Book Recommendation -  Kids and Vegetable Gardening

Signs of spring are finally  sprouting, and children are waiting to splash in the puddles and, if properly conditioned, maybe also willing to dig with you in garden soil.  To that end one of the following books should be strategicly squeezed into  one of their egg baskets along side  all the choculate rabbits.  This list of relatively new books was compiled for me by Molly Chatt, Head of Youth Services for the East Greenbush Community Library in Rensselaer County.  Many of the titles will be available from your local public library, and all are availble from either bookstores or online sources. Happy reading and digging...

• Armstutz, Lisa J. Edible gardening: growing your own vegetables, fruits, and more.  Capstone Press,  2016
• Craig, Joe Archer & Caroline.  Plant, cook, eat!: a children's cookbook.  Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc..  2018
• Batholomew, Mel. Square foot gardening with kids: learn together: gardening basics, science and math, water conservation, self-sufficiency, healthy eating. Cool Springs Press , 2014
• Biggs, Emma. Gardening with Emma: Grow and Have Fun: A Kid-to-Kid Guide. Storey Publishing 2019
• Brown, Renata Fossen. Gardening lab for kids: Garden art: fun experiments to learn, grow, harvest, make, and play. Quarry Books 2017
• Cohen, Whitney and John Fisher. Gardening projects for kids: 101 ways to get kids outside, dirty, and having fun. Timber Press 2012
• Gaines, Joanna. We Are the Gardeners. Thomas Nelson 2019
• Hendy, Jenny. The best-ever step-by-step kid's first gardening: Fantastic Gardening Ideas for 5-12year olds, from growing fruit and vegetables and fun with flowers to wildlife gardening and outdoor crafts. Southwater 2014
• Kuskowski, Alex. Super simple salad gardens: a kid's guide to gardening. ABDO Publishing Company 2015
• McDougal, Nancy and Jenny Hendy. 300 step-by-step cooking & gardening projects for kids: the ultimate book for budding gardeners and super chefs with amazing things to grow and cook yourself, shown in over 2300 photographs. Lorenz 2012
• Torino, Stacy. Project Garden: A Month-by-Month Guide to Planting, Growing, and Enjoying ALL Your Backyard Has to Offer. Adams Media 2012

And remember...

"Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important 

events in our lives." - Thomas Berry

Garden Preparation - April

At last it's time to give in to some of your stronger vegetable gardening urges! If you haven't already started, here's a short list of things to -- assuming that you've completed preparations for March...

Yes, yes - start those tomatoes and other warm weather plants now in your cellar or on the table by the window. Remember to keep the soil warm and moist. 

As mentioned here last year, as well as in probably every other gardening blog for the great Northeast, plant your peas, parsnips and spinach outside.

If they're ready, set out broccoli, cabbage  etc. 

• If you want to protect these plants from root maggots in an organic manner, consider employing a maggot mat.  Unlike a collar around the stems as a shield against cutworms, the mats are laid  tightly flat around the stems. [Use a heavy paper or landscaping cloth slit into the center with just enough of a hole for the stem.] Root maggots are the larvae of small black flies that lay eggs around the stems. By using a mat you can prevent the hatchlings from first burrowing into the ground and then burrowing into the plants.

• If you already have seedlings started in small cell or plug flats, for example, remember to transplant them to larger containers after their first true leaves appear.  Containers between 3" x 3" and 4" x 4" should serve the purpose.

•  If your garden soil is no longer wet, i.e. it doesn't stay in a ball when you pick up a handfull and gently squeeze it, you can now add your compost.  This will give the compost a headstart on starting its final decomposition making more nitrogen available.

Selecting tomato plants

As the month progresses, if you haven't started tomato seedings, you might  be feeling guilty and starting to  think about buying tomato  plants  now appearing like weeds in garden centers.

Resist those urges to buy. It's still too early - you will need to keep them warm & moist probably indoors until the end of May. [You will be able to buy plants from at a local  farmer's market well into June.] 

But, if you can't resist your urges, at least follow the advice of Craig LeHoullier (Epic Tomatoes, 2015) and DON'T BUY plants that:

• Look too big or look too leggy for their pots;
• Show discoloration or any blemishes on their leaves or stems;
• Have flowers or small fruit; or
• Look crowded or wilted.

