Get Your Garden On!! National Gardening Month

April in National Gardening Month and already the month has flown by and I haven’t gotten too much gardening done! I’m planning on hitting it hard this weekend!! I do have some garlic and onions growing from last year and kale and lettuce have been in for a few weeks, but summer is right around the corner and I’m itching to get in all the fabulous summer veggies!

Weather in the Mid-Atlantic has been a little chaotic this month. 80 degrees the first 2 days of the month and then we wake up to a snow-covered ground the next day. Freezing temps at night and sunny 60 degree skies, and just yesterday was 84 and humid today we wake up to 50 with a chilly rain. Crazy temperatures like this make it a little hectic for gardening and can shock summer plants so be careful for the next few weeks, till it really starts to warm up.

Anyone starting a garden this year? Can even be just flowers! Remember you don’t need a huge space to grow a few things. You’ll be surprised what you can grow in a pot. Try herbs just to start off, or grab a large pot and grow your own tomato plants. Think you have a black thumb?? Try sunflowers they are so easy to grow and will always brighten your day. The biggest obstacle is keeping them away from the squirrels and the birds!!

Here’s to gardening and National Gardening Month! May yours be plentiful this year and bring you good health and some inner peace. (Here’s a little shot of Bearded Irises from Provence, France!!) 

 

Gardening Season…Just Around the Corner?

With all this rain my area has been getting in the past few weeks you would think it was April already! (Except for the small amount of snow that showed up last night!!) Watching my fava beans and garlic take off in January is a little crazy! You definitely know it’s a new year at my house as the daily mailbox runs leave the counter spewing gardening magazines, seed catalogs, farmer almanacs, and I tend to start pulling out all my cherished old gardening books from the 1920’s-1950’s. (I tuck them away in safe places because other wise I’ll never get anything done!)

A sucker for an old book store as it is, my husband knows it’s about that time for me to start planning when I disappear for a couple of hours and show up with stack of dusty and much-loved old books! I get super excited this time of year! Seeing all the news kinds of vegetables, fruits, greens, and flowers. Now is the time to start ordering as some companies sell out of most of their varieties before we even start thinking about getting out in the garden again.

I spend hours plotting out my raised beds, where I plan to put each vegetable, what new flowers I’ll be experimenting with, what kinds of new herbs I think I can grow and cook with for the upcoming year. This year should be a little more fun because I’ve got my plots back for my community garden! So that means I can play with more varieties, try new things, and it also means no little children robbing all my cherry tomatoes for themselves and a daily screaming and usually cursing the squirrels that some how have figured out how to get into my barricaded raised beds, dig them up, and eat everything I have just planted. Including the apricot tulips I planted in November that have been showing up on the front lawn lately!

Heirloom, Organic & Hybrid. Knowing the Difference

Ever wanted to know the difference between organic, heirloom, and hybrid? Seed companies have started marketing hybrid organic seeds. I thought to myself how is that possible? Then the more I thought about it, some one has an incredible marketing team! I need them for my businesses! They’re taking a hybrid seed and growing it organically so they can technically say it’s an “organic hybrid.” Brilliant! Except your technically being fooled. So for all your gardeners, shoppers, farmers market wanderers, and the curious. Here is your mini guide to knowing the difference.

Heirloom- The seed has been saved for a period of years, preserved, and then passed down. Heirloom seeds have been grown from earlier periods in history, usually before World War II. After 1951, hybrid seeds were introduced into commercial seed trade. Heirloom seeds have to be open-pollinated which means they can not be cross pollinated by insects, birds, wind, or other natural mechanisms. Growing plants must be maintained in a controlled environment such as a greenhouse or isolated field to keep them from being cross pollinated.

Hybrid: The seed can be made artificially by man or naturally cross pollinated by the wind, animals, and insects. Most times hybrid seeds are designed to improve characteristics of the plant including a better yield or disease resistance. Hybrid seeds are more appealing to the commercial and mass agriculture to help feed the world of over 7 billion people. Hybrids are categorized by generations, such as F1, meaning the first generation from crossing 2 parents varieties in the same species.

