From seed Ideas, Tips & Guides

Good Heart Farmstead began in 2013, located 9 miles north of Montpelier in Zone 4, with a goal of becoming a “full-diet CSA,” but quickly evolved otherwise.“We raised sheep, turkeys, pigs, laying hens and broilers, and grew a long list of vegetable crops,” Kate recalls of Year 1. “AND we had a baby. It was crazy.”Add to that the fact that in year one Edge and Kate were cutting their mesclun by hand, meaning it took so long to harvest that they couldn’t

Apparently letting people check out seed, then deposit new seed from their subsequent harvest, would violate Pennsylvania’s Seed Act of 2004. Words like “agri-terrorism” were uttered. I asked veteran seed-library insider Ken Greene of Hudson Valley Seed Library, who founded the first seed library in a public town library in the nation, to lend some perspective.Our conversation helped me understand more about what happened; about what a seed library is, anyhow, and the challenges it can face–and why such regulations are in force, anyhow. My questions after I read that original Sentinel story, and Ken Greene’s answers:Q. So let’s start with what happened, Ken. A. A few months back I was forwarded an email from

Though no Cucurbits (the family that gourds fit into) are Italian natives, they’re important in its cuisine, and its expressive language seems to fit these expressive plants, including some melons, squash and gourds that can attain dirigible proportion, with personalities as large.I saw cucuzzi listed in Hudson Valley Seed Library’s catalog and called co-founder Ken Greene. “Want to talk about favorite crazy Cucurbits?” I proposed. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse. Here’s our rundown of some real charmers:cucuzzi (lagenaria siceraria):‘WE’RE NOT USED to eating gourds–and don’t

The “black” tomatoes (more brownish-purple than anything near black) often have a flavor that’s described as smoky, or earthy. You may have grown ‘Black Krim’ and ‘Cherokee Purple’—two very good ones—and now I’m eyeing ‘Carbon,’ which people are talking about. Same with ‘Paul Robeson,’ a tomato with a great taste (and a great story).Want a black cherry tomato to mix things up in the salad bowl (that link will take you to one, as will this one)? Thinking larger, and darker: At the extreme of dark tomato color there’s open-pollinated ‘Indigo Rose,’ an Oregon State University development (photo above from High Mowing Seeds). It’s the first tom

I guess that’s why she titled her 2011 book, “The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year No Matter Where You Live.”Niki’s vegetable garden in Halifax just got a facelift to become even more productive. She is one of the contributors to the blog Savvy Gardening and creator of the award-winning radio program, The Weekend Gardener, that’s heard throughout Eastern Canada. And we spoke just in time for all of us us to order the seeds and learn the tactics we’ll need to grow our own offseason gardens, too.Read along as you listen to the Aug. 8, 2

We should be doing “successions,” or new sowings, all along during the growing season in our edible gardens, but it’s never more important than right now, especially up North where Katie and I garden. As summer comes on strong, we need to focus on continued vegetable and herb harvests through fall frost or even beyond. But what, and when?Katie Spring and her husband, Edge Fuentes, make their living eking out every possible week of deliciousness and productivity–even in Zone 4 Northern Vermont. Katie also works part of the year with my friends at High Mowing Organic Seeds, as if she is not busy enough with CSA and wholesale clients, farm animals, and family at the couple’s GoodHeartFarmstead, 9 miles north of Montpelier (photo above of their seed house an

Lee is the author of so many books, including, “A Northeast Gardener’s Year,” “The Pruning Book,” “Weedless Gardening,” (enter to win a copy below) “Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden,” “Landscaping with Fruit,” and “Grow Fruit Naturally.”  He is also an exceptional vegetable gardener, so I was pleased to get his advice to get started with some new crops, and with some new tricks with familiar crops. He also shared a helpful seed-starting video, which is partway through the transcript below.Read along as you listen to the Feb. 8, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).my seed-starting q&a with lee reichQ. I guess I have to ask: Have you ordered all your seed?A. I have, actually. I try to get them all ordered before the end of the year.

