Park Seed Garden Journal

You can't turn on the news lately without hearing talk of a bad economy in America.  Macroeconomics is a long, long way from my specialty, and I'll not pretend to understand the big reasons for what is happening in our economy (whatever that may be).  What I do understand is that people around here are particularly concerned with saving money this year, and gardening is one of the best ways to save money.  So here are a few ways that something so simple, cheap, and readily available as vegetable seeds can ease the burden on your wallet this year.

Eat Well

Probably the more obvious way that gardening can save you money is that growing your own fruits and vegetables can certainly ease the grocery store's footprint on your checking account.  Fresh produce is one of the most expensive things to buy at the store, and we all know just how important a diet including lots of produce is for your health (and your taste buds!).  I'm pretty sure that if I saw exactly how much money I've spent on veggies over the last year, I'd probably have to curl up on the floor for a bit, and the prices for produce are only going up in the foreseeable future.  Even a small garden, or even just a few veggie plants in containers on a windowsill or fire escape, can produce a ton of veggies, fruit, or herbs.  That can save you a great deal of money for very little work.

Live Well

Possibly a less obvious way that gardening can save you money is by giving you something to do that doesn't cost a ton of money.  It's easy to spend hundreds of dollars going to the movies twice a week, or renting movies all the time, or buying video games at sixty-five bucks a pop.  In fact, most entertainment these days is pretty expensive, and this is, again, something that isn't going to be getting any cheaper in the near future.  Gardening, on the other hand, is a great hobby that can cost very, very little.  My first year of gardening in college cost me a whopping twelve dollars for seeds, soil, and containers (I've still got the receipts, one of which is from the Park Seed Garden Center).  With a little planning, you can spend as much or as little time gardening as you want, too.  Anywhere from thirty seconds each morning watering your herb container in the windowsill to hours every day can be dedicated to gardening, all depending on how ambitious your gardening projects are.  And every minute that you spend in the garden is a minute that you aren't out spending money.

Feel Well

The third way that gardening can save you money is more of a "long run" sort of thing.  Health care is expensive.  Really expensive.  Gardening can save you money on health care because gardening is actually really good for you.  It gets you outside in the fresh air getting some exercise, which can have huge health benefits, both long-term and short-term.  I've also found that, when you grow your own
vegetables, you're way more likely to actually eat them, partly because you're proud of them, but mostly just because home-grown vegetables just taste so much better.  And, of course, if you eat more fruits and vegetables (especially home-grown), you'll be much healthier.  Gardening is also a great way to get kids interested in eating their veggies, which can be a Godsend for parents.  Another advantage of growing your own food, especially from seed, is that you know exactly what your food has been exposed to.  If there's to be pesticide or fertilizer around your food, you'll be the one who puts it there, and as such you can choose organic or even just more diluted solutions, which could have far-reaching health benefits that scientists are only just beginning to fully investigate.  Another health benefit of gardening is that plants are the best natural air purifiers in the world.  Just a few houseplants in your home can make the air far cleaner and more oxygen-rich.  I had a roommate in college who'd been in poor health off and on for years until I moved in, and brought with me a variety of plants.  Living in that far better, cleaner air made a world of difference for my roommate's health, and he hasn't lived without plants since.

These are just a few of the ways that simple, little vegetable seeds can save you money this year.  I'd love to hear from you on how gardening has changed your cash flow for the better.  Comment below or email me at tandrews@parkseed.com

African Daisies are fantastic flowers.  They bloom profusely over a long season, they're easy to care for and will tolerate quite a bit of mistreatment, and over the last 25 years or so they've become extremely popular, especially as bedding plants.  The more common genus of African Daisies, Osteospermum, is made up of perennials, but because they're native to Southern Africa, they're generally grown as annual flowers in most of the US.  Like many non-hardy perennials, though, African Daisies can be grown as a container plant and overwintered somewhere that is protected from the frost, and many Osteospermum enthusiasts swear by this method.  However, because they require a great deal of sunlight, it is unlikely that they would do very well as an indoor plant year-round.  I haven't yet tried this method with African Daisies (my overwintering space is limited), but I might give it a try this year.  I love the shape of Osteospermum flowers, especially those with semi-quilled petals, such as the African Daisy Flower Power Spider White Purple, an unwieldy name for a truly unique flower.  One of the great advantages to Osteospermum in our area is that they don't mind drying out, and our summers are drought-prone (especially over the last several years).  With the intense sun, we can easily go through a great deal of water trying to keep the soil moist in full-sun areas, and it's really convenient to have at least a bed or two that will stay great-looking throughout the summer without daily attention.

