February 2014

Planters Punchlines

Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield

February 2014

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"Organic Vegetable Gardening "

@ Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield Febrary Meeting

Monday February 24 @ 7:00 pm in the Pitkin Community Center

     

Speakers are all lined up for the February and March meetings. 

February 24 will be Trish Safner, Master Gardener, who will discuss “Organic Vegetable Gardening”. 

March 24 will feature Marty Sienko, Master Gardener and Advanced Master Composter, speaking on “Backyard Composting”.  The public is invited. 

Compostable Matter

By Jim Meehan

     

This year’s new crop at the Meehan Homestead will be cactus.

       

It is the latest step in the gradual New Mexication of our landscape that Marsha and I have been nurturing over the past few years.  There are a couple of reasons for this horticultural mode of travel.  First, New Mexico is where we ultimately plan on living – but until then we will make do by bringing as much of that locale into our immediate surroundings as we can.

       

We began with our family room, which fittingly sits in the southwest section of our casa – note the subtle introduction of the Spanish motif – the walls of which are decorated with various arts and crafts from “The Land of Enchantment” that we have acquired or been given over the years.  Among them are three “retablos” (paintings on wood) of San Isidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers and gardeners who, according to legend, was discovered by his master praying while an angel was doing the ploughing for him.

       

While I am certainly not spiritually in a place to deserve any divine yard-helpers the religious icon’s presence nonetheless inspires me to emulate to a lesser degree some the Madrid native’s horticultural feats.

       

Which brings me to our second reason for New Mexicizing our local terrain – if ordinary mortals in one of the most sun baked and arid areas in the U.S. of A. can grow this stuff – then why shouldn’t we, sitting here in the rich, deep, alluvial soil of the Connecticut River Valley, be able to grow them even bigger and better.

       

We started with hollyhocks, which, while certainly not unique to New Mexico, nonetheless have gone on to become the floral symbol of the town of Taos and proliferate the southwest countryside throughout the summer and fall.  Depending upon whom you choose to believe this colorful cousin of hibiscus, okra and cotton was brought to the region by either the daughter of the territory’s first governor who purchased them from a St. Louis seed salesman or, Sueño, a near-sighted angel, who while escaping Herod's wrath took the Holy Family to New Mexico by mistake.

       

Either way, they are like-everywhere out there.  Actually even that's an understatement. I would say that you couldn't swing a dead javelina in Santa Fe without hitting one of these drought-tolerant, heat-loving members of the mallow family.

       

We got some seeds from our daughter-in-law and son’s front yard in Santa Fe and planted them in our first potentially faux New Mexico garden.  Year uno – nada.  Year dos – more seeds followed by more and more and more rain.  Mucho agua = drowned hollyhocks.  Year tres – the rains held off and the ‘hocks soared.  Last summer – not so good.  But hope is an integral part of gardening, especially with hollyhocks.

       

Next we added “Maximillian Sunflowers” (this time from our d-in-l’s backyard and harder to smuggle x-country) – another perennial (more reliable) that also can withstand poor soils and intense heat, and churns out large yellow flowers from midsummer onwards.  And tall.  Like really, really, tall.  Like cut them back in June, then August, and in September they are still eight feet high tall.  No problemo with these southwester imports.

       

So, what next?

       

Cactus.

       

Now New Mexican cactus is not showy and big-limbed like the steroidal, tree-like saguaro that can grow up to as much as seventy feet in the Sonoran desert of Arizona.  Instead it is the considerably more modest prickly pear – short plants with flat, rounded cladodes (also called platyclades) that are armed with two kinds of spines; large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hair like prickles called glochids, that easily penetrate skin and detach from the plant.

       

Only this time Marsha and I are not planning on secreting these paddle-like cacti in our carry-on luggage – those pointy needles can be a real turn-off, trust me – and we probably won’t be going to NM until after the CT growing season anyway. Instead we are going to sell out a little and seek the plant locally.

       

Or so we intend anyway.

       

Sometimes when New Mexican Catholics don’t get what they want after praying to their retablo saints they put the icons in a drawer or out of sight in some other place to express their anger.  So should you drop by our house this summer and you notice three San Isidro plaques hung with their faces to the wall – don’t even ask me how our prickly pear project went.

       

On the other hand if Isidro’s unsmiling face is looking you square in the eye (saints never grin after all) then you are welcome to visit our latest little bit of NM in CT.

       

More to come.

The Mulch Experiment by Susan Reimer

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com

I am experimenting with NOT mulching this season, and so far it has all the earmarks of just that - an experiment. With unexpected results and really bad smells.

       

I have been mulching with shredded pine bark for more years than I like to remember. Mostly because those memories are painful. That's me, in pain, after gently spreading 3 or 4 cubic yards of mulch.

      

 I thought perhaps I would give my gardens, and my back, a rest this season. I know mulch is good for holding down weeds and keeping the ground temperature and moisture levels even.

