STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS
By Dan And Barbara Pollock
Dear Friends and Fellow Gardeners,
All right you wonderful green people, it is time to get with it, move your body, motivate, go for it, just do it, adelante!
Toss your cares to the wind and plant a garden that will bring smiles to the face and yummies to the tummy.
March is the month to plant, plant, plant, and plant some more.
If you are new to gardening, here are a few really easy veggies and flowers to grow. Radish, lettuce , chard , summer squash, and cucumbers from seed, eggplant and tomatoes from transplants. For annual summer color try lupine, poppies, strawflowers, alyssum, larkspur, sunflowers, and bachelor buttons by seed, and calendulas and marigolds by transplants.
For the cooks and potpourri people, itŐs thyme to savory herbs in the garden. Plant dill, sage, basil, chives, thyme, rosemary, marjoram and oregano. Plant them apart and mark them well as they look alike. Fennel, pineapple sage, lemon verbena, and parsley can be planted with the vegetables. Many herbs can be planted in pots; a great place for the mints since they can be as invasive as Bermuda grass. Remember when cooking with fresh herbs it takes a bit more, than dried ones. So much to do and so little time.
For those with a cold frame or hot house (lucky you) seed peppers, and leeks.
Perennials, oh yes, the wonderful perennials, what would a garden be without daisies, glorious Gloriosa, Shasta, and Michaelmas (actually an Aster), delphiniums, chrysanthemums, columbine, coreopsis, and Coral Bells.
To make the butterflies and humming birds happy, plant Buddleia davidii, check out the many varieties and colors.
Got room for some bulbs? A little early, but what the heck, the early bird gets the early bloom. Plant cannas and callas, Glads, and day lilies, and donŐt forget dahlias. One of my true loves are tuberous begonias. For best results, plant them in pots or baskets (for the hanging varieties) in peat and compost or, if you can find it, pure oak leaf mold. Keep them moist in a shady location and feed regularly with liquid fish emulsion. They are incredibly beautiful.
Last month I mentioned a dirty word to organic gardeners: pre-emergent weed control. These are agricultural chemicals (many of them toxic) applied to the soil to suppress weed seeds.
There is a newly developed organic pre-emergent product called Suppressa made from 100% corn gluten. Suppressa can be used to control crabgrass and dandelions in lawns, and weed seeds in flower and vegetable beds. It seems that there are natural chemicals in corn gluten that have an allopathic effect suppressing the germination of many seeds in the soil. Another plus to this product is that it possesses nine percent nitrogen and one percent phosphoric acid. If all proves to be true you can control weed seeds and fertilize at the same time. Something to try and use with care. Keep in mind it suppresses the germination of many seeds including vegetable and flower seeds. As with any material for use in the garden, read and follow the label. I will be doing some testing at home and at work with this material; the results as well as availability and price will be forth coming.
Until next month Peace and good Gardening.
