It’s time yet again to check out the plantings on the Frugal Upstate Village Homestead!  So I’ll ask you-How’s it Growin???

Things are starting to warm up sporadically around here (although there was a frost warning last night!).  The daylight hours are indeed getting longer and I’m itching to be able to get my full garden in.  Alas, unless I’m feeling brave many things still need to wait until Memorial Day (although I may try the beans a bit early.  Rebel!)

Luckily some of the early spring items, fall planted items and perennials are up!

I bought some lettuce seedlings this year.  It seems like when I plant lettuce it starts growing and then we hit a spurt of hot weather and it bolts!  So I figured I’d just try a few seedlings this year.In front of the store bought seedlings I went ahead and planted some lettuce seed (succession planting!) After a week they have just started sprouting.  I’ll have to thin them soon down to one plant per spot.The English Peas (ie the kind you shell and eat as peas discarding the shell itself) have finally started to really grow with a purpose.The turnips that I planted last fall and let overwinter have gone to flower.  You can actually eat the flowers (they taste sort of cabbage-y).  However I’ve just left them there so that the bees can enjoy them!  I have lots of happy little insects buzzing around.  Plus the seed heads are starting to form-I’m interested to try seed saving just to hone those skills.

Here’s a closeup of the flowers.  They are actually quite delicate!  I didn’t take pictures but the one Kale plant I had left from last year and the couple of Tat Soi have both bolted and put up flowers and seed pods as well.

This is back in the big garden.  The green fence is the one I showed last time with the itty bitty sugar snap pea seedlings that something had started munching on.  I have now planted and additional row of snap peas on this side of the fence.  I also purchased brussel sprout seedlings and planted them here.  This edge of the garden is actually shaded part of the day, so I think that the sprouts will do well here since it will be a bit cooler.This is just on the other side of that fence.  You can see the sugar snap peas which have been growing for a while (they were planted about a week and a half after the english peas)  and then that really small growth in between is where I replanted the peas that had been munched on.In front of that row I planted some broccoli seedlings that I purchased.  So now I have a “thick” row with a fence down the middle that goes, left to right, broccoli, peas, fence, peas, brussel sprouts.  My thought process is that the peas will grow up the fence while the broccoli & Brussel sprouts are small.  Then eventually the peas will give up the ghost in early summer and I’ll be able to tear them out just about the time that the broccoli & brussel sprouts are getting bit and they will have the room.

That’s the theory any way-we’ll see!

Next I left a space for a walking aisle and then I planted another row of sugar snap peas.  They have not yet started sprouting-so this is an unexciting picture of dirt.  But the posts are in and actually I’ve strung the fence since I took this picture.  I left enough space to plant another shade loving crop-maybe more lettuce or some chard on the other side of this.  From this row over the garden gets significantly more sun.

Now I’m standing with my back to the row you just saw.  Basically where the carrots were overwintered (they are all gone now).  I still have a few overwintered leeks left to eat.

I’ve got a big triple row of garlic-which is not only tasty but also has antibacterial properties.  So it’s an aromatic and a medicinal herb/plant!On this little patch of garden on the far side of the stepping stone I have a big patch of a weed called “lambsquarter”.  Last year I had let one grow on the side of the garden and obviously it dropped a lot of seeds.  I pulled all the rest but are letting these go for now.  This is an edible-the leaves taste sort of like spinach.  I really enjoy it, it grows naturally, early and easily.  So I’m going to let these go and perhaps dig some of them up and replant them somewhere else.  Why fight trying to get something like spinach grow through the summer when this stuff WANTs to grow?

(note: that’s actually a stone step-we think it was a horse mounting block-it goes about a foot down in the soil and weighs a ton-it can’t be moved so the garden goes around it.)Here’s a close up of the lambsquarter.  Make sure you use a good website like Wildman Steve Brill’s or a good field guide to identify your wild edibles.  And make darn sure you know what any look a-likes are and how to tell the difference so you don’t eat something dangerous.

Now I’m standing behind the garden looking at my little raspberry patch.  You cant really see it but directly in front of this is the green fencing with that wide row of brussel sprouts/peas/peas/broccoli. . . These raspberries actually produced a bit last year-so hopefully I’ll get some berries this year too.  (like a cup, but hey!). Raspberry leaves also have some medicinal properties and can be used for tea.  I’ve got wild blackberry growing on the fenceline closer to the house-we barely get any berries from those but again, those leaves can be used in tea and have medicinal uses as well.Speaking of tea, my Oswego Tea (aka bergamot or scarlet beebalm) is popping up, and in a thicker patch than the original stuff I purchased & planted last year.  Yay!  This does multiple duty as an ornamental, an edible (at least as tea) and a bee attractor.   Triple win!Farther down the fenceline the horseradish (surrounded by some dandelion) is going gangbusters.  I really am not sure why we need THREE horseradish plants (only one shown) but there you are.Off on the very side of my property our little tiny asparagus bed is happily chugging away.  We’ve had about 4 sprout up.  They really aren’t enough for a meal so I just snap them off and eat them raw.  Yum.  I really do need to figure out planting some more.  Right behind these is a fence that I like to plant things up.  Last year I grew my vining summer squash up the fence, but this year I think I’ll plant some beans to add nitrogen back into the soil.  Squash is a heavy feeder-so that should be a good rotation.

The rhubarb is doing great over by the barn.  I’ve already cut out a couple of seed heads–this is an antique strain from a friend’s very old homestead.  Unlike more “modern” cultivars it likes to send up seedheads right away.  I don’t care what the books say, I just cut them off and the plant keeps producing rhubarb.

Now back by the house I have my pot of Egyptian Walking Onions.  I need to find a good home for these this year and get them out of the pot.  I can’t decide what the best spot is-I’ll have to do that soon.

Now to the mostly container herb garden I have right by the back steps.  As a matter of fact that cement step you see IS the bottom step leading up to my back door.  The chives actually started out back a couple of feet but they moved themselves up here and are quite happy. The first round of chive blossoms (which are edible) are out, and we’ve been using the chives in cooking for over a month.  That’s a job I frequently give the kiddos while I’m in the middle of cooking–”take the scissors and go get me 2 chives”.About a food behind the chives is my lovage plant.  It’s already up to the top step and will grow up at least as far as that sign.  I usually have to hack it down a couple of times each summer so it doesn’t take over!  Loveage has a strong celery flavor and is lovely in soups, chopped up in salads etc.This is some lavender that took a couple of years to really get going.  Now it’s draping over the driveway-which isn’t the best.  I’m probably going to move it soon.  Here is my crazy sage that isn’t supposed to be perennial in my zone and yet has come back for two years.  Sage is of course the herb you think of when you think of “poultry seasoning”.  It tastes good in a variety of things. It also has medicinal properties.Many herbs are not perennial for me due to our cold winters.  I purchased these 3 pots (there are two in that front circle) and will plant them up in these containers.  From front to back they are rosemary, oregano and thyme.  All of them are culinary and have some medicinal properties.