I’m often asked that question, usually phrased like this: Why didn’t my (insert name of tomato variety) taste as good this year as last?Getting the best flavor from a tomato is “a matter of lining the genetics up with the environment,” says Tom Stearns, founder of High Mowing Organic Seeds. It’s something he acknowledges that people are more inclined to do with animals than plants—to choose a breed of l

Eaten when orange and ripe, the recently released ‘Habanada’ has a floral character and a lingering sweetness, plus just a hint of spice, says its breeder, Michael Mazourek of Cornell University (above).Though the ‘Habanada’ was developed during research for the PhD Mazourek earned in 2008, it wasn’t commercially available until this season, when Fruition Seeds licensed it from Cornell, to sell by mail as transplants. Plans are to build up quantity of seed in coming years, and sell packets, too.The

[podcast url=” http://podcasts.am1020whdd.com/~am1020wh/shows/mp3/A_Way_To_Garden-December_9_Lia_Babitch_Turtle_Tree_Seeds.mp3″]I PROMISED Lia I wouldn’t make her try to explain the entire system of biodynamics on the air–but in very short: It’s a system of agriculture that incorporates the power of all the dynamic, subtle forces of nature and does not incorporate any synthetic inputs like chemicals. Ever.“We don’t do any of the bad stuff that ‘certified organic’ doesn’t let you do,” says Lia, “but we also do a bunch of good stuff that helps the soil and the ecosystem.” (You can read more about it here.)my q&a with lia babitch of turtle treeQ: First: Let’s get a little background on the Turtle Tree seed company, Lia.

Organic seed commands a premium price, and limits my choices of vegetable varieties, but as regular readers know, I prefer it. I believe seed bred and raised under organic conditions is the best match for my organic garden’s conditions, and also want to vote with my dollars of demand to help create supply.Having the right seed can provide farmers with the genetic tools to confront day-to-day challenges in the field, so to organic farmers, limited selection and higher prices in organic seed represent a far greater obstacle than to a gardener. Despite the phenomenal growth of the org

As with many other blessings, I have my friends at the Organic Seed Alliance to thank for my introduction to Adaptive Seeds, which had a big year in 2013: Andrew and his partner Sarah Kleeger turned their entire farm operation over to seeds, closing their CSA; completed their official organic certification; and ramped up to double their seed assortment to 400 varieties—including 65 new to their catalog this year.View the pdf of the Adaptive catalog now Shop the catalog online Order a print catalog from adaptiveseeds [at] gmail [dot] com my q&a with andrew still of adaptive seedsQ. So a little background first, please, Andrew—a short history of Adaptive Seeds and what you and Sarah [photo above] are doing.A. This is our fifth catalog. We have been farming between Brownsville and Swee

Joseph Tychonievich, author of, “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener: How to Create Unique Vegetables and Flowers” (affiliate link), says that just a little knowledge of the basics of breeding and genetics might help you shop with new discernment–with the eye of a breeder–from that heap of catalogs on the bedside table.Joseph, former nursery manager at Arrowhead Alpines, the venerable rare-plant nursery in Michigan, was named one of “six young horticulturists who are helping to shape how America gardens” by “Organic Gardening” m

“We would be sad if people shied away from such an iconic garden vegetable,” says Brian, who with Crystine Goldberg farms organic seed, including for beets, in Bellingham, Washington–seed they sell in their online and print Uprising catalog. “What is more beautiful than a bunch of voluptuous bright red beetroots in a harvest basket en route from the garden to the kitchen?”All too often, our only experience with beets means the usual suspects—ubiquitous varieties like ‘Detroit Dark Red’ or ‘Early Wonder,’ or produce sold without their greens and even pre-packaged or canned. Brian confesses he doesn’t have much experience with those, and for a good reason: There are better beets to be had, and grown.my beet-growing q&a with brian campbellQ. When can I

I’m always happy to see any poppy, anywhere, in all their flouncy forms like old-fashioned party dresses, in a range of colors from delightfully, shockingly bright orange and reds to the palest Victorian-style pastels, and even white.I was thinking of growing more poppies, so I called Marilyn Barlow of Select Seeds, who has tried her hand at more than anyone else I know.I realized that Marilyn and I were sort of h

MAYBE YOU’RE WONDERING this about now: Why do vegetable seedlings stretch and grow spindly sometimes, and how can you prevent such leggy seedlings? That was how I began a note to Dr. Thomas Bjorkman, Professor of Crop Physiology at Cornell, seeking an answer to a question I’m asked a lot.

