Contest Fails to Germinate Interest

"The Pot with a Purpose Contest" has failed to capture the interest of readers, so there will be no winner. I'd like to thank Renee Shepard, owner of Renee's Garden for sponsoring the contest and hope some of you were able to get some usable information from the related posts. I plan to experiment this year with container gardening and hope to report on my thoughts about them through the seasons. I do hope that if you are planning to do any container gardening this year you'll consider adding some purpose to your pots. Some functions to consider include:

Edible--Renee has an article on the basics of container gardening, and the internet has a profusion of information on the subject. I think I'll try tomatillos in a pot this year, put it in a big pot with a simple support structure, and place it in a corner of a patio where it can burst forth with it's fruit--papery covered small green tomatoes that are great for green chili. I once planted them in a garden bed and the plant promptly took over spilling forth little fruits that overwintered in the soil and sprouted hundreds of tomatillo seedlings the following spring. Actually, I'm going for a Mexican food theme for some of my pots, adding chilies and cilantro to the mix. I'm also going to grow nasturtiums in containers to utilize the blossoms in salads and stirfry. Other blossoms that add interest to food include those of herbs such as chives and basil, as well as roses and violets. Read Renee's article on edible flowers, including some recipes here.

Habitat--Plants represent food to more than just humans, which can be a good news/bad news scenario. Insects and other arthropods feed on plants, and depending upon whether humans have declared them damaging to something we want, the critters are called pests. But there is another category--the beneficial insects--that feed on or parasitize the insects we don't want. These are the good guys/gals that keep balance in the garden habitat and prevent or minimize infestations by pests. An over abundance of pests in the garden is a sign that the garden is out of balance. Too many aphids on your roses? You might want to lay off the high nitrogen fertilizer that caused the rapid, succulent growth that attracted the aphids in the first place. In a healthy garden if the aphids had a sudden population surge, there would be a period of imbalance until a predator ramped up to tame the hordes. In this way, nature acts like a market economy--with supply and demand ebbing and flowing in a balance tuned over millions of years. When we interfere with the incredible, seemingly impossible fluidity of nature by spraying an insecticide, we kill the beneficial insects honing in for the kill, right along with the pests. Purposely providing habitat for the insects we do want helps assure they will be there working behind the scenes to work towards ecological balance in our gardens.

I'll be giving some specifics about how to provide habitat for beneficial insects in the next few weeks, as well as, look at a way to reuse nursery pots and build a bee house to attract solitary bees in order to improve the pollination of my fruit trees.

Nasturtium photo courtesy of redster.

Spring Has Sprung At Kendrick Lake Park

I took a walk the other day at Kendrick Lake Park, not far from my home in Lakewood. There is a public garden there with a great collection of native and regionally appropriate plants, artfully juxtaposed with large boulders on low mounds. Pathways meander among the mounds creating islands of texture and color. The color is very muted right now, with most plants cut back to prepare for spring. Grasses are cut down to 6 - 12" and the yellow greens of Manzanita, Yucca, bear grass, and Agave species serve as a back drop for the brilliant blue Iris reticulata. My daughter and I strolled around the lake, moving in and out of clouds of midges, who undoubtedly had been awakened by the recent spate of warm weather we've had. Spring indeed has sprung.

Many people, when they encounter midges, think they are mosquitoes because they seem to swarm. But these primitive flies are non-biting and are merely swarming in a mating frenzy, waiting for a female to dash into the cloud and select some lucky fellow. The larvae float at the ponds edge, waiting for a warm day to burst into flight, if they are lucky enough to not become fish fodder.

I plan to return periodically to document the garden as it progresses through the seasons--showing the seasonal form of these beautiful plants that deserve a place in our gardens. I hope to tell a story about the plants that are at home in our region--picturing various plants throughout the seasons so you have an idea what the plants look like and how to take care of them.

New "Pot with a Purpose Contest" Begins

I'm talking container gardening here, not medical marijuana. Container gardening is big these days. I've seen some very inventive examples at local garden centers and at the Denver Botanic Gardens that include unusual, showy tropical plants mixed with old standbys, as well as, beautiful groupings of single species of pots brought together based on color and textural themes. Timberline Gardens, in Arvada, CO has spectacular looking pots that combine succulents with drought tolerant annuals and perennials that truly elevates the technique to an art form.