• and, I would add, don't be afraid to ask where the plants come from... A  local source, not Canada or North Carolina, is preferable because the plants will be more acclimated and are less likely to have pests and diseases from those other locations.

Seed Saving Suggestion

I recognize that not many garderers now might  be thinking about saving seed but it just recently occurred to me that instead of either throwing out or recycling all my plastic pill vials, I could, at least, reuse some of the larger ones for saving seeds.  [I wouldn't  be surprised if I were actaully the last gardener in Rensselaer County to realize this  repurposing of these amber colored containers, but in case I'm not the last one...] I always have some seed packets that are torn or worse for wear at the end of a season that have left over seeds in them or sometimes I have heirloom (non-hybrid) seeds that I want to save. Anyway, just a thought...

And remember...

"April prepares her green traffic light, and the world thinks GO." - Christopher Morley

Book Recommendation - Epic Tomatoes

Spring, when gardeners and vegetable eaters turn their fancies to tomatoes...

Epic Tomatoes - How to Select & Grow the Best Varieties of All Time by Craig LeHoullier (Storey Publishing, 2015) is a beautifully designed and illustrated book about tomatoes. In fact, it is visually mouth-watering and clearly reflects the author's professed passion.

LeHoullier has been growing tomatoes for 35+ years. His specialty is heirloom tomatoes -- he is, btw,  responsible for the naming of the Cherokee Purple way back in 1990. He also authors a blog, and his website  includes many videos about basic gardening techniques.

All  aspects  of growing tomatoes  from starting seeds to saving seeds for next year's harvest are, needless to say, thoroughly covered for backyard gardeners in this book. Although Epic Tomatoes describes the characteristics of  250 tomato varieties, LeHoullier  clearly favors the heirloom types.  He also slips in  a handful of recipes and a little information about preserving, but these topics are clearly secondary to his simply wanting to help gardeners grow and enjoy the fruits of Solanum lycopersicum.


LeHoullier breaks up the major sections of Epic Tomatoes by highlighting the superior features of each of his ten favorite heirloom varieties. The sections on pests and diseases cover the most likely problems a backyard gardener may encounter. Symptoms and solutions are well explicated and  the accompanying illustrations are unambiguous.  These along with a few other miscellaneious topics are further augmented by another section  consisting of  answers to gardener submitted questions that is reminescent of James Underwood Crockett's Victory Garden books.

For beginning  gardeners his advice about using containers applies not just to tomatoes but to using  containers in general is right on target - although most gardeners will probably choose not to convert their driveways into container garden sites.  LeHoullier also mentions how to use straw bales in lieu of planting beds for tomatoes, but you may want to checkout the fuller treatment concerning straw bales in his second book,   Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales - Easy Planting, Less Weeding and Early Harvests.  For the truly curious gardener, he even discusses how to breed your own varieties.

 In short, if you know a gardener and are stumped  about what to give them sometime for a present,  give them this book.  They will thank you and hopefully share their tomatoes with you!


And remember...

"To grow a tomato or a pepper and prepare a meal from your labor

and care is primordially satisfying." - Neil Newman

What's in Your Garden Soil:  The Carbon : Nitrogen Ratio 

Master Gardeners are always talking about using  cover crops or compost as two very important means of providing nitrogen (N) to a garden, but there is another element that influences how much N and in what form N may be present in soil. That other element is carbon (C), and we will now  review why that relationship is important as well as why  backyard gardeners should be atuned a little into the carbon/nitrogen (C:N) ratio.

Plants obtain carbon from the atmosphere by converting carbon dioxide via photosynthesis into sugars that are used to fuel their cellular processes.  Not all of this captured carbon, obviously,  is used as fuel. Plants also incorporate carbon into their cellular structures in  the forms of cellulose and lignins. A tree, remember, is one big edifice of mostly cellulose.

Where does nitrogen (N) come into play?

