Gardening is For Risk Takers

Gardening has made me more of a risk-taker. Don’t laugh; I’m serious. When I moved into my first home after college, I immediately set off for the local hardware store and bought a flat of impatiens. I planted them in a neat row outside my little house trailer (again, serious). Having grown up in the woods, I knew these particular flowers would grow in the shade provided by the maple tree that sheltered my home. I spaced them exactly as the tag instructed and smiled all summer every time I came home and saw the happy pattern of pink- purple – orange – pink – purple – orange. For the next few years I planted more impatiens and when I moved to a sunnier locale, I planted petunias. I walked past the complicated perennials in their big pots with their big price tags. I didn’t have the budget for that – and what if I killed them as I had every house plant I’d ever offered shelter to? As a gardener, I played it safe.

When my husband and I bought our first house it came with a long gardening history. A huge established perennial bed loaded with coreopsis, iris, dame’s rocket, lily of the valley, coneflowers, and peonies filled the foundation of the old carriage house just outside my kitchen door.  A 60 foot long asparagus bed and tidily contained raspberry patch grew along the edges of the property, along with gooseberries (?) and justaberries (???), strawberries, black raspberries, rhubarb, blackberries, and seven fruit trees! My gardening education took a steep curve upward. Sadly, I must report in the first year alone we killed the peach tree, tilled under the weed-infested strawberries, and could only stare in confusion at the gooseberries and justaberries – what do you do with those?

Our Carriage House Foundation Garden (circa 1996)

My greatest gardening goal was simply not to kill anything else. And we did get better. I learned to freeze and can almost everything we grew.  I even planted more perennials and started an overly ambitious vegetable garden which mostly fed the deer and rabbits. And then I got pregnant and handed my garden over to the weeds and my husband.

Winter Fantasy Gardening

This is a dangerous time of year for the home gardener. A time when you can gamble untold fortunes on the lure of glossy ideals thrust upon you on a daily basis by the US mail. The seed catalogs are piling up. It’s that time of year. Despite my commitment to canceling every possible catalog this year (catalogchoice.org – great site!), I’m still being tempted by the possibilities.

One of my annual rituals used to be curling up with a hot mug of tea, sharp pencils, graph paper, and a stack of glossy seed catalogs to sketch out the gardens for the coming year. I loved the powerful, albeit delusional, feeling of control as I assigned each square foot its allotted vegetables for the year. My plans were usually grand, and I was ridiculously proud of my neat little diagrams, confident the fantasy would play out come June. It never did. Really. Never. I’m not a very anal gardener. As much as I would like to be organized and as much as I would like my garden to replicate those neat graph paper creations. Just didn’t happen. Oh, the seeds wasted, the money gone, the hope denied. But now I’m much smarter and my gardens, while still pretty much a free-for-all-plant-on-today’s-whim-or-whichever-seed-packet-I-remembered-to-bring-with-me kind of thing, are bounteous.

So if you are marking up the seed catalogs and planning the garden of your dreams, let me share a few lessons learned.

1. Plant what you eat. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the purple radishes look in the glossy catalog, no one in my house will eat them. Waste of space. Think about what you actually eat and plant that. Plant more of what your family actually eats and less of what you are the only person who will appreciate.

2. Buy seeds strategically to save money. Plant the vegetables that cost the most when you buy them at the store. Fancy red peppers cost an arm and a leg at the store – plant lots of them. Many heirloom tomatoes can’t be purchased at the store – plant them. As much as I love homegrown potatoes, I won’t be devoting half my garden to them this year, since there are five or six local farms that offer organic potatoes at reasonable prices that taste amazing.

3. If it doesn’t freeze well, only plant what you can eat. I love sugar snap peas. Love them. So I devote ridiculous amounts of garden space to them. But this is silly because a) we can never eat all of them and b) they don’t freeze or can well. Much is wasted. Maybe this year I will heed my own advice. Same goes for carrots. I always plant several big rows and they are a HUGE pain to weed. And in the end a good number of them rot in the ground before we can eat them. The horses are the beneficiaries of this mistake each year.

