Vegetable Gardening



Ed's new veg garden

My neighbor roto-tilled up part of his back lawn and put in a vegetable garden. It was an ambitious project that took most of two weekends to finish and now I see rows of something green beginning to sprout.

The vegetable garden at Countryside has been in for several weeks now. This year Richard and Lori have planted potatoes, broccoli, chard, tomatoes, radishes and peppers.



The Countryside Garden




You might think that June is too late to put in a veg. garden but it really isn’t, especially since our spring was so cold and wet. Most of the traditional veg crops do best in warm weather anyway. So, really, now is the perfect time.

Even if you think my neighbor was a little ambitious, many vegetables are easily grown in containers. I grow my herbs and tomatoes in half whiskey barrels where I can position them to take best advantage of the sun in my otherwise shady garden.



Netting over the spinach to keep
our little friends out.



Some vegetables, in particular the leafy chards, beets and lettuce can be interspersed amongst your ornamentals. One year at Ball Seed field days we saw beets used in ornamental annual containers and I just love the look of Bright Lights Swiss Chard in containers. My friend, Jean, does the containers at the Brink Street Market and uses them. Chard is a great alternative to spinach, which has a tendency to “bolt,” or go to seed in the hot weather.



Planting vegetables, even in containers, is a great way to get your kids interested in gardening and interested in eating what they grow. When we lived in Denver I planted pole peas up the one side of our deck. We never had enough for a whole meal but we would use them raw in salads and my girls enjoyed harvesting and shelling them.

If you need some ideas about what to plant, the Cornell University vegetable variety project has vegetables rated by actual gardeners.  It is not just specific to New York, but has garden profiles from all over.  The University of Illinois extension web site also has information about growing, harvesting and storing vegetables.  And, not to brag, but we here at Countryside are a vertible font of knowledge on vegetable growing.

We still have plenty of starter vegetables at Countryside and of course seeds. So come on in and let us help you get started. It’s not too late!

The Year of the Tomato

Topsy Turvy tomato

A couple of weeks ago my youngest, who is in school in Boston, called to ask about growing tomatoes in one of the Up Side Down grow bags. She asked if they started tomatoes from seed would they bear fruit this year. Well, apparently, I have been neglectful of her horticultural education (tho I may say that she is getting a first rate education in information science and it has been worth every penny Mr. Ross spends to send her there). Of course tomatoes are an annual here and even if you could over winter them, the likely hood of survival and then good production the next year is doubtful.
The National Gardening Bureau has proclaimed this year the Year of the Tomato. They have also selected the Zinnia as the Annual of the Year and next year will also honor a perennial.

Tomatoes can be classified in several ways, including by size and shape of fruit, growth habit, color, days to maturity, etc. Everybody has an opinion on which is best, but it really depends on how you are going to use it, to determine what tomato is best for you. There are plenty of hybrids and heirlooms to pick from so you shouldn’t have a problem finding one that suits your needs.

Tomatoes in a mixed container





Tomatoes range in size from grape, cherry, plum, standard and beefsteak. They can be red, orange, yellow, green, almost black and even striped. One important factor in determining what variety to grow is its growth habit. I always grow mine in a big whiskey barrel so I usually pick a “determinate” variety. This type of tomato grows to a genetically predetermined height and bears most of its fruit at the same time. This is a good thing if you do any type of canning or preserving of tomatoes. Determinate tomatoes tend to be more compact, which makes them perfect for containers. Some of them are so compact they can even be planted in hanging baskets! Indeterminate types continue to grow and produce fruit over the entire season. They can get quite large and need staking or a tomato cage to hold them up.

There are a bazillion
tomato varieties



One question we always get at Countryside is about the days to maturity and what this actually means. Tomatoes are classified as early, mid-season and late. Days to maturity are the average days from the time the plant is transplanted into the garden until the first fruit ripens. Since it is an average, it really should be used as a guide not gospel. Generally speaking early tomatoes will ripen in fewer than 70 days, mid-season from 70-80 days and late tomatoes will require over 80 days from date of planting outdoors.