But my conscience pricks at my gardening mind with the thought that beauty in the garden just isn't quite enough rationalization for using precious resources. Containers can have a tendency to require more water than if the plants were planted in the ground because the sides of a container expose the interior soil to the day's heat and results in faster evaporation. Plastic pots can help alleviate this problem, but using moisture reserving polyacrylamide crystals has some serious detractors. Still, with my evolving interest in mitigating the environmental impacts of the built landscape, I am adopting a standard that compels me to make every effort and resource I use, count for something more than just a pretty face.

So with the goal of making beautiful container gardens that provide double duty--beauty and function--I am announcing the newest contest: The Pot With A Purpose Contest. The winner of the contest will receive a $25 gift certificate from Renee's Gardens for seeds of your choice.

The Rules: The purpose of the contest is to stimulate some thought about how we can use containers to create beautiful compositions that also serve an additional raison d'être. Each time you post with a description of a planted container you will be entered into the raffle to win the gift certificate from Renee's Garden. In each of your posts, include the purpose of the plant assemblage as well as the plants' names (common name and species name, if pertinent). Here's an example:

Purpose: Back Door, Need a Pinch, Herb Garden.
Plants: Chives, Peppermint, Pineapple Mint, Bronze Fennel, Edible Ornamental Oregano, Dill, and Red Leaf Lettuce.

The purpose of the container garden can be to grow edibles, such as herbs, flowers, and vegetables, medicinal plants, plants to attract beneficial insects or any purpose you might conjure. Be imaginative or nostalgic, there will be no horticultural judgments about your plant selections. The contest runs from today through March 28--ten days for you to post your possibilities in the comments section on my blog site. I will offer some resources about container gardening basics, design, and beneficial insects to spur your creativity ever onward.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Here's to wishing you a bit o' the green!

Thanks for the use of the photo stevekrh19.

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day March 2008

There is an apparent tradition among garden bloggers to post photos of whatever is blooming in their garden on the 15th of the month. So in an effort in support of the tradition, here are my blooms.















Jasminum nudifolium is a great plant for the top of a wall as it tumbles over edges.
















Yellow form of Iris reticulata 'Joyce'
















Daffodils are so close to blooming.
















A crocus peeking through winter cover.














Multiple colors of crocus bloom in a buffalo grass lawn.

















Iris reticulata

The Clock is Ticking--Time to Order Seeds

The clock is ticking. Time to order seeds.You can buy them in your local garden center or online. Advantages to getting them through your local independent garden center is that a reputable store has personnel who are really knowledgeable about gardening in your region and should have pre-selected the varieties of seeds that will do well in your region. Some garden centers have good depth of staff who are knowledgeable, though a few just have warm bodies. I recommend different stores to different people depending on what the person needs. Generally, you get what you pay for: cheap plants from Big Box retailers who seldom have anyone more knowledgeable than a cashier, mis-handle the plants because of this lack of knowledge, provide a very limited offering, which may not even be appropriate for this region. But you can get great deals on common plants if you are careful to check the health of the plants and are able to identify the plant you are buying. On the other extreme are the independent garden centers and nurseries that offer superior quality and service and guess what? They cost more. The only place you are going to get ripped off is the place that charges high prices for shoddy product and no service. If you don't know what something is or how to take care of it and can't find someone to answer your questions, don't buy it--it's a dead plant.

Buying through a catalog or online has its advantages, but with a few caveats. The internet is a bonanza for seed searchers--just type the Latin name into Google and you hit a jackpot--an undifferentiated jackpot--maybe potential jackpot is a better way to put it. All the caveat emptor's of buying on the internet apply or you may end up with weed seed, invasive plants, Zone 11 exotics planted in your front courtyard, or any number of problems. But the internet has so much information that it shouldn't be hard to get your questions answered--you just need to do it for yourself.

To get you started here are a few companies I've dealt with in the past:

One of the oldest seed companies in the region is in north Denver. Rocky Mountain Seed Company has been around since 1920. They finally left their old building off of Larimer Square and moved up to 6541 N. Washington St. Sales people are knowledgeable and helpful. Their web site is under construction, but you can get a catalog by calling 303-623-6223.

Reader Maryanne Grace and I both agree Pinetree Gardens is a great place to get small quantities of seed. It seems that at some places you are forced to buy enough seed for a market farmer and it goes bad after a few years--especially out west where it's so dry. Pinetree has a nice selection of vegetable and flower seeds, with a website that is much more colorful than the black and white seed list I'm used to looking at.

