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This bush cherry is tall and wide, robust with cherries.
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Plant of the Month: Nanking Cherry
Nanking Cherries were some of the first shrubs to be planted at our site. We've been recommending them since the inception of UPN and are still strong advocates of them. This wonderful multiple-stemmed bush cherry grows from 6 to 10 feet tall and offers such a prodigious amount of fruit that we have a hard time keeping up with the harvest. The small bright cherries are sweet/tart and can be used for fresh eating or processing. They appear in late May and early June and will fruit for weeks, though if you don't pick them, your wildlife neighbors will help you out.
For more Nanking Cherry info, click here.
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Useful Plant Recipe
Cranberry Sauce with Cherries, Marsala and Rosemary
Yield: Makes about 3 cups
Ingredients:
2 cups dry Marsala
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1 12-ounce bag cranberries
12 ounces frozen dark sweet cherries (about 2 2/3 cups), halved
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Preparation:
Combine Marsala and dried cherries in deep saucepan. Boil until mixture is reduced to 2/3 cup, about 8 minutes. Mix in remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium, cover pan and simmer until cranberries burst and mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Transfer to bowl. Refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours. (Can be prepared 1 week ahead. Cover; keep refrigerated.)
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Chuck and Will taping a pruning video
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New Plant Jam Pruning Videos
Late February is a good time to prune young apple trees and bushes in our area. In preparation, we produced two pruning videos so you can see Chuck and Troy go through the pruning process.
We plan to produce more videos this spring and summer. If you have comments about the videos or suggestions of topic you'd like to see, please let us know at info@usefulplants.org.
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Chuck Marsh, permaculture designer, UPN founder, and all-around rascal!
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Ask the Chuckster
Useful Plant Advice from Chuck Marsh
When do I start pruning in the spring?
The timing of pruning depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. There are two major intentions for pruning. One is to build the architecture and bring on vigorous growth of a newly planted fruit tree. Another is to keep the growth of an established plant in check. For the former, the best time to prune is late August, early September with the next best time being late February while the plant is still dormant but the worst of the winter weather is behind you. This is so you don’t get further stem die off.
The exception to this is for the Prunus genus which includes plums, apricots, cherries, and peaches. Prune these in late March, about the time they are leafing out so you can get more of a sense of what has died back over the winter.
The best time to contain the growth of an established plant is in June and July. This is the time to reduce the amount of vegetative growth in order to maximize the fruit producing capability of the tree. If you’re renovating an old tree, it might take 3-5 years to bring it back into optimum shape. You’re going for the development of good structural form by taking out water sprouts (vertical branches which come off the scaffold branches), diseased branches, and shrubby, twiggy growth. All of this will result in keeping your plants more compact. Reducing the growth of the plant can also help plants weather drought stress as it reduces the leaf area available for transpiration.
Pruning Rules of Thumb:
- In trees, find or create the healthiest branches that will bear fruit for life and support these scaffold branches.
- In shrubs, you want to consistently be renewing the shrub from the base. Prune off older, less productive branches and keep a percentage of the plant in vigorous juvenile growth at all times. For example in the case of blueberries – after branches are 1” in diameter, cut back to the ground and let it grow back as new, vigorous stems. If you want to find out more about growing trees as shrubs, Chuck will talk about this at his Organic Grower's School class in March.
- Prune to eliminate twiggy or unproductive vegetative growth that won’t produce good fruit.
- Prune out any crossing branches.
- Prune to keep the center of the tree open so that good light and air circulation can reach the center of the plant. This will keep diseases in check and ensure that you’ll get much needed light and air to fruit and leaves in all areas of the plant.
- It’s better to take off small amounts of wood more frequently than a lot of wood all a once.
- Small pruning cuts heal faster than large ones.
- Take a class to learn the basics of proper tools, technique, and strategies for pruning. If you're interested in UPN sponsoring a pruning class with Chuck, let us know.
- The NC Cooperative Extention Agency has the following helpful pruning documents:
How do I make cuttings of the plants that I already have?
Propagation from dormant wood cuttings is a simple strategy for multiplying plants that you want to clone. Plants such as goji berries, elderberries, figs, gooseberries and currents are easy to propagate this way, while blueberries are not as easy to root and need specialized facilities.
A simple backyard way to root dormant wood cuttings is to do it in any raised garden bed with good soil. In late winter, take 6-12” prunings (with 3 buds on them) from your favorite shrub. Sharpen the bottom end of each cutting with an angle cut maybe an inch below the bottom bud. Dip in rooting hormone (available at any garden store) and then stick them in the ground so that the bottom 2 buds are covered. The 1st bud will be 2-4” below the soil surface, the next one just below surface, and the top one will extend above the surface. Be sure to label the variety so that you know what you’ve got. Put some leaves around cuttings to hold moisture in the ground, make some kind of wire hoop, and put row cover fabric over that to keep the cuttings from dessicating. Be careful if you use plastic because you can really overheat the cuttings.
