gardening

Seed Starting 101: The Dirt On Getting Stuff To Grow Indoors

April 10, 2017 by Leah Leave a Comment

Every year, January rolls around and as I’m recovering from the holidays I get a bright, shiny gift in the mail….my Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog. This book is so gorgeously printed that it causes a person to wonder how on earth they can afford to print such a quality piece of marketing material by just selling seeds. I mean….

A friend recommended this company to me several years ago and I’ve never looked back. Forget the tepid, boring, lifeless varieties sold in ugly cardboard displays at big box stores. When I get seeds from Baker Creek, I feel like I’m taking part in a tradition that dates back to ancient methods of farming. I am getting an untainted heirloom product that has been lovingly preserved for generations because of its flavor, hardiness, profundity, and sheer beauty as a plant. Most years, I’ve spent less than $30 on seeds. Considering the amount of produce that comes out of our plot, this is an absolute steal! If I sound a little nuts in the head, it’s because I’ve spent years of my life in the dirt from when I was an awkward wee lass selling tomatoes on the side of the road up to this point where I sweat my arse off in the southern heat of summer, trying to coax food from a clay-hardened ground.

Here in Nashville we have a saying, “It all begins with a song.” Here in my yard I say, “It all begins with a seed.” The first year I tried growing from seed was a dismal failure. I got all my little cell packs, planted tomato seeds in them and put them in our laundry room which has big windows and lots of natural light. The seeds sprouted, then they kept getting longer and longer, but the leaves weren’t growing, then they sort of rotted off right at the soil line and just died on me. I felt like a total failure as a gardener and bought starter plants that year. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with buying starter plants, however, they do carry risks. Many starter plants come from other parts of the country than where you live, and especially with tomatoes, they are susceptible to carrying blight which will totally ruin your crop and spread like wildfire if not immediately addressed. Some starter plants come pre treated with pesticides which kill bees and other beneficial insects that would otherwise help your plants flourish. And sometimes they are mislabeled, so that lovely mild pepper you thought you were planting is actually a hellfire, rip your throat out, bastion of flame that will burn your molten eyes right out of your head. I speak from experience.

What I love about growing from seed is that the world becomes your oyster in terms of varieties available to you (except oysters are gross, snot on a shell basically, so just use that as a metaphor and know that I don’t actually eat them). Every year I grow squash and beans I’ve never seen anywhere else, except in this garden. I grow tomatoes that cannot be purchased from local farmers or supermarkets. And even flower varieties I would never think to plant because they are annuals have found a home in my flower beds because they are so different and pretty. You just never know! So after that first failed attempt at growing from seed I realized that the single most important factor to starting anything indoors is light. A sunny window might seem like enough light, but odds are your plants will end up leggy with long thin strands of stems they can’t stand on.

LIGHT

I purchased a grow light from Amazon and have never looked back. The Purple Reign light can fit two full flats underneath it, so what I do is I start some and then move them outdoors once leaves are established so I have room for plants like tomatoes and peppers that need constant light and warmth. I have it set up on a timer and leave the light on for 14 hours per day. At this rate, it takes about 4-6 weeks for my tomatoes to reach a stage of health and readiness for the outdoors. I don’t plant anything outside or leave anything out overnight until the temperatures stay above 50 degrees. Typically, I keep the grow light about 2 inches above the plants. As they get taller, you raise the light up so the leaves don’t burn on the bulbs. If the light is kept too high above the plants, the seedlings will grow taller in an effort to reach it which could result in leggy, weak stems.

SOIL

As far as what to plant the seeds in, I use an organic seed starting soil that you can purchase anywhere. The reason I use this and not regular potting soil is that seed starter tends to be more sterile. Potting soil has a tendency to develop fungus gnats which are a total pain. If you notice small gnats flying around your seedlings, create a diluted mixture with a drop of Dawn and some water to make a mild soapy wash. Water the plants with that and it should take care of the problem. This will not harm your seedlings. Seed starting soil is very light, so when you first try to water it, it’ll float on top of the water and really piss you off and make you want to throw things. What I like to do is use a spray bottle to wet the tops of the soil and then I water everything from below by adding water to the trays as needed. The spray bottle is gentler when the seeds are just sprouting and will keep you from drowning the seedlings with a watering can. Once they’ve popped out of the soil I think it’s better to water from below so the stems don’t rot off at the soil line (this is mostly a tomato issue called damping off, which I think is a disgusting name. Imagine using that in conversation. “Oh, how are you today?” “Man, not so great, I’ve got a bad case of damping off.”).

