Planting Seeds and Waking Bees
- On March 17, 2020
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Herbs, Seeds, Uncategorized
1
Spring is nearly here and it feels like an extra special relief this season as Coronavirus sweeps the world. We’re all supposed to stay at home to protect others and help save lives, and since it’s probably a bad idea to eat cake and drink wine 24/7, let me suggest that we all plant a few seeds—flowers, herbs, vegetables—we’ve got loads of seeds in the Little Free Seed Library on our boulevard. In case you don’t already know, we always use the top shelf of our Little Free Library for seed sharing in the spring and fall. If you’d like to pick up or drop off some seeds, the library is located on our boulevard on the corner of 45th Street and Washburn Ave. S. in Linden Hills.
If you have seeds to share, please bring them in their original packets or label them in envelopes or baggies so people can clearly see what they are. A HUGE thank you to whoever dropped off a whole bunch of great seeds recently, all seemingly harvested from their own garden and neatly labeled, including tall purple allium, yellow meadow rue, butterfly weed, blue Baptisia, bottle gentian, Short’s aster, Grandpa Ott’s morning glories and clematis integrifolia (a bush-type).
The Little Free Seed Library is all stocked up!
We always appreciate seed donations so we can keep the library stocked, but we are especially grateful this year because our biggest source of donated seeds is no longer able to get them and pass them on to us. Because of that, I’ve been writing to seed companies to see about getting some donations. Several responded positively, but only Renee’s Garden actually sent some, asking only for the price of shipping, which I happily paid. Sharing seeds is one way I try to make the world a little brighter. If you feel the same, please come on by with some seeds to share, and take some home for yourself!
PLEASE NOTE—because people who feel fine can still have the virus, you should wash your hands well after touching the seed packets and/or books in our library.
Wake Up Little Bees
Did you store a native bee house in a garage or shed for the winter? If you did, don’t forget to bring it outside in early spring. As I wrote in my September column, this is the first year I’ve overwintered a bee house so I’m learning along with you. Here’s what to do: when you first start seeing early spring flowers, bring the bee house outside and, if you haven’t already, put it in a cardboard box or plastic container with a small hole cut in the top or side. Find a spot where the box will be protected from rain and wind and give the bees some time to wake up and fly out of the box through the hole. They’ll be looking for a new place to stay, so have another bee house ready and waiting for them, if possible. Be patient, it may take several weeks for all of the bees to leave.
Soon I’ll be moving our bee house back outside.
A Few Spring Tips
Believe me, I want to run out into the muck and start planting as much as you do, BUT try not to do that. Walking on, and digging in, wet soil harm’s its structure, making it more apt to become hard and compacted. If you can pick up a handful of soil and wring moisture out of it, it’s too wet to work with.
Soon it will be spring!
Don’t despair. There’s plenty of other stuff to do: take off tree wraps, cut back perennials and grasses that you left up all winter, prune shrubs (not the ones that will bloom on last-year’s growth like lilacs, mock orange, forsythia and witch hazel), toss out dead annuals that are still hanging around. Do not decide until way into June whether your hardy hibiscus is dead or alive. It can take a long while for those to come up. Maybe order up a couple of yards of compost and/or manure and have it delivered to your driveway. That way, you can take your time breaking your back (and the backs of your loved ones) hauling it over to top off planters and garden beds. It’s stinky, dirt work and I really enjoy it because I know how happy our plants will be. My husband, Mike, um, not so much.
Got Dead Basil? Give African Blue Basil a Try
- On August 06, 2019
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Container Gardening, Herbs, Uncategorized
- 0
Right about this time last year I wrote a column talking about how sad it is that everyone’s favorite Genovese basil, which used to grow so nicely until late summer, is now being decimated early in the season by a fairly new disease called basil downy mildew. A mold that loves warmth and humidity, this disease starts out slowly with just a few yellow leaves and before you know it, the whole plant is a gross mess of yellow and brownish black splotches.
Yellow splotches often signal that basil downy mildew has started.
I offered several tips in that column for potentially avoiding basil downy mildew— or at least putting it off until you can make a couple of pizzas or something. And then about a week after the column came out, all of my basil plants got it and died. So, ha! What do I know, right? Well, seriously, it is nearly impossible to avoid this basil plague. But I’m not giving up on Genovese basil, and you probably don’t want to either. So let me offer another strategy that I’ve been trying this year that is so far going well.
Genovese basil is a favorite for making pesto.
In addition to planting about five Genovese basil seedlings, like I always do, I also planted African Blue basil, which is not susceptible to the disease. At this point in late July, I’ve only had to toss one diseased Genovese into the garbage. The other four are doing all right—fingers crossed. I’d never heard of African Blue basil until last year when a fellow gardener told me about it. He said he’d tried it and, though the leaves are a bit tougher than Genovese, the flavor is very similar and the plants have done really well in his garden. I planted two of them in early June, and I agree with him on all counts. I’ve made some really great pesto out of this new basil, and because it grows super quickly and doesn’t bolt, I’m be making a lot more.
