Arugula

My arugula patches have sailed through the winter, so far, both here in the Piedmont and in the mountains. Of course, the winter has been mild! (It was 70° F this afternoon - peculiar).

I had the idea that arugula's frost tolerance was more like "normal" lettuce (not Winter Density or North Pole or Arctic King), and so it's been a revelation to have these flourishing patches -- happily, it's the one "green" (along with cilantro) that deer haven't eaten in the satellite garden (in the Piedmont). 

It's a bit discouraging to think I'll need to fence/protect/defend my less 'spicy' greens from deer, if I want to grow them. Kale, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, collards, etc. have all disappeared as deer forage over the last few cool-weather seasons.  Even French sorrel -- yikes.

Happily, in the mountains, my raised beds are in front of the house, and I don't think we have deer (yet), and only very brave woodchucks venture that far out of the woodland ravine behind the house (in dry summers, primarily).

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Tomatoes & Peppers from Seed.

Last week my husband and I started our tomato and pepper seeds. We want the seedlings to have a good head start before setting them out in the garden--approximately two months from now. We hope to pot them up to larger pots at least a few weeks before we set them out in the garden.

On the right, a pot half full with mostly composted chips.
On the left, the pot has the seed starter mix on the top.

I'd purchased some organic seed starter soil so the seedlings would have the best chance for success.  This type of potting soil is sterilized to combat damping off and other fungi that sometimes damage new seedlings. We put mostly composted wood chips* in the bottom half of each pot and then added the sterile soil on top to about half and inch from the rim of the pots.

These pots have been used many times, but after each use I wash them with rain barrel water and a brush. Then they are thoroughly dried in the sun before storing them until the next season. 

Wetting the soil.

The next task is to thoroughly wet the soil. We slowly dribble rain barrel water on each pot. 

Pouring out the seeds.

We set up the pots on spare downspout drainage diverter trays. (They are no longer needed for our downspouts because we've installed rain barrels.)  When we are in the process of soaking the pots, we can tip them up to hold the water, but they also work well for draining away the excess water when it's time.






We put two seeds in each depression, which are in the four corners of the pot. This way if one seed does not germinate another is there in that spot. Potentially, there could be eight seedlings in one pot.

Most of these seeds are new for this year, so we expect a high rate of germination, but two of types of pepper seed have been saved from previous years, so this method is probably more important for them. (I do keep the seeds refrigerated in a sealed opaque container to prolong their viability.

After the seeds have been planted, we add about a quarter inch of soil on top.

After all the seeds are planted, we cover the soil in the pots with another quarter inch of the sterile starter soil.

And then we are ready to start the daily shuttle of the seeds from the SW-facing garage window to the hot sidewalk just outside the garage. Yesterday and today, the weather is in the 80s! So the seedlings stay out in the hot sun, but earlier in the week when the highs were in the 50s, they stayed inside.

Here is the arrangement of what we've sowed. We use a very fine stream of water from our rain barrel hose to rewet the pots on the day we planted the seeds.

A week later and after the warm weather yesterday, we have sprouts! Both the Sunchocola cherry tomatoes and the Brandy boys are the first to sprout. Today's hot sun will probably entice more seedlings to emerge. I took this photo first thing this morning, but now these seedlings are much greener.

Oh the magical process of germinating seeds... It takes my breath away every time.

I hope you have started planning for your spring gardening.

* Read about my mostly composted arborist woodchips here: "A Requiem for a Hickory Tree" and here: "A compost turning = happy gardening in 2013!"

Read more about my rain barrels here: Climb up my Rain Barrels and there are links to the subsequent rain barrel articles.


Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Warm weather

It's been warm this week - unseasonably so.  And the weekend ahead is downright balmy for January.  I've been sitting on my hands in terms of vegetable garden planting, but I've been ordering seeds, woo-hoo!)

This weekend, I'm planning to free the woodland perennials of their winter overcoat of leaves (not necessarily a good thing when they're water oak), cut back the main perennial border, and get the satellite garden and main vegetable garden ready for early planting (I've already put in garlic, onion sets are on their way, and I've got perennial leeks to move around, as well).

No sign of deer lately, but I'm totally mindful that they could appear at any time and yum up anything that's not too herbal or spicy (hmm, I won't be planting lettuce or mild cole crops without some sort of barrier here in the Piedmont, that's for sure).

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Creasy greens

We had our first creasy greens (upland cress: Barbarea verna) today, a totally delicious green that's a winter and spring tradition in Appalachia. I bought the seeds from Sow True Seeds, a local Western North Carolina seed company, in Asheville, as a bit of a novelty.

A good friend of mine who grew up eating 'creasy greens' had primed my awareness of them, and I thought I'd give them a try.

The plants form low rosettes, and I'd kind of ignored the small patch through the fall (the hakurei turnips were MUCH larger and more robust as was all the arugula and kale - and both were easier to harvest), but being back in the mountains after winter break had me noticing how nice the leaves of the creasy greens looked (in spite of some hard freezes in the meantime).  They were glossy and green without any sign of frost damage.

Collecting a nice bunch of them to quickly stir-fry to have along with our breakfast omelet, I discovered that raw, they're quite peppery, but cooked -- yum!  They're totally delicious, with a texture of a tender kale, and very tasty.

Hmm, I'll be growing a lot more of these in the future (as winter crops, for sure!)

Here's a photo from another seed source, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.

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Organizing plants

A call on the radio program today had me thinking.  We don't always edit our plantings enough. The caller was worrying about her view from her home office (it sounded pretty jumbled up).

Taking a clear view, printing out photos (b&w), thinking about what you actually SEE -- all are so helpful for transforming views in our landscapes.

It's not always about adding more plants, but editing them out, to be sure.

Isn't gardening fun?

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Even more seeds...

Hmm, I'm on a roll, even as the weather turned grey and rainy today.  I ordered more seeds this morning (unusual ones), along with some gratis ones from Renee's Seeds (I'd just placed a paid order yesterday, so I'm not feeling too guilty about accepting the media freebies).  They're (Renee's, that is) are the best!  I love her seed choices.

I'm itching to start seeds under lights and on a heating pad out in my garden shed, even though I KNOW it's way too early. I'll just content myself by cleaning up and tidying beds (from lots of winter annuals), until I can plant snow peas and sugar snap peas later this month (depending on soil temps).  But then I'll start some cool-season veggies for transplant!  I do need to barricade my Piedmont garden against deer, however -- they're probably still out there, waiting for the nice gardener to offer up something tasty.

It's been quite mild so far this winter, at least in the Piedmont, so I should be able to coax some hardy lettuce and spinach seeds to germinate with a bit of warmth first, before setting them out.  First, however, I'll be transplanting leek "babies" from my perennial leeks, which have produced lots of small offsets ready to move to new spots.

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Ordering seeds!

Woo, hoo! I had a great time this morning organizing the seeds that I have (a lot) and starting to order more. 

Tops on my list were callalo (edible amaranthus) that we'd eaten in the Caribbean, but is grown throughout the tropics (and warm-season temperate areas) and "seasoning peppers" - a Capsicum chinese variety that has flavor, but not the heat of traditional Caribbean peppers.

I also ordered some interesting Indian vegetables along with the Asian ones-- from Evergreen Seeds, tinda (an edible gourd) popped up (and went into my cart) along with "India Spinach Beet" -- which looks like a type of chard. 

Along with roselle (or sorrel), the hibiscus used for a delicious tea (from the fleshy calyx) at Christmas time in the Caribbean, I'm having fun ordering seeds!

I've also included asian eggplants of various sorts, yard-long beans, and red-leaf mustards.  Yum!

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