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My fledgling winter kitchen garden

And it’s a good one. Gardening is more than a hobby to me. The challenge of figuring out how to grow a new plant (from orchids to celeriac), doing battle against the changeable Colorado weather, growing something unusual, especially tasty, or heirloom, and then cooking something fabulous with it, growing something so local that no gas is required to grow it, harvest it, or bring it home, and doing so organically, is nearly religion for me. But now I have a new challenge–how to get my gardening fix in a city, and a city as far north as Helsinki at that.

My efforts started on week one. In a typical winter in Colorado, I have carrots in the ground, parsley, spinach, and more carrots in the cold-frame, and a cellar full of root vegetables to last the winter-long. I always have herbs growing indoors in a south-facing window, and by January, my seed starting kicks into high gear. I don’t have that here. It’s so dark in the winter that I doubt a pot of herbs would survive, let alone produce, during the dark months. And even though I found an awesome source of local organic veggies called Makumaku (or “taste”) that I’m dying to try, I am not going to have room for anything resembling a root cellar in our flat (although there is the requisite bomb shelter in the building…I wonder if they’d mind a small crate of veggies down there…hmmm…).

Yesterday’s visit to the grocery store yielded my first clue. Many of the herbs come with roots attached in tiny little pots. Lettuces also seem to come this way. And they make a nifty little contraption that holds the pots and provides a built-in fluorescent light to keep them growing. For now, the kitchen of our temporary apartment has an under-cabinet fluorescent light that should keep the rosemary, basil, pea shoots, chives & lettuces I bought yesterday alive.

Our relocation consultant has also promised to look into a community garden plot for me, and my infamous Hobbit-shovel, a weed digger, a hand trowel, and my gardening gloves were optimistically packed in the shipment of goods that is now making its way by boat from NYC to Helsinki. So rest assured there will be more garden blogging, but this year (and for the next several years) it will be live from Helsinki!

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Fava Beans sprout with the peas in the early spring garden

I try new varieties of the old favorites (tomatoes & peppers) just about every year. But recently, I’ve expanded my range a bit so that I try a whole new variety of vegetable each season. There have been failures (bronze fennel was not my favorite, black turtle beans were delicious, but not very productive, and I’m still trying to come up with a variety of cauliflower that is edible in our hot, hot climate!), but there have also been some vegetables that have moved from a garden trial to an annual favorite.

There is an element of the unknown in trying new vegetables, so start small with just 1-2 new types. A whole garden filled with vegetables you haven’t grown before could mean disaster in the form of total crop failure.

Here are a few vegetables that I have tried over the past five years or so that now make a regular appearance in my garden:

This heirloom rhubarb moved with us to Lyons and is finally settling in during its third season here.

Fennel – Unlike its more ornamental cousin, bronze fennel, Italian style bulb fennel is tender, tasty, not invasive, and easy to grow. I’ve grown fennel both from seedlings that I started indoors or from direct-sowing in the garden and have had success both ways. This year, I’m trying two new varieties (Zefa Fino and Finnochio) of Italian fennel and am looking forward to grilling it all summer long. This bulb is a good keeper too if kept wrapped tight in plastic wrap in the fridge, and its crunchy texture will be welcomed in January!

Fava or Broad Beans – I was introduced to Fava Beans when I lived in England from 2001-2003 and, although the seeds are difficult to procure (even if you find them, they seem to sell out fast!), I have noticed that they seem to be catching on in Boulder County and now several farmers sell them at the market. Planted with peas in early spring, these large beans are delicious sauteed with garlic and sage and tossed into your favorite pasta dish, onto bruschetta, or as a stand-alone side dish. I’m growing Ianto’s Yellow and Windsor this year, having grown Windsor last year with fair success (especially considering that I mistakenly planted them with the beans in May last year instead of with the peas in March!).

And new this year…Celeriac – I can’t necessarily recommend growing celeriac since my very first crop just went into the ground this weekend. But I do know that I love its crisp, mildly-celery-flavored root and that this is another crunchy vegetable that will keep all winter long if stored properly. A common salad vegetable in Europe, Celeriac is another vegetable that I find occasionally here and hope to see more of in coming years.

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Four trays of seedlings waiting for their time in the sun!

Why Harden Off?