African Blue basil flowers don’t go to seed, so it’s fine to leave them on the plant.
For those who’ve never heard of African Blue basil either, let me explain a bit about it. A hybrid variety created by crossing camphor basil and ‘Dark Opal’ basil, it is grown as a perennial in climates much warmer than ours. But even in Minnesota, plants can easily grow to 3 feet tall over the summer. The foliage is a pretty blend of dark green and purple, and plants produce loads of purplish-pink flowers that don’t need to be removed because, unlike most basils, they don’t go to seed because African Blue basil is sterile. Pollinators LOVE the purple flowers, and I’ve found that they are just as tasty as the leaves and can be used in pesto, salads, pasta, cocktails or anywhere else you’d use basil.
Even if you don’t like the taste of African Blue basil, it’s a great plant to add to sunny perennial gardens because it’s quite striking and you’ll attract plenty of bees and butterflies. African Blue basil is also said to grow more easily indoors, so I’m going to try putting one in a sunny window this winter. If all goes well, perhaps I can plant it outside once the weather warms up next season. The one hitch with this type of basil is, since they don’t go to seed, you have to buy new plants each year and they are a few more dollars than the typical varieties of basil we are all used to planting.
Or, to save a few bucks, you could try propagating new plants yourself by rooting cuttings in water and then transplanting them into small pots until they grow big enough to be transplanted into the garden. I can see this working well in warm climates, but I’m not sure how successful we’d be using this strategy since we would need to overwinter the plants indoors for several long, cold months. I think I’ll give it a try this winter and let you know how that turns out.
Happy gardening. And may all of your basil be free of mildew.
Free Seeds Still Available
- On June 07, 2017
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Herbs, Organic Gardening, Perennials, Seeds, Uncategorized
- 0
The Little Free Seed Library at my house (on the boulevard on the corner of 45th Street and Washburn Ave. South) has been busier than ever this year. People have donated so many seeds; I’ve had to put them out in batches because there isn’t enough room to hold them all. A few weekends ago, when we were out gardening, we lost count of the number of families who came by, often sitting down on the sidewalk together, to sort through the seeds packets and decide what they wanted to take home.
“Mommy, make sure you get some red peppers,” one little boy yelled. At suppertime, a teenage boy and his mother showed up because he had walked by earlier and seen that the library also included free seeds. “I went home and told her that we had to come back because this is so cool,” he said. All of this happiness made us happy too, so thank you to all of you joyful people who came by to get some seeds. And thank you, too, to everyone who has brought over seeds to share.
What’s in the Little Free Seed Library is always changing, but with all of the donations it’s safe to say that there is a still a big supply of vegetable seeds, including several varieties of corn, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes, squash and lettuce. There is also a variety of herb seeds, as well as a wide variety of flower seeds, including lupines, snap dragons, morning glories, zinnias, coreopsis, Shasta daisies, Echinacea, moon flower, impatiens, delphinium, foxglove, four o’clocks, bachelor buttons and many more. Come by and take what you need, or drop off extras you’ve got!
Seeds, Seeds and More Seeds
- On March 22, 2016
- By Meleah
- In Annuals, Container Gardening, Herbs, Natives, Perennials, Seeds
- 0
Hello dear readers. It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted a blog. Life gets too busy sometimes and you have to let go of at least a few things or you’ll go batty. (At least that’s how I work.) Now that the load has lightened up a bit, I’m back and I’ll try to post much more regularly going forward—at least during the growing season.
First off, happy spring! If you live nearby I want to let you know that the Little Free Seed Library is up and running again at my house, so please come on over and leave some seeds to share with others. Or take some home for yourself. This season, I’m happy to say that we have a few more items to share thanks to Do It Green! Minnesota.
The Minneapolis-based non-profit has long been committed to sustainability and promoting healthy communities, and with support from the Gannett Foundation they started up their own Do It Green! Seed, which provides free native and organic seeds to Twin Cities residents. They also distribute educational information about seed saving and other topics, and when they heard about my seed library, they kindly gave me a variety of seeds to share with you. They also gave me many copies of two handouts: One explains how to choose quality seeds and save seeds, and the other covers the different types of milkweeds home gardeners can plant to help monarch butterflies.
Swamp milkweed seeds
Both handouts will be in the library as long as supplies last. Or, you can print your own copy of Do It Green!’s Seed Saving handout by clicking on a link you’ll find on their website. Their site also offers a link to a very nice seed label that you can print and use on your own envelopes when saving seeds at home. Those of you who visit the library at my house will see that label on the seed packets donated by Do It Green!, which include swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and organic China rose radish, garlic chives and cilantro.
Read More»Growing Edibles In the Shade
Want to grow vegetables and herbs even though you don’t have full sun? No problem. You just need to choose edibles that don’t depend on six hours or more of baking sunlight to thrive. So, yes, tomatoes are out, as are peppers, squash and eggplant, because plants grown for their fruit really do need a minimum of six hours of good sun per day.
