Keeping Up With “Frankenseeds”

29 March, 2012 Reply

On several occasions I’ve talked about GMO or GE crops. Monsanto and Seminis are the two main companies developing these seeds. While developing their “frankenseeds” they’re also keeping their foot in the legitimate seed door.  I recently found a listing of many of the varieties that Monsanto and Seminis sell.

What does this mean for the home grower or the conscientious gardener? Anyone who’s concerned about the effects of Monsanto’s work can vote with their pocketbook, by staying away from seeds that are offered by either Monsanto or Seminis.

Pure seeds are food for the world.

Safe seeds will ensure the planets food supply.

The best way to do this is to check and make sure the companies that you deal with have signed the safe seed pledge. The numbers are growing, as seed companies realize the severity of what GMO seeds could mean to their business. There are lists online, but I’ve not found anything current, so the best thing to do is look at their web site or print catalog and see if they say they’ve signed. If you don’t find it, write to them and ask, letting them know that you won’t buy any seed from them until you know they are not supporting any GMO seeds or seed companies that work in that field.

Last year one company I purchase from regularly had not signed the pledge. They said they had some customer favorites that they weren’t willing to give up. Well, I guess many people must have voted with their money, because by fall they had signed the pledge!

So, take a look at the list. You may be growing some without even knowing it, because companies buy the seeds in bulk and put them in their own packages. If one of your favorites is their, maybe it’s time to find a new favorite and help protect our biodiversity.

Glorious Oriental Seeds

27 March, 2012 Reply

One thing that the US has is a poverty of varieties of vegetables. When you enter a supermarket you find just one kind of broccoli, one variety of carrot, one maybe two varieties of cucumber (eating and a pickling). What most Americans don’t know is that there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of varieties of almost every vegetable on the planet.

I recently found a great site for buying typical oriental vegetable seeds. Unfortunately I found the site after I had ordered all my seeds for this year, but I wanted to share this resource with you, so that you can try some of the unusual varieties available from China, Japan, and Korea.

Unusual Varieties

The seeds of one of my favorite cucumbers are available from this site, Korean Cucumber. I was disappointed to see that it is a hybrid, but may just decide to buy a packet with the understanding that I’ll not be able to save seeds that will grow true to the parent.

Red Veined Chinese Spinach

Red-veined edible amaranth. Also, called Chinese Spinach.

There are other varieties I really want to try. I saw the red veined edible amaranth at a farmer’s market in Kent, WA when I was visiting my sister. It looked amazing, however, when I went back to buy it, they had sold out! It was only about 15 minutes between the time I saw it and when I went back to get it…drat.

I wrote about my new “love” affair with yard long beans in a previous post. But the winged beans look interesting and I’ve heard good reviews about hyacinth beans. They have four different varieties of the hyacinth bean to choose from.

I may try their burdock seeds. Have grown it before. Not that interesting of a vegetable, but it’s supposed to be extremely nutritious. They have a frilled-leaf Chinese Cabbage that looks interesting, but need to find out what TW stands for.

Then they have numerous varieties of many of the well known greens, including: Pei Tsai, Pak Choy, Choy Sum, Napa Cabbage.

Pleasant Surprise

They even have the exact tia to (shiso) that I found at the local market. That’s a must on next year’s list.

So, even though the seed buying time is over you can still get a head start on next years list, especially if you’re interested in growing some unusual oriental varieties.

Share Your Links

If you have a favorite seed company, especially if they carry unusual varieties, please share it in the comment box below. I’m always looking for something new to try, and I’m sure many of the readers are, too.

The Overwhelm List

22 March, 2012 Reply

Preparing for the New Season

About a week ago I walked around the property and made note of anything that needed to be done. I came in with a staggering 42 projects that need completing. In looking through the list only a few are attainable in a single day and some could take several weeks to complete. Egad, I just thought of another one!

I love gardening. It’s in my blood and when I don’t do anything for awhile I start to get cranky. Since we bought this property, though, I’ve been in overwhelm mode almost since the start.

The Situation

We have one acre of land. About ¼ of it is in natural woods, ¼ in managed woods (well at least we’re trying), the other half is in yard. You’d think that ½ acre wouldn’t be that big a deal, but it is amazing how much work it is to just keep up with the weeds.

At move in time I was excited because I had an almost blank canvas to work with. There were only two bushes and one tree in the yard. Unfortunately I’ve been painting and painting and the canvas still looks like a mess! When I drive up to my house I don’t feel like I’m coming home to the garden of Eden like I’d hoped. I have a yard full of weeds. Plants that just got stuck in the ground, because it was taking to long to get the space ready for them, and weather that controls just how much I can get done in a given week.

The Ideal

I can see the yard I dream of in my mind’s eye, but don’t know if it will ever come to pass. At least this year I managed to get the fruit orchard almost complete. We’ve had some trees in for three years not, but no pollinators for them, so no fruit!

Today one very daunting and urgent item got crossed off. We had  maple tree sprout near the house. I didn’t have the heart to dig it out. It was very cute and well formed. Last year was a banner year for the tree. It was in a garden that gets watered regularly so it grew to almost as big as the three that’s been out in the yard for 5 years!

