Park Seed Garden Journal

I just got an email on safely nicking hard seed coats from a perceptive reader of our blog.  I mentioned in my previous Moonflower blog that particularly hard seed coats need to be nicked and/or soaked before planting. I thought I’d share this reader’s very helpful tip.  She writes:

"A quick and easy way to safely nick the seeds is to use a small wire cutter,usually available at craft stores. Nick the seed coat near the pointed end of the seed. All you have to do is scrape off the superficial layer! I am an orthopedic surgeon and have performed many a finger tendon repair when people use knives for the wrong purpose, so when I saw how hard it was to cut these seeds, I knew I had to come up with an easier way! Good luck. I love moonflowers, too, and I always plant them too late…."

I’m glad I’m not the only one starting them late – but I’m even more happy to have received this important safety tip from an orthopedic surgeon!  Thanks so much, Nancy!

If you have a garden-safety tip you’d like to share – please email me at anita.dover@gmail.com.

Saving my fingertips,

Anita

anita.dover@gmail.com

Since we’ve updated our blog with a fancy new creative look (Thanks, Christa!), many have been asking who (or what) the wide-eyed creature pictured at your right hand is.  Well, that’s Miss Ernestina or Lil Tina or Tina Ballerina or whatever other name feels appropriate at the time.  She’s my new Chihuahua acquisition. She makes three. 

I share stories about my dogs around the office, and everyone who’s seen her picture instantly falls head over heels.  Rightly so – she does what every pet owner has seen their pets do and wishes they did more.  She leaves her tongue peeking out from her mouth ever so slightly ALL THE TIME! I actually took pictures of it to prove it, and one got swiped and posted. The “girls,” as I affectionately call my Chihuahuas, love to ramble through the garden, chasing bees, sampling the tip top of the compost heap – general frolicking. 

Lupe, the oldest, always stops at the porch steps to nibble from a pot of peppermint.  It’s a good thing because it makes her breath fresh (er), but it also reminds me that pets – and children – are common inhabitants of a garden.  Other common inhabitants of many of our gardens are poisonous or potentially fatal plants that could find their way into the hands – and mouths – of our loved ones.  So I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce you to Ernestina and offer a few links below to lists that name potentially harmful  garden flowers and plants.  I’m not for banning all of these plants from your garden – who could imagine a cottage garden without foxgloves? – but I do caution any gardener to do their research about plants they are considering adding to their garden and know if there are risks involved. 

See you safely in the garden, Miss Ernestina!

Anita

anita.dover@gmail.com

Links to Poisonous and Toxic Plant Lists:

http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pro_apcc_toxicplants

http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/alphalist.html

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/publications/poison/poison.html

http://www.library.uiuc.edu/vex/toxic/comlist.htm

Park Seed Journal has had a makeover — now we’re even better looking! Thanks so much to everyone that helped beautify our blog. Speaking of things that are great looking, here’s how we manage to keep our 9-acre Trial Gardens in shape.

Every year, folks ask "How do you grow such great-looking, healthy plants in your Trial Gardens?" Our answer: The secret is in the soil!

The Park Seed Trial Garden beds were established in 1961, and we’ve been improving them ever since. The key to their success is the annual addition of organic material. Many different kinds of organic material can be used to amend the soil. For instance, we have used composted bark, also called soil amendment, composted sawdust, cover crops, and also composted cow manure. 

Avoid compacting the soil. The air space in the soil should represent 25 to 30% of the total soil volume. Compacting the soil decreases that air space. Try to avoid walking on your soil or using equipment that repeatedly travels in the same path across the area. Remember—bricks are made from compacted soil!

At Park Seed, we start our yearly bed preparation the previous season by removing old, spent plant material. This is especially important if the plants that were grown tend to reseed themselves. The beds are tilled and then lie fallow during the cold months. If winter weeds emerge, we till again. Soil samples are taken yearly and tested to determine the fertilizer formulation and the rate of application. These tests will also tell us if we need to add lime to raise the pH of the soil. Our fertilizer is custom-formulated to meet our needs (Home gardeners don’t usually have this luxury!). In the fertilizer, we want about 20% of the Nitrogen to be immediately available and the rest to be slow release.

In the spring, we apply the fertilizer and do one last tilling and shaping of the beds. A weed barrier, in the form of a brown paper (you can also use newspaper), is laid over the beds and then the soil amendment is put on top of the paper to a thickness of 3 to 4 inches. The young plants are planted through the mulch and the paper, making sure that the root system is in the soil. The edges of the beds must be weeded periodically. Water as needed. At the end of the season, till the soil amendment or mulch into the soil, thus adding more of the organic matter that is so important to your garden soil’s long-term health.