Nitrogen Cycle. Source: scied.ucar.edu

N is needed by living cells  to make the proteins  that are essential for growth. Plants obtain their N from soluble compounds such as nitrate  (NO3-), nitrite (NO2-), ammonia  (NH3), and ammonium (NH4+) that are available in the soil. These compounds are the result of a number of different processes involving the conversion of either atmosperic N or N from  biologic sources by the actions of various mircroorganisms. A few plants, like legumes, also can convert atmosperic N into a usable form.  Few plants, by the way, can handle ammonia directly; most plants need it to be  converted by bacteria into either nitrate(NO3-) or nitrite (NO2-

How does carbon (C) come into play?

Lots of carbon   actually can be  found in  soi and comes mainly from the   remains of decomposing plant  cellulose. This carbon  soil is not used by living plants, but it is the bread and butter for bacteria.  These bacteria, however,  also use available N sources in the soil as they  breakdown cellulose and multiply.  In the short term high amounts of   C in soil can spur rapid bacterial growth subsequently depleting  the available N for  plants.  In the long term because bacteria incorporate relatively a lot of N into their proteins, when they die and their proteins decompose, soluble N will become available again to plants albeit maybe later in the growing season when plants may be in a different growth stage and need less N.

So how much carbon (C) is too much?

As you can see, the amount of carbon versus nitrogen in soil can become a seesaw-like activity.  The ratio of C to N can vary considerably  during a season. Because soil microorganisms usually become active before plants, they can get a head start on plants for available N. If the C/N ratio is high,  e.g. greater than 33:1, bacteria may easily out compete your raddishes. This is why gardeners and farmers use cover crops and  fertilizers in the spring - to ensure that there is enough N in the soil for young plants to thrive.  

• FWIW: Gardeners  know that  using sawdust as a mulch in a garden (its C/N ratio is around 400:1)  is a "No, No" because all of the available N might be taken up by feasting bacteria.  Gardeners using straw as a mulch (its C/N ratio is about 80:1) run a similar but reduced risk, although these gardeners are probably  also adding  compost  to their gardens to maintain an overall healthy C/N ratio. 

What is a good C/N Ratio?

Depends... there is  lattitude,  and the C/N ratio naturally fluctuates due to moisture levels, temperatures, soil characteristics and plant growing cycles during the course of a growing season.   Typically a ratio between 12 - 15:1 is considered good for vegetables. In that ballpark range bacteria populations seem to be relatively stable. There is enough available N   for bacteria to break down cellulose and for  plants to grow. On the other hand, a low C/N ratio  (e.g. 9 - 10) may not be necessarily bad. Decomposition will be slowed, but will continue at a steady rate assuming you have a soil with sufficient humus content.  

What about the C/N Ratio in my compost pile?

New green organic material like clover, coffee grounds,  grass clippings & other common yard/garden waste added to a compost pile  will moderately increase the C/N ratio. The ratios of these items are in the range between 20 - 30:1.  Weeds, vegetable scraps and hay   bring higher C/N ratios  in the range of 20 - 35:1 to a compost pile. By turning over your compost for aeration and keeping it moist, you can promote the nitrification process. You can also add manures (C/N 15:1 typically) to give it quick boost of N.  When decomposition is completed, your pile will eventually wind up with ratio of around 12:1.

There are methods to determine the C/N ratio of large compost piles. These require  that you know the quantities of the materials,  e.g. tonnage,  in the pile and their basic chemical compositions.     For the backyard gardener,  however,  the        fundamental    question simply is  "Are your plants looking healthy and green?"  If yes, no problem.  If no,  you have some investigating to do because it may not be just a whacky C/N ratio...

And remember...

"If you wish to grow anything, you must understand it and to understand it in a very real way." - Russell Page

Garden Preparation - March

March! Backyard gardeners are probably getting itchy just thinking about digging into their vegetable beds, but so far March looks a lot like February - cold and white.  Here are a few activities that might help pass some time and make you feel that you're getting into the swing  of another growing season. March taxes my creative juices, but like having hot tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a cold day,  doing a few familiar activities can be  satisfying enough while waiting for inspiration...

Prune in  cold weather before the evil organisms reactivate
in spring. Photo: Applegarth Farm, MN

• There is still time to catch up on the pruning that you've been procrastinating about... get out there in the snow and carefully trim the grape vines,  remove last year's canes from the raspberry patch and cut the suckers and shoots on your ornamental crabapples!  

