Park Seed Garden Journal

I’m a huge believer in how gardening can make life better for many people, especially for those who don’t have such easy access to wilder landscapes.  This is why it warms my heart so much to see that more and more people in American cities are growing their own little bits of nature.  Rooftop and window gardening are part of this, and are taking off for a variety of reasons.  Roofscaping or "Green Roofs" are also becoming a real part of the cityscape in many places, which is great for residents, the infrastructure, and the environment. 

Even more encouraging, though, is how community gardens are popping up all over the place.  Some of these are simply vegetable gardens that residents put in on vacant lots that would otherwise be going to waste.  Many are established by the city.  Some of the most successful, though, come from philanthropists.  Nonprofits such as Urban Farming have found that getting the community to band together to grow things helps out in many ways, both expected and not.  Many of these gardens are unfenced and encourage locals to simply come and take what they need.  They have found that greed really hasn’t been a problem, and it helps families to eat a much healthier diet in areas where affordable fresh produce is scarce.  It brings the community together and beautifies their surroundings.  It gives businesses more opportunity to reach out to the community, which many are taking great advantage of.  In Detroit, where Urban Farming started, they have found that crime is dropping in neighborhoods that have these gardens.  It is extremely encouraging to see how, by working together with nature, we can really make a difference in the world around us.

Earth Day is tomorrow, so today seemed like a good day to talk about how a little gardening can change the World.  In his piece in the New York Times Sunday, Michael Pollan makes a very convincing case for gardening to save the world.  Research indicates that growing some of your own food is one of the best things you can do for the environment, especially if you grow organically.  Modern agriculture methods use mammoth amounts of energy to produce our food.  Pollan's argument is that growing your own food is great for a variety of reasons.  First, it uses far less energy to produce the same amount of food.  Second, it doesn't need to be transported great distances (unless you have a very, very big yard).  Third, and, according to Michael Pollan, most important, is that growing your own food makes you realize just how capable of self-reliance you really are.  Once you grow your own vegetables or fruit, it's amazing how much easier other things that can make a difference start to seem.  You might start eyeing your rain gutters and envisioning easily-made rain barrels.  You might start thinking of building a compost pile or getting a composter every time you take out the trash.  You'll be amazed at how much difference you can make with just a little effort once you realize just how powerful you are.

Once you've got your tiny tomato plants sprouted from seed, it's time to move them into the light.  You'll want to put your seedlings in the strongest light you have available.  For many gardeners this means a sunny window, which will work.  Even better is a strong florescent light or grow light that can be placed just a few inches above the seedlings (an adjustable grow light system can help a lot in this).  The closer and more powerful the light is, the less the light will be diffused, which will mean your tomato plants will grow stockier and not get leggy (tall and spindly).  If you don't have powerful enough light and the plants do get leggy, it's not the end of the world.  Tomato plants have the interesting ability to grow roots along the main stem, which means that even a plant that's too tall to be stable when you transplant it can just be buried deeper. 

When placing your tomatoes in the light, keep in mind that you don't want the light so close that heat from it burns the plants, and it needs to give room for air to circulate over the seedlings (keep them protected from chilly drafts, though).  Around 14-16 hours of this light a day is optimal.  Some gardeners recommend longer, as much as 20 or even 24 hours a day of strong light.  I've never found there to be any improvement with more than 16 hours of light, and in some cases it can even be harmful.  Plus, conserving electricity is a concern for pretty much everyone these days.  If you're growing your seedlings with a directional light source (a window, a smaller light or one that isn't directly above the plants, etc), be sure to change the orientation of your seedlings to the light.  When I'm growing seedlings in a window, I try to turn them around once a day, so that they don't bend over trying to grow toward the light.

It amazes me how often I get this question.  It's an argument that I remember best from elementary school science classes, but it made its way all the way to the Supreme Court in 1893 (Nix v. Hedden).  The highest court in the land gave essentially the same answer that I will here: a tomato is both a fruit and a vegetable.   

The argument comes from the fact that the term "fruit" has two different meanings.  In the botanical sense, a fruit is the fleshy ovary of a flowering plant.  In the culinary sense, though, "fruit" generally refers to any sweet fleshy edible plant part (usually the part around the seeds).  A culinary vegetable, on the other hand, refers to a savory or non-sweet edible plant part other than nuts or seeds ("vegetable" is not really used in botany).  So, a tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, but it isn't really sweet enough to be considered a culinary fruit, so it is, in the food sense, a vegetable. 

