Johann's Garden

This post is to introduce an excellent new goumi selection which will go by the name of 'Pippi' in honor of the independent young red-head from the children's story Pippi Longstocking (or Pippi Långstrump).  'Pippi' goumi originated as a seedling, but showed such heavy fruit production of very good sized berries that it became obvious that it warranted further clonal propagation.  Goumi berries belong to the species Elaeagnus multiflora. In the 2020 season I was able to compare the fruit of 'Pippi' with that of two other named cultivars; 'Sweet Scarlet' which was growing adjacent to 'Pippi' and of the same age as well as 'Carmine' which was growing in a large pot a few hundred feet away from the others and was of a younger age.  This was the third year of fruit production for both 'Pippi' and 'Sweet Scarlet', but the first year of fruit production for 'Carmine'.   For three years in a row, 'Pippi' has p...

Now, how to eat them! If  you're into permaculture or perennial veggie gardening you've almost certainly heard of sun chokes (or Jerusalem artichokes if you prefer).  In fact, you may already be growing them.  In terms of quantity produced relative to effort expended sunchokes can be an incredible crop.  However, a large harvest isn't enough; you must also know how to use it.   Many people find domestic selections of sunchokes to be fairly palatable (unless of course they grow a less tasty cultivar with a wild piney flavor).  The real challenge is figuring out how to eat them without turning one's guts into a gas factory.   Wait!  Don't go anywhere just yet.  Keep reading. Eating sunchokes:   There are three primary ways to enjoy sunchokes with endless variations in each category. 1. Raw - sunchokes make a tasty snack in the raw form. However, it's important to limit raw intake at any given time because their primary stored car...

The following assumes a 50% chance that any given seedling will be male or female in plant species with separate male and female plants. Note: There may be genetic issues within a specific species which result in a higher percentage of seed maturation from one gender or the other, but as a general rule it's safe to assume that a randomly selected species will be equivalent to a coin flip in terms of whether the resulting seedlings will be male or female. If you plant one single tree you have: a 50% chance of it being male a 50% chance of it being female If you plant two trees you have: a 25% chance both will be male a 25% chance both will be female a 50% chance you will get one of each gender If you plant three trees you have: a 12.5% chance all will be male a 12.5% chance all will be female a 75% chance you will get a mix of both genders If you plant four trees you have: a 6.25% chance all will be male a 6.25% chance all will be female a 87.5% chance you w...

Google Rudbeckia 'Herbstonne'.  I promise you will find endless repeated statements about it being a cultivar of R. laciniata, R. nitida OR a hybrid of the two.  Never any written statement to justify why it's listed as one or the other or a mix of the two!  As I really like this plant I of course had to know what its real identity is.  I began to dig through the plants.usda.gov database where I saw pictures of R. nitida and realized R. 'Herbstonne' really looks nothing like it (to a plant geek at least).  Then I realized that R. laciniata actually further breaks down into multiple varieties with a good bit of morphological variation, but this particular database didn't have enough info to learn how to differentiate them.  Next, Google took me to eFloras.org which is home of plant identification keys for just about any plant you could think of.  The level of detail in the keys borders on overwhelming even to a plant geek.  I had to go back to Goog...

The following links are to various garden related products that I've really been happy with.  I will put a little description with each as to why I think they're worth having. Books Mediterranean Vegetables: A Cook's Compendium of All the Vegetables from the World's Healthiest Cuisine There are so many traditionally consumed plants in the Mediterranean region and a good number of them will grow just fine here in the Pacific Northwest.  However, aside from the well known veggies, most of the others are hard to find detailed info about how they are traditionally eaten which makes it difficult to add those plants to our home yard to table menu.  This book gives lots of good ideas for how to actually use all those vegetables! Native American Food Plants: An Ethnobotanical Dictionary is an excellent reference book for all manner of food plants native to our continent.  While much of the valuable food knowledge of our nations first...

Johann's Garden - Nursery & Farm is a locally grown, locally serving plant nursery located near Buckley, WA.  Specializing in edible plants, but also including a selection of ornamental plants which are too nice to ignore.  Focused on sustainability; avoiding single use plastics by using durable plastic grow trays which hold up to years of repeated use, re-using already existing plastic pots AND employing long lasting, but biodegradable pots.  Additionally, we mix our own soil using locally produced compost instead of mined peat. Please check out open hours as well as current plant availability and descriptions at  https://johannsgarden.square.site/

Carnivorous plants are awesome.  Here in western Washington we can grow pretty much any of the Sarracenia (American pitcher plants) species and hybrids as well as a few others.  As a child I was fascinated with venus-fly-traps because they moved when catching prey.  In my adulthood I've discovered that some (maybe not all) of the pitcher plant species and hybrids are far better bug catchers and they have stolen my heart.  Since my "collection" of pitcher plants is growing I think I ought to keep a list of what I've got and what I think of it.  This is that list: Click here to see Sarracenia selections I have extras of listed for sale. Sarracenia : * S .  leucophylla  'Super Pink' Baldwin Co, AL - Very pink selection with yellow flower  * S. leucophylla  (Franklin Co clone B)  ×   minor  (pink hood) - Very cute with good strong color AND windowing!  Really becoming eye catching as it matures. Some pitchers flop, but ...