Luke Krmpotich

j souther wrote:Bronze fennel, like other flowering plants in my garden, began to reseed once the soil was healthier, after a few years of mulching. Because of the taproot, it doesn't transplant well unless I choose very small ones. In my area it attracts all kinds of pollinators, but not so much regular honey bees. I can't be sure, but I believe it is a biennial. Currently it is growing in close quarters alongside echinacea, spiderwort, purple sage, lamb's ear, and Siberian iris. No evidence of allelopathy.

I've had bronze fennel growing in a flower bed for the last 5 years or so. The original clump is still going strong, getting a little bigger each year. In this location it reseeds prolifically; I was just out there this afternoon noticing I have an 8-inch high blanket of several hundred seedlings to dispose of (not difficult, and it smells nice as I yank them out!). It would completely take over if I allowed it to. The foliage is beautiful, the flowers attract a wide variety of pollinators, and it's fun watching the butterflies and caterpillars. I don't cook with it as often as it deserves, but it occasionally makes its way into the kitchen. My 3 young boys enjoy munching on fennel when they're outside playing.
It gets along just fine with grass and wildflowers and I have had excellent success relocating well-established plants all around my yard. It does seem to have a taproot, but I do the best I can (honestly I don't try very hard) and it's very forgiving. The deer mostly don't bother it. All in all it's been a great plant to have!

Pearl Sutton wrote:The stuff in here about flea beetles makes me recall that Southern Exposure Seed Exchange says " Wormwood repels cabbageworm butterflies, flea beetles, and clothes moths."  It's in their medicinal herbs section.

Might be worth doing it as a chop and drop crop. I got some to try, I have heavy flea beetle pressure. I'll put it near my brassicas!

Greg Martin: Brussel sprouts on trees would look like odd fruits :) I want to see them!
I bought seeds that fascinate me, kale that puts out little heads up the stalk like brussel sprouts!
Autumn Star Kalette - Jung seeds
Very pricey, but one of my splurges for the year.

Pearl, how did the Autumn Star Kalette work out?

Any luck with the wormwood chop and drop? I have issues with cabbageworm butterflies which have all but prevented me from growing brassicas some years.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Personally, I would have tried to mix it with the soil and let the biota deal with any nasties. If in doubt, spread some loose straw around the plants so the fruit doesn't touch the ground or get splashed with soil in heavy rain.

Thanks, Douglas. So it sounds like things should be okay after sitting for 8+ months, but it wouldn't hurt to take extra precautions.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I'm worried I may have made a big mistake with horse manure.

I live in the Annapolis, Maryland area. I planted a strawberry bed last spring - 25 plants each of two Junebearers. They grew well all year and I dutifully pinched off flowers and suckers (at least until later in the season), looking forward to a big strawberry crop in 2022. In late September I got access to free horse manure from down the road. It was in a large pile with well-rotted manure on the bottom and fresher manure on top. I tried to get mostly the aged manure, but of course got some of the fresher stuff mixed in too. Mostly I spread it around fruit trees, berry bushes, etc. However, I also tossed quite a bit right onto the strawberry bed. I didn't try to incorporate it into the soil.

It's been over 3 months now. First off, I am grateful to have gotten lucky pesticide-wise - the strawberry bed has looked great and continued to grow, at least up until the snowstorm we got a few days ago. I would have been REALLY mad if I had inadvertently killed off the dozens of plants and trees I used the manure on. (Side note: maybe the fertilizer stimulated too much late-season growth in the strawberries and/or other plants; I'm not sure whether that would be a problem.)

My big question is: should I be worried about E. coli when it comes to harvesting food next spring? At least some of the manure I put down was fresh in late September, so it will have had roughly 8-9 months sitting on the ground before berries would begin to ripen. Can E. coli survive for that long (above ground)?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

P.S. I reserved a pile of the manure (again, mostly well-aged but not 100%) to spread in the vegetable garden in the spring. Would this be a bad idea, because of E. coli, weed seeds, or something else?

P.P.S. Are there other considerations I should be aware of?