This isn't that uncommon: many of the vegetables that you (hopefully) eat all the time are also fruits.  Squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, and avocados are all fruits that double as vegetables.  With so many fruits moonlighting as veggies, I'm really not sure why the argument is almost always limited to tomatoes.  So, what should you call a tomato?  I for one use both terms, depending on the context.  If I'm talking about the tomatoes in reference to the tomato plant, I call it the fruit (as in "cherry tomato plants produce a lot of fruit").  Once it's off the vine and in my kitchen, though, it's a vegetable. 

Of course, the issue gets much more complicated if you want to start talking about accessory fruits, nuts, legumes, and seeds.  That,  however, is a post for a different day.

In college I learned that I love to cook, but that fresh herbs are painfully expensive at the grocer store.  So, one of the first things that I ever grew from seed was a small pot full of herbs.  It's been long enough ago that I'm not sure what all was in that container, but I do remember Basil Genovese and garlic chives, two of the easiest herbs of all to grow in containers.  Both of which are still regulars in my container herb gardens, along with all of these easy to grow herbs.

Cilantro – For Mexican cuisine, Cilantro is a must.  It is the perfect herb to compliment acidic foods, such as lime and tomato.  It is also called Coriander, and it is both a spice and an herb in one plant.  Use the leaves fresh, dried, or frozen as the herb Cilantro, and, once it goes to seed, dry the seeds (technically tiny fruit, but I digress) in the sun and grind them fresh as the spice Coriander.  Cilantro Delfino is one of the easiest varieties to grow, as it grows quickly, produces lots of leaves, and is slow to bolt, which means that it will produce delicious cilantro for longer, which means more batches of fresh salsa straight from the garden.

Lemon Grass – As Cilantro is a must for Mexican food, Lemon Grass is necessary for many Asian dishes.  The leaves and stems are delicious fresh or dried, and impart a distinct lemony taste to whatever they're
used in that just can't be replicated.  Lemon Grass is great in soups, and makes for a unique and wonderful addition to hot teas.

Red-Leafed Basil – This dark basil brings a more intense, spicier flavor to the kitchen than most other basils.  It goes wonderfully with artichoke hearts, or in just about anything with vinegar.  Crush these leaves into hot vinegar or olive oil to make an amazing foundation for salad dressings, or to lend a unique, subtle flavor to anything sautéed in the oil.  It's also a beautiful plant, and our Red Rubin Basil is one of the best, and easiest to grow, varieties around.

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.

Whenever you get many gardeners together, as we have here at Park Seed, you tend to find that we have, as a group, a somewhat overdeveloped sense of whimsy.  So it should be no surprise that we go out of our way from time to time to search for the oddest plants we can find.  Maybe it's because odd food is especially appealing (don't get between me and a platter of octopus), but very often our favorites come in the form of weird vegetables.

Unusual vegetables are great for several reason.  One reason for their appeal is that few things yield more "oohs" and "aahs" at a dinner party than something that is unlike anything your guests have ever seen.  I absolutely love the look of surprise on a guest's face when I serve them delicious purple carrots or a slice of Everglade Watermelon with its deep black rind.  Another reason to grow these weird veggies is one that most people don't consider: children love them.  Because I'm an amateur cook who likes to experiment a great deal, I'm often asked how to hide vegetables in your kid's food.  I say rather than try to hide the most nutritious part of the meal, better to find an odd vegetable
that makes eating them fun for the child.  This establishes a habit of enjoying vegetables, which almost any child nutritionist will tell you is among the best things you can do for your child.  I can tell you from experience that most kids are willing to try almost any vegetable if it looks like it was grown on an alien planet, such as romanesco (which is sometimes called "Italian cauliflower").  I try to grow at least one new unusual vegetable each year, even if only for the thrill of seeing something utterly strange poking its head up in my garden.

You ordered your certified organic seed with the best of intentions. No harmful chemicals, no pesticides, no unnatural deaths in your garden, no guilty conscience. But, now there are bugs building apartment complexes on your stems using your leaves as supermarkets, and weeding is competing with your job and sleep for the activity that takes up most of your week.

Overwhelmed? That's understandable, but it must be possible, or it wouldn't be so popular– in fact, there are many who are into organic gardening because they believe it is less hassle, and it can be. I know you've strolled through your garden center, staring longingly at the beautifully colorful packaging of all those wonderful pesticides and herbicides aching to commit a some weed and bug homicides.

Hold on! Mulch is your friend. Cedar, cypress, and aspen mulches are all excellent at repelling insects. Also, a good thick mulch is a great way to prevent weeds.

There are also a few all natural "cheats." Organic soaps and oils that keep bugs off of your plants. Soy bean oil is the main active ingredient in many of these products and they are certified organic and completely non toxic. Use liberally on your precious consumables.