The Kitchen Garden: Abundant Harvest in Small Spaces

The following is a hand out that accompanied a workshop I presented at the NOFA conference Feb 12, 2012. -Julie

An abundant harvest in a small space can seem like a challenge, but by understanding a few concepts, you can make the most of your small garden so that it meets your needs and brings you joy. Observing plants is the best way to develop garden awareness; making good choices is the best way to avoid “garden guilt.” Abundant harvests have to do with efficiency:

• The efficiency of the plant taking up nutrients
• The efficiency of the amount of time it takes for the plant to mature.
• The efficiency of minimized waste.
• The efficiency of using your space to its maximum potential.

These are not hard and fast rules, but can be applied at your discretion in any area of the garden you would like to improve. These ideas can work for the spontaneous or lazy gardener (like me) or for the hyper-planner who maps it all out on graph paper ahead of time (like my neighbor). Think of it as cooking without a recipe - once you know a few techniques and concepts, you can explore and have decent results most of the time. And there is no such thing as garden failure - it is just a lesson waiting to be learned. The big factors:

• Soil - texture, nutrients, compost, fertilizer
• Shape - raised bed, containers, or “in ground”, bed prep
• Water - drip, overhead, by hand, on timers, etc
• Cultivation - weeds, mulching,  pests and diseases, season extension, spacing and timing, succession planting, shape of plants
• Harvest - understanding life cycle of plants, post-harvest handling, when to try for multiple harvest or when to cut your losses, cleaning up plant debris.

Soil should be loose and rich and deep.  In a container it should be a pre-mixed potting soil, not garden soil. If the container is large (1 gallon or more) it should have some drainage material in the bottom. Many things work well for this - styrofoam packing peanuts, crushed up plastic pots, gravel, etc. If a pot is very lare (3 gallons or more) the drainage material can be a little deeper, up to the bottom third of the pot. It is a good idea to cover the drainage material with a piece of burlap, an old pillow case, or some other type of screen or fabric to keep the soil from washing down into the material that should remain porous.

In a raised bed, it can be a combination of materials including pre-made finished compost, leaf mold (rotted leaves - make a pile in the fall, it’s good to go in the bottom of the raised bed in the spring), peat moss, rotted manure/bedding (a good source is horse farms), garden soil,  sand and pre-mixed top soil / compost combinations. The key is to have a mixture of ingredients to re-create the complexity of a living soil system.

In the garden, the soil should be worked deeply with a 4 or 5 pronged fork, and loosed by hand or with a hoe. Even if you use a rototiller in the garden, the plants will benefit from having the soil loosened more deeply than where the rototiller tines reach. It is a good idea to shovel out the paths of the garden and put the extra soil onto the beds. This essentially makes a raised bed and will allow the roots to grow quickly and deeply in their search for food. Nutrients can come from compost, granular fertilizer, “Compost Plus” and/or  mineral inputs. It is a good idea to get a soil test in your in-ground garden or raised bed. If you are using materials in the raised bed that you know are of good quality, you can skip this, but if your plants look deficient during the growing months, you may opt to do a test after all.  Applying granular fertilizer or “Compost Plus” is best done after the plants have had a chance to grow out - either a month or so after seeding or two weeks or so after transplanting. Water is best done through drip irrigation - either soaker hoses or drip tape. A good source of drip tape is Dripworks. Next best watering choice is by hand since you can aim the hose nozzle at the soil, and not get the foliage wet. Third best choice (and not a good one, sorry) is overhead sprinklers: they require less of your time and labor, but they get the foliage wet. Two reasons to avoid getting the foliage wet with overhead irrigation (sprinklers and incorrect hand watering):

1. it rots the plants, and disease can set in. Dry plants tend to be healthier plants.
2. the plants take up water with their roots, not their leaves. You waste a lot of water and the leaves act as a nice umbrella for the roots, making it wasteful. You have to water more than necessary for the roots to actually start drinking. Getting the plants wet and watering the garden are two different things, and it is best not to confuse them.

Watering is best done in the morning - it gives the plants a chance to dry off before night time and supports their busy daytime growth. Watering at the end of the day is not recommended since disease spreads most during humid summer nights.  You can water the garden during the middle of the day, and the plants will still have time to dry off by sunset. Cultivation is simply the act of caring for plants. In larger scale farming, to “cultivate” means to scuff up the soil in such a way that you are removing weeds, usually involving a tractor and some sort of implement. Here we use the term “cultivate” in a broader sense meaning a general discussion of the cultural requirements of common garden plants. The “cultural requirements” of a plant are all the things that a plant needs from humans in order to thrive. For example, the site, the water, the tilth or texture of the soil, the space and  the nutrients are all a part of a plant’s cultural needs. To understand what a plant needs, you have to look at these factors:

1. what is it’s shape? Shape of plants, physiological structure, and type of cells that make up the roots and the foliage all give you clues to what the plant needs. Thin fibrous roots dry out more than thick, tuberous roots (think of an onion plant vs. a tomato plant). Waxy, shiny leaves are more drought tolerant than matte, thin leaves (think of a succulent like aloe vs.a leafy plant like lettuce). Large plants with broad leaves have very different requirements than skinny tall plants (think brcocolli vs onion). The canopy a plant creates is also a clue - plants with a small canopy (onions, celery, leeks) do not cast much of a shadow. This makes them very vulnerable to weeds. Plants that create a large canopy (squashes, cabbages, broccoli, eggplant) cast a large shadow which slows down weed growth. Understanding the shape or growth habit of a plant also helps you maximize the potential of your small garden.
1. A tall, vining plant can be trellised.
2. A low growing, sprawling plant can be planted on the edge where it spills onto a lawn.
3. A tall, skinny plant can be tucked into tight spots.
4. A pretty, decorative plant can be planted in the flower bed.
2. how hungry is it? Plants that need a lot of fertility are often referred to as “heavy feeders”. One common point amongst most heavy feeders is their life span. A baby lettuce plant that is in the ground for 20 days is going to be a light feeder. A giant, prize winning pumpkin in the ground for 130 days is going to be a heavy feeder. Plants that produce fruit such as tomatoes, zucchini, squash, peppers and eggplant are best fed when in a vegetative state (all green leaf growth, earlier in the first 45 days of transplanting); once those plants are in their fruiting state, it is best to lay off the fertilizer or compost which support green growth, not fruit growth. The plant has only so much energy, and if it is putting it into leaf growth, it won’t also put it into fruit growth. It is a balancing act since the green growth needs to happen quickly and in a lush manner in the earlier part of the season in order to support healthy fruiting in the latter part of the season.
3. how thirsty is it? As in the discussion of shape, a plant’s water needs have to do with its structure, but also with weather and soil type. A garden in sandy soil will always need more water than a garden in clay soils. You can look for cues of thirstiness in a plant and water just as needed. These clues include very slight curling of leaves, a blue-like hue that creeps in (this is very sublte), or a very subtle droop in the way flowers are angled. This type of “reading the garden” takes some observation to understand, but gardening is a lifetime project with countless places to learn. Fruiting vegetables tend to taste better with less water. Leafy vegetables tend to taste better with more water. It is entirely possible to water tomatoes only once every two weeks, even in a drought, and get very tasty fruit. If you did that with lettuce, it would be bitter at best, but more likely it would simply be dead.
4. how well does it share? A plant that knows how to share light, water, and nutrients with its neighbors is a plant that does well in small spaces. Radishes are a good example. They can be sown alongside just about any other crop, and they do quite well because of their short life span, lower light requirements, and broader leaves that shade out weeds. Radishes can share. Other examples of plants that cooperate nicely: arugula, baby lettuce, scallions (they are skinny and can go in nooks), cilantro, curly parsley or smaller varieties of Italian parsley, strawberries and wild strawberries, and pansies. Notice....with the exception of scallions, all these plants are low growing, have broad leaves that create a canopy that shades out weeds, and can tolerate a bit of shade that might be thrown by a neighboring canopy.
5. how well does it compete? Plants that compete well are plants that are not easily thwarted by dry conditions, weedy conditions, temperature extremes, or low nutrition. You can always increase your harvest and increase your efficiency by knowing which plants have these characteristics. It basically allows you to prioritize garden tasks -you can make the less competitive plants a priority, and save the more tolerant, tough plants for a day when you have a little more time.  Working smarter in the garden can increase the harvest, and save you some “garden guilt”, just by knowing when to say “it’s okay if that is weedy, it can wait until the weekend.”