       

But I had been hearing things about arsenic or other carcinogens in mulch and about how mulch might actually draw nutrients out of the soil. Unable to come to a decision, I decided not to decide to mulch.

       

Then I noticed the mountain of grass clippings my husband was generating.

      

 He'd fed the grass this spring and the result was predictable. The lawn now required two cuttings a week, even though DH cuts it pretty high.

      

 I thought perhaps I would use the clippings to mulch. Seemed like a good use of nature's resources, right? So I asked my husband to collect the grass clippings in a garbage can, and I would spread them as soon as I could.

       

Having mulched a small bed with those grass clippings, I have to say this might be where the experiment ends.

       

Grass clippings decompose very quickly and when I shoved my GLOVED hands into the garbage can to pull up a handful of clippings, I could feel the heat in my palms and it was uncomfortably hot!

       

I was putting the clippings around tender new plants and, though it was early spring and the ground was cold, I immediately worried that I was cooking those little babies.

       

Grass clippings smell terrible as they decompose. The stench was so bad from that little spot by the front porch that my daughter wouldn't let me open windows.

       

There are other issues with grass mulch, too. Though there were no harmful chemicals in the grass, I was probably transferring weed seeds, if not grass seed, to my bed.

      

 The grass mulch is an unattractive yellow-brown. And though all that nitrogen is a good thing, flowering plants need other nutrients.

       

So much for the idea of using all those grass clippings as mulch.

       

But composting those grass clippings can be tricky, too. They tend to form an impenetrable mat in the compost pile and have to be worked in carefully. It is almost like making an oil and vinegar emulsion.

       

The growth spurt in the lawn is nearly over for this season and my DH can return to leaving the clippings on the ground, where they will do no harm and plenty of good.

       

The plants in my gardens have grown, too, and they cover much of the same ground that mulch would mask.

      

 But if I can find a few bags of mulch on sale, I might buy them for those bald spots.

       

And next year, it will be back to mulching.

Growing Vegetables in Winter

http://coldgarden.com

It’s easy to find locally grown fresh produce in summer, but come winter what’s a salad-hungry Granite-stater to do? If you’re a gardener, the answer is easy - grow your own winter hardy vegetables.  While tomatoes and corn won’t flourish through a New Hampshire winter, there are dozens of crops that will, including lettuce, broccoli, kale, chard, collards, spinach, turnips, carrots, beets and parsley. All it takes is some low-tech protection from the cold and careful planning.

       

Many New Englanders already use cold-frames to extend the growing season. The photo to the left was taken in the early 1950s - it was built on the south-side of our house by my in-laws out of cast-off windows. The  bottomless boxes are usually built with one side higher than the other so that the top is slanted. It is then covered with a hinged window of glass or plastic. The box is stashed in a warm spot in the garden (next to a south-facing wall is a favorite location) and the plants are grown inside the box.

       

Cold frames can be great for small crops like baby lettuce, but you have to watch them like a hawk. Leave the top closed on a sunny day, and you’ll fry the seedlings. Forget to close it at night, and you’ll have a salad slushie in the morning. Luckily, garden supply companies sell temperature triggered automatic openers that can keep an eye on your veggies while you’re at work. Still, even the most tricked-out cold frame is no match for a killing frost; when nighttime temperatures regularly fall below 24 degrees, cold frame veggies either die or go dormant.

       

However, if your cold-frame is inside a bigger cold frame, you should be able to harvest fresh vegetables all winter. This technique has been perfected by Maine market-gardener Eliot Coleman and is the mainstay of his profitable vegetable business. Coleman’s latest book, “The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses,” is a must-read for anyone interested in harvesting salad greens and other vegetables when the snow is flying.

       

Eliot Coleman spent years studying the techniques of intensive market growers in France, the so-called maraîchers, farmers who tilled tiny plots within the city limits of Paris during the nineteenth century. Using the city’s abundant horse manure as both a fertilizer and a source of warmth for tender fruits vegetables, the maraîchers not only fed their fellow-citizens year-round, but exported high-quality produce all over Europe.

       

Eliot Coleman still hews to the maraîchers’ basic tenets - keep soil fertility high using organic materials like manure; plant intensively and rotate crops; figure out what varieties grow best in your conditions; and protect crops from the cold to extend the season. Coleman, however, has the added advantage of modern materials and technology, such as special fabrics that keep plants warm while letting in the light, plastic-covered greenhouses and drip irrigation.

       

He estimates that every layer of protection a farmer gives his vegetables is akin to moving the garden 500 miles south.  By growing his winter crops inside an unheated plastic-covered greenhouse, and covering them with spun-poly fabric when the temperatures drop below freezing, he is able to create a Zone 8 microclimate on his Zone 5 farm.

