Spring at Last?

Easter Sunday

In spite of Saturday’s snow and sleet which continued most of the day, after a warm night with temperatures constantly increasing, Easter Sunday dawned warm and sunny and blissful. This is all that was left of the snow. The breeze was gentle and it was a perfect Easter Sunday.

One of the first fences we removed over the past months was the wire fence that formed the ‘fourth wall’ of the Sunken Garden. These dayliles grew along the northern section of fence but they are going to be removed.  A few will be moved to the Daylily Bank in front of the house, some will go to the Bridge of Flowers Plant Sale on May 14, and some will go to whoever will take them. These were bought from White Flower Farm in shades of yellow and gold more than 25 years ago. The names are gone, but it is a wonderful selection. I will have to wait for this swampy site to dry out before I start digging, although I doubt that the daylilies would care very much. The intent is to have a smooth green swath from the main lawn into the Sunken Garden. I do use the word ‘lawn’ loosely. No fine turf at the End of the Road.

After we enjoyed the sunny morning the clouds moved in, but our guests began to arrive and we just concentrated on the sun in their smiles.  We had a wonderful day of visiting with young friends and our son Chris and his lady.  This morning before Chris and Michelle departed for home, Chris helped me move the lid to the cold frame and I moved in the seedlings that have been growing on the guest room windowsill. Here you can see Tango lettuce from High Mowing Seeds, Amadeus broccoli and Tower Mix China Asters from Johnny’s Another tray held  Gigante parlsey, Bling Bling and Green Envy zinnias from Renee’s Garden.

Today it is cloudy again which makes it perfect for a first day in  the cold frame. The prediction is for more showery weather which is not a bad thing. I think I might be able to put these seedlings in the ground early next week. It feels like spring. I hope it is here to stay.

Jere Gettle and Comstock, Ferre Seeds

Jere, Emilee and Sasha Gettle

Fourteen years ago, at the age of 17, Jere Gettle put together his first list of heirloom seeds and mailed it to 550 gardeners. Now he oversees a veritable empire consisting of the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, the Bakersville Pioneer Village complete with seed store, bakery, restaurant, jail, herbal apothecary, music barns with monthly festivals and more in Missouri, and the Petaluma Seed Bank in California, which opened last spring. Most recently he bought the Comstock, Ferre Seed Company in Wethersfield, Connecticut, New England’s oldest seed company that had been in business since at least 1811. An Amish construction crew went in to start working on the Comstock buildings shortly after the sale was completed in November of 2010.

Gettle’s passion is for heirloom seeds, seeds that are not hybrids, not patented and  not genetically modified. In the new Comstock, Ferre catalog, Gettle has written a letter to his customers about his criticism of GMOs. “Our company boycotts all companies that practice the new-fangled technology called genetic modification. We feel that it is an abomination to insert toxic animal genes into seeds or alter them in order that they can be sprayed with unlimited amounts of weed killer. We are also boycotting the ‘American Seed Trade Association (ASTA). They have become a powerful GMO lobbying group that is putting profit first and trying to make patents last even longer, keeping farmers from saving seed!”

Gettle is very aware of the developments in modern agriculture, as he is aware of developments in the modern business world. Even though he is usually photographed in overalls and colorful shirts or a tunic common to the 19^th century farmer, he knows his way around marketing and the new media.

Sasha Gettle at Comstock, Ferre

I spoke to Gettle on the phone earlier this week and asked him about the contradiction between the homespun presentation of his businesses, and the fact that he has a big presence on the Internet with his Rareseeds.com website, Facebook pages for both seed companies and the Seed Bank.  “To keep the old ways alive you have to have funds.  Brick and mortar stores aren’t enough.  You have to adapt and have retail and online. You have to use everything you can.  The seed market has been growing these past few years, but it is still a difficult business. Catalogs and shipping are expensive, and we are selling things for two dollars a packet. We need to sell a lot,” he said.

It should be mentioned that Gettle does actually sell more than seeds. On his website you can buy mugs, t-shirts and calendars, and hand tools.  When you visit Bakersville festivals you will be able to shop and eat.