4. Check the seeds you have before placing your order. The seeds you used last year are probably fine for this year. Just sow them a bit heavier. If they are stored properly, seeds keep for years. A lot of seed companies sell seed packets with hundreds of seeds in them – more than you can possibly use. Save them for the next year or split your order with a friend.

A few definitions that may be helpful:

“Hybrid” - this is a seed that has been developed by cross-breeding several plants in the interest of developing things like “disease resistance”, “early harvest”, “high yield” which are all good things. However, when commercial seed companies do this they are focused on performance features sometimes at the expense of taste. Also, you can’t save seeds from hybrids – they can’t reproduce themselves, what you wind up with is a shadow of the former plant or basically one of the strains used to create it.

“GMO or GE” – These are genetically modified or genetically engineered seeds which means they were altered using molecular genetics techniques. For example, corn is developed with a pesticide engineered in to it to help it kill certain pests. When you are planting hundreds of thousands of acres this can be financially beneficial. It is a little frightening though, as seeds become more and more genetically identical we put ourselves at risk for disaster should some type of challenge prove too much for that particular seed. Never mind that technically you are eating pesticide.

“heirloom” – I wrote last January about how much I love heirlooms. Heirlooms are seeds that have been saved and passed down by individual gardeners. These seeds must be “open pollinated” meaning they can reproduce themselves. They provide the most variety and security. That said, heirlooms will vary in their ability to thrive in certain climates, so choose heirlooms that grow in your area. If you plant heirlooms and select seeds from only your best plants, you’re doing your own genetic modification on a much smaller scale. I think this is cool as you are developing your own heirloom seeds!

“organic” – Most seed companies carry a line of organic seeds these days. Regulation can be spotty, so if you’re serious about organics, you may want to look for the USDA seal. You’ll pay dearly though. Organic seeds are produced entirely through organic practices by a certified organic operation.

Here are a few of my favorite seed companies:

Landreth Seed (these guys are local, so they’re almost always my first choice)

Pinetree Seed (these guys have great environmentally friendly attitudes and they sell seeds in more realistic sized packets for the home gardener)

Johnny’s Select Seed (going to try these guys for the first time this year, but I’ve heard good things)

High-Mowing Seeds (these are all-organic guys and the seeds are sold at my local natural food store. There’s something to be said for not having to pay shipping and being able to buy your seeds NOW)

There are lots of seed companies out there. When selecting yours, pay attention to where the seeds are coming from. If you’re growing in upstate New York, you might not do so well with seeds developed in southern California. If you’re buying non-local seeds pay attention to the zones specified for each seed. You can find your zone at the National Gardening Association’s site: www.garden.org/zipzone.

Also, if you’ve never ordered from a company before, I wouldn’t order EVERYTHING from them. Be sure you can trust them before you trust them with your entire garden. Seeds are relatively cheap, so it’s fun to try out a few newfangled plants and a new company or two each year. Keeps the gardening exciting. (of course excitement is relative)

Winter fantasy gardening is still one of my favorite ways to pass the time. Don’t let my “be realistic” nonsense squash your happiness. If you think that orange turnip looks amazing, you buy that seed. To heck with eating, sometimes we garden just because we can.

Five Cheap and Easy Plants Worth the Time and Effort

Five plants worth buying, even if you don’t have a “real” garden:

1. Basil (you can also easily start this from seed) – summer recipes always call for fresh basil and it’s silly to buy it when you can have some growing in your flower garden (they have pretty white flowers) or in a pot growing on your porch or in a sunny window. A packet of seeds (will last for years) or one small plant will cost you less than one bundle of fresh basil in the grocery store. Basil is an annual, so unless you cultivate it indoors, you’ll have to start over each year. But basil is so easy to grow it’s no trouble. You can freeze basil (pureed with a little water and frozen in ice cube trays works great, then you can just drop an ice cube in sauces or soups) or dry it to use throughout the year. There are lots of different varieties of basil out there – I really like Thai basil for the little kick, but cinnamon basil and lemon basil are also fun. And here’s the added bonus – Basil repels insects! I like to put some in my flower pots on the porch to keep the bugs away. (most strongly scented herbs repel bugs – thyme and lavender also work well, and of course, citronella). Harvest basil as soon as the leaves are large enough and it will keep producing all summer.

