Baby plants in the Spring

Amorpha fruticosa – false indigo

Making progress with the celery

Done! Celery and partridge pea

Celery and partridge pea

Transplants for the garden and market: celery and Amorpha fruticosa (false indigo). Amorpha is another native. It is supposed to be a magnet for pollinators. We’ll see how well the honeybees like it. I’m also experimenting with the partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculate). The partridge pea does not do well on transplant – in future years, if I grow it again, there will be strictly one seed per cell, because I seem to have 100% germination with this, even though it is a 2016 seed. This is a fascinating little native legume that produces prolific yellow flowers, enjoyed by the bumble bee. A great annual, I somehow had some volunteers last spring, some of which died rather unexpectedly in midsummer.

There Amorpha seedlings are about a month old. They don’t appear to have root nodules. It is difficult to see, but the part of the stem that starts right above the soil and goes down to the roots, is thicker than the upper part of the stem. This appears to be a quality of many perennial legumes.

Chamaecrista seedlings. A much quicker grower (it’s an annual plant, so no need for long-term investment). Many had nodules, but are not quite evident here.