Starting More Seed

'Cry­stal Peak

' Obedient      Plant Photo: Swallowtail Seeds

"Pure white flowers on long spikes from July to September. The flowers of 'Crystal Peak' are self-cleaning: they do not fade or brown as they age. Plants grow to 16 in. tall. An excellent choice for brightening sunny borders or containers. 'Crystal Peak' obedient plant is a Fleuroselect Gold Medal award winner (Europe's top prize)."

It was enough to convince me I needed some white plants in my border. I think they will glow at twilight and be ever so attractive to the hummingbird moths.

Polka­dot Polly Hybrid Foxglove Photo: Swallowtail Seeds

I haven't have foxgloves for a long time, and I also bought some nicotiana alata grandiflora.

Nicotiana alata grandiflora, Photo: Swallowtail Seeds

Spring best come soon--I'm planting a jungle!

From Now On...

I know the Canadian ginger is evergreen under the deep snow...

Sunday I returned home, a monumental occasion.

It had been five months since I had stepped foot in my home.  There was dust everywhere, with the boxes stacked about that my brother unloaded from his SUV, it looked more like an episode of Hoarders than my sweet house.  The dust, debris, items of life strewn about, I have often wondered about those abandoned buildings ghost hunters frequent.

How many years does it take for places people lived in everyday to take on that desolate, dead look?

Not years at all, I find, just a couple months.

Canning jars, the grill from a car, a glue board with worms on it (?), notebooks, overturned furniture, leaves, flowers bulbs, dead flowers in a vase, greasy dishes, and everywhere dust.  Dust, thick on everything.

License plates, fluffy seed heads, worn out shoes, sprinkler heads, plumbing parts, dirty towels on the floor, empty bottles of shampoo, flipped over rugs, furniture, empty boxes, and dust.

Dust and decay...

It is a bit like my life, dust and decay.

I think of the stories, "The Count of Monty Cristo," "Robinson Crusoe," and several others of life interrupted.  I feel those are my stories.

Forty-four messages on the answering machine, before I had telephone service canceled,  And dust.

As I come back into life, I have many choices to make.  I am not the me I was.  I don't think I ever will be again, but this is hopefully a new beginning, not an ending.  Physically, I am not strong.  Mentally, I have taken a direct hit.  My brother says I have become angry.  Maybe angry is better than depression, but I have bathed in that, too.

The last two months I have been taking stock.  I have been trying.  I have been digging deep.  When life gives you lemons, making lemonade.  I have been working all of that.  The first three months of my to-date five month ordeal, was my healing phase.  I am not done healing, but I do need to go forward, even if that forward motion is from necessity slow.

Like all of the United States, for me, this year, Spring can not come soon enough.

I have germinated hosta and heuchera.  I am still a gardener, and will find faith in germination.

Getting Good Germination with In Situ Planting

My neighbors laugh at this quaint, laid-back vignette I have created on my shady front porch because I am never there!


Yesterday was a work day in the family garden. The tiller is working reliably, so one of the first things I do is run the tiller up and down all the rows. It takes about an hour to do the two large overlapping rectangles. The rows running east-west are divided at two points with eight foot wide paths. This is to keep our sanity as we drag hoses around the potager.

My sister-in-law and I are quite impressed with ourselves this year, having figured out the optimum width for the space between the rows (from the center of my left arch to the tip of my right big toe) and finding a way to lay them out straightly (using electric fencing posts and string). The distance between my big feet taking that big stride is approximately the width of our second-hand tiller, inscribed with the name, "Little Man". Little Man has about 6-8" on each side. Right now I go up and down between the rows twice, crowding first one side and then the other. I figure as the beans bush out and the potatoes get hilled up, this will be exactly one pass with Little Man, or about 40".

But the thing that has so impressed me this year versus last year, is our great germination rates. Last year the ground was so cool so long into June. This year the soil warmed fairly early. Optimally, soil about 70 -75 degrees germinates seed most readily; except for the cole and salad crops, which germinate best in cooler soils, about 55-65 degrees. After temperatures reach 80 degrees germination falls off quite rapidly for all seeds, which is one of the reasons seed viability also decreases if you don't keep your seed in a cool, dark space.

In addition to proper temperature for germination, moisture or humidity is a key ingredient, even more so than light. Planting seed pressing the seed so it makes good contact with soil so it also makes good contact with the dampness inherent in soil is a good idea. Watering the row after planting and pressing also makes good sense, although both amaranth and soybeans and some others germinate just as easily in soils that tend toward the drier side.

