New Additions

Grape Glenora

Today was the last day of Merritt College's annual spring plant sale. While I could easily grow just about any plant in the green house while being a horticulture student on campus, I wanted to support the college by purchasing some plants at the plant sale. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, but it didn't take long to find a few new additions to Sand Village Farm. Back in 2010, I had a new arbor built, and I have been thinking about what to grow on the arbor. The passion fruit is doing great right now, but it would be nice to have something else edible hanging down the arbor. As a Californian, the choice is obvious - grape! They have many different varieties of grape at the plant sale. For me, it was either the golden grape or dark purple grape because I didn't really know the difference. I ended up taking a Glenora grape, which is a Concord type grape. They are dark purple, juicy, seedless, cold hardy, heat tolerant, and disease-resistant. It sounds too good to be true.

During the last couple years, I "discovered" a new fruit called gooseberry (Physalis peruviana) while being a horticulture student. I don't remember ever seeing gooseberries in stores, but there are a few gooseberry plants on campus. Every once in a while, if I am lucky, I can pick a few off the plant. They are very tasty. I bought a few cape gooseberry seedlings and a 2-inch golden ground cherry. They are basically the same thing. I might keep 2 of them in a pot so I can keep it indoors during the winter.