Seed Starting Ticker

If you are itching to put something in the ground, you can plant your peas (shelling and snap), spinach and mustard greens, from seed, now.

The Cold Frame :: Up and Running!

So we did indeed meet in the middle, and as always, Corey's ideas were super helpful and important for durability and efficiency.

Our rendition of a cold frame went up last Saturday. An old, reclaimed glass door, Fox Farm soil, some cinder blocks along the sides to keep out digging doggies and that was it. All things that were sitting around on our land (which I love). Propped up against the south-facing side of our house - to capture some of that oh-so-useful thermal mass. That's my father-in-law helping fill the cold frame with soil.

On Sunday, I sprinkled down some lettuce and arugula seeds into the warmed-by-the-sun soil. Have I mentioned that we are trying some new (to me), organic seeds? High Mowing Organic Seeds and Seeds of Change. They will join the mix of dependable Johnny's Selected Seeds and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange seeds. The lettuce seeds have already sprouted as of yesterday.

Transplanting of kale and mustard greens to follow!

We Did This Today :: Sugar Snap Peas

I love how the seed packet explains that you should sow your pea seeds 'as soon as the soil can be worked.' Check! After our long winter, we happily tromped through some snow to get to the raised beds and the loose, dark soil. Willa was a complete natural - tossing them in and poking each seed down with her little pointer finger. What makes me especially happy about how this gardening cycle works is that Willa gobbles up sugar snap peas like there is no tomorrow. She'll plant them, she'll pluck them, she'll eat them. Nice.

Sunday Photos :: Seedlings

Outside :: Inside

Winter walks in winter light :: Kale, arugula and lettuce seeds started!

It's all in the contrasts and the promise of spring.

February Foiled

A friend once told me to never make any major life decisions during the month of February - when cabin fever makes you (irrationally) think about changing pretty much everything in your life (like hair styles and color, living room arrangements, job situations). Instead, he said to hold tight 'till spring, when things (almost) always look better, brighter and more manageable.

A few distractions to bring us 'round to spring then? Yes!

I spent time during yesterday's lunch hour buying seed starting stuff - for our cold frame experiment - greens and lettuce. I'll just be setting the flats in our south facing windows. I found the perfect spray bottle, too - so Willa can help with the watering.

A Hoya plant. I cleaned out a few very tired, beat-up, defeated houseplants over the past few weeks and have room for a new tenant.

Forced bulbs. The more, the merrier. The sooner, the better.

Innisfree is selling plants this year! My checklist includes borage for our herb garden, Green Envy zinnias, chocolate mint, hollyhocks, elderberry, woodland phlox and tomatoes - Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, German Johnson and Mortgage Lifter. It was difficult not checking off *every* offering.

I'm talking about container veggie gardens, seed bombs and (next week) figs over at Virginia Living Magazine's blog.

Not really related to gardening, but making February a little brighter:

I'm making a ragdoll for Willa's birthday. She pretty much always has some soft little creature in her arms lately. I'm especially excited about all the clothing I can make for the doll and how I can embroider the face.

Have I mentioned The Snowman here, yet? We have been watching it a lot during our snow days - though our copy is VHS and it is starting to give up the ghost. It is all music, no dialogue. It's magic.

I'm getting ready to start my first Edna O'Brien book. I'm actually not sure this will be so uplifting as probably more moody and Irish.

This chicken and biscuits recipe is a nice stout meal for winter days. I've been making it for years now and was happy to see Willa loving it, too, this season. Ina tends to have a heavy hand with the butter and cream - so I cut the butter in half and replace it with olive oil and it totally works.

This baby silhouette tutorial is so quick and easy. After capturing Willa's, I'm thinking of lining up the three hounds for their own personal sessions.

Eat Your Edibles. Flowers, That Is.

Sunflower petals are bittersweet and can be used in salads.

A potential garden coaching client got in touch with me about growing edible flowers. Which reminded me about this great list that I came across during my mid-winter garden reading.