On a side note, I've always found the name Osteospermum interesting, as it is a combination of both Greek and Latin.  It means "bone-seed," from the Greek "Osteo," for bone, and "spermum," for seed.

I got a great question from a reader the other day.  Her daughter's school is planning on starting a garden this year to help give the kids hands-on learning in several fields, and she wanted advice on what vegetables would be best for the kids to try growing.  She wanted the kids to start their vegetables from seeds, but she wanted something that was easy and productive enough to ensure that the kids had a good experience.
I can't tell you how happy this email made me.  I'm a big believer in hands-on learning, and there are few things that teach more lessons than gardening.  Clearly gardening is a great way to learn about biology and botany (how better to learn about a plant's life cycle than to experience it?), but there are many other things that could be learned from this activity.  The kids in this school will be planting butterfly-attracting plants, which will be a great lesson in symbiotic relationships and how everything is interconnected.  Planting (and eating) vegetables is a great way to start a class discussion about nutrition, which is more important than ever in America today.  The older kids could also learn about basic physics and engineering by helping to build a simple irrigation system.  Math could play a big role, having the kids track germination percentages and growth rates.  There are also the less tangible lessons about rewards coming from a little hard work, self-sufficiency, and the environment.  If things go well, this lesson could also make lifelong gardeners out of some of these kids!
In answering the email, I broke out my copy of Success With Seed, and referred to the list in the back of seeds that are good for kids to grow (that book has everything, I swear).  I suggested tomatoes, okra, and garden peas.  Tomatoes are fun for kids because they're so easy to grow, they produce a lot of fruit, and so many kids love to eat them.  Okra is also a really easy plant to grow from seed, and, as this school is in South Carolina, it is almost certainly a food that these kids have grown up eating.  Garden peas are also really easy to grow, and kids absolutely love them.  Plus, what teacher could turn down a chance like that to tie in Mendel and the history of genetics?

Are you a parent or teacher considering using gardening as a lesson, or maybe a student whose love of gardening was grown in a similar way?  I'd love to hear your stories!  Comment below or email me at tandrews@parkseed.com. 

With most vegetable seeds there isn't too much argument about when to start them.  With bean seeds, though, the debate rages
on.  Most American gardeners sow their beans directly, but many, especially in England, sow them indoors two to four weeks before the last frost date.  So, which is actually better?  Well, there are advantages to both methods.

Sowing beans outdoors after the last frost cuts a step from the entire process, which is, for most gardeners, a good thing.  Bean plants are sensitive to transplant shock to the roots, and sowing directly removes that risk.  Beans are also very quick growers, which means that getting that early start is less important.  Beans are also susceptible to rotting before they germinate, which can create problems and waste seeds when starting indoors.

Starting your beans indoors, on the other hand, does give you a couple of extra weeks growth early in the season.  Even with something as fast-growing as beans, being able to harvest two or three weeks earlier makes a lot of gardeners happy, especially when staggering plantings of determinate varieties.  Starting your bean seeds indoors also prevents squirrels and birds from digging them up, which is a problem that many urban gardeners report.  Root shock can be avoided when starting beans indoors by starting the beans in peat pots.  Plus, as many elementary school students can tell you, a windowsill filled with tiny bean sprouts can be a very fun thing.

Many gardeners are hesitant to start their vegetables from seed.  I'll readily admit that it's easier to just order bare-root or potted plants.  However, there are several very good reasons why you should spend that extra little bit of time to start your veggies from seed.  Here are just a few of them.

The Cost:  Many vegetable plants aren't all that expensive, it's true.  Around here you can buy tomato plants for around four bucks a pop, depending on when in the season you buy them.  If you're buying them at prime tomato-planting time, they'll be more expensive.  Should you want heirlooms, they'll be even more expensive.  Still, even if they're around seven to ten dollars, that doesn't seem all that expensive.  If you only buy one.  Even at four dollars, if you only plant five plants (which is not very many tomato plants at all), you've spent twenty dollars on plants.  On the other hand, you can get a pack of 25-30 tomato seeds from a quality source for what is often less than the price of a single plant.  For many other vegetables, the cost difference is even more pronounced.

