Veggie Garden 101: Direct Seeding Vegetables and Flowers March to May

During this time of a global pandemic, I have returned to my vegetable garden with renewed dedication and commitment. When groceries store shelves were empty of salad greens, I knew that I had a low tunnel at home full of spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, and cilantro. I would like to share with anyone who may read this blog about how to grow a successful home vegetable and flower garden. I have worked in commercial horticulture and floriculture as a young adult and have remained a passionate grower for the past twenty years. The suggestions below will work for anyone located in USDA plant hardiness zone 6b. To find your plant hardiness zone, go to the USDA's Plant Hardiness Zone Map by Zip Code.

Direct Seeding Vegetables and Flowers in March: In March, typically by the second week, the soil is warm enough to direct seed peas (snap, shell, snow) and some cold-hardy flowers such as: snapdragons, bachelor's buttons, calendula, and rudbeckia/black eyed susan. Herb possibilities include dill, cilantro, and parsley. By the end of March, potatoes can be planted. So, what if you missed the March window? Not to worry, it is not too late to start any of the previous mentioned plant species. For families with children interested in gardening, I would suggest focusing on peas, potatoes, and calendula because the seed size is large to huge and easy to manipulate. For peas and other large seeded vegetables like green/snap beans, the easiest seeding method is to use a trowel to dig a narrow trench about 1.5 - 2 inches deep. Place the pea seeds every three inches and cover with soil. I like to use the back of the trowel to firm the soil over the seed. All seeds need good seed to soil contact.

Direct Seeding Vegetables and Flowers in April: By April, usually the weather has warmed to the point that transplanting can start. For direct seeding, consider: broccoli, cabbage, radishes, kale, mustard greens, arugula, spinach, lettuce, carrots, and beets. The brassicas or cabbage family plants (broccoli, cabbage, radish, kale, mustard greens, arugula) have relatively large seeds that are easy to manipulate. All of these should be planted about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch deep. Spinach has slightly larger seeds and can be planted at a similar depth. Remember that you can always seed at a higher rate and then thin out the extra seedlings to include in salads. Beets are another larger seeded vegetable with interesting looking seeds. Carrots are probably the most difficult to seed, thin, and grow successfully. You need a well-drained and deep soil for carrots. Raised beds would be a good fit here. Be very patient, carrots can take up to 21 days to germinate. There are carrot varieties that will work better in heavier soils. I prefer to grow 'Red Cored Chantenay' and 'Shin Kuroda'. At the end of April, it is time to think about direct seeding green/snap beans and a second crop of carrots and beets.

Direct Seeding Vegetables and Flowers in May: In south central Pennsylvania, May is when gardening season is in full swing and many frost-sensitive plants are transplanted, think tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, and cucumbers to name a few. For direct seeding, any of the vegetables mentioned for March and April could still be planted in early May to mid-May with the exception of peas and spinach. In fact, many gardeners choose to use succession planting where they direct seed or transplant a smaller amount several times staggering by two or more weeks to ensure that they will have a continuous harvest. Lettuce is not a great crop for mid-summer because it does not like heat or dry soils. There are lettuce varieties bred to withstand summer heat but they will grow best with irrigation and shade cloth. Focus on the spring and fall for lettuce production. For the heat of the summer, swiss chard is a better choice. When small leaves are harvested, they can be used for salad or larger leaves for cooking. Vegetables to direct seed include: cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins (mid-late May), green/snap beans, melons (mid-late May), zinnias, sunflowers, basil, and more.

If you have any questions, please add them as a comment. I will be checking the blog daily.

Think Spring

Yes, it is that time of year when winter may be melting away to spring and the clocks have leapt forward. Each year I garden, I begin to use more planning to relieve some of the spring planting crunch. This year, I am sorting through my seed box early and choosing seeds for the mid-March and early April indoors sowing and the early May direct seeding. Also, I need to remind myself of when to remove straw mulch from strawberries, see this excellent Extension article, and garlic.

Recipe blog: using everything from your CSA box

If you are not a gardener but enjoy delicious, locally grown vegetables, consider joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Or perhaps, you are in a place in your life where gardening is not possible because of time, available garden space, or a recent injury.

What is a CSA?

A farmer may choose to run a community supported agriculture program. At the beginning of the season, a member (you) purchases a share in the farm's CSA program. Each week or every other week, a vegetable pick-up or delivery is arranged by the farmer for all of the share members to pick up their vegetables. Depending on where you live, the season length determines how may weeks from spring until fall that a summer CSA program operates. Winter CSA programs are becoming more prevalent, even in Northern areas.

Challenges and Benefits of a Share Member

A CSA share can be a great way to preserve some of the harvest for the winter months without having a garden to grow your own produce. In addition, you are supporting the local farming community. Buy fresh! Buy local!

The greatest challenge that most share members experience is learning how to cook new vegetables and using all of the vegetables in their share box. To help with this Hampshire College's CSA program has provided a number of free recipes. Many CSA programs distribute their own recipes and there are a number of cookbooks available for those who want to cook and eat by the seasons.

