Spring Planting

Now is the time for East Tennessee gardeners to plant cool season crops. It will soon be too late for transplanting cabbage and broccoli, so if you are growing those this year, you'd better get busy. These days, it gets hot enough in May to stop the growth of most brassicas. Your cabbage may not head up, and your broccoli may not bloom.

This is an ideal time to direct seed most leafy greens. Lettuces will take about 75 days, but many mustards, such as arugula and radishes, will be ready in about 6 weeks. Follow the instructions on the seed packages for proper sowing depth, water the seedbed every day if it doesn't rain, and expect most things to germinate within one week.

You can also direct seed beets and carrots, both of which take a little longer to germinate. Carrots can take up to three weeks. Either vegetable should be thinned to the correct spacing (see the back of the seed packet) as soon as most of the seedlings have emerged. Delay in thinning will slow growth and might even limit production. A pair of plastic tweezers is useful for thinning, if you have large hands like I do. Beets will benefit from the addition of wood ashes to their bed, which raises the pH. A cup of wood ashes is sufficient for a ten-foot row of beets. Don't put the ashes directly on the seeds. Instead, work ashes into the soil a few days before planting.

This season, I am growing some vegetables in containers as part of a photography project. If you plan on a container vegetable garden, I suggest using nothing smaller than a twelve-inch diameter pot. Five gallon buckets make good vegetable containers, too, but you will need to drill drainage holes in the bottom. Cover the holes with plastic window screen before filling the container. This keeps snails, slugs and insects from taking up residence in the pot. Remember that container vegetables need frequent watering and fertilizing in order to perform well. You can use soluble fertilizer, time-release fertilizer added to the potting mix, or a granular organic fertilizer.

If you are starting your own transplants, now is as good time to sow tomatoes indoors. Wait another couple of weeks before sowing eggplant or peppers, as these two need more heat. Most transplants will be ready about a month after germination, so plan accordingly.

Less Than Fifty Days Away

Spring arrives officially on March 20, so we are less than fifty days away! We have had some pleasant days during January, but hopefully it has not been warm enough long enough to bring plants out of dormancy. Snowdrops are blooming in some gardens by now, and the early Crocus chrysanthus blooms will be along shortly.

Now is the time to get your seed orders in, or to visit your favorite garden center's seed rack, in order to be assured of the best selection. All indications are that the hot items this year will be heirloom vegetables, especially tomatoes, and compact-growing varieties suitable for container or small space vegetable gardens. This is unsurprising given the trend toward home food gardening.

Time is running out if you are starting leeks or celery from seeds for spring transplant.

It is now time to start broccoli, cabbage and other brassicas for spring transplants. To spread out the harvest, start only one or two plants per week for the next several weeks. Wait a couple more weeks before starting lettuce, unless you are betting on an early spring, or can cover your transplants if frost arrives.

Hold off on starting any warm season plants, however. We are still roughly 80 days from the frost date. Despite the undeniable urge to get things growing, you will have more success if you wait until March 15 or after to start tomatoes. Bell and chili peppers should be started even later, around the first of April, and must be kept warm during their early development. Otherwise, they may not ever reach their full potential.

Now is a great time to start seeds indoors for cool season flowers. Calendula is an old favorite, and the petals are edible. Another edible flower, Dianthus or annual pinks, thrives in spring, but starts looking ratty after the weather really heats up.

For an early season pleasure that is definitely NOT edible, start seeds of sweet peas, Lathyrus, in small pots. They will need something to climb on if you cannot get them outside before they begin to climb. Start seeds around February 20 for transplant around March 20. This should give the sweet peas enough time to grow and bloom before the succumb to summer heat. The large, colorful, and exquisitely fragrant flowers are worth all the trouble, and they make good cut flowers, too.

Seed Starting Time

February is here already, and it is time to start seeds for early spring transplants. Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, and cool season herbs should all be started between now and February 15, so they will be ready to transplant during the last two weeks of March.

I plan to start celery, cilantro, parsley and scallions this weekend. These are all slow-growing when small, and spring crops need to be planted early so they can mature before hot weather sets in. This year, I am testing a new LED lighting system from Italy that has the potential to revolutionize indoor growing. The accompanying photo shows the unit, along with my makeshift capillary mat system for watering the pots. Each pot gets planted this weekend with a different variety of seed, and I will be keeping tabs on the progress of the plants every week. The LED unit only consumes 20 watts of electricity, but provides as much plant illumination as a 250-watt metal halide lamp. It should effectively illuminate at 20 by 20-inch area, sufficient for two standard nursery flats.