       

Cold isn’t the only problem for northern farmers, though. Light (or the lack of it) is another limiting factor for winter growers, but it’s not a deal-breaker. You might be surprised to learn that Concord, New Hampshire sits at a latitude of 43.208 degrees - about the same as the sunny Mediterranean city of Marseilles. Even with a winter cloud cover, we get enough light in New Hampshire to grow dozens of vegetables right through the darkest part of the year.

       

As long as daylight lasts ten or more hours, most cold-hardy plants (with some protection from extreme weather) will continue growing.  If such plants are well-established by the time days grow short, they will fall into a dormant state during the dark days of winter, not really growing but not dying either, ready to be picked whenever you like.

       

Around here, the big drop-off in light happens between October and November, when there’s a 27% reduction in day-length. November, December and January all have around 9 hours of light a day. In February, day-length jumps back up by 25% and finally tops ten hours.

       

What this means is that with proper protection, vegetables will grow (albeit slowly) right into November. Those that aren’t harvested for Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts, if they have had sufficient time to grow before November, will go dormant for the three darkest months and then spring back to life and growth in February. Even plants that have been killed to the ground by frost will often regrow in February, and seeds planted in midwinter, if watered and protected, will sprout in the growing light of late winter.

       

Greenhouses, though, are relatively expensive and take up a great deal of space, which is why in recent years New England farmers have embraced “high tunnels.” High tunnels look something like miniature hoop-houses. They’re constructed of 10 foot lengths of 1/2 inch electrical conduit bent into a hoops about 5 feet across. The ends of the hoops are inserted 5 or 6 inches into the soil; the hoops are spaced about 5 feet apart so that they form the skeleton of a tunnel.

       

The garden bed beneath the hoops is planted either with seeds or seedlings and then the hoops are covered with light spun-poly fabric that’s held in place with sandbags or rocks. Some of these crops, like fast-growing mesclun, will be harvested before winter really sets in. Others, such as onions, are timed to get big enough during the fall growing season that they can survive winter dormancy, reemerging to produce super-early crops in the spring.

      

 High hoops can also be used to protect already established crops that are frost-tender, like peppers and tomatoes, as well as to extend the season for well-established cold-hardy crops like carrots and lettuce when an early freeze threatens. They are also invaluable in spring to protect crops from cold weather and pests like flea beetles.

       

For crops intended to overwinter and resume growing in spring, an additional layer of plastic is added over the spun-poly fabric in late November or early December, when the weather gets to be too much for the delicate fabric. The plastic, when pulled taught and firmly weighted at both ends of the hoops, should stand up to snow and wind all winter. When spring arrives, the plastic is lifted to vent the tunnel and removed altogether when the weather settles.

       

The trickiest parts of four-season growing are choosing the right varieties and timing their planting. Though certain kinds of vegetables are regarded as cold-hardy, broccoli and lettuce for instance, not all varieties of broccoli and lettuce are ideal for winter production. Seed catalogues geared toward northern growers, like Johnny’s and Fedco, are full of good advice about which varieties do best during cold, short days, as is Eliot Coleman’s book (click here for a list of cold-hardy vegetables and recommended varieties).

      

 Keep in mind that certain kinds of vegetables are sensitive to day length and you’ll need to seek out varieties that don’t mind short days. Many kinds of onions, for instance, will only form bulbs when days are long and nights are short and these varieties won’t be happy in a winter greenhouse. However, the short-day varieties of onions usually grown in the South, such as Walla Walla Sweet and Vidalia, planted in fall will overwinter in high hoop tunnels to produce a very early onion crop in spring.

       

When to plant is the other difficult part of the equation. Seed catalogues and packets usually show the number of days it takes from seeding (or in some cases, transplanting) to maturity. For example, Black Seeded Simpson, a cold-hardy lettuce, is, on average, ready to harvest 42 days after seeding. In fall, however, when the weather is colder and days are growing shorter, it could take a week or two longer to get a mature head of lettuce.

       

To be on the safe side, add twelve to the number of days to maturity on the seed packet. For outdoor seeding, use this number to count back from the first expected frost in your area to find a planting date. In Concord, there’s a 50% chance we’ll see a frost by October 1. So if we figure Black Seeded Simpson lettuce planted as a fall crop takes 54 days to maturity, that means we should seed it in the garden by the beginning of August - if it is not going to be protected in any way.

      

 Black Seeded Simpson, though, as well as many other varieties of lettuce, can take temperatures well below freezing and bounce back again, especially if it has the protection of a cold-frame, greenhouse or high tunnel. This means lettuce can be seeded as late as September for fall and winter crops that will be protected. In fact, lettuce started inside and transplanted as well-established seedlings can be transferred to a high hoop or greenhouse as late as October.

       

Keep in mind that you want transplants to be big enough to be well-established when the cold and dark set in, but if they’re too big they may tend to bolt or be frost sensitive. Even Eliot Coleman with his years of experience says he’s still experimenting with varieties and planting schedules.

