A Simple First Garden

When I mention the garden, people often comment that they would love to do the same, but simply do not know how. Looking back, here are the three things I would suggest to get up and running with as little effort, knowledge, expense or equipment as possible.

1. Buy this book All New Square Foot Gardening. I do not think it is possible to make starting a garden any simpler and easy to maintain than the information in this book. If space is an issue, keep it small and plant small things. Lettuce, carrots, radish, and herbs do not take up much space at all. Tomatoes will do just fine grown in a big planter on a patio.

2. Buy seedlings at the local nursery. Seedlings are plants the nursery has already started from seed in the greenhouse and buying the plants already started takes away a lot of the risk of just getting the plants to sprout. Worry about seeds, organics, etc ... after you get the hang of the basics. Cucumbers, beans, peas, and squash are the exception as they are fairly easy to start from seed.

3. Buy a hoe. Weeding by hand is time consuming and a lot of work. As soon as the garden becomes work, it stops being fun. Simply chop the weeds into the dirt with the hoe and turn them into mulch to feed the dirt.

Set up the garden bed as outlined in #1, purchase the plants as outlined in #2, and water and hoe as required. Use the first year to have fun and learn the basics and use the winter after the first year fill in the gaps in your technique for the second year.

2009 Varieties - Part IV - The Kitazawa Seed Company

Growing vegetables and fishing, two things I enjoy, have a lot in common. Both require optimism and both require a certain degree of luck no matter what your skill level is. No matter how much you plan and prepare, there is always a chance that nature is not going to cooperate.

The Kitazawa Seed Company specializes in all types of Asian vegetables. This is the forth year I have ordered from them and while their prices, products, etc are all good, their customer service is GREAT! There have been at least two occasions where they went amazingly out of their way to ensure my order was correct.

Most of their varieties are best suited for warm climates with long growing seasons rather than frosty New Jersey and these are easily the hardest things I will attempt to grow this year which will require the biggest component of luck. Not organic and many hybrid, they are the exception to everything else being planted this year.

Here is what I am trying this year:

Green Shiso
Yard Long Bean
Ant, Hybrid Bitter Melon
Green Skin Bitter Melon
Katsura Giant Pickling Melon
Sweet Mama, Hybrid Kabocha
Ichiba Kouji Hybrid Japanese Melon

2009 Varieties - Part III - The Hudson Valley Seed Library

The Hudson Valley Seed Library is similar to The Seed Savers Exchange in many ways, but with a few important differences.

The first is that they specialize in the varieties, some organic, which do well in the New York Hudson Valley area which means they will also very likely do well in my area which is only slightly less frosty.

The second is that they encourage you to save and exchange seeds by offering a membership plan. For $20, you get 10 packets of seeds to start which is about $.75 less than the normal per packet price. They will then supply you with instructions on how to save seeds and will apply a $2.00 credit per variety returned at the end of the season. They also offer reduced prices on other varieties to members.

Here is what I selected with my membership:

Melons

Banana Melon
Schoons Hardshell American Melon

Squash & Pumpkins

Bennings Green Tint Patty Pan
Connecticut Field Pumpkin
New England Pie Pumpkin

Corn

Ashworth Sweet Corn

Herbs

Mammoth Dill
Sweet Basil

Peas

Purple Podded Pea

2009 Varieties - Part II - The Seed Savers Exchange

The Seed Savers Exchange is working towards protecting biodiversity and encouraging seed saving and sharing. The sell both seeds and seedlings for both vegetables and flowers. Many, but not all, of their varieties are organic. The variety they offer is huge and their catalog is just interesting to read for the number of items offered. I've ordered from them the last two years and have had good results.

Here is what I got from The Seed Savers Exchange this year:

Cucumber

Jelly Melon Cucumber
Japanese Clmbng Cucumber OG

Okra

Silver Queen Okra

Tomato

Crnkovic Yugoslavian Tomato
Hungarian Heart Tomato
Trophy Tomato OG
Wisconsin 55 Tomato OG

Greens

Five Color Silverbeet Chard OG
Dwarf Blue Curled Kale

Sunflowers & Poppies

Heirloom Flower Collection

Saving Seeds

Many years ago, farmers had no choice but to save some seed at the end of each season. There were no mail order houses or easy / cheap ways to get seed, so they simply set aside a little bit from the best part of their crop to use the next year.