Succession planting is another way to increase your yields. This is the act of planting multiple generations of plants so that you have a continuous harvest. The trick with succession planting is to know a few numbers

1. the date of the average last frost in spring
2. the date of the average  first frost in fall
3. the amount of time it takes for a plant to be harvestable (a.k.a. “days to maturity)

and two cultural factors:

1. is the crop frost tolerant or not?
2. is it a “multiple harvest” crop or a one time harvest?

Once you know these numbers and the frost tolerance of a plant, you can make some simple calculations based on your season length to determine how many generations of a particular plant you can grow. For example, head lettuce has about a 40 day life cycle from transplant time to harvest time, and it can tolerate a light frost. This means you can start transplanting it in early May (in Burlington, average last frost is last week of May)  or so, and you can repeat the planting of it every week or so, until early September. (in Burlington, average first frost is first week of October). Head lettuce is something you harvest only once, so if you want a nice head of lettuce every two days or so, you would plant 4 heads of lettuce a week, every week from early May to early September. This will give you a continuous harvest from early June until mid-October. If you are the kind of gardener who “puts in the garden” on Memorial Day and then you never replant, it is likely that you have a big glut of produce at certain times, and then none that is fresh and good at other times. By planting multiple generations of plants, you insure high yields and great flavor. A patch of bush green beans only produces good quality beans for about 2 to 3 weeks. After a while, the beans are tough and sparse on the plant. If you replant a new patch every couple of weeks, you will always have high-yielding, tasty beans. Abundant harvest happen on healthy plants at their prime, and gardens in small spaces require a certain amount of decision making. You always have a choice to pull out tired plants and to replant with new seeds or plants - this is often the most efficient way to have better yields. Mulch is a great way to keep weeds at bay, and to keep moisture near the root zone. It can also build soils, heat the soil, or cool the soil - all depending on your goal and what the plant needs. You can mulch paths and/or growing beds. Raised beds that are constructed out of wood can also be mulched and the paths around the raised beds can be mulched to minimize lawn mowing if you would like. If you use materials that naturally break down such as paper, cardboard, burlap bags, straw or bark, the mulched paths can become mini compost piles. By layering in materials that block out weeds, you are creating a layer of organic matter that will decompose over the course of a year and can then be shovelled onto the growing beds the following spring. Some mulch materials carry weed seeds so beware. They can still be used effectively in the garden, but best as a layer that is covered up with another barrier such as cardboard or burlap. As it breaks down and heats up over time, the weed seeds lose their viability and will not be a problem the following year. Plastic mulches heat the soil and are great for the heat-loving, fruiting crops. Harvest and post-harvest handling are other factors that affect the yield in your garden. Being able to plan or predict when you harvest a crop depends on your knowing the life cycle or days to maturity of that crop. It is entirely possible, to plan a garden harvest around certain dates or to plan for having no harvest during vacation times. An abundant harvest is one that happens when you want it. An unwanted harvest is a hassle - you have to get your neighbors to help, or find volunteers for a school garden, etc. Sometimes that works, but it is possible to minimize unwanted work, and under-appreciated produce by timing the plantings and knowing how much to plant of each crop. There are many charts on the internet that can help you gauge the garden harvest and how much to plant of each crop and when. Johnny’s Selected Seeds has some wonderful on-line tools, as does our own Red Wagon Plants website. Post-harvest handling includes everything from time of day you harvest, how you pack it into your basket or boxes, and how you store it. Morning is generally the best time to harvest since the field heat has not had too much time to affect the leafy green plants. Fruiting plants can be harvest later in the day. Again, this is a place where you can make a choice by harvesting the right plant at the right time of day. If you only have a few minutes to harvest in the morning, do the leafy greens. The fruiting plants can usually wait until later in the day or even a couple of days. Once a plant is cut or picked, it is best to wash it and refrigerate it right away. Again, this is related to an abundant harvest because anything that improves quality reduces waste. Lettuce that is wilted and dirty in the bottom of the fridge drawer is just not as appealing as lettuce that is crisp, clean and ready to eat. A small garden is not a productive garden if what you harvest ends up under-utilized. A good trick is to harvest the lettuce, and when you get in the house, soak it in a basin or large bowl of cold water right away. This takes out the field heat, the leaves absorb some water making them more crisp, and the dirt drops down to the bottom. Lift the leaves out, re-soak once or twice depending on the amount of dirt, and then spin the leaves in a lettuce spinner or by layering between some clean towels. Lettuce treated this way is sure to get eaten, promise! Plants like broccoli, beans, and tomatoes produce more the more they are harvested. Broccoli will generally make one big head, and then produce what is called side shoots all summer long. These shoots are the perfect size for cooking or eating raw and the more you remember to cut them, the more the plant will produce. Often a broccoli plant that goes into the garden in late April will continue to produce side shoots into mid-December - talk about a high yield! Most fruiting plants (tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers and eggplant) will also produce more the more they are picked. These do not need immediate refrigeration, and tomatoes and basil should never go in the fridge. A basket full of cukes and zukes can stay on the counter until a time later in the day when you have had a chance to make room in the fridge or have time to make pickles,etc. Again, a high yield can be a burden or a blessing, depending on how it fits into your life. With a little planning, a very small garden such as a 4’ x 8’ raised bed can include 2 tomato plants, a cucumber plant and a season’s worth of greens. This is often plenty for a single person or a couple. Abundant harvesting is about making choices that lead to efficiency and no waste., beauty and no guilt.  If you use your minimal space for vegetables that you will not use, then the space is wasted, if instead that small space is regularly turned over with fresh plants, and old plants are removed, then you will have a high yield of well loved produce. It is always a better choice to remove the garden debris (think bolted lettuce, cabbage stumps, woody radishes) than to let it limp along, tempting disease and pests.

Some good sources of information

• Our website has an extensive list of resources in the “Garden Journal”
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds, High Mowing Seeds, Territorial Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange and Botanical Interests are all reputable seed companies with lots of educational materials on their websites and in their catalogs. These are great sources of free information.
• Cornell Extension has a website for home gardeners that is very helpful
• Elliot Coleman’s books are geared towards vegetable farmers but have very clear explanations of succession planting, timing and spacing
• Barbara Damrosch, The Garden Primer is my favorite all around basic gardening book
• UVM Extension offers soil tests, a plant pathology lab, and a pest identification lab
• Burlington Permaculture
• Charlie Nardozzi offers a garden coaching program and gives weekly talks on VPR about gardening.
• Friends of Burlington Gardens offers support to school gardens, community gardeners, and anyone interested in learning how to grow food. They offer a season long course at Ethan Allen Homestead that provides brand new gardeners all the support necessary to achieve success in their first year.

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New Plants for the 2012 Line Up

We have been busy at work with ordering seeds, deciding on what plants to grow for the coming year, and which ones to discontinue. We usually add about 10% new varieties each year - enough to keep it interesting, but not so much that we risk having bad inventory or unwanted expenses for a plant no one loves. This is really, really hard since the seed catalogs and plug listings each year show more and more varieties that look tempting. Not to mention the world of heirloom seeds which is so vast and so alluringly historic and charming. If the pressures of pleasing customers and breaking even were eliminated, I would probably have the type of nursery where every plant has a sign that is 12" x 12" with lots of text describing some arcane knowledge about how the variety was bred or discovered, how it was cooked in 15th century Sicily and  how it came to be a Red Wagon variety. My winter job at Red Wagon is part business manager, part HR department, and part curator. Guess which is my favorite. Take a look at the list of new plants and give us some feedback. Our favorite new variety is the kind that comes by way of a customer recommendation, so you get a vote in this process.

