Is it time to start gardening yet?

[Silvana Siddali]

Well, not in St. Louis ... not this week! Winter still has a tight grip here. But a girl can dream. Are any of you starting to think about your heirloom gardens? What are you planning to grow this year? Do you have a good reliable source for heirloom seeds or plants?

I have a small kitchen garden (parsley, lavenders, various thymes, etc.) but want to expand this year, and I'd like to pay more attention to the varieties that would have been known in the mid-19th century. There are lots of heirloom seed suppliers out there who do business via the internet, of course, but I'd like to hear more from those of you who have personal experience with them.

Here's what I'm thinking -- bear in mind that I have a pocket-handkerchief sized garden and that St. Louis is reliably zone 5:

pumpkins
cabbage
squash (summer and winter)
spinach

Any other ideas?

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

We've had so much rain up here in east-central Ohio the last few years that I've been growing everything I can in containers or (very) raised beds.

I haven't seen a Gurney's catalog this year. They used to stock a few heirloom vegetables and were always good to deal with. (They also had cotton seed. I grew some one year.) The heirloom seed exchange is still operating. Organic Gardening used to have a regular seed exchange column, often featuring people with old varieties to trade, but I dropped my subscription after they went through their weird-trendy phase.

--Becky Morgan

[Canebrake Rifle Guards]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

Most every spring we plant a couple of tobacco plants, the seeds coming from Thomas Jefferson's retreat home in Bedford Co. Virginia. Other than that its usually tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelons.

Greg Starbuck

[bodark]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

I know it isnt a veggie, but for a common plant (and edible flower) with a lot of history, you may also want to consider -Hemerocallis Disticha Flore Pleno which was reigistered in 1860 -- only two were registered prior, one in 1804 and one in 1762, which were probably in the US at the time of the CW. You will have to divide every 3-5 years or they may get out of control -- this particular cultivar is very hardy. They grow well in poor soil and in areas that get alot of shade -- I have about 50 of them in a clump on the side of my house. The neat thing too, is that this particular cultivar is one of the originals that has sprung over 60,000 different cultivars. They should be pretty cheap to purchase, or if you call your local daylily club (daylilies.org, Regional Activities link) they may be of help; look around where you live, you may find a grower willing to give you a clump or two to get started. You can find a picture at:

https://www.hemerocallis-species.com/HS/Species/fu_FP_e.htm

Keep in mind, that most people will not know the full scientific name, but by orange daylilies, or something like that. I can send you a few more photos via PM if you want a better look.

Also, www.mountvernon.org the website for Mt Vernon also has some heirloom seeds on there for purchase

Rachel S. Flaksman
Warwick, RI

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

In planning your garden, be sure and consider the growth form of the plants. Both pumpkins and winter squash grow a long time and spread over a large territory. While the Indians had the famed "three sisters" (corn, beans, and pumpkins) that shared the same garden space, they made very efficient use of the square footage by their vertical layering. If you have a tiny garden, squash or pumpkins could easily take over the entire garden.

To get the most out of your plot, you might want to consider an early crop like lettuce or peas, followed by a summer crop of beans or summer squash, and follow with a fall crop of a repeat of the early planting or different cooler weather plants.

I can't give any advice on the heirloom seeds but you might want to try to get some period gardening books or some of the Department of Agriculture reports.

Michael Mescher

[K. Krewer]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

I've had good luck with seeds from the historic gardening center at Monticello, and Seed Savers in Decorah, Iowa.

K. Krewer

[Charles Heath]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

Warning: Contains Modern Information

Silvana,

One of the most underappreciated and certainly underutilized government agencies is the Cooperative Extension Service. To quote from the USDA website: "The roots of U.S. agricultural extension go back to the early years of our country. There were agricultural societies and clubs after the American Revolution, and in 1810 came the first Farm Journal. It survived for only 2 years, but in 1819 John Stuart Skinner of Baltimore began publishing the American Farmer. Farmers were encouraged to report on their achievements and their methods of solving problems. Some worthwhile ideas, along with some utterly useless ones, appeared on the pages of the publication.

