Posted on 04/26/2009 6:10:21 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
It looked like a mad game of Twister in the vegetable seed section at Home Depot on Verona Road last weekend. The arms and legs of strangers criss-crossed as they grabbed seed packets, then paused to read instructions and make decisions.
Among them were Angela and Tim Lucas, of Madison, who gave themselves a roto-tiller for their second wedding anniversary in March.
"We never planted a single thing before, but we think it will be a lot of fun," Angela said. "We love to cook, and we're trying to save money."
It's estimated that for every $100 a homeowner spends on their vegetable garden, they will harvest produce worth between $1,000 and $1,700.
The Lucases got their seed shopping list from "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegetable Gardening": artichokes, arugula, asparagus, edamame, eggplant, garlic, herbs, jicama, leeks, lettuce, okra, patty pan squash, poblano chilis, radicchio, Swiss chard, shallots, snow peas, sorrel, specialty potatoes, strawberries, beets, tomatillos, tomatoes.
The gardening business is one of the few bright spots in the economy these days. Major seed companies are seeing major surges in sales of vegetable seeds -- with occasional shortages of certain varieties reported -- as well as gardening paraphernalia.
"There's a renewed interest in vegetable gardening across the board, and seed sales are up substantially," said Karen Johannsen, a co-owner of Johannsen's Greenhouse, of Madison. "We're very optimistic about the spring season."
Johannsen said many customers tell her they've never grown vegetables, and others haven't done it for many years. "Vegetable gardening just fell away for a long time; when I was a kid everyone had a vegetable garden."
In addition to wanting to save money, many are expressing an interest in knowing where their food comes from, and in supporting local businesses like Johannsen's. "People are nesting instead of taking vacations, and gardening is part of that,"
Heirloom vegetables (varieties that are at least 50 years old and not a hybrid) are among the best sellers. "Some hybrids have superior qualities -- they might be larger or disease resistant -- but many of them have also had the flavor bred out of them." They are also looking for organic fertilizers and pesticides. "That's been building for a decade," Johannsen said.
Richard Zondag, president of the Randolph-based Jung Seed Company, said they've sold 3.5 million packages of seeds this year, compared to about 2.75 million last year. Jung's vegetable seed sales are up about 30 percent, while sales of ornamental seeds and bulbs are down at least 15 percent. "Overall, sales are up 20 percent," he said. "We're having a great year. The only time we did this well before was during the Y2K scare when people started growing vegetables because they thought everything in the world was going to pot." In addition to vegetables, Jung's sales are strong for berries and fruit trees.
Both Johannsen and Zondag recommend that newbie vegetable gardeners scale back on their ambitions:
"Start on a smaller scale so you will be success," Johannsen urged.
"Plant about half of what you want to, or you'll get sick of it," Zondag said.
Vegetable gardening tips
• Start small. • Grow your favorites. • Do some research. • Make sure you have room. • Consult other gardeners, especially those who live nearby. • "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegetable Gardening" by Daria Price Bowman and Carl A. Price (Penguin, $16.95) covers just about every aspect of vegetable garden: planning, earth-friendly techniques, soil nourishment, planting seeds and seedlings, growing vegetables, berries, and medicinal herbs, recognizing common plant diseases, identifying and eliminating weeds, pruning and trimming plants, knowing when to harvest, deciding whether to can, dry or freeze. • An excellent website is www.VegetableGardener.com, a sister site to FineCooking.com and developed by the editors of Fine Gardening. Look for advice on how to choose a site, organic gardening and growing specific crops.
You don't need a garden to garden
Anything that can hold a good amount of soil and plants, and allows water to drain out, is suited for container gardening.
Containers can be terra cotta, concrete, plastic, metal, wood, ceramic, wire, watering cans, buckets, old boots -- just about anything. Bigger pots require less watering, while darker colors absorb heat and help plants grow in summer (though warmer containers cause quicker evaporation). A benefit of container gardening is that you can move plants around to see where they do best.
Some herbs, like mint, are invasive and almost impossible to get rid of once they take hold and should only be grown in containers. A windowsill that gets about five or six hours of sunshine a day is a great spot for growing herbs in containers. The best herbs for windowsill gardens are dense an compact: oregano, thyme, mints, rosemary, basil, sage, cilantro, chives, tarragon and lavender all do well in pots. Lettuces also grow well in pots, Bigger vegetables, like squash, do well in large containers like wine barrels, as do strawberries, tomatoes and bell peppers.
Think about what you like to eat before planting. If you like salsa, combine cilantro, garlic, onion, jalapeno and tomatoes in a container. Those who like Italian food can put a tomato plant in the center of a pot and surround it with Italian herbs such as thyme, sage, oregano, parsley and rosemary.
Also suited for containers are edible flowers, like nasturtium, pansies, and marigolds. Medicinal gardens can grow in containers as well: peppermint, Echinacea, calendula, feverfew, St. John's Wort, valerian, dandelion and chamomile.
When watering container gardens, water just enough so that the soil is moist to the touch on the surface and wait to water again until the soil is dry to the touch on the surface, but still moist an inch or so under the surface.
The most efficient way to water a container is to put your containers in a deep dish or tub, fill it up and let the water soak into the plants from the bottom, which will take a few hours. When the soil is moistened thoroughly, pour excess water on the ground. Glass bottle hacks sold at garden stores (glass bulbs with long spikes) are filled with water, then turned upside down so water is released very slowly. You can also use glass bottles from your recycled bin with a set of spikes.