       

Plan on plenty of experimentation and some failures along the way, but don’t give up for the rewards are well worth the effort. Last year for the first time we harvested fresh food from our unheated greenhouse during every month of the year. There’s nothing that cures the winter blues faster than a homegrown salad in January.

       

Timing is everything. To start your seeds on time, you need to know when in relation to the frost-free date in spring to plant them. If you need help determining your spring frost-free date, call your county extension agent who can tell you for certain.

Horti-Culture Corner

Tomato haiku

left by the chipmunk

a half-eaten tomato-

salad on the deck

— C. Hicks (www.mnn.com)

Seed Starting Chart

A handy chart for knowing when to plant

http://www.organicgardening.com

Go to the following url to download the chart.

http://www.organicgardening.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Seedsaverchart_2.pdf

 Write your frost-free date in the blank space at the top of the chart.

       

Get a calendar and add or subtract the number of weeks in the "Safe to Set Out Time" column. This is the "Setting Out Date" when you can safely plant the crop to the garden. Write it in the last column.

      

 Take each date from Column 5 ("Setting Out Date"), subtract the number of weeks shown for that crop in column 3 ("Weeks from Sowing") and record that date in column 2 ("When to Start Inside").

 Top 10 World’s Hottest Peppers 

from www.crazyhotseeds.com

The previous world champion, Moruga scorpion has been dethroned!!  The new Guiness World Records World’s Hottest Pepper is the Carolina Reaper. As of November 20, 2013 the Carolina Reaper has been throned as the Hottest Pepper. [SHU = Scoville Heat Unit (A measure of Spiciness) - The average jalapeño ranks at about 5,000 units]

1. Carolina Reaper     2,200,000 SHU

There is nothing normal about this pepper. It was bred for heat and that it is. Oddly enough this pepper has excellent flavor as well. Officially the Worlds Hottest Pepper as ranked by Guinness Records.

2. Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Blend (Moruga Scorpion)     2,009,231 SHU

Straight from the depths of hell, Moruga Scorpion is a rare sought after pepper that was only just recently discovered

3. 7 Pot Brain Strain ~ 1,900,000 SHU

4. 7 Pot Primo ~1,900,000 SHU

5. 7 Pod Douglah    1,853,936 SHU

6. Trinidad Scorpion Butch T     1,463,700 SHU

No doubt it’s insanely hot, but other peppers have been proven to be hotter. 

7. Naga Viper     1,349,000 SHU

Extremely rare pepper cultivated in the UK. Combination of many different peppers and years of cross pollination created this variety of “Super HOT” pepper

8. Other 7 Pod Varieties (Red [Giant], Barrackpore, SR Strain, Primo, Jonah, Brain Strain, Yellow)     1,000,000 – 1,300,000 SHU

9.Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper)      1,041,427 SHU

The most famous “Super Hot” due to the amount of press it has received in the past. Many mistakenly still believe it is the World’s Hottest.

10. Red Savina Habanero        500,000 SHU

Back in the early years of superhots the Red Savina Habanero was KING! He has since been dethroned and many peppers have passed him in heat. The Red Savina just barely makes the Top 10, but does so in fashion with its great flavor and extreme heat.

January 2014

Planters Punchlines

Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield

January 2014

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"Share Your Gardening Successes (and Failures)"

@ Men’s Garden Club of Wethersfield January Meeting

Monday January 27 @ 7:00 pm in the Pitkin Community Center

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Come and share your gardening success stories (recent or in the past) and ask other members how they solved any gardening problems you may have experienced. 

Compostable Matter

By Jim Meehan

A lot of men are reluctant to try organic gardening – thinking that it’s too touchy-feely, earthy-crunchy.  Real men just want to “grow ‘um and mow ‘um.”

          

In Chinese Taoist philosophy, the concept of "yin and yang” is used to describe how seemingly diametrical opposites can be thought of as complementary forces that interact to form a dynamic system in which the whole is greater than the parts – for instance shadow and light may look incompatible, but shadow cannot exist without light.

          

Likewise, the nurturing and destructive aspects of horticulture can be successfully synergized with just a little environmental sensitivity and a lot of petro-chemical horsepower – as in, for example,  “Eco-Machismo Mulching”

Flakes of lifeless leaves

flung from slashing Toro blades –

return to their roots.

Garden Media Unveils Its 2014 Garden Trends Report

http://www.lgrmag.com

Garden Media Group has released its annual consumer trends report, identifying several major shifts in the marketplace and twelve trends that will impact gardening habits in 2014 and beyond.

       

According to the 2014 Garden Trends Report, consumers are spending more leisure time outdoors and not only “decorating” their homes, but their gardens as well. The rise of social trends, like lawn games, glamping, and garden parties, are fueling a record growth in garden furniture and accessories, driving demand for tabletop fountains, outdoor footprint.