In the other planters (not circled) I have two kinds of mint and some lemon balm.  The red self watering planters that I did the tutorial on last year will be used this year for peppers.

 And that’s how it’s growin at the Frugal Upstate Village homestead!  How are your garden plan progressing?

Despite the wildly fluctuating weather (80 one day, 60 the next) the plants in Upstate New York are starting to grow!

Let me give you a tour around the 1/3 acre Frugal Upstate Village Homestead and I’ll show you “How’s it Growin?”!

Let’s start around the front porch! While that yellow green plant (who’s name I always forget) is an evergreen the little azalea bush behind it is not.  I was surprised to see it blooming already, but the porch provides a windbreak and the driveway right next to it provides heat which must make a good microclimate for it!

Along the front of the porch you can see the 4 big hostas starting to come up and unfurl their leaves.  I actually need to dig those up and chunk them in half for replanting-they are starting to shade out the small Stella d’Oro Daylilies that I have planted in between each one (that’s the small green spiky stuff).  Aparently I forgot to go around the corner and take pictures of the little red sprouts of my peonies that are poking up between the hostas there.  I just love perennial landscaping-makes my life easy!

Along the front walk and scattered in the lawn I can see the first violets of spring popping up!  Violets are not only pretty, they are edible and medicinal.  The leaves and flowers can be eaten in salads, you can sugar the blooms or make violet syrup (although it takes a LOT of blooms).

As I head around the back of the house I come to my mostly containered herb garden that is right by the back door and in the nice microclimate provided by the driveway and the house.  Many herbs like warmer conditions, so this works well.  The chives as you can see have gotten even bigger since my update last week on the return of the early spring perennials. Ditto for the lovage, which has grown about 6 inches in a week.  The Egyptian walking onions continue to look lush and happy in their pot.The sage that is not supposed to be perennial in my zone continues to put out more and more leaves on the tips.  Yay!

Against all odds I managed to kill off my mint last year.  Which is bizzare because it is usually so invasive and pervasive that I planted it in pots to make sure it didn’t take over my garden!  Last year I planted regular mint in one pot, lemon balm (which is a mint relative) in a second and spearmint in a third.  The spearmint is showing signs of life-but nothing for the other two so far.

The rhubarb is more than just leaves now-there is some red stalk showing.  It’s amazing to see how much growth there is in just a week!  My dear sweet Mother in Law has already pilfered enough to make me my favorite-a rhubarb pie.  Mmm.  It was GOOD.

Now on to a few experimental items.  Last fall I started a few plants to see if I could get a fall harvest.  I waited to late and things weren’t very big before the weather turned.  I used some of it, but then I decided to leave a few things over the winter and see if they would start growing again in the spring.

The turnips never did produce bulbs, just greens-which are tasty.  Up till last week they still looked perfect, but with the warm weather they have since thrown up those long stalks and started flowering.  Likewise the Tatsoi, which usually looks like a rosette of leaves low to the ground, looked like it might put on some size and be edible, but again a bout of warm weather for a few days threw it into chaos and it decided it was time to flower.

The lone Kale that the bunnies didn’t eat (I planted about 8-1 survived) was so tiny in the fall that I just left it.  It has sprung back and about doubled in size.  Luckily it doesn’t seem to be in the same hurry as the turnips and tatsoi to reproduce-no flowering or anything.  I might be able to make Kale chips out of this one!

This is, believe it or not, a brussel sprout plant.  The sprouts form at the junction of the leaves.  While 2 of the plants produced tasty sprouts, a couple were still so small that I decided to let them grow & see what happened in the spring.

Instead of those bitty sprouts putting on weight as I had hoped they are now going to leaf themselves.  Guess I’ll try taking some to use in a stirfry etc, but the rest is going in the compost.

The leeks I tried for the first time last year never really seemed to put on any growth.  So I figured what the heck-I just gave them a thick layer of leaf mulch and left them for the winter.  Viola-that one seems to be a success-they are thickening up nicely.  I can’t wait to try some home grown leek pie.

I planted peas very early this year.  These are the actual shelling peas that I planted in the garden against our shed.  These are the snow peas (like the ones you get in a stirfry)  I started these about a week after the shelling peas in the big garden-and it shows!  They are a bit smaller right now, but they will grow!My huge row of fall planted garlic is growing.  I planted an organic long keeping braidable garlic that I ordered online for about 2/3 of the row.  The last 1/3 I just bought organic garlic at Walmart, split the cloves apart and stuck them in the ground.  I’m looking forward to this crop-I LOVE garlic and use it all the time in my cooking.

This little leafy plant is horseradish!  We have 3 of them that hubs dug up roots from his mom’s house for.  That’s actually way more horseradish than any reasonable family will eat, but hey-we’ve got the room.

This tangle of canes are my black raspberries.  I need to increase and improve this plot.  Raspberries are my absolute, no holds barred favorite fruit.These little green plants coming up are a perennial known as “Bee Balm”.  It’s other name is “Oswego Tea”–yes, it was actually shared by the local Oswego Indians with the early settlers as a substitute for tea.  Last year I grew the flowers from nursery plants-but I didn’t pick any.  I wanted the patch to get a bit bigger.  This year I’m very interested to try the leaves in tea-they are supposed to have a citrus-y taste.

Lastly is knotweed.  This stuff is an invasive pain in the butt–but it is edible and it does have “reservitol” in it which some folks say is wonderful.  They compare the taste to rhubarb, but honestly I don’t see it.  I’ll probably just continue to try to eradicate this plot so it doesn’t keep spreading.

In addition to the things I’ve photographed, of course we still have the garlic mustard (wild) and dandelion greens (wild) popping up.

Soon I expect to see pokeweed, wild grapes, wild blackberries, sumac seedlings and the wild “ditch lilys” that are on the edges pop up as well!  Those are all edible (although I haven’t tried all of them-pokeweed has to be boiled in 3 changes of water or else it is poisonous-ack!  I’ve been meaning to try daylily for a few years, and I didn’t find out that sumac shoots were edible until last fall-too late to try them)

What do you have growing at your place?

Ahh perennials-the frugal gardener’s friend. I just love planting an edible once and having it come back every year without any work from me.  Here are the very early edible spring perennials that are up on the Frugal Upstate Village Homestead.

Chives are a classic in many climates and dead simple to grow. With no attention at all from me they spring up every year to provide early oniony goodness with just the snip of your scissors. Want more? No problem. Just dig up the clump, cut them in half and replant.  These chives live at the bottom of my back steps-it’s supper simple to send the kids out to grab me a few chives to chop into a recipe.  Buddy in particular loves the chives and I’ll frequently find him with one hanging out of his mouth

The Egyptian Walking Onions are a really unusual plant.  They are a green onion (ie you use them like a scallion instead of having it turn into a “bulb”).  As they mature little onion bulbs form at the TOP of the plant.  If left alone the stalk will eventually bend over and hit the ground, thereby “seeding” a new onion.  I started with 4 plants from a friend at the beginning of last summer.  Since I didn’t know where I wanted them to live I stuck them in a pot.  Each time the bulbs grew I pulled them off and stuck them in the ground-look how many grew!  I do need to find a more permanent home for them.

