NNY Gardening

From Cold to Wet in one easy lesson

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Well, Memorial Day has come and went, and the gardening weather apparently has followed it. There was a hard frost on the 28^th of May and thankfully, my bedding plants were safe in the garage. It dried out for a day or two and I managed to till and plant both gardens. Then the rains came. I have always wanted to own some waterfront property, but this is not exactly what I had in mind. My gardens both have miniature lakes in them, although the bedding plants seem to be OK. I do not know how the various seeds we planted will hold up, but if it dries out again for a few days, they may be ok. The flowers seem to love the cold, damp weather and I am going to try and put a few pictures in this blog. The strawberries in the raised beds have set fruit nicely and should have a bumper crop. Also the summer bearing raspberries are ready to blossom, although a day or two of warm weather would speed things up.

I went out between showers and sprinkled micronized sulfur on the roses, hollyhocks, rhubarb, and delphiniums. I am not sure the delphiniums need it, but I had some left over so they got it. There is a huge variety of fungus type stuff you can buy for a huge variety of prices. Back when I was writing a garden column I mentioned some expensive stuff I had bought to treat some plants. An elderly reader wrote to me and suggested the sulfur, which is not expensive and seems to work as well as any commercial product. It makes me feel like smacking myself in the head for not realizing the obvious. Often enough, the old-fashioned cures are as effective as anything new. The sulfur prevents the rust-type plant diseases but nothing will cure them once they get started. Prevention is the best cure. The sulfur should be applied just before it rains, oddly enough, so that it gets into the soil beneath the plants. It works for me.

On the political front, the town and village of Potsdam are talking about consolidating some services. Since until a week or so ago, the two groups were barely speaking to each other, I follow this development with great interest and no optimism at all. I guess as long as they are raising hell with each other, they will not have time to prevent any new business from moving into town. Enough for today.

Still Waiting for Weather Changes

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:37:00 +0000

We were driving back from Hogansburg where we had dropped off a donation to the Indian Nation. I noticed that a couple of folks along the road back to Helena had set out bedding plants in their gardens. I would give them an “A” for enthusiasm, but not as good a mark for their gardening skills. It has been my experience that until the ground warms up, bedding plants, if not outright killed by frost, will set and sulk until the soil warms. Some plants like cool weather (cabbages, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts) and carrots, beets and spinach seeds will germinate (slowly) in cold soil. Beans, on the other hand, will simply rot, and you can plant them again, later on. My tomatoes and peppers, among other stuff, are still in the garage, waiting for their turn.

According to various sources, our last frost date was May 20^th, which was also the date of the full moon, and I haven’t seen any sign of a warm up yet. I haven’t even finished tilling my main gardens yet, and I am happy I waited. It seems to be raining every day, and the temperature hovers around 50 in the daytime. According the TV weather forecasts, it does look like it will warm up this weekend so maybe a break is in sight. One year, a combination and cold and wet weather delayed my planting until the first of July, but that garden did nicely once things cleared up.

Our daffs have come and gone, and the tulips will follow them shortly. On the other hand, the Shirley Poppies have flower buds, as do the lupines, which seem to relish the damp, cool weather. The strawberries are in full bloom, although whether they can set fruit or not is anybody’s guess. The variety I planted are Ozark Beauties, which are supposed to be ever-blooming so I don’t get too worried. The summer bearing raspberries are also forming flower buds and they look ok. Our lilacs were gorgeous this year, just like everybody else’s.

This is short, but their isn’t much to brag about when it is too nasty to work outside.

Waiting for warmup

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:47:00 +0000

I am waiting for the world to warm up a little (my part, at least). Had a couple of comments about the black flies. Seems like all my readers have them and they all want to share. No thank you, have enough of my own. Someone tells me that a few nights of 60 degree temperatures are supposed to end them, but Google says live with it thru June. I don't know. I do know that the black flies will be followed by the mosquitos and then the deer flies (they are the best biters of the bunch). Someone asked if we had black flies when I was a kid. Well, it is ancient history and yes, we had them. Of course we did not have any repellent of any kind but my parents were convinced that hard work would keep them away, and they (the parents) provided plenty of hard work.

