Weekly Gardening Thread -- It's ALMOST April!

Garden Girl | 3/27/08 | Garden Girl

[Gabz]

Wow! February was sure a weather rollercoaster. Not just for us, but for most of the country, and indeed the world, with record snows and cold temperatures recorded in many places. So much for glo-bull warming!

Face it, scientists-who-think-you-know-everything!

Weather is weather, and mankind has no control over it, no influence on it whatsoever. We can record it, and complain about it, compare this year to that year. Bottom line is—the weather and the climate cycle as they will, hotter sometimes, colder sometimes. Wetter sometimes, dryer sometimes. All the hype, whichever way it goes, sounds suspiciously like a retelling of the old Chicken Little story.

While much of the world remains blanketed in snow, we’re not! February gave us a peek of spring with a few hardy daffodils popping up and camellias showing off. The old red standby, Professor Sergeant, with it’s dark red blooms and glossy green foliage is such a showy camellia. Then there’s the dark, clear pink, and Peppermint, with it’s red and white mottled blooms. Another variety, a light pink so translucent it’s almost white, and the really white ones. Simply beautiful!

Remember to keep the blooms that shed off raked up and you’ll have a lot less problem with diseases on your camellias. Camellias can be started from cuttings or from seed. Cuttings will always be the same as the mother plant. Seeds may or may not be, but that’s how new cultivars get discovered! Camellia seeds are hard, and look like a small nut. It may take them awhile to germinate, so have patience!

Seeds are truly a miracle. We take them for granted, plunking them in the ground and blithely assuming that what we sowed will be what we wanted, that it will sprout and grow and do it’s thing. Seeds come in all shapes and sizes and encapsulated in each seed is everything it needs to know. Whether it’s a mustard seed or the seed of a giant Redwood, all the information that seed needs is inside the casing, no matter what shape or size.

Seeds come in a mind-boggling array of sizes and shapes. Some we’re familiar with—pretty much everyone can identify a watermelon seed, or a sunflower seed, or a sandspur, or Beggar’s Lice, or cockleburrs, or a peach pit. Brassica seeds, or cole crops, such as mustard, broccoli, cabbage, collards, turnips, and kale to mention a few, all look alike. Beet seeds and zinnia seeds and marigold seeds are definitely recognizable by their unique shapes.

Of course, when you plant a tomato seed or a pepper seed, you might recognize them for what they are. Unless you know the specific variety, you won’t know whether you’re planting a cherry tomato or a beefsteak, a bell pepper or a hot pepper. When you plant a sunflower seed or a zinnia seed or a marigold you know you’re planting flowers. Whether it becomes a giant or remains a dwarf, or what color it will be remains to be seen. You might not have a clue until the seed fulfills it’s potential, but the seed knows!

Some of the information contained in that seed includes when to germinate, the size of the mature plant, whether it’s a bush or a vine, whether it’s annual or perennial or biennial. The shape of the leaves, the color of the flowers, the size and quantity of the fruit or vegetable that will be produced. Hard to believe all that and more can be stored in such a small container!

Planting a seed and watching it grow aren’t the only things we take for granted about seeds. People used to save their own seeds. We depend on huge seed companies to do that for us now. We just assume that we can go to the store and buy whatever seeds we need, and most of the time we can—unless the seed company had crop failure due to drought or flood or pestilence. Most people no longer save seeds, indeed most don’t know how. Seeds saved for next year’s crops have to be handled differently than the hybrids we’ve come to depend on. Because hybrids are not, in most cases, savable, we pay no attention to where we plant things. For instance—if you wanted to save a certain type of bean seed, or a special collard seed, you would need to plant those far away from any other types of beans or collards, or even anything in the same family that might cross with what you are trying to save. If you planted them too close, the pollen would mingle and what you got when you planted seeds next year might not resemble the parent plants at all.

As an example, if you plant warty looking gourds and crookneck squash close to each other and save the seeds of the squash for next year, what you get next year will be something that resembles crookneck squash—with warts all over them. Edible? Yes. What you wanted? No. Saving seeds is more complicated than you think. Besides remembering to keep distance between similar types of plants so they don’t cross pollinate, seeds require specific conditions in order not to lose their germination. Heat, humidity, and moisture will reduce the viability considerably. Seeds in cold or arid climates can last virtually indefinitely. If you intend to save seeds, keep that in mind. The freezer is a great place to store seeds.

The freezer, you say? Seeds kept in cold climates won’t germinate until the weather is right, and seeds have no idea whether they’ve been in the cold for ten minutes, or ten years, or a hundred years.

Speaking of saving seeds, there are seed banks set up all over the world to do just that. There’s one on a remote island near the Arctic Circle—sort of a last resort for humanity’s agricultural heritage. It’s a vault sunk deep in the permafrost of a mountainside. Theoretically, it should preserve the seeds for thousands of years. Not sure how anyone is supposed to reach it in case of an apocalypse, and we can only hope whoever does reach it knows how to garden. Maybe they won’t just scatter the seeds to the four winds and hope for the best, or eat them!

Seed banks in various countries preserve seeds so in case of widespread natural disasters—hurricanes, tsunamis, drought—whatever, there is at least a chance of replenishing certain crops. Seed banks exchange seeds with other seed banks as well.

There are also places like Seed Savers Exchange, right here in America. Regular people who make it their mission in life to preserve heirloom seeds for future generations. So the next time you plant a seed, enjoy the miracle!