• Peas, peas, peas... Later this month, assuming it's warmer and the ground is thawed, you might consider planting peas.  Pea seeds hold up well in cold ground.

• Start cabbage, broccoli and collards as well as lettuce indoors. Unless you have a greenhouse, it's still too early to start the warmer season veggies - like tomatoes - resist that urge.

• And, of course, you can  clean gardening tools. 

• Later this month when the ground becomes clear of snow, if you have a deep layer of mulch on your garden, rake it temporarily away from your rows or cover the rows with landsaping cloth to enable the sun to warm the soil. Note:  if you remember that part of your garden was over run with weeds at the end of last season, use black plastic instead of landscaping cloth to kill the weeds.

• If you don't have a cold frame, much less a greenhouse, start saving those 1 & 2 liter clear plastic bottles and 1/2 and 1 gallon milk jugs (these translucent jugs work, too).  If you do decide to rush the season, by cutting off the bottoms and removing the caps you can use these containers as little cloches to protect your sensitive seedlings when you abandon them outside.  For other ideas about extending your growing season, this  Cornell guide provides more ideas.

And remember...

"The "control of nature" is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy,

 when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man." - Rachel Carson

NO-TILL GARDENING & COVER CROPPING

No-till corn planted into a cover crop of cowpeas.
 Photo by Dr. Rafig Islam, OSU

Sometimes when you start thinking about something, that "something"   triggers  a  sense of confusion before you realize that the "something" that appeared simple is actually, like most things, quite complicated.

Confusion was my   first reaction when I started to think about how  no-till gardening related to cover cropping. I know that master gardeners preach about them  and farmers regularly use cover cropping to improve aspects of soil fertility and structure; but the two ideas also seemed to be somewhat contradictory top me.  

Mowed cover crop in spring. The  decomposing green  provides a mulch layer

while the roots    improve aeration as well as add  nutrients as they decay.

The idea behind no-till is that soil fertility and structure are improved by allowing the  soil's ecology to develop naturally with little or no soil disturbance.   No-till practices allow the populations of earthworms, bacteria, nematodes and, importantly, mycorrhizal fungi to increase in the soil   establishing a balanced ecology that sustains soil fertility.   Mulch and compost are typically put on top of the soil to augment any needed nutrients and to suppress the sprouting of weed seeds     arriving via the wind or bird droppings.

Traditional plowing [a deep tillage technique], as well as a gardener's   deep spading, destroys many of these healthy soil organisms; and this means, in the case of mycorrhizal fungi,  that plants will actually miss out on obtaining the water and nutrients  these critters  can also  provide to plants.  Dormant weed seeds long buried in the ground may also be moved up to the surface and  be stimulated to sprout when  exposed to daylight.    But, there are also  positive aspects of deep tilling to keep in mind.  It does introduce oxygen into the soil  quickly and that  stimulates bacteria to breakdown available organic matter releasing some nutrients in usuable form, like nitrogen, for a new crop.  It also  expedites the warming  and drying of  soil in the spring enabling earlier planting.  Over time, however, deep tilling can lead gardeners and farmers to   become more dependent on commercial fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides to compensate for   a depleted  soil ecology.

Backyard gardeners using raised beds or containers probably unconsciously incorporate a lot of no-till practices  into their garden chores, and  many of these gardeners also  use of cover crops.    The backyard gardeners, I know, mostly limit their cover crops to winter rye or buckwheat at the end of a growing season as a way to give their soil a nitrogen shot  next season because both of these cover crops  can be lightly tilled into the soil top few inches of  soil or easily mowed/rolled down without disturbing soil ecology.

FWIW:  Legume cover crops, like cowpeas, take nitrogen (N) from the air and convert it to ammonium,  and then this new N source  potentailly becomes  available to  plants in the spring. Non-legume cover crops recycle any leftover N in the soil from a prior harvest. This N  becomes available to new  plants as the roots of the cover crop decompose. But, take note, because soil microbes usually become active before new plants,  the microbes  get first dibs on available N.  If a soil's N content is low in the spring, new plants may encounter a  deficiency of N. This can happen if spring planting gets delayed by weather - the soil is too wet, too cold etc.