Happy garden planning, and check out the rest of the website for the complete plant list, we are updating it this week,

Julie

Plant Category	Genus	Variety or Cultivar
Annuals	African Foxglove	Ceratotheca triloba
Annuals	Amaranth	Oeschberg
Annuals	Angelonia	Adessa White
Annuals	Balsam	Impatiens Balsamina
Annuals	Begonia, Tuberous	Illumination Peaches and Cream
Annuals	Begonia, Tuberous	Non-Stop, Bright Rose
Annuals	Begonia, Tuberous	Pin Up Flame
Annuals	Browalia	Endless Flirtation
Annuals	Browalia	Endless Illumination
Annuals	Calibrachoa	Saffron
Annuals	Calibrachoa	Superbells Dreamsicle
Annuals	Calibrachoa	Superbells Peach
Annuals	Calibrachoa	Superbells Trailing White
Annuals	Calibrachoa	Tequilla Sunrise Improved
Annuals	Calibrachoa	Yellow
Annuals	California Poppy	Milkmaid
Annuals	Celosia	Chief Mixed Cockscomb
Annuals	Celosia	Cramers’ Amazon
Annuals	Coleus	Amora
Annuals	Coleus	Big Red Judy
Annuals	Coleus	Fishnet Stockings
Annuals	coleus	Glennis
Annuals	Coleus	Sedona
Annuals	coleus	Wedding Train
Annuals	Cosmos	Cosmic  Orange
Annuals	Cosmos	Cosmic Mix
Annuals	Cosmos	Cosmic Red
Annuals	Cosmos	New Choco
Annuals	Cosmos	Sonata Dwarf Mix
Annuals	Cosmos	Sonata White
Annuals	Dahlia	Happy Days Cream
Annuals	Dahlia	Happy Days Pink
Annuals	Dahlia	Happy Days Purple
Annuals	Dahlia	Happy Mystic enchantment
Annuals	Dahlia	Mystic Haze
Annuals	Dahlia	Mystic Wonder
Annuals	Dahlia	Salvador
Annuals	Dusty Miller	Silver Lace
Annuals	Euphorbia	Mountain Snow
Annuals	Exclusively  Echeveriaa Collection
Annuals	Fern	Montana
Annuals	Fern Collection
Annuals	Floering Cabbage	Osaka Mix
Annuals	Four Oclock	Marvel of Peru
Annuals	Gaura lindiheimeri	Whirling Butterflies
Annuals	Gazania	New Day Mix
Annuals	Geranium	Firestar Purple
Annuals	Geranium	Firestar Salmon
Annuals	Geranium, Ivy	Mini Cascade Red
Annuals	Geranium, Ivy	Sunflair Fireball
Annuals	Geranium, Ivy	Sunflair Neon Pink
Annuals	Geranium, Ivy	Sybil Holmes
Annuals	Geranium, Ivy	Vancouver Centennial
Annuals	Geranium, Scented	Lemon Fizz
Annuals	Geranium, Scented	P. querquifolia
Annuals	Geranium, Scented	Sweet Mimosa
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Brocade Happy Thoughts Red
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Brocade, Mrs Pollock
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Candy Fantasy Kiss
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Madame Salleron
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Patriot Cherry Rose
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Patriot Lavender Blue
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Patriot Salmon Chic
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Pillar Purple
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Rocky Mountain Lavender
Annuals	Geranium, Zonal	Rocky Mountain Magenta
Annuals	Gomphrena	QIS Formula Mix
Annuals	Hedera	Golden Child
Annuals	Hedera	White Mein Hertz
Annuals	Hypoestes	Splash Rose Select
Annuals	Impatiens	Super Elfin Salmon Splash
Annuals	Impatiens	Super Elfin XP pink
Annuals	Ipomoea	Desana Bronze
Annuals	Juncus	Blue Arrows
Annuals	Juncus spiralis	Unicorn
Annuals	Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate
Annuals	Lantana	Evita Rose
Annuals	Lantana	Bandana Cherry Sunrise
Annuals	Lantana	Bandana Rose Improved
Annuals	Lantana - bandana	Peach
Annuals	Larkspur	Sublime Formula Mix
Annuals	Leycesteria	Jealousy
Annuals	Licorice	Lemon
Annuals	Lisianthus	Echo Lavender
Annuals	Lisianthus	Echo Pink
Annuals	Lobularia	Silver Stream
Annuals	Marigold	Antigua Orange
Annuals	Marigold	Antigua Yellow
Annuals	Marigold	French Janie Primrose Yellow
Annuals	Marigold	French Single Marietta
Annuals	Marigold, French	Durango Tangerine
Annuals	Melampodium	Derby
Annuals	Morning Glory	Grandpa Ott’s
Annuals	Morning Glory	Moonflower
Annuals	Nasturtium	Trailing
Annuals	Nemesia	Angelart Almond
Annuals	Nemesia	Angelart Pineapple
Annuals	Ornamental Corn	Field of Dreams
Annuals	Ornamental Millet	Purple Majesty
Annuals	Osteospermum	3-D Silver
Annuals	Osteospermum	Astra Orange Sunrise
Annuals	Osteospermum	Cape Daisy Fireburst
Annuals	Osteospermum	Cape Daisy Purple
Annuals	Osteospermum	Sunset Orange
Annuals	Osteospermum	Zion Copper Amethyst
Annuals	Oxalis	Allure Burgundy
Annuals	oxalis triangularis	Charmed Velvet
Annuals	oxalis triangularis	Charmed WIne
Annuals	Pansy	Delta Mix Buttered Popcorn
Annuals	Pansy	Delta Premium True Blue
Annuals	Pansy	Freefall Golden Yellow
Annuals	Pansy	Matrix Sangria
Annuals	Pansy	Panola XP Mix baby Boy
Annuals	Pansy	Panola XP Mix Blackberry Sundae
Annuals	Pansy	Panola XP Mix Citrus
Annuals	Pansy	Ultima Blue Chill
Annuals	Pansy	Ultima Morpho
Annuals	Petunia	Bouquet Salmon
Annuals	Petunia	Littletunia Sweet Sherbert
Annuals	Petunia	Mini Strawberry pink veined
Annuals	Petunia	Whispers Star Rose
Annuals	Petunia Cascadias	Cherry Spark
Annuals	Petunia Littletunia	Sweet Dark Pink
Annuals	petunia multiflora prostrate	Easy Wave Plum Vein
Annuals	Petunia multiflora prostrate	Easy Wave White
Annuals	Poppy	White Linen
Annuals	Portulaca	Happy Hour Mix
Annuals	Portulaca	Sundial Chiffon
Annuals	Portulaca	Sundial Mix
Annuals	Portulaca	Sundial Pink
Annuals	Rudbeckia	Autumn Colors
Annuals	Rudbeckia	Cherokee Sunset
Annuals	Rudbeckia	Prairie Sun
Annuals	Rudbeckia	Denver Daisy
Annuals	Salvia farinacea	Victoria Blue
Annuals	Sanvitalia	Cuzco Yellow
Annuals	Scabiosa	Black Knight
Annuals	Snapdragon	Montego Mix Sangria
Annuals	Snapdragon	Rocket Mix
Annuals	Snapdragon	Rocket White
Annuals	Spectacular Succulent Collection
Annuals	Sunflower	Sunny Smile
Annuals	Sweet Potato Vine	Bright Ideas Rusty Red
Annuals	Thunbergia	Arizona Dark Red
Annuals	Thunbergia	Lemon
Annuals	Thunbergia	Orange
Annuals	Thunbergia	Sunny Suzie Yellow Dark Eye
Annuals	Thunbergia	Sunny Suzy Red Orange
Annuals	TRIXI COMBO	Ayers Rock
Annuals	TRIXI COMBO	Caribean Cocktail
Annuals	TRIXI COMBO	Gold and Bold
Annuals	TRIXI COMBO	Lemon Sorbet
Annuals	TRIXI COMBO	Lollipop
Annuals	TRIXI COMBO	Sunrise
Annuals	Verbena	Chambray Royal superbena
Annuals	Verbena	Estrella Salmon Star
Annuals	Verbena	Lanai Twister pink
Annuals	Verbena	Royal Peachy Keen
Annuals	Verbena	Tukana Scarlet star
Annuals	Viola	Penny Orchid Frost
Annuals	Zinnia	Dreamland Mix
Annuals	Zinnia	Dreamland Red
Annuals	Zinnia	Sunbow Mix
Annuals	Zinnia	White
Eggplants	Globe	Rosa Bianca
Ferns	Matteuccia struthiopteris	Ostrich Fern
Foliage	Alternanthera	Brazilian Red Hot
Foliage	Alternanthera	Red Thread
