I recently ordered my seeds for this year and I would encourage you home gardeners out there to consider doing the same. I am sure some of you will pick up your seeds from the Home Depot rack or your local garden supply store. There is obviously nothing wrong with this but you limit yourself in many ways.

First, there are more than 6000 varieties of vegetables out there that I know of. Many are not commercially for sale but the point is that it is fun to grow different kinds each year instead of always getting “Snow Crown” cauliflower or “Celebrity” tomato. These stores stock the seeds you know, not the ones that are best. That brings me to my next point.

Success in growing starts with a good seed. Ordering from seed companies allow you to choose seeds that have higher yields, more disease resistance and almost always have higher germination rates because that is what they do and they stake their reputations on getting you good seeds.

Last, it so much more fun to peruse through seeds catalog or online sites deciding which ones sound or look best and then assembling your garden with lots to compare with. It is like buying a house or hiring an employee, you want to compare and contrast before you decide on your final pick. In the same manner, I think it is better to look around before you buy when it comes to seeds.

I will point out that you probably can get your seeds cheaper off the rack at Walmart, but the extra .79 cents won’t matter when you could have had 10 lbs more of tomatoes by getting the right variety.

I have a list of retail garden seed companies below. It is not all inclusive, but it a pretty good list. You will see some of my recommendations in other posts. It is listed alphabetically. Some are better than others, but I will let you decide. Let me know who I am missing in your comments.

Hope this helps.

I am always anxious to get my plants out as soon as possible and sometimes it is imperative given the contraints of the seasons. It is important to not get complacent after you have planted, particularly in the Spring. Most of us are aware of frost free dates and how they affect when you should plant. But as all of us should be well aware of, mother nature can be fickle.

The national weather service for my area publishes April 30th as the frost free date (10%). Note the 10%, that means that 10% of the time it will frost after April 30th. This is important because while 9 years out of 10 it will not frost after April 30th, sometimes it will. Technically, no one can officially publish a sure fire, never will happen frost free date because, lets face it, anything can happen. 10% is usually close enough. Therefore, I have a few suggestions during this critical period.

Keep an eye on the weather min and max predictions each day. By keeping an eye on the weather each day you may be able to save your plants from an early death. If the temperature is predicted to go below 40 degrees (F) then consider protecting your tender starts during the night.

Tender plants include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, corn, potatoes and others. If these plants are just a seed and have yet to germinate then I would not worry about a chilly night since the ground temp probably won’t freeze after your frost free date. But if the plant has green out then you can protect the plant with a hotcap (click to see picture). If the plant is a bit more sturdy then you can throw some thin plastic over the top, making sure to drape over the plant and secure so that the wind/air won’t blow right through or blow it away. Make sure to take it off in the morning before the sun gets too hot or you will burn your plants.

There are several other measure you can take, you just need to keep the temperature above freezing around the plant so that it won’t die. You do not need to do this for your hardy plants such as lettuce, broccoli, carrots etc.

I would keep a keen eye on your plants until about two weeks after your frost free date (10%), after that you should be good. For more information about frost free dates, check out this video on the subject.

I did a couple of book reviews for the Home Garden Seed Association and I decided to include them here since I would recommend both books to those who read this blog.

The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener

By Eliot Coleman

This book is pretty well known in the gardening community, particularly with those interested in organic gardening. In fact, for those looking to learn more about organic gardening, this is the best book I have read on the subject because it is geared toward the average gardener looking for practical advise and simple prose, without the “save the planet” preaching that other organic gardening authors needlessly include in a gardening book.

Eliot Coleman not only explains the different processes of how to produce vegetables organically with authority but continually invites improvement and even expects the reader to do it better by standing on his shoulders and years of experience. I was looking for a book that would help me understand why organic gardening is worth trying and Mr. Coleman has convinced my to experiment with his tried and true techniques.

This book is for both the home gardener and small commercial farm and the ideas presented in the book make a lot of sense and are backed up with Mr. Coleman’s years of experience.