So, who wouldn't want to use cover crops?

Plowing  warms  and drys  soil in the spring.
Photo: Oregon SU

Cover cropping sounds like a panacea, but it gets complicated with the need for crop rotation and, of course, by the scale and variety of farming activity.  Vegetable farmers seeking to move to no-till, whether they are following conventional or organic methods, will probably find they  need to switch from row to fixed raised beds. Creating the beds is not hard; but because farming equipment  compacts the soil between the beds from repeated tracks, a grower may need  to plant different cover crops between the beds to impove the soil's ability to resist  compaction than the cover crop needed in  the raised beds. These additonal crops add  costs.

Among the factors farmers have to think about when selecting  cover crops  are:

• What's the goal? Is it  weed suppression, erosion control, nitrogen capture, adding organic matter, breaking hardpan, reducing the risk of soil diseases or pests, etc. [For some help in choosing a cover crop, Cornell offers this  Cover Crop Decision Tool.]

• Is the cover crop a good match for the character of the field's soil? - Alfalfa, e.g., needs fertile and warm temperatures to germinate as does forage raddish that promotes the break up of clay soils, but it will also attract harlequin beetels. Each field may have unique characteristics  requiring differenent cover crops. 

• What is the cash crop? Is it a field crop like many grains or legumes or is it  planted in rows? Can the cover crop be inter-planted with the cash crop, or does it need to follow the cash crop's harvest? 

• What tilling does the cover crop require? Can the cash crop sprout through last season's cover crop residue? Will the cover crop clog a seeder if its residue is left on top of the soil? 

• Will the cover crop's growth cycle be compatible with that of  the cash crop's? Will it be necessary to use a herbicide to clear the field for planting in order to harvest the cash crop in time for market or to prevent the cover crop from reseeding and becoming a weed. 

• How does crop rotation affect cover crop selection from year to year? 

Spiker aerator and tractor for reduced tillage.
A backyard gardener just needs a broad tooth fork.

Many, if not most, American farmers do    use  a mix of lite-tilling strategies, collectively called reduced tillage, usually in order to limit erosion and ideally  to minimize soil disturbance.  A small but increasing number of farmers are  also introducing  or expanding  no-till  practices into their tillage repertoire.

Farmers starting the move to no-till unfortunately frequently have to expect  yields  from these fields, especially for field crops like corn, to  decline until natural soil fertility is restored. This can be  a 7 - 9 year process   unless implementation is carefully managed -- that's a long time with a reduced income from a field until you start to see increased yields and lower costs!  Along with making such a  long term  commitment, no-till strategies need to  be tailored  for each  each field.

Cover cropping is an important component of no-till, but definitely a complicating factor.  [If you are interested in how cover crops can be employed  during  conversion to no-till to speed up the process, take a look at Ohio State University's Factsheet on Using Cover Crops to Convert to No-till.]

OSU  found that  growers can reduce the time to restore the soil's natural fertility, at least for some crops, to as little as only 2 - 3 years - a much more attractive proposition -- by employing a continuous living cover strategy, i.e.    using cover crops to eliminate/reduce the time that fields are devoid of plants. The benefits of  leaving plant material on top of the soil and roots  left undisturbed in ground over the winter months substantially promote restoration of soil health and reduce nutrient loss from erosion and runoff.  

Well, that's enough for now, I know that I have barely tilled the surface regarding  cover crops and no-till.

And remember

"There's no limit on how complicated things can get on account of one thing 

always leads to another." - E. B. White

Garden Preparation - February

Somedays it may be hard to think about gardening.

T'is February, a month high in suicides, but for gardeners, a time to think about the greener days coming.

For the ambitious backyard gardener, February can be the time to

• start such vegetables as celery, leeks, cabbages, cauliflower under lights;

• order seeds, if you haven't already succumbed to the urge; and

• spend a little time thinking about the sustainability of your garden.

If you are looking for more gardening advice about what to do in February, either search this blog using the term "February" for last year's post or click on the link labeled Root Concerns, the Rensselaer County Extension's newsletter,  located on this display's right side for its 2019 suggestions. Otherwise,  just continue reading here.