Foliage	German Ivy	Green
Foliage	Muehlenbeckia	Wire Vine
Foliage	Setcreasea	Purple Queen
Herbs	Basil	Amethyst Improved
Herbs	Basil	Sacred, Tulsi
Herbs	Basil	Sweet Genovese, Aroma II
Herbs	Basil	Sweet Genovese, Aton
Herbs	Bee Balm	Wild Bergamot
Herbs	Epazote
Herbs	Feverfew
Herbs	Flax
Herbs	French Sorrel
Herbs	Lavender	Fern Leaf
Herbs	Lemongrass	West Indian
Herbs	Mint	Emerald and Gold
Herbs	Oregano	Mexican Lippia
Herbs	Papalo
Herbs	Red Shiso	Britton
Herbs	Red Shiso
Herbs	Rosemary	Prostrate
Herbs	Sage	White
Herbs	Thyme	Lime Golden
Herbs	Thyme	Orange
Herbs	Thyme	Wooly
Herbs	Zaatar	Marjoram
Peppers	Hot	Fish
Peppers	Ornamental Hot Pepper	Chilly Chilly
Peppers	Sweet	Pepperoncino
Peppers	Sweet	Round of Hungary
Peppers	Sweet	Sweet Banana Pepper
Perennial	Adenophora	Amethyst
Perennial	Alchemilla	Lady’s Mantle
Perennial	Sedum	Blue Spruce
Perennial	Sedum	Floriferum
Perennial	Sedum	Oracle
Perennial	Sedum	Picolette
Perennial	Sedum	Voodoo
Perennial	Thyme	Wooly
Perennials	Achillea	Pretty Belinda
Perennials	Achillea	Saucy Seduction
Perennials	Achillea	Strawberry Seduction
Perennials	Achillea	Sunny Seduction
Perennials	Achillea millefolium	Colorado
Perennials	Acorus	‘Ogon’
Perennials	ajuga	Dixie Chip
Perennials	Alcea rosea	Chaters Double Purple
Perennials	Alchemilla Molis	Lady’s Mantle
Perennials	Anemone	sylvestris
Perennials	Aquigelia	Cameo Rose and White
Perennials	Aquigelia	Origami Mix
Perennials	Artemesia	Silver Brocade
Perennials	Astilbe	Delft Lace
Perennials	Astilbe	Deutschland
Perennials	Astilbe	Fanal
Perennials	Baptisia Solar Flare	Prairie Blues
Perennials	Bellis Daisy	Bellissima Rose
Perennials	Bergenia cordifolia	‘Winter Glow’
Perennials	Campanula glomerata	‘Freya’
Perennials	Centranthus	Cocineus
Perennials	Chrysanthemum	Samba
Perennials	Coreopsis verticullata	Early Sunrise
Perennials	corydalis sempervirens
Perennials	Delphinium	Magic Fountains Dark Blue w Dark Bee
Perennials	Delphinium	Magic Fountains Sky Blue w White Base
Perennials	dianthus	Pomegranate Kiss
Perennials	dianthus	Zing Rose
Perennials	Dicentra	Gold Heart
Perennials	Echinacea	Harvest Moon
Perennials	Echinacea	PowWow Wild Berry
Perennials	Echinacea	Sundown
Perennials	Eupatorium dubium	‘little joe’
Perennials	Fern	Barne’s Male
Perennials	Gaillardia aristata	Arizona Sun
Perennials	geranium	Rozanne
Perennials	Geranium cantabrigiense	‘Bergarten’
Perennials	Geranium macrorrhizum	‘Album’
Perennials	Geranium maculatum	‘Espresso’
Perennials	Guara	Pink Fountain
Perennials	Helleborus	Pink Parachutes
Perennials	Hemerocallis	Alabama Jubilee daylily
Perennials	Hemerocallis	Always Afternoon
Perennials	Heuchera	‘Snow Angel’
Perennials	Heuchera	Obsidian
Perennials	Heuchera	Plum Pudding
Perennials	Heuchera	Raspberry Regal
Perennials	Heuchera	Silver Scrolls
Perennials	Hibiscus	Luna Red
Perennials	Iberis sempervivens	Snowflake
Perennials	Iris	‘Before the Storm’
Perennials	Iris pallida	‘Argentea Variegata’
Perennials	Iris sibirica	Pink Haze
Perennials	Joe Pye Weed
Perennials	Juncus effusus ssp.	Twister
Perennials	laminum	Beacon Silver
Perennials	Lamium	Orchid Frost
Perennials	Lamium maculatum	Beacon Silver
perennials	Lathyrus latifolia	Perennial sweet pea
Perennials	Liatris	Floristan White
Perennials	Ligularia dentata	Britt-Marie Crawford
Perennials	Ligularia dentata	Little Rocket
Perennials	Lychnis arkwrightii	Orange Gnome
Perennials	Lysimachia punctata	‘Alexander’
Perennials	monarda	Petite Delight
Perennials	monarda	Purple Rooster
Perennials	monarda	Raspberry Wine
Perennials	monarda didyma	Jacob Cline
Perennials	myosotis sylvatica	Royal Blue Carpet
Perennials	paeonia	Duchess de Nemours
Perennials	paeonia	Felix Crousse
Perennials	Papaver	Flamenco Dancer
Perennials	Penstemon digitalis	Dark Towers
Perennials	Perovskia	Longin
Perennials	Persicaria	Darjeeling Red
Perennials	Phlox glabberima	‘Morris Red’
Perennials	Phlox paniculata	David
Perennials	Phlox paniculata	David’s Lavender
Perennials	Phlox paniculata	Flame series purple ‘Barfourteen’
Perennials	Physostegia	Pink Manners
perennials	Physostegia virginiana	Alba
Perennials	Phystostegia	Crown of Snow
Perennials	Primula	Ronsdorf Strain
Perennials	Salvia	Caradonna
Perennials	Salvia	Sweet 16
Perennials	Scabiosa	Beaujolais Bonnets
Perennials	Scabiosa	Vivid Violet
Perennials	Sedum	Autumn FIre
Perennials	Sedum	Matrona
Perennials	Sedum	Neon
Perennials	sedum	kamtschaticum
Perennials	sedum	sieboldii
Perennials	Sedum spurium	Summer Glory
Perennials	Tanacetum	Robinsons Red
Perennials	Tiarella	‘Delaware’
Perennials	Tiarella	‘Lace Carpet’
Perennials	Tiarella	‘Susquehanna’
Perennials	Trollius chinensis	Golden Queen
Perennials	Veronica	Giles van Hees
Perennials	Viola	Labradorica
Perennials	Viola	Striata
Perennials	Salvia aregentea	Artemis
Shrub	Hydrangea macrophylla	Endless Summer
Shrub	Hydrangea paniculata	Limelight
Shrub	Amelanchier Autumn Brilliance	Service Berry
Shrub	Ilex verticulata	Southern Gentleman
Shrub	Ilex verticulata	Winter Red
Shrub	Viburnum Trilobum	Alfredo
Small Fruit	Blackberry	Black Satin
Small Fruit	Gooseberry	Titan
Small Fruit	Strawberry	Jewel
Small Fruit	Strawberry	Sparkle
Tomatoes	Cherry	Gold Nugget
Tomatoes	Cherry	Green Envy
Tomatoes	Cherry	Isis Candy
Tomatoes	Cherry	Lizzano
Tomatoes	Cherry	Sweet Treats
Tomatoes	Cherry	Terenzo
Tomatoes	Cherry	Sweet Black Cherry
Tomatoes	Container	Red Husky (Patio)
Tomatoes	Determinate	Orange Blossom
Tomatoes	Determinate	Oregon Spring
Tomatoes	Heirloom	Black Prince
Tomatoes	Heirloom	Cosmonaut Volkov
Tomatoes	Heirloom	Costoluto Genovese
Tomatoes	Heirloom	Dona
Tomatoes	Heirloom	Earl of Edgecombe
Tomatoes	Heirloom	Paul Robeson
Tomatoes	Heirloom	Pineapple
Tomatoes	Heirloom	Wapsipinicon Peach
Tomatoes	Hybrid	Brandymaster Yellow
Tomatoes	Hybrid	Park’s Whopper
Tomatoes	Paste	Amish Gold
Tomatoes	Plum	San Marzano gigante III
Vegetables	cantaloupe	Sarah’s Choice
Vegetables	Cantaloupe, French Charentais	Savor
Vegetables	Italian Dandelion	Clio Chicory
Vegetables	Lettuce	Mottistone
Vegetables	Lettuce	Nevada Summer Crisp
Vegetables	Lettuce	Red Batavian Cherokee
Vegetables	Lettuce	Red Cross - Red Butterhead
Vegetables	Lettuce	Red Oak Paradai
Vegetables	Mei Qing Choi (Baby Boc Choi)	Boc Choi
Vegetables	Mustard Greens	Ruby Streaks
Vegetables	Okra	Millionaire
Vegetables	Onion	Mini Purplette
Vegetables	Onion	Redwing
Vegetables	Radicchio	Virtus
Vegetables	Summer Squash	Magda
Vegetables	Vertus	Radicchio
Vegetables	watermelon	Sunshine