       

“2014 is all about balance. People finally appreciate that being in nature and in the garden is true bliss. But now, they want the garden to do double duty: A Zen oasis and the social hub for entertaining,” says Katie Dubow, creative director of Garden Media. “Surrounding yourself with nature, with trees in the yard and houseplants in the office, brings a sense of peace, boosts productivity and enhances your quality of life—in addition to providing a great escape from the hustle and bustle of a technology intense life."

       

Looking ahead, Garden Media presents 12 trends to keep a close eye on in 2014:

       

1. Ground Up: Recycling food scraps and creating compost is the new recycling.

       

2. Super Foods, Super Models: Edibles are going to the next level with foodies growing everything from quinoa to dandelions in straw bales and keyhole gardens.

       

3. Drink Your Garden: People are drinking their gardens using such super foods from their gardens, like blueberries and raspberries to craft cocktails and green smoothies. “Fermentation gardens are the new chickens,” says Rebecca Reed of Southern Living. People are growing hops for home-brewing, grapes for home-made wine. veggies to provide safe shelters.

       

4. Dress Up Your Yard: From decorative throw pillows to decorative insect traps and shabby-chic mason jar humming bird feeders, people want their yards to have a personal stamp.

       

5. Bee-neficials: It’s all about the bees this year. Bees are at forefront of environmentally aware consumers’ minds, inspiring them to plant native, pollen rich flowers, trees and veggies to provide safe shelters.

      

 6. Cultur-vating: Taking local to the next level, people are growing the world in their gardens, mixing cultures and embracing what is local to their own region.

       

7. Simple Elegance: Think one color flower in an elegant container in an eco-chic, hand-cast planter.

      

 8. Frac’d Up: Neat clean lines are out as explosions of color in fractional shapes like triangles, circles and squares dominate design.

      

 9. Young Men Get Down and Dirty: Big surprise here: young men 18-34 are spending $100 more than the average gardener. They are grilling, growing their own hops for beer, and taking the kids out to play in the dirt.

       

10. Think Gardens: Plants make us smarter, more productive and less stressed and are showing up in offices, schools and hospitals across the country.

       

11. Fingertip Gardens: Gardens go high tech with mobile apps and technology.

       

12. Tree-mendous Reversal: Losing more than four million urban trees a year, Americans are being asked to plant trees. There are many environmental, economical, and emotional benefits of trees. Plant a tree – or care for one you have - this year and be part of this growing trend.

Horti-Culture Corner

"Though an old man, I am but a young gardener."

Thomas Jefferson

“It is easy to age when there is nothing to believe in, nothing to hope for;

gardeners, however, simply refuse to grow up."

Allan Artimage

Garden Guru: A look at garden trends for 2014 (excerpt)

by John Porter

www.wvgazette.com/Life/

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It's this time of year that you see everybody make review lists of the year we just finished, whether they are the best or worst moments of the year, best pictures, movies, music, and so on. I thought that it might be more helpful if we take a moment and look ahead at a list of things that are poised to make a splash in the gardening world. From the top plant award winners, to projected trends in the garden, I'll count down a few things that will affect the gardening world in the coming year.

      

 Plants of the year: There are several different organizations that pick their own plants of the year, so I'll just mention a few. The Perennial Plant Association (www.perennialplant.org) chose an ornamental grass as the 'Perennial Plant of the Year' for 2014. Panicum virgatum'Northwind' is a tall, native switchgrass that turns golden yellow in the fall.

       

All-America Selections (www.all-americaselections.org) is an organization that releases an annual list of vegetables and bedding plants based on variety trials around the country. This year, the national winners included the 'Mamma Mia Giallo' pepper, 'Fantastico' and 'Chef's Choice Orange' tomatoes, 'Mascotte' dwarf French bean, 'African Sunset' petunia (it's brilliant orange), and 'Sparkle White' guara, a delicate-looking yet tough, drought-resistant perennial.

       

The neat thing about the AAS program is that their winners are grown at display gardens around the country so you can get up close and personal with the plants. The only display garden in West Virginia is at Oglebay Resort near Wheeling, but you can also check them out at Franklin Park conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, the horticulture garden at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., and Schenley Plaza in Pittsburgh.

      

 Color of the year: Each year, the Pantone Color Institute (www.pantone.com), the company that acts as the standard-keepers for colors for everything from commercial printers to the U.S. Patent Office, selects its color of the year. This year the color is "Radiant Orchid," which is based on the purple-pink color in the Phalaenopis orchids you see in grocery stores and garden centers. While this color is most commonly seen in fashion and home decorating trends, you will also likely see an increase in the number of flowers at the garden centers this year with similar color profiles.

