Plant Talk

Giveaway Greens - from Renee's Garden Seeds To You for Sending in Your 2012 Dream Plants

Plant Talk is teaming up with Renee's Garden Seeds for our first giveaway of 2012 - please comment here on the blog with a short list, plus descriptions, of a few plants you're excited to add to your gardent his spring, and Renee will send you a packet or two of her company's brand new greens seeds.

Take a look at the previous post here on the blog for more information about the giveaway and to read about my own dream list for 2012.....can't wait to read your list and share it with readers.

Renee is concentrating this year on full-flavored, multi-colored greens - aren't we lucky? Brand new for 2012 and unique to Renee's Garden, here are a few of the seeds targeted for giveaways here on Plant Talk:

 

Beet and Chard Braising Mix - a blend of some of the most succulent greens in the garden, with Ruby Queen and Bulls Blood beets with Silverado and Eldorado chard. Snip for salads as the greens grow in..Tasty and tender eaten raw or braised...

Edible Landscape Lettuce 'Stardom Mix' is as gorgeous in the garden as it is delicious in the salad bowl, for it includes crispy-sweet, ruffled oakleaf varieties that are deeply red and blazingly green. Fast growing and heat tolerant, 'Stardom Mix' may well be the new gold standard for edible gardening.

Portugese Kale 'Tronchuda Beira' is tender, sweet and more heat resistant than any other kale. It's blue green leaves are lovely in the garden, and the flabor is mild but rich. Easy to grow.

 

 

 

What To Plant in 2012? Share Your Dreams and Receive Free Seeds from Renee's Garden

"Things I'd like to paint in 2012" is a post on "The Blackbird Sings", one of my favorite blogs. It's written by English artist Natasha Newton, who paints birds, trees, houses, and landscapes, and I was charmed by her list of "want to paint" in the new year. And it got me dreaming, only three weeks into winter, of what I'd like to plant this spring.

I'd love to hear what you hope to plant in 2012. As an inducement for you to post your list here as a comment on the blog, Plant Talk is teaming up with  Renee's Garden Seeds for a free giveaway of brand new seed varieties. Send in a short list of your dream plants for the new year, and Renee will send you a seed packet or two. Please include a brief description of the plants on your list so we can salivate over them too.

Here's my short list:

- A hedge of 'Sunshine Blue' blueberries - I love the idea of an edible, evergreen hedge of these handsome little shrubs (3-4 feet high). The foliage looks good all year, with hot pink flowers in springtime followed by tasty berries from early August through September. Available in local nurseries and from Raintree Nursery near Morton.

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Lots of lettuces, for no other crop produced over a longer season, saved me so much money at the grocery store, and livened up our family meals last year. It was such a shock to go back to store-bought lettuce in October! I love the various special blends of cut-and-come again lettuce seeds from Renee's Garden, like "Farmer's Market Blend". No lettuces are more beautiful than Renee's "Monet's Garden Mesclun", an inspired blend of textures and colors. Purple, chartreuse, ruffled, scalloped, delicious and fresh. And I can't wait to try some of Renee's new varieties - see my post later in the week for a description of new-to-2012 varieties.

Flower Carpet Amber Roses - I'm determined to find space for these hardworking, easy-care, knee-high  roses in my favorite color. They bloom all summer and put on quite a show, even in less-than-perfect conditions that most roses wouldn't tolerate. I'm wondering if I can grow them planted right into gravel at the base of round feed trough planters to form apricot ruffles up against the galvanized metal. Now that would be a real test of carpet rose vigor and adaptability.

I love strawberries, but they're taking over my little garden - I'm afraid I have to face up to ripping most of them out before the entire place is shrouded in strawberry runners. I'll replace some with the smaller-leafed, much-less aggressive alpine strawberries (fraises des bois) with tiny berries that taste of champagne. I'll edge some of my raised beds with the yellow-leafed variety 'Golden Alexandria'.

It's only January...I'd better stop...please let us know what plants you're dreaming about...and see my next post for a list of the brand new, multi-colored and flavored lettuces and greens that Renee will be sending out to Plant Talk readers ....

What's Next from Renee's Garden Seeds - Ruffled Lettuces, Climbing Squash, and Striped Morning Glories

  What gardener isn't dreaming of spring during this last (please, let it be the last) burst of winter weather? Renee Shepherd at Renee's Garden Seeds is doing more than dreaming - she's developing and testing what we'll be growing in our gardens next year....