Here are details on each (taste-wise) and when you can start them from seed or buy them as transplants.

Bachelor's Buttons (Mild and sweet - Salads and desserts) - Early spring from seed.

Calendula (Tangy, slightly bitter - Baked goods, rice dishes) - Early spring from seed. Or, you can find transplants at the farmers' market and nurseries.

Dianthus (Mild clove - Garnish for vegetables, fruit salads, cold drinks) - Buy as a transplant now.

Marigold (Spicy and citrus-y - Salad garnish) - Very easy from seed right now or as a transplant.

Nasturtium (Spicy and peppery - Stuff flowers with soft cheese (yum!)) - Very easy from seed right now.

Salvia (Slightly sweet - Add leaves to soups and cooked greens) - Buy as a transplant now.

Hyacinth bean (Bean-like - Use in soups, sandwiches and salads) - Very easy from seed now. Only use edible flowers from the Ruby Moon variety.

Squash blossoms (Sweet and savory - Fry 'em up) - Start your summer squash plants in early May from seed.

Sunflowers (Bittersweet - Salads) - Start from seed in early May.

Violas (Wintergreen - Dessert and salads garnishes and decorations) - Buy as transplants now.

Also, this season's issue of The Herb Quarterly has a fantastic section on meals with edible flowers. I have the candied violet vanilla cake dancing around in my head as a possible experiment. It's always nice to have a cake dancing around in one's head, I must say.

Feeling Satisfied In The Garden

Hmmmmm. A whole-lotta doing and not much blogging these days.

Finally, here's a sneak peek at our new play area - for Willa and myself (note the baby camp on the blanket - Click on the photo for a larger peek). Earlier photos that I had promised just looked brown and gray.

But now-a-days, the pale greens make for a satisfyingly-verdant show. It has been a nice change from this, remember? Tho' there is still a lot to do, I am relishing the challenge.

I've been busy planting daylilies and putting seed down for bachelor's buttons, cleome and love-in-a-mist. An Easter trip to Edible Landscaping included a juneberry purchase, which was also planted. *Sale alert* - All of the plants at Edible Landscaping are 20% off right now.

The bulbs that I planted in the fall dot our landscape in such a cheerful way. Tulips and daffodils here and there. Some of my native plantings are coming back, too - Virginia Bluebells, spring beauties and mayapples. Scattered around The Blue Bench.

In the veggie beds, the greens, radishes and rhubarb are flourishing. The kale, however, seems to be somebody's evening snack and has been munched down to pathetic nubbins. Thank goodness for the upcoming CSA deliveries!!

I am hurrying along spring these days. As I do every year. That last frost date can't seem to come soon enough. And then, of course, we'll shoot straight to bug-swatting madness accompanied by 80 degrees and humidity.

Spring Chores :: Spring Light

Daylight savings time was a gift on many levels for this working mama.

Instead of returning to the homestead in the dark, I drive home with the pink and golden evening sun-lit sky stretching out before me. I get to put Willa on my back and trudge out to the soil, to the garden and sometimes beyond - for a walk. And, with her early bedtime, the evening can continue. I can work in the garden for a spell. Listening to the birds, poking in the dirt.

Last week, I eked out every moment I could - with the fading light. Irises tucked away. Snap peas and sweet peas sown. Calendula, lettuces, spinach, kale starts, and radishes in the raised beds. The herb bed fed with compost - with sage, chives, rosemary, oregano, yarrow and lavender peaking out. The rhubarb is unfurling.

The outdoor room (photos soon) that I can see from our big front window is coming together. I just ordered some willow wattle fencing and am putting hints of blue here and there. A bird bath, large glazed pottery and The Bench. The true-blue ephemeral bulbs are sprouting in the grass and in other spots - where-ever the earth moving machines deposited them. Turns out the happenstance nature of that sort of landscaping suits me.