It’s important to not let the cuttings dry out. Once the leaf surface starts to develop there’s in imbalance between the leaf growth and amount of developed root. Keep slightly shaded and watered on a regular basis. If you want to be sure they are rooting, give it a light tug after a month. If it resists it’s starting to root but if it comes up easy it’s not rooted. Allow them to stay in this garden bed for a full season and transplant to their permanent location in the fall.
Send your questions for the Chuckster to info@usefulplants.org.
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Notes from a Plant Geek (A monthly guest column)
The Pines are Whispering, Do you Hear Them?
by Mary Morgaine Thames
All of my life I have been around pines. They are the most familiar tree I know. I recall that any time I was in the woods with my daddy he would grab a pine needle and suck on it as we walked along. He was getting his vitamins A and C dose whether he thought of it like that or not.
The pines are in every country I’ve ever been. Everywhere. In these southern Appalachians it's white pines, shortleaf, pitch, Virginia, table mountain. Pines are the tree that have always befriended me with familiarity and abundance. The brown mat of fallen needles under the white pines is like an enormous blanket to lie upon and daydream. Sometimes I pick off the sap of a pine and chew it like gum. It is astringent but has a pleasing taste and if there is any mucous in my lungs, well, that draws it out pretty quickly. In Utah, I put the pinion pine tree cones in the campfire, wrapped in foil, and pulled out those delicious pine nuts for eating that otherwise cost a fortune in the grocery store.
I love drinking pine tea for colds, sore throat and to just feel rejuvenated. It is free and easy to harvest the needles. Now that is the kind of healthcare we can embrace.
The pines, in the Pinacea family, have about 100 species to its one genus, Pinus. They are old, for 100 million years or more this family has been around. Grasses did not even come into existence until somewhere around 50 million years ago to put it into perspective. Amber comes from the fossilized pitch of the Pine tree. The oldest known tree in the world is a pine, the Bristlecone, around 4,700 years old, in the White Mountains of California.
The pines are the trees that suffer the most from big storms, having such soft wood from growing so fast. When the wind is blowing, can you hear the pines whispering? It is a whispy, gentle, steady sound I hear. What are they saying to one another? To us? Maybe they are talking about the owl that slept in their branches that day, or the aromatic sap that is running up their trunk, or the pollen that just fertilized an exposed seed on one of its pinecone scales. Listen. Listen to the pines whispering their story to you and pass it on.
 Mary Morgaine Thames lives outside of Asheville, NC in the Blue Ridge Mountains and has been dedicated since 1993 to walking the Green Path. She holds a BA in sustainable living, journalism and creative expression and puts those skills to use through her business eARTh Dancers. She is mama to a spunky 11-year-old girl, co-teaches Plant Spirit Yoga, and is currently writing her first book, From Christian to Christ-Like, inspirational, soul-filled stories that encourages fulfilling our responsibilities as earth stewards. Visit www.marymorgaine.com for more info.
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Chuck is an engaging speaker with an encyclopedic knowledge of useful plants.
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Upcoming Classes with Chuck Marsh
Organic Growers School
March 6&7 at UNCA, Asheville, NC
Don't miss the Organic Growers School's delightful and inspirational Spring Conference. Chuck will be teaching the following class:
SCULPTING AND WEAVING PLANTS: THE FINE ART OF BIOTECHTURE
This workshop will be an exploration of useful plants and how we can grow them in little known ways. Learn to grow fruit trees as shrubs, grow your own garden furniture, make a willow "igloo", create a living fence, grow fruit trees on their own roots, and create living garden sculptures. Learn to cultivate the adventurous gardener in yourself as we grow ourselves back home.
Permaculture Design Course
February 8-19, 2010 at Koinonia Farm in Georgia
This unique 72-hour design course includes all of the basic concepts and fundamental elements of permaculture design as well as hands-on projects.
The course will take place at Koinonia Farm, a 67 year old intentional community and working farm, whose mission includes “embodying peacemaking, sustainability, and radical sharing.” Koinonia community members are active in Peace and Justice work, and many permaculture systems on the farm are in place or being designed, such as rotational grazing, organic pecan trials, village living, organic gardens, swaling and other water harvesting, and more.
The course will include classroom learning, field trips, skill building, and an opportunity to practice and develop permaculture design skills.
