Seed Starting Day!
Today is the beginning of our major seed starting for the warm season annuals. Bobo and Kelly will spend two days this week making soil blocks and sowing thousands of seeds with a toothpick!
Our garden is well underway. The fall planted spring blooming garden is just about to begin blooming. As an experiment we have planted a repeat performance of many of those fall planted flwoers again in late winter in an attempt to extend our bloom times. We will see how it works-
We are still gathering bags of leaves from the curbs of Denbigh residence trying to mulch all of our pathways. I was doing this last evening and was thinking of how the thick layer of leaves takes a dry, bare pathway to a moist, full of living things just by piling leaves 8″ or more deep!
We are using our new bed maker, mulch layer and it is so awesome every time Steve makes one I almost cry. The labor and effort this implenmen saves us is amazing.
Off to get busy!
Spring has sprung,
Lisa Z
New Queen Red Lime Zinnia is Here!
We love the scrumptious new Queen Red Lime Zinnia! We first grew it two years ago, then last year the seed was totally unavailable due to a crop failure. We have been anxiously waiting for it for months and I finally have the seed in my hands, we are thrilled.
It’s two-tone lime green and red zinnia that makes for a beautiful combination that is a smashing hit in bouquets and really nice in the garden.
We have had a seed collection designed around this zinnia that is called the Victorian Seed Collection that is now available. I don’t know how long the supply will last- but we are happy to have enough to plant an entire bed on the farm and some to package for sale.
Click here to view and purchase.
Free Articles Coming!
We have had a delay posting our free articles for your group’s newsletters and websites, however it is coming soon! We had some technical challenges to overcome and we are on it.
Look for this new feature soon. I have oodles of articles for you to use.
Our gardens are ready to pop any day. The fall planted spring blooming garden is already showing color!
Workshop Sold Out!!
The March 24, 2012 Organic Gardening Workshop has sold out 4 weeks before the event!
If you missed out, email us to get on the waiting list in case a spot comes available.
Can’t wait, it will be such a fun day!
Free Articles and E-News, Gone Green, No Paper Catalog in 2012
In 2012 we have made the leap to go green, meaning we are using our online presence more and printing on paper less. You will see our website grow so much in the coming season. We are slowly but surely adding information, videos and photos to our new website.
Our free E-Newsletter s is going to become the major vehicle of sharing gardening information, news from the farm and exclusive newsletter specials. View my February 2012 Fresh from the Garden News, click here.
Not printing a catalog in 2012 was a decision not taken lightly. I know this will be a change for some, as it is for us. But the realty is that we believe whole heartily in sustainability on our farm, and when we looked at the practices of the retail side of our business we knew some changes had to be made.
The 2011/2012 catalog is viewable online, meaning you can flip through it like a paper catalog. This catalog and its pricing are good through March 31, 2012.
Free Articles is a feature that is new this year. You will see this added in the next couple of weeks and the format will offer articles that can be linked to your organizations site, or copy and pasted to print in your newsletter.
As we venture into a paperless time of life, it is hard and frustrating at times, but the end result will be a healthier world.
Please give us your suggestions on ways we can make our website friendlier and more useful.
Lisa Z
Seed Starting, When should you start anyway?
This is for sure one of the most exciting times of year, preparing to seed start. The anticipation and excitement is almost to much!
For the past month we have been gathering all the needed supplies and seeds which is pretty major for use because of the sheer number of plants we start. We have most everything now, all just waiting for the right time to come to start.
When do you start anyway? Not to get off of the subject but there are seeds to start almost at anytime for anywhere in the world– there are warm season seeds (the most well known) and there are cold hardy seeds.
The warm season seeds are those that grow during the tradition warm season including all those we are dreaming about now, tomatoes, zinnias, squash, sunflowers, etc.
The cold hardy seeds are those that like cooler temperatures and are often planted in the fall. They winter over beautifully to perform early spring after becoming well established over the winter. Some of these are lettuces, snapdragons, spinach, cabbages, sweet william.
