One of the neater aspects of gardening is that there is a level of sustainability built into it.  All of the plants we grow to feed ourselves also produce seed we can collect to propagate next year.  Saving your seeds saves you money, helps preserve the varieties you enjoy and is just plain fun to do!

Entire books have been written about saving seeds and all of the nuances that go with doing so.  This article will attempt to simplify the process and give you enough information to try some basic seed-saving for yourself.

If you enjoy saving seeds and want to read further about it I recommend:

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

Saving Seeds: The Gardener’s Guide to Growing and Storing Vegetable and Flower Seeds (A Down-to-Earth Gardening Book)

The first rule of saving seeds is: We don’t talk about saving seeds!  Wait a second…  Ignore that – just had a flashback to a Brad Pitt movie…

The first rule of saving seeds is to only save them from heirloom or open-pollinated varieties.  These are the only types of plants that reproduce true from seed.  (True means that the offspring have the same qualities of the parent plants).  Hybrids do NOT reproduce true from seed – so if you save seed from a hybrid you never know what you will get the following year.  Open-pollinated and heirloom = save.  Hybrid = don’t save.

Easy Seeds to Save

Tomato – Select a fully-ripe fruit.  Squeeze the seeds onto a paper towel or screen.  Let sit at room temperature until completely dry.  For a slightly more involved method check out our Tomato Grow Guide.

Pepper – Select a fully-ripe pepper.  Typically peppers turn completely red when ripe.  Collect the seeds and place them on a paper towel or screen until completely dry.

Eggplant – Collect seeds from a fully-mature fruit.  Place them on a paper towel or screen until completely dry.  Starting to see a pattern here?

Beans – Leave the pods on the plant until they rattle dry.  Collect the pods and place them in a well-ventilated area until the pods are completely dry, then remove the seeds.

Lettuce – Allow the plants to bolt – they will produce a tall stalk that will flower at the top.  After the flowers bloom they will form a fuzzy head that looks like a dandelion – collect the seeds at this point.  Rub the seeds between your fingers to separate the chaff.

Difficult Seeds to Save

Cucumber, Melon, Squash, Pumpkin – these are a challenge because they easily cross-pollinate in the garden.  It is probably easier to just buy new seed to ensure you are getting what you plant.

The Biennials (Carrot, Beet, Onion, Cabbage, Broccoli) – All of these produce seeds in their second year of life.  Depending on your climate it might take a lot of effort to keep the plants alive for two seasons.  Again, probably easier to purchase seed compared the the effort involved.

Storing Seeds

Label your seeds!  Store them in a jar or envelope in a cool, dry place.  Storage life will vary depending on plant type and storage conditions.  In general:

• Short Storage Life (1-2 years) – Onion, Corn, Pepper
• Medium Storage Life (3-4 years) – Bean, Broccoli, Carrot, Pea
• Long Storage Life (5+ years) – Cabbage, Radish, Cucumber, Eggplant, Lettuce, Melon, Pumpkin, Squash, Tomato

To store seeds long-term place seed packets into a well-sealed glass jar in the freezer or refrigerator.

Testing for Germination

Moisten 2-3 layers of paper towel.  Place seeds on the paper towel and roll it up.  Put the roll into a plastic bag and place it somewhere warm like a kitchen counter.  Check the seeds for germination every 2 days or so.  Some seeds sprout very quickly – radishes can germinate in as little as 2 days!  Some, like peppers, can take up to 2 weeks.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Collecting and Storing Garden Seeds

The Bottom Line:

The Plant Hardiness Zone helps you determine which plants or trees will be able to survive the winter in your area.  Find your zone here:

The Rest of the Story:

Have you ever looked through a seed catalog and somewhere in the description is says something like, “Appropriate for Zones 4-8?”  And you start to wonder if it is some sort of secret gardener code or something?  Well, it is a code of sorts, and after reading this you will be in on the secret!

The plant hardiness zone helps you determine if a plant can survive outdoors over the winter.  The zones are based on the average low temperatures for an area.  The lower the zone number, the colder the average low temperatures are.

How does that help you?  If you know your plant hardiness zone you will be able to choose plants for your garden/yard that have a reasonable chance of survival.  For example, if you live in Zone 3 and plant a palm tree that is appropriate for Zone 8 and above there is a pretty darn good chance come spring you’ll have one dead palm tree to cut down!

The current plant hardiness zone was released by the USDA in January 1990 and is pictured at the top of this article.  To find your plant hardiness zone click on the Park Seed Zone Map square in the box in the upper right of this page.

You can fine additional information at the US National Arboretum USDA Plant Hardiness Zone page.

