From the Gardens Registrar: What To Do With Those Seeds You Got at
the Seed Fair; Cool Weather Plant Sale April 22; Rain Garden Volunteer Needed;
Registrar Messages Are Now Posted on the Website
Hello Gardeners,
SEEDS – Thanks to our many hard-working volunteers,
our Seed Fair this year was very successful. Several hundred gardeners attended
and picked out seeds for their gardens. So, if you’re a new gardener, you may
be wondering, “Now, what do I do?”
Well, to begin with, sort your seeds into three piles. The first
pile is “seeds to start right away, in the house.” This includes tomatoes,
peppers, and eggplants. To plant these seeds, you will have best results if you
buy some seed-starting soil mixture – this will be lighter than normal soil,
and your seedlings will grow better in it. (You can buy this at hardware stores
and garden centers.) If you don’t have regular plant pots, you can use plastic
boxes, like the ones that mushrooms and berries come in at the grocery store.
Put some holes in the bottom for drainage. Get the soil thoroughly wet, then
put a few seeds on top, and sprinkle a little more soil over the seeds. Place
the pot in a warm, sunny window sill, and keep it moist (but not soggy.) Once
the seedlings come up, be sure to give them as much light as you can.
Starting seeds in the house can be tricky, so good luck to you.
Here’s a link to a website from the University of Minnesota, with lots of
detailed instruction: https://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/flowers/starting-seeds-indoors/#soil-less
The second category is seeds that get planted directly in the soil
in your plot, whenever your soil is workable. This includes peas, lettuce,
radishes, kale, Swiss chard, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, and root crops such as
beets and carrots.
The third category is seeds to sow outside later, once the ground
has warmed up, and there’s no longer a chance of frost. This includes beans,
cucumbers, melons, and summer and winter squash.
If you didn’t get a chance to pick up Robin Mittenthal’s planting
guide at the Seed Fair, here’s a link with much more detail than I’m providing:
COOL WEATHER PLANT SALE APRIL 22 – On Sunday, April 22, Gardens to Be
will be selling plants at Eagle Heights, near the shed. When Scott, the farmer,
gets me a list of plants to be offered, I’ll post it on our website, and I’ll also
add it to my next Wednesday message. He will certainly have cabbage, greens,
and lettuce, among other things. His prices are very reasonable, and he always
offers us a good variety of plants.
RAIN GARDEN – One of our garden plots in the lower garden
at Eagle Heights (Plot 115) was under water much of last spring, and we have
decided it would be best to turn it into a rain garden, with plants appropriate
for moist conditions. It’s just been too difficult for gardeners to grow
vegetables in. Is there anybody in our garden community who is knowledgeable
about rain gardens? If so, and if you’re interested in helping us plan and
plant this garden, please let me know.
WEDNESDAY MESSAGES ARE NOW POSTED ON THE WEB SITE: If you
are looking for information from one of my Wednesday messages, and don’t
remember when I sent it, you can now find all my messages on our website: go to
our home page, and click on the Blogger symbol.
Happy Gardening,
Kathryn
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