Rhubarb is a vegetable that is used as a fruit.  This plant NEEDS a cold winter, so those of you in the south might not have ever seen any!  The edible part is the stalk-the leaves are actually poisonous (just toss them in the compost).  Rhubarb is super tart-but I love it’s tang when you stew it with some sugar.  This plant is also known as “pie plant” in some areas because it’s long season made it a favorite back in the old days for a daily pie.  Strawberry Rhubarb pie shows up on a lot of menus in my area in the spring.  We have two big plants right next to our back shed and they come back year after year.  You can divide rhubarb sort of like chives–dig it up, chunk it in half and replant.  My rhubarb came to me from my good friend Kathy over at Cold Climate Gardening.

Sage is not supposed to be perennial in my zone-but somehow for the last two years this pot of sage has defied the odds and come back each year!  I think that it’s in a pot up next to the house creates enough of a microclimate to protect the plant.

Lovage is a very old fashioned perennial herb.  The leaves taste like celery-which I think is great since I never seem to have celery in the fridge.  The plant grows to be HUGE-like 4 to 5 feet high-and I usually have to hack it down a couple of times in the summer to keep it under control.

Wild Mustard isn’t a perennial-it’s more of a wild edible.  Considered an invasive weed it pops up all over the place despite my attempts to eradicate it each year.  It has a sharp garlic taste and can be a tasty addition added to other cooked greens.

Some other perennials and self seeding plants I expect to see this spring and summer at the Frugal Upstate Village Homestead are dandelion greens, raspberries, wild blackberries, wild grapes, horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes, mint and purslane.

What other perenial herbs, vegetables or fruits do you look forward to seeing this year?

Remember a week or so back when I taught you all about How to Read a Seed Packet?  There was a lot of information, wasn’t there?  Two of the things we talked about were “Days to Maturity” and “Propagation”.  Here’s a quick refresher.

Days to Maturity:  How long it takes the vegetable to be at the point where you can harvest it.

note: Days to maturity is very important!   If your growing season in between frosts is 90 days and you plant tomatoes that take 120 days to mature in the ground after the last frost of the spring, you will NEVER see a ripe tomato.

Propagation:  How to start the plant.  It will tell you if you can start it ahead of time in pots (some plants DO NOT like to be transplanted) and how long before it can be planted outside you can do that.  It will tell you when the plant can be planted outside.

Typical phrases are:

“As soon as the ground can be worked” –When it stops being frozen and sopping wet
“Early spring”–When it starts feeling consistently spring like but still has cold nights
“After last frost” or “X weeks after last frost”–After your last average frost date (just google “last frost date” and the name of your county).
“Directly in garden”–Don’t try to transplant this, it doesn’t like it.
“When ground has warmed to”–A specific temperature might be given.
“Harden off”–this is a process where you slowly get transplants used to being outside by bringing them out a few  hours at a time over the course of a few days-I’ll be writing a post specifically on this process.

note:  Sometimes there will also be directions for when to plant a second crop for harvest in the fall.

Great.  Fabulous. . . except. . .

How do you know if you have enough days in your growing season to let that plant reach maturity?  And right along with that-what’s all this about “Last Frost”?  Don’t worry, figuring out the growing season for your area is actually much easier than you might think.

The first thing you need to do is figure out for your area:

“Average Last Frost”-the last date in the spring that you typically still get a frost
“Average First Frost” -the first date in the fall that you typically get a frost.

Before you start worrying, the USDA here in the United States has done most of the hard work on that for you.  They’ve compiled data, done statistical analysis and all sorts of other technical stuff to come up with the information so you don’t have to.  And it’s all available either online or with the help of your friendly local Cooperative Extension Office.

Finding it is super easy.  Go to the search engine of your choice (I typically use Google) and type in the name of your town (or the closest larger town) and the term “First Frost” or “Last Frost”.  For example I’d put in “Binghamton NY First Frost” and “Binghamton NY Last Frost”.

Doing that I wind up at the Cornell University Gardening Resources site where they have a color coded map-and I can find that for my area the average last frost occurs between May 10th-20th the average first frost is between Sept 20th-30th.  Of course the weather doesn’t like to follow a schedule-so the frosts could happen before or after those dates. I like to look at the worst case scenario–so I would assume that have between May 20 and September 20 as frost free days which works out to 124 days.

Does that mean I can plant any plant that has 124 days or less listed for “Days to Maturity”?

Although it’s a good place to start, that’s not necessarily true.  You do need to remember to factor in some of the other information on that seed packet.  Some vegetables-especially warmth loving plants like peppers, squash, tomatoes and eggplants-might say “plant 2 weeks after the last frost date” or “plant after the soil has warmed to X degrees”.

So at my house if you plant Luffa Squash (yes, the things Luffa Sponges come from) which take 120 days to maturity and need to be planted out 2 weeks after your last frost it most likely will NOT mature before the last frost.  Of course that hasn’t stopped me from trying to grow Luffa for the last 3 years.  I’m stubborn like that-and hey, I’m not really out anything for trying!

What can you do if you have a short growing season?

Find special cultivars.  The seeds you are likely to see in your local garden center are going to be the run of the mill most popular types.  Don’t assume that they are the ONLY types.  Sign up for some seed catalogs and you will be amazed at the various varieties that exist with all sorts of different growing seasons.

tip:  If you have a very short season look for cultivars that have words like “Early” in the name.  Those cultivars are likely to have been bred to mature sooner than normal.  “Early Girl” tomatoes for example are 59 days to maturity, where your typical Big Boy tomato takes 75 days.

tip:  Look for a seed company based in the same kind of climate that you are trying to grow in.  I often order from Pinetree Garden in Maine or Territorial Seeds in OR–if things do well in their test gardens I can assume they have a good chance of doing well in Upstate NY.

Also know that there are ways to extend your growing season on either end.  Starting plants inside on a sunny windowsill or under lights is just a way to get things some of their growing time before you reach that last frost date.  Row covers, hoop houses, cold frames and green houses are all ways to start your plants earlier and keep them growing later.  We’ll cover all of that in a future “Garden Primer” post.

What’s the difference between “Annuals” and “Perennials” in gardening?

Easy!

An annual is a plant that lives out it’s entire life cycle in one season.

A perennial is a plant that lives for multiple seasons.

Photo by Mary Crandall

For example-the marigolds most of us planted in primary school as kids (remember planting marigolds in cut off school milk cartons?) are annuals.  You plant the seed, it grows, it flowers, the flowers turn into seed pods and eventually the plant dies. One season.

Photo by Ian Britton

Daffodils on the other hand are perennials.  You plant the bulbs once and then every year a daffodil sprouts up from that bulb in the same place.

