By now, hopefully you’ve read my first column about selecting good garden site, incorporated lots of good compost and weeding it bare!
But, even if you are still in the process of soil preparation, lets talk about what to plant.
For a Redding summer, you will do well with tomatoes, green beans, carrots, all summer and winter squash (including pumpkins), corn, potatoes, most onion varieties, cucumbers, dry beans, peppers, beets, eggplant, etc. But did you know that you can also plan for a winter garden, too?
For fall/winter/early spring harvest, you might consider growing sweet peas, snow peas, Swiss chard, carrots, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, some onions and salad greens. These plants, while languishing in Redding’s wilting heat, will generally thrive in our relatively mild winters. These edibles will be started from seed around August, so there is plenty of time to think about what to put in. More on that technique later.
As I develop a taste for the unusual I tend to gravitate to the other companies that carry such interesting things as strawberry spinach; summer greens with edible red berries, and yacon, an unusual starchy tuber with big fuzzy leaves.
If you are only going to put in a few tomatoes or squash, then there are plenty of good places in town to purchase already started plants. Please, though, if you like growing corn, you need to grow a lot of it to get it to produce, so don’t buy those 4-inch pots of a few, measly corn plants, unless you have cash to waste. Just get a packet or two of the same variety seeds.
Most of the common and favorite varieties of started plants can be found at the supermarket racks and department store nurseries, but Wyntour Nursery, Gold-Leaf Nursery and other nurseries in town carry the best selection of specialty varieties of tomatoes, squash and herbs and other garden favorites. They also carry good selections of the perennial edible plants, like strawberries, blueberries, asparagus and other berries. It is too late to obtain those plants, though. It is best to wait until next fall to consider those selections.
So, visit some Web sites and dream about pink tomatoes and red lettuce or purple cauliflower. Check out the supermarket seed rack, or get down to your local nursery and load up on what you have a hankering for.
Just be forewarned, our frosts seem to be lurking about, even at the beginning of May, this year. Your tomatoes with be toast and your peppers history if you put them out too soon without adequate protection.
If you do get some plants, and old Jack Frost just can’t get the hint and leave, you may want to move them up to 1-gallon containers and keep them on your porch or other protected area for a week or two, just to be sure.
I can say this from recent experience. I have already lost my first tomatoes and peppers, and about half of my Stevia (a natural sweetening herb that I had started from seed a couple of months ago). It promptly and cheerfully dropped to about 26 degrees a few nights after planting, and even some protected plants were fatally damaged, as well as all emerging leaves on my Raywood ash, pistache, mulberry and white oaks and more! Yikes!
You can start your seeds indoors in a sunny window sill or under fluorescent lights, or directly into the garden. Cover lightly with a good quality compost or mulch and keep well watered until the seedlings emerge.
Next time: Plant protection
Meet Stikrz, the creation of Mitsy Krzywicki, who writes a gardening column for Food for Thought. Stikrz will periodically share gardening tips. – Doni
When you set out small seedlings, take Styrofoam cups from which you have cut out the bottoms, and set them inverted over the planted seedling and anchor with a bit of soil. The cup will protect the seedling from harsh sun, drying winds, chewing bugs and can be used over and over.
Where to buy your seeds and plants? Everywhere! There are a great number of good places to order vegetable seeds, and there is still time to get your orders in if you hurry.
Here are some of my favorites:
- Territorial Seed Company; http://www.territorialseed.com/ (Good all-around selection of vegetables.)
- Totally Tomatoes; http://www.totallytomato.com/ (For you tomato-lovers.)
- Seeds of Change; http://www.seedsofchange.com/ (This is a premier certified organic company, with unusual and unique varieties)
- Johnny’s Selected Seeds; http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ (They cater more to the market grower, but they have varieties I like.)
- Park’s Seeds; http://www.parkseed.com/and Burpee Seeds; http://www.burpee.com/ are still good places to buy, and even the seed displays you find in the store are great for last-minute purchases.
Mitsy Krzywicki (pronounced Kriz wik’ ki), a former Record Searchlight artist, now enjoys life as an avid gardener, freelance graphics artist and amateur photographer. You can drop her a line at czygyny@yahoo.com