I have set a few plants in our flower bed out front, probably early, but they survived a light frost this morning, so may be ok. I certainly won't set out any tomatoes until it gets considerably warmer. We also planted beets, carrots, lettuce and onions in the raised beds. I don't worry about the cool weather bothering them too much. I have started tilling my main gardens, but I hate to get too serious about it this early. The price of gas is making me cautious. I explained to Shirley that it costs about $8 to mow our lawns, but I don't think I have managed to curb her enthusiasm for this project. My new apple trees are budded out nicely and I am optimistic that I may actually succeed with them. The strawberries are in bloom and the raspberries are looking good.

Our lilacs are blooming nicely, and the white lilac, which is just a little behind the purple ones is trying to show off. My plum tree finally blossomed (after 8 years), but the blossoms were sparse and I don't know if it will set any fruit or not. I got the trees from Herb Todd, so of course neither Herb or I know what variety they were. Research tells me that some plums need another blossoming tree nearby and other are self-pollinating. Time will tell, if I last long enough.

We had a shooting on the Porter-Lynch road last night or early this morning, lots of police activity. The shootee is reportedly now in Burlington in critical condition. Speaking of shooting, I had a shooting in my back yard yesterday. I was working out front and heard my chicken flock (all three of them) raising hell. When I looked out at their pen, a fox was doing his best to get in to them. I went and got my trusty 12 gauge and the stupid fox was still hanging around when I got back outside. I can assure you that he will not bother my chickens (or anyone else's) ever again.

I will sign off for now. I am considering writing about local politics, a subject near and dear to my heart, and if you have any opinions about this let me know.

Triumphs and Failures

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:38:00 +0000

Like most gardeners, I have a tendency to loudly tout the successes I have and gloss over the failures. In an attempt to compensate for this tendency, I will have to admit some of the stupider things I have done, which are probably more common than some folks think.

In an extremely experimental mode, I started some flower seeds in January to see if I could get them up to blossom state before time to transplant. That was a tad early, a big, big tad early. My marigolds are in blossom, and with the weather as unsettled as it is, I don’t dare set them out. Hopefully, I will be able to keep them alive and healthy for another week or two. Next year I will try again, but about a month later.

I started “Big Beef” tomato seeds on the boiler, and had a horrible germination rate, only got four plants from an entire packet of seeds. I also had total failure with the “New Ace” peppers and also some hot peppers I was interested in. I thought I had screwed something up, but didn’t know what. Luckily, I had a few packets of other varieties of tomatoes hanging around (Rutgers and Big Boys) and they started well and I will be planting them this year. I will probably pick up a six pack of peppers at a local store (and possibly a six-pack or two of something else).

My gardens are still way too wet to till, and I will stay off them until the world dries up a little. The raised beds should be OK for some hardier stuff like carrots, beets, and onions, and I will start some of them as soon as possible. I also started three dwarf apple trees, which I bought from the nursery on the Brookdale road in Norfolk. I think the owner’s name is Shyne, and he is pleasant, knowledgeable, and reasonable, an easy person to deal with. I had to put cages around those trees because they are outside my electric fence, and the dear would think I planted some treats for them. Incidentally, if you are thinking of planting any fruit trees, you had better hurry. Most reputable dealers do not like to sell them later than mid-May.

I had a complaint from one of my readers, who complained to my wife because I have not posted for quite a while. My only excuse is that I was blogged down with other stuff. Heh, Heh.

P.S. Any black flies where you live? Want some?

Maple Syrup Season

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:32:00 +0000

Well, the Ides of March has come and gone. According to Google, the Ides of March is the 15^th, and has become a sign of impending doom. I have to agree with it, if you live in the North Country. We all get our hopes up this time of year and then Mother Nature gives us a kick in the ass. Of course, our political shenanigans in Albany and elsewhere lend even more credence to the myth – oh well, Move on and hope for better things.