For rock garden plants, wildflowers and natives try Alplains Seeds out of Kiowa, CO. Their website is a lot like a seed list, with Latin names only and location where seed was collected. This is a serious spermologist's candy store. The listing of seeds includes information on how to germinate these obscure progeny. There aren't very many photos of plants on the site and no way to search by photo, but try pasting the name of the plant into Google Images and you should be able to find a photo of seeds you are interested in.

Plants of the Southwest is another source for plants native to the western US, as well as vegetables, wildflowers, and shrubs. They have photos of flowers, drought tolerant food crops, and a wide choice of chili peppers.

A wide variety of grasses are available from Arkansas Valley Seed in Denver off of I-70 at
Colorado Boulevard and other locations in Colorado and South Dakota. Pawnee Buttes Seed in Greeley, CO also has a good selection of grasses.

I've been getting vegetable seed from Renee's Gardens for the last several years. Renee Shepard was owner of Shepard's Garden Seeds whom I used to order from, but she sold out to White Flower Farm. She's been back at it for awhile now, perfecting her offerings of vegetable and flower seeds. Renee has graciously agreed to sponsor my next contest, for which the winner will receive a $25.00 gift certificate to her online store. You can also find her seeds in some of the local garden centers. My favorite from Renee's Garden is a collection of gold, red, and orange cherry tomatoes--eat them right out of the garden.

If you can't find what you want from these companies, try a general search with Google. You don't need the Latin name for standard vegetables, but for something specific a Latin name is the only way to know you're getting the right seed. Before you buy, you can check Dave's Garden Watchdog to find ratings of most of the legitimate companies. I'd stick to these companies unless you have a personal referral to a particular company.

Finally, for a copy of what may be considered the seed starters bible refer to Norm Deno’s book, Seed Germination Theory and Practice, for details on over 4000 species. You can write him directly at 139 Lenor Drive, State College, PA 16801.

Thanks to emdot for use of the photo.

Five Considerations Before Buying Seeds

I could be the poster child for Seeders Anonymous. I have a black thumb when it comes to starting seeds indoors. Every few years I get ambitious about using plants started from seed, drool over seed catalogues, spend entirely too much money and order more seed than I could possibly have room to start indoors. Once the seed arrives, I procrastinate, struggle with making a decision on how to start the seeds, and then ultimately forget to water at a crucial time in the seedling’s development. My first steps in overcoming my problem is to admit I am powerless over this ineptitude and plead with my partner to start the seeds for me—so far I have had little success.

Face it, growing a garden—flower or vegetable—from seed can be tricky: if it weren't garden centers would have little reason to exist than to sell seed. The upside to using seed to start plants is that the entire world of plants is at your disposal. Nurseries can only offer a tiny percentage of the plants that live in this world for sale as live plants. If a plant isn’t available in the trade, the only way you can grow it is if you can start it from seed. Starting plants by seed brings us much closer to the cycles of life than most any other activity we might choose. Here is an acceptable form of sexual voyeurism with a triple ‘G’ rating. We have the opportunity to observe the unfolding of a miracle—that a plant can encapsulate its full being in one small package and make life possible for animals on this planet. This is serious stuff, rewarding the gardener with a glimpse into the natural world.

I like to be rewarded for my efforts, so I’m at it again with my attempt to grow from seeds. The place to start is where everything in gardening should start—with a plan of course. Sitting fireside, seed catalogue in hand, we can dream of fields of flowers, baskets of ripe fruit and rafters full of drying herbs, but we’ll never get there if we don’t set some goals and guidelines. Take some time before tackling the seed lists to consider the following:

Experience and Skill Level: I have experience with no resultant skill level. There are differing levels of skill required to propagate different species of plants. One thing I like about the Thompson and Morgan seed catalogue is that they list the level of experience and care required to achieve best results—something I was unable to find on their website. In general, most annuals are pretty easy to start by seed, perennials take more effort, and woody plants may require advanced techniques. Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but one of the reasons we eat the foods we eat is because they are easy to propagate. So, if its veggies and pretty flowers you want to grow, chances are they will be relatively easy.