For the timing, consult my Seed-Starting Calculator, customizable to your own location according to final frost date. But first…I recommend investing in a reflective hood that houses high-output fluorescent tubes called T5’s, or T5 HO’s. I can’t wait until LEDs for seed-starting get a little farther along in development, and

“They’re our biggest unpaid staff workers,” says Brian. “They’re the pollinators that we depend on, so we really pay attention.”We discussed why building up your pollinator palette of extra-early bloomers in particular is important; which families of plants have the most impact, and how certain flowering things like Alyssum and Phacelia may help attract aphid-fighting helpers–and even a bigger role for cilantro!Read along as you listen to the Feb. 4, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of po

WHO AMONG US doesn’t have at least one Urgent Garden Question? This month on my public radio show and podcast, Ken Druse and I answered a diverse list:

The subject is succession sowings, which to do and when and how, with help from Niki Jabbour, a resident of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and an award-winning author and popular lecturer, who also hosts “The Weekend Gardener” radio show. Her recent book, “Veggie Garden Remix,” celebrating unusual edibles we can and should grow, just won a 2019 American Horticultural Society book award. (I’ll give away a copy; enter by commenting at the very bottom of the page.)Niki shared all her tactical advice for keeping the harvest coming.Read along as you listen to the May 13, 2019 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).succession sowing for nonstop harvest, with n

Squash pests and diseases—from squash bugs, vine borers and cucumber beetles, to powdery and downy mildews and bacterial wilts—can make it all sound like just too much. But as a seed farmer, High Mowing Organic Seeds founder Stearns has to harvest lots of extra-ripe fruit to get his hidden-inside crop. He gets to the finish line by working to avoid any preventable setbacks, first and foremost, always keeping in mind the three key things about being a cucurbit:You love heat. You’re thirsty (but your shallow root system means you depend on the immediate area for water resources). You love to eat. Oh, and the aforementioned “issues” love you—some more or less depending on species and varie

ELLEN OGDEN and I talked salads on my public-radio show and podcast. The highlights of our conversation:salad-lover’s garden tips from ellen ogdenDirect sow your salad greens, says Ellen. It’s easier than sowing indoors and transplanting, and “they pop up fast, and are fast to produce—in just a few weeks.” Re-sow small amounts right through into August in the North.  “That’s really the key. I start my greens every two weeks–small, short rows of maybe 5 feet long.” Succession sowings can continue slightly longer if salads are grown under cover—and of course in warmer zones, the timing shifts with the later frost dates. Be opportunistic. “Stick the rows everywhere,” says Ellen, including between other plants.

No problem, I said, we’ll just call Craig LeHoullier—who some of you will recognize as the author of the hit book “Epic Tomatoes” and breeder of dwarf tomatoes, in particular, whose first book was actually a little how-to guide called “Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales.”I invited him back to my public-radio show and podcast from his home and garden in North Carolina to talk about the straw bale gardening how-to’s: how to prep and care for the bales, what crops are adapted to such conditions, and more.Read along as you listen to the February

I’M THINKING PRESIDENTIALLY at the moment, specifically about Thomas Jefferson, and how he sowed the seeds of fruitful harvests. Peggy Cornett, Historic Gardener and Curator of Plants at Jefferson’s former home, Monticello, taught me about the nation’s third president as a gardener, and about what he grew and how–like a perennial kale, historic lettuces and Native American beans, “strawberry spinach” and more.

I’ve rounded up some of the best to tackle in the monthly Q&A segment with help from my friend Ken Druse. Ken, an award-winning garden photographer and author of more books than I can count, including “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants,” produced his own “Real Dirt” podcast for 10 years, all available on KenDruse dot com (and still available on iTunes, too).Read along as you listen to the March 6, 2107 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Part 2 of the transcript of this month’s doubleheader is at this link (incl

But how do you make a meadow or meadow garden, and manage one? What plants, and what practices, combine for a successful mix?Tom Brightman has been land steward at the famed Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania since 2007, where he oversees more than 700 acres of forest, meadow, wetlands and agricultural lands—including the 86 inspiring acres called the Meadow Garden.Read along as you listen to the Aug. 15, 2016 edition of

You might remember Don from his last visit to the program, when he taught me how to grow onions like a pro from seed, one of the most popular subjects ever on my show and website. Well, apparently Don had somehow heard what was on my mind, because he wrote to suggest a conversation about what he calls Brassica success tips. Serendipity.Don Tipping has been growing and selling wholesale seed on his farm called Seven Seeds for about 20 years, and in 2009 started a retail seed company as well, Siskiyou Seeds, offering his own seed and also the best varieties from a number of organic seed-farming frie

Before I called Craig, I had searched in the Seed Savers Exchange database for tomato, and found more than 12,000 listings, not including the tiniest currant types or the many hybrids that Seed Savers doesn’t even focus on. How to choose–and how to make room for all the tomatoes we simply cannot resist?Craig is also cofounder of the Dwarf Tomato Project (those are some dwarf types sliced open up top), which gets back to the issue of how many tomatoes can be squeezed in,