Plants are wildly adaptable, which is part of the reason they grow all over the planet, inside and out. But that means that the structure of the plant itself (from the thickness of its stem to how open its pores are) is different based on whether it was started outside in the sometimes harsh and variable conditions of early spring or indoors where light, moisture, food, and wind are constant. You can replicate some outdoor conditions for your seedlings by directing a fan at the seedlings as they grow and by putting them somewhere where the temperature is a bit variable, but they’re still in for a shock when they move to your garden bed.

To minimize that shock, you have to do what is called hardening off the seedlings. Hardening off means gradually exposing the plant to longer and longer periods of outdoor conditions and should take place over two full weeks for best results. I know it’s tough to take the time to do this, but if you do, you will have healthier plants, with reduced transplant shock and wilting, and will get vegetables or blooms faster than if you skimp on the hardening off process.

How to Harden Off Seedlings

So, two full weeks before you want to plant seedlings outdoors, and when seedlings have at least two sets of true leaves, water your flat of seedlings fairly generously and set the flat of seedlings outside in a partially shaded location when the temperatures are above 50 degrees (I will fudge and put things out at 45 if they are cool season crops like onions & brassicas). If there is heavy wind, consider waiting for another day.

Yes, it is possible that you won’t be able to put your seedlings out every single day. And yes, this process is more difficult if you work outside the home, but an hour in the late afternoon after work is better than nothing at all, so do what you can. The first day, put the seedlings out for an hour and then bring them back in. If they seem dry at all, water them again.

Sun burn on a Cauliflower seedling

Over the course of the next two weeks, slowly increase the number of hours the plants are outside until they are out for the entire day. Do not leave them outside if temperatures are going to dip into the 30s, especially at night. As you increase the amount of outdoor exposure they’re getting, decrease the water. They likely won’t be getting watered every day in their permanent home, so the idea is to slowly get them used to being watered every other day, then every third day.

Sun injury on a tomato leaf during the hardening off process

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Townsendia hookeri - One of the earliest daisy-type wildflowers

Usually, I’d say the wildflower season in this area begins in March. But we’ve had a cool, wet spring, so I think things are getting off to a late start. That’s part of the reason I was delighted to find so many little treasures blooming on my first Rabbit Mountain hike of the season yesterday afternoon. There were definitely some familiar favorites such as Viola nuttallii (Nuttall Violet) and Lomatium orientale (biscuit root), but there was also the earlier blooming of the new chickweeds – Cerastium nutans – and annual blue violet Viola kitaibeliana var. rafinesquei. For those of you who are interested in what’s starting to green up, prickly pear, Artemisia frigida, yucca, currants, and rabbit brush were all beginning to make an appearance. And of course the blue mustard and other early-season weeds are beginning to go mad.

Corydalis aurea - Golden Smoke - blooming yesterday at Rabbit Mountain

The Corydalis took ages, however. The foliage indicates that the plant is in the pea family, but the flowers are tubular like others in the family Scrophulariaceae (like penstemon, for example). After exhausting the possibilities in those two families, we finally stumbled upon Corydalis. I realize that geeking out on botanical classifications may not be your cup of tea and that’s just fine–you can let me do the hard work, and Matt will provide the gorgeous photos as always. I’m going to try to venture to Button Rock (where I would eventually like to teach) this weekend, so expect more photos soon!

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Easter morning seems like an appropriate time for the peas to sprout!

With peas germinating in early April, we should be eating peas by early June. And after a long, cold winter, that’s sweet spring music to this gardener’s ears. So whether you’re celebrating Passover, Easter, the beginning of spring, or something else all together, have a great day!

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Our crocuses are finally in bloom! Gorgeous photo courtesy of Matthew Artz

As such, I thought I’d divide this post into what you should be doing in the veggie garden and what you should be looking for (or potentially planting later in the season) in your flower beds. Seeing the first crocus of spring (which we had just this week–a full month later than usual!) is as exciting to me as seeing the first spinach and pea sprouts, and my recent posts have been so veggie-focused that I want to give flower gardening a bit of love today too!

Spring Color Starts Now!
Bulbs such as crocus, daffodils, and grape hyacinth are traditionally the first harbingers of spring color in the garden, but did you know there are other bulbs that are both beautiful and hardy? My favorite is scilla, also sometimes called wood hyacinth. It’s just putting up flower stems from its location in my lawn (yes, we underplanted our lawn with both scilla and crocus to give us a little color before the grass greens up). If you’re looking for an alternative to fiddly/thirsty hyacinth & tulips, scilla is a nice way to go.