FYI: Using cow manure can introduce unwanted weeds. If you use bark or sawdust, make sure that it is composted and not ‘green’ or fresh. The bacteria that break down this ‘green’ material will use all the Nitrogen that is in the soil, and your plants will show Nitrogen deficiencies.

Hope this soil recipe will help grow better gardens-

Nadia

nvanderhall@gmail.com

What a month! A bunch of scary things happening in October… Anita’s birthday, Friday the 13th, and Halloween.

I was doing some research about how to incorporate gardens into the spooky month, besides my Halloween garden. Since it’s Friday the 13th, superstitions have been flying around here like witches. I’m not too superstitious, having a black cat and all, but I am afraid of the woods when it’s dark outside (maybe even a little creeped out in the daylight). I guess my imagination runs a little wild in the great outdoors, but I’ve always thought scary things like witches, Jason Voorhees, tarantulas, wolves, and that weird wood that glows at night lurked in the woods.

Anyway, back to my research. I found a little "recipe" for witches’ woods. By witches’ woods, I mean things that witches might have grown for their potions, spells, and brews. Oddly enough, all of the things that I found are common herbs grown everyday. St. John’s Wort, Sage, Catnip, Thyme, and Basil. Makes sense, when you think about it, considering all of these have uses today, in the kitchen or in herbal remedies!

In fact, this sounds a lot like what my mom grew in the windowsill when I was younger — I always suspected she was a witch! (Just kidding, mom…) Enjoy Friday the 13th! And don’t forget to tell your children (or any kids you know) about the witches’ woods in the backyard.

Not Scared or Superstitious,

Nadia

nvanderhall@gmail.com

Yesterday, this end of the hall caught wind that product had received samples of some new vegetables that we are looking to feature in the Spring 2007 Park Seed catalog and rushed down to get a first glimpse at what exciting tasty treats would come out of the box.  How could we ever have imagined what we were in for??!!

Romanesco

When I first saw Romanesco in my grocery aisle, I thought I was looking at an artsy fractal painting in a gallery and nearly dropped my bag of apples!  And the squeal I let out at the checkout counter when they asked if I found everything okay – quickly grabbing my spiraled treasure to show them how neat it was – must have left many with jaws gaping for sure! Similar squeals were heard down the halls of Park Seed yesterday when this green gem was pulled from the box.

A traditional crop of the Mediterranean coast of Italy between Rome and Naples, Romaesco is becoming a popular gourmet vegetable. It is being lumped into the Brassica genus, which includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts, but taxonomists have struggled with exactly where to place this marvel.  The French call it “Chou Romanesco” – translating to "Romanesco cabbage," while others have deemed it “Romanesco broccoli” or “Romanesco cauliflower.”  I’m sure there are very scientific arguments well over our heads (my head, at least) that could go on and on and on, but whatever it is – I love it! 

Most comparisons liken it to cauliflower.  I think it’s much better than cauliflower, although I’ve always shied away from white vegetables ever since reading Bunnicula as a child. The heads are tightly packed like a cauliflower, but it has a much sweeter and more mild, nutty taste.  It also keeps its vibrant color when cooked for a striking plate presentation.  As much as I enjoy eating it, I still have an overwhelming urge to shellac it and leave it out as decoration on the coffee table.  There’s something very sea-creature-esque about it. I can’t wait to try it in the garden – rows of sprightly, spiraled chartreuse cones packed together into one gloriously unusual head. 

Carrot Nandrin

The next item out of the box was an amazing example of vegetal growth for sure!  The Nandrin Carrots inside were over 12 inches long and 2 to 3 inches wide – each!  Our Director of Horticulture for Seeds sprinted into action and cut one so we could taste – how sweet!  Literally, sweet!  We were a little worried that the center would be as woody as a piece of, well, wood!  We were all pleasantly surprised that it was quite tender and delectable despite its enormous size.  The size is actually a plus since they make great carrot chips when sliced!  You can easily pick them after they’ve reached normal carrot size of 8 to 9 inches, but why stop there when you can impress friends and family with SUPER CARROT!  It matures in about 65 days and has a cylindrical, Nantes shape.  Perfect growing beside all the State Fair giant vegetables!

Be on the lookout for these in the Spring Seed catalog folks!

See You In the Super Cool Vegetable Garden,

Anita

anita.dover@gmail.com

Dear Miss Nadia!