A very common misconception is that the plant hardiness zone tells you when you can set your plants into the garden.  Not the case.  Your frost date is what determines planting times, and we have covered that in a previous article Get to Know Your Frost Date.

One other thing to keep in mind is that these zones are not foolproof.  They are based on average temperatures, so it is quite possible that there will be days too cold for a particular plant during any given winter.  Use these zone numbers as a guide, but always remember they do NOT guarantee plant survival.

OK, so now you know that the plant hardiness zone tells us what can survive over winter in our area.  You are in on the secret!

The rest of this article is going to talk about some interesting things that are happening to the hardiness zone map.  A lot of what follows is drawn from unofficial sources and isn’t set in stone.

The old USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is almost 20 years old now.  The USDA has stated that they plan to release a new zone map every 15 years.  We are 4 years overdue!  What gives?

Have you heard all the talk about global warming and climate change?  Well, several years ago the USDA commissioned a new study but were not pleased with the results because the data showed an across-the-board temperature increase.  Apparently they commissioned a new study and are supposed to release a new map sometime in 2009.

Interestingly, the Arbor Day Foundation took the results from the study the USDA wasn’t happy with and produced their own Plant Hardiness Zone Map:

2006 Arbor Day Foundation Plant Hardiness Zone Map

A visual summary of the changes can be seen here:

Differences Between 1990 and 2006 Plant Hardiness Zone Maps

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Plant Hardiness Zones Explained!

The Bottom Line:

Your frost date tells you when you can begin transplanting into your garden.  Look up your Frost date at Victory Seeds.

The Rest of the Story:

Spring has sprung in my neck of the woods, and it is getting closer and closer to planting time!  We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our frost date (May 15) so we can begin transplanting all of our starts into the garden.

• What is a frost date? The frost date is the date in your area after which you can reasonably expect no more killing frosts at night.  Actually there are two frost dates for your area – the date of the last frost in Spring and the date of the first frost in Fall.  For this article we will focus on the Spring date.
• Why is my frost date important to know? Simply put, just about all of the timing of things in a vegetable garden such as planting, starting seeds, etc. revolves around your frost date.  Yes, it is literally THAT important!
• OK, but WHY? Well, young Grasshopper, many if not most of the traditional vegetables we think of when we think of vegetable gardening are heat-tolerant plants.  Tomato, eggplant, pepper, squash, cucumber, melon, corn, etc.  These varieties thrive in the heat of summer, but will die when it gets too cold.  Planting these varieties after the chance of a killing frost minimizes losses and ensures a healthy and happy garden!
• When is my Frost Date? You can look it up at Victory Seeds.  If you are a bit more adventurous take a look at the NOAA Climate Normals (not for faint of heart!).  If all else fails Google “frost date.”
• How accurate is my frost date? Great question!  As with any sort of forecast, the frost dates can be very accurate, or not so much.  We feel they are 80% or more accurate for our area.  The frost date is an estimate, not an absolute.
• So how do I know exactly when to begin planting? We use our frost date as a guide.  When our frost date approaches we watch the weather forecasts like a hawk.  If there is a chance of frost on or after the date we simply wait to begin planting.  If the forecast is for normal or high temperatures we go ahead and plant on or near the frost date.
• HELP!  We followed your directions and waited until the frost date to plant and now we are expecting a killing frost tonight!  Will we lose everything? OK, calm down a bit.  Things like this can happen – they are part of gardening and are not the end of the world.  There are a couple ways you can deal with this:
  • You can do nothing and hope the forecast is wrong. Even if it is correct, there are varying degrees of frost and there is a good chance that many or all of your plants will survive with minor or no damage.
  • You can cover the plants. Use old sheets, tarps, whatever you have on hand.  You don’t need blankets or anything – even thin fabric will capture and hold the warm air and keep the temperatures higher underneath.  Make sure the weight doesn’t crush the plants – use sticks or anything you can think of to hold the cover off the plants.
• So what is frost anyways? Frost forms when a surface cools to a temperature that is less than the dewpoint of the adjacent air.  Learn more about frost.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Get to Know Your Frost Date

Leaf Mold = Pure Gold for your Garden!

Leaf Bin

Do you want to do your garden and your environment a huge favor this autumn?  Learn how to make leaf mold with all those leaves you’d otherwise throw away!

What is Leaf Mold?

Leaf mold is a type of compost that is the result of the natural decaying process of leaves.  Leaves have a high cellulose content that makes them slower to decompose than other types of lawn or garden waste.  You might have noticed this yourself if you have ever walked in a woods in the middle of summer and still seen leaves on the ground from the previous autumn.