Lettuce will grow well, even in partial shade. Photo: Rhonda Hayes
But that still leaves a wide variety of edibles to choose from as long as you’ve got more than deep shape to work with—not much will grow under a maple tree’s canopy. But plants grown for their roots and flowers will produce with as little as three to six hours of full sun or consistent dappled sun. Beets, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, turnips and radishes, for example, can be successfully grown with four to six hours of sun. And though they produce fruit, I get a pretty good crop of cucumbers in 5 hours of sun.
Leafy veggies like kale, spinach, leaf lettuce, arugula, mustard greens and Swiss chard can get by with only two to four hours of sun—though they will grow more lush in sunnier locales. If you have a garden that offers both sun and shade, one of the advantages of knowing what can take less sun is the ability to increase your harvest by tucking these plants in along shaded borders that are often though of as wasted space.
Got four hours of good sunlight? Plant some Swiss chard.
Sure, there’s a lot to be said for the power of sun, but there are some benefits to growing vegetables in part shade. Crops like broccoli and cauliflower won’t bolt as quickly as they would in full sun, tender lettuces will last longer and you won’t have to water constantly, which is always a plus. That said, though, it is important to monitor moisture levels in shade gardens carefully because these sites are often located beneath big trees or shrubs, as well as the overhang of the house or garage. So even when it does rain, the water may not reach your garden, and much of what does fall will likely be taken up by the root systems of greedy trees and shrubs.
Read More»Turning Cattle Troughs Into Raised Bed Gardens
Of all the things in our landscape, I think the galvanized cattle troughs (also known as stock tanks) in our backyard get the most attention. Even in the winter when nothing is growing in them, their shapes and sheer size turn heads and provoke questions. We added them to what we’re now calling “our little farm” a couple of years back when we lost a huge oak, and I figured I’d take advantage of the sun to grow some vegetables. After starting with one trough, we added another last year and we’ll be getting one more in the next few weeks.
If you want to grow some food on a small, urban lot, you can’t beat these troughs for being easy to get going. You don’t have to build anything, and you don’t have to deal with turning depleted urban soil into something safe, nutrient-rich and workable enough to grow food in. They’re also affordable, durable and tall enough to be out of the way of hungry critters and peeing dogs.
People ask all the time where we got the troughs and how to turn one into a raised bed garden, so even though I wrote briefly about this a couple of years ago, I thought I’d explain the process more in-depth here since it’s the perfect time to get raised beds going for the season. Let’s start with where to buy them. Unless you are literally made of money, do not go to a boutique garden center for a livestock trough. You want to go where farmers buy stuff—Tractor Supply Co. and Fleet Farm.
If you want to grow things like tomatoes, peppers, beans and squash, get yourself a large trough. One of ours is four feet long and the other is six feet. Both are 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep, and they cost about $80 and $110, respectively. Aside from getting the things home in the back of the car, the biggest job is drilling holes in the bottom for drainage. Use a bit that can drill through metal that’s about the size of a dime of nickel. We drilled holes every few inches all around the outside edge along the bottom, and then added many more holes going across the bottom of the trough from end to end and side to side. Remove the drain plug, too, since you won’t be needing it.
Once you’ve got your holes drilled, flip the trough over and put it wherever you want it because once you fill it with soil, you won’t be able to move it around without taking most of that soil back out. We don’t like things looking all kittywampus so we used a level to make sure the trough was lined up properly once we got it situated. (You don’t have to do that unless you’re bugged by such things.) Now comes the soil part. My advice—don’t cut corners. Good soil makes all the difference when you’re growing anything.
Because these are containers, albeit huge ones, you want a mix that’s going to drain well. You also want to provide plants with some nutrients that you’ll boost over time by adding compost and fertilizer. You’ll save some money if you make your own mix by combining 1 part topsoil, 1 part compost and 1 part coconut coir or coarse sand (also known as builder’s sand). I’ve done this by combining these things in batches in a wheelbarrow and it worked well. But I’ll admit, it’s a heck of a lot less work to call someone and have a quality potting mix delivered to your driveway. That way, you can just shovel it into a wheelbarrow and take it right over to your trough and other containers.
What do I mean by a quality mix? As I’ve said in the past, I’ve learned a lot about soil and compost over the last few years and I’m now opting to go with products that are organic or at least produced by a company or farmer who is willing to explain their process so I can make an informed decision about whether to use it. (For much more on that topic, see my blog post on safe compost.
Local organic growers give products from Purple Cow Organics, COWSMO and Mississippi Topsoil high marks. Other local sources that come highly recommended are Kern Landscape Resources and Kelley and Kelley Nursery. Compost from our Linden Hills organics recycling program is also pretty good. But because it includes packaging, paper and other odd bits, I don’t use it to grow edibles. That’s just me. Keep in mind that even though it’s costly to fill your trough with quality potting mix the first year, in subsequent years (unless you get some dreaded disease like early blight of tomatoes) you’ll only need to add a bit more compost to keep soil healthy. If you feel like you’re having drainage issues, add more coir or sand. With the hard part behind you—all you have to do is keep growing.