[gardengirl]

I’d be hard pressed to name my favorite. They’re all so cool. Some of my earliest memories are of following my gma around her yard, helping her weed and plant and prune and collect seeds. She labeled them carefully and kept them in baby food jars. One of my favorites to collect was something my gma called touch me nots. I think the correct name is balsam. They must be in the impatines family because the seed pods look the same and they explode when you touch them, then the pods curl up like a spring that’s been stretched too far.

Have fun with saving your seeds! Not sure how far away from each other they have to be—the gourds and squash will cross pollinate if you’re not careful. We planted gourds one year and had a bumper crop—so many we quit picking. They only do here every so often because of teh humidity. The next year, they came up everywhere—except tehy were all shaped like crook neck squash and they had warts all over them.

I’m getting really tired—I’m going to go to bed before I type something that gets me in trouble! LOL

[trisham]

Can you imagine sticking your hand into a potatoe bank and drawing it back covered in fireants? Sheesh!

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Ouch! I was bitten by one fire-ant last year. The amount of pain from a single bite was surprising.

[hoe_cake]

Thanks for the ping. I usually don’t respond because of my work load, but today I am because I’m planting my garden this weekend...the usual tomatoes, bell pepper (which I’m not having luck with), eggplant, carrots.

But I’m giving up on planting yellow squash and zucini because the squash borers have more time on their hand than I do. I’ve never been able to get rid of the critters, and they frustrated me to no end last year.

If anyone has a tried and true remedy for squash borers, I’d love to hear it.

[Arrowhead1952]

Can you imagine sticking your hand into a potatoe bank and drawing it back covered in fireants? Sheesh!

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Ouch! I was bitten by one fire-ant last year. The amount of pain from a single bite was surprising.

We've dealt with fireants for many years in central Texas. They are NOT native and kill other helpful insects. I stepped onto a nest several years ago and got bitten eight or ten times on the top of my right foot. I couldn't wear shoes for a week.

The best thing to kill those is Ortho® Orthene® Fire Ant Killer. It starts killing within minutes and kills the entire mound. Stand UPWIND when applying this powder. It STINKS.

[trisham]

I’ll send your link to my sister in Florida. Her yard is full of nests, which is where I received my bite.

[Arrowhead1952]

Tell her she doesn’t need to put much powder on the nests. I use a nail and poke holes into the top seal of the cannister and use it like a big salt / pepper shaker. Just put enough on the top to have a light white coating.

[gardengirl]

The trick with squash vine borers is to start dusting the stems of your plants as soon as they emerge from the ground. Keep them dusted. Rotenone works well if you can still get it. The borers are eggs laid by a small moth. The moths are worse around a full moon, so if you can get your plants up and growing and get the stems hardened off some, that will help too.

Orthene, or acephate, is a godsend against fireants. Smells like rotten cabbage. I use the shaker method as well. Doesn’t take a whole lot.

[hoe_cake]

Also cut worms get my blossoms..I dust, it rains, teh cut worms do their magic before I can get to my garden to dust again.

[trisham]

I will. Thanks!

[Free Vulcan]

Managed to get two rows of peas in. Still not trusting the weather at this point to put much else in.

[trisham]

I guess stabbing the squash borer in the vine can work if done early enough. My husband used this method, but I believe it can be rather repulsive.

[chickpundit]

I read your article about the squash and gourds mixing, but for some reason, it didn’t register, lol. I’ll need to do some more research to see if what I’m wanting to do will work.

I thought saving hollyhock and poppy seeds were fun. The poppy seeds pour out like a salt shaker.

[gardengirl]

Wow! Never had that prob before!

[gardengirl]

I’m a very tactile person anyway and seeds are so much fun to play with! I love the shapes and textures and some seeds sven smell good—herbs, for instance.

[nw_arizona_granny]

I need a new Barn Cat or two.<<<

I can donate all you want, I live in the middle of a feral cat colony.

Couldn’t be the fact that they eat well at the feeder, no, not my fault, it is that I can’t stand seeing an empty cat dish.

[Red_Devil 232]

YEA! Two of my fig trees are showing buds this morning!

[gardengirl]

Yea is right! I’m glad. Ours in the greenhouse have leafed out and we had to evict them. I’m out of room. :)

80 here Fri and now its 50, with a nor’easter howling. Sposed to be in the 60’s/70’s all week and then another cold weekend.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Oh, boy. You’re more kind hearted than I am. With a flock of laying hens providing my “pin money” feral cats aren’t welcome ‘round here. My house cats are lucky if I remember to fill their auto-feeder once a month, LOL!

It’s nearly time for them to get outside and return to earning their keep around here. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“...and some seeds even smell good—herbs, for instance.”

I find chewing on a caraway or fennel seed sweetens the breath in a pinch. :)

[gardengirl]

I hear you on the cats. One house cat is ok. Here, they have no natural enemies, the weather doesn’t get cold enough to hurt them, and they can breed like 3 times a year. You don’t have to be a math genius to figure out that the cat population can explode overnight. With the abundance of fish and critters here along the coast, ferals are a damned nuisance. Don’te even get me started on the diseases and parasites they carry. Sheesh!

I have some chocolate mint that “escaped” in the greenhouse. It’s right tasty, too! I read something one time—something about weeding out gentlemen callers in a previous century—if their breath smelled of carraway (?) to steer clear because they probably had bad teeth. LOL