A popular lecturer and author, Niki gardens in Halifax, Nova Scotia, producing harvests in all four seasons and not just your basic everyday edibles, either. I welcomed her back to the program to talk about a wacky wide range of things to grow this year—and especially about eight surprising substitutes for spinach, in case you crave the flavor but have trouble with spinach in some portion of your growing season, like maybe in the hottest part of summer. I learned that we can eat our hosta shoots (well, not if you want to look at the plants all season) and also purple hyacinth beans and more surprises.Plus: Enter to win a copy of “Veggie Garden Remix” at the bottom of the page.Read along as you listen to the Feb. 5, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).unusual edibles to grow, with niki jabbourQ. I see that you’re going to be in my area pretty soon, Niki. In March, I think you’

Ellen Ecker Ogden, with several books on food and gardens to her credit, was co-founder of the breakthrough seed catalog called The Cook’s Garden, which introduced U.S. gardeners to a whole new palette of possibilities that back then were more familiar perhaps in Europe, but not here. She lives and gardens in Vermont, and I’m glad she’s back today.Plus: We’ll have a giveaway of her new book “The New Heirloom Garden” (affiliate link); enter in the comments box at the very bottom of the page–and Ellen will send the winner some seeds from her garden, too.Read along as you listen to the February 15, 2021 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and br

Craig is known to many as the NC Tomato Man and to others as the straw-bale gardening guy. But besides his expertise in both breeding tomatoes and writing a book about them—enter to win a copy of “Epic Tomatoes” in the comment box below—Craig also has an epic collection of seeds of heirloom eggplants and peppers. Shop the catalogs with us, from some new developments in greens, plus learn to grow beets unexpectedly from indoor sowings, and to succeed with eggplants and peppers, too. Craig shares his over-the-top dense planting method for seeds, and other tricks.Note about the audio: An undetected electrical short in the studio computer system caused background noise to be recorded along with our conversation, as if a radio was on in the distant background in places, and we apologize.Read along as you listen to the Jan. 8, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).seed shopping, plus growing eggplants and peppers,with craig lehoullierQ. Welcome back, Craig.A. It’s

I’ve rounded up some of the best to tackle in the monthly Q&A segment with help from my friend Ken Druse. Ken, an award-winning garden photographer and author of more books than I can count, including “The New Shade Garden” and “Making More Plants,” produced his own “Real Dirt” podcast for 10 years, all available on KenDruse dot com (and still available on iTunes, too).Read along as you listen to the March 6, 2107 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here). This is the second segment of the March Q&A program—find the first

This summer, 175ish of those pots and grow bags in Craig’s North Carolina driveway laboratory are tomatoes, and that’s what he talked to me about on my public-radio show and podcast.Craig is the tomato adviser to Seed Savers Exchange, and author of the bestselling book “Epic Tomatoes,” so whether you’re growing your own or trying to decide among the many distinctive beauties at the local farmers’ market: Craig LeHoullier has the insider info.Read along as you listen to the July 11, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to

You may recall previous confessionals from Joseph, about his “issues,” shall we say, with gladiolus and hollyhocks. He is the author of books on backyard plant breeding and also rock gardening, among his many botanical interests—and you can enter to win a copy of “Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener” in the comments box at the very bottom of the page.Our interview is another episode of the A Way to Garden annual winter seed series, when I virtually shop the catalogs with various expert friends and get growing advice, too. Browse all the past episodes in the multi-year series.Read along as you listen to the Jan. 15, 2018 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

My annual Seed Series continues with this seed source that is all new to me, including many unusual varieties available nowhere else but Experimental Farm Network dot org, the nonprofit cooperative whose co-founder, Nate Kleinman, was my latest radio/podcast guest. We talked about the EFN mission and the fascinating assortment of goodies they offer, including a whole stash of perennial edibles in their 2020 online catalog.A core belief at EFN: that agriculture can and should be used to help build a better world, not help destroy it. Co-founders Nate Kleinman (in New Jersey) and Dusty Hinz (in Minnesota) grow most of EFN’s seeds. Each year they’re adding more growers to their roster, including inspiring plant breeders who often wor

Joseph wants to entice us all to grow them, and clue us in to which ones he recommends most (like the species Alcea hohenackeri, above), which he did on the July 24, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast. Tip: now (summer) is the time to start easy-to-germinate hollyhock seeds for bloom next year. Read along as you listen to the July 24, 2107 program using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).Plus: comment in the form at the very bottom of the page to enter to win a copy of your choice of one of Josep