This week :: Clearing more of the raised beds to make way for sowing carrots and planting mulberries and juneberries. Ordering some daylilies. Tracking down some echinacea, yarrow and black-eyed susan seeds to give the seed balls another go-round. And finally putting up the bluebird houses (we, ah-em, received these as gifts five (!) years ago).

Hope the longer days are giving you what you need as spring kicks into gear!

Mid-March in the Garden :: To Do's

A few things to get a bit of a head start on your spring garden . . .

1. Treat yourself and your garden to some nice compost. Work this into the soil before you start planting. Like, now. Then your beds will be at the ready once the threat of the last frost passes and you can start getting your annuals and perennials in the ground. Not sure about where to get compost? Try Panorama Paydirt.

2. Think ahead of your peas. Offer them a structure to scramble up. It can be twine or chicken wire or a bamboo teepee. Something simple. If you have a handyman at the ready, check out Corey's pea trellis.

3. Veggies that can be transplanted to the garden right now: cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts, onions (multiplier) and some leaf lettuces. You can find starts of these at the farmers' market and local nurseries. (I saw some nice ones at Ivy Nursery last week - $1.95 for a four cell pack.)

4. You can start the following by direct sowing of seeds right now: beets, kale, leaf lettuce, mustards, onions, peas, rutabaga, spinach, turnips.

5. Container growing your veggies? Lettuces will thrive - even in a shallow container. Give it a shot. It is super easy and very rewarding.

Too soggy to get out in the garden just yet? I'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day in my own way - by baking (and devouring) some of my grandma's irish soda bread. Smothered with blackberry jam. Giving myself sustenance for the gardening tasks that lie ahead.

Spring Dreaming :: Seed Order!

Let's get back to gardening, shall we then?

I'm going for more of a potager-kitchen garden this year. With lots of varieties of things plugged in next to each other in the raised beds (or, um possibly, raised bed - singular). Do-able, afford-able, diverse-a-fiable. (Is that even a word? No matter.)

My new favorite, zippy way to order seeds? My Victory Garden heirloom seeds through Etsy (photos above are from their site). For some reason, detailed order forms that needed to be filled out by hand weren't doing it for me. I am also going out to lunch to pick up the rest of my seeds (beets, spinach, snap peas) - from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange - at a local Charlottesville spot - Integral Yoga. (You can mail order them here.) The SESE has a killer seed starting chart at the front of their online catalog.

My Victory Garden order (all of these can be sown directly into the ground) . . .

Dwarf Green Pod Okra
Champion Radishes
Provider Bush Green Beans (*Easy Grow Choice)
Chantenay Carrot Seeds
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce (*Easy Grow Choice)
Cimmaron Red Romaine Lettuce
Georgia Southern Collards
Southern Giant Curled Mustard

What I'm Buying As Starts (sometime in April . . . )

Melons
Tomatoes
Peppers
Eggplant
Basil, Chives, Parsley, Dill

And Some Possible (Easy, Non-Vegetable) Edibles . . .

Juneberries
Mulberries
Raspberries

Mid-Winter in the Hollow

Books, music, seed catalogs, on-line garden visits, live curtains, knitting . . .

While chipping away at the New Classics Challenge, I took a break and gobbled up A Childhood in Scotland by Christian Miller. I wish that it lasted for another 200 pages. I kept the descriptions of the cold, drafty, intriguing life in a castle at arms length by reading in front of our wood stove.

New music from my brother is on constant play on my iPod. Of Montreal, Thievery Corporation and Girl Talk. Making driving to and from work in the wee hours and twilight just a little brighter and that much groovier.

My mom sent me a newspaper clipping on Blithewold - an estate and garden up in Bristol, Rhode Island. Take a visit, think summer, smell the salty air.

White Flower Farm and Johnny's Selected Seeds catalogs braved the January chill and landed in my mailbox last week. They break up the gray days nicely.

Birds!! Our feeders finally fell onto the radar of what seem like busloads of chickadees, titmice, red and gold finches, cardinals and juncos. They flutter around our window feeder - much to Willa's delight.