One Small Step Forward

Leafed Out Maple Sapling

My little tree will look like this in a week or so. Hopefully it will survive the move!

I kept mentioning to my husband all winter that we needed to move the tree, but he was always too busy. Yesterday he noticed that it was starting to leaf out. This morning he greeted me in works clothes, ready to move the tree. We got a good root ball on it, so I’m pretty confident that it will make it. I just have to be regular about watering it this summer.

So, crossed one off, thought of another. At least the list isn’t growing! And I have the relief of knowing the maple tree will have a chance to grow and shade our house during the hot summers, instead of having to be chopped down because it got too big to move.

Please Share

I’d love to hear about how you conquered some aspect of landscaping that seemed unattainable, how you organize your projects, or your own trials at creating your own Green Avalon.

Missing Out On Gardening Time

20 March, 2012 Reply

There’s nothing more aggravating than having an unreliable car. In today’s world a car is no longer a luxury. Gone are the corner grocery and drug stores. Now you have to drive 5-10 minutes to get to a super-grocery or department store. When your car repeatedly fails you, it can create tremendous amounts of stress and cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

Not only that it can cut into time you’d ordinarily have to enjoy yourself. Putting in new gardens, painting a room, designing the pond next to the entrance, etc., can be seriously hampered if you are repeatedly spending all your spare time at the repair shop.

Lemon Car

Not Again!!!???

So, what’s a person to do? You just bought the car of your dreams, but it has turned into a nightmare. You have been in the repair shop almost as much as you’ve been at work. Your boss is grumbling. Your kids are whining because you come late to pick them up, or worse you don’t get there at all. The final straw is when you have to leave a trailer full of hardscaping materials by the side of the road, because the car broke down and had to be towed again, and you go back and some of the stuff has been stolen.

That’s when you start thinking about your legal rights, and you have some. In every state there are “lemon” laws to protect consumers from cars that just don’t work correctly. In California Lemon law lawyers help consumers understand their rights and whether they have a claim. If it looks like there is justification for filing a claim they’ll be right there with you through the process, helping you through all the red tape. There are not only Lemon Law attorneys in California but every state, who will know if there are provisions for “certified pre-owned” used cars, as well as new. In some states you even get the same rights if you lease you car.

If you find that you’re spending more time at the garage than in your garden or workshop, then it might be time to give your local lemon law attorney a call.

2012 Premiere

15 March, 2012 Reply
First seedlings of season

First spinach seedlings of 2012 emerge.

Ta-da! The 2012 garden show has begun. The very first spring seeds have sprouted. Planted on 3/2/12 the very first spinach seeds have broken ground. I was waiting with bated breath, as it seemed like forever for the first seeds to emerge.

I planted both spinach and sugar snap peas that day. So far just a few spinach seedlings are showing.

We’re having a very hot spring already and I’m concerned that the rest of the spring seeds, which I plan to get in the ground in the next few days, will sprout and immediately bolt. In the mid-Atlantic the springs can vary a lot. Sometimes on this date we’re still having hard frosts and we’ve even had snow in March once or twice. It didn’t last long, but it was still cold enough to snow. Then there’s a spring like this one where we’re already staying above freezing almost every night and the daytime temperatures are in the 80s.  On springs like this we have a very short spring growing season, so I know I better get my seeds in asap or just pack them away for next year. I had a few greens last through the winter and they’re already bolting, which they usually wouldn’t do until the end of April!

Last year I found out that if you plant flowering kale and cabbage late they grow all through the hot part of the summer and never bolt. I had beautiful cabbage and kale in my front garden through the entire summer.

Gardening is a fickle thing. You think you’ve got it figured out and then it just goes and changes all the rules. I think that’s part of what keeps me coming back over and over, it’s never the same two seasons in a row.

Sharing Bandwidth

12 March, 2012 Reply

Guest post written by my buddy Bernardo Graham

Router

Sharing bandwidth can make your computer run slower at times.

I recently learned from my small business mentor that if you have Brooklyn T1, you don’t have to share bandwidth with your neighbors. My mentor explained it to me like this: have you ever noticed how sometimes the internet works faster than at other times? Well, there is a reason for that. Neighbors are sharing what is called bandwidth, and when a lot of people are online at once, it moves a little slower than if only a few people are online at the same time. Well, my business is in a very busy area, with lots of apartments and condos, as well as other businesses. There are a ton of internet users all around me. When I was mentioning to my mentor that my internet seemed slower at certain times of the day, she explained why this is the case to me and helped me see that a switch to a T1 solution would solve this problem, and could seriously improve me productivity rate and speed. This is all so interesting to me.

Know Your Planting Times

8 March, 2012 Reply
Plant dormant fruit trees in spring

Plant dormant fruit trees in spring.

Many gardeners know when the last frost date is for their area, so they know better than to plant their tomatoes or annuals before that date. However, many people don’t know that there are a lot of plants that need to be planted before the last frost date.

Sure, if you do vegetable gardening you probably know that peas and spinach need to go in very early, while the ground is still cold. But there are some major food crops that are usually purchased as plants or stock that should be planted while they are still in a dormant or semi-dormant state.