So, back to when to start. This season is coming upon us to start those warm season seeds (tomatoes, sunflowers, etc,). But Beware! don’t start to early! One of the most frustrating struggles I hear folks have when starting indoors is how big and unmanageable the plants got before they could plant outdoors. This is simply because in our excitement to get started, we start to soon. Which leads to an unhealthy, tall, lanky plant that will not perform and produce like a younger healthier plant.
Solution: get excited and get outdoors and prepare for spring doing chores (weeding, mulching adding compost, etc) and wait on seed starting to the correct time. The correct time for us is later than most seed starters because we use the soil blocking method that really accelerates plant growth because of the healthy environment they are in. We start tomatoes 4-5 weeks before planting out, zinnias 2-3 weeks.
We offer a transplant guide that gives how many weeks before planting out you should start flowers, keeping in mind we use soil blocking. For vegetables you will have to do a little research. There are many charts out offering suggested weeks to grow before planting out.
The important tip here is to start later than earlier for a healthy plant to transplant outdoors.
Organic Gardening Workshop March 24, 2012
The Organic Gardening Workshop that I am hosting at my church, Warwick River Mennonite on March 24, 2012 only has 5 seats left! We are limited to 80 folks because the lunch serving area is limited. Don’t miss this once a year chance.
Word is out and I expect the remainder of the seats to be gone by weeks end.
It promises to be a day full of practical organic gardening. At the conclusion of the program around 3:00, you are invited to walk down the road a few houses to my farm for a tour, demonstrations and opportunity to shop our seeds, tools and supplies and Amy is bringing organic vegetable plants to sell.
To view more details and purchase tickets, click here.
Hope to see you there!
Lisa
Spade and Trowel Garden Club, Seaford Delaware
Suzanne and I had such fun on our day trip to Delaware Feb. 14, 2012. It is always an interesting ride driving through Eastern Shore, I love checking out the farms along the road and all the neat equipment! Beats traveling the interstate any day.
The members of the club where literally waiting for us when we pulled up to help us unload! Thank you so much! (We only got a little lost at the last minute.)
What a nice facility that the club filled to the brim with gardeners from all around. Loved seeing them pulling out more chairs for folks as they poured into the room. I enjoyed sharing the how-to’s of having a cutting garden and starting seeds.
Am so glad we took a case of Historic Garden Week books with us- we gave them all out! I have had several calls from those that are now coming to Virginia for spring on April 25, 2012 for the Newport News tour. For more on Garden Week click here.
We also enjoyed the yummy spread of food provided by the club members!
Thanks so much Spade and Trowel Garden Club for a delightful visit to Delaware!
Lisa Z
Virginia Beach Garden Club Program
Wednesday Feb. 15, 2012 I went to Virginia Beach, Virginia to give the program “Roots of a Great Garden.”
What a pleasure to see so many friends and so much excitement following the program. Whenever I talk about the simple facts of organic gardening I can literally see the lights go on in the faces of the crowd. And these ladies got the message for sure.
I feel like I am sowing the seeds to help restore and preserve our environment one lecture at a time. The profound news is that the groups I speak to are some of the most “in-the-know” gardeners, yet the message of real sustainable organic gardening has not made it to them.
Loved speaking to hometown friends, thank you! ( Considering I was in Delaware the day before speaking, VA Beach is hometown!)
I hope to return in the future to share easy ways to grow flowers, harvesting and conditioning and perhaps my story how it all got started.
Gardening is good for your heart and soul!
Lisa Z
Click here for information on my programs.
Dunes of Dare Garden Club Visit
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 • **Lisa's Program Comments, *Events • Comments Off
Today the Dunes of Dare Garden Club ventured from North Carolina for a field trip here to pick-up up their club’s orders from a lecture I gave earlier this month. It was a brisk but a nice morning to walk the garden.
We peeked under the row cover to see what was going on and it was a pleasant surprise. The sweet peas are rambling out from their given spot and the snaps, sweet william, bells of ireland are all looking fabulous! I cannot wait to uncover all the beds for spring and be able to do my most favorite pastime, garden gaze. It is a site to behold gazing at a garden getting ready to start blooming.
Delightful group of ladies that left here with hands full heading for a lunch spot and a day of shopping in the city.
Spring is coming sooner than later!
Lisa