My Subversive Garden Plot

The TED conference which is held every year in California, hosts the most innovative and creative thinkers in our country.  This year, one of them was Roger Doiron speaking about the importance of having our own gardens.  This was so much fun to watch, and it makes a good point:

http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_doiron_my_subversive_garden_plot.html

Early Spring Suggestions from Oregon State Extension Service

How to test your stored seed for germination

CORVALLIS, Ore. – If you saved seeds from the last growing season and wonder if they will germinate when planted this spring, you can discover the average rate of germination before the planting season begins.

"It's easy to check vegetable and flower seed viability, and it can save you time later when the gardening season begins," said Ross Penhallegon, horticulturist with the Oregon State University Extension Service. "Some seeds remain viable for a year and others for three or more years."

To find out whether a variety of seed will germinate and grow, Penhallegon suggests the following test:

• Place 10 seeds an even distance apart on a damp paper towel. Roll up the towel and place in a plastic bag.
• Leave the damp, rolled towel in a warm spot in the kitchen for two to five days. The location's lighting doesn't matter.
• After the two-to-five days, check the paper towel to see which seeds have germinated.

"The percentage of seed germinating in the towel will give you a fairly good idea how the same seed will do in the garden," he said. "If half the seed did well in the towel, half of the same batch of seed will probably do well in the garden."

Some seed types last longer than others. For example, seed from sweet corn, parsnips, Swiss chard and spinach generally keep well under normal household conditions for only a year. On the other hand, beans, carrots, cole crops, collards, squashes, tomatoes and turnips are good for at least three years.

Seed is best stored through the winter at 50 degrees with 50 percent humidity. Another good way to store unused seed packets is to place seeds in a sealed jar with a desiccant or powdered milk at the bottom to absorb moisture. Store the jar in a cool room or refrigerator over the winter.

To learn more about storing seed, see OSU Extension's "Collecting and Storing Seeds from Your Garden," FS 220, online.

To learn about propagating plants from seed, see the OSU Extension's PNW 170 "Propagating Plants from Seed" online.

You can search the OSU Extension catalog for more than 1,200 items, including publications, books, videos and other educational media.

Author: Judy Scott

Source: Ross Penhallegon

Planting/Propagation

• Plant windowsill container gardens of carrots, lettuce, or parsley.
• Plan to add herbaceous perennial flowers to your flowering landscape this spring: astilbe, candytuft, peony, and anemone.
• Good time to plant fruit trees and deciduous shrubs. Replace varieties of ornamental plants that are susceptible to disease with resistant cultivars.
• Plant asparagus if the ground is warm enough.
• Plant seed flats of cole crops (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts), indoors or in greenhouse.
• Western Oregon: Where soil is dry enough and workable, plant garden peas and sweet peas. Suggested varieties of garden peas include: Corvallis, Dark Green Perfection, Green Arrow, Oregon Sugar Pod, Snappy, Knight, Sugar Snap, Oregon Trail, and Oregon Sugar Pod II.
• Western Oregon: Good time to plant new roses. 

Pest Monitoring and Management

• Monitor landscape plants for problems. Don't treat unless a problem is identified.
• Use delayed-dormant sprays of lime sulfur for fruit and deciduous trees and shrubs.
• Remove cankered limbs from fruit and nut trees for control of diseases such as apple anthracnose, bacterial canker of stone fruit and eastern filbert blight. Sterilize tools before each new cut.

Message from a Midwestern Transplant

YAHOO, I'm so glad to have come across your "In Brief" in the S'News about growing food & sharing LOCAL garden knowledge!!  John, thanks for talking with me about this (and following a few rabbit trails) this morning.  I come from the midwest, and was astonished to find that many of the plants I had been buying back east (and regularly killing) grow wild here along the railroad tracks & river banks!!

I'm also learning a bit about what grows well here and what doesn't work, and have decided that snow peas and snap peas are a great use of my garden space, while corn is NOT worth it.  While my husband is exalting his hops crops, I've been sharing hardy kiwis and extolling their virtues to several surprised friends, and looking forward to growing more blueberries, but there's an awful lot I have to learn!  For a few:
 

1. Now's probably a good time to start several things in my greenhouse - definitely peas, spinach, lettuce, kohlrabi and broccoli, but probably too early for squash, tomatoes & peppers...  
2. John, what was the berry that you mentioned that sounded like 'erronia'?  (Aronia~admin)
3. I definitely need a load of manure - seems like a trailerful (I have the trailer) would be about right.  Other than C&M Stables north of Florence, do you know of any place to go?  I found a couple local ranches (Veneta & Walton) on EatWild.com, but they aren't selling poop. 
4. I also need to know a lot more about pruning & caring for my fruit trees (apple & cherry).  Do you know anyone in the Mapleton/Swisshome area?

Please do put me on your email list!  Thanks so much,

Peg