Now on to the confusing stuff! (there always seems to be confusing stuff doesn’t there?)

1.  There are plants that in their native conditions are perennials but which we grow as annuals because our climate is too harsh for them.  For an extreme example-all pepper plants are annuals in the US, but some varieties are perennial if grown in the tropics.  For a more mundane example-the herb sage is perennial in the more southern parts of the US, but in the north where I live the cold of winter kills the plant and it acts as a annual, needing to be replanted every year.

2.  Some varieties of plants are what they refer to as “self seeding”.   The seeds of these types of annuals fall to the ground and grow the next year without any help from you.  These can act somewhat like perennials, coming back most years in more or less the same spot.  They are not true perennials however since it is a completely new seed and new plant, not a continuation of an old one.  The Marigolds I mentioned above can self seed very easily.

3.  There is a third category of plants called “Biennials”.  That means that the plant grows the first year, dies back, then the second year it starts growing and at that point flowers and produces seed.  There are things that we grow as if they are annuals (and they get referred to as annuals) because the part we want to eat is the first year growth.  An example of this is a carrot.  We refer to them as annuals, but if you leave them in the ground the second year they will produce a flower stalk (at which point the root isn’t any good to eat quality wise).  It’s important to know which plants are biennials if you are going to practice seed saving, otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it.

note:  most of the vegetables that we plant in our gardens are either annuals or perennials that act as annuals. 

Any questions?

If you are going to have a vegetable garden there is one thing for sure-you are going to need seeds!  I mean sure-you can buy those pre-started plants at your local nursery, big box store or corner plant stand. . . but there are some things that you just have to plant directly in ground (carrots, beets, turnips) and eventually you are going to want to have a particular plant that your box store doesn’t have.

So eventually you will buy seeds, and if you are buying seeds then you are looking at seed packets.

There is a LOT of information on your average seed packet-and it can be rather confusing for a new gardener.  It’s actually pretty amazing how much data they can fit on a very small 3″ x 4″ package!

Of course to make it all fit they use some standard terminology and icons without really going into a lot of explanation.

That’s where I come in!  Today on behalf of Walmart and Seeds of Change I am going to decode and explain exactly what all that information means!

Let’s start with the front of the package:

The front of your packet usually has some very basic information:

Company Name:   Seeds of Change
Type of Plant:  Tomato
Cultivar or Variety: Amish Paste
Net Weight: 115mg
Additional info: Heirloom & Organic

Some of this is very self explanatory.  I mean really, I don’t need to explain the company name or the type of plant-and the weight is for their own standardization when packing the seeds, as well as to give you an idea of value when you are comparing two brands or package sizes of like seed.

So what about the rest?

Cultivar or Variety: Amish Paste

This tells you exactly which TYPE of tomato it is.  There is usually more detailed information about it on the back of the packet or in your seed catalog.

Additional Info:

Heirloom:  Just like grandma’s heirloom silver has been passed down from generation to generation, an heirloom seed is from a variety that has been passed down and grown over and over.  Although there is not (as far as I know) a regulated definition of the term when it comes to seed-usually you can be assured that it is an older, more flavorful variety.  It also means that the seeds from your plant should breed true-so if you saved seeds from this heirloom tomato and planted them you should get the exact same kind of tomato.

USDA Organic:  This means that the plant that the seed came from was grown under the standards required to be certified by the USDA as organic, therefore making the seed itself organic.  It also means that the seed could not be treated with any substances that would make it ineligible for the organic certification.  Some non organic seeds are sold treated or coated.

Now on to the real treasure trove of information-the back of the seed package.

Let’s start by going from the top to the bottom:

Lot Number: 

They all have this somewhere.  You probably don’t really care  unless you have some sort of problem with your seeds and need to tell the company what lot number it was in.

Sell by:

This is similar to the “sell by” date on your milk, or your canned goods.  The Federal Seed Act in the United States sets germination standards for vegetable seeds in interstate commerce.  The company is basically promising that as long as the seed is sold by the date specified that it will meet those germination standards.

Does it mean that the seeds magically stop growing when you hit that date? No, of course not!  Just like-despite what my husband thinks-the milk does not suddenly become undrinkable on the “sell by” date!

Seeds can continue to germinate YEARS after that date, but depending on a variety of factors including the temperature and moisture at which they were stored.  Just realized that as time goes on the percentage of seeds that actually germinate in the package may go down and plant accordingly.

Description:

Somewhere on your seed packet you will find a description that gives you the specific characteristics of the cultivar/variety.  Some packets will have a nice paragraph like you see above, others will just have a few lines.  It should give you an idea of the color of the vegetable (if that’s important) and the taste, growing and/or storage characteristics.  Basically whatever makes this plant different than others.

Here are some phrases or terms that may be included in the description:

Indeterminate / Determinate : These phrases are used to describe tomato plants.

A determinate plant means that somewhere in the plant’s genetic code there is a “determined” height.  It will only grow so tall and then it will stop growing. All of it’s fruit should set and mature within a fairly short time frame–about two weeks.  So if you want to grow a whole bunch of tomatoes, have them all ripen at the same time and then indulge in a huge canning session you may want to consider determinate plants.

An indeterminate plant (sometimes referred to as “vining”)will just continue to grow up and up or, if you don’t physically stake or tie it up-on and on.   You don’t have to let it turn into the tomato plant that ate the garden either-if you pinch off the growing tip at the top of the plant that will stop it’s growth. Either way it will continue to set fruit and ripen until a frost kills it!  So if you want to keep having tomatoes over time to eat fresh, this may be what you are looking for.

Vine / Bush:  These phrases are typically used to describe beans, squash and cucumber plants.

A vine variety (called “pole” for beans) will grow out long from a central point.  The beans naturally try to find something to grow straight up (the same pinching off technique you use for tomatoes can work here).  Squash and cucumbers naturally vine out along the ground.

Vines can be trained to grow up fences and a variety of trellises-sometimes with a bit of tying and encouraging, other times naturally.  Most vining squash and cucumbers will also set down additional roots along the way if they are left to lay on the ground.  This can help them take up extra water-good in a dry climate.

Pole beans-like indeterminate tomatoes-will continue to set and ripen over a long period of time until frost kills them.

Bush varieties are more compact and take up a fairly set amount of space (usually specified on the seed packet).  Bush beans-like determinate tomatoes-will have all the beans mature in a fairly short time frame.

Annual: This means that a plant will only live for one year.  You plant it, harvest it and then the next year you must plant it again.

Perennial:  This means that a plant will come back year after year (if you are in the correct zone for that plant).  Daffodils are perennials.  You plant the bulbs once and then they come back every year.  Some herbs, like chives, are perennials.

Special note:  We have quite a few plants that we grow as annuals that, if grown in the tropics, would be perennials.  Peppers and tomatoes for example could live YEARS if you were in the tropics.  Most of us are not-and if you are you need to research growing under those conditions!  There are also herbs that are perennial in some parts of the US, but annual in others.