       

Sustainable gardening: The Garden Trends Report, which is released by the garden marketing and PR firm Garden Media (www.gardenmediagroup.com), lists composting as a top trend. More and more gardeners are interested in reducing the amounts of inputs they put in the garden -- from fertilizers to chemicals and more.

But gardeners are going beyond that and adding more sustainable practices, such as collecting rainwater, using recycled materials in the garden, and more. Sustainability is not just about being environmentally conscientious though. It's also about choosing practices that are more economically sound (cheaper) and thinking about your neighbors when you make decisions.

      

 Growing more food: Vegetable and fruit gardening has been on the rise over the past five years now, and the trends looks to continue into 2014. The initial interest was fueled by the crashing economy, where people decided to be more self-reliant in the face of higher food costs and smaller paychecks. But the interest continues now that people are more interested in knowing where their food comes from and being more self-sufficient thanks to a rise in the DIY and homesteader attitude. So backyard vegetable gardens, edible landscapes and community gardens will continue to pop up at a good pace.

Eat and drink your organic roses

            A rose is a rose is an edible -- if you grow it organically.

Charlotte from Peaceful Valley - http://groworganic.com

       

Do you grow roses? DId you ever think about growing them organically?

      

 That way you not only keep synthetic pesticides out of your garden and groundwater, but you can EAT and DRINK your roses too.

      

 In our new video, Tricia shows you how to grow roses organically and she gives basic guidelines on rose care and pruning.

       

Now, let’s eat those organic roses. Pick up your pruners and follow us into the rose garden.

       

Strong fragrance means strong rose flavor

       

Our friend Teresa O’Connor is an edible flower specialist at Seasonal Wisdom. She votes for the fragrances and flavors of old roses like Rosa rugosa and Rosa gallica. We have a short video with Teresa’s tips on other edible flowers.

       

For California native plant lovers, consider the Rosa californica.

       

Feel free to follow your nose to your favorite rose.  How to gather your rosebuds

       

In the cool of the morning, snip off those buds and blooms, rinse them indoors, and then remove the bitter, white base of each petal.

       

Pat the petals dry and use them in the following recipe ideas.   

       

Eat and drink organic roses from morning to night

       

*  Start your morning with a Vitamin C rich cup of rose hip tea (easy to find these on rugosas).

      

 *  Make some rose petal jam for your breakfast toast.

       

*  In a hurry? Blast up some rose honey in your food processor.

       

*  Simplest of all? Add one part rose petals and two parts sugar for rose sugar. Prettiest in our small Weck jars.

       

*  You can use rose water in any number of recipes, like salad dressings and Manhattans. Here’s how to prep your very own organic rose water.

       

*  Feeling sentimental? FIx an entire tea party, for Mother’s Day or another occasion, with rose petal everything.

       

*  Still wondering about that Manhattan recipe? It’s a Rosehattan, pleasant to sip while wandering in your garden at dusk.

       

Don’t forget to make tea for the roses, too

       

Alfalfa tea is all the rage with rosarians around the U.S., and many blue ribbon winners swear by it. Try our alfalfa tea ready to steep in “tea bags”. We have alfalfa tea bags from Haven Natural Brew Alfalfa Tea.

       

These make unusual gifts on their own or in our rosy gift baskets, for your rose-obsessed neighbors and friends.

       

Just goes to show—deer are not the only mammals that like to eat roses. Grow your roses organically and savor the floral flavors.

Drink your garden

By Kathy Jentz - http://tpssvoice.com

You may already grow edibles in your garden, but have you thought about growing “drinkable” plants? The latest trend in home gardens is to add herbs, fruits, vegetables, and greens to your beverages. Here are several fun, easy ways to experiment with drinking your garden:

      

 ~ Grow your own kale and throw a bunch in a blender along with a handful of fruit and a cup of juice for a yummy green smoothie.

      

 ~ Gather a handful of lavender and use it in your next batch of lemonade. See the recipe here: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/lavender_lemonade/.

       

~ Pick raspberry leaves, place in a mug and pour almost-boiling water over them, let steep for a minute, then remove the leaves and drink the delicious tea.

      

 ~ Serve champagne with some fresh fruit from your garden, like blueberries, dropped in.

       

~ Dry some chamomile blossoms and add them to your tea on a chilly evening.

      

 ~ Plant some wine grapes and hops vine and take a course in home brewing.

       

For several more ideas about how to drink your garden, check out to new books on the subject: The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart and Drink Your Own Garden by Judith Glover.

Read This Now: The Drunken Botanist

A Book Review By Michael Dietsch @ drinks.seriouseats.com

The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart is not the book I was expecting it to be. I don't know whether I misread the press materials, or simply jumped to a wrong conclusion when hearing the title, but I was expecting to find a book about using seasonal ingredients to make cocktails, infusions, bitters, and the like.

       

Although books like that have their value, I already own more such books than I currently need, so I found myself uninspired by this book—or, at least, my idea of this book.