Selection:  Even the best garden shop can't economically carry the same level of variety that is available from seed providers.  Those big home improvement stores usually have three or four varieties of tomato plant.  The big garden shop where my mother buys most of her vegetable plants here in Greenwood usually has six or seven varieties each year (and that's a nursery that specializes in vegetable plants).  Park Seed, however, has literally dozens of tomato varieties available right now, including heirlooms and certified organic seeds.  Because I grow most of my veggie plants from seed, I get to try a couple new varieties of tomato every year alongside my standards, and I end up spending far less than my mother spends on her two or three types.

Satisfaction:  This may just be me, but there are few things in the world to me that are as satisfying as the accomplished feeling of taking a little foil packet of what appears to be tiny specks of chip crumbs and turning them into a huge basket of the freshest, juiciest tomatoes you'll ever set eyes on or tiny peppers that'll send even the most serious of capsicum addict running for water.  For my money you just can't beat that amazing feeling of accomplishment from what is really not that much work at all.

I get emails nearly every day looking for vegetable seed starting tips, especially regarding tomatoes.  Gardeners want all the benefits of starting tomato plants from seed, but they worry about the difficulties of getting the plants started and caring for them until it's time to put them in the ground.  They look online for tips, and the whole process seems a bit overwhelming.  The fact is, though, that it's remarkably easy if you use the right tools.

Once you've chosen your tomato seeds, the next step is to figure out when to get them started.  It is best to start your plants indoors during late winter.  You could sow your seeds directly outdoors once the growing season comes (after night-time temperatures are remaining above 55 degrees), but that will mean weaker plants and a much shorter production season (and thus, fewer delicious home-grown tomatoes).  To figure out when to start your tomato seeds indoors, you need to figure out when the anticipated last frost date for your area is.  The best way to figure this out is to contact a local extension office, garden club, University, or Agriculture Department.  Once you've figured out the last frost date, count back five to seven weeks, and that's your start date (if you're starting later than that, that's OK, but you'll have a shorter season).

Once you've got your tomato seeds and you know when you'll be sowing them, you need to get your seed starting mix.  You could use soil for this, but I strongly recommend using sterile starting mix.  This will protect your tomato seedlings from competition, disease, and pests that will almost inevitably be in non-sterile soil.  Another option is to invest in a seed starting kit.  Starter kits that have individual cells for each tomato plant and a built-in watering system are the easiest way to start seeds of most types.  If you go that route, follow the instructions that come with your kit. 

To minimize work later, you may want to start your seeds in individual containers.  This way you don't have to go through the trouble of splitting the plants later on.  Mix your starter mix with warm water until it is moist all the way through, but not soggy or wet.  This may take a while to mix, because your starter mix should be very dry out of the bag.  Then sow your seeds and cover lightly with about a
quarter inch of moist starter mix.  Then put your seeds somewhere where they will stay relatively warm.  Temperatures between seventy and eighty degrees (F) are optimal, though if it's a bit cooler, your tomato seeds should still germinate, though it could take a good bit longer.  If you don't have a good warm spot (like on top of a refrigerator), a seed starting heat mat can be an inexpensive way to keep your seeds warm.  Keep in mind that it is warmth and moisture that trigger germination for tomato seeds, so be sure to keep your starting mix warm and moist.  I've found that, if you're not using a seed starting kit that controls watering from below, misting very thoroughly with a spray bottle can keep your tomato seeds sufficiently moist without disturbing them with flows of water.

If you keep your seeds warm and moist, and you're using quality seeds from a reputable source, your tomato plants should start to sprout after between five and ten days, and it will be time to move your seedlings into the light.

Everyone around here at Park Seed knows that I'm a huge fan of flowering vines.  There's an appeal to climbers that I just can't quite explain.  The problem with many vines, such as climbing roses, is that many, if not most, of them are perennials, and that is a commitment, especially with a vine that you're unsure of how it will look.  That's one thing that I love about our Corkscrew Vine (Vigna caracalla): It's an annual outside of zones 10 and 11, so you're only committed for a year. 

It's a fast grower, though, so you'll get the benefit of a full-sized flowering vine for a single year.  It's perfect to grow over a mailbox or up a trellis, and the mounds of flowers that it produces from mid-summer to early fall are not just stunning, but really interesting.  The nautilus-like blooms are also wonderfully, but not overpoweringly, fragrant (I love having fragrant flowers over my mailbox, so that I get to smell them whenever I go to get the paper and mail in the evening after work).  Also, if you prefer, you can grow Corkscrew Vine in a container and overwinter it indoors to keep it as a perennial.  Just be sure to water it lightly during the winter, and you can enjoy this amazing flowering vine for years to come.