Organic: A seed that is grown without using any synthetic chemicals, drugs, or hormones. For products to be sold as “organic” they must be certified by one of the many certifying agencies. An organic seed must come from a growing organic plant.

Hope this guide helps the next time you choose those perfectly red ripe tomatoes at the farmers markets or when you’re flipping through all those beautiful, glossy seed catalogs this fall or early next spring as you plan your garden.

Seed Saving From Your Garden

Now that the growing season has officially begun and we are in full swing of gardening season, we all watch hopeful and excited as the peas, rhubarb, strawberries, and asparagus finish their last rounds of harvesting. And summer’s incredible bounty begin to grow in the spring rain, warming sun, and rising temperatures. Next year seems so far away, but how exciting and interesting would it be to be able to prepare your garden for next year, by saving this years seeds to be planted right back in for next spring and summer? Not only will it save you money on seed purchases but also “by selecting seeds from just the healthiest plants, you will overtime select for and create a special sub-variety of crops that will especially adapt to your backyard’s climate and soil.” http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening? Sounds like a lot of work huh? Not necessarily…

A Few Things to Remember:

• Don’t waste your time on hybrid varieties. They will be labeled on the seed packet as hybrid or F1 hybrid.
• Stick with true, pure breeds.
• Cross pollination can happen by insects and the wind-leaving you with uncertain result of your plant variety.
• Beans and peas self-pollinate and are the easiest to save and store.
• Keep your garden as far away from your neighbor’s to avoid cross-pollination (as much as possible)
• Remember root crops, parsley, cabbages, and Brussel sprouts are biennial-meaning they don’t form seed pods until their second year. And most of these varieties aren’t cold tolerant so they won’t survive the winter. Best to buy these seeds every year!

Collecting the Seeds:

• Tomatoes, squash, and melons should be picked when their ripe. Scoop out the seeds and spread them to dry in a well ventilated area.
• Beans and peas should be left on the vine until the pods begin to crack and break open.
• Other seeds should be fully formed and hard.
• Always collect from multiple healthy plants, not just one or two.

Seed Storage:

• Label and store seeds as soon as possible after harvesting.
• Envelopes work well for containers for small quantities of seeds.
• Glass jar are great for large quantities.
• Best way to label each seed-vegetable, the variety, when it was bought, month and year of harvest.
• Store in a cool, dry place. Avoid moist areas it will cause your seeds to sprout and mildew.
• Potatoes, onions, and garlic can be stored in open boxes- root cellars are the best for storing.

Longevity of Plants in Years: (info from www.motherearthnews.com)

Asparagus  4, Beans, string 2, Broccoli 3, Cabbage 3, Carrots 4, Cucumber 5, Lettuce 5, Onions 2, Peas 2, Pumpkin 6, Radish 3, Spinach 5, Squash 4, Tomatoes 3, and Turnips 3. But some can last up to 10 years if properly stored.

Test Your Germination:

• Place seeds on top of damp cotton or newspaper- I’ve used paper towels before!
• Place in a covered dish or plastic bags also work.
• Leave at room temperature for 3 days up to a week
• Count how many seeds have germinated to see if most of your seeds are viable.

Seems simple enough, right? Pretty cool to try out and see how your seeds survive the winter. Testing you seeds for germination can also give you a jump-start on your seedlings or for planting them directly in the ground. I use this method every year and give my seeds a little head start. And since I don’t have a root cellar. (I do have a pseudo way to make one though, I’ll save that for a future post one day!) But I will say I have placed seeds in separate envelopes, put them in a small plastic accordion file and stored the file on the top shelf of my refrigerator and all my seeds have come back year after year! Comment or message me and let me know your successes or frustrations in the months to come. Good Luck and Happy Gardening!