Fall has arrived!

Hello fellow gardeners!

I will give a run-down of what the rest of October brought to us here at the EC Sol Food Grow-Op besides drier, windier, cooler weather.

1. Our maypop vine began blooming & setting fruit. The Gulf Fritillaries, whose caterpillars feed on various passion vine species, have been laying eggs on its leaves since then.

I learned passion vine leaves and blooms can be made into a sedative tea, and that the leaves can be eaten like a green. It's also fairly low maintenance because it's a native perennial!

See Green Deane's page on maypops!

2. The fire ants continue to live in our beds and force us to come up with creative, organic ways of repelling them...sigh.

3. The collards are still growing strong--I wonder when they will slow down?

4. We learned a great deal from Willow LaMonte's visit to the garden to talk about companion planting. The comfrey plant she brought is loving its new companion, the maypop vine, & the shade it provides! The comfrey leaves can be made into a compost tea that's great for other plants. We also learned that comfrey has medicinal properties if topically applied to bumps, bites and break-outs. Finally we have an on-hand remedy for fire ant bites!

5. I am regretful that I do not have pictures from the Halloween potluck. A host of garden ghouls (including Chubacca and a unicorn) chowed down on homemade goodies and caramel apples as an orange sunset
glowed over the garden.

Love and peas,

Deb