In September Gettle will be cooperating with the Seed Saver’s Exchange (he’s been a member since 1996) and the D. Landreth Seed Company to host the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, California at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. On the bill will be growers and chefs. “We hope this will be an annual event, although we are talking about possibly alternating locations, one year on the east coast and one year on the west coast.”

Gettle explained that other heirloom seed companies are not his competition. He is happy to work with these other companies. It is the companies that sell patented and GMO seeds that he competes with.

Gettle is always on the lookout for delicious heirloom vegetables. Their seed list now numbers about 1,400 varieties. He looks for American varieties, but he has also traveled to Asia looking for good vegetables and seeds that will grow here. “We haven’t traveled too much in the past couple of years while we were working on these big projects, but I’m hoping to travel again soon. Sometimes we are given connections in other countries, but we just travel and talk to people when we see interesting seed packets in a store, or vegetables at a market. I don’t travel with a translator usually.  Usually we can understand each other one way or another, or sometimes there will be a person around who can speak a little English,” he said.

When we were in China, we found, like Gettle, that if there is a seller and a buyer, commerce will win out and a sale will be made, with very little language needed. It can make for a funny picture, though.

When I asked Gettle what there was about him, what made him so successful, he brushed the question aside. “It’s just been a blessing to do what we love, and the timing is good. The interest in sustainable farming and local eating has grown a lot over the past ten years, and that has helped a lot,” he said.

I am sure that is true, but I think there is always a mysterious something that drives and informs a man like Jere Gettle that enables him to turn principles and passions into a successful business.

The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed catalog is beautiful and glitzy or gardeners can go online to www.rareseeds.com.  Gettle also publishes a quarterly magazine, The Heirloom Gardener, and the fall will see the release of The Heirloom Life, the first of three books he is writing with his wife Emilee. I guess he knows how to use the old media, print, as well as new media.

Websites for other heirloom seed companies include: www.heirloomseeds.com; www.landrethseeds.com; www.seedsavers.org;  www.sustainableseedco.com: www.victoryseeds.com

Between  the Rows  January 8, 2011

Hurry Up and Wait

Snow on April 16

A wet snow was falling on Friday morning. It did not last long on the ground, but the day continued wet and chill and not suitable for gardening.  I was happy that I had spent most of Thursday cleaning out, weeding and putting some semblance of an edge on the Herb Bed in front of the house. Since we added the Entry Walk to the Piazza and Welcome Platform, the Herb Bed has expanded to approximately 33 feet long, and 5 feet deep.

With all that room I added a rose, and three golden Henryi lilies and three White Henry lilies last year. I can’t wait to see them. I also seeded some spinach on April 1 and it has sprouted and has managed to survive the snow and cold rains. I guess that’s why they call it a hardy cool season crop.

I also moved some six packs of lettuce, broccoli – and even cosmos – down to the cold frame early this week.  The seedlings survived strong sun on the two days when I needed to open the ‘lid’, as well as near- freezing temperatures. They are sitting in a plastic tray so that I can add water every day and keep them watered through osmosis action.

Seedlings in the cold frame

Other six packs of parsley, cosmos, and zinnias are doing well on a windowsill upstairs. I planted more seeds as well: Sakata Sweet Treats cherry tomatoes sent as a sample; Seed Savers Exchange Hot Biscuits amaranth given as a sample at the nursery trade show; and purchased seeds including High Mowings Belstar broccoli; and Renee’s Garden cosmos, and Blue Boy Cornflower. I am determined that this year I will have flowers for cutting and arrangements as well as veggies on the plate.

Nothing much is happening so far in the new Front Garden. Lettuce and spinach have been planted, but without composted manure from the local horse farm I haven’t tried to plant the second bed there. I did go down to the Potager and weeded and dug one bed. I planted blue sweet peas, another sample from Seed Savers, as well as swiss chard and onion sets. I had to hurry because I did only have the day – as it turned out.

Daffodils are still coming. Everytime I have to drive down Route 2 I see more and more of the Mystery Daffodils coming into bloom. This is the third spring for these beautiful flowers which appeared mysteriously – and no one knew who had planted them. The secret leaked out a little bit, but I have kept my lips sealed. I love thinking about this Secret Sharer, making all of us smile as we drive back and forth to work or on our necessary errands.