Hybrid:  There is a lot of confusion about hybrids.  A hybrid simply means that you cross 2 different parents to get a child plant with specific characteristics–but that child probably won’t breed true.  You do not want to practice seed saving on a hybrid.

Let me use a dog example to make this clearer.  A Labradoodle is the cross between a Labrador and a poodle.  When you breed those two dogs together you get a dog with a pretty regular set of characteristics that we call a Labradoodle.  However, if you breed two Labradoodles together you are not necessarily going to get a Labradoodle-you may get something that is more poodle or more Labrador depending on which way the genetic dice roll.

Now if you took the puppies that were most like the initial Labradoodle and bred them, and kept doing that process over and over until you got dogs where every time they had puppies you had a labradoodle, then you’d have a new breed.

So a hybrid is sort of the first step to a new variety-except that it’s just easier to keep producing the hybrid than to go through the process of developing a new variety (or maybe for some reason they can’t get it to come up stable).  Why buy a hybrid over an heirloom? Well it may have specific characteristics you are looking for, like disease resistance.

A hybrid CAN BE ORGANIC.  If both of the parent plants are organic and they are crossed they can make an organic hybrid.

Propagation:  How to start the plant.  It will tell you if you can start it ahead of time in pots (some plants DO NOT like to be transplanted) and how long before it can be planted outside you can do that.  It will tell you when the plant can be planted outside.

Typical phrases are:

“As soon as the ground can be worked” –When it stops being frozen and sopping wet)
“Early spring”–When it starts feeling consistently spring like but still has cold nights)
“After last frost” or “X weeks after last frost”–After your last average frost date (just google “last frost date” and the name of your county).
“Directly in garden”–Don’t try to transplant this, it doesn’t like it.
“When ground has warmed to”–A specific temperature might be given.
“Harden off”–this is a process where you slowly get transplants used to being outside by bringing them out a few  hours at a time over the course of a few days-I’ll be writing a post specifically on this process.

note:  Sometimes there will also be directions for when to plant a second crop for harvest in the fall.

Soil & Water:  Although the Seeds of Change packages have this listed, for most seeds you’ll have to either check online or find that information in the catalog.

Harvesting & Seed Storage:  Although occasionally a seed packet or catalog will mention specifics about harvesting the actual produce it isn’t very common.  And I’ve never seen anyone other than Seeds of Change specifically mention how to store the seeds.

Now let’s move on to that panel on the left hand side, which gives the specifications for physically growing the seed.

Note: although it may be in slightly different places this type of chart is standard on most seed packets.  Sometimes it is more in graphic form like this:

Planting Depth:  Every seed packet will have this information telling you how deep the seed goes in the ground.  While you don’t have to be paranoid about this you want to get it sort of close.  If like our tomato seed it’s supposed to be 1/4 inch deep and you plant it 2 inches down you probably won’t see any tomatoes.  You may want to just want to bring a ruler outside to plant with you or else mark a popsicle stick with a permanent marker.

Soil Temp for Germination:  Not all packets will include this information-many just rely on the “when soil warms” or “early spring” type descriptions-however if the information is listed it can be very helpful.  If you need 70 degree soil and you plant it in 50 degree ground you probably won’t sprout until the soil warms up-assuming the seed doesn’t get waterlogged & rot in the meantime.

note: Germination is the act of the seed actually sprouting.  Different seeds have different requirements-it’s natures way of ensuring that the seed comes up at the time at which the plant is most likely to survive!

Days to Germination:  How long, under good conditions (ie the correct soil temperature and adequate moisture) it should take for you to see a sprout emerge.  It may take longer if the conditions are not optimal-but if it’s supposed to germinate in a week and it’s been a month with no plant, you should probably assume you’ve had a failure and try re-seeding.

Plant Spacing:  For every plant there is an optimum amount of space for them to grow in where they will not only have the physical room they need to spread out (both above and below the soil) but also have enough soil around themselves to provide the water & nutrients they need.  If you crowd them too closely certain plants will not really produce for you.  This seems to be especially true for root vegetables, which need the room.  Spacing things too far apart is not really a problem, it’s just a waste of space.

Plant Spacing After Thinning:  The standard method of planting is to plant more seeds in the ground than you need in case some don’t come up, then to “thin” your plants down to the recommended spacing.  You thin by either pulling up or cutting off the plants you don’t need (I prefer cutting as it doesn’t accidentally disturb the roots of the plant you are trying to keep).  Some people have trouble with this-it seems criminal to kill a perfectly healthy little plant.  Be strong-your remaining plants need that room!  Of course you could just plant at the recommended distance for after thinning and hope everything comes up!  With today’s germination rates you are actually pretty safe that way.

Days to Maturity:  How long it takes the vegetable to be at the point where you can harvest it.

note: Days to maturity is very important!   If your growing season in between frosts is 90 days and you plant tomatoes that take 120 days to mature in the ground after the last frost of the spring, you will NEVER see a ripe tomato.

another note: You can extend your growing season by starting seeds inside before your last frost date and then by using season extending techniques like cold frames in the fall.  Also some vegetables don’t mind a light frost, which means you may be able to plant them earlier and keep them later.

Sun:  This tells generally how much sun a vegetable requires.  Full sun is considered 8 full hours without shade.  Partial sun and shade are the other normal designations.  In general you can assume that vegetables which produce fruit are going to need full sun, leafy items might be ok in partial shade.  Not much edible grows in full shade.

note:  If you live in a really hot climate 8 hours of full sun may be too much for a plant.  8 hours of Texas sun in August is very different from 9 hours of Maine sun.  It’s a good idea to check a gardening book specific to your area or call your cooperative extension office for advice.

Water:  Not many seed packets list this-but some will give you an idea if it’s a very “thirsty” plant that requires a lot of water or not.

And that’s the basics of reading a seed package!  I know it seems like a lot, but honestly-it’s all just to give you a better chance at success.  Things will vary depending on exactly where you are and what your weather that particular year is.  Don’t be afraid-go out and give it a shot.  If it doesn’t work, try it a bit differently next time!  You’ll learn and grow, I promise.

I want to thank Walmart and Seeds of Change for sponsoring this post.   Seeds of Change is the country’s oldest organic seed provider and offers one of the industry’s largest selections of 100% Certified Organic vegetable, flower and herb seeds.  This year is the first year Seeds of change seeds are being offered at Walmart-which I think is very exciting!  In previous years I’ve always had to order mine online (which you still can).

Keep you eye out soon for a video showing you exactly HOW to start your seeds!

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post I am participating in with the Walmart Moms. Walmart has provided me with compensation for this post. My participation is voluntary and opinions, as always are my own.

This year one of my goals is to convince each and every one of you out there that you should grow at least some of your own food.

On the surface growing your own food may seem pointless–maybe even ridiculous. Why bother?