2. Silver Dollar Eucalyptus. Bet you didn’t know you can grow eucalyptus! It grows as annual in my time zone, but it does that beautifully. One small plant (I bought mine in the herb section of the nursery today for 1.99) will turn in to a huge bush that produces lots of fragrant stems. I grow it and cut some all summer to scent the house. When cold weather threatens, I cut the whole thing down and dry it in the basement before refilling several stashes I have around the house to keep it smelling nice. Note: in warmer climates Eucalyptus can be come invasive and harm nearby plants, also its bark is very flammable, so it’s not a good choice for fire prone areas.

3. Dusty Miller – if you want a cheap splash of bright white that lasts all spring, summer, and fall, choose dusty miller. It’s really just white leaves that give the color, but it can be counted on through heat, drought, and even the first few frosts. Last year mine was still blooming when the snow hit. It looks gorgeous as a border or add individual plants to your baskets and pots to add variety and dress up herbs.

4. Zinnias – the happy, bright flowers bloom summer in to fall and right up to the first frost. You can cut them to create beautiful bouquets and they come right back with even more blooms. One packet of seeds will create an entire garden of pretty blooms. They like sun and are forgiving when you forget to water them. I like the Cut and Come Again variety, but they come in all shades and sizes. Great flower to get kids started. It’s also incredibly easy to save their seeds for the next year. Wait for the flower to truly die (turn brown) and then cut them off and put them in paper bags to dry. When they are dry, just shake out the seeds. One packet of good heirloom seeds could last you a lifetime!

5. Zucchini – you really only need one seed to grow enough zucchini for the neighborhood, so one packet will last you for years. These squash grow practically overnight. They create a nice-looking “bush” of giant leaves and yellow flowers, followed by more zucchini than any family can ever eat. Zucchini is a great vegetable to hide in your kids’ food. It sweetens when it cooks and is pretty much undetectable in pancakes, brownies, chocolate cake, spaghetti sauce, and salsa. I puree it so no one finds the telltale green skin or heaven forbid – a lump! A zucchini among your foundation garden will look exotic. This is a great one for kids to grow.

Ready, Set, Garden!

I started the garden this weekend. What a great feeling. I planted eight rows of lettuce (which is crazy I know so make plans to stop by for salad in June), a row of hot purple radishes, 2 rows of spinach, 2 rows of carrots, one super long row of sugar snap peas, and one row of swiss chard (which I’ve never planted before and hardly ever eaten, but the picture in the catalog was too much to resist and swiss chard is supposed to be good for you so I’m going to learn to eat it.). The onion and broccoli plants have a few more days to adapt to real sunlight before they will be installed, but they’re moving in this week.

I haven’t been able to clip the wings on one of our roosters and yesterday I caught him in the garden digging up and eating the seeds I’d just planted! Hugely righteous anger. The kids got water cannons for Easter from their grandparents so I appropriated one to keep on the porch so that I can shoot the rooster whenever he makes his way to the garden (which is twice so far this morning). I’m not sure you can train a chicken, but I’m certainly going to try. All the chickens have been sentenced to living in the chicken pen once again since the garden has begun. It’s a tough adjustment after 7 months of free range life. Some are able to fly over the fence (yes, chickens really can fly- but only about 5-6 feet up and they do much better if there is a hill to give them a running start and a gravitational advantage.) To remedy this problem, we clip their wings which doesn’t hurt and isn’t even visible (their “flying feathers” are hidden behind their “standing around looking like a chicken feathers”). Only problem is none of us can seem to catch the big rooster. It doesn’t help that his spurs are huge and he just looks mean. He’s never hurt anyone and he has the wimpiest crow around, but still. I’m going to try to do it tonight when he’s sleeping.

How do you know when to start your garden? The weather’s been beautiful and it’s very tempting to start tucking in all your seeds. For sure there is still cold weather to come so I wouldn’t chance a tomato or a pepper yet and the soils not warm enough for cucumbers or squash. Seeds need the soil to be about 55 degrees to germinate, some need it warmer. Lettuce and peas like it cold. Tradition says you should plant your peas on St Patrick’s Day, but we were still under snow cover on St. Patty’s day this year.