I have daffodils, obviously of late varieties, but I have been admiring the progression of foliage on the trees with special attention and joy this spring. Flower arranging is not my forte, but I thought I would have some luck with foliage arranging. There are wild cherry buds, deep red ornamental plum leaves, birch catkins and I’m not sure what else.   I stuck in a handful of daffs and brought the arrangement to sit on the Coffee Table for social hour at church. It was admired!

Two Beautiful Sights

Forsythia

Yesterday I went to Greenfield to hear a talk by the charming Ed Himlan of the Massachusetts Watershed Coalition talk about rain gardens, but we didn’t have to stand out in the rain to enjoy it and learn. Did you know that the major cause of pollution in our waterways is from rainwater runoff?  More on that later.

During my drive about town I admired the forsythia in bloom everywhere. It hurts me to see bushes pruned severely into tight little hedges, but I love the glory of gracefully arching branches and exuberant tangles. What a beautiful sight!

My own forsythia is not blooming yet (it usually doesn’t) but the flat of seedlings that I planted a week ago is another beautiful sight.  Every morning I check progress and pour water into the tray to be absorbed by osmosis into the cell packs.  You will notice that the parsley has not yet sprouted.  There is a saying that parsley has to travel down to the devil and back three times before it sprouts.  I don’t know why, I only know it can take three weeks for parsley seed to germinate, even on a heat mat.

Grow Something New

Dreaming of this year's delivery

We are only halfway through January so I think we are still in new resolution season.  Now that I am a garden blogger, as well as a garden columnist, I read other garden blogs. One of my favorite bloggers, Carol at  May Dreams Gardens in Indiana has challenged gardeners to grow something new this year. Actually, Carol challenges us all to grow something new every year.

It is fun to try something new, even if we never plant it again. I planted stevia in the herb garden a couple of years ago. Stevia has amazingly sweet leaves, 30 times as sweet as sugar. At the same time it does not raise blood sugar levels and has almost no calories. You can buy stevia powder or liquid and use it as a sweetener, or a medicinal mouthwash to retard plaque, but I never figured out how to use my stevia leaves in any practical way. I never grew it again, even though I did have a lot of fun getting people to chew a leaf and being really surprised.

I’m not sure whether Carol means I should grow something I have never grown, or something I haven’t grown for a long time, or at least not last year. Gardeners let some plants fall by the wayside for a host of reasons, sometimes because not enough people in the family like a particular vegetable that was tried, sometimes because it took up too much room for too little payoff in a small garden, sometimes because that plant has failed more than once before. I know some people don’t give up on a plant until they have killed it three times as a general principal. If I fail three times, I am not ever likely to give it another try.

I’ve decided I can choose a plant I have grown in the past, but not last year.  For instance, last year I didn’t plant cucumbers. I like cucumbers so I don’t know why I don’t plant them more often. They are perfect as a new choice, especially since another resolution I have made is to grow UP. Daniel Botkin at Laughing Dog Farm has inspired me with all the trellises in his garden.

Having chosen cucumbers the question is which one. Renee’s Garden offers some relatively familiar varieties like Endeavor pickling cucumbers. Renee also has another small cuke, a baby Persian variety named Green Fingers, as well a small bush cucumber named Bush Slicer that has regular cukes six to eight inches long.

Johnny’s Selected Seeds has Diamant cukes that can be used for slicing or pickling, the standard Marketmore, Tasty Jade  a burpless long Japanese cuke that likes to be trellised and Striped Armenian cukes.  Armenian cukes seem to be one of the fashionable cukes these days. Johnny’s has 22 cucumber varieties.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds offer 34 varieties of old cucumber varieties, many from other countries. Beit Alpha is a small burpless variety from the Mediterranean, De Bourbonne, a tiny pickling cuke, is from France, Telegraph Improved is an English heirloom that produces 18 inch long fruits, and Uzbekski from Uzbekistan has fat fruits that are good keepers. Who could have imagined a cucumber being billed as a good keeper?  I guess I still have time to choose my cucumber.