I am working on this knit hat from SouleMama. Yarn overs are new to me - there's been a bit of swearing and unraveling . . . but it is starting to look like something.

And on Friday, a peak at a live curtain I am cultivating in our kitchen area . . . I know! Y'all are on the edge of your seats!

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Iris illustration from the White Flower Farm online catalog.

A Late Start . . . But A Start, None-The-Less

Willa and I scurried out between the rain storms this morning and planted seeds. Weeeeeee! It smelled great - the bluebirds chirp-ily greeted us out in the raised beds and baby snoozed against my chest in her little carrier while I tossed seeds into the ground.

We're pushing things a tad - as far as starting times. In the interest of efficiency, I just mixed all of the lettuce and greens seeds together. I'll harvest it as a ready-made salad mix. It'll include Oakleaf lettuce, Saladbowl lettuce, Deer Tongue lettuce and arugula. Spinach was sowed in a separate row - I know, late for spinach, but I did sow the Bloomsdale variety (which is supposed to do better in the heat and puts off bolting a little longer . . . ). Up against our pea trellis, I got the Sugar Snap peas and the sweet peas in the ground.

AND, while I was out there - I saw that our three rhubarb plants were kickin' it and calling it a comeback - as healthy as ever. Huzzah - huzzah - huzzah!

Mmmmwaaaaahhh. Mmmmwaaaahhh. More. Seeds.

Where-ever I go, there you are.

Seed racks. Rows upon rows of seed packets. Some of you beguile me with color photos or botanical watercolors. Others court me by touting your organic origins. With promises of a new day, a bountiful spring and the garden to end all gardens.

I hope I still get this giddy about February seed daydreaming when I am 80, 90 - 100!

In keeping with my promise to myself about gardening and the unknown world of motherhood, I just purchased tried and true seed varieties. Mammoth Russian Sunflowers, Zinnia - State Fair, Heavenly Blue Morning Glory, Cosmos - Early Sensation and some greens - arugula, Salad Bowl lettuce and Deer Tongue lettuce. All from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

What's this - at the bottom of my shopping bag? One last seed packet - Sweet Pea, Royal Family Mixed Colors. Egads. I must have blacked out for a moment at the seed rack. Not the easiest to cultivate 'round these parts. I guess I'll try them one more time, just this year.

Although, I have a feeling I'll still be pursuing sweet peas when I am 80, 90, 100 . . .

One New Crop At A Time

Melinda of Elements in Time has offered a challenge.

Try growing one new vegetable or fruit this year . . . from seed.

That's it! Try an entirely new crop, try a new variety of something, test out heirloom vegetables.

Join along by leaving a comment here (go to the right side of her blog and click on The Growing Challenge main link). Things like this are so much more fun when you are in the good company of like-minded folks, yes?

What we will add to the Sugar Hollow gardens this year . . . Alabama Red Okra. For pickling. For gumbo. For the challenge!

Getting All Your Ducks, Er, Seeds In A Row

A few handy-dandy sites that will help you navigate the dizzying seed starting process.

Frost Chart - from the Farmer's Almanac. You'll need these dates to calculate when to start your seeds.

A brilliant seed starting chart from You Grow Girl. Just plug in your last frost date information and away you go!

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange's seed starting chart - as part of their catalog - page 3. Specific to the Mid-Atlantic states. Yep - that's (some of) us.

What Worked, What Failed in 2007

I'm cutting myself a little slack this year in the way of 2008 garden planning. Knowing that I will have my hands full with a newborn, little bean this spring - I am paring down, streamlining and refocusing my garden energies.

Today's post will be about reflection. A 2007 garden season postmortem-of-sorts.

I'll post later on this week about short-cuts, no-fail veggies and flowers to grow and lighter garden projects that can be tackled and/or savored between naps, feedings, vomit and poo.

The Successes

Planting potatoes in straw. The potatoes eventually burrowed down a little further into the soil below the straw, but the minimal amount of digging, up front, makes this a winner.