We are harvesting Meyer lemons this month. This tree, which is now in its second year in my possession, has been the most productive of the indoor citrus we have tried. If you have never grown citrus, it is certainly worth a try. Use a container that you won't mind lugging in an out, because you have to protect the trees from temperatures below about 35 degrees. An unheated garage with a south facing window offers the best winter home, unless of course you have a greenhouse. Citrus has enjoyed increasing popularity with home gardeners in recent years. You can find a great selection of trees, along with potting mix, fertilizer and advice, at Stanley's Greenhouses.

Meyer lemons are sweeter, larger and juicier than standard lemons, and botanically are actually more closely related to tangerine. The pith of Meyer lemons is not bitter, so the entire fruit can be used. It is a popular choice for making preserved lemons, a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine. Here's a typical, simple recipe:

Preserved Meyer Lemons

2 Meyer lemons
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons salt
1 small bay leaf
1 whole clove
2 whole coriander seeds
2 black peppercorns
lemon juice, from two additional Meyer lemons

Wash the lemons well, trim off the ends, and slice lengthwise into quarters, not cutting completely through one end, so they lemon opens up like a flower. Sprinkle the cut surfaces with some of the salt, close the lemons up and place them in a small jar, after adding about half the remaining salt to the bottom of the jar. Drop in the spices, sprinkle the rest of the salt over all, and add enough fresh lemon juice to cover. Cap the jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 6 months. Wait about a month before opening, to allow the flavor to develop.

Vegetable Garden Basics

With the mercury hovering around 25 degrees, my thoughts turn to the warmer days ahead. I am refining my garden plan for 2014. If you have not made a plan yet, now is the time, before spring chores eat up most of your gardening time. Your plan need not be elaborate, but it should at least cover three things:

1. What am I going to plant?
2. Where am I going to put everything?
3. What is the best strategy for succession planting? 

Food garden at UT Gardens

Here are some tips for answering these questions. One of the best ways to determine what to plant is to ask the other people in the family. You may think growing salsify would be fun, but your kids may want tomatoes or strawberries. Make a list and let everyone vote. If you are a novice at food gardening, limit yourself to three or four crops until you get the hang of growing those, then branch out. My top four choices are beans, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers. If I could grow only four vegetables, I would grow these, lettuce in spring and fall, and the others as summer crops.

Choosing a site for your vegetable garden can be the most critical decision you make, in terms of success or failure. Of primary importance is sunshine. Veggies need at least six hours of sun a day, and the more sun, the better. Don't locate your food garden in a low-lying spot where water stands for more than a few hours after a heavy rain. No vegetable likes wet feet, although they all need about an inch of water a week. Speaking of which, be sure you can reach your vegetable garden with a hose, or you will be toting water in buckets during high summer. Your soil should be well-drained, moisture retentive and organically rich. Work in composted organic matter in late winter, as soon as you can work the soil. For a small plot, you can buy compost, peat, or pine bark fines to work into the bed. I suggest adding 3 two-cubic-foot bags of this material per 100 square feet of growing bed, unless your soil is already in great shape. Add more each year, and in five years time you will have the best veggie beds on the block. Good soil is the key to great veggies.

Late winter is also a good time to incorporate organic fertilizers into your garden soil. Doing so gives the weather and beneficial bacteria a chance to decompose these materials into a form your plants can use. I add a cup of cottonseed meal per 10 square feet of growing space, along with a similar amount of bone meal and two tablespoons of pelletized dolomitic limestone. (I leave out the lime if I am growing potatoes.) These amendments are best added around the first of February, if you intend to begin planting in March. That allows a month for breakdown to begin. If you determine that plants need more nitrogen later on in the season, I suggest using a balanced organic fertilizer mix available commercially, rather than more slow-release amendments. When plants are really growing the nutrients will not be released fast enough.

I should also say that, although I prefer organic fertilization wherever possible, I see nothing wrong with using a soluble fertilizer, such as Miracle Gro(TM) in order to salvage a crop of veggies. Doing so is less likely to cause harm than allowing the plants to get stressed and attract insect pests.

Regarding succession planting, this is the key to growing a lot of food in a small space. The most important point to remember is that here in the Tennessee Valley, we have three growing seasons. Two cool ones in spring and fall, and a warm to hot season in summer. Once you have your veggie list in hand, divide it into cool season and warm season crops. The most popular warm season crops are beans, corn, cucumbers, okra, peppers, tomatoes and squash. Greens of all types are the easiest cool season crops, including arugula, lettuce, mustards and spinach. The cabbage family also needs cool temperatures, as do green onions and leeks. Plan on growing cool season crops from March 1 to June 1, warm season crops from June 1 to September 1, and cool season crops again around Labor Day. for the ones to be grown from transplants, either plan on purchasing them from a garden center (recommended for beginners) or start seeds about four to six weeks before you will need plants.