I am not sure if after all is said and done that I will never buy conventional fertilizer again or even invest in some of his recommended hand tools, but he has made the case and then some for me to experiment with the virtues of organic gardening. For those who do not understand what organic gardening is or why it is important than this is a must read.

The Secret Life of Compost: A “How-To” & “Why” Guide to Composting-Lawn, Garden, Feedlot or Farm

By Malcolm Beck

I wanted to learn more about composting and got this book from my local library. I was blown away by what I learned and read this 150 page book in one sitting. Try telling someone you know that you couldn’t put down a composting book. Well that is what happened to me and I feel very capable of producing my own compost now.

Malcolm Beck did exactly what I was hoping by telling me how to compost, instead of trying to explain the science behind it. Paraphrasing his own words, “the science of composting will mean something to you after you figure out how to do it.” Therefore, he doesn’t waste any of my time by trying to cram a bunch of science that would be better in a textbook.

He also spent time discussing why to compost and shared some experiences with how to “revive” soil that has been left for dead. Toward the end of the book he shares how one might start a composting business for themselves and includes many pictures of his own composting facility.

Unlike many “how-to” books, I came away from this one with a simple plan and felt less overwhelmed then when I started the book. That to me is the best praise I could give any “how-to” author. If I come away overwhelmed and unable to proceed then the author failed. In this case, Mr. Beck hits a home-run for composting.

It is that time of year when you start to see garden centers large and small open their doors to allow consumers like you and me to purchase their vegetable starts, among other things. Hopefully, this post will give you a few things to think about before making your purchase.

First and foremost, you must consider timing. The large box stores in particular are great about providing an overgrown tomato start for you to purchase before anyone else does much like you can buy Christmas decor before Halloween, however, unlike most of your Christmas decorations, these starts don’t store. Usually, there are ready to put in the ground right away and you may be in an area that is still waiting for the correct weather to put them outdoors.

Here is a picture of a tomato start that I found in a big box store 7 weeks before it should have been planted in my area.

If you were to purchase this tomato start your chances for success are very small because it is too big to keep for 7 weeks, even in a wall-o-water or hotcap. If you are growing directly in a greenhouse, then of course, timing is not that important, but don’t be suckered into buying this start because you have “Spring Fever” and are ready to start planting when the timing is not right.

Next, quality doesn’t equal size. In the example above you see a large tomato start, but you should know that if you were to plant a start half that size the difference in when you will start harvesting will not even be perceptible. This means that you should buy healthy looking, vibrant, vigorous starts that are not root bound. This means that the root system is still appropriate for the size pot it is in. I guarantee you that the tomato roots in the above picture are circling around inside that pot looking for more places to root. This is not good for a transplant and ideally the roots should not be circling.

Therefore, I would prefer a tomato half the size of the one pictured above that is dark green, no dead or wilting leaves, and ready to put in the ground the day I buy it, which for my area is the first week of May.

For reference here is the size that I believe a tomato start should be when transplanting to the garden. These are 4 week old.

Those are 2″ pots and you can see that they are much smaller than what you find in the big box store. My neighbor bought the big ones a month earlier, put them under wall-0-waters and they were almost 2 feet tall by the time I plant these guys, however, when it was time to harvest, ours were equal in size and I actually started harvesting earlier because I planted an “Early Challenge” variety with my other varieties.

I am all for trying to get vegetables out in the ground as earlier as possible, but if it is too early, then you increase the chance of failure in order to really gain no benefit.

In summary, biggest is not best and you have to keep an eye on the calendar before you rush to your local nursery and buy a bunch of starts. Of course, I don’t have to buy any starts anymore because I just grow from seed indoors and save a bunch of money, but I realize that not everyone is that ambitious. However, the store bought tomatoes are about $2-3 dollars a start and limit your selection to just a few. Growing from seed yourself is about $.20 a start and you can pick whatever seed you would like. Admittedly there are some costs associated with getting a light stand and providing electricity, but you make that back fast.

