy application of mulch and bump up your water program if you have not done so already.

Mirabilis jalapa (The four o’clock flower or marvel of Peru) is the most commonly grown ornamental species of Mirabilis, and is available in a range of colours. Mirabilis in Latin means wonderful and Jalapa is a town in Mexico. Mirabilis jalapa is said to have been exported from the Peruvian Andes in 1540.

Chitalpa is an intergeneric hybrid flowering tree in the family Bignoniaceae, bred from Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) for desert hardiness and color, and Southern Catalpa (Catalpa bignonioides) for larger blooms. The name is nothogeneric, or a combination of the two parents’ names. Leaves are lanceolate, 4 to 5 inches long and an inch wide. The trumpet-shaped flowers are 1″ long and frilly.[2] The inflorescence is indeterminate, with alternately arranged flowers.

The beautiful white flowers of the garlic chive are starting to open.  The perennial Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae ) is in full bloom. 

Kessa has her Mums well on the way to blooming, and the pansies starts will be here next week.  Mary is reducing the price of the water plants as we head into fall.  This is a great time to visit the nursery and walk away with some great deals and a wonderful start to a fall garden.

 Today was a first.  Just when you think you’ve seen everything in the garden center- a lady walked in with a kangaroo.  She had a Hydrangea and the Kangaroo baby in a sling, it was only 6 months old.  But we all, customers and the merry men and women of Huckabeeforest, had a great time petting and watching our new friend bounce around the log cabin.  You never know what you will find a K&K.

 After experimenting with the Thrive, mentioned earlier,

 http://www.ac-environmental.com/products/microbial/thrive

We have decided that everyone who comes into the cabin should leave with some Thrive and a bottle of Johns Recipe

 http://www.ladybugbrand.com/fertilizer.htm

This is our technique.  Mix a few gallons of Johns, (or fish emulsion, johns is best), add the thrive and let it sit over night, which increases the bacteria load and has all those microihizae  

dancing.  Then use it on everything.  Everything. 

We love it.  There are examples of what it can do sitting on the counter and all over the nursery.

 Did I mention that all the trees were 20% off this weekend?  You can extend the sale by printing this, bring it to the nursery, and it will be good for all of July.

John

 Tonight I’ll be eating the first tomatoes of the season steamed with the first green beans of the season and the first harvest of new potatoes.  I attribute the vigor of my tomatoes this year to Espoma tomato-tone and the Thrive discussed in the last post.  Lush plants furiously blooming with a heavy fruit set.

http://www.espoma.com/p_consumer/tones_tomato.html

If you aren’t using Espoma organics or thrive, you’re missing out on some wonderful vegetables.

 John

So I’m sitting on the patio, then the front porch with this great big Minolta 450 lens, which weighs a ton, pre focused on the Hummer feeders or there about.  I sit there all braced for an hour and a half, totally into getting a shot.  No Hummers.  The cat strolls over and laughs at me.  I sit the camera down and go out to plant a day Lilly with some

http://www.ac-environmental.com/products/microbial/thrive

 over nighting in some fish emulsion to feed the bacteria and sure enough three hummers hit the feeder.   I am standing ten yards away from the prefocused camera.

Don’t it always seem to go…

John

I live out in the country, typically the temperature is cooler out here than in town where the concrete concentrates the heat.  Consequently, I will have a frost or a freeze every year about this time.  The frost sitting on the plants actually is not doing much dammage, it’s when the sun hits the folage and draws the frost out that the damage is done.  You can negate this by getting up early and watering the plants, removing the frost and saving those wonderful tomato plants and such.  I have done it quite often on a comercial scale and it works.  We may be looking at a frost in the next few days, so be prepaired!

John

Yesterday, for the first time in my thirty three years in the horticultural trade, I had a customer ask me for a Black Gum ( Tupelo tree, Nyssa sylvatica).  I Knew we had them but I had to ask Super Mario where they currently resided-  (they have migrated around the nursery.)  Great for wet conditions, tolerant of dry conditions and poor soil, great red fall color- the Black gum is perfect for Oklahoma. 

Mario Maldonado  (Super Mario) led us to the current location of the Black Gums and as advertised these folks found the wet land tree they wanted.

I think it is important to realize that there hidden corners in this nursery that can surprise and often astound you.  The Black gum is one, there are many others.

John

(and Van Morrison)

You can take all the tea in china

Put it in a big brown bag for me

Sail right around the seven oceans

Drop it straight into the deep blue sea

Shes as sweet as tupelo honey

Shes an angel of the first degree

Shes as sweet as tupelo honey

Just like honey from the bee

Most of you that come in to talk about trees know that the Shumard Oak, Quercus shumardii , is my favorite shade tree.   Deep rooted, robust, teardrop shape when ‘young’ (the first twenty or thirty years), burnt orange or red color in the fall, it is a spectacular tree in the Oklahoma Landscape.   Shumard’s did not lose a twig in the Ice storm of 08, or 09.  Great tree to climb too.

Now I’m going to digress for a moment.  Along and about (in Oklahoma speak) 1993 I became enamored of the columnar English Oak.  I thought it would be a great replacement for the Lombardy Poplar, that columnar jewel that has just about disappeared from the landscape due to its shallow roots and thin skin.

My columnar English Oak, verity unknown, did extraordinarily well till I had the brilliant idea of getting some goats to eat the poison ivy out in the field.  The goats never looked at the poison ivy but they took an immediate liking to the bark of the Quercus robur. 

Goats. 

This year, in memory of the Goat ravaged Q. robur (Fastagiata?), I have found and am stocking the real deal, the Crimson Spire ^tm Oak.  http://www.jfschmidt.com/introductions/crimsonspire/index.html

This beauty will have some real height, stay tight and has incredible fall color.  As a cross between the Q. robur and Q. alba It will have deep green color in the summer and the same great burnt orange / red color as Q. shumardii in the fall.  And it is goat resistant!  It says right here on page catch 22.

If you are looking for the classic shade tree, go with the Shumard, we have hundreds to choose from.  If you have a need for a beautiful columnar tree, come in and have a look at the Crimson Spire^tm .

John