       

But my idea turned out to be wrong, and The Drunken Botanist turned out to be a very engaging book about the botanical origins of our favorite drinks: beer, wine, spirits, and even a mixer or two.

      

 If you're getting into cocktails and looking to expand your understanding of spirits, wine, beer, and mixed drinks, reading Stewart's book is a great way to do it. You'll come away with a knowledge of what exactly is in your glass and you'll be able to understand how those elements play together to form the flavors and aromas you'll encounter in a well-made drink.

      

 Drinks, Shoots, and Leaves

       

The book's origins arise from a conversation Stewart had some years ago with a fellow botanist. He told Stewart he disliked gin, and she first vowed to make him a cocktail that would make a gin lover of him, and then expressed her surprise that a botanist could fail to love gin, which is full of botanical ingredients: not only the grain that makes the spirit itself, but also the herbs and spice and citrus that provide gin's robust, complex flavors.

       

Grapes, Grains, and Grasses

       

In the book's introduction, Stewart says, "Every great drink starts with a plant" and of course, this is obviously true. Beer starts from barley or other grains; wine, from grapes or other fruit. Vodka comes from grains or potatoes. Whisk(e)y arises from barley, corn, rye, or other grains.

       

Stewart uses this simple truth as a starting point for a fascinating book, one that rewards a cover-to-cover read. The first part of the book covers the classic booze-worthy plants, the ones used most often to produce alcohol. Here you'll find agave, apple, barley, corn, grapes, and onward through wheat. She discusses the history of each crop and its history as an ingredient in beverage alcohol. She doesn't shy away from unpleasant facts, either, such as the sustainability crisis facing agave agriculture in Mexico, for example.

       

The first part concludes with a look at less-common or even bizarre plants that have been turned into booze: bananas, cassava, parsnips, and something called a monkey puzzle.

      

 In part two, she turns her green thumb toward the flavoring elements that go into beverage alcohol. Here she first covers herbs and spices—allspice, angelica, bison grass, cardamom, gentian, ginger, juniper, licorice and its relatives, vanilla, wormwood, and many others. Then she hits flowers—chamomile, hops, jasmine, rose, etc. Next up are trees—angostura, birch, cinchona, cinnamon, sugar maple. Next up is fruit—apricots, currents, figs, and the variety of citrus fruits, among others. Finally, she ends part two with a look at nuts and seeds: almond, coffee, hazelnut, kola nut, and walnut.

      

 Only in part three, by far the shortest part of the book, does she tackle the topic that I initially thought comprised the entirety of the book: infusions, syrups, homemade liqueurs, and pickles. She even provides instructions on home-brining olives.

The book features several types of informative sidebars. The most practical are the recipes: not just cocktail recipes but instructions for syrups, pickles, and liqueurs such as limoncello.

       

Another sidebar talks to gardeners and provides DIY advice on growing these crops. Some, of course, are less practical than others. She acknowledges that only the most die-hard of home-brewers, for example, will grow their own barley. But others, such as lemon verbena and black currants, though, are within the grasp of nearly any gardener.

       

She takes time out to discuss plants that affect booze production without being ingredients of their own: oak (for barrel aging, of course) and cork oak.

Finally, though it's not a plant and therefore not botanical at all, Stewart takes the time to discuss a topic without which, none of these wondrous drinks would be possible: yeast.

       

A careful and knowledgeable reader might find some of the discussion a bit thin, as I did when reading about the history of bourbon, located logically enough in her chapter on corn. But this is excusable; she only has so many pages, and the topic is hefty enough to support an entire botanical library. Further, if you're looking for a book full of recipes for cocktails, syrups, infusions, bitters, liqueurs, mixers, and other plant-based cocktail ingredients, you're simply in the wrong place.

       

But if you're curious about the plants you're drinking with each toast, I recommend The Drunken Botanist, an delightfully informative and entertaining book about the basic ingredients of beverage alcohol.

       

About the author: : Michael Dietsch approaches life with a hefty dash of bitters.  He lives with wife, son, and cats in Brooklyn. You can reach him on twitter at @dietsch.

Flowers for Borders

http://www.organicgardening.com

"Flowers for borders" is the concept behind ground-breaking research and has revealed how gardeners can attract beneficial insects — ladybugs, lacewings, ground beetles and other insects that feed on pests — simply by planting certain flowers. We've been monitoring this research and compiling a list of plants that are both highly ornamental and proven effective in attracting and sheltering beneficials. Here's our exclusive special report on these beautiful and valuable plants.

       

To get energy to search for their prey, or to reproduce, many beneficial insects feed on nectar (for carbohydrates) and pollen (for protein) from flowering plants. Researchers are discovering that some flowers are much better sources of nectar and pollen to sustain beneficial insects than others. Studies are also revealing the best plants to grow for shelter to help good bugs thrive. And as an added bonus, many of the nectar sipping/pest-eating insects that are attracted to flower pollen will also pollinate your fruit and vegetable crops and increase your yields.