If you would like to learn more about seed starting indoors, check out one of my posts on the subject and for more on when to plant any of your vegetables get a free account at VegeNag.com

This year I am trying a new method of planting seeds indoors called soil blocks. I read about this method in a book called “The New Organic Grower” which I enjoyed very much and would recommend reading. I show you how to make soil blocks and share with you some of my experience doing it. Hope you enjoy. I have posted the soil block recipe below or you can click this link for a PDF.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2_getFvp-0

BLOCKING MIX RECIPE *

A standard 10-quart bucket is the unit of measurement for the bulk ingredients. A standard cup measure is used for the supplementary ingredients. This recipe makes approximately 2 bushels of mix. Follow the steps in the order given.

-3 buckets brown peat (standard peat moss, use a premium grade)

-1⁄2 cup lime.

Mix ingredients together thoroughly.

2 buckets coarse sand or perlite

3 cups base fertilizer (equal part mix blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and greensand).

Mix. 1 bucket garden soil

2 buckets well-decomposed compost.

Mix ingredients together thoroughly.

Moisten the mix thoroughly using one part warm water for every three parts blocking mix. Successful soil block making depends on the mix being wet enough, rather than wet like soil mix in traditional flats. The mix should have the consistency of soft putty or wet cement, so that a small amount of water oozes through small openings in the blocker as the blocks are made, and that the individual soil blocks cling to the blocker without falling out prematurely.

* From The New Organic Grower, by Eliot Coleman.

Great news, now VegeNag is free for unlimited vegetables. Up until now, you could get a free account, but were limited to one vegetable. VegeNag has now become an ad supported website. Therefore, this means that you can now have full access to VegeNag for free, however, in order to support the great value VegeNag provides and to keep the site running, you will see ads. We believe these ads will be highly relevant to you as our user and hope that you will find out about great gardening vendors this way. Hopefully, this is a win win for everyone. Many of you have asked that we make the service free and now we have.

So what about all of those who have paid for a subscription. Well, you get the option of not having any ads or you can obtain a full refund by emailing support@vegenag.com. I have already talked to some of you about this and those I have talked to have graciously been pleased enough with the service that they are not seeking a refund and will enjoy the site ad free for doing so. That being said, for those that don’t mind ads, then we are more than happy to apply a refund.

Anyway, please tell your friends about this great service that is now free for the new 2011 season.

Tops on the list for growing high quality vegetables is adding a good compost to your garden each year. This is not just top soil, this is broken down organic material that is just waiting to stimulate the soil, feed your plants and even protect them from disease and pests. Compost takes about a year to make if you just use a static pile system (which I find the easiest) that you turn about 4 times a year. Of course, you can speed this process up a lot through various techniques, but that is more effort than it is worth in my opinion.

If you don’t have a year to wait, then you can purchase compost from your nursery or a local recycling yard for anywhere from $25-$50 a yard. This is very expensive for something you can make for free, but you may consider it while you are building your own pile.

You do not need a lot of compost to be successful. You can cover a 1000 sq.ft garden with 1 inch of compost with about 3 yards or compost. Just this one inch will be heaven to your soil so don’t feel like you have to spend a fortune on this. And you really will only need to do this once a year for great vegetables. After the first year you should be able to amend your soil for free with your own compost pile.

Composting a simple way…

When I first started learning about compost I heard about how you need a layer of soil on top of a layer of green then you need to water and then turn and then…….needless to say it got very overwhelming. Of course there is a fast way, but since I like things simple I just use the pile method. It is simple and easy.

To make compost you need 5 things: nitrogen, carbon, moisture, air and patience.

Nitrogen are the green materials including all types of manures, plant life, grass, leaves and weeds. Food scraps are also nitrogen. It is recommended to always have some manure for good compost. Any kind of manure will work, the best kind is the kind that is closest.

Carbon are the brown materials or bulk including sawdust, wood chips, straw, dried leaves, corn cobs, paper and cardboard. If there is a question on if it is nitrogen or carbon just put it in a pile, if it is dry wet it. If nothing happens it is carbon, if it starts to stink and draws flies it is nitrogen.

