So, how is it affecting this home gardener? Actually it is affecting me more mentally than affecting my ability to get in the garden. The day after day of rain is just simply sad after a certain amount of time. I want to be playing with my kids in the backyard. I want to be complaining about the heat. Instead, I get to complain about the mud stuck to my shoes.

This past week/weekend gave me a rare stretch of 3 dry days in a row which allowed me to transplant most of the garden. Tomatoes and peppers take up the most space and I fill the garden with the remaining vegetables. Some of the large vegetables are destined for our flower beds in front of our house. Whether my neighbors will see these as ornamentals remains to be seen. When getting ready for transplanting or direct seeding, I print out a little layout of the main garden beds and start making scratches to layout all of my desired plants. I then will refine this with a single page diagram for each bed. You will notice that I have labeled each bed with a simple letter. This corresponds to the final layout diagram on another page.

Being a member of the Seed Savers Exchange allows unparalleled access to rare seeds but the yearbook can be a bit intimidating. The yearbook is printed on newsprint and numbers this year in the 535 page range. If you are lucky, you are looking for specific varieties. If you like me, like the unusual, then it takes a bit of digging. Two years ago, I looked for varieties listed by Heritage Farms that lacked a description. Unfortunately, most all of my seed failed to germinate. This year I tried again, looking for orphan tomatoes and peppers with completely different results. All of my seed germinated. Even with warnings about long storage times and the suggestion to sow heavily made little difference. Almost all of the seed germinated and germinated quickly.

So I am left with quite a few varieties this year that have almost zero information regarding fruit size, leaf type, taste, etc. I hope that I can fill in some of the gaps in the yearbook by growing out these varieties. Even if I can’t grow them out to re-offer seed, it should give some other seed saver enough information to pick up the mantel. Of course, there is the chance that gardeners don’t grow these varieties because they have huge character flaws. Only time will tell and I find that exciting. I can say that I am likely the only gardener in the United States and possibly the World growing a particular type of pepper or tomato this year. That’s cool, isn’t it?

My only sad germination failure was a new herb/plant called Shiso. Hopefully I can contact the seller to see if they can provide more seed and possibly advice. I grew Geraniums (Pelargoniums) from seed for the first time and was honestly amazed. They germinated almost immediately and grew quite fast. I doubt that I will try to overwinter a Geranium again when they are so easy to grow from seed. Portulaca was harder to grow from seed, but Columbine and Lavendar also proved quite easy to grow.

Two different types of Pak Choi have been growing like gang busters as well as Brocolli , Brussell Sprouts and Cabbage. Apparently they have enjoyed the cooler rainy spring.

I am trying two different melons again, against my better judgement. This is usually the vegetable/fruit that makes me feel like I don’t belong in the garden. But, have no fear I intend to try once again.

I grew 25 varieties of tomatoes along with 13 varieties of peppers this year. Some I grew as germination tests along with grow outs for seed I offer in Seed Savers. The rest were new varieties for this season.

NOTE: I have way to many plants to plant in my garden. I grew at least 6 plants of each variety and in some cases far more. I only planted 30+ plants in my garden this year. This leaves about 200+ plants that will need a good home. If you aren’t picky, I might be able to provide you with some free plants. If you are in the Columbus area, leave a comment on the this post and I will contact you as my plant supply lasts.

Have a great season.

The first task of the season is to clean our old seed flats and cell packs. You did keep them from last year right? If you are careful and take the time to find durable packs and flats, there is no reason that they shouldn’t last many growing seasons. To clean our flats, we wash them and then we treat them to a little dip in a diluted bleach solution.

It is usually very cold this time of the year in the Columbus Ohio area so I needed a way to clean my flats without making a huge mess. My solution this year was down and dirty and involved a couple of shower curtains that I had lying around. I just used a couple of screw in hooks and looped the shower curtain over the hooks and let it hang into the utility sink. Our utility sink has a short hose that I have connected a spray wand that has a trigger grip. This is perfect for blasting off any old soil hanging on to the flats. With the shower curtain, I could even stand the flats on end without flooding the utility room.