Another good way to know when you can start planting is the texture of your soil. You want your soil to be like chocolate cake not chocolate fudge. So that’s basically it – chocolate cake that is about 55 degrees and you’re good to go with lettuce, carrots, radish, peas (all kinds), spinach, broccoli, onions and any other seed whose packet lists “as soon as the soil can be worked” or “early spring” as the planting time.

If we get a forecast for a serious frost and freezing temps overnight, I sometimes cover my rows with plastic. But sometimes I forget and they do just fine. Here’s a few other tips for planting that I’ve learned the hard way.

The distances between plants suggested on the seed packets are for real. Sometimes I read them and think they’re being overly cautious. I always live to regret this and end up stepping on plants as I try to weed and performing acrobatic feats just to water the veggies.

Mulch or cultivate the soil between rows on a regular basis. This is how you keep weeds from getting ahead of you. A great tool for keeping the weeds in check is a stirrup hoe (looks like a stirrup on the end of a stick). There is no shame in mulch. If you can save leaves in a pile each fall to use for this task you’ll save money. Straw works OK too, but things creep in. Newspapers are good if you can get them weighted down with water and maybe some stones until they start to disintegrate. (Check to be sure your paper uses vegetable based inks. For you locals – the York Daily Record does use vegetable based ink.)

Don’t plant too deep. I’ve committed this crime many times. It usually happens when I’m planting a lot of seeds in a hurry and use a hoe to fill the row back in. The general rule of thumb is to cover the seed with soil as deep as the seed is big. Most seeds are pretty small. You don’t need much soil over them. The best way to do this is by hand and carefully, patting down the earth over the seed as you go. If you plant too deep you’ll wait much longer to see any action and some seeds won’t make it at all.

Put up big signs. You think you will remember where your rows are. You think you will be able to see the little popsicle stick markers. You assume that digging the seed packet in to the soil at the end of the row will help you remember what’s planted there. Here’s what I know – my memory is fading (I don’t know how old you are, but odds are you are no longer a teenager, so yours is on the downward slope too). Popsicle sticks quickly become camouflaged by the dirt, upended by the trampling feet of children and pets, or blown away when the soil begins to dry. Seed packets disintegrate almost overnight and the wind tends to blow them away. You need big signs – I use scrap wood and paint stirrers (free at the hardware store!) and use paint pens to label them. My daughter and I like to write inspiring things on the backs of these signs too. (See my post April 15, 2009 “Planting Seeds and Inspiration”). If you don’t label your rows well, you may mistake newly sprouted lettuce for a weed (lettuce basically is a weed so this is understandable).

Stay on top of the weeds. Don’t wait for them to overwhelm you. Pull a few EVERYDAY and it won’t seem too bad. If you enlist your children’s help (and you should), supervise their weeding or you may lose more than the weeds. Personally, I haven’t had a whole lot of luck putting the kids to work. They are happy to pick, but weed only under duress for large sums of money. Wish I could tell you different, but I have to be honest.

Plan your walkways as carefully as you plan your planted rows. You need to have somewhere to walk – remember that tomatoes get very bushy and pushy, cucumbers and squash can sprawl all over, and carrots and onions will keep nicely to themselves (but don’t handle being stepped on very well). I’m hoping to make some homemade stepping stones this year with the kids using small pizza boxes and a bag of cement. We don’t order out pizzas, so we’d love some donations from those of you who do (hint, hint).

Put up posts on all the corners of your garden to keep the hose from being dragged over your plants. After all that hard work and diligent weeding, it would be a shame if a hose snapped your almost ripe red pepper plant in two. This is a MUST do. We put four foot tall metal fence posts on the corners (shorter stakes tend to do more damage to my shins).

I’m sure there is more to say, but I’m watching a rooster making his way towards my pea row, so I’ve got to fill my water cannon. Happy gardening!