Maple syrup season is getting started up here, and hopefully the cool nights and warm days will make for a successful season. I used to work for Burr Kingsley when I was a kid and enjoyed the season. Burr’s power supply in the woods, where we gathered sap by hand, with buckets, was a pair of horses which had been lying around the barn all winter. Needless to say, they were quite spirited when they first started working in the spring, and I remember many a scary ride through the woods with a runaway team and a full load of sap in the gathering tank. The road was rough, to say the least, and the sap splashing all over, and the trees whizzing past made for a long memory. I actually moved into the Kingsley household during the syrup season, and shared a room with Allen Kingsley, Burr’s son, and a great friend of mine. Burr was a pretty easy guy to work for, quiet and calm, and undemanding. Somehow he made you want to do a good job for him, with little fanfare. I took some of my pay in syrup and some in cash – not much, but it was over 50 years ago. We usually gathered sap in the afternoons, when the sap was really running good, and Burr ran the evaporator half the night to make room for the next day’s batch. He always burnt wood in his boiler, and spent a lot of time the rest of the year accumulating a large wood pile for the project.

My plants down cellar are doing nicely, and I may have overwhelmed myself again. I had to get grandson Peter over to help me make some more shelving and move some lights around, and I can see that I will run out of space again in the near future. I have transplanted lots of Marigolds, some Batchelor Buttons, and am about to start on the Zinnias. There is also a batch of Snapdragons, which are very slow growing, but look healthy, and there is nothing to do but wait. I can only hope that the weather gets warm enough to move some of my seedlings into the garage. I have a wooden table with wheels that I put them on and move it into the sunshine when the weather is nice, and back inside because of the night frost. This works well, and my solve my space problem.

Frost Zones and Seed Packets

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:59:00 +0000

A completely anonymous and unknown blogger (OK Pat?) wrote with a couple of questions. The first was about the growing zones you see in gardening articles, seed packets and catalogs. Most of St. Lawrence County is in zone 4, with the areas nearer to the Adirondacks in zone 3. The zones move from north to south, with the lowest (2) being lost somewhere in Canada, and the highest (8) in Southern Florida (Or Cuba) – if Cuba recognizes our zones. Anyway, the zones represent the latest frost date in the spring and the earliest frost date in the fall. Contrary to popular belief, these estimates are basically a WAG (Wild-assed guess), but they are a starting point. Zone 4 is supposed to have its last frost on May 20^th, and the first fall frost on September 10^th. These dates vary widely but give gardeners a crap shoot target. I personally very seldom set tender plants out in my gardens before June 1^st, sometimes because of the weather and sometimes because my gardens are so wet I can’t get them ready any sooner. To further complicate matters, there are no road signs or lines painted to show where zone 3 becomes zone 4, etc. I usually look up the dates of the full moon in May (old myth) and if there is a full moon toward the end of the month, I wait until it passes. I find that some seed will do nicely by being planted early, especially in my raised beds. Lettuce, beets, and carrots are usually in whenever it is nice enough to work the beds up, onion sets are bothered little by cold, many large bulbs that are considered tender can be planted before the first frost date because they are in the ground a few inches and a light frost will not touch them. One of the things that will not tolerate early planting is beans, which will sit and rot if the soil is not warm enough. I wait until I think the soil temp is up to at least 50 degrees before I plant beans. If you want to measure the soil temp, stick an ordinary cheap thermometer in the soil a couple of inches and make a note of the temperature in the morning and in the late afternoon. The average is the number to go by. I find that sticking my fingers in the soil is just as accurate – if it’s warm, it’s OK. Setting out tender plants (tomatoes, peppers) is much more dependent on the weather. These plants will not tolerate frost at all. You can cover them with those “wall of water” things, but you find that you are spending about $5 a tomato when you start buying those things.

