I stumbled into learning about cool-season hardy annual flowers a couple of decades ago. My interest had been sparked by flower farming and I wanted to jump in with both feet, but we were heading into winter, what now? While I knew practically nothing about farming at this point, I did know this: I
Cool Flowers and Row Cover
Floating row covers in action in winter. We have whipping wind for most of the winter and spring. Just imagine if the plants had to take that wind. Using row cover on Cool Flowers plantings can help more seeds sprout when planted in the garden, bring spring blooms a little earlier, protect seedlings from hungry
Cool Flowers: Sowing Seeds in the Garden
There is no better group of flower seeds to try your hand at sowing in the garden than those cool-season hardy annuals that we call Cool Flowers . Many of them are really easy to get started when planted outdoors into the cool and moist conditions of fall. First, not all seeds like to be
My Favorite Self-Sowing Plants
Who are these flowers? The cool-season hardy annuals that light spring on fire and are some of my favorites. I’m talking about some of the better known flowers like bachelor buttons, poppies, and larkspur along with some unknowns like bupleurum and the famous but what seems unattainable bells of Ireland. What is a self sower?
Cool Flowers: Troubles of Planting too Early
I am suffering the consequences this fall of planting my Cool Flower seeds and transplants in the garden too early. It doesn’t really matter what drove me to break my own rules— and by the way, breaking the rules totally backfired, as rule breaking generally goes. What troubles you may be asking? Let me
Cool Flowers: What About Cool Vegetables?
Did you know that there are ‘cool vegetables’? They are veggies that appreciate and thrive in cool-to-cold weather just like Cool Flowers. You can apply the same growing concepts found in my book about growing cool-season flowers to these cool-season veggies. Who are they? Lettuce * Spinach * Chard Kale * Collards Mustard Beets *