Our days are packed — there are so many things we have to accomplish every day that taking the time and physical effort to grow your own vegetables may seems like wasted effort.  After all, around almost every corner there is a grocery store with heaping mounds of produce and shelf after shelf of canned vegetables.  The only effort you have to make is picking it up and placing it in your cart.

Photo by I-5 Design and Manufacture

For most of our lifetimes the people we’ve seen growing vegetables gardens were doing it for the simple joy of gardening.  Maybe they wanted to grow vegetables that you could not buy in the store.  Maybe they chose cultivars that were superior in flavor or just unusual and therefore unavailable.

Photo by Henna Lion

That is not the way things have always been.   The  idea of growing food to supplement (or replace) what you could buy in the store for economic stability and freedom has been a longstanding tradition in American history.  In pretty recent history-say our great grandparent’s time-there were still many households that had a “kitchen garden” to provide food for the family.

Photo by Rhonda Fleming Hayes

Now the prices of everything are on the rise–I’m sure you’ve noticed it at the stores.  Suddenly that produce section of the grocery store carries a much steeper price tag.  Growing a vegetable garden can be part of a plan for more economic freedom.  Whatever amount you grow, be it ever so small, you are spending that much less on food.

However, there is more for you to consider.

There is a freedom in growing your own food beyond the financial.  There is a certain amount of “freedom from the system” that you get when you opt out of the grocery store and grow your own.

Ok, I know that sounds a bit like I’ve gone over the edge, but stay with me here for a few minutes and I’ll explain.  I promise-I’ve not become a conspiracy nut!

First-the vegetables you grow are always there.

Sure-the vegetables in the grocery store seem to always be there. . . but. . . Did you know that most grocery stores only have a day or two of food in stock?

Photo by Bearden

Trucks come in regularly with food to replenish everything on the shelves and in the produce section.  If something happens to disrupt or slow down those deliveries (think hurricane, truckers strike, or gasoline shortage) the food the grocery store has on hand will quickly be depleted*.

If you have a 1lb bag of carrots in the fridge or a couple of cans of carrots in the cupboard those might not last you very long.  If you’ve got a 10 foot row of carrots in the garden, well, you’ve probably got enough carrots not only to eat but to store and share.  (note: in the fall, you can just cover those carrots with about 8″ of mulch, leave them in the garden and dig them up all winter!)

Second-when you grow your own vegetables you know exactly what you’ve got. 

Photo by De Cora

When you buy a can of corn at the store or a couple of peppers in the produce section. . .  do you know if it’s been genetically modified?  Do you know if the plant has been sprayed with pesticide?  Do you know if it’s been coated in wax?  Nope.  You have no idea!

And for those of you who haven’t really ever paid attention, they’ve done some pretty funky things to plant genetics in the last couple of decades.  Yes- they’ve really spliced fish DNA into your tomatoes, and engineered corn and other crops so that when they spray an entire field with RoundUp the only thing that lives is the crop.  That is dangerous not only because I’m worried about what the effects of the genetic engineering might be, but also because it possibly puts our food sources in jeopardy.

Photo by Spakattacks

What if the diseases or bugs mutate so that the pesticides no longer work and we’ve got a super bug that decimates our food crops-which tend to be all the exact same TYPE of corn, or wheat or whatever?  What if someone wants to plant that field that has been soaked in RoundUp for years with a different type of crop? Can they?

I don’t know the answers to all these things-but what I do know is that the world is a diverse place for a reason, and more diversity in our food supply is a good thing and creates redundancy for when there is a problem.

When you grow your own veggies you can know exactly how they have been grown, you can make choices about what techniques you want to use, and you can plant a diversity of types that don’t exist on a commercial scale.

These are all good things!

Third-you can grow more flavorful varieties.

I love raspberries-they are my most favorite fruit!  Have you ever wondered why raspberry jam really isn’t much more expensive than grape jam, but that fresh raspberries are much more expensive than grapes?  Well-it’s because raspberries are very delicate, prone to mold and hard to ship.

Photo by Anders Adermark

The actual varieties of vegetables in grocery stores are mainly chosen for two characteristics.  #1-their ability to stand up to the rigors of being shipped across the country  and #2-their ability to all mature at the same time so that machinery can be used to harvest them.

Notice  that I didn’t mention “flavor” and “nutritional value”.

When you grown your own you can find varieties that mature over time, taste great, or even are just fun and unusual.  Like purple carrots, yellow tomatoes, blue potatoes!  It’s up to you!

Fourth-you can grow vegetables even in a small space.

Would it be great to have a huge garden that supplies every vegetable your family is going to eat all year long.  Sure, that would be fabulous.  If you have the land, if you have the time and if you have the desire!  But you don’t have to do everything-especially if you are new to gardening.

You can start small and still have an effect.  Grow a few herbs in pots, or a patio version of a squash plant, cucumber or tomato right on your deck!  Or you can stick some pots in a small sideyard-as long as it gets some sun.

Photo by Beck Gusler

I hope I’ve given you all a few things to think about.  In the past I wrote about 13 Reasons to Grow a Vegetable Garden.  This year I’m going to continue to write more specifically about gardening topics and techniques, as well as encouraging you all in your gardening adventure.

So what do you think-will you try growing at least a little something this year? What are your thoughts and plans?

*note:  this is a good reason to keep a well stocked pantry as well!

This weekend on the Frugal Upstate Facebook page I posted a picture of some of the seed catalogs that had already come in and asked folks if they were planning their gardens yet.  I got a great question from Kayte:  For someone who is starting their first garden this year….what are a couple plants you’d recommend?

Well Kayte, I’m glad you asked!  It’s not a question that can be answered in just a few lines, so I decided to pull it out and answer it here on the blog.

There are a lot of factors that go into a successful garden-more than I could cover in a single post, which is why I had already planned that in 2012 I’d be starting a gardening feature to walking brand new gardeners through all the information and decisions they need to make a great vegetable garden in 2012!  Be on the lookout for that-and if you haven’t already make sure you Follow Frugal Upstate on Facebook and sign up for the email feed for this blog–that way you won’t miss a thing!

But back to your question.  I have three steps for you to figure out what to plant this year:

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1.  Make a list of vegetables you enjoy eating. 

Photo by Marc Roberts

It is senseless (and frustrating) to grow something that you don’t really want to eat.  For example, many folks suggest radishes as a quick and easy crop-which they are.  But most folks don’t actually EAT a lot of radishes–so why bother.  To really enjoy your first garden it’s best not to get crazy and experiment-plant veggies you know you already enjoy!

(Note:  Actually, there are some interesting things you can do with radishes.  You can take nice crusty bread, butter it and then layer on some thinly sliced radishes. Mmm.  You can also saute them in butter, which completely changes their taste.)