A second question concerns the accuracy of the information on seed packets. I believe that for the most part, you can depend on what is written on the packet. The seed industry is pretty carefully regulated by your government (We are the government and we are here to help you). One of the things you can not believe at all are the labels on trees, shrubs, and hardy plants you find in big box stores. Most of this stuff is imported from southern greenhouses and farms and comes up here too big, and too far along to do well. If the local trees are not leafed out, and you buy a tree with a full set of leaves, you should understand that you are headed for trouble. The best way to buy stuff, especially fruit trees, is to go to a local nursery which grows their own stuff. The owner will usually give you the short course in tree culture and keep you on track. The big box guarantees are useless, also. If a tree is guaranteed for a year, you take it home and plant it, it thrives through the year, goes into dormancy in the fall, and quietly dies during the winter. By the time you realize your tree is croaked (You can tell this if you have a brittle stick in your yard with no leaves) your guarantee has expired.

My plants in the cellar are doing nicely, and I am already running out of space. I suspect I will have to rig up another shop light and bench to keep up with the traffic.

Leap Day 2008 - Birds, Sunflowers, etc

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:35:00 +0000

My sister Pat suggested this posting, and since it has warmed up to a balmy 9 degrees, I figured, what the hell.

When we first moved to our home on the Cook Road, the garden was located where it is now, but it had been neglected for several years. I took most of the spring to cut brush and a few 6-8 inch trees to open it up. There was also an old collapsed sheep wire fence that had to be dug out in places, along with rusted sap buckets, which I assumed that the previous owner had used for plant covers, and just left them when he got sick of gardening. After much effort and brush burning, I finally managed to till up the 50X50 plot where my present garden is.

There were a million things I had to do around the house and garage, and knew I wouldn’t have time to do the type of gardening I wanted to, so I finally sowed the whole thing to sunflowers. I figured it would be easy to till between the rows, which I laid out at 3 feet apart, and I would be able to keep the garden in shape, and move the rocks which had shown up when I tilled. This worked out very nicely, and I had a splendid crop of sunflowers going in no time at all. The sunflowers finally blossomed, and I found out later that my garden had become a land mark. Various folks told me that when they were given directions to somewhere in our area, one of the instructions was “go down past the sunflowers and turn left (right, whatever).”

Later that summer, we had a family gathering for some reason or other, and my sisters were always coming over to get together. My sister Penny from Syracuse was staying with us, and sister Pat was a regular visitor (and beer drinker). One morning I got up and looked out to check my sunflower crop and couldn’t believe my eyes. The girls had went out either in the evening or early in the morning and painted faces on all the sunflower heads with black spray paint. They had done a thorough job, and the sunflowers sported smiles, frowns, and every nuance in between. What made it even more ridiculous was that the flowers would face the house early in the morning, and then slowly turn during the day to follow the sun. At noon or so, they would all be facing the road. I was sure that my neighbors were convinced that I had finally lost my mind completely, and I spent a lot of time naming the guilty parties on the numerous occasions when my unusual sunflower patch was mentioned.

These days, I still plant a patch of sunflowers, which always remind me of the above nutty sunflower story. When I plant them, I till up a spot and broadcast a handful or two of the seeds we have been feeding the birds over the winter. I run over the new seeding with the rototiller (shallow), and thin as necessary when the plants come up, a quick and easy way to plant with little risk of failure. I don’t have any pictures of this episode, we did not own a digital camera when it happened. There are probably a few of the old-fashioned pictures around, but I have not figured out how to successfully scan them into my picture folder.

To compensate for my lack of plant pictures, I am attaching a picture of a very unusual bird which comes to our porch feeder. I have not been able to identify it from my field guide, but maybe one of my readers can help out.

Transplanting 2-22-08

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:58:00 +0000

Well, I have been a little slow on blogging for the past few days, I threw my back out again and find that getting in and out of the computer chair was painful and would have to be delayed. I am about cured (again) so here we go.

Some of the plants I started on various days were ready to be transplanted to individual cells, and I moved 18 of the marigolds. Unfortunately, I have a couple of bags of really crappy potting soil, full of small stones, twigs, etc, and I really do not like the stuff. It is labeled “Hyponex” and I will be very careful not to buy any more. I try to get “Shultz”, which is the best I have found in the past, do not know why I didn’t get it the last time I bought some, but – live and learn.