The process of making leaf mold is very different from the process of making traditional compost.  In a traditional compost pile bacteria are responsible for breaking down the organic matter.  These bacteria need warmth and moisture and perform their job relatively quickly.  Leaves, on the other hand, can be broken down by a natural fungus in the same way it happens on the forest floor.  This fungus needs moisture but little heat, and takes quite a bit longer to break down the leaves.

How to make Leaf Mold

Making leaf mold is actually easy!  It will take about 2 years, but during that time there is little to zero maintenance.

Gather up leaves in the fall from your trees and shrubs.  Don’t use pine or fir needles — use deciduous leaves only!  If you have only a small amount of leaves, say a trash bag or two worth, simply fill the bags with leaves and add a little water to moisten them.  Rip the sides a few times for air and set them aside somewhere for about a year.

If you have a large quantity of leaves it is best to build a bin out of chicken wire or some other material.  Then just fill the bin with leaves, water it and wait!

A few tips:

Leaf Pile in Woods

• Shredded leaves decompose more quickly than whole leaves.  An easy way to do that is to run your lawnmower over them.
• Grass clippings can be added to speed up the process a bit.
• Keep an eye on the bins to make sure they stay moist.  Rain is your friend here!  Wind is your enemy — try to put the bins in a location where they are protected from wind but are open to rainfall.  Lining the bins with cardboard can help here.
• If you really want to make it easy on yourself just pile the leaves in an out-of-the-way spot and leave them there for a couple years.  No bin, no bags, no fuss.  It might take a little longer, but it will still work.  Leaf mold is a tough thing to screw up!

Over the course of a year the leaf pile should get smaller and smaller, which indicates the process is working.  At the end of the first year take a pitchfork or rake and mix up the leaves in the bin.  Wait another year and your leaf mold will be ready!

That is all there is to it!  The only trick really is to make sure the leaves don’t dry out.

Uses for Leaf Mold

Leaf mold has many uses:

• Soil Conditioner: The bulky nature of leaf mold makes it an excellent soil additive.  Leaf mold has similar properties to peat moss.
• Mulch: Leaf mold can hold hundreds of times its weight in water.  Use it around your plants in the summer to help retain moisture.
• Fertilizer: Brew up some Leaf mold tea and your plants will thank you!  Fill a large bucket with non-chlorinated water (rainwater is best).  Fill a burlap sack with leaf mold and dunk it in the bucket for 3-4 days.  Remove the burlap sack and use the enriched water in your garden!

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Making and Using Leaf Mold in your Garden

Bad news on the Pest front.  Apparently Meadowwood Garden is now hosting some very healthy populations of Striped Cucumber Beetle and Squash Bug.  These bugs cause major devistation in a very short period to the plants they infect. You can see the resulting damage in the photo below.

Wilted Zucchini Plant

That Zucchini plant appeared to be perfectly healthy 3 days ago.  Literally within 48 hours the leaves turned yellowish and wilted to the ground.  The same thing has happened to 6 other Zucchini plants and 1 Honeydew Melon vine so far.

Striped Cucumber Beetle

The Striped Cucumber Beetles are small with yellow and black stripes on their back.  They have definitely been seen crawling on various vines in the garden over the past week or so.  The insidious thing about these beetles is that they are the host for a Bacterial Wilt that causes the plants to die — in addition to the other damage they cause.  There is no cure for the bacterial Wilt — once plants are infected they need to be destroyed.  According to my research it seems like the only reliable control is applications of Sevin.  In order to get a jump on these for next year it looks like further research is necessary.

Mating Squash Bugs

Squash Bugs are BIG and UGLY!  They are almost an inch long!  They seem to target adult plants and a secretion in their saliva causes the plants to wilt and die over time.  I have seen many of the egg clusters on the undersides of leaves throughout the garden, so my guess is that Squash bugs are responsible for the majority of the damage.

Egg Cluster

Unfortunately there is little one can do organically to control them.  Apparently if you place a board on the ground next to the plants the adults will cluster under it and can be squashed (pun intended) in the mornings.  Removal of the eggs will probably help, but there are so may plant leaves to check it seems like an impossible task.

Even pesticides don’t work on these suckers!  I read that Sevin will kill the nymphs but the adults are difficult to kill this way.

With both pests early detection is a key to control.  Unfortunately this is my first year gardening so I didn’t know what to look for and the result is lost plants, with more likely to be lost in the coming days.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Zucchini Wilt

Check out my new 10 foot tall bean trellis! I’m so proud of the way it turned out I have dubbed it the Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis! This trellis is perfect for beans, peas, cucumbers, melons, squash and any other vining vegetable you might want to grow! It would even make an awesome tomato support!

