Fresh asparagus today. Yum!

Spring? Finally?

Planting season is finally here in USA Zone 5. Time to get ambitious and not forget the basics.

Be frugal. Grow from seed. Trade seeds with friends. Don’t overpay for plants from anywhere.

If you can’t resist the urge to start from plants, and didn’t start your own, spend the extra few dollars at a locally owned farm stand or garden store. Chances are, the proprietor is behind the counter and really appreciates your business.

Amend your soil. In my Clarence, NY area, a dairy farmer dries and bags cow manure, creating a high quality fertilizer for $5 per bag.

You can even go cheaper. Look for a sawmill in your town with excess sawdust of other sources of inexpensive or free organic matter.

This is the third year for my 18-by-25 foot vegetable garden in its current location. Years one and two I worked in three yards of double-screened mulch ($18 from Amherst, NY, loaded in my pickup). I also worked in half a pick-up load of horse manure (free but with a bit more weed-seed).

I also left all the leaves from my yard to rot on the garden in the fall and tilled them in when spring came. I turn the whole thing over once with my trusty spade and once with my 45-year–old Merrytiller (the best thing about it was I garbage picked it.)

This year, I worked in the aforementioned cow manure. My garden soil is luscious. In fact, I just repotted a house plant in some of it. I will use more mulch, sawdust and newspaper, to lay paths in another few weeks. Those paths will decompose and be tilled in next year.

Gardening is a never-ending experiment. Keep trying new things.

Here’s one more: Spend $3 on four tomato plants from that farm stand or grocery. Bring them home and plant them. Direct seed four tomato plants, following planting directions.

You may get an earlier yield for your $3, but total yield will be even by season end and watching the miracle is like raising your own child there is nothing better.

Another nice thing is that psychologically, no one wants to waste anything. Admit it. We’ve all done it. Pay $12 for a flat of vegetable plants. Get home. You can’t resist. You plant them too close together rather than discarding or giving away the extras. Then you end up with a lower yield and a tangled mess of tomato plants.

Grow from seed and you won’t have such worries because the psychological construct is different – you will save seed rather than over plant.

Lastly, as you do anything, keep a diary. Record mundane details like when you -planted and what the weather was like. Make notes of what you added to your soil or how the pH tested when you took it to the Cooperative Extension stand at the town farm market. It will give you an important record you can use for future reference.

Joe Genco is a contributing write for Mike the Gardener Enterprises, home for the Seeds of the Month Club. You can e-mail him at joegenco@gmail.com.

Avoid these 6 Mistakes when Starting Tomato Seeds

Germination and development are critical phases for tomato seedlings. If you know what seed starting mistakes to avoid, you have an excellent chance to grow strong, healthy tomato plants to set out in your garden.

Mistake #1: Wrong planting medium
Fungi and bacteria in non-sterile soil can lead to damping off. When seeds dampen off, they don’t germinate. When sprouted seedlings contract damping off, they thin at the soil line, flop over, and die. Do everything possible to prevent damping off organisms from infecting your tomato seed starting flats. Avoid using garden soil to start seedlings because it is packed with bacteria and fungi. Potting soil is not the best option for starting seeds, either, because it is heavy and too high in fertilizer. Sterile potting mix, either purchased or home made from peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite, is a better choice for planting tomato seeds.

Mistake #2: Overwatering
Soggy potting mix can lead to seed rot, which can mean no germination. No sprouting = no tomato seedlings = no plants. Keep your potting mix evenly moist.

Mistake #3: Cold or drafty room
Maintain your room temperature between 70-80° F. Sustained cool temperatures can mean slow germination and slow growth. But be careful that the area is not too hot either, which can lead to leggy plants.

Mistake #4: Poor light
Sometimes tomato seeds will germinate and grow well for a couple of weeks. But when they are a couple of inches tall, they may bend toward the light and look stringy. Avoid scraggly plants by providing adequate light. Make sure plants are in a sunny window with 12-16 hours of light a day or place them 1-3 inches beneath grow lights.

Mistake #5: No transplanting
The purpose of transplanting seedlings is to stimulate root development. Plants started in smaller containers (cell packs, peat pots, or seed trays) and then moved to 4-6 inch pots develop stronger root systems than plants which are not transplanted at all. When transplanting, it’s wise to submerge the exposed stem deeper into the soil, thereby supporting the plant, preventing legginess, and stimulating root growth along the buried stem. Seedlings that are not transplanted fail to develop as strong root systems. Transplant seedlings when plants have two full sets of leaves.

Mistake #6: Inappropriate tomato varieties
Even when you start and grow healthy plants to set out in the garden, if you choose varieties that are inappropriate for your zone or for your gardening conditions, you may not harvest a quality crop. For instance, if you live in a cool, wet climate and start tomato varieties that do best in hot, dry areas, your crop may not produce high numbers or quality fruit. Or you may plan to grow container tomatoes, which require dwarf or tumbling varieties to do best. But the large garden varieties you started indoors won’t flourish in containers. Take time before you plant seeds to choose tomato varieties that are best for your situation. Then by carefully monitoring your tomato seedling crop, you can ensure a healthy, productive outcome this tomato season.

About the Author
Kathy Widenhouse is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises and owner of Tomato Dirt (www.tomatodirt.com), a leading source for information on growing tomatoes and using them.

Ode to the Shovel

There’s an old story about Ben Franklin learning the wisdom of trying to polish a freshly forged shovel to shiny newness.

He questioned why the shovel was brown and ugly.

The blacksmith set him to polishing it to make it more aesthetically pleasing. A few hours later, he understood why the ugly shovel was just fine.

A lot can be said for that sort of wisdom.

It’s sort of like when I approached the forge at the renaissance festival.

“Why do you use an electric blower on your forge?”

The response was quick.

“Come back here lad, I’ve got a hand bellow you can use for the afternoon. Then you’ll not ask again.”

A short time later, I understood why he uses an electric blower and why it’s important to moderate your mead intake.

No tool is more valuable in your garden than a simple spade.

They last for years. Spades are like cars, in a way. Buy a new one and you get to break it in and enjoy that shiny new feel. Find one at a garage or an estate sale and you can take advantage of the depreciation realized when the first owner took it home from the store.

In our region of upstate New York, the going garage or estate sale price for a spade is $4. A high quality replacement at the hardware store is $20 or so.

A digging fork is almost as valuable but can cost $50 or more. Seek the drop forged kind, not the cheap one with welded tongs. A good fork can be had second hand for the price of a shovel because they seem the same aft er few years of use.

At the store, never buy the cheapest tool on the rack. The plastic handle on that shovel is guaranteed to snap five or six years from now. Hence, the $15 shovel will be gone from service and replaced with another $15 shovel while the $25 shovel remains in service.

To quote arts and crafts maven Elbert Hubbard, it’s not how cheap but how good.

A few years ago, fiberglass handles were all the rage in digging tools, with a 10-year warranty. The one I proudly bought snapped this spring. There were none similar at the store when I went back for a replacement. The proprietress gave me one with a wooden handle as a replacement, no questions asked.

As winter sets in, scrub down your favorite digging tools with a wire brush, some sandpaper or soap and water. Use a file to give it a new beveled edge. You can even sharpen the points on your favorite digging fork. Think of it as changing the oil on your car. A cleaner, sharper tool is easier to work with and guaranteed to last longer.

Most importantly, take a moment to think about how simple and effective that shovel is. It’s not all that different from the one Franklin wrote about so very long ago.


(Joe Genco is a contributing writer for Mike the Gardener Enterprises and registered representative with New England Financial. You can e-mail him at joegenco@gmail.com)