Anyway, I am enclosing pictures of the plants ready to be moved, some that are not ready to be moved, and one of the nine-packs with the transplants in it. I will keep the transplants in a dark spot in my cellar for 24 hours and then move them under the lights. Please note the labels in the transplant pack – I cannot emphasize enough how important to accurately label EVERYTHING! If you don’t you will have a lot of grief when you put stuff in the garden, flower beds, whatever and don’t know how tall it is going to get. Labels take care of that problem. It is snowing again, so I do not think I will be moving anything outdoors (today, at least).

“Wiseacre” tells me that when I start including pictures that hopefully I will as good at photography as my sister Pat. Sorry about that – ain’t going to happen. I do what I can. I doubt Pat wants to come over every few days and take plant pictures for me.

February Freeze - No Planting!

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:37:00 +0000

Well, there is not a hell of a lot of planting going on around here. The explanation is obvious on my thermometer, which registered -11 this morning. That is fairly brisk. I am going to try to insert a picture again, got the directions from my sister Pat and also a helpful note from “Wiseacre”.

The marigolds I started are doing nicely, but have not developed any true leaves yet. If you are new to this business, the first set of leaves a plant develops are the “Seed Leaves” and then the True leaves (which are miniature versions of the mature plant leaves” come along. Some sources say to transplant when the little plants have two sets of true leaves. Personally, I have never been able to wait that long and if the plants are up to a good handling size I transplant them. I move the little plants into 6-packs and use potting soil instead of the seed starter mix. I soak the hell out of the nearly full six packs and use a narrow spoon for the process. I simply punch a hole for each plant with the handle of the spoon, move the little plant in, and firm it up with the bowl of the spoon. After I get the six pack full, I use the spoon to top off each cell. I leave the plant in a dark spot for about 24 hours, and put them back under the light the next day. It is critical to handle the little plants by the leaves only. If you grab them by the stem, you will cruse it and the plants will die. I usually spoon out a clump of plants, separate them with my fingers and the spoon handle and transplant them one at a time. It will not hurt them to be handled pretty casually as long as you don’t let them dry out. I usually give them a dilute shot of miracle grow solution when I am through transplanting.

The picture I am trying to include is of Shirley standing under an awning that mother nature provided us, free of charge, a couple of weeks ago.

Help me Out

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:13:00 +0000

In my blog posted Feb 6, I said I would include a picture. If you see the blog the picture is noticeable absent. Would one of you more experienced bloggers explain to me how to do that? I have my pictures stored on my computer in the "My Pictures" folder. Thanks.

The Seed Starter Bug Strikes Again

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Well, the old seed starter bug jumped up and bit me again. I don’t know why I can’t resist it, but I can’t. Anyway, I started another batch of Marigolds on the boiler on Feb 6 (today), and will move them when they get up. I am down to my last 3 or 4 packets so I will have to slow down a little on my experiment. I consider the possibility that I will have a cellar full of flowers and the ground will still be covered with snow.

In my last post, I mentioned moving my plants under a light, and a nice note from “Wiseacre” reminded me that shedding a little light on the light situation (heh, heh) might be in order. I use (as does Wiseacre) ordinary fluorescent shop lites over my plants once the seeds germinate. I tied strings on the chains provided with the lights and suspend them from nails driven into the floor joists in my cellar. The strings allow for infinite height adjustment, and this is critical to the process. I try to keep the lights about 4 or 5 inches above the plants and this seems to produce the short, stocky plants I want. If you get the lights too high, your plants will get “leggy”, all stem, no leaves, and be very weak when you want to transplant them. You do not need to buy any fancy “grow lights” or anything else the garden suppliers try to sell you. For about $15 you can get a 4 foot shop light, complete with bulbs, and from there you only need a place to plug it in. I keep my started plants down cellar where it is cool, and later on in the spring when I start running out of room in the cellar, I will move the bedding plants into a table in the garage where I can close the door if it looks like a frost is coming. They will do nicely there until planting time.

