The New Year has started in very pleasant fashion for gardeners and gardens here in Southeast Texas. Our soil is moist from all the rains we had in December. The temperatures are cool but moderate and so far the sunshine has been plentiful. It's been quite a contrast to the starts that we've had to the last couple of years. Let us hope this pleasant trend continues.
As the old year ended, my mailbox was being daily flooded by seed catalogs. Recently, I've spent a lot of time poring over them, trying to make the difficult choices of what to plant this year. I'm thinking particularly about the vegetable garden just now. I've decided to get some new seed starter trays with heated pads to get seeds started in my unheated garage. But which seeds to purchase?
Tomatoes have been problematic in my garden the last couple of years. They just haven't done well at all. I'm looking to try something different this year. I have my eye on four heirloom varieties: 'Black Krim,' 'Rutgers,' 'Mortgage Lifter,' and 'Cherokee Purple.' None of them are varieties I'm likely to find in nurseries here, but if I start my own seeds, they should be ready to go into the garden by early March. True, I may have to give them extra protection from late frosts, but the sooner I get them growing the more likely they will be able to produce fruit for me before the REALLY hot weather gets here. That has been my problem in recent years. It just gets too hot too early. Once the temperatures are above 90 degrees on a daily basis, the plants shut down and stop producing.
The heat is less of a problem for eggplants and peppers, but I want to get some of those plants started early as well, along with summer squash.
Elsewhere in the garden, I need a blueberry bush to replace one that didn't make it through the heat and drought of last year. I also want to plant some strawberries and find spots for other small fruit trees in the yard.
In addition, there are a few more perennials and shrubs that need to be moved and then it is time to start pruning and cleaning up the frost-killed plants. Truly, a gardener's work is never done, but on such beautiful winter days as today, it all at least seems possible. Even the weeding.
Welcome 2012. Please be gentle with us.
Showing posts with label heirloom vegetables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heirloom vegetables. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Native vs. non-native, redux
I wrote here a couple of days ago about the controversy of using native versus non-native plants and heirloom versus hybrid vegetables. Here's another take on the subject from the pages of The New York Times today. You won't have any trouble figuring out where the writer stands!
Friday, April 1, 2011
The generalist
Earlier this week, I moseyed on over to The Arbor Gate to listen to one of my favorite speakers on the subject of all things gardening, Dr. David Creech. Dr. Creech does his major botanical work at Stephen F. Austin University and the Mast Arboretum in Nacogdoches. I always enjoy hearing him speak because I usually find myself in agreement with him and he seems eminently sensible in his approach to gardening. (Well, I would think that since I mostly agree with him, wouldn't I?)
Dr. Creech's ostensible topic on this date was "Gardens that Work! Gardens that Don't" but, in fact, he didn't really stick to the subject. His talk sort of wandered all over the landscape - so to speak - and it was all entertaining and useful.
One thing that he said in particular that stuck with me though was in regard to native plants. He is a past president of the Native Plant Society so he has an appreciation of those plants, but he stated that he is not a purist on the subject. He doesn't believe, in short, that our gardens have to be planted entirely in native plants in order to be authentic. He's come around more to a generalist point of view that takes into consideration each plant's characteristics and uses.
As always, the main thing to be considered in regard to any non-native plant is: Is it invasive? If it is a bully that tends to take over the neighborhood, then it is best not to use it. For example, if you've got an ugly eroded slope, don't plant kudzu on it to hold it in place. Find some other more environmentally-friendly solution.
As I was thinking about Dr. Creech's endorsement of using non-native as well as native plants in our gardens, I came across a posting in one of the blogs that I follow, Gardening Gone Wild, on the related subject of heirloom versus hybrid vegetables. The writer Noel Kingsbury's point was that we accept technological improvements in other parts of our lives, why shouldn't we accept it when it comes to hybridization? Especially if the hybrid represents a real improvement in the vegetable.
In recent years, the use of native plants and heirloom vegetables has been the hot thing in gardening and orthodoxy has pretty much accepted that they are always superior to plants that have been tampered with by the horticulturalists. Now the pendulum seems to be swinging back in the other direction and I am seeing and hearing more and more discussions that essentially make the point that we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Yes, native plants are acclimated to our area and to the wildlife of the area and they are often very beautiful in the garden, but there are many non-native, non-invasive plants that can serve specific purposes in our gardens and can make our lives as gardeners a little more interesting.
Yes, heirloom vegetables often have more and better taste than the hybrids - especially heirloom tomatoes - but not always. Some of those hybrids have great improvements and still maintain great taste. I'm thinking of some of the stringless green beans, in particular.
Perhaps it is best not to deny ourselves any options as gardeners. Why should we limit ourselves to only native plants or heirloom veggies when there is a whole wide world of other choices out there and some of them may actually work better for us?
I guess on this question you can mark me down on the side of the generalists instead of the purists. At least, it looks like I'll be in good company.
Dr. Creech's ostensible topic on this date was "Gardens that Work! Gardens that Don't" but, in fact, he didn't really stick to the subject. His talk sort of wandered all over the landscape - so to speak - and it was all entertaining and useful.
One thing that he said in particular that stuck with me though was in regard to native plants. He is a past president of the Native Plant Society so he has an appreciation of those plants, but he stated that he is not a purist on the subject. He doesn't believe, in short, that our gardens have to be planted entirely in native plants in order to be authentic. He's come around more to a generalist point of view that takes into consideration each plant's characteristics and uses.
As always, the main thing to be considered in regard to any non-native plant is: Is it invasive? If it is a bully that tends to take over the neighborhood, then it is best not to use it. For example, if you've got an ugly eroded slope, don't plant kudzu on it to hold it in place. Find some other more environmentally-friendly solution.
As I was thinking about Dr. Creech's endorsement of using non-native as well as native plants in our gardens, I came across a posting in one of the blogs that I follow, Gardening Gone Wild, on the related subject of heirloom versus hybrid vegetables. The writer Noel Kingsbury's point was that we accept technological improvements in other parts of our lives, why shouldn't we accept it when it comes to hybridization? Especially if the hybrid represents a real improvement in the vegetable.
In recent years, the use of native plants and heirloom vegetables has been the hot thing in gardening and orthodoxy has pretty much accepted that they are always superior to plants that have been tampered with by the horticulturalists. Now the pendulum seems to be swinging back in the other direction and I am seeing and hearing more and more discussions that essentially make the point that we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Yes, native plants are acclimated to our area and to the wildlife of the area and they are often very beautiful in the garden, but there are many non-native, non-invasive plants that can serve specific purposes in our gardens and can make our lives as gardeners a little more interesting.
Yes, heirloom vegetables often have more and better taste than the hybrids - especially heirloom tomatoes - but not always. Some of those hybrids have great improvements and still maintain great taste. I'm thinking of some of the stringless green beans, in particular.
Perhaps it is best not to deny ourselves any options as gardeners. Why should we limit ourselves to only native plants or heirloom veggies when there is a whole wide world of other choices out there and some of them may actually work better for us?
I guess on this question you can mark me down on the side of the generalists instead of the purists. At least, it looks like I'll be in good company.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)