From the Gardens Registrar: Upcoming Plant Sales at EH; What Not to Plant; More Seeds; Water

 Hello Gardeners,

 UPCOMING PLANT SALES – On Sunday, April 25, Scott Williams, from Garden to Be, will be selling cool-weather plants at Eagle Heights. We haven’t set a time yet, but it will probably be from 10am – 1pm. Scott has sold plants to us for many years – he likes us because we give him a lot of business. We like him because he sells plants we want to buy, his quality is excellent, and he gives us good prices. Last year, due to the pandemic, we had a special arrangement, where gardeners had to order directly from him in advance. But this year, we think the sale can take place in a fairly normal way – with social distancing. For the cool weather sale, Scott will bring plants like broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, kale, bok choi, and herbs. I will have more details in my next message. And Scott will be back on Sunday, May 23, to sell warm weather plants, such as tomato, pepper, and eggplant.

 WHAT NOT TO PLANT IN OUR GARDENS – New gardeners often ask about what plants are not allowed. We do not allow gardeners to plant trees in their plots. Other than that, the big three plants we do not want planted are mint, comfrey, and annual artemisia. The reason is that all of these plants are very aggressive, spread quickly, and are very hard to get rid of.

As for mint, there’s no need for any of us to plant it – the gardens are full of it. And it’s very tasty mint, too. But if you have it in your plot, and like having it, you’ll still want to pull a lot of it out, to keep it from spreading to your neighbors and taking over your entire plot. Mint is part of a large family of plants, which includes basil, lavender, rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, and many others. (Wouldn’t it be wonderful if basil grew as easily as mint?) There are also lots of varieties of mint. If you want to have other kinds of mint than what grows wild in our gardens, plant them in pots in your garden. That way, they won’t escape and make trouble.

Comfrey is a beautiful plant with furry leaves and pretty blue flowers. It also grows wild in the gardens, and is very difficult to get rid of, because it has long tap roots. But there is at least one advantage to having so much of it around - the leaves are excellent fertilizer.  You can put them under your vegetable plants, where they will decompose very quickly and add nitrogen and other nutrients to your soil.

 Annual artemisia is often grown as an ornamental  for its foliage – there are lots of varieties. But there is one kind that is really out of control in our gardens – it has a number of names including Sweet Annie and Qing-hao. It’s a native of China, but has naturalized in this country. It spreads like crazy, the roots are hard to get out, and though it smells nice at first, the odor quickly becomes cloying. Though it has medicinal uses and can also be used to make wreaths and flower arrangements, those gardeners who get stuck with it hate it, and battle it constantly.

MORE SEEDS – We’re continuing to put out seeds on the share shelves several times a week. I’m putting the rest of the tomato and pepper seeds back in storage for next year, unless anybody lets me know they want them. Peas and turnips have joined the lettuce, carrots, radishes, kale, beets, and spinach.

WATER – Last year, the water was turned on for the season around April 20, which was a little earlier than usual. We don’t have a date for this year yet. It’s all weather-dependent. It’s very warm (and dry) right now, but we will still have cold nights in the next few weeks that could freeze the pipes. I will let everybody know when a date is set.

 Happy Gardening,

Kathryn