After your flats and cell packs are thoroughly washed, we need to give them a short dip in a diluted bleach solution. A 10% solution of bleach to water is plenty strong enough to kill anything camping out on your cells. The most common problem with plants grown from seed is damping off. This refers to many ailments caused by fungal disease. Keeping your planting equipment clean can easily prevent these problems before they get started. What I do to sanitize my flats and cell packs is to dip them in the bleach solution which I have put in a concrete or mortar mixing tub. I have found that this tub is the perfect size for this purpose as well as watering my seedlings as they grow. After I dip the flats, I re-stack them on top of each other and leave them for an hour or so. I then lastly fill the mortar tub with water and give them a rinse whenever I get around to it.

Most documentation says that 10 minute contact time with a bleach solution is sufficient to kill most bad bugs. However, I believe this is overkill in this case. 15 or 20 seconds should be sufficient to sanitize your equipment if it is clean before sanitizing. The flats and cell packs aren’t porous making easy work for the bleach solution. By stacking my flats, the bleach solution is held between the flats until I can get around to rinsing them.

Gather up your flats and cell packs. Spring planting is right around the corner.

So what gives? Did I give her bad advice? Maybe.

It depends on how you look at the plant and what type of orchid you are growing. Phalaenopsis orchids very often will re-bloom from the same flower spike. Some will even bloom for years from the same flower spike. Most other orchids commonly found in homes do not however re-bloom from the same flower spike. Most orchids will only flower once per year. It is their normal cycle of growth to grow new plant growth, usually in the form of new bulbs and then bloom. Keeping an orchid in bloom for long periods of time can affect the long term health of your plant. Just use common sense. If the orchid is large and healthy then there is little reason to not enjoy the blooms as long as possible.

So in the end I wasn’t completely wrong. If in doubt, look at the flower spike. If it stays firm, green and healthy, then leave it for a while. If it is brown and brittle, then there is little opportunity for new flowers from the same flower spike.

What interested us the most were seeds to vegetables that you almost never see in seed form. We have grown things like Lemon Grass in the past but had to buy it as a small plant. This might not be a big deal as it gives you a jump on the growing season. However, it is always coupled with higher costs. Many vegetables, herbs, and flowers are very hard to grow from seed. This is another reason why seed companies choose to only ship plants, saving themselves the frustration of supporting customers who failed to get their seeds to germinate.

If you are interested in unusual seeds, this is your catalog. This year we purchased seed for Rhubarb, Lemon Grass and Shiso among other things. Their catalog is simple and without color photographs. Colored illustrations accompany most listings along with helpful information such as the average seed life. Wonderful information for a rabid seed saver such as myself.

Take a look at their offerings, you wont be disappointed.

http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com

Shiso’s tastes is somewhat reminiscent of cilantro, cumin and cinnamon. Both the leaves and flowers are edible.

Shiso is easy to grow and will reseed itself in mild areas. It has similar needs to basil. The pungency of the leaves can vary considerably from plant to plant. Try to buy your seeds from a source that specializes in Asian vegetables.

Lastly, it very closely resembles stinging nettles. Plant it any place where it wont be mistaken for this common weed.

Probably most interesting is that all vegetables aren’t out of the garden. I still have beets, brussel sprouts, swiss chard, cilantro and a beautiful bed of artichokes.

Artichokes: I pledge to not plant artichokes again. They are a biennial and the amount of work to try to convince them to set flower in the first year isn’t easy. Furthermore, I don’t know of a successful way to get them through a Zone 5 winter. Please leave a comment if you have successfully overwintered your artichokes. Lastly, I would have to say that I really am indifferent to artichokes. They fall into that group of plants that I want to grow because no one else around me is growing them. There is a reason for that.

