Home Gardening in the Planning and Sprouting Stages!

So it is spring, finally...well...sort of! In this ugly weather it is still too cold to plant my peas and too chilly for much of anything to be started outdoors. But, I am going to sprout my sugar snap peas inside this week between damp paper towels and put them in the soil by next Monday or Tuesday. This will give them a head start and hopefully they won’t rot like they would if I just put the seeds in the ground tomorrow.   

I do have some new things blooming, such as the first daffodils—several varieties are already opening—and I have some Lenten Roses blooming. They are deep pink and very lovely. Almost all the crocus are open except for a few in the shade. We are still a couple weeks behind where we should be to my mind. This cold spring has certainly delayed many plants/trees. I am still doing winter cleanup and even pulling some nasty early weeds. It's good to get a jump on them!

Inside, my tomato seeds are coming up under my grow lights, as are some butter crunch lettuce, radicchio and burp-less cucumbers. I plan on starting some flower seeds before Easter—zinnias to be specific. I usually just directly sew them in the soil but they sometimes rot or just don’t sprout at all, causing me to have to re-seed weeks later. Or I get clumps of baby plants too close together. I thought that this spring I would try to start them inside for once and see if I like that better. Some seeds have to be started in the garden soil like sunflowers, cosmos and nasturtiums, but I think my zinnias could bloom earlier if I do this.

Speaking of seeds, I looked at some of my seed catalogs for notices on GMOs—genetically modified seeds. Some catalogs say they are not selling GMO seeds and some say nothing. I recommend Pinetree Seeds in Maine (superseeds.com) as a great purveyor of quality, reasonably priced, non-GMO seeds. They have some organic seeds too, as does Gardens Alive which sells a lot of great products for the lawn, garden and house, including many safe treatments for insects and plant diseases. I sometimes buy from Parks Seeds, which has a great selection. Other reputable seed companies include Jung Seeds, Burpee and Territorial Seed Company, which sells organic seeds. Totally Tomatoes mainly sells tomatoes and peppers, but does have a few other veggies. Neighbors Home and Garden Center in Hellertown sells Burpee seeds. If you are a new gardener you might want to go there and look over the selection. If you don’t see all you need, go online and check out some of the companies I suggest. They will generally send you a catalog if you ask for one.

Someone asked me about garden compost for the veggie garden. Many towns now make compost out of discarded leaves and branches. Hellertown and Lower Saucon Township do this and you can get wood chip compost or regular compost. There's no guarantee as to what is in it, but it is free to borough and township residents with ID cards. If you want a load put into your pickup truck I think they charge about $10 for that service. Bethlehem offers free mulch for everyone at their center at Eighth and Eaton avenues, although you must be a city resident to drop off yard waste. The fee for loading mulch or compost is $10 per cubic yard. You can also buy bags of compost at garden centers.

Once you've gotten your compost, you can take it and mix it in your top 10  inches of soil to lighten and enrich it. The wood mulch isn’t good for much, other than pathways. Do not put it in your garden beds or within two feet of your house. It can cause serious termite or bug issues with your house if you fail to keep it at a minimum of a foot away—two is better. Some garden centers sell mulch by the cubic foot to be put in your truck bed. 

Now is the time to plan the garden. Decide what you want to grow and if you are just starting out, plan where the garden beds should be. I don’t recommend putting veggie beds close to the street due to auto pollution. And sometimes people passing by have an annoying tendency to pick your flowers right out of the garden beds! My next post will cover creating raised beds, which are really great for veggies.

The date for planting flowers or vegetables that can’t survive frost is Mother’s Day in May. I do not recommend flaunting that rule or you may be wailing over frosted, shriveled up plants that cost a lot to be replaced. So you have some time before you need to put out tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, zinnias, cukes and squash. Still, it is almost time to put in lettuce, spinach, radishes and peas. Like next week!

Oh and, yes, you can mix veggies and flowers—actually some flowers like marigolds help to keep pests away. Plus some veggies are very attractive; swiss chard, eggplants and peppers can really brighten a garden space up. Spring is here...yes it is cold, but you can dream of what will make your garden fabulous this summer.... So get planning this April for a beautiful August!