     

Here are the top ten [plus one] ornamental plants we recommend for Beneficial Borders. All are very easy to grow and ideal choices even for new gardeners.

     

1. Bachelor's Buttons or Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) This beautiful blue wildflower has extrafloral nectaries, which means the plant's leaves release nectar even when the flowers are not blooming. Research in Germany has found that bachelor button nectar has a very high sugar content of 75 percent. This nectar is highly attractive to flower flies, ladybugs, lacewings, and beneficial wasps. Sow easy-to-grow bachelor's buttons seeds directly in the garden in fall or early spring; plants usually reseed energetically.

       

2. Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima) This low-growing annual makes a lovely white, highly fragrant edging for flower beds, or a fast-growing, beneficial-attracting, weed-smothering ground-cover to interplant in vegetable beds. Numerous studies have confirmed that sweet alyssum is highly attractive to aphid-eating flower flies. You can start with seeds, or buy bedding plants for earlier flowering.

       

3. Borage (Borago officinalis) This annual herb has bright blue clusters of edible, cucumber-flavored flowers. Studies in Switzerland have shown borage to be exceptionally attractive to good bugs, with an average of over 100 beneficials found in just 1 square yard of borage. In addition, common green lacewings have a very strong preference to lay their eggs on borage. Look for borage on garden center seed racks and mail order seed catalogs.  

       

4. Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) This 6 to 8 foot tall native perennial has a unique feature that makes it a star in Beneficial Borders. The leaves wrap all the way around the stems, forming a deep cup that collects dew and rainwater. Beneficial insects and small birds can easily use the leaves as landing pads, and then drink from the cups. Cup plant is an outstanding ornamental, with large attractive leaves and clusters of yellow flowers in mid to late summer that are highly attractive to many insects. It's hardy to zone 4 or 3. To start seeds, sow in fall, or store in damp sand in the refrigerator for 6 to 8 weeks before planting in spring.

      

 5. Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum or A. rugosa, aka Korean mint) Perennial, summer-blooming anise hyssop has fuzzy purple or violet flower spikes on 2 to 3 foot high plants with licorice-scented leaves. The nectar-rich flowers are very attractive to both butterflies and pest-eating beneficial insects. Anise hyssop is hardy in zones 6-9; Korean mint in zones 5-8.

      

 6. Golden Marguerite (Anthemis tinctoria) This long-blooming perennial produces bright yellow 2 inch daisies that are highly attractive to five key kinds of beneficials—ladybugs, lacewings, flower flies, tachinid flies and mini-wasps. It was the only plant out of 170 species to score this well in a 3-year study at botanical gardens in Colorado and Wyoming. Golden marguerite thrives in poor soils, growing 2 to 3 feet high and wide. Deadhead (remove spent flowers) to promote rebloom, and divide plants every 2 to 3 years. Hardy in zones 3 to 7.

       

7. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) Long-lasting fennel flowers are extremely attractive to all nectar-feeding beneficial insects, and the feathery green or purple foliage looks wonderful in spring and early summer. Fennel is a host plant for the caterpillars of the anise swallowtail butterfly. The seeds and leaves are also eaten by humans, and are excellent in salads (leaves) or spaghetti sauce (seeds). The plants grow about 5 feet high and are perennial in zones 6-9.

      

 8. Mountain Mints (Pycnanthemum virginianum and P. muticum) Both of these native mountain mints (and many other members of the mint family) are excellent choices for Beneficial Borders. Short-toothed mountain mint (P. muticum) has broad clusters of small white flowers surrounded by unique, showy white bracts; it makes beautiful dried flowers. Mountain mints grow 2 to 3 feet tall and are hardy from zones 4 to 7. Not yet widely available, these plants can be ordered from Sunnybrook Farms, 440-729- 7232.

       

9. Pussy Willows (Salix species) Willows are especially valuable because they produce pollen so early in the spring, when many beneficials are just emerging. Pussy willows are super-easy to grow and fun to cut for flower arrangements. Most garden centers will carry pussy willows in spring, or you can root cuttings from a neighbors' shrub in water.

       

10. Ornamental Grasses All clump-forming grasses provide excellent summer shelter and overwintering sites for ground beetles, ladybugs and other beneficials. Studies in England found more than 1,500 predators per square yard in grass-covered "beetle banks" planted in arable fields.

       

[plus]

       

11. Corn Corn tassels produce large amounts of pollen that is a nutritious protein source for many beneficials. And while we usually don't think of corn as an ornamental, it's actually very striking when planted in flower beds. Think of it as a very fast- growing, tall ornamental grass. And if you want an extra bit of beauty, try the 'Japonica' corn which has green, white and pink variegated leaves.