DIY Seed Starting Mix: Recipes and How-to

Zack Snipes

AS SHE OFTEN DOES, naturalist and nature writer Nancy Lawson—perhaps known better to some of you as the Humane Gardener after the title of her first book—caught my attention the other day.

London pride (Saxifraga x urbium) is a low-growing evergreen perennial, a hybrid between Spanish Saxifraga umbrosa and Irish Saxifraga spathularis. Once a great garden favourite, London pride plant is hardy and looks good all year round, forming spreading clumps of leafy rosettes made up of spoon-shaped, fleshy, mid-green leaves. In summer masses of small, pink-flushed white flowers are borne on slender stems of around 30cm in height, lasting for up to three months. London Pride thrives in most soils and situations and is especially useful for shady sites. It’s an undemanding and versatile perennial that has fallen from fashion but is a worthwhile garden plant, being easy to grow, yet not invasive. Called London pride because it flourished on bombed sites in the city during the Second World War, it’s even the subject of a song by playwright and composer Noel Coward, whose song titled ‘London Pride’ was popular at the time.

Planting ginger is easy, but you have to do it properly and at the right time if you want to get a decent crop.

This year, when gardeners look at plant and seed catalogs, I think they will be inclined to go for the safe and familiar. After all,  even optimists need a sense of security. It will probably be a banner year for roses of all kinds, with reds selling well. The ongoing vogue for cottage flowers will probably continue to be strong. In fact, the wildest thing many people will invest in come spring will be a few of the more bizarre coleus cultivars.

Tender climbing perennial plants which are free flowering and suitable for growing in pots in the greenhouse, or for planting out of doors. They are closely related to the Snapdragon (Antirrhinum), to whose family, Scrophulariaceae, they belong.

How to Grow and Care for Ironweed (Vernonia) Vernonia spp.

Some people get their kicks from designer labels, others from rummaging through flea shops, or collecting obscure Japanese comics, vintage tractors, handbags, dolls, beer-mats, Star Wars merchandise or whatever else. Me, I get mine from ordering seeds.

A giant invasive plant known as “Millennium Madness” sprouted worldwide last year. It was particularly bad in the United States and positively egregious in the New York metropolitan area. And, as if Millennium Madness was not bad enough all by itself, there were rumors that it was infested on a grand scale with the dreaded Y2K Bug. While professionals in a host of countries spent months trying to think of ways to eradicate the Y2K Bug, ordinary people were rumored to be aiding the rapid growth and spread of Millennium Madness by watering local specimens with vast quantities of bottled water that they had stored in their basements.

The Blueberry is a native American fruit harvested from wild plants since the country was settled. About 1910 the late Dr. F. V. Coville of the United States Department of Agriculture began the domestication of the High-bush Blueberry. A breeding program based on selected wild types has produced through the years a number of varieties vastly superior to their wild ancestors. Considerable research on cultural problems has developed a body of knowledge on which a highly profitable and extensive commercial industry is growing rapidly.

When and How to Start Seeds in a Greenhouse

Courtesy of White Flower Farm