An ideal compost pile is 2 parts carbon, one part nitrogen. If the pile doesn’t heat and always smells then you have too much nitrogen, if it heats and doesn’t smell, but goes way too slow then you have too much carbon. Remember it will all eventually break down. Occasionally you may need to water the pile if it is easily dried out. If you get too much rainfall in your area you may want to consider throwing plastic over the top of your pile so that all the important nutrients don’t leach out over time.

The pile needs access to air and it should be turned once in a while. 4 times a year works well.

Once your pile is well composted add it to your garden by spreading it uniformly over your garden and cultivating in into the top 2 inches of soil. You may want to give your high feeding crops a little extra. You should do this 3-4 weeks before you plant. You only have to do this once or twice a year, but listening to your plants will tell you best. If they are vigorous and healthy then you are doing it right, if they are dying and have pests and diseases you are doing something wrong. Either way, you will always need to add compost back to your soil if you are taking nutrients via growing vegetables.

You should not need any commercial fertilizers using this method since the compost comes with all that the plant needs. Not only is the method relatively free, but it will give you better tasting vegetables and your disease and pest resistance in your plants will be so high that you will probably have little or not problems there. For more information, one of my favorite compost books is “The Secret Life of Compost” by Malcom Beck.

If this is your first year gardening then it is a good idea to get a soil test. In fact, I think it is a must unless someone in the know that lives near you can give you a good idea of what to expect. The reason for this is because there are many books, people, websites etc. That tell you to add this or that, but the fact is that it may be wrong depending on what is already there.

Soil tests run about $50 and can usually be done locally by a private testing lab or your state extension office might provide the service. Both generally charge about the same so I would just use whichever one is convenient. Which ever you use they should give you instructions on how to obtain the sample.

Obtaining the sample usually consists of digging 12 inches down in a number of different spots in your soil 5-15 samples and then mixing them all together. From that batch you would send the required amount. Make sure you obtain the soil with a instrument that won’t invalidate the sample like a rusty tool or something.

The soil test report should provide information on how to use the report and what to do with the information. For example, it may recommend you add nitrogen or lime etc. They should give you the application rates too.

If you haven’t done a soil test and are ready to plant, here are  few things to consider

pH level- Vegetables want a pH of about 6.5 give or take. You need to know what yours is. If it is too low or too high then no matter how much food you give the vegetables, it will all be for not because the plant won’t be able to use the nutrients. Many books will tell you to lime the soil. Beware this advice if your pH is already too high. I used to live in Utah where my pH was 8 or higher. The last thing I wanted to do was add lime. Lime brings the pH up, elemental sulfur or lots of organic amendments will lower pH. Find out what yours is so you know what to do.

N, P, K: The three major elements that your soil needs to be appropriate for your plants success. Follow your soil test recommendations closely, as these nutrients need to be there for the plant to grow and bear fruit. There are other nutrients that your soil needs and these are usually in abundance, if not, your soil test will let you know.

This post is about a soil test and not the virtues of how to feed your soil. For more information on that subject see a prior post. Keep in mind that post is geared toward using commercially available fertilizers and will only feed your plant and not the soil which is not good practice in the long run.

In nature, where do plants get their food? From the soil. What do most commercially available fertilizers do? Feed the plant. Why is this a concern? Well, it would be like feeding a human body with an IV. The body gets what it needs but it is not how things are made to work and it is more expensive. I believe the best way to feed the plants is to feed the soil and let the soil do its job.

So how do you feed the soil? Compost, organic matter, and more compost. In essence, we try and replicate what already happens in our incomprehensible ecosystem. As things like leaves and plants die, they return to the soil and improve its microbiology and nutrient levels. The best vegetables are grown in highly active, highly nutritious soil with an appropriate pH level.

Does this mean I am opposed to commercial fertilizers? No, I am not, as I am not opposed to IV fluids. What I am trying to promote here is why spend the extra money to feed the plant when it is the soil that does that job. If any money is to be spent, it should be on improving the soil. Take all your kitchen scraps and but them in the compost and not the trash. That is valuable soil food. Use your grass clippings, dead leaves and any horse or chicken manure you can get people to give you. These “free” inputs are so important for your soil and in turn your vegetables.

If you don’t have any compost material then you may have to spend some money on compost from a local nursery or organic material like peat, but it will pay huge dividends.