Our new bean and pea trellis. Truth be told, I swiped this idea from neighbors of ours who have a tidy, productive, totally enviable garden. I consider this trellis my first step toward the upper echelon of vegetable gardeners. And a standing homage to them and how they inspire me.

The lasagna bed. It is hard to screw this one up. What I layered last spring became a viable bed this fall - for lots of bulb planting. No-till gardening rocks.

Cardboard mulching. For the raised beds. For the pathways between the beds. For the break it gave my back. Recycling never felt so good.

The Failures (a.k.a. Lessons Learned)

Seed balls. These never produced much of anything. Big, big disappointment. After reviewing all of the variables, I realized that I should have used dry and ground terracotta, not wet terracotta. I actually can't wait to try these again. I'm thinking it would be a fun party to have with other gardeners. We can roll seed balls, gossip and compare gardening notes.

Sweet peas in containers. Not a complete failure, but not the heady volume I was hoping for . . . and had in the raised beds in previous years. They will return to the beds this upcoming season. Scrambling up the new pea trellis.

Tomatoes without any sort of fencing. This was garden gambling with almost no respect for the original inhabitants of Sugar Hollow - The Deer.

Growing corn in raised beds. A lackluster showing, at best. But I'm not completely sure it had to do with the smaller growing area or raised beds. The soil was just meh - in need of improvement and nutrients. Corn is a big feeder. So - in summary - compost, compost, compost.

Planning for a Fall Harvest

It is 95 degrees outside. These days, your garden is all about tomatoes, peppers, basil and squash. It is hard to imagine planning or planting for a fall harvest, but now is the time to do some thinking and some prep work.

Here's a quick list and a suggested planting timeline for Zone 7.

Peas - July 7 - August 15
Kale - July 7 - September 1
Cabbage - July 7 - August 15
Collards - July 15 - August 21
Spinach - July 21 - August 21
Beets - July 21 - August 21
Carrots - July 21 - August 21
Leaf Lettuce - August 7 - September 15
Radishes - August 15 - September 15
Mustard Greens - August 15 - September 15

Garlic (bulbs) - August 21 - October 21
Shallots (bulbs) - August 21 - October 21

A Quick Peek Into Sugar Hollow

Garden bench - painted blue this past spring.

Red clover - growing wild throughout our fields and land.

Sprouting seed ball. These little guys seem to be germinating at a glacial pace. Patience, patience! Invoke the spirit and determination of the Black-Eyed Susans and back off.

Uh-Oh. It Is Already June. What Can I Still Start From Seed?

When I first started working in nurseries and going to school for horticulture, I found the bevy of rules and information almost paralyzing. Planting times, staggered planting times, last frost dates. I couldn't imagine that things had to be that stringent. Seeds and seedlings are so resilient, yes?

So, I was delighted when I received my most recent email newsletter from Johnny's Selected Seeds and it included a list of flowers, vegetables and herbs you can direct sow in June! How cool is that?!

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HERBS - Basil, borage, calendula, chamomile, chervil, cilantro, dill, epazote, flax, marjoram, milk thistle, parsley, poppy, savory, shiso, and spilanthes.

FLOWERS - Ammi, calendula, centaurea, cleome, cosmos, grasses, hyacinth bean, marigold, morning glory, nasturtium, phlox, poppy, reseda, salpiglossis, scarlet runner bean, snow on the mountain, sunflowers, tithonia, and zinnia.

VEGETABLES - Beans, beets, carrot, corn, cucumber, endive, escarole, kohlrabi, kale, lettuce, pumpkins, radishes (Easter Egg heirloom variety pictured above), spinach, squash, and Swiss chard.

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I know that I will never have it together enough to have everything in the ground by the end of May. I'm not made for that type of gardening. Happily, I'll be out there this evening, sowing my little pickling cucumber seeds. At a pace that better suits me and my own internal gardening calendar.