I have rooted a fig.
I’m not positive what the variety is. It has yellow fruit. It is not a Brown Turkey fig.
I watched this video and decided to give it a try. https://youtu.be/VQy-ChIvNKw?si=EoK3amigA0ssDAO_. It has been staying in my bedroom with a plastic bag over it to keep it from drying out.
I’m so excited!!
Our herbs are out of hand this year. Usually, the parsley and oregano die back in the Fall and come back in the Spring. Chuck has been replanting cilantro in a pot every Fall (because it’s a cold weather plant) and basil every spring (because it absolutely cannot take any cold.)
So.
We have a feral cilantro growing next to the kale bed. I’m not showing you a picture because it’s looking pretty punk this morning. It likes cooler weather and comes back after a freeze. But, it doesn’t actually like it to get beloew about 35º.
The parsley and oregano haven’t even paused for breath.
I thought I was going to be a little short on oregano by Spring because I didn’t get started drying before it’s first bolt this year. I pinched it back and got on it when the second flush got healthy and I did get a couple of batches done. But, we use a lot of oregano. So, I was a little concerned.
I did not need to be. When I went out to look at it, there was tons and it wasn’t even slightly frost nipped.
You may notice the onion leaf in between them. I’ve quit storing green onions in the fridge. I put them in the ground and they just get bigger while they wait to be used.
Anyway. This is what I did last night.
I hope I didn’t hurt this guy who accidentally came in the house for a while. I didn’t see it when I was clipping.
North Carolina State University is the largest agricultural college in the state and they run the State Extension Service. Each county has an office that does all sorts of useful things for their communities. They operate using public funds supervising 4H clubs and helping anyone involved with plants, from farmers and public gardens to someone trying to keep a houseplant alive.
Each county has trained volunteers to help shoulder the load. I start training in Guilford County in January. I actually live in Orange County, but the Orange training class is already full, Greensboro isn’t far and I have a friend who was signing up there.
Orientation is January 14 and we will have class nearly every Wednesday until the beginning of May.
The star on 2/25 is because that’s not a day to miss. That’s the day we meet our mentors. We can miss a day and make it up. But, that one really needed to be on everyone’s calendar.
Application days are test days. Those aren’t days to miss either.
On the Virtual Wednesdays we have all day to watch the video on the MG intranet and there’s a little quiz afterward to prove we actually did watch all of it.
The intranet is how we log our hours, too. You don’t get to just sign up and say “I paid my $120 and I’m a Master Gardener.” You are expected to seriously put in some time.
MG Interns are expected to volunteer a lot as we continue working with our mentors. Once we are actual Master Gardeners, we are expected to serve a minimum of 10 hours per year. (There’s a party in November when we have completed our training. Friends and family are invited to celebrate.)
In our first year, we are expected to put in 40 hours after we finish the class:
We have a book and we’ll be expected to read before coming to class. We can buy a hardback copy if we really want to have one in our hands for $50 or $60. Or we can download it from that website for free. You can get the HB from other online stores than the NC Extension service and they can be a little less costly. But, not by much.
We’re using the second edition, originally published in 2022. They’re working on a 3rd edition. But, it is such a great book that other services want to use it and #3 is going to be for the entire Southeast, not just NC. So, they’re putting extra effort into that one and it’s not coming out soon. Taylor said that the only differences between #1 and #2 are organizational and if we find an inexpensive copy of the first edition, it will have the same info in a different arrangement.
You can know I’ll be going with free on my tablet.
I have used the Infoline a few times and I’m looking forward to doing that, kind of giving back. That training is learning where to look for answers. Complicated stuff gets passed along to the Extension Agent.
I’m really looking forward to the Raleigh field trip on 2/2. We get to see how soil is tested and see what we need to know to tell people how to collect their samples.
Well.
I’m really looking forward to all of it.
I need a new pot for my Japanese maple bonsai. I’m going to the Winter Bonsai Expo in Kannapolis on Sunday. So, I can pick one up there.
I could have gotten an identical one in Florence at the Pee Dee Farmers’ Market in May. But, I didn’t. I hadn’t come expecting to find bonsai supplies and I was dithering because there was a lot. And at that point it had only lost a chip on the side. So, I just decided to wait. Now, the pot is kind of crumbling. It’s still enough together that the trees are OK. But, that won’t last forever. I went outside to take a picture to show you and when I lifted it up the bottom stayed where it was. So, it’s really crumbling and critical that I get them a new pot.
I have carnivorous plant pot dilemmas, too. The Drosera binata is in the little plastic pot I bought it in and it’s still very small. I think it can stay there for a while. But, it’s not particularly attractive. It needs to keep its feet wet and I have it sitting in a milk glass dish that was given to my parents as a wedding present.
(That dish is its own dilemma. It’s kind of a weird shape and I have never known how to use it. When my mother gave it to me, it had a frog in the bottom. So, I guess she used it as a flower vase. When I asked her about it, she said she didn’t know of anything else to do with it.)
And.
I would like to add a Sarracenia pupurea to my carnivores. It can live in the water garden with the Sarracenia psittacina I already have.
My other Sarracenia are happy in their bowl on a table. I keep their feet wet, there, too. I think one is probably ‘Judith Hindle’. It may be a hybrid. There’s a little one with it that’s flourishing. But, its leaves never have gotten big since I got it. It did so well this summer, I was able to give a piece to a friend. I have no clue what variety it might be.
The purpurea has a different way of consuming insects than the others and I like the look of it. Its mouth is open to catch rain and drowns its food. Insects get trapped by the hoods of the other two types.
None of them can go in terra cotta. So, I have to be particular about their pots. I can put them in terra cotta if I have it lined with plastic. And I can use glazed pots.
I have a large, whitish, glazed-everywhere pot similar to the one the nepenthes is in that I could use for the purpurea. It’s about the same size as the blue one with the psittacina is in.
I have a pretty, medium sized pot that is terra cotta inside. It would have to have a liner to put the binata in it. I could get a small one like the one holding the nepenthes (and eventually purpurea). But, it would need a deeper tray to keep it’s feet wet and it has a tray attached. The purpurea will get set down in the water garden deeply enough that it won’t be a problem.
So.
I have a PLN1.
Which are really irises.
They’re small and cute and bloom all summer in my yard. I like the way they twist up when they finish blooming. I assume that’s to insure pollination.
You can see from the leaves that they are more iris than lily. When my friend gave them to me, I wandered if she’d given me the plant she intended. But, that is one of its comon names.
You can see why from the seeds.
I have them all over the place because I can’t make a decision about where I like them best and they’re very easy to move.
I am the Audience 