"We're testing a variety of organic kitchen garden selections imported from Germany," Renee writes. Unable to find the top quality or diversity of seed she wants, Renee has  tracked down organic sources overseas. She's also testing a unique Portuguese kale and "the very first mint I've ever grown from seed that actually has a true spearmint flavor".

I'm most excited about Renee's new red and green ruffled lettuce mix, which will be ornamental enough for edging beds.She's also busy trialing container-grown veggies to find some that really produce well in a confined space. "I'm still looking hard for a tomato to grow tumbling from window boxes that really tastes wonderful," she writes. Soon enough, she'll also be offering Tuscan melons,  a climbing winter squash with softball sized fruits, nasturtiums in new color combos, and cactus zinnias. Along with those ruffled lettuces, I'm going to be ordering the new striped morning glories from the Czech Republic - just writing that sounds exotic!

Until these new temptations become available, it won't be a hardship to make do with Renee's wine country mesclun mix of delicious little red and green lettuces - all you need to dress these tender lettuces is some fresh lemon juice and a good olive oil - and the ethereal Dawn Star morning glory (Ipomoea tricolor), an heirloom, sun-loving, vigorous vine that comes easily from seed and blooms all summer.

 

 

Photos courtesy of Renee's Garden Seed

Carrying On....

We spend so much time fussing over our gardens, tidying them and caring for them, that it's easy to forget how tough and hardy they are. This time of year, as plants carry on despite rain, wind and weather extremes, we're reminded of nature's strong life force and how plants persist...until the first killing frost, anyway (usually around mid-November in Seattle). 

I'm surprised so many tender plants are looking good into October, and maybe for a few more weeks, in my garden....

I'll miss the cheerful, bright Begonia boliviensis that have been blooming since June to trim out the edges of my raised beds. Usually you see them grown in hanging baskets, but I like to grow these tender perennials in the ground.

I'm hoping these carnivorous pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea) will survive the winter with a good blanket of mulch.

 

The few nasturtiums that survived a mid-summer onslaught of aphids are still in full bloom

 

I've had great luck with these cut-and-come-again mesclun lettuce mixes...and am hating the thought of eating store bought lettuce again for the first time in months

When to Plant, When to Harvest

So what really works for fall vegetable gardens in our climate?  I sought advice from Alice Doyle of wholesaler Log House Plants in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Log House produces an amazing assortment of lovely, healthy vegetable starts for fall planting.

Alice advises that all the things most important for spring planting are even more so now - find the sunniest spot you can, dig in compost, make sure the drainage is good. One consideration unique to this time of year - stay away from planting in frost pockets.

She suggests thinking of fall and winter vegetables in three categories:

• Those that can be harvested in the fall, like arugula, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. The trick is to get them established before September 15 so they have time to mature before frost. You still have time if you start with healthy transplants, the largest you can find, to give them a head-start as the weather cools.
• Vegetables that you can harvest continually (almost) through the winter, which includes spinach, parsley, Swiss chard and cabbages.
• Those that can be planted in autumn to harvest in springtime, like onions (plant now) and beets (not until late November). Alice tells me I've missed a raging controversy over the possibility of peas belonging in this category.  Perhaps if you plant peas now, you'll get a jump on the harvest and have fresh peas as early as March - depending on how cold the winter turns out to be. Last year? No fall planted peas in March.

For the most detailed planting chart you can imagine, including times to sow, transplant, harvest and freeze out temperatures for a wide variety of vegetables and leafy greens, print out Log House Plants "Fall and Winter Gardening Guide."

While you're on the Log House web page, be sure and sign up for their free electronic newsletter, which is almost as fun and enlightening as a conversation with Alice...

.All these vegetables are in nurseries now, produced by Log House Plants....and ready to go in the ground.

'Oliver' Brussel Sprouts to be transplanted into the garden now and harvested December through February.

A mix of cool-season lettuces, including 'Arctic King' and 'Winter Density'

'Blue Wind' Broccoli, plant by mid-September to be harvested through November

Winter Lettuce Bowl

Foggy dawns and even a little drizzle in Seattle this morning are telling us autumn is fast approaching, even if we haven't yet turned our calendars to the reality of September 1. While some summer pleasures are over, like sweet peas and strawberries (mostly), a useful book called "The Bountiful Container" (McGee & Stuckey, Workman Publishing, 2002 ) reminds us that salad greens thrive in cooler weather. Even if you garden on a deck, balcony, or in a window box, you have plenty of space for the "Winter Salad Bowl" suggested in the book.