Another traditional favorite that is busy greening up in my garden right now is creeping phlox. You don’t have to grow your grandmother’s traditional lavender creeping phlox either. Check out this gorgeous white selection from Plant Select: Phlox bifida “Snowmass”. If you have these coming up in your garden right now, be sure to give them a little drink to help them green up and bloom faster!

Horehound is another one that’s really perking up in my garden right now. This one is pretty all season long and can really take a beating both in terms of child/puppy traffic and drought tolerance.

One plant that surprised me already this spring is Penstemon pinifolius or pine-leaf beardtongue. I have a couple of these cute little hummingbird attractors and they are putting out a ton of needle-like glossy green leaves right about now.

It’s about time for another one of my favorites (and a Colorado native) to start blooming too: Pulsatilla ludoviciana. Its European cousin, Pulsatilla vulgaris, is fairly easy to find and lovely in the early spring garden. I am trying to propagate Pulsatilla patens (native a bit further south here in Colorado), but so far, no joy! Best to buy plants on this one because starting from seed is tough.

If your yard is still looking “blah” and you’ve got Mother’s Day dollars to spend at the local nursery, any of these would be a good choice to plant this spring and enjoy next year.

April is Planting Time!
OK, before you go crazy planting tomatoes, I should clarify: April is planting time for cool-weather crops like onions, fennel, and cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage). If you’ve already started tomatoes and peppers indoors and are ready to start some additional flats, you can start your melons, cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins indoors between now and the end of April. The less space you have, the later you should plant these seeds because they get big quickly and you won’t want to plant them outside until mid-May if you’re in Zone 5.

My garlic is almost 6 inches tall now and really growing well now that the soil is warming. I’ve got volunteer leeks & sorrel coming up that are almost ready to harvest, and I’ve been stalking my asparagus bed like you wouldn’t believe looking for sprouts. Still no sign of the peas, but they should be sprouting very soon. Horseradish, tarragon, chives, and chamomile have sprouted as well and the oregano is already large enough that I’m thinking I may have to divide it before summer.

So it’s all happening folks. Spring is finally here!

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Common Colorado weeds (clockwise from upper left): thistle, mallow, dandelion, bind weed

That’s because, starting right about now, I go out once a week and pull every single weed in my yard. Right now, the weeds are small and the ground is soft. There also aren’t that many weeds right now, so you can achieve a sense of accomplishment with just a half an hour here and there. Just because I said it was easy to pull weeds right now doesn’t mean it’s not important. Pulling weeds right now, before they can reseed, grow a massive root system, or spread, is just about the most important thing you can do in the spring garden.

Weeds compete with your ornamental and food plants for sunlight, soil nutrients, and water, and can also provide shelter for diseases, insects, and animals that damage garden plants. While planting fast-growing, drought tolerant plants or densely-planted garden beds that can shade out weeds, and mulching mid-spring after pulling as many weeds as you can provides an excellent defense against weed infestation, the truth is that most of us have weeds in our yard despite our best efforts.

Getting to know your weeds is an important first step to controlling them. Some weeds respond well hoeing, but some of the most difficult weeds simply regenerate from their long tap root if you remove their greenery at soil level. Ever spent an afternoon carefully digging up bind weed roots only to have the weed regrow from the tiny fragment of root left behind? Ever hoed a thistle plant off at the surface 800 times in a season only to have a forest regrow the next year? Then you know what I’m talking about.

A few of the more common weeds seen in the spring garden in Colorado include:

• Thistle, a prickly perennial weed, can regrow from a tiny root fragment.
• Mallow, which looks like a wild geranium, grows both as an annual and biennial and has a long, tough tap root that will regrow unless you are diligent about digging the entire root out. A long pronged weed digger is probably the best tool to use to eradicate both thistle and mallow.
• Dandelion is probably the best known and least problematic of these weeds. Characterized by the familiar yellow flowers and a deep tap root, this perennial weed can be controlled fairly easily with pulling as long as you do it before the pretty white seed heads have dispersed all over the yard.
• Bindweed, a perennial vine that has small morning glory-like flowers, plagues most Colorado gardens. Pulling this weed is largely ineffective because any tiny fragment of its deep root system will reroot. Scraping the plant off at soil level with a hoe will, over time, weaken the plant and starve the roots. But if you’ve got a well-established patch, expect it to take several seasons to get the stuff under control.