There are many reasons why people still save seed today.

Some people feel it is cheaper than buying new seed each year.

Some people are concerned about the genetic modifications that the big seed companies make to the seeds. Some seeds have been modified to the extent that you cannot plant a new crop from the previous year's crop.

Some people feel it gives them a connection to the earth and the cycle of life by using what was grown and died this year to start the cycle again next year.

Some people like the idea of being “off the grid” with their food supply.

Some people are concerned about biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variation of life forms within a given ecosystem. If a farmer sells 90% of one crop and only 10% of another, he is likely to slowly convert to the crop which he sells more of. If a particular crop ships or stores better, it will also crowd out other varieties (even those that taste better). An heirloom plant is a plant or vegetable that was commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but for reasons similar to those just mentioned start to disappear over time and many people enjoy saving seeds to keep the varieties going.

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners is the de facto standard on saving seed. You can also Google “seed saving” to turn up a number of useful sites.

I started simply with the leftover Halloween pumpkin, some sunflowers from a farmer’s market, and some late season tomatoes from a very productive plant we had this summer by following the instructions in the book and packing them away with the regular seeds I bought mail order. I plan on planting them in the spring along with everything else and, if it works well, plan to expand on it at the end of this year.

2009 Varieties - Part I - High Mowing Seeds

It is snowing again today and about 25 F (-3.9 C) degrees. It is not major snow, about 3 - 4" (8 cm) so far, but I think this is already been the fourth of fifth snow of this year which is a lot more than it has the last several years. We've spent most of the day in the house reading, drawing manga, and playing Wii, but I've also been using the time to plan out the garden.

High Mowing Seeds is an organic seed company located in Vermont. I buy about half of my seeds there, this is the second year I've used them and I am overall happy with the experience. The selection is good, their website is friendly and easy to use and their customer service is quick and helpful. They also offer a variety of other garden related items such as plastic mulch, inoculant, and compost (I got their hat last year and wear all the time). In addition to vegetables, they also have several cover crops and flower varieties.

Here is what I got from High Mowing this year. This will make up about half of the 2009 varieties I will be planting.

Beans

Kentucky Wonder
Rattlesnake Pole
Shirofumi Edamame

Cucumber

Suyo Long
National Pickling
Marketmore

Peas

Sugar Ann

Carrots

Yaya F1
Red Cored Chantenay

Squash

Yellow Crookneck

Sunflowers

Jerusalem Sunrise Lemon
Mammoth


Snow falling in the backyard:

Finding Farm Fresh Close To Home

Change happens slowly over time and it is hardly noticed. Tomatoes, corn and other vegetables at the supermarket take on a bland homogenized taste over time as they are bred for characteristics that make them better at being shipped than eaten. Eventually we take it for granted that fruits and vegetables have no flavor.

The first summer after we moved out of Jersey City, we found a local farm stand and were shocked at how rich and flavorful the fresh Jersey corn and tomatoes were. It became common for us to drive around with an eye out for a new farm stand and it became the norm to supplement what was being grown in the backyard with the flavorful produce of the farm stand.

http://www.localharvest.org/ is a great site which allows you to find farm stands in your area, the products that they sell and the seasons they offer them. Chances are you will be surprised at how many of them are within a short distance from your home and you have maybe even regularly driving past them without even realizing it.

In addition to the farm stands, search for the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in your area as well. In a CSA, all the members pay an up front fee in exchange for a regular share of the farms harvest. This share usually consists of a weekly basket of whatever is fresh and in season at the farm which is often delivered to a convenient pick up point. It is a convenient way to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season as well as an opportunity to try new varieties you would not normally find at the supermarket.

We've joined the Mountain Lakes Organic Vegetable Coop and have been getting a weekly basket of organics. The price is reasonable, the taste is better and about once every six weeks or so there is a variety in the basket that we might not have thought to try otherwise.