When your early crops of greens and scallions are done, remove plant debris and move in the summer crops. When these are up and growing well, fertilize. Start moving in the fall plants as the summer veggies start looking exhausted. Feed the fall crop when all the summer crops are gone and the fall plants are established. 

By following these simple guidelines, you should be able to grow enough food to eat, and perhaps have some extra to can or freeze this summer. 

Growing Undercover

With the arrival of the first frosts comes the time for season extenders that permit gardeners in the Valley to continue harvesting right on up until Christmas and beyond. By judicious selection of crop varieties, coupled with the use of a coldframe or unheated greenhouse, backyard farmers can continue production at least until the days grow short around the winter solstice.

Some crops have varieties bred to be planted out now for overwintering. Cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, leeks and onions are often grown this way. Transplants moved into the garden now will grow slowly and establish roots during the winter, before providing an extra-early harvest next spring. We have had great luck, for example, with the leek cultivar 'King Sieg,' when grown this way, and with the cabbage 'Savoy Perfection.'

The best way to extend the season is with a coldframe. This can be a very simple arrangement of straw bales with a couple of recycled window sashes on top, or a factory built structure. While we like the convenience of a walk-in space, a traditional raised-bed coldframe with a slanted, transparent top facing the sun will grow plenty of veggies. Don't imagine that you will produce tomatoes or cucumbers with such crude equipment! You will, however, be able to enjoy delicious lettuce, green onions, and various other salad greens in abundance. The key to coldframe salad production is to choose varieties that grow quickly and lend themselves to cut-and-come-again harvest. Arugula not only reaches harvestable size in about six weeks, it can be cut at least three times. Compact-growing bibb and buttercrunch lettuces are great choices for coldframe cultivation. Leaf lettuce varieties, like Black Seeded Simpson, are good for cutting more than once.

Take measures to protect coldframe crops from slugs. The warmth of the frame attracts the mollusks, which should be deterred with copper tape or wire and lured elsewhere with poisoned baits in the vicinity  of the coldframe. Do not place bait inside the frame or you will invite slugs in! Aphids sometimes invade coldframes. Spray plants with insecticidal soap to help deter them, and be prepared to thoroughly wash your harvest. A drop of dish detergent in a sink full of cold water will eliminate the aphids from your harvest on the first rinse. Rinse the leaves at least two more times to remove soap and any stray insects.

Our best outdoor crop following the frost is 'Lacinato' kale. This dark-leaved heirloom shrugs off the coldest weather we are likely to receive here in the Tennessee Valley, and can be picked at will throughout the winter months. I have learned the importance of letting plants develop a good root system in the garden before the first frost. They should be started, therefore, in August and transplanted in September. After a month, you can begin harvesting a leaf or two from each plant as you wish to use them.

Time remains to plant perennial onions, shallots and garlic for the rest of the month. Cover the bed with a layer of mulch to help protect emerging shoots. If you already have these crops growing from an earlier planting, mulching them now will result in improved production next spring, by helping to moderate swings in the soil temperature.

September Is the New April

For gardeners in the Tennessee Valley region, September can be as busy a month as April is. The mild weather we usually experience at this time of year allows us to grow a "third season" of vegetable crops.

Keep picking summer vegetables, like okra, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and squash, to keep them producing. Most of these will bear right up until frost damages them.

From now until the end of the month is a good time to transplant any of the cole crops: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and kohlrabi. Plants are available at garden centers throughout the region. If you don't find the plants you want, make a note for next year to start them yourself from seeds, which should go into trays in late July through early August. Allow four to six weeks from seed to transplant size.

Cilantro is a great fall crop.

Now is also the perfect time to start seeds of lettuce, spinach, bak choy and other fall greens. While you can direct sow these seeds and thin after they germinate, I find it more efficient to start them in 36-cell trays. I sow two or three seeds per cell, then thin to one per cell as soon as true leaves appear. After thinning, I feed lightly with timed-release fertilizer, and leave the plants in the trays for about 30 days total. When the plants are ready, set them out at the spacing recommended on the seed packet, or about six inches apart when in doubt, and fertilize again. Allowing the plants plenty of room to grow will yield nice, uniform heads of lettuce. Spinach handled this way can grow leaves the size of ping pong paddles. Bok choy will produce harvestable heads within two weeks of transplanting.

Scallions and cilantro also lend themselves to starting in cell trays. Put a pinch of seed in each cell. Do not thin. When the plants are three inches tall, transplant the entire plug to the garden. This will produce a bunch of onions or a clump of cilantro from each plug. Harvest by pulling the whole bunch. You will get clumps roughly the size of those bunches you find in the grocery store.

You still have time to plant garlic and shallots. They should be in the ground by the end of September, however, to encourage the biggest yield next summer.