CONTAINERS

Many seed starting kits come with these tiny plastic black cells and I think these things are crap because they are way to small to house the roots of most plants. Your seedlings will need to be transplanted before they’re even ready to go outside. Tomatoes have very deep roots and squash must not be root bound before being planted outside, so I got these 3 1/2 in square pots at a garden supply store for $0.30 apiece (you could order them online too) and I can fit 18 of them in a tray. I put one tomato per pot, one squash plant per pot, and then for herbs and flowers I just drop a bunch of seeds in there and have a cluster in each pot. For peppers, I find they work great in 4-6 cell containers because they grow slower and the plants stay small. I also put my cucumbers in 6 cell containers. Most of my containers are ones I have saved over the years from plants I bought at garden centers, so they are all reused. If you buy berries at the store, the plastic containers they come in are excellent because they have drainage holes built in the bottom. I also don’t prefer peat pots because first of all, the harvesting of peat moss is bad for the environment and screws up a lot of marshy habitats. Secondly, I’ve seen the peat pots develop mold and need to be peeled off anyway before the seedling is planted in the ground, which totally defeats the purpose of planing in a peat pot…I digress. This is just personal preference.

AIR/SUN

Once you notice that your seedlings are beginning to look hardy and have strong stems, you can begin what is called hardening off. This is when you take them outside for a portion of the day to let them get natural sunlight and air movement that will strengthen the stems. You have to be careful about this though because sometimes direct, hot sunlight can burn the leaves on a tender seedling. For things like squash or cucumbers, you should be totally fine to put in direct sun (make sure they are watered so they won’t dry out). For plants like tomatoes or certain more delicate herbs, some shade under an umbrella will suffice until the plants are strong enough to handle full sun. Also, don’t accidentally put them outside when a torrential downpour is in the forecast or you will hate yourself.

DIRECT SOWING

There are certain plants that you can absolutely start right in the ground and do not need to start inside ahead of time. Examples are squash, cucumbers, herbs like basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, beans, and leafy greens like spinach and lettuce. Many of these will sprout in 7-10 days and absolutely take off once they’re established. I have chosen to start my squash and cukes ahead of time because I have vine borer and cucumber beetles in this region of the country. I find that giving the plants a head start strengthens them against these pests for a little longer and actually lets me harvest a fair amount before the squash plant needs to be pulled. A farmer recently told me that way to avoid vine borer is to plant AFTER their season is done, which is around the beginning of June. I am going to try this for this season and report back. Vine borer in the South have two rounds, so if I plant in between, maybe I will get less damage. We shall see.

TRANSPLANTING

OK, so you’ve grown these plants from tiny little seeds and they seem so fragile, pathetic really, like a strong gust of wind could blow them to smithereens, or a feisty mockingbird could have its way and decimate an entire row of tomatoes just by tweeting at them. Once I’ve figured out the layout of the garden and where I want the plants to go, I bring out only the ones that are ready to go into the ground, so the others don’t wilt in the sun. For tomatoes, I add crushed eggshells to the hole before planting them because it’s a natural way to add calcium to the ground, which in turn can help keep skins from splitting later on. You can save eggshells in a Ziplock in the fridge or pulse them in a food processor to get them fine enough. I also put a small ring of newspaper around the neck of each seedling which will protect it from cutworms. Cutworms are brown caterpillars that chew the stems of seedlings and kill a plant before it’s even had a chance to start. Tomatoes can also be planted rather deep if the stems are leggy because roots will grow off of the stem.

For squash and cucumbers, I am very careful not to break their stems because they snap a bit easier. I don’t believe in making mounds for squash or cukes, it just seems unnecessary. Plant the soil line of the seedling even with the soil line of the ground. For others, like herbs, just plant as you would any flower that you bought at a nursery. I love grouping herbs like basil as opposed to separating and planting single plants here and there. Keep in mind when you first plant the seedlings, they will look wilty for a bit and you might think they’re going to keel over and die. Keep an eye on them, water them, but don’t over water them (no helicopter parenting), and they will perk up once new roots start growing. Here are a couple of pics from last year. The first one is right after the seedlings were planted and they look sad. Then they perked up…

So that is what I do. A lot of this is personal preference and there are so many other ways to successfully grow seeds indoors, although I do think a light is a necessity regardless. Some things have worked better for me than others, and this year I’m really happy with what’s coming up so far. It’s ALWAYS an experiment. Every year is different. The weather can make or break the season. Too much rain, stuff rots. Too little rain, stuff dries out. Sometimes one variety is a total fail in your area, but another variety of the same thing could become your new favorite that you’ll plant year after year. It just depends!!! Please feel free to comment with tips and tricks that have worked for you. I’m always learning and love to hear what other gardeners have discovered in their own plots. Happy planting!!!

