Jerusalem artichoke aka sunchoke aka sun root is a type of sunflower that grows a tuberous root that can be used as food. They are HIGHLY invasive in most area but can make a nice windbreak or privacy "fence" as most varieties are about 10 to 15 feet tall. However there are some varieties that are down around 5 to 8 feet tall, those are the ones I looked at. Oikos Tree Crops has a a variety they call Saint Charles that sounded just like what I wanted. Shorter at about 8 ft tall, it takes only 90 days to produce chokes that can be harvested and has shorter stolons and smaller chokes just right for soups and stews. 4 tubers of that one hopped into my cart...
The next a what? thing I got is called a groundnut. Apois Americana is a vining plant that forms small tubers spaced out along a long stolon like beads on a necklace. The vines can get up to 10 ft! Again Oikos Tree Crop to rescue. The have a new variety they call Clusternut Groundnut. It is another early cropper perfect for our shorter growing season. And like the name says instead of long stolons with beads strung along it this one produced shorter stolons with the beads very close together. It also is a shorter bushier plant. Yep 4 tubers for that one hopped into the cart.
I mentioned my two White Aster Dahlias in the last post, those will arrive about April/May just in time to plant them. Not sure when the 8 new tubers from Oikos will arrive but I do need to start working outside this weekend if our snow is melted enough...
My asparagus plants will also arrive about mid April so that bed needs dug and prepared for them. Those of course a long term project with our first very small harvest in a year or two...
I also settled on my new fruit tree. I will be looking for a Mormon/Chinese apricot for the front yard. They are hardy, late flowering, small at about 15 feet tall and best of all they are self fertile so I only need one not 2 like most other fruiting plants I looked at.
Today is also another seed starting day or rather yesterday was supposed to be but I forgot to plant them even though everything is ready. I will need to do that tonight before I go to bed...
I saw this video last month so yep I got a tumbling composter like him and plan on doing this... the tumbler is here but I need to wait for the snow to melt so I can set it up in the garden and get a batch of compost going... I also got us a little bucket for the kitchen for our coffee grounds and tea bags plus any vegetable scraps so those can be saved to go outside in a tumbler.
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