New Harvest - and Saving Seeds

Finally - the 2010 Harvest is in and I have a whole bunch of new things to post for sale.  This year, I grew 12 varieties of tomatoes, some of them very interesting. The new ones include: Paul Robeson, Hillbilly, Japanese Black Trifle, Rutgers Space. I kept some of my favorite tomatoes:  white currant, chocolate cherry, and Black, and Orange Oxheart.  

Here's a photo montage illustrating how to harvest arugula seeds. 

 Here is a picture of the arugula in flower - it's fallen over.  After the flowers, there will be seed pods that ripen and swell, as shown below. Once the seedpods are at this stage, it is time to cut the stalks and bring them inside to dry. 

 After the stems have dried, they look like this: 

Here is a close up of one pod, you can see the seeds - to harvest the seeds, I roll the pods to split them open, and the seeds come out. 

 Here they are!  You can see that it takes a lot of seed pods to make up packets of seeds! 

White Vinegar -- non-toxic weed killing

Today I want to tell people about an easy way to get rid of weeds without using chemicals that are harmful to other plants as well as harmful to humans and wildlife.  Every time I see the Round Up commercial on TV of a guy spraying his suburban sidewalk and being so happy about getting rid of weeds in 5 minutes I want to scream - "remember silent spring!" If people only thought of birds dying off when buying the gallon container of Round Up -- birds, insects and other living beings they are killing!  Not BP oil spill - but the homeowner.


Use white vinegar as a weed killer.  Here are the easy steps showing how I got rid of crabgrass in bricks in my garden:

1) Buy a large container of white vinegar (boiling water is also good, but a bit more difficult to transfer to the garden)

2) Chose a sunny day.  Put white vinegar in a watering can.  I tried using sprayers but find that a watering can is better at providing enough vinegar to be effective.

Pour vinegar over weeds

3)  Early in the day, pour vinegar over weeds - this works especially well on sidewalks, brick patios.  Do NOT USE vinegar to get rid of weeds in your garden beds.  Be careful using vinegar near plants you want to grow.

4)  Let the sun and vinegar do their work.  At the end, the weeds will be dead.

Four hours later - weeds are dead and ready to be swept away.

Sometimes it helps to take a pledge

Here is a link to the esteemed Union of Concerned Scientists who articulate many sound principles that I suggest all gardeners pursue.  Here is a copy of the pledge statements.  I'm also enclosing some recent photos from my garden - it is fun to compare them to the small seedlings from April. 

I PLEDGE TO:

Build healthy soil that keeps heat-trapping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and reduces the need for herbicides, insecticides, and fertilizers, which generate global warming pollutants.

Frog Pond Gardens - Black Simpson Lettuce grown from seed

•  Have garden soil professionally tested to know your fertilizer needs and avoid over-applying.
•  In vegetable gardens, rotate crop locations from year to year to help keep pests and diseases at bay, reducing the need for energy-intensive chemicals.
•  Plant cover crops when other plants aren’t growing to protect and improve soil, increase carbon storage in soil, and reduce the need for fossil fuel-based fertilizers.

Choose low-emission garden tools and products.

•  Weed, prune, and rake leaves by hand and use an electric or push lawn mower.
•  Replace synthetic fertilizers and pesticides with compost and natural pest-control methods.Avoid peat, using compost or peat-free potting and seed-starting mixes instead. 

Frog Pond Gardens - Red Russian Kale grown from seed

Store carbon and save energy with trees and shrubs.

•  Plant trees and shrubs with long life expectancy that can store carbon for many years.
•  Position new trees where they will shade your home in summer or provide protection from winter winds.

 Frog Pond Gardens - Arugula grown from seed

Recycle yard and food waste.

Frog Pond Gardens - Tat Soi Greens grown from seed

•  Reduce heat-trapping methane emissions from landfills by making compost at home or as part of a city-wide program.
•  Use compost in the garden to replace energy-intensive fertilizers and store carbon in the soil.

Make my lawn “greener.”