It is a good idea to plant all your berry plants while they’re still slumbering. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, marionberries, and blueberries all like to be planted in early spring. Grapes do well when planted before they break dormancy.

Early spring flowering plants, should be planted in the fall. In early spring they’ll already be blooming and ready to go. Plants such as creeping phlox, some veronicas (mine is blooming right now), candytuft, forsythia, etc., will give you the biggest show if you get them in during the fall, but are such a nice surprise to see in the garden centers early. Being tempted to buy and plant them so early is perfectly fine, while some other plants may just shrivel with the cold.

There are even a few annuals that like it cool. Pansies, dianthus, and snapdragons like it on the cools side. Mine winter through here most years and I’ve had the same dianthus plants for three years now. My snapdragons are just two years old, but I grew them all myself from seed. It was so much fun seeing what colors they were and you get much more variety in the colors when you start them yourself.

Onions and garlic can be planted very early. However, some early spring crops like broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower actually need to be started indoors 4-6 weeks before you want to plant them in the garden. Other vegetables that can go in about 4 weeks before the last frost date are kale, chard, carrots, beets, rutabagas, all the Chinese greens, arugula, parsley (plant the seeds), collards, and there are probably a few I’ve missed.

Fruit trees do best when planted in early spring before they break dormancy or in fall after they’ve shut down for the year. That’s the reason my husband and I were out all day on Tuesday planting all the little fruit trees that arrived. Some of them were already trying to break dormancy and we knew we needed to get them in the ground fast. Just in the two days they’ve been planted several of them are trying to put on leaves. It is too early here and I’m a little concerned that they’ll get hit with another hard frost, but there’s nothing I can do about that now…

One thing to look out for is purchasing plants that come in early and have already broken dormancy. Their tender growth will not stand up to the cold, so you’ll need to keep them indoors until after frosts are finished, as they should have been planted before they broke dormancy. Many big box stores will keep them inside, which makes them think its time to grow, since it is now nice and warm.

Learning about how early you can plant in your area is just a phone call away. As you probably already know I’m going to tell you to call your local extension office. It’s their business to know all of this and to help you succeed in everything you plant.

 

The Trees Are Here

5 March, 2012 Reply

The trees arrived sometime on Saturday afternoon. I found them Sunday morning. No time to even open the box on Sunday. Monday, today, is cold, blustery, with showers, so can’t plant today, argh.

I did open the box. All the trees look in excellent shape. We’re going to dedicate tomorrow to putting all ten of them in. If the winds don’t get too bad we’ll go out today and remark where they’re all supposed to be planted. However, the winds combined with the cold air make it a poor time to plant them. It could damage their roots.

I’ll take some photos while we plant and put together a short video. Look for it on the site later this week. I’ve found that trees are pretty forgiving. They really want to live. I think in all the trees we’ve planted (and that’s over 100) only one or two have died. One, when I bought it, was suspect, but I wanted a cherry tree so badly I was willing to give it a try. Luckily it came with a one-year guarantee, because it didn’t even leaf out. It makes me mad when I can tell that a company, that plants are their business, did a terrible potting job. The cherry tree had been grown in the ground. Then they dug it up and stuck it in a pot. However, since it was in the ground, it had put out major roots and it had hardly any roots on it when I put it in the ground. So few that all the dirt fell away from the root. That’s when I knew they had just yanked it out of the ground and stuffed it in a pot.

The trees I’ve received are bare root, so I need to get them in within the next 3-4 days or they’ll not make it. That’s why tomorrow is going to be dedicated to digging holes. We’ll try both a shovel and the rototiller. I used the rototiller to plant 60 trees in hard as rock clay when we lived in New Mexico and found it a breeze, but the soil here is softer, so we might not have to resort to the tiller.

Why do the trees always arrive when it is blustery?

Easter’s On Its Way

3 March, 2012 Reply
Garden Gift Basket for Easter

Why not try something a little different this Easter?

Around here the daffodils, crocuses and other early spring flowers are blooming, which is almost a month early! Even my peach tree is blooming, which means there’ll probably not be any peaches this year, drat!

With the advent of spring many people start thinking about Easter and what Easter Baskets they want to buy their loved ones this year. Usually we think about the usual chocolate bunny and jellybeans, but this year maybe you want to do something a little different.

So, instead of overindulging in sweets, why not consider a unique Easter basket made from a garden tote and filled with some nice quality hand tools, gloves, seed packets, and some munchies you can take into the garden with you to keep you going during the long wonderful spring days of gardening. How about one made from a cute watering can? If the gifts not for a gardener, think about something that they really enjoy, a favorite hobby, or a special overseas trip they took (or dream about taking) and surprise them with something they will enjoy and use for years to come.

I know, as a gardener, my favorite Christmas gift was a stainless steel spade and garden fork. I’ve been using them for around 20 years now and I still remember receiving them and how well they’ve served me. For me much better than diamonds or expensive clothes! So, even though we love the sweets, a different kind of basket might just keep us from worrying about the scale the next day!