Recipe: Braised Kale or Collard Greens

This is a great way to prepare kale and collards, especially for the fall and winter months. The recipe uses a lot of greens making it ideal for larger fall harvests. It is adapted from an America's Test Kitchen cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of kale, midribs trimmed and leaves chopped
• small onion or large shallot, minced
• 2 T olive oil
• 1/2 cup broth, chicken or vegetable
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, boil water with some salt. Add the greens and boil for 7 minutes. Remove from the boiling water and transfer to a colander and dunk in a bowl of ice water. After the greens have chilled, only about a minute or two, removed and press the greens against the side of the colander to remove any excess water. Set aside.

In a skillet, over medium heat, add the olive oil and shallot. Saute until soft but not browned. Add the kale, breaking it apart with a spoon, saute for about 2 minutes. Add broth and increase heat to medium high for around 6 minutes until the greens absorb the broth.

Season with salt and pepper.

Tomato Varieties: Notes from 2014

To me, the quintessential summer vegetable, is the tomato. It reminds me of my grandfather's garden. He would compete with his neighbors for plant vigor and earliest vine-ripened tomato of the summer. His buddies would debate the best sources for starter plants, varieties, and planting techniques. Each winter, I dream, plan, and strategize to produce delicious tomatoes before July 4, boost yields for sauce-making, and grow flavorful tomatoes for a caprese salad.

The 2014 growing season was one of my least successful growing seasons based on my three goals. Many tomatoes were harvested green and ripened on the kitchen counter. Aside from fresh eating, I only had enough tomatoes for 1 batch each of ketchup and sauce. Flavor was at times bland and occasionally sublime.

The biggest surprise of the summer was a new variety 'Schmmeig Striped Hollow' from Fedco Seeds. It outproduced all my other paste and slicing tomato varieties. The fruit cavity is hollow with little seed production making them ideal for stuffing and an interesting addition to summer tomato salads.

The two hybrids that I grow each year, 'Juliet' and 'Sungold', performed as expected. The season was just too cold for the 'San Marzano' plants. My best paste tomato variety of the year was 'Grandma Mary's', which I grow every season to compare to new (to me) varieties. I tried Weisnicht's Ukranian tomato, great flavor, meaty texture, and worth trying for a second season. All varieties were purchased from Fedco Seeds.

Variety Recommendations: Hail the Kale

Why kale?

Kale is a green, leafy vegetable in the Brassica or cabbage family. Most preparations of kale are similar to collards. In my experience, kale is easy to grow and withstands extremes of soil moisture and air temperatures. It is one of the last vegetables to succumb to freezing weather when it is unprotected and is a robust addition to unheated low tunnels for winter and early spring harvests. Kale in its seedling stage is an excellent green to add to salads and keeps well in a salad mix when properly harvested and stored.

My favorite varieties of kale include 'Red Russian', 'Beedy's Camden', and 'Nero di Tuscano'. All three varieties sailed through the polar vortex winter of 2014 in an unheated low tunnel. I had seeded very heavily for salad greens and braising mixes at the early spring harvest timing. The spring of 2014 harvest was two weeks late compared to 2012 and 2013. After the spring harvests, I removed the 'Nero di Tuscano', for whatever reason, it was not as vigorous. I thinned the 'Red Russian' and 'Beedy's Camden' and harvests continued through the summer and until a killing frost in November. Many suppliers offer 'Red Russian' and 'Nero di Tuscano' but I have only found 'Beedy's Camden' from Fedco Seeds.

Chapter by Chapter: Backyard Winter Gardening

Today, I just started reading "Backyard Winter Gardening" by Caleb Warnock. So far, I am less than pleased because the book reads more like an op-ed submission to a newspaper than a non-fiction gardening book. I've decided to review each chapter to preserve my own sanity. There is nothing more frustrating then reading something full of conjecture that is presented as fact.

Chapter 1: 9 reasons to read this book and 6 you might not have considered

First of all, reviewing scientific literature requires a thorough literature search of peer-reviewed research from reputable sources. Peer-reviewed research means that a researcher submitted the article to a scientific journal and one of the editors from that journal sent it to several recognized leaders in that specific subject area to review and critique the experimental design, analysis of the data,and the conclusions based on that data. First of all, a major discussion of irradiation of foods is backed by only one citation. Second, it is presented as a citation from a scientific journal. Physics Today is a popular magazine and from what I've read about it, there is no peer-review process for submitting articles to the magazine. This is not the only topic that is discussed in the chapter that utterly lacks a balanced, informed treatment.

One week later . . .

This book is chock full of shameless self-promotion. The final straw was when the author stated that he was renaming a lettuce variety, a quite famous one, because he had saved the seed after growing it for multiple winter seasons. Most growers when they have selected a line from the original variety, will give credit to the original variety and add just a few letters or numbers at the end of the variety name to identify their selection. The over-zealous claims continue that he is the sole varietal tester for a federal government germplasm source. What???? And to top it all off, the author lists himself as a seed source before the Seed Savers Exchange.

Aside from the self-promotion, this book is poorly written. The explanation of hot beds lacks any warning of food-borne illnesses when using fresh animal manure until the last page of the chapter. In addition, it fails to give a thorough treatment of other winter growing methods. My recommendation is to buy a book by Eliot Coleman, a recognized authority on four-season vegetable production.

Do yourself a favor, don't purchase this book. I will be gladly returning this book to the library after reading only half of it. It is a book dominated by self-promotion and personal opinion not sound-gardening advice and information.