Castor bean

When I was wandering the aisles of the Greenfield Farmer’s Cooperative on High Street before Christmas, I admired the Botanical Interests seed display. The packages are so pretty, and there was a packet of castor bean seeds, Ricinus communis.  I had never seen castor bean plants before last year and I found them stunning.  Lilian Jackman of Wilder Hill had a couple of imposing plants that took my breath away.

During a garden tour I also saw a handsome pot filled with a castor bean plant, hung about with signs saying, “Poison. Do Not Touch.” The poisonous beans are definitely not for eating, but the “do not touch” part of the sign had to do with the owners not wanting the plant to be damaged. Castor beans are not poisonous to the touch. This amazing plant grows to a majestic size in one season. The large palmate leaves are dark green with a reddish tinge; the fuzzy bean pods are red. This needs to be started indoors to get its full growth.

Knockout double red on 10-1-09

Of course, I grow  roses, and add a couple every year. This year I learned about the EarthKind designation for roses. This is not a new variety name, but a stamp of hardiness by Texas A&M University. They have been testing roses for a number of years to find those that thrive without resorting to chemical fertilizers, and poison sprays to handle insects and disease.

The Fairy on 11-2-09

Although I did not know it, I already have EarthKind roses: The Fairy, Knockout, Carefree Beauty and New Dawn. They are carefree!  This year I will add Belinda’s Dream, which I first saw in Texas and which my daughter says loves her garden near Houston. However, Belinda’s Dream is hardy in Zone 5, which is to say it will tolerate temperatures of minus 20 degrees. This is less iffy on my Heath hill than it used to be.

What new plant will you grow?

Between the Rows   January 16, 2010

Beautiful – but . . .

The skies are brilliant and the snow is pristine.

Krishna surveys the snow-filled Sunken Garden at dawn and wonders why there are no cows,  or milkmaids to thrill with his pipes.

But my thoughts have gone beyond snow, to sweet soil and seeds. I could not resist the display of Botanical Interest Seeds at the Farmer’s Coop in Greenfield yesterday. I will have my Castor Bean plant this year! And many colors of  morning glories and bush beans in the new vegetable patch I am planning. The mung beans will be sprouted before the next Winterfare farmer’s market in Greenfield on Feb. 6. The days are growing longer.

The Old is New

Between the concern about GMO seeds and a difficult economy, gardeners are more and more interested in seed saving. The Seed Savers Exchange has been around for years and is now celebrating 35 years of helping people find and continue growing heirloom, open pollinated seed for hundreds of vegetables and flowers

Kent and Diane Ott Whealy founded the SSE and you needed to be a member to get seeds (and they were free) from the owner of the seed. I knew that the Whealy’s were eventually able to start growing heirloom vegetables and flowers for seed, but I was surprised by the colorful, glossy catalog that arrived in my mailbox – so different from the plain listing with descriptions of plants I got many years ago.

You can now order from this beautiful catalog with items like Long Island Cheese squash for pies, Rat Tail radishes (you don’t eat the roots), Opalka paste tomatoes, as well as Snail Flowers grown by Thomas Jefferson. Hundreds more are in the catalog and online at the Seed Savers Exchange website.

If you become a member you will get a 10% discount on catalog seeds, a quarterly magazine and many other benefits.

The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company was the brainchild of 17 year old Jere Gettle. This company is celebrating its first dozen years with a gorgeous catalog with heirloom seeds from all parts of the world. There are Russian tomatoes like Black Prince from Irtusk, an Australian Butter squash, and melons from America, Asia, Europe and Africa.  It’s like taking a trip around the world in vegetables.

Baker Creek offers flowers, too, Kiss-Me-Over-The-Garden-Gate, Sweet Williams, and Purple Passion cuphea! So much love in the garden.

This is a company that has grown to include a seed store in Petaluma, California, festivals, and blogs. Logon to the Baker Creek website for information about all their projects.

Both companies offer books, and other items.  Here it is, not even Christmas, and the gifts of catalogs and dreams are already arriving.

Johnny’s Selected Seed Giveaway