kale | chriscondello

“New York Ironweed” – Late Summer 2013 – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA

A Plant a Day till Spring” will highlight one plant a day, starting on the winter solstice (December 21, 2013)… And ending on the vernal equinox (March 20, 2014)… If all goes to plan I will be starting with old Snowdrop photos from 2013… And ending with new photos of Snowdrops in 2014…

5 Days to Go

Vernonia noveboracensis… But I prefer the common name “Ironweed”… Or in the case of the photograph above “New York Ironweed”… Ironweed is a shade of blue-purple that is a perfect compliment to the golden-yellow color of “Goldenrod”…Being that they bloom at the same time… In the same environment… One could go as far as to say they evolved to grow together… Which they did…

I think it is important to remember that plants that are beneficial to each other typically don’t clash in physical appearance… In my own experience… Companion plants are often complimentary to each other in more ways than just health…

Ironweed is one of the seeds I recently collected and am now germinating… I plan on doing this plant again next Winter with more details… One fact I can tell you… It is downright aggressive in swampy conditions… It will chase other plants out…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

If you want some science – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernonia – Genus

Photo Specific – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernonia_noveboracensis

These “Plant a Day Till Spring” posts are simply intended to kill time until spring when I start writing more… My source (where applicable) is Wikipedia.org… The photography is all my own… And I am adding my own information…

This website and all of the information presented within is provided free by the author… Me… It is my sole opinion and is not representative of anyone other than myself… You can contact me directly with questions at – c.condello@hotmail.com

Remember to tip… My Bitcoin digital wallet address is… 1JsKwa3vYgy4LZjNk4YmPEHFJNjPt2wDJj

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“Herleqiun Shake – Curly Kale” – Summer 2013 – Hamnett Place Community Garden – Wilkinsburg, PA – Harlequin Bug shaking its ass on a stunning Kale leaf… Shake that Brassica… Oleracea…

6 Days to Go

I was first introduced to Kale in the form of a gifted plant… I had no idea what it was… And I had never eaten it before… So I grew it… In fact… I ended up growing lots of it… But I never really tried to eat it… Enough people around me liked it so I basically just gave it all away… That lasted up till two years ago… Simply out of curiosity I steamed some up… Sautéed it with roasted red peppers and onions… And fell in love… This year I plan on growing more than last year…

Kale has a tendency to get buggy… We are not the only creatures that find its leaves delectable… But given the fact that it is the leaves we eat… Spraying with any kind of pesticide… Organic or chemical… Is kind of a gamble… There is no silver bullet to the insect problem… I would recommend diversity as the most organic solution… Flowering plants attract predators… The type of predators they attract are not just based on the type of flowers you plant… But are based on the flowers coupled with the food source available… In this case… Kale and its associated pests…

Although diversity does not mean pest attacks will stop… It does mean your garden will be more biologically prepared to defend itself than if you had only planted Kale… A garden is a system… A system that requires many different parts… When one of those parts gets broken or eliminated the other parts wear faster and fail… It is our jobs as permaculturists to figure out what those parts are and maintain the hell out of them… When we find a missing part… We replace it… In the case of our kale… When a pest is identified we should immediately hit the books… Every pest has a predator… Every predator is attracted to something… Figure out what that something is and plant the hell out of it…

Windcrest Farms Companion Plant List – One of the better lists available…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

If you want some science – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kale

Remember to tip… My Bitcoin digital wallet address is… 1JsKwa3vYgy4LZjNk4YmPEHFJNjPt2wDJj

Get your own wallet at CoinBase.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.