Grow Your Own: FunkyTown
by John Weckerle
We find ourselves now teased by the all-too-common (it seems) early-March warm-up, followed by the mid-March cooldown. In anticipation of the “re-warming” to follow, and eager to test the limits of the greenhouse, we’ve taken a few steps. The first involves some seed-starting activity. For this past Christmas, we received a delightful surprise: two seed-starting kits prepared by Plant Theatre! The kits include:
- Funky Veg Kit – Cosmic Purple Carrots, Golden Zucchini, Rubine Brussels Sprouts (these would appear to be red or purple), Tigerella tomatoes, and Rainbow Chard
- Cocktail Garden Kit – Cucamelon, Blue Borage, Lime Basil, Hyssop, Mint, and Lemon Balm
As of the date of this writing, we have at least one sprout of all these (indoors, under lights), all sprouted in peat pots – with the caveat that we are saving the carrot seeds for direct planting. The tomato sprout is a bit “iffy” looking. We’ll set another round in two or three weeks; we think it’s always best to stagger sprouts and plantings a bit to get a slightly longer yield in terms of time. We also have some purchased plants hanging in the wings – lettuce, broccoli, and a single Early Girl tomato. We don’t always do hybrids, but the concept of eating a “real” tomato in early Summer is difficult to dismiss.
Early soil preparation efforts yielded some interesting insights. When we first developed the garden, we took some of the soil mix to Jericho Nurseries for an opinion. The verdict: “If I had a spoon right now, I’d eat this.” Just a couple of years later, we realized that a major refertilization was needed, and found that the soil in many of our beds had been compressed in terms of soil structure and depleted in terms of organic material. Even driving a standard turning fork into this material was difficult. Senior Soil Amendment Correspondent Thom (a key figure in setting up the bed and working out the original soil mix) perhaps summed it up best by describing it as “caliche.” We are now using a cultivator to break up the soil and turn in a substantial amount of very composted manure. The tomato bed and six of the others are completed; the string bean, pepper, and two other beds remain. If the weather is kind to us tomorrow, we may get the soil amendments finished, and with luck we can start planting in a few days (freezing conditions are expected tonight, and the low temperature is predicted at 34 degrees Sunday night). That would give us more than a month and a half “jump” on the season!