Time to Start Your Seeds!

Hello Gardening Friends,

The temperature may be freezing at night, but we're having beautiful sunny days to start growing seeds indoors!  This is the time of year when my bathroom is converted into a greenhouse (what a patient hubby I live with!).

In the past I have started numerous seeds indoors.  Due to a neck injury, I plan to keep things much more simple this year.  I planted only four tomato varieties. 

Last year I received my Burpee magazine with glee and bought quite a lot of unique tomato varieties to try out in my (very small) backyard.  Just like eating dessert, however, I ended up with too many plants and not enough space!  I frequently remind myself that my garden space is small and I need to plant accordingly.  So this year the only varieties I planted were: Super Sweet 100 (my absolute favorite!), Early Girl, Big Beef and Yellow Pear Tomatoes.  This variety means I will have red and yellow cherry tomatoes, some larger tomatoes earlier in the year and hefty-meatier tomato by mid-summer.  I know many people have other favorites or odd varieties, blah, blah, blah.  With my limited space and mobility, I am sticking to four. 

I also discovered in my Burpee buying spree that the cost of seed packets double (if not triple) the cost of the same seeds found in stores like Evergreen Nursery and Lowes.  The seeds from local stores tend to have fewer seeds in each packet, but most average 20 seeds; enough for the backyard gardener.  They also have less variety in the stores, but all the basics are readily available.

Tomato seeds take about 8 weeks from germination to being strong enough to weather the elements outside.  Make sure to keep your seeds moist and in a warm sunny, indoor location.  My advice would be to start your seeds within the next week or two...or simply wait until plants are available in the spring (which is perfectly okay too!).  By mid-March, tomatoes planted now will be ready to plant!

Go buys some seeds, fine soil and get your plants off to an early start!

Blackberry Pruning

January marks the time to get out and trim your blackberries.  You will need a good pair of gloves (blackberries are unforgiving!), a clean, sharp pair of pruners and a small hand shovel.

I hear people say, "berries grow on the second-year growth."  That may be true, but I tend to garden more simply.  I let my berries sit through the fall season and then look at how they appear in the winter to determine which vines I will keep and which I will prune off.

At this time of year, at the base of every blackberry bush, you will have an obviously dead vine (last year's major producer) and a new, greenish-purplish color vine coming out from the base.  For older blackberry vines, you will have multiple of each.

(The picture to the right shows four vines coming out of the base of the blackberry plant.  The two in the center are both dead; last year's producers.  The two vines on the outside are new for this year.)

Clip the dead vines at the base, then remove the entire branch.  I never compost my blackberry vines since I do not want thorns in my compost and sprinkled around my yard.

Gently bend the green vine around your trellis.

If your vines have grown long enough to touch the ground, they may have rooted.  Gently pull the root loose and clip the vine so you have two vines (one attached at the base, and a new vine with roots).  If you need a new plant for your garden, dig a hole and plant your new vine.  If you have too many already, call up a friend and share your blackberries!

Blackberries, like most other plants, do not grow much in the winter.  Keeping the berries off the ground will keep them from disease as well as give you a head-start in keeping the crazy-growing plants under control when the growing season begins. 

Good luck!

Don't Waste Your Christmas Tree!

Among other activities this week, the slow and depressing job of taking down Christmas decorations has been going on in my house.  Part of that job involves throwing out our tree.

Certain plants in my yard thrive on acidic soil (blueberries, azaleas, hydrangeas, etc...).  Once my Christmas tree is out of my house, I cut branches into little pieces and then distribute my new clean-cut clippings around the base of my acid-loving plants.  The pine needles will decompose into a slow-release form of fertilizer. 

You do not need a fancy chipper-shredder to do this job.  I used only my small pruning clippers to chop up the smaller, thinner branches of my tree.  If you have a small yard like mine, you'll only need a bucket or two of clippings to feed your acid plants. 

Mix some pine needles into the dirt as well as leave a layer on the top of the soil to provide your plant with extra mulch during our cold season.

It is a cheap and practical way to use up your Christmas resource and feed your garden!

Try it!