This weekend, I pulled about 50 weeds out of the garden, which was about 10 times as many as I had the weekend previous, so things are definitely starting to grow as the weather warms. I pulled a mix of dandelion, salsify, thistle, annual weedy grasses, and a few things that I had planted that were reseeding where I didn’t want them to (chamomile & peas, actually!). Next weekend, I’ll probably be up to closer to a full bucket of weeds, but by our big planting weekend (usually mid-May), I’ll be able to focus on planting instead of worrying about pulling weeds. And by the hottest days of the year, I promise you I’ll be drinking beer instead of pulling weeds. You should try it…

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Seedlings that are just about big enough to transplant

OK, you’ve identified how much garden space you need, chosen your veggies, planned some container gardens,  started seedlings, completed all of your March garden tasks, and chosen a seed company, now you’re probably ready to transplant some of those seedlings you started!

Check your seedlings and if they’re not quite big enough to transplant, be ruthless and thin to one plant per cell on all vegetables except perhaps onions and basil. Thin by pinching the extra seedlings off at soil level with your fingernails so that you don’t risk disturbing the roots of the one strongest-looking seedling you want to keep in each cell. It has taken me years to get up the courage to murder plants I started from seed, but doing so has made my plants better in the long run. So do it.

The roots are just starting to show here - time to transplant!

Next, if your seedlings have two true sets of leaves, or if roots are starting to come out the bottom of the four-packs, it’s probably time to transplant. Try to transplant before the plants are fighting each other for sunlight or are so root bound that you see a mass of white roots when you pull the seedling out of the cell-pack. In either of these scenarios, the seedling is already compromised and you want to transplant before that happens.

Just like with starting the seeds, you need a bag or two of pre-moistened potting medium (I’ve been using Eko and am pretty happy with it) and some nice clean pots. I typically use ones I’ve saved from garden-center purchases in past seasons, usually in 2.25″ or 3.5″ sizes. If you started with soil-less medium, make sure this time that you’ve got something with a little compost or worm castings in it to feed the plants as they grow.

Once you’ve assembled all of your supplies, pinched back your extra seedlings (wait a minute, you didn’t pinch them back?! Go back and reread paragraph 2 and then GET RUTHLESS), and put on some grubby clothes, take a break and count your seedlings. Then–and this is very important–label your pots. Sticking a plant marker in a four-pack of seedlings is one thing, but writing out individual labels for the potted-up plants can be daunting, expensive, and prone to disaster in the form of children who like to pull out plant-markers. So I use a Brother-style label printer and print out the variety and stick it on the pot BEFORE I PLANT IN IT. That way, I won’t forget, have trouble getting it to stick because my hands are covered with soil, etc.

It’s likely that the first plants to be ready for transplant will the be tomatoes. Yes, even though you planted the peppers first, the tomatoes grow more quickly and will likely need to be transplanted as much as 4 weeks before your peppers. So label your tomato pots and then water all your seedlings. Moist soil will be easier to handle and you’ll be less likely to damage your plants. Then gently slide a cell out of it’s cell-pack (I turn them upside down and gently squeeze with my fingers supporting the soil so that the seedling doesn’t fall onto the floor) and place it in a pot already 75% filled with soil. Add more soil around the seedling (I usually plant the seedling a bit below what it’s original soil level was) and pack very gently. Put it in an empty flat (because you’ll want to continue to water these seedlings from the bottom) and move on to the next one.

Now is probably a good time to start feeding the little guys too. I use Neptune’s Harvest seaweed blend and it does not smell great, but it seems to work well. Most of the “how-tos” I’ve read say to fertilize every two weeks, but I think the best thing to do is watch your plants. If they’re growing strong and there are no off colors (purple or yellow leaves, for example), then keep doing what you’re doing. You may find with the natural fertilizers you need to feed a bit more often. I probably feed mine every time I remember, which works out to about every 1.5 weeks (or about every third time I water) because I don’t remember to do it every other week.