Simple Crop Rotation Plan

Rotation in my small garden I find is a challenge every year.  My plots are not divided evenly among the plants I decide to grow. Tomatoes always seem to take up about a 1/3 of my space; and, of course,  I like to include a few peppers and  eggplants.  Because these vegetables  are related to tomatoes, just rotating them in my small space does not necessarily do as much as it  might to minimize the risks of some pests or  diseases such as verticulum wilt (VW). Because VW can stay active in soil for 10 - 15 years, crop rotation in small gardens actually provides little protection against it.  That said, I do try to follow the scheme like the one listed below, but I also know that I have to compensate for my space constraints by putting more focus on soil building by rigorously adding  compost  and mulch  to maintain soil health, selecting varieties that are resistant to certain diseases (like VW) and experimenting with growing some plants, like eggplants, in containers filled with new  soil - I usually bury these pots in the ground to reduce the risks of their overheating and drying out. 

A simple crop rotation plan like the one listed below and followed over four years for common vegetables with plants from each group grown in a given garden space each year looks something like this:

                                Year 1:  Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers

                                Year 2: Carrots and other root veggies, lettuces, spinach

                                Year 3: Cabbage family (Brussels sprouts, cauliflower etc.)

                                Year 4: Onions, garlic, leeks, legumes (beans, peas)

Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living - My Soapbox Topic for February

Cornell U. Botanical Garden - Sustainably beautiful.

Now, in line with the effort to think about  gardening during February, let's touch upon the concept of sustainable gardening.

The phrase simply identifies  a collection of practices with the goal that strives to produce better harvests both now and into the future by utilizing techniques  that are in harmony with local environments.  

Actually, I think all backyard gardeners   want to have sustainable gardens - they do not intentionally grow vegetables in ways that  exhausts the soil to the point that even weeds fail to thrive.  All gardeners realize that their next  growing season  requires planning and preparation during  the current  season.

Crop rotation, briefly mentioned above,  happens to be  one of the characteristics of sustainable  gardening.  The other main characteristics of sustainable gardening include:

• Minimizing negative environmental impacts: e.g. by avoiding or rarely using insecticides or pesticides;

• Working to  improve soil fertility: e.g. by adding compost and natural fertilizers to promote soil health and to  reduce reliance on commercial fertilizers. This not only saves money, but also may reduce carbon emissions by lowering the demand for those bags of 5-10-5;

• Promoting conservation and biological diversity:  e.g. by  mulching,  planting diverse crops that attract both pollinators and beneficial nemodotes and conserving water;

• Using community and local resources: e.g. by composting your own plant wastes and using neighborhood resources such as raked leaves or grass clippings (free of pesticides, of course) to recycle the nutrients locally; and most importantly...

• LEARNING & THINKING about  your gardening skills: e.g.  by finding out about best practices. Check the Internet  for your county's Cooperative Extension Service or (gasp)  look for a book at the public library about growing vegetables.

These goals also apply to gardeners using containers   In fact,   container gardeners actually are  employing many sustainable techniques automatically, e.g. they already  have little need for insecticides and they probably don't over water, but passing on their sustainable containers to  heirs is probably (still) uncommon. By choosing organic  soils and fertilizers to replenish container soils  and choosing disease resistant plant varieties container gardeners  also reduce demand for commercially produced products.  Their  small harvests from containers even count as using local resources; and importantly, their gardening activity conveys to friends and relations an awareness about sustainable efforts.  In this regard  both container and backyard gardeners should be mindful of their  roles, albeit seemingly small, in promoting sustainable methods and raising awareness about the need to recognize human society's dependence upon the natural environment.

For people without gardens, and that is most people in our society, if they are lucky enough to have access  to organic and/or locally grown vegetables, they can support those growers  by purchasing even a little of that produce.  If they do not easily have access to these sources as affordable options, then the most important thing they can do for themselves and for the planet is to simply buy a little bit less convenience or fast food - probably something that everyone should be doing.

In our society many small decisions about food choice by consumers eventually can have  impacts, so the choices of non-gardeners may be the most important in improving sustainable agricultural and eventually influencing better sustainable lifestyles.


And remember:

"Gardeners, I think, dream bigger dreams than emperors." - Mary Cantwell