Instructions to make your own trellis follow a bit of background:

The Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis came about because the original Not-So-Sturdy Trellis had come up a little short. Quite literally. Which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been reading this blog because it should be apparent by now that I have absolutely NO idea what I’m doing!

Anyways, my first attempt at a pole bean trellis was to drive 2 posts into the ground and stretch some trellis netting between them. That worked fine for a few weeks, but pretty quickly the beans outgrew the 5 foot height of the netting and started twisting around each other and dangling in space. It was ugly (shudders)…

So I went to Lowe’s and spent a nice couple hours wandering around as if I knew what I was looking for (a skill that I’ve honed to perfection over the past 41 years). The plumbing department had a lot of neat types of pipe and tubing, but everything seemed to be too flimsy or too big for what I needed. So I wandered down aisle after aisle until I hit the jackpot!

Conduit!

Yep — electrical conduit seemed to be the answer. It was cheap, rigid and precut. A guy working in that department tried to talk me OUT of using it, but now that I have it all set up I’m glad I ignored him and went with my gut.

Instructions to make your own ToA 2.0:

1/2 Inch EMT Inside Corner Elbow

Purchase the following:

• Qty. 3 x 10 foot 1/2″ EMT Electrical Conduit (Approx $2.89 each)
• Qty. 2 x 1/2″ EMT Inside Corner Elbow (About $4.38 each — pictured nearby)
• Qty 2 x 5′ Light Duty Steel Fence Post (also known as a U-post, Approx. $2.47 each)
• Qty 1 x Nylon Trellis Netting (Purchase from box on upper right side of this page!)
• Qty 50 x 8″ Cable Ties (also called Zip Ties)

In addition to the above items you will need a sledge hammer, screwdriver, hacksaw, Sharpie and some scissors or wire cutters.

Drive the fence posts into the ground about 1 foot deep where you want the trellis to be placed. Try to keep them as vertical as possible. How far apart you place the posts determines how wide your trellis will be, so think about it a little before you do it — ie. don’t place them any wider than 10 feet apart!

Closeup of how the conduit pole fits into the u-shaped channel of the U-post

The fence posts have a U-shaped channel running the length of them — hence the name U-post! Your vertical conduit poles will fit into this U-shaped channel quite nicely as pictured nearby. This is the KEY to the structural rigidity of this particular trellis — with 4 feet of fence post attached to the conduit poles it will probably take a hurricane to tip this over! (Update: We experienced hurricane-force 75 MPH+ winds in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike last year and the trellis did not move one inch!)

Before you attach the conduit poles to the U-post you should assemble the conduit frame and attach the trellis netting first. This eliminates the need to do all that assembly from the top of a ladder later!

Screw one of the elbows onto the end of one of the conduit pieces. Place the conduit piece across the 2 fence posts, taking care to align the empty part of the elbow with the u-channel. Align the other elbow with the u-channel of the opposite fence post and make a mark where you need to cut the conduit. It sounds strange to read, but when you get the pieces up there you will understand. Basically you need to cut the conduit crosspiece so when the vertical conduit poles are attached they will fit into the u-channels of the fence posts without anything getting bent. Just take your time and it will be easy — I was able to get a perfect fit the first time!

Use the hacksaw to cut the crosspiece at the mark you made (please use eye protection). Attach the remaining elbow on the crosspiece than go ahead and attach the 2 long conduit poles to the elbows. At this point you should have a giant U shape.

You are almost done! Attach the trellis netting to the conduit frame by either tying it in place or using the zip ties. You want the netting to be taught, but not so tight it bends the conduit. You will be cutting the net at this point — and that is OK. You will also probably need to attach the netting in 2 sections to get full coverage.

At this point you should have a trellis that is completely covered by taught netting from side-to-side and top-to-bottom. The trellis will be holding a lot of weight, so a little care now will prevent sagging and other issues later.

Pole Bean runner growing up the Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis

Now get a friend and carry the trellis into the garden and set the conduit poles into the u-shaped channel of the fence posts. Attach it using zip ties (wire or any other type of clamp could work too). And there you have it — your very own Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis!!!

Obviously there are many ways you could vary and customize this to suit your own needs. Pole beans just need vertical support so you could suspend strings from the top of the trellis instead of using netting. For cucumbers you could drive the fence posts in at an angle to make picking a little easier. The trellis netting is extremely strong, so you can pretty much grow anything without fear of breaking it.