Oldies But Goodies

So it’s time to buy your seeds! Nevermind that it’s 20 degrees outside and gray and miserable and the ground is solid as a rock. It’s time to dream of spring! If your house is like mine, seed catalogs have been pouring in since just after Thanksgiving. (actually this year that’s not happening because I’ve canceled almost all my catalogs except the one I actually order from). Have you spent any time reading the descriptions? “Incredible flavor, tender, brilliant color, delectable, a must-have for the home garden!” Each vegetable sounds better than the last. It’s hard to resist and very easy to get carried away. Growing your own vegetables should save you money unless you succumb to the marketing department’s copy writers and buy every seed available.

If you’re ready to start your garden (even if it’s just a pot or a window box this year), think about what you really, really, really want to grow. What costs you the most at the market? What can never taste as good as home grown? Prioritize your space by these questions. I stopped growing broccoli last year because it took up so much space and I found a local grower whose broccoli was just as good as mine and not crazy expensive. I gave that extra space to two new types of tomatoes. If you love tomatoes you must grow tomatoes. No store-bought or even roadside stand-bought tomato tastes as good as the one you can grow in your own yard. So think about the space you have and what you most love to eat fresh. Start there. This is a great opportunity to get your kids involved. Maybe if they read the descriptions they’ll just have to try a “vibrant richly flavored, bright purple delight” disguised as a radish.

So it’s time to buy your seeds. This is where I make my case for choosing heirloom seeds. I have my reasons for choosing heirloom, but I thought I’d find out what the oldest heirloom seedhouse in US says is the reason to buy heirlooms. Luckily, calling the oldest heirloom seedhouse in the US is a local call for me. Landreth Seed Company is located in New Freedom, Pennsylvania. David Landreth started selling seeds in Pennsylvania in 1784. So I think they could be considered the foremost experts in heirloom seeds and lucky for me they’re just up the road. I didn’t want to give myself away as one of the faithful, so I called the company on the phone. I wanted to hear the whole pitch just as it would be given to a nonbeliever. And I got it. As soon as the phone was answered, I launched right in to my skeptical, “What makes an heirloom seed so great?” routine. The woman who answered the phone didn’t skip a beat or take offense. I’m guessing she gets this question a lot. Here are the three reasons for buying heirloom seeds she succinctly and forcefully explained to the skeptic on the phone:

1) Heirlooms are at least 50 years old. These seeds have been around and they’ll be around. Unlike those hybrid seedless tomatoes that made their debut last year and will be gone when the next new thing seed comes along. (so if you just love accordion tomatoes like I do, you can count on being able to still find those seeds when your grandkids are starting their gardens)

2) Heirlooms have more intense flavors than hybrid seeds. Hybrid seeds have sacrificed flavor for storage capacity and other surface qualities like color or the ability to last longer on the vine or produce a gazillion fruits. They have been bred and kept simply for their flavor. (simply put – heirlooms taste better. And I’m here to tell you this is absolutely true.)

3) Heirlooms have been successfully grown in all kinds of conditions in all kinds of locales for decades or centuries. This means they are survivors. They are hardier than hybrid plants. (and this you want, especially if you’re a first time gardener or a no-maintenance gardener like I am)

And here’s the fourth reason. She said she was going to give me three reasons, but then she threw in the fourth for free:
4) You can save the seeds of your heirlooms and plant them again and again or swap them with your friends. The seeds of a hybrid or commercially grown seed may not even germinate and if they do there’s no telling what you’ll get.

So thanks to Landreth for saying what I was going to say but saying it with much more history and authority. You can buy your own heirloom seeds from Landreth even if you aren’t local by shopping online at www.landrethseeds.com. But if I were you, I’d request a catalog. This year’s catalog is one of the best ever. It’s filled with beautiful pages from some of their catalogs from the last two centuries. (note the picture above) Call them at 1-800-654-2407.

Remember that when you’re ordering seeds, you need to pay attention to how many seeds are in each packet. Whereas it’s helpful to have plenty of pea seeds, you probably only need a handful of tomato seeds. You can always split your seed order with a friend so you don’t waste seeds. If you buy heirlooms and you like what you grow, save the seeds from your plant for the next year.

I’m headed out to get my own seeds this week. It’ll be time to start some next week. Look for a post on seed-starting this Tuesday.