Room to Grow: Obviously, you need space to grow the plants but another consideration is whether the seed needs to be started before it is safe to plant outdoors. Many of the vegetable plants we grow are tropical or sub-tropical, requiring warm soil temperatures in order to grow. Seeds for tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplants won’t germinate in cool soils. In this region soils don’t get warm until June, so in order to grow these plants and get fruit before the hard freeze in fall, the plants need to be started indoors. Most seeds need a warm, moist environment to germinate and then require plenty of bright light to grow into seedlings. A simple method to germinate seeds is to start them on top of the refrigerator where it tends to be warmer—you can use anyplace that isn’t in direct sun, is consistently warm but not so hot it dries out the seeding medium too fast and most important for me—is someplace out of the way, but not out of mind--you’ll need to check on them daily. Once the seeds germinate they need a place in the sun or bright lights to develop from seedlings into viable plants. This is what takes some space and why timing is such an issue.

Timing: Dependent upon the climate conditions where it originally evolved, a plant has preferences for growing conditions—some of which are non-negotiable. One element that is pretty much cast in stone is the time it takes for a plant to reach maturity, and as with vegetables, the time it takes for the fruit to ripen. When the growing season—the time between freezing temperatures in spring and fall—is short, the gardener needs to select a cultivar that will ripen before fall frosts.

For example, corn, depending on the cultivar, takes anywhere from around 70 to over 120 days from planting to harvesting. In Denver, the growing season runs between mid-May to mid-September—somewhere around 120 days, but corn is sub-tropical in origin, so it needs soil temperatures of at least 60 degrees. Most years, soil temperature hasn’t reached optimal temperature by mid-May, so a cultivar that needs 120 days probably won’t yield much before air temperatures drop below freezing and kill the plant in the fall. This is because the seed will sit in the soil until the soil warms enough for the seed to germinate, which could take several weeks. Ways to cope with the constraints of temperature include selecting a cultivar that requires a shorter time to reach maturity—in the 70-90 day range, warming soil by the use of a heating cable or Wall O’ Water, starting the seeds indoors or buying seedlings from a garden center just before planting time. To start seeds indoors count back 5-6 weeks from your area’s last frost date to determine when to begin—in Denver that would mean starting seed sometime around the beginning of April. You can start earlier, but the seedlings will probably get leggy unless you have a greenhouse or adequate grow lights. Non-tropical vegetables such as peas, brassicas, and greens like cooler temperatures and tend to bolt once the heat of summer sets in. Peas are planted in this area around St. Patrick’s Day, spinach about the same time.

Cultural Requirements: Of course the cultural requirements—light, water, soil & nutrition—are important to your selection of seeds to grow. Most vegetables need full sun, lots of consistent water, and well drained, nutritious soil with neutral pH. You can get away with planting leaf and root crops in part sun and there are selections of vegetables that are more drought tolerant by their nature, but water is generally another non-negotiable requirement. Vegetables can develop a bitter taste if they are not watered consistently, partly because the minerals that these plants need to develop fully are water soluble—no water, no nutrients. Tomatoes develop blossom end rot when there isn’t a consistent amount of water to transport calcium to the fruit during development. If you have a space you want to use that won’t receive regular water, it won’t be a good place for vegetables and you should put drought tolerant plants there instead. When growing vegetables in containers where the amount of soil is limited, so the amount of available water is limited, you must be vigilant about keeping the soil moist in the container if you want vegetables that taste good. I’m not a fan of bitter tastes and our broccoli sometimes becomes inedible if we have an extreme heat wave or a malfunction in the drip system.

Preferences: You might look at this as a half full/half empty kind of philosophy—you can choose what you like, then eliminate the plants that won’t grow under the limitations you established under the considerations above. Or you could limit the offerings first, then choose the plants you like.

To find more information try some of these resources:

Growing Plants from Seed

Starting Seeds Indoors

Not sure about frost dates in your area? Check with your state cooperative extension service. Colorado State Extension has lots more information available here.

Seeds Are For Sprouting

There's been a spot of nice weather lately and my bulbs are starting to stretch through the surface of the soil. Buds are swelling, though the sun still casts elongated shadows.The air feels warm but the ground radiates its chill. People are starting to notice it is lighter later. There is hope spring is coming, but deep inside we know there are two good months before we can cautiously put aside our expectation of a freak snow storm or a 70 mph wind.

One way to divert ourselves from the varying weather extremes, is to get going with indoor seed starting. I'll cover some of the techniques for starting seeds indoors, as well as some sources for seed. Then we'll top it off with a contest in which the winners receive seed they actually want.

To get everything off to a good start, here's a little video to inspire you. A word of caution--the soundtrack to the video is a little over the top.



Thanks to mindlapse at YouTube for the use of the video.