Also, there are a few things that are counter-intuitive when germinating seed. Some older seed germinates better than fresh seed (but not always-- delphiniums, for example). Other seeds germinate better if their have been crushed, like beets and chard. Those things that pass as seeds in the pack of each of these really are seed capsules containing 0-5 seeds, some of which are not mature, Crushing the tan, corky capsule actually releases the seeds which are shades of brown to black and about the size of the head of a pin. Most beans will germinate better if soaked for up to 1/2 hour and then planted. However, not all of what we think of as beans belong to the same genus. Beans are actually members of five or so different genus, including vicia (favas), glysine (soybeans),vigna (cowpeas and mung), phaseolus (runner and pole beans), physocarpus (winged bean). Of these, the glysine will actually germinate much, much worse if soaked prior to planting. Last year, I made the mistake of soaking the edamame. I had less than a dozen germinate. This year, it looks like they were planted by a Hollywood movie set crew, perfect as a picture.

My nephew, at three, has the newly planted seed watering routine down pat. Hold the shower sprinkler over the row,count to five, move to where it is not wet, and repeat. He had also impressed me with his ability to know what a pepper plant is, pop it out of its pot in one piece, place it in a pre-dug hole and using his spade, cover the root with the plant upright. I was so impressed by his three-year-old's prowess I had to holler to his weed-whacking mommy to come view his expertise and perfection. He's been hanging with the gardeners, but he's truly very good at it.

I guess it is not only seed germinating well in the family garden, but little gardeners as well.

Harvesting Basil and What High Temperatures Mean for Gardeners

Basil leaves being held in a canning jar.


Yesterday, my thermometer on the south side of my house read 100 degrees. Now, official highest temperature anywhere in Wisconsin was 97 in Waupaca, where the family garden is located. That 100 might be accurate. With the high dew point that's a 117 degree "feels like" temperature. That's about 50 degrees hotter than my preferred temperature of about 65 degrees!

Plants don't feel temperatures the same way we do. The high humidity actually works for plants lessening the amount of moisture a plant gives up to the air. As the skies have been overcast without beating sun, although it is dry, it is not like our plants are experiencing this heat dome as we are. Our plants are growing fast and a little extra moisture will go a long way now. I watered extensively on Friday and Saturday to build up moisture in the soil.

For those of you considering planting fall and winter veggies, with this heat, I would hold off on that plan. Seed germination drops off dramatically at temperatures above 80 degrees for many of these vegetables. If you feel you are loosing too many days, I would water the soil amply the night before and then mulch liberally with a couple inches of finely shredded straw or shredded paper after seeding with a plan to remove it within about 10 days.

This is probably not a good time to transplant or plant perennials or shrubs, but if you must, water well, water foliage to keep transpiration levels low, mulch, and consider trimming back as much top growth as you feel you can.

Lastly, these temperatures have forced me indoors and to play in the kitchen. I thought I would pass these tips along for storing and using basil. Basil is one of my favorite herbs. I plant a lot of it, grown, from seed each year, and almost always run out.

Basil likes it hot. Keep basil flowering tips picked off. When it flowers, the flavor and the texture changes, so keep it picked back. Harvest it down growing tips to about a quarter inch above each joint. When using always discard the stems and any flowers, use just the leaves. Try to pick early in the day if you are storing any quantities, but picking as close to using it is always preferable.

Basil does not like temperatures below 40 degrees. Resist the urge to store basil in your fridge. Temperatures below 40 degrees will brown your basil as if it has been touched by frost. Storing the clean leaves in a container in a dark space maintains moisture content and color for many days with very little wilting.

I have had good results (good color and shelf life), drying basil by placing in an oven on a cookie sheet at 145 degrees for an hour and leaving them in the oven (my oven has a standing pilot and is probably always between 90-110 degrees) for a couple days to finish drying. I then store them in a Mason jar.

Enjoy the heat, if you can. If not, pick basil...

Update on the Seedlings

Pictures tell a 1,000 words, so here are the pictures from the growing rack!


Great germination for the onion 'Ringmaster' from Botanical Interests.


Celery seedlings, their color is really much better than that!


Those pepper seedlings from an OP hybrid, sweet red poblano type pepper germinated like hair on a dog!


Ah tomatoes!


On the right side, in the middle you can see the celery core growing new stalks, one of my "garden investigations".

So NOAA has released their Annual Spring Weather Forecast. Wetter, cooler with a chance of flooding increasing through April. Okay. I was sorta getting that impression myself. Right now I can hear the wind sorta howling around the house, too.

Checking the 10-day forecast though, after tonight, I don't see freezing temperatures listed. Close to that, but no freezing temperatures are listed for the next 10 day cycle!

There are lots of periods of drizzly rain.

That will slow me down.

I haven't checked with the village Snow Witch, but I am hopeful. I am sure it will get chilly again next full moon. I will have to check when that is, but I am cautiously optimistic that Spring will eventually make an appearance, that my crocus will pop out from beneath their snow cover on the north side of my house, that the forsythia will bloom, that those inch-tall tulips will grow.

I think the planet can take a collective sign. This has been a rough winter. Spring is coming.