My main tomato is “Big Beef”, which is getting a little hard to find, but is available. This is a nice large tomato, doesn’t crack at the top and I have had no disease problems with it. It is also the best tasting main season tomato I have grown. When I was going through my seed packets I discovered that I had 8 packets of tomato seeds of various varieties. The answer to this mystery is my wife, who cannot walk past the seed rack in Wal-Mart without picking something up. If I planted all the tomato seeds she brings home, I would not have to worry about anything else in my garden.

I will try to show a picture of our “Awning” provided by mother nature when the ice formed, and then melted (then froze again) on the edge of our roof. Nothing to do with gardening, but kind of neat (it doesn’t take much to amuse me).

End of January

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:40:00 +0000

I really hate the month of January, it lasts too long and many of my tax and insurance bill come due this month. The end is at last in sight. A quick check of the calendar reveals that this is a leap year, so they will sneak an extra day of February in on us. Oh well, 29 days is better than 31.

The marigold seeds I started on the boiler on January 25 were up on January 28 so I took them off the boiler, uncovered the pot, and put them under a shop lite to keep growing. I will try to take a picture of them when they are ready to transplant into six-packs if I can figure out how to get it into this blog. One of the things I find is absolutely essential in this business is record keeping. I use little 3X5 notebooks, and start a new one every year. When I start seeds, I make a note of variety, date started, date germinated, and in the case of flowers, plant height when they mature. This record will be continued when I transplant, because when you start several varieties of plants it is easy to lose track. I will mark each six pack with a marker I make out of tongue depressors. A whole box of them is pretty cheap, and I cut them in two to keep them short. I mark the variety or batch number on the stake to keep track. The rest of the details are in my little notebook to be referenced as necessary. When I moved the little plants under the light, I gave them a little shot of a dilute sulfur-water mixture to prevent "damping off", a fungus type disease which makes small plants develop weakened stems and break off. As with all fungi-type diseases, prevention is the only treatment - if you wait until you see it happening it is too late, it can't be treated.

I am getting ready to order some new gladiolas to start this year. After shopping thru several seed catalogs, the best deal seems to be from Farmer Seed and Nursery (Farmerseed.com) - 40 corms for $2.99. My old glads were getting infested with thrips, a tiny bug which seems to live over on the corms I dig up, and start again when I plant them in the Spring. They can be controlled with sevin, but vigilance is the answer.

Seed Starting Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:52:00 +0000

I have been trying for quite a long time to get my flowers (mostly Marigolds) to be either blooming or well-budded when it is time to put them in my wife's flower beds. I have usually missed by at least a month, and have to wait for very small plants to grow up and blossom. This year I am trying something new. I started some Marigolds on my boiler on January 25th, and will start another batch on Feb 25 (or thereabouts), and March 25th for the final batch. In checking my records from last year, I find that I started these seeds all on April 19th - too late I think. Anyway, I will also start my tomatoes, peppers, and cole crops earlier this year - maybe around the Middle of March. I will let you know how my experiment works out.

On seed starting - here's how I have done it successfully for just about forever. I take a 3 inch plastic pot, and fill it to about 1/2 inch of the top with seed starting mix (available at any garden store, Wal-Mart, etc). I get it good and wet by adding water until it is soaked. (Its a good idea to have a flat pan under your pot). Then I sprinkle a whole packet of seeds on top and cover them with about a 1/4 inch of the mix. The pot (In a pan), goes on my hot water boiler, and I cover the seed pot with saran wrap or something like that to keep the moisture in. If you don't have a boiler, any warm spot will do, just slower. A word of caution, don't put a whole packet of seeds like broccoli or cauliflower in the pot, unless you plan on setting out about 200 plants. About 30 or 40 seeds is usually plenty. The little plants come up in about 3 days for me, and have to be moved under grow lights. In my case, the grow light is a shop lite, which I suspend about 3-4 inches above the pot (and off the boiler). The next step in the process is the first transplanting, which I will cover in a later posting. This gardening stuff is not very complicated, I don't understand why is continues to fascinate me after all these years. I guess it is because you can learn many new things as you go along (along with lots of new plant varieties). I couldn't possibly afford all the plants I want if I didn't start my own seeds.