Sources: http://planetgreen.discovery.com; http://home.howstuffworks.com
Getting started
Recommendations for beginning vegetable gardeners:
Bean, Festina: Resistant to Common Bean Mosaic Virus, it's a bushy plant with straight pods about six inches long.
Squash, Park's Straightneck: The slender squash grow about eight inches and have thin skins, with a high yield compared to most other varieties.
Cucumber, Salad Bush Hybrid: These have an improved disease resistance.
Lettuce, Summer Glory Blend: Includes seven heat-tolerant varieties that will produce lettuce most of the growing season.
Basil, Large Leaf Italian: This Genovese-type basil grows 18 to 24 inches high and 12 to 15 inches wide.
Parsley, Italian Plain Leaf: Flat-leafed parsley is much more nutritious than curly. It can been harvested frequently so the plants keep sprouting new stems.
Source: Park Seed Company
Get free plants
Another suggestion for those interested in developing a green thumb and saving money: Get free plants. Check out these sources:
•Freecycle.org, where people often offer excess garden materials, especially if you offer to return a portion of the produce. •Gardening groups who share advice, help and sometimes even plants. •Landscapers: they often know who has extra plants, including vegetables. Ask if you can have plants that would otherwise go to a landfill. •Nurseries: Sometimes they throw away plants that are getting too old or ugly to sell. •Green houses, either commercial or run by schools. Another good place to get throw-aways as they thin out seedlings. •The grocery store: Some vegetables can be started from a portion of the plant itself (potatoes, yams, garlic, ginger, beans, herbs that still have roots). Ask what produce is being throw away and ask to go through it. The same is true of your own kitchen, or those of friends •Compost pile: Seedlings pop up in this fertile material all the time. Relocate them to the garden or containers.
I would love to know where all those rocks and stones keep coming from. They seem to multiply faster than mint.
We just put in some asparagus last weekend. I hope it does OK. We put some in quite a few years back. We dug a trench as the directions said. Then we had tons of rain and I think all of it must have rotted from too much water. I trenched a little bit this time, but not as deep. I figured I would just hill up around the plants this time. Of course we are getting many days of rain again, but I don’t think the drainage will be a problem.
I ordered an heirloom apple tree and some heirloom fingerling potatoes from Jung’s this year. The apple tree went in last weekend, haven’t gotten to the potatoes yet.
The only things I have put in the ground so far (and actually they are in containers) are peas and mint. Everything else is still in flats in the greenhouse, or haven’t even been started yet.
The peas are an experiment in hanging baskets. But I fear this weird heatwave we are having is going to do them in.
I’m hoping to get some limas and green beans in the ground tomorrow.
I have had very little luck with peppers so far, but have far more tomatoes than I ever expected. I think I’m going to be transplanting about half of them to newspaper pots and selling them.
Use lemon juice or sour cream on your hands after handling the hot peppers.
Q. What keeps Texas from falling into the Gulf of Mexico?
A. Oklahoma Sucks!
Just a joke Okies. No flames. I tell this joke to alot of people and if they are familiar with Geography they laugh pretty hard. Especially the ones from Texas.
If you plant it from seed you have a long wait. You have to sow it and painstakingly weed the small plants for a year to harvest the crowns. The easy way is to purchase 1 or 2 year old crowns and just plant them. The second year they need to get established and the third year you can start harvesting a little.
As long as you maintain the plants they'll last a long time. You can keep harvesting until the new shoots are too skinny then just let them grow the rest of the year. They like well drained soil and a nice sunny spot. Once they're establshed they are fairly easy to maintain.
Dug my garden today. Will be growing several plants from seed.
LOVE the peat pellets. The kids and I have been gardening today, and it is a wonderful pastime. Plus then you know how organic they are, and who has had his hands on your food.
Won’t yer boss be angry if you don’t post a link to the company web site so we can support freepers businesses.....:o)
Baaaad Diana baaaaad !
I normally use Burpee seed catalog yet will change to support a freeper !
I stick to the serranos, jalepenos and pablanos. I like it hot but not painfully hot.
I bought heirloom seeds and I have a half plat of green peppers, a half plat of jalapeno peppers, a half plat of Beefstake tomato’s and a half plat of Rutgers tomato’s all growing in my windows.
The other heirloom seeds I bought like beans and corn we will have to wait and plant outside in the garden.
I hope to have a lot of tomato’s this year so I can freeze them. I love having fresh frozen tomato’s of my own to cook with. Things just seem to taste better.
That makes sense. I’ll stick with just planting my sweet corn as usual, but I think I will try head starting the “vanity” types I’m planning on trying this year.
My husband used to live in Texas -— I understand the joke :)
We had a spell of decent weather back in early to mid March and my husband hoed up my “kitchen” garden. Wednesday I went at it with the hand cultivator so that I could start getting some beans and such in there and I have this (not so) lovely collection of rocks, again. My outside cats made be annoying and mischievous, but I know danged well THEY didn’t put all those rocks in there. And the 10 year old has spent enough time digging and weeding, etc., to know better than to be putting rocks in there.
Anybody want to help me plow my garden?
In 2007 I bought 5 acres and started planting fruit trees, 2 months later had a back injury and was stuck in a wheelchair. Still need the chair about half the time, but considering the situation I’m going to try planting my garden anyway, if nothing else it’ll make me feel like I’m doing something.
I’ve got melons, 3 kinds of squash, tomatoes, beets, assorted greens, and tobacco seeds all started in my room. I’m also planning to plant seeds from the fruits we eat this summer. I know they won’t grow true from seed, but it’ll still be fruit. And I can do a lot with less-than-commercial-quality fruit, just ask anyone who’s tried my crabapple butter :p
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