The Morrill Act of 1862 established land-grant universities to educate citizens in agriculture, home economics, mechanical arts, and other practical professions.

What does this mean to you, the backyard Missouri gardener? Quit a bit, for several billion dollars of hard won research is conveniently at your fingertips. By taking advantage of these online publications, as well as some in hardcopy form you can customize your garden program.

Start with soil:

http://extension.missouri.edu/explor...ubs/mp0733.htm

Enjoy some frequently asked questions:

http://extension.missouri.edu/explor...ort/g06400.htm

What about long term plantings? Do you enjoy asparagus? Rhubarb?

http://extension.missouri.edu/explor...ort/g06405.htm

Having a few "friends" over for dinner:

http://extension.missouri.edu/explor...eet/ps0009.htm

I do not see where Missouri has an heirloom sheet, but most states do. That term is imprecise, so what may be a 1920s variety is just as heirloom as something from the 1600s.

In the beginning, figure out your market. As a home vegetable grower, your market is primarily your own table. Grow varieties you are really going to eat and enjoy, and add something oddball in there for fun. A couple of books found in most any library, even a button-down university research library, will add to the fun. The Victory Garden by the late James Underwood Crockett, and The New Victory Garden by Robert Thompson, are good reading. Disregard the pesticide recommendations in the former book, as most of those are unavailable these days. Anotheruseful book, and one that has gone out of style, is Square Foot Gardening. It is a great primer for small plots.

Buy a copy of Fearing Burr's Field and Garden Vegetables of America, and cross reference it with the latest seed availability books you can find. Pencil notes in the margins will be priceless at catalog time, and keep in mind some of the modern names won't match up exactly with Burr's.

Pumpkins - As previously mentioned, anything with 75' vines takes up considerable space. Consider a pie pumpkin, and keeping the vines pruned back to about 10' or so. If you want something in this genre with less of a reach, try some birdhouse, dipper, or bottle gourds that can be trained to a fence. Used panty hose will be your best friend in keeping melons, gourds, and other veggies suspending from a fence. They are also great tomato ties. Yes, when the next Athens rolls around, a market for gourd canteens will appear like clockwork. Edge notch seeds 1/64" with a file, and soak overnight prior to planting. "Punkins" are heavy feeders.

Cabbage - Most of the bulk cabbage sets come from a very few firms. Some big box and home improvement places carry them in six packs. They fare well from seed, and you may be in an area where a spring and fall planting can be productive. Cabbage plants do better in warm weather than most brassicas. Cabbage attracts some dandy little white moths. Pet cage liner cedar shavings appear to scare off these moths to some degree. Consider planting lettuce between the cabbages, as the lettuce will be grown and gone by the time the cabbages get going well. Cabbages enjoy late afternoon walks in the sun, classical music, and a high pH soil.

Squash (summer and winter) - Hard to beat a yellow squash with bacon and onion fried in butter. Pattipans are fun to grow, too, and if you get bored just use them as Frisbees. Any of the bush type squash is relatively compact, and die off about the time you are ready for the third wave of planting. Mustard and kale follow squash well. Most people these days do not like winter squash. I never met a Hubbard squash I didn't like, but winter squash can take over the backyard in a hurry. Edge notch seeds 1/64" with a file, and soak overnight prior to planting. Your first couple of squash may have blossom end rot. Toss 'em into the compost pile and wait a week for the second wave of squash.

Spinach - Spinach likes cool weather. Long cool springs bring great spinach. A few hot days gives us bolted spinach. It is worth playing the odds twice each year for spinach. Soak these seeds overnight before planting. Since spinach takes a while to germinate, plant some French Breakfast radishes in the same row as a row marker.

While you are waiting for your soil test results, add in some organic material, such as peat moss, compost, or bagged well-rotted manure. The soil preparation makes a big difference in a variety of ways. I can't help you a bit with this, as I'm in a lime (acid soil) area and being across the Big Muddy, you may be in a sulfur (alkaline soil) area.