As always, I’d be interested in seeing photos of YOUR Super Sturdy Pole Bean Trellis installation and would also love to hear your stories about how it is working and how you have customized it.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Super Sturdy Trellis

The best way I have found to control Japanese Beetles non-chemically is: Half-fill a cup or small jar with water and add a few squirts of dishwashing liquid (I use Dawn). At the beginning and end of each day walk slowly through the garden and brush the Japanese Beetles off the plants and into the water (or pick them off and throw them in — they don’t bite). As I’m doing this I inspect the plants for any insect damage, new fruits, etc.

For alternative Japanese Beetle control solutions please see the box to the right.

Japanese Beetle on Brandywine Tomato Plant

That is it! There is no magic trick and this isn’t rocket science. It just takes a little effort on your part and you can probably keep damage to a minimum. So if you came here looking for a solution to the Japanese Beetles that are mating and feasting on your vegetables there it is — now scoot and get to drowning them!

If you are interested in learning more Japanese Beetle Information please continue reading:

In my Zone 5b area of Ohio Japanese Beetles begin their invasion in June and it lasts until about August or so. Every year is a little different. What isn’t different no matter where you live is that Japanese Beetles are very destructive and are difficult to control. Oh, and they LOVE vegetable plants…

A nice summary of information about Japanese Beetles can be found in this Wikipedia entry. The rest of this page will contain some of my own observations, and hopefully over time those of others who stumble here.

Detection: There are 2 easy ways to detect when the Japanese Beetles begin invading your garden. The easiest way is just to look around and see them sunning themselves on leaves. Fortunately they are quite large and their coloration stands out very well against the green backdrop of the plants. They are usually at or very near the top of the plant. After a while you can even spot them as they clumsily fly around from plant to plant — or more often than not you can hear their distinct low-pitched buzzing as they fly.

Japanese Beetles Mating and Eating Leaf

The second way to tell if you are being invaded is by looking for their distinct damage pattern they leave after eating a plant. They eat the “meaty” part of the leaf, but leave the stem and veins intact. It kinda reminds me of what a plant’s skeleton might look like. And they begin eating at the top of a plant and work down, so the damage is usually easy to spot.

The Japanese Beetles in MY garden seem to especially like Green Beans, Eggplant and Yellow Marigolds. However, they must not be too picky because I have found them on literally every type of vegetable plant in the garden!

Control: Because Japanese Beetles can fly long distances it is just about impossible to completely eliminate or control them. What I try to do personally is just minimize my losses. As mentioned at the top of this page the most effective non-chemical means I have found to keep the population in check is to manually pick and drown them.

A few notes about picking them are in order. They DO fly so you have to be a little quick. BUT they fly VERY slowly and clumsily so you don’t need to be a speed freak or anything to effectively capture them. If you put the cup of water in front of them they often fly right into it — which can be quite satisfying! They also kind of cling to your fingers when you pick them up. They don’t bite or hurt you at all, but their legs seem a little sticky or something, so at times you need to literally wipe them off against the edge of the container.

One funny thing you will notice is when you get near a Japanese Beetle is it will raise 2 of it’s hind legs up into the air. It is probably some sort of threat move meant to drive away potential predators. But every time I see it I crack up because it looks like they want to box you with their little legs… Yes, maybe I spend a little too much time in the garden with these Japanese Beetles… At any rate, when they display this “threat” move I often just pick up the beetle by one of the legs it conveniently raised up for me and plop it right into the water!

A little internet research reveals why dishwashing detergent and water is so effective at killing these suckers. Apparently bugs breath through their bodies! The dishwashing detergent coats their skin with a film that prevents them from “breathing,” thus quickly suffocating them. Who knew?

If you just want to chemically control them Sevin will do the trick. I tried it once and it killed every insect in my garden for days, so it is quite effective! Having said that, I won’t be using it or any other pesticides or herbicides in my vegetable garden ever again for 2 reasons: I have to assume that whatever I put on my plants ends up in my body when I eat those plants, and if a chemical is deadly to a bug how can I be 100% sure it is safe for me? Also I wonder how a pesticide that works on over 100 pests can distinguish between a bad bug and a good bug — like a ladybug perhaps? Or a bee? Food for thought isn’t it?

The Bt and Milky Spore options of controlling Japanese Beetles interest me but there really isn’t a ton of information about them out there that I can find. And in the back of my mind there is always this thought that no matter what I do on my property to control them, if my neighbors don’t do the same thing then a Japanese Beetle can just fly over from their property and I am stuck picking them off by hand again. Just like I am doing now.

If anyone would like to add any information please enter it into the comments below. I’m especially interested in posting a photo of a plant skeleton so everyone can see what the damage looks like.

Post from: Meadowwood Garden © 2010 All Rights Reserved.

Japanese Beetle Information