Veggie Garden Info

What is your favorite seed company?

Original post from Garden Desk, January 31, 2008

All month we have been seeing posts about the stacks of seed catalogs that appear in gardeners' mailboxes. I love reading about people's excitement for seed catalogs.

Just for the record, here is my new 2008 seed catalog collection:

I'm curious, what effect do all of these catalogs have on gardeners decisions as to where to buy their seeds? So what better way to find out then to ask some gardeners?Do you buy your seeds from a catalog or catalogs, from the web or from your local store? If you buy from a seed company's catalog or website, which companies are your favorites and why? If you have an answer for me you can comment on this post or you can write a post of your own. If you do write a post about it, let me know and I will link to it.Just in case I don't get many answers (or any), I’ll now let you know what my favorites are and why.

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How To Grow Cauliflower

Original post from Chef In The Garden, January 30, 2008

I am back...

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything but I should hope to be a bit more regular with the postings starting with my first cauliflower!

 

How To Grow Cauliflower

Cauliflower is part of the cabbage family along with broccoli, turnips, and brussels sprouts. It is important that cauliflower be planted early. It should be planted about three to four weeks before the last spring frost. If cauliflower is left to mature in the heat, it can acquire a very bitter taste.

1. Cauliflower seeds should be started indoors about eight weeks before the last expected frost of spring.

2. Seedlings need to be transplanted into the garden about three weeks before the last expected frost. Seedlings should be about six inches tall at this time.

3. Plant your cauliflower about eighteen inches apart in prepared garden soil.

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Excited about my new Soil Blocker!

Original post from Garden Desk, January 29, 2008

The time of year is fast approaching where I start hundreds of seeds indoors with my grow-light setup. Last season I wrote a post documenting all the things you need to start seeds indoors and one of the main things I listed was cell-packs or pots.

Now I realize that you don't even need them - if you have soil block makers!

I first read about soil block makers 10 years ago in my all time favorite gardening book The New Organic Grower, by Eliot Coleman. Eliot Coleman is the leading expert in effective organic vegetable production. I have implemented many of Coleman's organic techniques and alternative tools over the years in my garden but I never had a soil blocker until now.

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My 2008 Tomato List

Original post from All About Square Foot Gardening, January 18, 2008

It is that time of year again when I have to pick a few tomatoes from a list of thousands to grow.  You have to consider previous performance, others reviews, determinate vs. indeterminate, color, heirloom vs. open pollinated versus hybrid, among others.  It can prove to be a difficult task.  After going through seed catalogs from Baker Creek, Sand Hill Preservation, and Burpee I think I have my mind made up.
This year I will doing a few things differently than last year.  All of my tomato plants will be planted in Square Foot Garden’s instead of splitting them with the homemade earth boxes.  This decision was not made, because of poor performance with the earth boxes, but to use the space saving advantages of vertical gardening.  The other change will be type and number of plants.  I was overwhelmed with tomatoes last year.  I had a ton of cherry tomatoes and average tasting colored tomatoes, but too few slicing tomatoes.  I do plan on growing melons this year so the space dedicated to tomatoes will be less.  I do plan on growing at least 8 indeterminate plants on the trellis this year.

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Saving Seed in the Suburbs

Original post from My Spot With Pots, January 10, 2008

Saving seed in the suburbs - is it possible or worth doing?

Firstly, saving seed means you have to have the right seed...open-pollinated. Don't be sucked in to buying 'organic' seed that isn't open-pollinated. When you buy hybrid seeds you may end up with a very different plant growing from your saved seed than you imagined because of the plant genetics involved...they're not designed for this purpose and stability of following seed generations is an issue. There are many varieties of seed that have vanished from commercially mass produced seed ranges and discovering the odd shaped radishes and black tomatoes is a gardening adventure that is worth going on. The heritage seed, open-pollinated sources have wonderful catalogues.

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2007: The Gardening Year that Was

Original post from Backyard Granger, January 06, 2008

The year that was on the Grange.

THE STATS

Last frost: May 7
First frost: October 29
Length of "frost free" growing season: 175 days (5 months, 22 days)
Effective growing season: late April through late September
First Mow: May 3
Last Mow: November 25

BEST & WORST

Best vegetable: Sugar snap peas. One of the first plants into the garden, its fast growth and abundant output made this the one crop that we never grew tired of.

Most disappointing vegetable:

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