We always have a great selection of all types of tomatoes and I am sure we can find one that will suit your needs.  Click here to see all the varieties we will have this year.







Blossom End Rot

I was really bummed this week to discover that some of my tomatoes have blossom end rot. I have probably pitched 7-8 tomatoes. I grow my veggies and herbs in containers because I don’t have a lot of room where there is full sun. I was really happy this spring to discover that the thyme had survived the winter and I replanted the rosemary I had taken inside last fall and it has done really well. This year I planted a bush Early Girl and it has grown and produced quite a few blossoms that will eventually turn into tomatoes.

Blossom end rot pretty much tells you what the disease does in tomatoes. The blossom end turns black and eventually the whole tomato rots. It is caused by a lack of calcium and is due to irregular watering. Too little water and the plant cannot take up enough calcium, too much and the nutrients are diluted. I think it is exacerbated in container gardening because there is only so much soil to hold water and nutrients and the roots can only go so far before they reach the side of the container. When the tomatoes are in the ground at least they can send the roots farther out to search for nutrients and water.

The most immediate remedy (besides correcting the water issue) is water soluble calcium that you can spray on the leaves of the tomato. It is available at Countryside and is called Blossom End Rot Stop.

Planting tip: If for some reason you are having to plant or transplant in this heat, use an anti-transpirant such as Wilt Stop or Wilt Pruf. This will keeps the plant from losing moisture and will make your planting more successful. Plants need about an inch of water a week and prefer to be watered deeply and infrequently rather than frequent shallow waterings.

Weather

Well, as they say, when you don’t have anything else to talk about, you can always talk about the weather. The weather has been foremost in our minds as we try to keep the cold and windy weather of late from damaging the plants. It has also been topic of conversation among our customers as you wonder whether to plant now or wait til it warms up, whenever that will be. April was the coldest April in 11 years and I imagine May will break some sort of record as well. The average last frost date for our area is May 15, but frosts have been recorded as late as the first week of June! So, you have been warned.

Last week we had a frost at Countryside that nipped several varieties of annuals that had been outside, as well as some of the veggies Richard had planted in the garden out back.
Vegetables– Lettuces, the brassicas (broccoli, cabbages, brussels sprouts, etc.) do well in cooler weather, tho the broccoli that Richard planted got nipped in last week’s frost and the young primary heads had to be removed. Heads will form on the sideshoots, so the crop won’t be a total loss. The beets also got hit and the leaf edges turned brown. Sometimes the veins of tomato leaves will turn purple due to colder temperatures. The plants will eventually grow out of it once the weather warms.
It is still too early to plant the warm season crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and the squashes and melons. Until the soil warms up you should really hold off on planting these crops in the ground. Even if you don’t get the plants in the ground until mid-June, you should not notice a decline in production. Once the nights warm up the plants will catch up.

If you want to get some ideas for planting your garden, check out the demo gardens located around the sales lot. The Vegetable demo garden is in Greenhouse 7. There are demo gardens for perennials, annuals and the "Stepables" (ground cover plants that can take foot traffic.)

Annual Bedding Plants– Pansies and snapdragons thrive in the cooler weather but hold off on planting impatiens and flowering vinca. Planting them when the soil is still cold will really set them back. You can actually see their little leaves curl up to protect them from the cold. The wind really does a number on hanging baskets. Set them on the ground or put them in the garage to protect them.

Perennials– Although perennials can be planted now (ours have been out on the display tables for several weeks with no ill effects from the cold) you may have noticed your perennial plants have been slow to come out of dormancy due to the cold soil temperatures. I imagine butterfly bush, caryopteris and hardy hibiscus will be really delayed this year, so resist the temptation assume they have died and pull them out. I never see much action out of my butterfly bush until June.