And then the waiting begins. Will it be a snowy spring or will you be able to set your wall-o-waters out on April 1. Will your plants outgrow your space before they can be moved to the cold frames outside. What, you’ve never heard of a wall-o-water? Looks like I need to blog about season extenders next time…

Continue reading »]]> In December last year, the first gorgeous, glossy seed magazine arrived in my mailbox. After fleeing to a private spot to drool review it in detail, I started thinking about how we choose where to buy our seeds. If the early bird truly does get the worm, Seeds of Change, sender of that first beautiful catalog, would have gotten my money this year, just as they have the past several years. But this year, I’m choosing my seeds from other sources and perhaps explaining my reasoning will help you make your decisions too.

Greenwashing at its Worst
A few years ago, Seeds of Change switched from paper seed packets to recyclable #1 plastic packets. Their claim was that this was better for the environment because the seed packets took less energy to produce and were recyclable. This, to me, smacks of greenwashing. First, because using virgin plastic may take less energy, but the more likely reason to make the switch would be because it’s cheaper for Seeds of Change, not because it’s better for the environment.

Think about it. Do you know any gardeners who are advanced enough to be starting things from seed who don’t compost? Doubtful. And it takes a lot less energy (i.e. no energy at all) to put a paper seed packet in the compost than it does to use fossil fuel to transport #1 plastic to the recycling center and more fossil fuel to then recycle the plastic.

Ridiculous Shipping Practices
While I can appreciate the huge growth Seeds of Change has seen and how difficult it must be to keep seed in stock with unprecedented demand, I will never understand how a company that says it’s committed to the environment (their site even says they’re working on being carbon neutral!) can justify breaking up my order into so many multiple shipments that I literally received over twenty gigantic envelopes, some with a single seed packet in each.

When questioned, they claimed they were trying to get me the seed as quickly as possible, but in some cases I received multiple individually-packed seed packets on the same day.

Timing is Everything
Again, I can understand how business can boom in unexpected ways, but with seed orders, timing is everything. Sending packets of tomato/peppers seeds in May is not particularly helpful, nor is sending orders of fava beans a full year after they were ordered!

But enough ranting…
I did not intend this post to be a rant against Seeds of Change, but merely an example of some things besides the quality of the seed to consider when choosing a seed company. Truth be told, I have had excellent luck with germination from Seeds of Change, and have likewise felt that their selection and the quality of the varieties they carry are excellent. If they would change some of their packaging and shipping practices, I would be delighted to order from them once again.

Consider the source
Now that I’ve talked about everything but seed quality, let’s dive in. I prefer organic seed, although every packet of seeds I buy is not organic. I believe organic farming practices are more sustainable, and I also prefer that my family’s food supply come from the healthiest, most sustainable sources possible. If you buy seed one year (organic or not) and it comes to you looking funky, doesn’t germinate well, or doesn’t produce strong seedlings, you can safely move on to a different company the following year. But knowing a little bit about the environmental practices of your seed supplier–something that may not be obvious from using the seed you ordered from them–is also a good thing. If your seed is coming from a company owned by Monsanto, you’re supporting not only the seed, but everything else Monsanto does. That may not be what you’re after!

The advantages of ordering local
Here in Boulder County, we’re extremely lucky to have quite a few local seed providers. Buying from local providers not only keeps your dollars in the local economy, and supports small business, but also allows you to reap the benefits from producers who have grown plants in your specific climate.

That’s why this year I bought many of my seeds from Botanical Interests, who, by the way, sent all my seed in one appropriately-sized and compostable package within 10 days of my order. And why I will continue to buy the amazing and unusual varieties of seeds offered by my friends at Abbondanza. Beauty Beyond Belief is also another wonderful Colorado vendor who also has a nice selection of native wildflower and grass mixes.

When local isn’t an option…
Some of the medicinal & tea herbs that I like to grow are not carried by the local vendors, and I do like to expand my selection of heirloom tomatoes and peppers from time to time, so I do sometimes from non-local vendors. The Cook’s Garden, Horizon Herbs, and Irish Eye Garden Seed are ones myself or members of my family have had good luck with. This is by no means an exhaustive list, so lack of mention here should not be taken as a negative endorsement.

Seed Buying is Personal Choice
In the end, seed-buying is a personal choice. If you’re running behind and pick up a few packets of seed from the local big-box store, it’s not the end of the world (although browsing seeds is a great thing to do during dark January days). If you have a favorite local nursery who carries a brand I haven’t mentioned here, but can give share their own knowledge of the quality and suitability of the seed, go for it! Regardless, I hope this post gave you some food for thought as you make seed purchases this season.