Instructors: Chuck Marsh, Patricia Allison, Bob Burns, and guests.
Tuition is $900, which includes instruction, materials, dorm-style rooms, and meals. Discounts of $50 when you bring a 2nd person, and $50 for camping.
This PDC filled in 2009 and is expected to fill again.
Chuck's Bio:
Chuck Marsh is an engaging and empowering speaker whose encyclopedic knowledge of useful plants, permaculture, and site design, never fails to inspire and encourage the grower in all of us. Permaculture trainer and designer, landscape artist, and Earthaven Ecovillage cofounder and site-planner, Chuck runs Useful Plants Nursery, a permaculture-based nursery specializing in useful, phytonutritional, food, and medicine plants well-adapted to our Southern Appalachian mountains and surrounding bioregions. He has thirty years’ experience designing and managing gardens, landscapes, and other outdoor projects in the Southeast.
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Permaculture, landscape, and site designer Chuck Marsh.
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Consulting and Classes
See our curriculum of classes on the website. Bring Chuck in for a private consultation on any of these topics or arrange for a small or large group class. More info? Click here.
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Useful Plant Gift Ideas
Birthday Presents Tired of all those useless gifts that sit in the closet all year? Try something creative, such as a fruit tree, landscaping or consulting services.
New Home? Has a loved one purchased a new home? Or are you having a housewarming party? Imagine the yard bursting with food and medicine! Give the gift of an edible landscape consultation or an edible plant to start the homeowners off right.
New baby in your life? Plant a tree in honor of the new life. It's a strong cultural tradition in Africa and elsewhere. The tree will grow with the child and they will get to know each other all through life, offering wisdom, nourishment, and friendship to each other. What a way to celebrate life!
Upcoming Wedding? Looking for something new and unique? Consider a gift that will mark this commitment and give back to the couple for years. Trees have long been given as gifts to mark special occasions. Just as the color of a rose, they symbolize many things. Here's some fruit trees and their folkloric meanings:
- Apple Tree symbolizes beauty, youth, and happiness
- Elder symbolizes wisdom, magic, and love
- Plum Tree symbolizes fidelity
- Cornelian Cherry Tree symbolizes durability
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Buy plants and consulting with UPN Gift Certificates
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Gift Certificates
With a UPN gift certificate, the recipient can get just what they want when they are ready to plant it.
Or, let your friends and family know that you'd like a UPN gift certificate for a special tree, bush, or other useful plant.
Gift certificates are available in any denomination of $5.00 or more. We will send a paper certificate in the US mail. If you prefer, we can send a PDF file that you or your recipient can print.
You can now pay for gift certificates with a credit card through our secure website, or contact us at info@usefulplants.org or (828) 669-6517 for other options.
You can also use gift certificates for design and consulting services. We're partnered with Living Systems Design, Chuck Marsh's consulting and design services business for creating regenerative human habitats. Services include:
- Permaculture/ecological design and consulting
- Edible landscaping design
- Installation services
- Site mapping and drawings
- Energy and water conserving design
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Come on, let's be friends!
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UPN on Facebook
Useful Plants Nursery is now on Facebook!
Be a friend and/or fan, hook up with other Useful Plants people, and share your stories.
The photos are fabulous.
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Deliveries to Greenlife in Feburary
A reminder that if you purchase something from us by phone or email, our trusty staff will deliver the plants to Greenlife for a pickup if that's more convenient for you. We come into Asheville on a weekly basis and can arrange a time for pickup with you. If you want a delivery to your site or delivery to town on a day we're not already coming, we'll be happy to that for an additional fee.
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Fruit School
4th annual Barkslip's Fruit school
Fruit tree care and pruning: February 13th
Plant rooting and propagation: February 20th
Bench grafting and cloning around: March 13th
Top working trees and advanced grafting: April 17th
All classes will be taught in Asheville but can be brought to your community as well. For details go to WWW.Barkslip.com
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Who are we?
Useful Plants Nursery is a small, permaculture-based nursery specializing in useful, phytonutritional, food, and medicine plants well-adapted to our Southern Appalachian mountains and surrounding bioregions. Our plants are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides at our nursery located at Earthaven Ecovillage. I believe that growing your own food and medicine plants is a vitally important strategy and practice for regaining control over our collective and personal lives, our health, and our individual and bioregional economic well being. Our nursery is dedicated to putting those beliefs into practice and truly creating "Liberation through Abundance" as we serve your needs for healthy, useful landscape plants, and work together to reweave the web of life.
-- Chuck Marsh, nurseryperson, permaculture designer, bioregional inhabitant
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