•  If you have a lawn, leave grass clippings to fertilize the soil, reducing the need for added fertilizer and increasing carbon storage.
•  Minimize watering, which has been linked to increased emissions of heat-trapping nitrous oxide from lawns.

Point the way to climate-friendly farms.

•  Tell Congress and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support farmers who adopt climate-friendly agricultural practices such as cover cropping and crop rotation and who reduce their use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides. 
•  Stay tuned for alerts from UCS on opportunities to take action!

Update on seedlings

Back to the blog after a small hiatus.  Here are lots of photos showing progress of the seedlings and new things unfolding in the garden.  I've finally planted the snow peas in the ground (it has been too wet here to do it earlier) and am turning the "green manure" cover crops into the earth, filling the raised beds with last year's compost adding minerals such as potash and lime and getting seedlings into the cold frame!  Whew!

Red Russian Kale

 Around Day 7

Around day 21

Merlot Lettuce

Early 

Middle

Looks like micro greens! 

Cilantro

Seed is still attached

Looks like cilantro

Bigger...

Ready to harvest - 2 months later













In the garden - Pasque Flowers

What is Phenology and why should we care?

The first snowdrop of the season in my garden and sign of the new season.  Recently, I learned of using plant flowering as a guide to various gardening related items:  when to plant/transplant seedlings, when certain pests are emerging, and when pollination is occurring.

This is called phenology.  And low and behold, there is a lot more value in this interdisciplinary science - various plant phases can be monitored over time - as one way to understand climate change.  Here is a definition from this national website:   Phenology is the study of recurring plant and animal life cycle stages, or phenophases, such as leafing and flowering of plants, maturation of agricultural crops, emergence of insects, and migration of birds. Many of these events are sensitive to climatic variation and change, and are simple to observe and record.


Here in my zone 6a garden snowdrops are a sure sign of the ground warming up.  Another sign is the witch hazel tree, which has these amazing blossoms.  If you don't know what a garden zone is, check out the map at the US National Arboretum (it includes Canada too!).

How to start seeds: 

There are many many great resources out there with good "how to" advice.  I'm including a link to Renee's Garden - great seeds and informative website and blog because I like her product and company profile.

Wow - be your own SEED BANK!

Sometimes, I love the connections we can find on the internet, it balances out the times when I'm freaked out that the internet is a place where everyone knows everyone.  Recently I found a link to someone in Canada, who has started her own Seed Bank!  What a great project.  Unfortunately, I've been unable to open her  blog recently,  but here is the address.  http://populuxe.ca/blog/?page_id=43 or try her Etsy shop.  

I am going to donate some of the tomato seeds I have that she doesn't have yet, and maybe even volunteer for her pepper "dehybridization" project.  I needed something to get me jazzed about being a seed grower - and not having Phd. after my name.  Of course we can all save seeds in our own seed bank - of course we can all work to create more open pollinated plants!  I really like my Canadian gardening friends, not only are they growing wonderful plants in a cold climate, but they are so friendly.  Somewhere, my Canadian grandparents are smiling (even though they never new me). 

And here are some photos of the sprouting seeds - Merlot lettuce, Black tomato, Arugula, Coriander, and Jalapeno pepper.  For those of you new to seed starting, peppers and tomatoes look similar at this stage, but soon the articulated tomato leaves will appear.  It's nice to have green things growing when our forecast this week is for sleet, rain, and snow. Check out the coriander/cilantro seed covering still attached to the tender leaves!

I discover the USDA Food Atlas and a cool new journal

For those of you who are data junkies, here is a link to a bunch of geographical data from the USDA describing the general "health" of the our food consumption and food availability.  I spent a little time looking at the data, and some of it is very compelling.  I have not really looked into the data sources, but if sound, this could be a quick way for those of us interested in Agricultural Development to present information.

Random Agricultural image

I got the term "Agricultural Development" from Duncan Hilchey of New Leaf Associates, Inc. who posted a call for papers on a listserv I belong to.  You can read about his new venture -- The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development here.

UPDATE on SEEDLINGS
The coir seems to be a great growing medium - and the hot pad spurred germination of the tomato, peppers, basil, and two flowers that I sowed last weekend.  Whoop!