We Didn’t Win The Powerball: Hello, 2016!

January 14, 2016 by Leah Leave a Comment

David Bowie has died. Another creator’s voice silenced when the world felt there was still so much to give. A reminder to all of us that life change change on a dime, that it’s never long enough to fully accomplish all we intend. And then there is Alan Rickman…I don’t even know where to begin with this one. He will forever be Colonel Brandon and Severus Snape to me, in that order. He was as dashing a figure as ever there was and such a brilliant actor. He will be missed. Always…

The end of 2015 slipped past quietly. Any time I spend New Year’s Eve at home on Long Island there is nothing to do. Everyone I know up there is praying in the New Year, faithfully on their knees as midnight comes and goes, ushering in the unknown future by acknowledging God first. As a kid this used to drive me crazy. The clock would get closer and closer to midnight and they’d all still be praying…what about the ball drop? What about screaming Happy New Year and singing Auld Ang Syne? What about bear hugs all around and champagne and cheers? Instead, fervent requests for the fate of our country, peace in the Middle East, the homeless in our community…on they prayed through the strike of an old grandfather clock in some distant corner of the house. As an adult, I hold dear their reverence.

It’s a notion that I would love to grab hold of, to say that my faith is strong enough to want to eschew things like frivolous celebration, but is celebration not a prayer of thankfulness itself? I no longer care about a ball dropping in Times Square, but every year when midnight rolls around, the slate is wiped clean, a new day dawns, and I start thinking about new adventures…not what I want to change and inevitably miserably fail at, but where to go, what new things to see this year that will broaden my understanding of beauty and this great, vast world that we live in? I worry that time will elapse and there will be places my heart longs to stand in that will go unseen. Trappings of career, money, house, and family all contribute to the inability to drop everything and go. I want to leave it all behind and hike the Appalachian Trail, to recover bits of myself that have been lost along the way, to look into new faces and experience God on a mountaintop, a
literal mountaintop. But I remain responsible, tied to a life carefully built, tenuously held together, and most of the time, happily walked in. Sigh…

Winter has settled in. Finally! I thought I was a woman tied to spring and could live happily in a world where the temperature is always 72 degrees, but this year I understand that I am a woman of the seasons and each one has its purpose. The frost and cold brings a refreshing comfort in knowing the plants will at last lose the old foliage they’ve been hanging onto, the dangerous bugs will finally die of exposure, and
the bulbs will bloom in spring. The garden that is a blank canvas of tired soil will once again be renewed and ready to receive the new year’s crop. The seeds have been ordered, the grow light is set up, and gardening books are being read. Winter’s bite means that the warmth of spring is on the way.

I have embarked on what I fear will be my total failure as a gardener. I planted seeds. I faithfully ordered the usual stock, with a few new ones thrown in, from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds, but this year instead of purchasing heirloom tomato plants, I’m attempting to grow my own. I tried this a few years ago, but it was
such a disastrous failure that I gave up entirely and have since direct-sown seeds into the ground and purchased tomato plants. But this year, I decided to have another go at it with the knowledge that my
self esteem may be damaged forever. The varieties you can buy in seed form are so much more interesting! It’s like shopping in the shoe department at Walmart versus going to Bergdorf‘s.
When you start from seed, the world opens and the Pradas and Valentinos of tomatoes are suddenly at your fingertips! I’m sticking with mostly heirloom cherry varieties this year since I’ve found that the large
tomato plants have a very small yield and the likelihood that a squirrel will taste my prize tomatoes before I do is infuriatingly high.

Every year in the garden has been a calendar period of sheer experimentation. What will the bugs destroy this year? Which organic spray mixture will actually kill them? Answer: just forget it, you have to kill yourself in order to kill the bugs. How many tomatoes will the squirrels steal and will I get enough sauce to freeze through the winter? Which cucumber variety produces the nicest, straightest fruits without tasting bitter if left on the vine? Why are carrots so stupid? Does the asparagus prefer being uncovered after frost or left to grow through its mulch cover? Why don’t apple trees bloom????? Which basil variety do we prefer? There are so many! How much thinning do beets actually need? Answer: a lot. How many tons of mulch, compost, humus, and manure will it take before my soil consistency is loamy like the community garden at the Warner Nature Center, of which my envy knows no bounds???

