Author Archive

Weed This…

Pulling WeedsWhile you’re savoring the second most enjoyable time in the garden — planting season (harvesting would be our number one) — here’s a reminder about the least enjoyable garden practice: Weeding. The earlier you start, the better. In fact, good garden weeding practice involves getting them before weeds even make themselves seen.

Over at Mort Mather’s “Happy Blog” there’s a post on the ten day weeding program. Basically, Mather suggests cultivating between rows and around plants 10 days after planting. He suggests you’ll get weeds when they’re just threads, before they start sending out spreading roots. Repeat the process again in another ten days. He claims to get 80% of the weeds using this technique. What he doesn’t say is where certain gardeners, like myself, will find the discipline to cultivate 10 days after each planting (or the smarts to keep count). (more…)

May 18th, 2012 No comments

Planting Time and Soil Readiness

Spring PlantingHow is planting time like opening Christmas presents? There’s a huge temptation to get started days too early. After a long winter, after planning your garden and ordering seeds, we’re all anxious — with visions of sweet corn, squash and greens dancing in our heads — to get in there and start working the soil. Let’s tear the ribbons and the paper off and get those seeds and plants in the ground! For gardeners, the days ahead of spring planting are just as difficult as the day’s before the holiday are for children… and equally filled with anticipation.

But when it comes to planting, it’s best to be patient. Is your soil ready? In other words, is it “friable”? Several factors come into play but for established gardens with previously prepared soil, there are only two: temperature and moisture content. Here’s a list of minimum, maximum and optimal soil temperatures for common vegetables. (more…)

May 16th, 2012 2 comments

GMOtion

GMO TomatoThose hoping for a GMO ban on crops know that the issue will only be resolved through a series of incremental steps. Labeling GMO food products would go a long way towards that goal. By giving consumers the knowledge of which foods they purchase contain GMO they will have a choice. And if given a choice, we can guess which side consumers would come down on.

The labeling movement took a big step this month in California when supporters turned in nearly a million signatures to put the labeling issue on the ballot (550,000 signatures were needed). The United States lags behind other countries in the banning, let alone labeling, of GMOs. While we wait for the count to be certified in California, here’s a citizen-written editorial that makes common sense of the GMO issue. The takeaway: (more…)

May 14th, 2012 2 comments

Bee Afraid

HoneybeeThe decline of honeybees in the United States — a third of the country’s hives were wiped out in 2008 — and elsewhere has been a matter of concern for a number of years. Recent studies in France and Britain now point the finger at a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. These commonly-used pesticides, which are often used to treat seed corn ahead of planting, work against the bees in two ways: by confusing their homing capability and limiting their ability to provide enough food to their hives for producing new queens. Other studies in the U.S. and Germany indict the pesticides but for different reasons. Calls for banning neonicotinoids were immediate.

Why should we care about bees and pesticides? Honeybees are responsible for pollinating some 70% of the earth’s food crops. No less an authority than Albert Einstein predicted that “if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, man would have only four years to live.” (more…)

May 11th, 2012 No comments

Setting Out, Hardening Off

Hardening Off PlantsMy grandparents always called it “setting out plants.” We know the process of introducing our indoor raised or recently purchased seedlings to the outdoors as “hardening off.” Whatever you call it, the gradual introduction of your tender young plants to the cold, cruel world of the outdoors needs to be done with attention and patience. You wouldn’t just push your children out the door without some experience of what they were about to face, would you? Your plants are like your children. They need to adapt to conditions outside the home.

Hardening off is the process of acclimating plants to outdoor conditions. In some parts of the country, this process is well under way. In northern settings or places of higher altitude where the possibilities of frosts will continue for another two or three weeks, we’re still waiting. Timing is important. Many garden books will tell you that plants started indoors are ready to go out when its roots have filled the container. But if outdoor conditions are still too cold or wet, your tender plants may be set back. On the other hand, if they’re left in pots and their roots continue to grow, it may set back their growth. Transplanting into a larger pot is called for when outdoor conditions aren’t yet right. (more…)

May 10th, 2012 No comments

Save the Seeds!

The Heirloom Life GardenerThe Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally by Jere & Emilee Gettle (Hyperion)

Jere and Emilee Gettle have turned the grass-roots practice of raising heirloom vegetable seed into what passes for big business in the back-to-basics world. Their Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, founded in 1998 when Jere was 17, has expanded to become something of a green giant, with a seed catalog distributed to over 300,00 gardeners, a tourist-friendly, old-time village in the Ozarks; and other seed-outlet properties in Petaluma, CA and Wethersfield, CT.

The Gettle’s publish a quarterly magazine, Heirloom Gardener, hold garden festivals, supply free heirloom seed to third world countries and are active in the anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) movement. While their image focuses on nostalgia right down to overalls, bonnets and horse-drawn manure spreaders, their business model is cutting edge, appealing to health-conscious, environmental, anti-corporate, locavore and sustainability cultures. (more…)

May 7th, 2012 No comments

USDA Updates Hardiness Zone Map

USDA Zone MapDid you miss it? Last January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in conjunction with Oregon State University’s Prism Climate Group (a great site for those interested in climate), updated their “Plant Hardiness Zone Map.” The map includes new features which should make it easier to use:

“For the first time, the map is available as an interactive GIS-based map, for which a broadband Internet connection is recommended, and as static images for those with slower Internet access. Users may also simply type in a ZIP Code and find the hardiness zone for that area.”

The new map can be found here. And yes, there has been a general revision because of new climate data: (more…)

May 5th, 2012 No comments
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