Garden Gift Ideas and a Few Other Things

Here are some last minute ideas for the gardener on your list.  And by the way, you can also always offer them a gift certificate to our greenhouses; nothing says "optimism" like a gift they can't use until the days are long and the soil is warm!

• I learned about this crafty gift tag site here. It's not too late to add some easy, homemade (ie extra credit) to your gift giving.
• And who wouldn't like an interesting houseplant hanging out in here?
• Or how about this fun little project for the front door?
• This is our favorite gardening glove.
• You could purchase a nice weekly calendar for the gardener in your life and write down all of these monthly tips on the appropriate pages. You could even go to our blog post on succession planting and help make them a garden plan with all the reminders they need to plant their favorite crops on the correct dates.
• Our friends at Square Deal Farm do a great job with maple syrup and pancake mix. And they will ship just about anywhere.
• One of the stores to whom we sell our plants, Woodstock Farmers Market, suffered some huge setbacks during the Hurricane Irene floods in late August. They are back up and running after a heroic effort to get the store back in shape, and they have an incredible selection of  items that they can ship anywhere.
• Healthy Living, another one of our cherished wholesale accounts, is offering discounts on gift cards between now and Dec. 20th.
• A do-it-yourself garden bench is a sweet and lovely project to work on all winter if you have a nice work space in the basement.
• If you have some fruits in the freezer from the garden or a local farm, you might want to consider making a chutney to preserve in nice, decorative jars.
• A nice basket of  squashes, garlic, onions, potatoes from the garden is thoughtful and practical. You can also make onion or garlic breads, wreaths of dried chilies, or herb swags. If not this year, it is something to keep in mind for next year.

2012 Stone Wall Workshops

Charley MacMartin, owner of Queen City Soil and Stone, and all around great guy will be continuing his popular winter workshop series in our shared greenhouse starting in January. Please read Charley's message below for more information.

Stone wall workshops. Our introductory stone wall building workshops for homeowners and tradespeople promote the beauty and integrity of stone. The one-day, hands-on workshop focuses on the basic techniques for creating dry-laid walls with a special emphasis on stone native to Vermont. Workshops are held inside warm greenhouses in Hinesburg. The first workshop date is Saturday, January 14, 2012, and workshops continue through March 2012. The one-day workshop is $100. Space is limited. For complete schedule and registration information, go to the link www.queencitysoilandstone.com/workshops.html or contact Charley MacMartin, 802-318-2411.

Herb Spiral Workshop

Our retail greenhouse is co-owned with a wonderful business also located at the same site. It is Queen City Soil and Stone, owned by Charley Macmartin of Burlington. Not only is Charley one of the nicest people you could ever meet, he is also the talent behind all of the stone work you see in our parking area and our lovely display garden. Charley uses the retail greenhouse as the home of his winter workshop series for homeowners and landscape professionals who want to learn or perfect dry wall masonry. The first workshop in this series is a perfect one for the Red Wagon Plants community since it is focusing on herb spirals. These simple and elegant structures are a great way to plant lots of herbs close to your kitchen door and in such a way that you give each herb the type of micro-climate it craves. Herb spirals provide various conditions in one small space - dry and sunny, shady and moist and everything in between.

Here is Charley's description of the upcoming workshop :

Queen City Soil & Stone’s series on garden stone features continues in November with a workshop on herb spirals. An herb spiral is a stone wall twisted in on itself creating a garden bed of varying soil depth and planting possibilities from kitchen herbs to strawberries to cut flowers. The workshop will be held at Red Wagon plants in a heated greenhouse on Saturday, November 12, from 9am to 2pm.

The cost of the workshop is $50 and space is limited. To sign up, call Charley MacMartin at (802) 318-2411.

The workshop will be hands-on:  building an herb spiral, discussing herb spiral design and learning about the plantings that a spiraling garden bed allows.

Apple Pie Beats Chores

When today rolled around, I had lots of good intentions to do a bunch of garden chores, exercise, get some office work out of the way, and lots of other tasks that good intentions depend upon. But instead, the chores, tasks and lists took a back seat to making an apple pie with my daughter.

She made her first crust, which I learned from my father, which he learned from Molly Stevens, and you can learn how to make it by reading this. Yes, that is right, 3 sticks of butter for a double crust pie. Gulp. Hope to get in that exercise.

The apples came from Boyers' Orchard in Monkton, and they were just tossed with a little lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon. Nothing fancy. The beauty of apple pie lies in simplicity. Getting me to agree to cinnamon and a double crust is about as wild as I will go - I would rather have an apple tart, single crust, with unadorned thinly sliced apples arranged in a pretty pattern. But I suppose that is the French in me.

A little egg wash goes on the crust, and vent holes are made to let out the steam so the crust does not turn to a watery mess. The beautiful creation goes into a 475F oven for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 425F. Check on it after 20 minutes or so, but it usually takes an additional 40 minutes or so to cook.  I often turn the heat down one more time for the last 20 minutes.

Garden Chores this Weekend

The time to get things done in the garden is shrinking. My good intentions are to get lots done this weekend. Here is what I have lined up for this weekend in the garden: Fill the new raised beds that I just put in the back yard.

Get soil ready for garlic planting.

Finish planting shrubs along the fence line between our yard and our neighbors' new barn. I am planting Ilex verticulata, or winterberry. The bright red berries are a nice contrast against the wooden building and will bring lots of birds to the yard.

Add compost to some new flower beds for next year.

Turn the compost pile.

What do you have planned?

Garden Breakfast for a Cold and Rainy Day

The weather's turning and so is my attitude towards the kitchen. In summer, I would rather be outside, just like you, and it can be hard to make time for all that garden produce to make it into anything but some quick salads and grilled dishes (at the beach, no less).  Here is a great dish that works for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and pretty much anything in between. I made a big batch last Sunday and it kept us happy pretty much all day.