I haven’t figured it out yet, any of it. And this year promises to be just as experimental with just as many foot stomping failures that will inevitably make me want to throw garden rakes at our neighbor’s awful,
noisy ducks. The work involved in a garden of our size (19’x35′) is greater than I ever could have realized and the weeds are a particular challenge, a force of evil which cannot be thwarted. I already feel torn between the desire to hike every weekend and the backbreaking work it will take to maintain the garden through the prettiest outdoor seasons of the year. All of it goes hand in hand, really. A friend once said to me that he couldn’t figure out if gardeners were either psychotic or just a bunch of people who love the outdoors. Precisely!

Back In The Yard: Preparation For The Gardening Season

March 22, 2015 by Leah Leave a Comment

Spring is springing and I am finally getting out from under the kitchen and out into the yard. Honestly, getting my back used to the strain of yard work has not been fun, but being out in the sunshine with birds singing and the scent of flowers in the air has been reviving.

This weekend, my goal was to get the vegetable garden in shape for planting. It is still too early to plant anything (growing season begins April 15th-ish in TN), but preparing the soil is key for the success of a good crop. Over the past couple of weekends I got out there and pulled every single weed, making sure there were no roots left in the soil. This may seem counter intuitive when much of it will be dug up anyway, but I believe starting with a clean slate is the way to go. Robins were scurrying back and forth on the soil near where I was weeding, having the time of their lives, snatching up the worms that came to the surface. Occasionally the bird would abruptly stop, tilt it’s head toward the ground, and peck victoriously at a substantially juicy one. I love seeing worms in the garden, a sure sign the soil is in good health. A very exciting development is that the asparagus is starting to peek out of the ground!

Once everything was weeded, I went over the beds with a rake to break up the soil and ready it for a good sprinkling of lime. The lime acts as a neutralizer since most vegetable plants prefer growing conditions that tend toward alkaline. After that, I added 25 bags of compost with manure. I’ve done this every year since I started the garden and I believe it’s the way to go. Since the soil here in TN is clay, just adding compost will only aid in texture, but not necessarily nutrients. I’m not a huge fan of synthetic fertilizers and chemicals, so the manure is an excellent natural fertilizer. I also add coffee grounds, egg shells, and other organic matter throughout the season, which is especially beneficial for the tomatoes which need calcium.

This year for the first time I am not going to till. Last year I was overwhelmed by the amount of weeds. I absolutely could not keep them under control and I want to see if not tilling will help with weed control since old dormant seeds will not be brought to the surface. Also, this method of growing is supposed to help with water retention. Eventually, I’ll be buying a couple bales of straw to completely cover the soil before planting. This is a really effective way of keeping weeds at bay, retaining moisture, and adding nitrogen to the soil.

The flower beds were cleaned of leaves and debris, and the perennial bed is ready to go. Spring bulbs are starting to pop up everywhere, which is a cheerful and lovely reminder that after the misery of winter, beauty shall prevail.

List of tasks accomplished in the month of March

Trimming of flowering trees (purple leaf plums)
Pruning of all shrubs like holly, rose of sharon, heavenly bamboo, etc.
Prune apple trees
Clean all garden beds of dead leaves and debris
Trim roses and treat with dormant oil or Bayer before leaves start to sprout
Trim lyriope, prune butterfly bushes, and remove dead leaves from daylily plants
Move perennials that need to be split or relocated
Prepare vegetable garden by weeding, liming, and adding soil amendments
Start basil seeds indoors
Add mulch around tree bases and touch up areas in the flower beds that need an extra layer
Thin out bamboo by cutting new shoots and removing dead ones

Now the patient waiting must last until mid-April when the magic happens! I’ve figured out that the cost of the vegetable garden is around $85 each year. Compared to paying for a local CSA, this is a steal. The estimate includes seeds, starter plants, and soil amendments. Obviously there is a lot of labor, plus water bill increases for the summer, but the payoff is tons of vegetables grown organically that we are able to eat year round. There are many times when I wish it was all easier and that I didn’t have such crazy back pain after a day in the yard, but I’m so thankful we have the ability to do this. Happy spring!!!

Too Much Of A Good Thing: Rain, Rot, And Harvest

June 12, 2014 by Leah Leave a Comment

The past two and a half weeks have brought nothing but rain. Every day there has been some form of dreary precipitation that has nearly driven me mad with longing for sunshine. I mean, come on already! Although I’ve been saving money on water in terms of garden irrigation, too much of a good thing can really be a bummer. The squash are rotting right on the vine, the peppers look horrendous and have taken to falling over just to get attention, and the tomatoes are just not looking like themselves without some hot sunshine.