Now is the time to sow seeds or set out transplants, and you'll be harvesting fresh, tender lettuces until Thanksgiving. Alternate red and green lettuces in a variety of textures for a container as lovely as the salads you'll make from it. Radicchio, arugula, winter purslane, and romaine lettuce are all good choices; the authors also suggest 'Lolo Rossa' lettuce for its frilly, bronze leaves.

Author Rose Marie Nicols McGee is the proprietor of  Nicols Garden Nursery, south of Portland, Oregon. check out her blog for ideas on how to serve, cook and preserve what you grow. 

Fall Vegetables?

Sorry to inject reality, but as Labor Day approaches it's time to be thinking about autumn planting.  If your cilanto and broccoli bolted like mine did in that July heat (let alone summer water bills) cool season crops sound like a fine idea....

For those of us sans greenhouses or row covers, what to plant for fall food crops can be puzzling.  I'll be giving suggestions over the next couple of weeks so you can get your fall seeds ordered, or better yet, give yourself an earlier harvest by tracking down starts.

First, care for the soil. If you're re-planting a bed in which you've grown flowers or vegetables all summer, refresh and enrich the soil by digging in compost and a balanced, organic fertilizer.

Consider planting kale, which is nutritious, stands up well to winter weather, and its crinkly leaves are pretty in the garden.  Romaine lettuce is another nutritious green, and it does better in cooler temperatures than many of the more tender mesclun-type lettuces. And it's not too late to try a second crop of broccoli for a late autumn harvest.

And speaking of autumn harvests - have you ever seen pumpkins ripening so soon? I'm already picking them ...

Photos courtesy of Log House Plants, who are busy shipping autumn vegetable starts to nurseries. Stay tune for more cool-season veg selections...and here's proof of early pumpkin ripening going on in my Langley garden..

August Update...

We have not much more than a month until the autumn equinox (Sept. 22 this year), and my garden is seriously flagging. Parts are overgrown, the broccolli and cilantro long since bolted; everything would have benefited from more trimming and editing than I've provided in this hot, dry summer.

But there are signs of hope - the raspberries are coming on deliciously, my dwarf blueberries and ever-bearing strawberries continue to produce. Apples and pumpkins are coloring up, a third sowing of lettuce is kicking in, hydrangeas are plumped up, and the agastache is luring hordes of feisty hummingbirds. Here's a selective look at what's happening out there on a mid-August afternoon:

A slug-riddled ligularia just coming into bloom next to a mop-head hydrangea- how come slugs are so huge and plentiful in such a droughty summer, anyway?

Pumpkins turning orange two months before Halloween...

Sweet peas persist alongside a mystery dahlia I found at a farmers' market here on Whidbey.

Echinacea 'Sunset' and orange hummingbird mint (Agastache aurantiaca 'Just Peachy')

I've bought artichokes to eat at farmers' markets, and left mine in the garden to develop purple fuzz. This is an Italian purple artichoke, growing here with Rudbeckia 'goldsturm'

Lettuce Bicycle

I love Langley because it seems like there's something cool and unexpected around every corner....like this lettuce-laden bicycle enticingly parked in a neighbor's driveway. I had to snap a photo...it looks to be custom-made to carry a market basket of produce, in this case lettuces wilting in the heat of a July evening. The bike is equipped with a watering can and herb planter in case you need a snip of oregano or dill as you're pedaling along.....I know there's a story, and I could have asked, but prefer to imagine the possibilities......maybe a mobile greens unit? Or a salad-mobile, with a big wooden bowl, oil and vinegar tucked into the saddle bags?

Summer Bounty II - Edibles (mostly)

In the spirit of slowing down and reveling in the longest days of summer, this week I'm posting photos from my Langley garden.  Mostly I'm staking up lilies and tying up climbing roses and clematis, for they've grown like crazy, encouraged by the recent rain and sun......I'm also busy harvesting broccoli, beets, pea pods, lettuces, herbs, sweet peas.....

Purple peas ( 'Blauschokker Purple Podded') which have pretty lavender flowers followed by showy pods. They  can be eaten early like snow peas, or left to mature... growing here with 'Westerland' roses.

My first-ever purple Italian artichoke, just starting to show fruit.