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Garden Talks
It is time to plant cold weather vegetables and pansies! These plants can tolerate below-freezing temperatures and flower best in cool weather. We have an awesome selection of broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbages, lettuces and greens (including mesclun mix and arugula) that will prosper in the cold weather of the next few days. And Jeff Skillin is telling me that we should have bright snapdragons soon and they love this cold weather!
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Bright Lights Swiss Chard--Plant Me Now! |
Soon it will be time to check apple, cherry, and other fruit trees for nests of tent caterpillars. They will emerge at the same time the leaves sprout. Blast nests with a strong spray of water to destroy them or spray Bt on them. Bt will harm only the caterpillars and not other beneficial insects, birds, or humans. You'll need a pump sprayer for this job. Another product to consider is a relatively new product to the market called from Bonide called Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew. This product contains Spinosad (spin-OH-sid), a naturally occuring soil dwelling bacterium that was collected on a Caribbean island from an abandoned rum distillery in 1982. Deadbug Brew kills bagworms, borers, beetles, caterpillars, codling moth, gypsy moth, loopers, leaf miners, spider mites, tent caterpillars, thrips and more! It is an all natural product that is very effective!
As I just wrote we are indeed having a vegetable gardening class this Saturday. What another great Spring we have had for vegetable gardening questions! Since early March we have fielded more questions than ever before about seed starting, raised beds, organic fertilizers and more-all with an eye toward vegetable gardening.
Barbara Damrosch in her gardening classic "The Garden Planner" (sold right here at Skillin's) gives out some great pointers about vegetable garden planning:
"*What type of vegetables to grow? The first criterion should be your appetite and that of the people you live with. But do keep in mind a vegetable garden is a golden opportunity to try the new and unfamiliar.
*Take our climate into account. In the northeastern USA, we have no problems with cool-weather crops such as broccoli, peas, lettuce and cabbage. Ask your neighbors what grows well for them or check with us here at Skillin's!
*How big a garden? The most common mistake made by new and old gardeners is that they plant too much. Either the upkeep overwhelms them and much of the garden succumbs to weeds, bugs or drought or the harvest is too bountiful, and they cannot keep up with the picking, let alone the eating and preserving. You will probably find it more fun and rewarding to start small.
*Choose a site that receives lots of sun and drains well. Trees can be cut to let in more sun and we at Skillin's have plenty of natural products to help your soil!
*Try to start with a sketch of your vegetable garden plot to make the buying of seeds and starter crops and the ultimate planting more efficient." (And remember it is best to start small and learn as you go along. Start with your absolute favorites so you know that you will like what you eat!)
Why does a busy person like Barbara Damrosch grow vegetables? Well for her (and for so many of us) "initially it was simply the itch to get out there in the Spring, to smell the warm earth, and grub around in the garden in the sunshine, feeling fit and contented, watching my bounty ripen. The harvest was extra. I think there is a basic satisfaction in growing food for the table, and that most of us who do it enjoy the activity of gardening itself just as much as the result."
Want to read more about gardening? Click Carrots! Radishes! Swiss Chard! for a past article posted to the Skillin's Garden Log!
Our 2011 nursery and perennial catalogs are now ONLINE! Check them out!
For more great local gardening tips check out A Garden in Maine. Skillin's friend and associate David K is a Portland ME gardener with great respect for gardening tradition but also an intelligent eye towards new and fun gardening methods!
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