2.  Figure out what zone you are in and how long your growing season is. 

The USA (and other countries I’m sure!) are divided up into gardening “zones”.  These zones (USDA Plant Hardiness Zones) have to do with the wintertime cold temperatures in various regions.  Finding your zone is easy-just use Google!  For example, in my area I’d Google “USDA Zone NY”.  That brings up several sites with maps to consult-from there I can see I am in Zone 5 (actually on the border of Zone 5a & 5b).

photo by Edible Office

Most seed packages will give you a planting date based on this data.  Most seed packets will say things like “plant up to 3 weeks before last frost date” or “plant 4 weeks after average last frost date”

Next you need to figure out how long your growing season is.  This is done by checking the average first and last frost dates in your area.  Again-Google is your friend.  I would search for “first frost date Binghamton NY” and “last frost date Binghamton NY”.  That gives me May 10-20 for the last frost in the spring and Sept 20-30 for the first frost in the fall.  Looking at a calendar and doing a bit of counting that tells me that 123 days between frosts that things can grow.

(Note:  From experience I know that I rarely get 123 days of growth out of anything in Upstate NY–there are other factors to consider!  Sometimes it rains and the ground is too wet to plant in for several weeks.  Other seeds and plants need the soil temperature to be warmer than we have first thing in the spring.)

3.  Find what varieties of the plants you enjoy eating do well in your area.

Photo by LollyKnits

This is where your state’s Cooperative Extension Office will help you out (sorry-if you aren’t in the US then I’d check with local gardening organizations, folks who garden in your area or ask for advice at a reputable nursery-NOT your local box store!) .  Google (again-yes, I love Google) your state and the phrase “cooperative extension office” and you’ll get a site (usually associated with your state university system).  There should be an office in each county and somewhere either on the website or by calling the office you should be able to get a list of specific plant cultivars that do well in your area.

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By picking vegetables that you enjoy eating and then making sure you pick cultivars that do well in the conditions specific to your area you’ve given yourself the best shot at doing well and enjoying your first gardening experience.

All that being said I’d say that most people enjoy garden fresh tomatoes and cucumbers (although each can have it’s difficulties and quirks), it’s also fantastic to be able to pick fresh lettuce and carrots out of your own garden and make a salad, or snip off some chives (which come back every year) parsley, or basil that you’ve grown yourself.

Photo by Renee

And one more thing-start small.  Really truly–if you go huge first thing you are going to be overwhelmed, the garden and weeding will get out of control, you’ll be sad and discouraged and you might give up.  It’s best to start smaller, enjoy the experience, learn a bit, get to know your area, and get an idea of how much work it all takes this first year.  Then you can build on your success and go even bigger & better next year!

Do you compost? If you are frugal and a gardener you should! It’s basically free, can be done with minimal labor and creates a fantastic mulch / amendment for you soil.  Most gardeners find they have only one problem with compost-they can never make enough!

Yesterday I posted a picture to the Frugal Upstate Facebook page a picture of my compost piles.  I had been talking about getting a big bag of free vegetable trimmings from the church while helping prepare for our annual Harvest Dinner.

Photo by ME!

My commentary with the photo was:

On the left the “working” pile I’ve been adding to since spring, next the pile I used last year that has been composting undisturbed this year, & in the green fencing leaves to make leaf mold.

This generated a few questions.  Whitney asked “Leaf mold? Like, a sculpture? Or a fungus?“  and Thom chimed in with “can the leaves be mixed in with your current pile on the left?”

Obviously this needs a bit of explanation!

Let me describe my system to you.  I normally use 2 bins.  Each spring I use a bin full of compost-then that empty bin becomes the place where I put all new composting materials.  The other bin-which was filled up the previous year-just sits there for a year composting away merrily. The next spring I repeat-the “new” stuff sits, the “older” stuff gets used and then that empty spot starts the cycle again.

That’s my system, but WHY do I do it that way?

There are two methods of composting “hot” and “cold”.

Photo by Bryan Thayer

In hot composting you mix a general percentage of brown composting material (ie carbon rich items-hay, shredded paper, etc) and green composting materials (grass, plants, vegetable refuse etc) in a general ratio of 2 parts brown to 1 part green.  Then the bacteria that naturally occur in the pile go to work, eating up the high nitrogen items and breaking everything down.  This actually heats up the interior of the pile to between 135°-160° Fahrenheit, assuming the moisture and air inputs are correct.  The benefit to this is that weed seeds and most diseases are killed off by the heat.  You also get finished compost sooner. . . you can speed the process up even more if you “turn” (or mix) the pile on a regular basis.

Photo by Al Pasternak

In cold composting you stack whatever you’ve got into a pile and let time take it’s course.  It will eventually compost down-although it doesn’t usually heat up much (hence the “cold”) so you have to make sure you don’t add any weed seed heads or diseased material.  If you “turn” a cold compost pile it will also speed up the process.

I do cold composting myself, for several reasons.  First, like most backyard gardeners I have trouble coming up with enough browns to get anywhere close to the ratio needed to have a truly hot pile.  Greens~no problem.  Every grass clipping, weed and vegetable peeling I have is a green.  But browns? Not so easy.  I’d probably have to buy hay, straw or somehow find a source of shredded paper or something to really get a hot pile.  Second, I just don’t want to worry about it.  I’m a busy mother, wife and writer–Why fret about ratios and do the labor of turning the pile when I can just toss it and leave it for a year and let time take care of everything for me?

Composting can be done by throwing everything in a pile, containing it in a fence, building a bin. . . really the options are endless.  Yankee Bill built me our two bin system out of old pallets they were giving away at the Dollar General a couple years back.

Having a two bins system allows me to be finishing off a pile of compost while adding to a different pile.  After all, if you just have one then you would be constantly adding to the top-how would you ever get the finished stuff?  A lot of folks advocate a 3 bin system.

Photo by Jay@MorphoLA

In that you actually move the compost (thus turning it) from bin to bin on a semi regular basis. . . that does get things composting faster.  I just haven’t gotten around to doing that.

So what about those leaves?

Photo by Scott SM

Well there is a lot of information out there about leaves–and as usual, a lot of it is conflicting.  Some sources say you can compost leaves in your pile.  Others say that too many leaves–and who in the northeast in the fall doesn’t have too many leaves–pack down so tightly when wet that no air gets in. . .then instead of aerobic bacterial AN-erobic bacteria go to work. . .a different process.  Then there is the fact that leaves can decompose much more slowly than some of the other materials you might be composting.

Just to be safe I decided the best thing to do was to make a separate leaf pile, try to chop it up a bit (ie the part hubs ran over with the mower) and work that separately. This is the first year that I’ve done the leaf bin, so it will be a learning experience for us all.  I just couldn’t stand for one more year to see all that lovely, free organic material going to waste. (note: Mever compost black walnut leaves.  They contain a substance that inhibits plant growth-not what you are looking for in a compost!)

I also had hubs run over a bunch of the leaves with the mower and used that as a 6 inch layer or so of mulch over the garlic I planted, and some on the leeks and carrots that are still in the garden.  Some sources I’ve read say a leaf mulch can actually keep the ground cool in the spring-so I may decide when the weather warms up to pull the mulch back off of some of the garlic (and leave it on some) to see if it makes any difference in the growth.