Let nature do its work and instead of trying to bypass the system, use it and you will find that you will get superior produce and enhance a sustainable production system that will actually save you money in the long run.

In many of the people I talk to and classes I teach it is very clear that most of us are not clear what “organic” means as it relates to gardening and food production. I would like to venture some thoughts on the subject in hopes of letting people define it for themselves.

Our wonderful government defines it as:

“Organic production. A production system that is managed in accordance with the Act and regulations in this part to respond to site-specific conditions by integrating cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity.” USDA National Organic Program.

For more definitions from the USDA go their site.

Does that sound like you can’t use chemicals to be organic? Not exactly.

It is clear to me that there are degrees of organic adherence to the production of food. Some have tried to communicate the difference in these degrees by talking about “deep” organic production vs. “shallow” organic production. I thought this distinction was fair and useful.

In a simple summary, deep organic production promotes interdependence with the very nature you are using to grow produce. Using only the inputs available to you within nature to produce quality vegetables and such. Examples include using horse manure and compost to fertilize, made on the farm instead of getting commercial produced fertilizers. Using principles of soil management, crop rotation etc in order to eradicate pests and diseases instead of applying solutions to symptoms that appear. Even taking steps to reduce your carbon footprint via unheated greenhouses, battery powered implements and more.

Shallow organic production is more like “we do it naturally unless a limiting factor prevents us from it.” Limiting factors may be time, money, crop failure etc. This appears more in line with the USDA’s definition.

Hopefully it is clear to see how all of this organic means of production can be taken to a certain degree vs. just arriving at a place in your growing practices that clearly define your methods as “organic”. What this means is that just because a product was labeled organic doesn’t mean that the particular grower adheres to principles you believe to be organic. What this also means is that just because some grower’s product isn’t organic doesn’t mean they don’t adhere to principles of gardening you hold dear.

I think we all agree that utilizing natural principles of food production is ideal. What we don’t all agree on is the point at which deviating from those principles are appropriate.

So for all you home gardeners out there who struggle with the question whether or not they will use organic means of production in their gardens, I would invite you to answer a few questions for yourself before the time comes when all those pests are eating your vegetables and you are looking at the bottle of Sevin on the shelf debating if you could live with yourself if you were to “just this once” apply the pesticide.

• Is losing the plant more important than potentially adding chemicals to your soil that you probably don’t know much about one way or the other?
• Are you vigilant at adhering to correct principles of gardening to nurture healthy, successful plants?
• Do you stop and think about what is happening to your environment in all of your activities?

If you answered “yes” to these questions then I think you should look into deep organic techniques and adhere to those principles. I admire and support you and thank you for your efforts. You are making things better for all of us.

However, if you are the type of person that hypocritically drives gas guzzling vehicles, dumps oil based paints down the drain and burns plastic on the campfire and then has problem with applying malathion to keep your broccoli alive, then you may want to figure out what organic really means to you.

I am not trying to say that you have to be all in or all out, I am just asking for education and knowledge to temper guilt and judgement when it comes to growing or purchasing organically grown produce.

Personally, I am a “shallow” organic gardener with the desire to become more faithful in deep organic adherence. However, my philosophy is best summed up in the analogy of using dieting, exercise and preventative bodily care to take care of the body, but when something is not right I have no problem popping an Aleve or letting the doctor prescribe a remedy to an ailment. But that doesn’t not mean that I should allow man made remedies to limit my accountability and responsibility to adhere to principles of dieting and exercise. If it continues to hurt, I must make every effort to mitigate the cause not the symptom.

This is how I treat my plants. Nuture them with the greatest care and best possible environment for success, however, when more food is needed or something is wrong I will add nitrogen or spray with bacillus thuringiensis (BT) hoping these minimally evasive techniques solves the current issue, while I focus on fixing the cause. However, to eradicate disaster I have no problem applying the man made remedy so far as that, again, allows me to work on a sustainable solution. Does that mean I am not an organic grower or that I do not have respect for the environment? You choose for yourself, but for me and my house we choose to keep things alive in the long run.