Brussel Sprouts are still quite healthy due to our mild fall. I don’t know that I will rush out to plant more sprouts either. I love them, but they have a very long growing season and take a huge amount of space. I would definitely grow them if I had more space, but they tend to be the hogs of my small plot.

The season itself was fairly uneventful. No hail storms or plagues to report, just normal hot dry Ohio summer weather. Gardening with raised beds has advantages but it also has a lot of disadvantages that no one wants to tell you about. The beds are easy to access, look a lot nicer than a normal garden plot in an urban setting, the soil warms up quicker and drainage problems aren’t an issue. Now for the things no one tells you. Raised beds are just giant containers. If you let them dry out completely and your soil isn’t perfect the soil will pull away from the sides and create a watering nightmare. The only thing to do at this point is to fill in the edges of the beds with additional soil to prevent the water from just rolling across the top and down the sides. One other thing I have noticed is that cultivating the beds is a pain. Maybe you have one of those nifty Mantis tillers? I doubt it will matter. I borrow a small gas powered cultivator from my brother-in-law and it does an excellent job of spraying soil outside the beds into my paths. You are probably blessed with beautiful loamy soil that you can sink your arm elbow deep in; I have heavy clay soil that resembles concrete when completely dry so experience may vary. It is hard to amend the soil because you are limited by the volume of your beds. The only way for me to put more compost or other amendments is to remove some of the soil already in the beds.

Peppers did well as always. I didn’t isolate any of my plants this season. I wanted a year off from seed saving and it was nice to see my plants growing outside of their usual protective sleeves. I as usual also ended up with WAY too many hot peppers, but my freezer is my friend and all of them are safely tucked away awaiting some fantastic recipe. Standouts included Mustard Habanero which is definitely the largest Haberno I have grown. Some of the fruit was close to 3 inches in diameter. Zavory is a fairly new variety that has the aroma of Habaneros with none of the heat. They produced ridiculous amounts of fruit. Jalapeno Gigantia was a large producer with nice crunch and heat. The pepper that I probably wont grow again(at least in the garden) is Tabasco. It is a pain to harvest. Pulling off hundreds of tiny fruits just isn’t worth it to me. It would make a nice ornamental however.

Tomatoes did ok. I would have liked to have more slicing tomatoes but many of my tomatoes just didn’t produce as well as I would have liked. I had one gifted hybrid called Red Alert that almost immediately died (take that stupid F1). My Brandywines did ok. What fruit I got was exceptional but the yields were low. Opalka is still one of my favorite paste style tomatoes. Absolutely huge elongated tomatoes with wonderful flavor. The tomato that tried to take over the garden was called Matt’s Wild Cherry. Interesting tomato that grew over 20 feet in multiple directions covering everything in its way with large clusters of Currant like tomatoes. If you haven’t grown or seen Currant tomatoes before, they are extremely small and a nightmare to harvest. The fruits are about the size of a pea and might be in clusters of 50 plus tomatoes. Of course, the catch is that they also don’t ripen at the same time. Matt’s Wild Cherry did mostly ripen at the same time, allowing you to cut the cluster from the plant. The tomatoes also broke freely at the first joint above the fruit. This prevented the tomatoes from splitting while picking.

The rest of the plants. I had mentioned in a previous post this year that I was growing more South American herbs. Two were Papalo and Culantro. Both were interesting but failed to make the cut for future years. Many people had described Papalo as soapy tasting. I would have to agree. It has an almost astringent smell and taste that I found distasteful. When I pulled the plants out at the end of the season the smell gave me an intense headache. They probably knew that they weren’t coming back soon. I can say that the plant is very easy to grow and grew to about 7 feet tall and was quite attractive. Its leaves almost resemble a Gingko leaf. Culantro… hmmm. Tasted to me exactly like Cilantro! Yeah! Well, not so quick. The plant is really nothing more than a single rosette of leaves. You must continually pull off the flowers which start to grow the second you transplant it to encourage further leaves. Even though Cilantro bolts before you can get it in the soil, it is still far easier to do succession plantings rather than work with this curious little plant.