A green bean and ham hash - take some of those older green beans from the garden (the ones that did not get killed by the frost because they were hiding under the cover of leaves) and chop them up into 1/3 inch pieces. I like Romano beans for this, the wide and flat kind that is loaded with extra flavor and can be cooked a long time if you like a slowly simmered green bean, which I do, in case you are asking.  Chop up an onion, some garlic, and a potato. Chop everything pretty small, this is hash, not stir-fry. Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil, add the onion, garlic and potato and cook until starting to soften, about 8 minutes over medium heat to high heat. I also added pimenton, a smoked paprika, at this point. If you don't have any, a little sweet paprika and cumin might be nice. Keep stirring the onions, garlic and potatoes every minute or so, but letting it all stick a little and brown is okay - that is how you build flavor. Once the potato is softened somewhat, add the chopped or sliced green beans, some chopped ham (I bought an incredible petite ham from Bread and Butter Farm last week) and a good splash of cooking sherry, white wine, broth or water (my order of preference for the liquid). Scrape the pan so the browned bits get incorporated into the liquid, lower the heat, and put a lid on the pan. At this point, the vegetables are both sauteeing and steaming. Wait about 10 minutes hear, stirring once or so and adding another splash of liquid if it is getting very dry. Add salt and pepper to taste, after 10 minutes, and a splash of cream, half and half, or milk - the dairy helps bind all the flavors and keeps the vegetables from getting dry.  Stir and sautee another 5 mintues or so, adding another splash of dairy as needed, and that is it.  This is great served with an egg on top, over easy or over hard, or scrambled on the side. But really, it is great on its own with nothing else and will keep you going for the whole day. So you can go out and pick apples, take a hike, put the garden to bed, and all the other stuff that still keeps you outside a little longer. Winter is not here yet!

High Priority - Roasted Ratatouille for the Freezer

I have to admit that I don't love frozen vegetables for the most part. So if you have a favorite way to freeze a vegetable from your garden, please share it with me. Here is one I like and eat willingly out of the freezer come the dark days of winter. I want to share this simple thing with you in hopes you might have a similar beloved thing to pass on to me. For some reason, this year has not been a year when I put up a lot of food for winter. A few jars of tomatoes and this amazing thing I will now show you are the only things I have done. No beans, no salsa, no jams, no chutneys. Well there is still time, so maybe I will play catch up and do a plum chutney with the amazing plums passed on to us by our friend, Yvan.

This recipe starts in the spring. I basically plan part of my garden just so I can have all the right veggies to make this. You need

• onions
• garlic
• peppers
• eggplant
• tomatoes
• zucchini or summer squash

The garlic gets planted the previous fall, the onions go in in late April, and everything else goes in June 1. I like to freeze about 10 to 20 quart bags of this ratatouille, so I usually plant about 6 pepper plants (3 Ace and 3 Italia) ,  6 San Marzano tomatoes, 6 eggplants (usually a combination of Listada di Gandia, Orient Express, and Hansel), and 1 zucchini plant ( I do two plantings, one June 1 and one July 1 that way the plants are always healthy). Most households do not need more than 1 zucchini plant. Really.

Harvest all the veggies, wash them well. And start chopping. This year, I was a bit lazy and bought a few disposable pans to do the roasting. It made for easy clean up, but the veggies did not caramelize as much as they would have on metal or pyrex. Lesson learned.

So basically you just chop up all the vegetables into 1" chunks or so. The proportions are different every year, but it is usually about 1 part onions, 1 part peppers, 3 parts eggplant, 2 parts tomatoes, and 2 parts zucchini. I chop everything separately and then add it to the pans. I then drizzle olive oil over every thing. Add lots of salt, good sea salt is best, and then handfuls of chopped herbs to each pan. I like a blend of thyme, oregano, and rosemary. But other combinations work well.

Preheat the oven to 375F and slide in the pans. Turn and toss every 20 minutes, until everything is cooked and starting to caramelize. The overall cooking time really depends on the amount you are doing, the type of pan you are using, the thickness of the vegetable layer in each pan, etc. Basically, cook it until the whole house smells really good and the veggies are very soft and starting to brown. If I were making this for a meal to be eaten that night, I would do a single layer, in pyrex, and let it get golden brown. This is much harder to do in big batches in a home oven, and since freezing compromises texture and flavor anyhow, I think of these roasted veggies as additions to other recipes all winter long, not the main showcase in a meal.

Once everything is cooked, let it cool down completely, and then carefully scoop it into plastic quart-sized freezer bags. I usually use a measuring cup and one of those funnels for jars, since it makes life a little easier. Once frozen, the veggies can be used in pasta sauces, on pizza, in lasagnas, in soups and stews, as fillings in calzones, or as a topping for polenta, etc. You get the picture. It's such a nice way to have a little taste of summer in the winter and uses up so much of that amazing garden produce. Even in a summer like this one, when I have had to take some time away from gardening and preserving, I made sure to do some of these roasted veggies for the freezer.

This Week in Photos - May 15th, 2011

Here's another glimpse of the beautiful sights we see every day, the changes in the season, and the newest additions to our stock.

Ever wonder why our plants look so healthy without any spraying? The answer is: with a little help from our friends.

Our garden coming back to life...with Lily's help!

Garden Planning with Julie

Tuesday, April 26th, 7pm

At the Carpenter Carse Library in Hinesburg

Please join Red Wagon Plants' owner, Julie, for a look at simple ways to feed yourself from your garden. This is geared toward the kitchen gardener who would like to learn how to grow more of their own food in a way that is simple and not overwhelming. We will discuss how to schedule your plantings so that your vegetable harvest is spread out over the whole season and so that you can avoid the tomato jungle and the zucchini baseball bats. Simple preserving techniques will also be covered such as freezing and canning projects that you can tackle on a weeknight as part of your dinner preparation or during a couple of hours on a weekend morning. This is a free event! For more information, please contact the library at 482-2878.

The First Capstone: More on Charley's Wall

Charley and his herringbone wall in the morning light

April 8th

In rain or snow, sleet or sunshine, Charley is outside working tirelessly to finish his beautiful herringbone wall. You can read more about the wall in our previous post, "Charley MacMartin's Herringbone Wall". To find out more about Charley, you can visit Queen City Soil and Stone's website.

See Charley's progress?

April 14th

Do You Want a Little Spring in the Kitchen?

We start selling herbs in pots long before the ground is ready to work. Many of you still have snow on the ground; some of you may be lucky enough to live someplace where the snow is melted, but we all are worried more is on the way. Anyhow, when the snow first melts, the ground looks barren and dirty save for a few bulbs trying to poke through. Poor things. This has been such a cold spring, and while I don't want to complain too much, it would be nice if we had a little warm weather right about now. If you are wanting just a little reminder of what is coming down the road, you could grow a little window sill herb garden for now. All you need are a few herbs, a sunny window, and not much else. If you want to get fancy, you could pot up those herbs into pretty pots or mix them together in an indoor window box, but there is no need to really. Just some 4" pots are fine for now, and soon enough the plants can go outside, either in the ground or in bigger pots. We just started to deliver plants to a few stores, so consider picking some up for a little cheer. The scent alone is enough to lift anyone's spirit.

A group of Bhutanese farmers came to visit our greenhouses this week - it's the second group that has come by. When I saw the look on their faces when they were smelling the herbs - mint, rosemary, cilantro, lavender - I was reminded of why I do this work. It takes the edge off of those long end of winter weeks and brings hope and love into my being. It's an honor to share it all.

- Julie

Allison on Seeds

Allison Lea, our incredible seeder,  eagle-eyed pest finder, and all around special person wrote this beautiful piece on seeds. We love her writing, and hope you enjoy these thoughtful words.

