Greg Martin

Searching for 'Bigger Better Butternut' squash doesn't seem to bring any current suppliers up, but it does show that this variety was Carol's dehybridization of the 'Ultra HP F1" hybrid, which is still available.  While a traditional seed saver might not want that one, anyone interested in making a giant butternut landrace would see its hybrid status as a bonus.  I went ahead and ordered that one to play with along with several other big ones.

From a fellow Mainer, welcome to Permies, Ada.  Sounds like a wonderful set of projects.  Looking forward to learning more about your plans!

What nationality is Santa?
North Polish.

Got a job at the bakery.
I kneaded the dough.

Wait, does that mean that my "I love Maine" mug is not funny to Canadians???

Last year I threw a boomerang....been living in fear ever since.

Yes, they make offsets and form into clusters of bulbs.  I've heard that seeds can take about 3 years to get to flowering age if they're happy, but not sure how long until the bulbs are full sized.  

I just figure that the bulb planting will give me a head start and hopefully the seeds will help fill in between the planted bulbs.  If it takes 5 years (or even 10) for my lower lawn to become a thickly filled camas field I will be thrilled!

Forgot to add that in that video it was mentioned that for the Nez Perce Camas was a staple, like rice, wheat or corn were for other cultures, and that it made up as much as HALF their calorie intake!

I bet they had some great recipes.

Wanted to share a picture from this great camas video:


What a dream of a field!

Greg Martin wrote:I have it in my head that I'd like to turn my lawn into a camas field, but I haven't paid enough attention to when my camas flowers and retreats vs. when my lawn really needs its first mowing.  

I ended up planting 100 camas bulbs in my lawn shortly after this post on 5' centers just to see how they would perform.  I found out that they are sticking around.  They do flower late enough that I have to mow the lawn before they can set seeds.  Not ideal for getting them to spread, but good enough for me if I want to plant a whole lot more.  My plan now is to plant bulbs across the lawn on roughly 1' centers, which will take about 4000 bulbs.  I just finished fall planting the first 1000.  Will repeat that 3 more falls to finish up and am waiting for an ounce of seed to arrive that I can broadcast over the lawn before winter gets here.  Excited to see how this develops.  Will just keep plugging away.  

I planted quarters at the two ends of where I stopped as markers.  Plan is to find them next fall with my metal detector and then continue the plugging.