By Sonya Welter

The easiest way to start your garden is with transplants from a nursery, and for some plants this makes sense.

Here in Duluth, Minnesota, and in other cooler climates, the growing season simply isn’t long enough to grow hot weather crops like tomatoes or peppers from seed outdoors, and if you want to grow these vegetables at all, you’ll need to start seeds indoors several weeks from the last predicted frost.

Transplants cost more than seeds, but that way someone else does all the hard work of adjusting grow lights and fussing over humidity levels.

But there are some vegetables that, no matter where you live, should always be started from seed, because they grow quickly or don’t like their roots to be disturbed. It’s also a lot of fun to start some vegetables from seed, because that way you get to go out to your garden every day hoping to see little green leaves poking out through the dirt and reaching for the sky.

Radishes
Radishes are the sprinters of the Read the rest of this entry »

By Vanessa Richins

Are you trying to grow your own salad but don’t have much soil to work with?

If you have a paved space that is 3′ x 5′, you can build your own salad table and still be able to enjoy fresh greens.

The table was created by Jon Traunfeld from the Maryland Cooperative Extension Service.

Their website gives detailed instructions for building a salad table. They also suggest several ways you can modify it for different crops - using wider boards to grow beans and peppers, for example.

There are other benefits to building a salad table. Those with problems kneeling won’t have to bend over much, since the table is 4′ high. Since the plants are up off the ground, it’s much less likely that they will be Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

Recently, I’ve been traveling a fair amount, and the first thing I always want to do is to look at local gardens.

I’ve seen a lot of vegetables showing up in fairly traditional landscapes.

While these people who add a lettuce border to a floral border may not be ready to cut down the roses and grow chard instead, they are slowly adding more food crops to their home landscapes, and that’s good.

Corn is becoming a popular accent plant. Recently, I saw a beautiful garden of cutting flowers grown against a background of tall green corn. It was a beautiful garden, and the corn was Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Naas

We’re more than halfway through the summer, sad as that is to say.

That means, though, that it’s time to start thinking about fall crops to be started soon.

The first round of lettuces are probably turning bitter, the spinach is a happy memory- but for the clever gardener, those veggies and more will get a replay by starting soon.

• Lettuce: After the lettuce starts tasting bitter or hot or turns tough, it’s time to let it go. Dig out the plant and compost. Now, you can direct seed a heat tolerant variety. Or, you can start lettuce seeds in a shady corner of your garden. Pot them into small peat pots, newspaper cones or just seedling trays, and you’ll have the new lettuce plants ready to be popped into the ground in mid-August.

• Spinach: This is one of the earliest crops in Read the rest of this entry »
  
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By Cindy Haas

A friend has begun making small themed gardens in planter boxes as gifts, and I was lucky enough to see one recently.

It was pretty and very much appreciated by its recipient.

The one I saw was a salad garden, and a planter box which was 2 feet by 8 inches wide grows enough lettuces to make a salad for two at least twice a week. Here’s what you’ll need to make your own salad garden in a box:

• an oblong planter box- the ones I have are plastic
• a mixture of potting soil and manure
• a combination of several or all of the following seeds: Read the rest of this entry »
  
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