Sorry it’s been so long since I posted – we’ve been running on all twenty zillion cylinders over here on my side of the building.  I just read your spooky blog again and thought I’d share what’s been keeping me perky in the mornings because it’s a plant that’s perfect for "night gardening" – although it has greeted me every morning on my way out the door since it started blooming a month ago.  Moonflower.  This annual vine must have been sent directly from heaven.  The blooms are the biggest, most intoxicatingly scented flowers I think I’ve ever encountered in my short time gardening.  I’m sure there are other magestic blooms out there more deserving of praise, but this is the one causing the most excitement in my garden right now.  The twisted pods open just as the light is beginning to wane in the evening – the glorious gloaming – and shine all night long and into the morning, only to close as day gets going.  That’s it, each flower lasts for just one night.  And if you try to pick one (as I always do and always find myself disappointed even though I know what will happen), the bloom literally melts in your hand, closing tight and withering within minutes.  It’s all worth it for those few moments, sticking my face full into the bloom so its texture and scent envelops my senses.  I know that in just a few weeks, maybe sooner, the entire vine will succumb to frost, but that won’t stop me from growing it every single year, come you-know-where or high water.  It’s that great.

Unfortunately, dear Nadia, we are sold out of these seeds for the season, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for when we receive more.  I’m also promising myself to think about them earlier this spring because every year I start my seeds entirely too late.  In the last week of May, after the gardening world is busy and bustling, I belately drag out my Moonflower seeds to get them going.  It’s all about planning.  If there’s advice I can give new gardeners that I had to learn the hard way, it’s planning.  Get out your pen (or pencil in my case!) and paper and think about what kind of garden you want next year.  Try not to focus on the failures of the past year, but celebrate the successes.  If you create the garden of your dreams on paper, then it is much easier to bring it to reality. 

Some tips on growing Moonflowers:

They have extremely hard seed coats, the ones garden books tell you to nick, soak, or douse with a healthy dose of sulfuric acid before planting.  Just kidding on the acid, but once you’ve come up against these hard-as-diamond seed coats, you’ll know what I’m talking about.  Not only are they hard, but they’re also quite smooth and slippery – difficult to get a knife to dig in to nick it without taking off a finger while you’re at it.  CAREFULLY nick the seed coat (I find a serrated knife blade gets a better grip), then soak them in water overnight.  They’ll swell a little, so don’t be alarmed to find large swollen nuggets in place of your seeds in the morning!  The only thing left to do is plant them an inch or so deep, water, and watch the glorious vines to take over your porch, trellis, or arbor.  If you allow the flowers to develop pods after they’ve bloomed, you can harvest the seeds for next year once the pods have dried and turned brown. 

Mooning over Moonflowers,

Anita

anita.dover@gmail.com

Fall has crept upon us, the air has a nice chill, and there is plenty to do in the garden. Here are some timely tips for gardening in October.

• The only plants that need fertilizer in the fall are spring-flowering bulbs like tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. They develop a root system only from the fall to late spring or early summer, so they need nutrients only during that time. Their roots begin to develop as the soil temperature begins to cool, so make sure the fertilizer has been applied by that time. 

• Wait until spring to fertilize shrubs and trees.  Fertilizer added to them now will interfere with their ability to go dormant and could reduce winter hardiness.  Bonemeal or superphosphate can be applied if needed, but avoid adding any fertilizer that contains nitrogen.

• Before moving plants inside for winter, carefully inspect for insect pests and spray with soapy water or an insecticide if necessary.

• Daylilies are excellent companions for daffodils when spaced properly. As late daffodils finish flowering, daylilies will begin to grow to hide the ripening leaves of the daffodils. Set daffodils at least 6 inches from the base of the daylilies and be prepared to dig and move them as the daylilies spread.

• Remove all plant debris from the garden to prevent diseases and insects from over-wintering there.

• If you have an abundance of leaves available, count yourself lucky!  They are a valuable addition to the garden, either as a mulch or a soil amendment.  Larger leaves are best shredded by the lawnmower before adding to the garden.  If you have no place to use them this year, place them in a large bin made from chicken wire, keep them from drying out completely, and you’ll have rich, fluffy leaf mold to use as a soil conditioner next year!

• When mulching trees, make sure the mulching material is placed a few inches away from the trunk to prevent damage from mice, voles, and rabbits during the winter.

• If frost catches you with lots of green tomatoes left on the vine, pick them and wrap them individually in newspaper or paper bag for ripening over the next few months.  Check every few weeks for ripeness. Partially ripe tomatoes will continue to ripen on the countertop out of direct sun.

• Leave stalks of Marigolds, Zinnias, Asters, and Cosmos standing in the garden through the fall to attract seed-eating birds.  Evening Primrose and Coneflower seedheads can also be left to provide food for Goldfinches.

• When unpacking Park Seed plants, make sure you remove the Excelsior packing material from around the roots and soil.  These pine shavings are too fresh and raw to add to the soil.  Instead, place them in the compost bin for about a year before using in the garden.

Preparing for Winter,

Nadia

nvanderhall@gmail.com