Gardening is always a learning experience!

Some great composting resources:

There are some things that you should NOT put into your compost pile or bin.  Check out What not to compost at Planet Green.com for a good list

Not sure what is considered a “green” and what is a “brown”?  This article about composting from Organic Gardening at About.com tells you!

Mother Earth News had an article on “Composting Made Easy” which gives lots of fantastic info.  (Note: I really like Mother Earth News)

And I couldn’t write about composting without including a link to “75 things you didn’t know you could compost“.  Please think before you compost some of the items on the list.  Some of them will break down but take a long time (like rope) others are compostable but might attract critters that you don’t want in your pile (like bread and grains attracting mice).

Well, I thought I’d give you all an update on how all the growing green things are doing here at Frugal Upstate!

Spring FINALLY sprang here in Upstate New York-we had a week straight of rain then a few glorious days of sun, followed by yet another week of constant rain.  If my garden had already been planted I would be copacetic about the whole thing-but instead I’m chomping at the bit, wishing that the rain would stop and things would dry out enough to let me plant some things.

This year I decided to try to keep a few of my plants alive over the winter.  I brought my Geraniums, Hanging Geraniums and Ferns inside in the fall and kept them alive all winter-if barely.  When the weather turned nicer they started going outside each day-but in the evening I would bring them in to avoid frost.  I used a plastic tablecloth to protect the wood floors. . .

The little ones in the front are the ones I propogated

I trimmed all the dead stuff out of the ferns.  They look OK-but not great.  I think that next year I will keep them up in our bathroom the entire winter (they started out down in the entry hall).  The humidity up there should make them stay healthier.

Lots of nasties to remove

The hanging geraniums wound up looking pretty pathetic.

A plant only a mother could love.

Blech.  I trimmed out the dead stuff and hung them off the back porch where they are doing ok.  The leaves have already turned a darker green.  I think they will be ok-but not great.  However the cuttings that I took from these and then rooted downstairs are doing FANTASTIC!  I put 3 of them in a hanging basket off the front porch and expect them to get lush pretty quickly.

These look healthy!

Lesson learned.  Next fall I am just going to take cuttings and make a whole bunch of propagated plants.  I didn’t even do these until what, January-ish?  If I start them in the fall they will be even further along by spring.  Granted, they will take up space under the lights in the basement-but it will be when nothing else is down there.  By the time they are rooted and a bit bigger, I’ll pot them up a size and I can put them around the house as houseplants.

You can see the hanging ferns, the window boxes and the hostas in this shot of my porch.

All of the perennial landscaping has popped around front.  You can see my gorgeous huge hostas that line the front porch-the ones in front have small daylillies in between (I planted them as bulbs and now that they are 2 years old I hope to get some flowers!) and the ones on the side have peonies that have gorgeous flowers for about 2 weeks each summer.  Those I have special supports around (even though you can’t see them) otherwise they’d just fall over from the weight of the flowers.

Oh, and just off to the right you can see a little tiny bit of my ENORMOUS rhododendron.  That just grows & flowers with no help from me.

Now I have a lot of planters that I put around the porch railing-a total of 7 on the front porch and 3 on the side porch.  I use the same self watering planters every year, and the same soil.  But it’s been 2 or 3 years so I decided it was time to revitalize the soil a bit.  First we dumped it all out onto a tarp, then I had Buddy help me clean up the planters.

Child labor. As long as it involves water I can pass it off as "fun".

Then I added one big bag of organic potting soil to the old “used up” soil, along with about a 1/4 cup of “flowers & blooms” fertilizer that is about 6 years old (from my pre organic phase).  I mixed it all up with a hoe and refilled the planters.

Usually I have planted them with wave petunias-last year I tried nasturtiums, which really wasn’t that successful.  This year I decided to start some wave petunias from seed & buy some from the store-so I’d have instant color from the store bought but intersperse them with my home grown which will take a while to catch up and provide color.  I also put some grown from seed alyssum in there on the edges to cascade over.

Oh, and that black plastic you see to the right of me in the photo? That is my new second garden.  Yankee Bill tilled it then we covered it with plastic to keep the weeds out and warm the soil.

Speaking of vegetable gardens I now have 5.  The one that shows in that picture.  The original garden just back behind those trees with the hammock in it.  Off to the rear left, in the next lot over, I have permission to plant a 10X10 corn patch.  Then there is a garden plot down at my mother-in-law’s house that I plan to plant with potatoes (Yukon Gold, Kenebec, Pontiac Red, Blue) and onions (red & white).  Finally, I’ve started a garden over at the house my brother is renting & will be moving into on July-but by then he’ll be way behind garden wise-so Yankee Bill tilled it, we covered it with landscape fabric, and we’ll plant it up in a few weeks for a weed free veg garden that Bro can take over when he moves in.

I’ve also got my container herb garden right outside the door up next to the back door of the house.  There I grow lovage and chives in the ground, then in those wooden whiskey barrel planters I have 2 kinds of mint, lemon balm, oregano, creeping thyme, parsley, stevia, sage and a bit of lettuce.  Yeah, I know lettuce isn’t a herb. Work with me.

This is a great use for this otherwise "wasted" space. And convenient to the kitchen!

So I haven’t been busy or anything.  Bless Yankee Bill and his tiller!

Of course there are also my perennials.  The Rhubarb is up and I’ve already made Cheater’s Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.  I’ll be making plenty more.

This was taken a few weeks ago-believe it or not, it's actually bigger now!

The asparagus is in it’s second year.  I ate a few stalks raw, but I’m letting the rest go to build up the root system.  Next year-at least one meal with home grown asparagus!

Last but not least, I decided to plant my tomatoes in hay bales this year.  After two years of my plants being decimated by early tomato blight I decided enough was enough.  We bought 12 bales from a local farmer, set them on their side along our fence line, wet them down well then covered them with plastic so they could start composting. (Here are some articles on that in Straw Bale Gardening,  Hay Bale Gardening Becomes Popular Pastime, and Straw Bale Gardens)

I’ve sort of peeled back the plastic a couple of times and added more water.

I really want to make sure the main “composting” action is done before I get the tomato plants in there-otherwise it will kill them.  Composting produces heat you know and it will bake the roots.

To finish off the hay bale planters I will “frost” them with a couple of inches of organic potting soil and then put the plants down into them!  Don’t worry, I’ll write more about the process later.

So, that’s my garden update.  I’d love it if next week you’d join in!  Trust me-after this first one mine will be a bit shorter and to the point-I had a lot to catch you all up on!

I’m going to start running a weekly “How’s it Growin?” linky on Saturday each week-and you’ll have all the next week to link up to it. Don’t have a blog but want to participate? I’ll also post over on the Frugal Upstate Facebook page and you can leave a comment under it there with your latest update!