I've had seeds on my mind lately. Not surprising, given the time of year, and the fact that I've been planting seeds for a living for the better part of a decade. It's easy to forget about seeds, during the long months of a Vermont winter. But then that first warm day comes, and with it the scent of damp earth, and suddenly I am visualizing thousands of seeds lying dormant in the ground, waiting and working. I consider myself lucky, because I get to experience an early spring in the greenhouses. While the outdoor seeds are still mired in mud, ice, snow and more unpleasant bits of thawing matter, I am opening crisp white packets and distributing their contents into the warm fluffy soil from Vermont Compost: onions, lettuce, kale, various greens, annual flowers, tomatoes, peppers. I love my job for its ability to provide me with an invaluable set of simple lessons for life. First: start small. Some of the seeds I plant are truly no bigger than a pinprick. Yet even the smallest one contains all the knowledge it needs to become a complete plant. Inevitably, I have moments when I feel as though I'm flailing around in my life, looking for answers outside myself, or feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information literally right at my fingertips. And then I find myself standing at my seeding bench inside the greenhouse, holding a handful of seeds in my hand and realizing I have all the answers I need. I've always had them. Second: calm down a little and be still. While there are many seeds which travel for miles and miles on the wind or hitched to the back of some animal (mainly my dogs, it seems), all the seeds I've handled germinate best when they are left in peace. They're not going to be thrilled if I keep jostling the tray around, or picking them up, examining them for signs of life, and putting them back down. Likewise, when I allow myself to slow down and breathe a little, I start to get more of a grasp on the person I am becoming. Stillness is the key to sprouting, so when I feel myself flitting here and there, reluctant to make a commitment or put down roots, I go back to my seeds, peer at them thoughtfully, and then step back and let them be. Third: not all seeds are going to germinate. Some seed packets will say 60% germination rate. These seeds I sow a little thicker, in order to compensate. If all of them sprouted, I would have a very crowded plug tray, and unhappy plants. I have lots of great ideas, but they're not all going to come to fruition, so letting go of my attachments seems like a good plan. And finally (although the lessons continue indefinitely) cracking open is a good thing. I've seen thousands of little seedlings, and that first green shoot pushing up through the hull never ceases to delight and amaze me, whether it happens in the greenhouse, or out in the garden. So as I strive to make sense of a world which appears to be literally cracking apart under our collective feet, I will keep coming back to the modest little seed, looking for signs of something new and amazing coming through.

Help Wanted

WE HAVE FILLED THIS POSITION!  (3/17/11)

When people walk into our greenhouse, they are greeted by knowledgeable gardeners, like-minded fanatics,  or people who have experience as commercial vegetable growers or as landscape professionals. Whether a customer is a veteran gardener with Latin names rolling off their tongue or a first time tomato plant purchaser, our staff and our customers share a love of plants, food and flowers. We welcome all of our customers into an environment that is helpful and practical. If this description peaks your interest, we may have a good opportunity for you to work in our retail greenhouse.

Here is a little more about the job.....It would entail all aspects of working in the retail greenhouse such as

• Greeting customers
• Answering many questions graciously and knowledgeably
• Keeping displays filled and organized
• Making sure all of the plants have the correct signage
• Running a cash register
• Being on your feet all day
• Lifting 30 lbs comfortably
• Watering plants as needed
• Deadheading as needed
• Taking home lots and lots of plants!
• Having a great time all day!

If this sounds appealing to you, please send us a version of a resume that explains your gardening experience. Let me know what your favorite heirloom tomatoes are, or which annuals do best out by the mailbox at your house. Or maybe you can tell me a story about the first time you new you were addicted to gardening. Basically, we are looking for someone who is very at ease talking about gardening and who has a lot of gardening knowledge easily accessible in their brain because they live and breathe plants. We love our customers and want to continue giving them the service they deserve.

The work dates are roughly April 15th to July 3rd, and the position is for about 20 to 30 hours a week. We realize this is a short time commitment, but if you are a gardening enthusiast with years of experience, and you want a chance to be around beautiful plants and wonderful people, this might be a good opportunity for you.

Contact us with your garden stories and garden resume by email: julieATredwagonplants.com.

Thanks!

Edible Landscaping

A New Focus on Landscaping This year Red Wagon is pleased to offer a variety of new landscape plants that have been requested by our customers. We are working with Cobble Creek Nursery in Monkton to provide  a wide variety of Vermont grown edible and ornamental trees and shrubs. Our staff can help you choose the right plants for your project and give you the information you need to grow them successfully. We can also do on-site garden consultations at your home.

Ecological Landscaping: How to Make the Landscape Work for You

When it comes to landscaping, we believe in a natural, practical approach. There are a number of ways you can make your landscape more functional for you and for the ecosystem simply by choosing the right plants. One way is to plant trees and shrubs that produce edible fruit. The fruit can feed you and your family for years to come, and provide food and habitat for wildlife. Many of these plants have still other benefits, such as ornamental interest, providing shade in summer, as windbreaks, or as privacy screens. Here are some examples of edible landscape plants we are growing this year. For descriptions and growing tips for all the plants we are growing this season, click on “Our Plants”. For some great information on edible landscaping, check out Rosalind Creasy's website or see our "Resources" section.

NEW ‘Autumn Brilliance’ Apple Serviceberry – A native plant that produces white flowers in spring that provide pollen for a wide variety of insects. Flowers are followed by edible red berries that are adored by birds. Leaves turn orange and red in the fall for ornamental interest. Also a coppice species.

Apple Serviceberry

NEW ‘Darrow’ Blackberry – A very reliable, cold-hardy blackberry that bears huge sweet berries in July. 4-5' tall. Provides great habitat and food for wildlife. Produces suckers, creating a fast-growing hedgerow that works well as a privacy screen or windbreak.

‘Patriot’ Blueberry – A super-hardy half high blueberry that tolerates wet soils and produces delicious berries for birds and people. White blossoms in spring and orange leaves in fall offer year-round ornamental interest. These are underused as landscape plants, and we want to promote their use. A hedge of blueberries in the fall is absolutely stunning!

NEW ‘Red Lake’ Currants – A very hardy shrub that produces tart red berries in July. Delicious for jams, jellies, and pies. A great food and shelter plant for wildlife. Flowers that bloom from April to May have ornamental interest and provide nectar for a wide variety of insects.

‘Pixwell’ Gooseberry – Very easy to grow and low-maintenance, with round green berries that are picked like blueberries. Provides food and shelter for wildlife, and flowers provide nectar for pollinators.

gooseberrypixwell_big

NEW ‘Reliance’ Grape – Beautiful pink seedless grapes are excellent for fresh eating! These vigorous climbers can provide needed shade or a privacy screen in summer, as well as food and pollen for wildlife.

NEW ‘Parker’ Pear – A very hardy pear with medium sized reddish-brown fruit, lovely white flowers in spring, and dark purple foliage in fall for year-round ornamental interest. Requires a second variety nearby for pollination. Flowers provide nectar for pollinators, and the tree can be coppiced to produce wood for craft projects or scions.

NEW ‘Shiro’ Plum – Tree produces abundant gold fruit from July to August. Flowers provide nectar to a wide variety of insects.

NEW ‘Fall Gold’ Raspberry – An ever-bearing variety with yellow fruit that produces two crops, in June and August-October. A very hardy and tough plant with a wide variety of uses – plants provide food and shelter to wildlife and pollen to insects, brambles form a hedgerow for privacy or a windbreak, leaves can be used to make tea, and the berries are considered a super-food.

NEW ‘Black Beauty’ Elderberry – A wonderful ornamental and edible plant with year-round interest. Dark purple foliage is complemented by huge pink flowers in midsummer that provide nectar for native pollinators. Dark purple fruit appears in fall, and is great for making jam. Plant provides both food and shelter for wildlife. We will also be carrying a strain of elderberry that was bred by Lewis Hill - a Vermonter who was the authority on fruit production in the northeast. Lewis unfortunately passed a way a few years ago, but the plants he bred and propagated are his living legacy.

Highbush cranberry bush

NEW ‘Alfredo’ Highbush Cranberry – This colorful edible ornamental gives a year-round show. Foliage opens red, then turns green, yellow, and then red again in fall. Red berries appear in fall and persist all winter, providing forage for wildlife. Large white to yellow flowers appear in spring and provide nectar for native pollinators. A very hardy plant that is deer and rabbit resistant. This makes a beautiful privacy hedge, growing thick and tall and just covered in cheery red berries in the fall.

Let us know your plans for your garden this year; perhaps a few well placed edible plants can add beauty to your yard and bounty for your table.

by Sophia and Julie

Dirt

When the first delivery of potting soil comes to our greenhouses, I usually take a moment to stop what I am doing and just dig my hands in the dirt. This year, I have been a bit busier than normal, so I had to wait a few days to do it, but the feeling is the same. It means winter is winding down; that the seeds that are waiting patiently in the storage bins will have a springboard for their magical emergence; and that flowers, greenery, and fresh food will soon be in our lives again.