A few fun things to plant:

Garlic - Ever notice how old garlic sprouts after a while? Buy some from the grocery store and let it sit in a sunny windowsill this time of year. Give it until about March (check your planting dates) and gently press the garlic into the ground so the little green tips are exposed. Garlic rots easily, so don't get to carried away with moisture. It is a pretty plant. Looks like other alliums, and has a very pretty bloom.

'Taters - Few things make less economic sense than growing a potato in the backyard garden. Few things taste better than a home grown potato at the peak of freshness. I grow potatoes, because I like boiled new potatoes somewhere in size between a shooter marble and a golf ball slathered in butter with salt and pepper. Can't recall if Johnny's or Ronningers still sells the Chili Garnets, but they are easy growers. Toss a few potatoes from your kitchen bin into a bag where the sun will warm them up a bit. Give the potatoes a few weeks, and see if the eyes swell. Cutting, drying, and planting potatoes is a good task on a cold day or two. Do you need 400' of 'taters? No. A few plants are fun enough. When hilled, 'taters don't take up much room.

Nasturtiums - Edible flowers are great in salads. They also brighten up the garden.

Green Globe Artichokes - Artichokes just don't feel the love they should.

Red Okra - Try it. You'll like it.

Yellow Pear Tomato - One plant will feed many people.

Pest managment may be a challenge. I find many pests are turned off by cedar shavings, and use a heck of a lot of them in the garden. I buy them by the bale. Most of the time, simply plucking the insects and keeping weeds under control is fine. Some weeds matter, and some weeds do not matter. Most of my neighbors have gone to mulching heavily with round bales of wheat straw or hay. You can do something similar with small square bales of wheat straw from your local ag supply house, since folks use it as bedding for animals. Looks like heck, but it keeps the weeds down. Not much you can do about diseases, bacterial problems, and other plant killing gremlins that have been bred out of modern cultivars. If you seed save, eventually you can beat the system.

Finally, when the snow clears, and you want to work the soil but it is still too wet outside to do much other than turn good soil into mudballs, look up Dr. Robert Becker's work from his time at Cornell University about 20 years go. Some of his publications should still be around via interlibrary loan.

[m4tx]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

In our garden at Ft. wayne weve done heirloom common pumpkins, and the dark variety of heirloom tomatoes in a loam soil, and had some success, other than people stealing them. This year we are doing tobacco in most of it, and then a mid 19th c. native american slave garden in the other half with: dipper and martin gourds, pumpkins, squash, and maybe some corn, and some beans.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

BTW, if you want to grow potatoes, try a potato barrel, or cardboard box if you aren't worried about period correctness. Set the barrel, box or what have you on the ground, dump in a couple of inches of loose dirt, and set the potato eyes. When the stems get to a foot or so, add another couple inches of dirt, and keep going until late summer/fall when the tops die off. To harvest, dump the barrel over or tear off the box sides--no digging, no lost potatoes. It's REALLY cheating to grow them in cages of old chicken wire or fence so all you have to do is roll the cage around to shed the dirt from the tubers.

If you grow your tomatoes in wire cages, plant peas around the base while the tomatoes are getting started. They get a nice shot of nitrogen and you get fresh peas. (Try not to eat too many of them raw, for your stomach's sake, but they sure are good.)

--Becky Morgan

[Silvana Siddali]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

Thank you so much for all that excellent advice! I had completely forgotten about how much space pumpkins and squash use up ... I may have to forego those. Charles, I really appreciate your detailed and very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to put that together. I'm glad I asked when I did, because it seems there's a lot to learn in the next 6 - 8 weeks. Thanks again to all.

[Capt51stALA]

Re: Is it time to start gardening yet?

Well this is the First time for me to plant a garden. I found some heirloom seeds for Bloody Butcher ( red corn good form meal) and some Stoward Sweet ( good for roasting ears) I hope they turn out well for again this is my first time at farming and heirloom seed are harder to grow but I am going to try to do it in period fashion and try not to cheat.

Just wish it would stop raining here in Alabama!

Michael Mumaugh
51st Alabama INF.