Seeds, Trees, and Poison

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:00:00 +0000

I remember my first gardening job (at age 7 or 8), courtesy of my father. Both he and Mom were firm believers in the adage that “an idle child will become an evil child” and although some of us probably turned out evil, it sure wasn’t due to being idle. Anyway, my job was picking potato bugs into a can with an inch or so of kerosene in the bottom. These bugs were the survivors of an application of Arsenic of Lead (if I recall right), a white powder which I now realize contained two of the most toxic chemicals known to man. Can you imagine what would happen if you gave a child a container of this stuff in this day and age and told him or her to sprinkle it on the potato plants? Your garden would be full of suits, health officials, and possibly the National Guard protecting your health and hoping to incarcerate whoever gave you the job. In any event, I haven’t died yet so I was either lucky or the wind was blowing the right way. I have solved the potato bug problem by simply not growing potatoes any more.

My seed order is about ready to go, and I have really got to get it sent out. What is slowing me down is my reluctance to pull out the old credit card and pay the bill. I know I can only resist for a short while longer, but will hold off as long as possible. Later on, I will have to buy some Gladiolas and Dahlias because I simply got sick of the ones I had and want to get some new colors. I will probably buy them locally (Agway or Wal-Mart). They are usually as cheap that way, and no shipping costs. I am also going to plant a couple of dwarf apple trees this spring as soon as the weather breaks and I will get them from a local nursery. I would never buy a fruit tree from some non-local grower simply because you cannot believe the hardiness rating listed on the big-box displays. They will say the tree is guaranteed for a year – but it takes a year for you to know the tree has died, so much for the guarantee.

In one of my moments of brilliance a few years ago, I bought two “Mongolian Apricot” trees which were guaranteed to survive in the North Pole and anywhere south of there. The trees flourished, and after a couple of years, produced blossoms – in April! Naturally I never got an apricot. Both trees are out on my wood pile drying out for firewood.

More about seeds

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:10:00 +0000

Continuing the saga of seed ordering, I now have my list just about completed. One of the advantages of ordering your own seeds is that you can get the varieties you want, and are not left at the mercy of store racks and the varieties they stock. For example, I have found over the years that “Cal Wonder” peppers are a usual store favorite, I suspect because the seeds are plentiful and cheap. I have not had good luck with those peppers, and I order, start and plant a variety named “New Ace” which seem to do better in our climate. You are also unlikely to find “Big Beef” tomatoes in either seed or plant form at a store. This is my favorite main season tomato so I have to order seeds. I usually start a few cherry tomatoes and set out a couple of plants in my raised beds. These are for snacking during the summer. Most of my seeds will come from FEDCO, but they have discontinued stocking Big Beef, so I have had to order them from another catalog. I used “R. H. Shumway’s” catalog both because they are cheaper, but also charge less for shipping and handling. I also got my cucumbers (Marketmore 76) from Shumway. They do not have an on-line ordering service, although you can order by fax. Since I don’t have a fax, I will have to do it the old fashioned way. Shumway has a web site if you are interested www.rhshumway.com. In a later posting, I will get into seed starting, although it seems a little premature while there is still snow on the ground.

Seed Catalogs & Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:55:00 +0000

I have to thank North Country Now’s website for listing this blog. Frankly, I have no clue how this Blog business works, so I am slogging thru a day at a time. I did not know what the rules were about blog content, so I read a couple of others, and find that basically, there are no rules – duh.

Back to seed catalogs. My favorite seed catalog is Fedco, PO Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903-0520. Their Web Site is “www.fedcoseeds.com.” They have the most reasonable prices I have seen, and quite a variety. Of course you can’t get everything you want, but I have 11 other catalogs to fill in the blanks. I like seed companies from areas which have weather similar to ours. I find that the catalogs from southern states, while nice enough, are a little optimistic – weather wise. I received a note from Wiseacre who asked “How old are your seed packets?” I presume the real question is, how long do seeds last? The seed catalogs usually say that seeds last 3 years if kept dry and cool. I have kept a few using prescription bottles or baby food jars. When I do this, I toss in a few grains of rice to absorb any moisture lurking around. To be honest, I rarely throw away any old seed packets, and just as rarely use them unless they are stuff I regularly grow. If you are wondering if any seeds you have on hand are still viable, simply start a few like you do your regular seeds and see if they sprout. Some sources say to put a few in a moist paper towel, but I have never tried this. In a later posting, I will cover seed starting.