In spite of this dismal downfall, the harvest is starting. One night in the lull between rainfalls, I got the tomatoes staked. Finally!!! Rob pounded these stakes into the ground for me and I used zip ties to secure the bamboo to the stakes. The result is a much better system than what I had last year. There is airflow between the plants and room to walk in and harvest.

The squash plants have already grown to gargantuan proportions. Here is the romanesco. The taste is lovely, the flowers are gigantic and buttery, but I’m having rotting issues with these due to the rain.

Here is what the garden looks like right now. The cucumber vines are already taller than I am! Thank goodness for velcro ties. They are one of the most useful things I’ve purchased for the garden. I was able to reuse the ones from last year too! They don’t damage the plants and are really easy to secure. They cost more, but are definitely worth the investment!

Tonight I harvested a bunch of goodies, so it was a bit of work when I got home. The great thing about the rain is that I can’t go outside in this nasty weather for days sometimes, so when I finally do, it’s like Christmas out there!

These are dragon tongue beans. Aren’t they so pretty and purply?! I opted for these this year instead of green beans and I don’t think I can ever go back. The taste of these is fabulous! It’s much less grassy than a green bean straight off the plant. More like a wax bean, but sweeter…I am in love!

The snow peas look like a mess in the garden right now. Even though I strung some twine they had a mind of their own and look like a shipwreck. They have a lovely crunch though!

There is a lot of food right now, so I threw a salad together with cucumbers, snow peas, fresh basil, and chick peas. I’ll drown it in olive oil and balsamic vinegar tomorrow for a crunchy lunch because you only live once, right?! I’m sorry this picture is blurry. I think I had just dropped the phone in some water on the kitchen counter, or I couldn’t hold the phone steady from the wine I was drinking, not sure which. Oops!

Beets!!! Ok, I know a lot of you probably hate beets. They have grown on me. I really like roasting them. I throw them in an oven safe glass pan, spray with olive oil, cover with foil, and roast on 350 for at least an hour until soft. Once they’re peeled and sliced, I love putting them on salad or eating them with goat cheese. Definitely prefer eating them warm as opposed to cold or pickled. Delish!

I am not a fan of beet greens, but I’ve found a way to cook them that makes them tolerable. I can’t stand to just throw them away! Dice half an onion and throw some crushed garlic cloves in a pan with olive oil, basil, pepper, salt, and red pepper flakes.

Throw the greens in the pan after the onions are clear and your house smells garlicky.

You’ll end up with a sort of mushy healthy bowl of greens. Throw some pecorino romano on there…throw on some more…you can never have too much Italian cheese, you just can’t.

While I was slaving away in the kitchen like some 50s domestic goddess, this was happening.

I mean…!!! It never gets old, cats and boxes. It doesn’t matter what was in the box or where the box is placed, I guarantee you a cat will be in the box within 10 seconds of it hitting the floor. She is so adorable, I can’t take it! I hope Rob’s dog doesn’t eat her when she moves in. The tragedy…

Ok, I’m back…other parts of the yard have benefited greatly from the rain. Look at this hideous thing the previous owners left for me when I moved in. I was going to throw it away, but it’s a planter and plants can be stuck in those, so I stuck some hens & chicks in there and voila, it’s slightly less hideous, but honestly, you can’t really improve a concrete squirrel, can you?

Dad’s daylilies are the crowning jewel of the garden right now. Last year he sent 60 plants down here of his own hybridized varieties. I tagged the plants when I was home and he dug them all out, boxed them up, and shipped them down here. Looking at these gorgeous flowers takes me home. Every year when I go home for July 4th, Dad’s garden is blooming wildly and it’s hard not to get lost in the loveliness of it. Now I have a piece of that here and I can’t describe how happy it makes me!

This is what the flower bed looked like just a couple weeks ago.

Now it looks like this…

It’s so interesting to see how things grow here. One year, something does really well and then this year, it’s failing. Or last year I couldn’t get flowers to grow in a bed and this year, plants are thriving. I can’t imagine not having the garden to come home to because something is always new, a season is always changing the landscape. The garden requires one to observe or beauty will be missed. I walk along the side flower bed each day before I hop in the car and head to work. The fig is taller. The roses are blooming. The foxglove is falling over in the rain. New alliums are turning purple. The lavender is finally coming back. The purple coneflower is starting to bloom. Butterflies will be here soon.

Nothing stays the same and I’m reminded that this is a big year of change for me too. I’m getting married. I know that Rob and I will face our challenges as we try to figure out living life together after being independent for so long, but I hope that each of us provides a space where the other can grow and blossom. For now we will eat lots of fresh things and fill our stomachs and be reminded of how blessed we are.