Winter used to be a difficult time for me, but I have learned to accept its slowness and constricting nature. I spend time outside as much as possible and try to rest; something about hitting 40 makes me understand the value of Doing Nothing more than I used to I suppose. But during those earlier years, when winter was more difficult for me, I always marked the first soil delivery on my calendar and that became the date towards which I would count all winter long. When that day finally came, Dennis, who delivers for VT Copmost Company would drive his truck into the barn and the big pile would spill out of the dump truck and I would wait politely for him to leave before taking off my boots and socks, pulling up pant legs and sleeves, and just dig into that fluffy warm pile.  A thawing takes place, a deep, deep thawing, and gratitude just settles in.

Enter at Your Own Risk: DIY Wedding Flowers. Part 1

Last summer, I must have helped at least half a dozen customers who were looking for some help in planting a garden specifically for home-grown wedding flowers. I often warn people that growing for a specific date is fairly technical and requires weekly plantings, regular harvesting all summer long to keep the plants blooming until the event, and most of all, a very flexible attitude. People who have a specific color scheme or variety in mind are not always good candidates for home grown wedding flowers since those types of flowers may be very hard to grow and getting the right color on the right day means planting about 10 times more than you think you will need in hopes that one of the plantings will be just perfect on the correct day. For those who are planning an event and are willing to look at the flowers as a fun and flexible component, then growing your own is a great option. I have listed below some varieties that are particularly well suite to a DIY flower program.  Full disclosure: I have talked about as many people out of growing their own wedding flowers as I have talked into doing it. It really is not a good fit for everyone, but for those who are willing and able, here is a little help to get you started....

ANNUALS

Verbena bonariensis - reliable and a lovely purple bloom with long wiry stems that hold up well to handling and mixing into all kinds of arrangements. Zinnias - come in all shapes and colors, are best suited for August or later. Require deadheading all summer long, but will branch out and be very productive once well established. Sunflowers - there are lots of sunflower varieties that are designed specifically for cut flowers. Some of our favorites are Giant Sungold Teddy Bear, Sunbright Supreme and Soraya. The only tricky thing is getting the timing just right. They only are perfect to harvest for about 10 days, after that their single blossoms start to drop their petals. Ageratum - blue,  can be tall if planted correctly - a little closer together. Needs deadheading all summer long if you are planning for a late summer or fall event. Very productive if well established and well taken care of. Agrostemma has a lovely, floating quality that gives a lot of life to mixed bouquets. It's airy and delicate, comes in purple or white and produces lots of good, long stems all summer long. Again, needs constant picking and deadheading to produce all summer long.

Ammi - this is a beautiful filler in mixed bouquets or in all-white arrangements. Easy to grow from transplants and produces, nice, tall stems.

Cosmos - come in a variety of textures and lengths, best suited for mid-August or later. While they are beautiful, they do take up a lot of room for not always a lot of stems.

Snapdragons - another multi-colored option or can also be grown as strains of single colors. We offer many options of snapdragons. The stems can sometimes be a little short, but with good fertility and 6" spacing, they will grow straight and tall.

Celosias - come in many shapes, sizes or colors. These are a hardy, easy to grow and more forgiving than others. And they can be dried for long-term keep sakes.

All of these annuals will give you a good place from which to start. Do-it-yourself flowers can always be supplemented with florist purchases the week of the event  if the budget allows it. We will cover more on home grown flowers in subsequent posts, so if this peaks your interest, please stay tuned. Part two will be about which perennials are easy to grow and use for cut flowers. Part Three will be about different tactics to make your cutting garden as prolific as possible.

The Year to Come

by Julie One of my favorite aspects of running a greenhouse business is the ability to create. Not only is the act of growing plants very creative - we get to choose what we grow, how we grow it, how we market it, and how to make it all look beautiful and inspiring (we hope!); but in addition to that is the fact that this is a business like any other.  Ever since I was a little girl, my favorite toys have been my graph paper and my schedules; so a greenhouse business that gives me about 6 months of planning time is really fun for someone like me. I get to think it all through, improve systems, find ways to do more in the community, and create a nice work environment for all of the amazing people at Red Wagon Plants.

Here are some projects and improvements we are hatching (germinating?) at Red Wagon Plants this winter. Our mission is to increase the bounty in our community and this year, we plan to focus on the community part of that mission. We have built up such a wonderful group of customers, both wholesale and retail, and it feels like the right time to get to know everyone a little better!

Our 2011 Goals

• Promote our community partners. Every year, we donate thousands of plants to schools, non-profits, community gardens, and civic gardening projects. We want to share information about all of these wonderful organizations with our customers.
• Create a "Grower Station" at our retail store where people can learn about some simple growing techniques that are appropriate for the home scale, back yard garden.  Many of the staff at Red Wagon have worked on commercial scale vegetable farms and there are so many time-saving and crop-improving methods applied on those farms that easily cross over to the home garden.  This can really help increase the bounty in our customers' backyards and make gardening affordable from a money and time perspective.
• Have an end of year harvest dinner with the bounty from our gardens. We can sit at the table together, share our love of gardening and enjoy the food and spirit of our efforts.
• Invite people to come relax in the greenhouses in the winter. There is no place like a warm greenhouse in winter when the snow is falling and the wind is howling and inside feels like a tropical wonderland of green. How about sharing this with the community? Sunday morning coffee and bagels? Bring your knitting! Hang out with the plants and breath in the smell of dirt and fresh green growth. It seems like every time I tell someone what I do for a living, they say "oh it must be so nice in there on a snowy day!" Well, it is. It's really nice and it takes about 1 month off of winter's length for all of us who have the honor to work here, so we want to share that opportunity and invite others to join in the pleasure!
• Visit customer gardens. We really do love hearing from our customers and want to make more of an effort to see the gardens they tell us about. It would be so fun to roam around in the van and visit all these lovely places where people grow their own food and make their homes beautiful and colorful. What more inspiration does a person need?

So those are a few thoughts, and as always, we love to hear your suggestions, so please feel free to comment.

Gratitude

I woke up today feeling grateful and recharged with a blue sky blasting through the window and a full night of sleep behind me (the first in a while.) Here are a few pictures I took with the early morning sun casting a bittersweet glow on everything. What to make of that late fall look? Winter is coming, summer has produced all it can, and it is time to settle back and enjoy the dark days ahead. The dormant days ahead work for the seeds that need it in order to crack into life come spring - it can work for us too. It is a just fine time of year for sinking into the couch, making soups, catching up on reading, and over all feeling gratitude for the cycles of the seasons, the sweetness in the people around us. While the basement is full of jars of applesauce, tomatoes, jams, chutneys and pickles, I also try to keep a few things going in the garden as long as possible.

Like these .....

The straw keeps the soil from freezing around the leeks so that I can harvest them even in deep snow. The lettuce, arugula, cilantro and dill behind them will keep going a little while longer. I can cover them up with row cover, but most likely they will be eaten before I even need to do that. I will plant 2 or 3 times more next year so that I can have enough to take us through December.

I love this close up of dill with all of its fine texture.

Dill is one of the hardiest herbs to grow in cold weather and gives such brightness to late fall salads, potatoes, eggs, and fish. I use it quite a bit this time of year after pretty much ignoring it all summer long except for using it in a pickle jar or two or three.

I always bring in a few baskets of herbs. I don't do anything to them except cut them, pile them into a basket and leave them around the house. They smell great and love to go to work by the handful when I am making soups, broths and stocks. I don't think they object to being stuffed into a poultry cavity every now and then either. There is nothing like using herbs in big bunches of branches to feel like I am living a rich and luxurious life.

I want to say thanks to compost too.

Parts of the garden are ready for spring, and parts still have a ways to go, but there is so much satisfaction in seeing the raised beds awaiting next year. Soil building organisms busy making teeming, hot life. The ones who really get some of the credit for this are these lovelies......

Enjoy your next few days of rest if that is your luck and your lot. And thank you, deeply, for being a part of all this beauty and grace, coldness, sunshine, poop, and all.