National Seed Catalog Day

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:22:00 +0000

I have long advocated that a National Holiday be declared when the new seed catalogs come out. I have received 12 so far this year; all of them jam packed with seed, plant, supply, fertilizer, and equipment offers. What is a little stunning is the price of seeds! The days of the 10 cent seed packet are certainly behind us – waaaay behind us. I use seed catalogs to price compare seeds, and would give you a piece of advice about how to do this, whether you want it or not. When you compare prices, it is necessary to make sure you have the same exact seed name – you can’t compare apples and oranges, heh, heh. It is as important to search until you find out what the size of the packets is. Some companies will offer “Sampler” packets, which is usually the size of the smallest packets sold everywhere. What you have to do is figure out the seed count of the packet so you can get a good comparison. For example, Marketmore 76 is a common slicing cucumber. Vermont Seed Company offers 30 seeds for $1.55, FEDCO offers 65 seeds for $0.90, and Shumway is $1.65 for 50 seeds. This may sound like small potatoes, but if you have a large seed order, it will add up very rapidly. A packet (30 seeds) of “Big Beef” tomato from Burpee costs $3.50. The identical packet (30) from Totally Tomatoes is $2.10. More about seed catalogs later – I don’t want everyone asleep.

Mother Nature's Revenge

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:42:00 +0000

It is now the 2d of January. When I got up it was 6 degrees. Since then it has done its best to get to zero, and is now at 2 degrees. I thought it was supposed to go up. I plowed yesterday, and will have to again today, old Mother dumped another 6-8 inches of snow last night. I am getting a little sick of plowing/shoveling. If you equate plowing with gardening, I have a feeling this doesn't count. When I finally get our front deck cleared off, I will rake the snow off the roof and do it again. At least the sun is shining, but is sure isn't warming anything up yet. It sounds like it will warm up this weekend, but that seems to be a long way away from this point. Will get back to this later after I finish my chores.

Winter Delays

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:23:00 +0000

Here we go again. It is hard to contemplate gardens when you are looking out the window at a foot or so of snow, but the garden is still there, and stuff is still alive and waiting for spring. I can go over some of last years successes and failures, and will cover some stuff I did to get ready for winter. I have a big deer problem in my gardens, which accounts for a two strand electric fence around my gardens and a lot of my back yard. Despite the fence, the deer got in and ate the tops off my June bearing raspberries, which resulted in no berries in 2007. The plants survived, and last fall (2007) I put a snow fence around all of the June bearers. This stuff is fairly cheap, I got the 4 foot high stuff and put it up with whatever poles and stakes I had handy. So far, the berries inside that fence are still in one piece, as is the fence, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. For the Strawberries growing in raised beds, I mulched the hell out of them with leaves (once the frost finally stopped them), and that camouflage seemed to fool the deer (I will know in the Spring when I uncover them). Enough for Today - Happy New Year.

In the beginning

noreply@blogger.com (Warren Dean) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:26:00 +0000

I have considered trying this for some time and am just now getting around to doing it. I previously wrote a gardening column for the Watertown Daily Times for several years and eventually gave that up. My column was mainly about how I handled my garden, and answered questions from fellow gardeners. At the risk of immodesty, my column was well received and I had a lot of reader response. As for my background, I graduated from SUNY Canton many years ago with an Associates Degree in Agronomy with a Horticulture Option. That was after many years of gardening on my own, and followed up by gardening ever since. My College training explained many things to me about why things happened, and my personal experience filled in the blanks, so to speak. I hope I hear from some folks and get back in business.