I also decided to grow Lemon Balm. Bad idea. The stuff grows more rapidly than mint and has an almost medicinal smell. I couldn’t see using it in cooking so it got the axe. Grew a yard long bean called Dragon Langerie that was quite successful. Very sparse foilage but fairly large yields of long beans. Note, the beans were very delicate. Don’t overcook them. Also grew our favorite pole bean called Gold of Bacau. Wonderful Romano style bean that melts in your mouth.

All in all the season was a success. I would like to figure out a more permanent water solution for my raised beds this coming year… but that is next year. Time to waste away some cold days looking through seed catalogs.

So, over the past few months, I have shaken jars and eventually made sort of a terrarium out of a plastic tub. This past week, my oyster mushrooms starting popping up. The mushrooms shown are about 3 days old. Fun seeing the little guys growing next to my desk.

Maybe I’m a sucker for personal communication. Maybe, I truly believe that Someone or Something needs to fill this need.

Whatever it is, I will probably renew my membership for another year. This isn’t charity folks. I have been tormented by my decision since I made it. Then yesterday I got a phone call. Hmm.

The acting director of the Seed Savers Exchange, Mr. John Torgrimson called me to address several of my concerns that I had mentioned in my last post. Should I believe him? I don’t know, but he did take the time out of his day to call me personally. He did address several of my concerns directly. What else could I want?

Some of his comments:

1. I had major concerns about the pricing structure. He confirmed that pricing this year is being set as “suggested” pricing. This has always been the case for some members, but it has always been necessary to put this information in your bio. Last year, I had problems with my bio getting truncated by the new web site. Hopefully, this year I will be more careful to review all of the information that I put in the Yearbook through the web site.
2. Too many changes in the Director position. He stressed that Aaron Whaley and George DeVault both left for personal reasons and not due to internal politics
3. I wanted out reach programs or more education options. They have recently hired an education manager and are exploring options for more regional programs.
4. My concerns about the organization being out of touch with its members. The fact that he called me personally states a lot about their concern for their members. They also recently hired a membership manager to hopefully help with membership problems.

My biggest reason for not renewing was the cost of seeds. The organization is completely out of touch with its members. The SSE forums still has a very active thread complaining about the unannounced seed price increases from last year. For listed members to request a small seed, it costs $3.00. For non-listed members, the price is a dollar higher across the board.

In the past few years we have also seen multiple directors. Maybe the organization that Kent Whealy started would have been better off with him at the helm?

I also was concerned by the seed deposits in the Svalbard seed bank. Because of board member connections with this seed bank, it seemed to me, at least, that there could be motives not necessarily in the best interest of the exchange.

In the end, I participated because of the seeds and the knowledge on how to keep and maintain those old varieties. But the organization seems to be drifting farther and farther away from this core. They also don’t seem to want to participate with their members. While activities in Iowa at heritage farms is great, few of us can attend the workshops. They could easily share more of this information by extending regional meetings or gatherings or simply video taping their events.

I hope that they can right the direction of the exchange. In the mean time I am going to watch from the side lines.

I bought plug spawn from fungi perfecti for three varieties. I bought, Shiitake, Chicken of the Woods and Elm Oyster. I plugged numerous logs and grew out some spawn in a mix of sawdust in mason jars. The plugged logs likely wont produce mushrooms until next year. The spawn in the quart jars should be able to produce mushrooms much sooner.

My interests in growing mushrooms resulted in several field guides being checked out of the library. I have paid special attention to the poisonous mushrooms. There are quite a few mushrooms that are known to be poisonous, but one stands out as being just plain deadly. Not all members of Amanita are poisonous, but certainly enough to be very cautious.

Unfortunately for me, the mushrooms growing so well beneath our ornamental grass look very similar to an Amanita affectionately known as “destroying angel”. Yeah, not really one I want flourishing.