garden article: Demystifying Herbs for cooking and more

Herbs are as popular as ever despite the fact there are not many new varieties overtaking the market. Seemingly every day there is a new variety of some outrageous ornamental flower that promises to revolutionize the floriculture industry. It is very strange to see how many new flowers are coming on to the market being the economy and garden trends are for more home food gardens rather than flower gardens. There are a few new varieties of vegetables that have come to market or at least become popular such as Patio Tomato and grape tomatoes. Herbs on the other hand have seen little in the way of new varieties with claims coming anywhere near those of flowers. So what then leads to herbs continued and ever growing popularity in the home garden?

 

The answer is actually quite simple. Herbs continue to do this day what they have done for centuries, outperform most other crops in their ease of growth and dependability. Yes holistic and medicinal uses have helped support and spur the growth of herbs in the gardens. But the natural home remedies are not enough to keep the herbal engine running. Good old fashioned "word of mouth." I mean word of mouth in the eating sense not just the talking sense.

 

I have determined in my opinion that the huge increase in "foodies" and wannbe foodies has been the driving force behind the continued and growing popularity of herbs. simply put herbs taste great and add multiple dimensions to any dish no matter how few the ingredients. I love perusing cookbooks to read how recipes are derived at. What I do not like are recipes that call for huge numbers of ingredients. Yes they do add a lot of ingredients add subtle nuances to the flavor palette. But multitudes of ingredients are not necessary to improve the flavor and taste of any dish.

 

 

The best way to  take the mystery out of herbs is to group them together in a themed garden. That way a simple trip to a themed garden plot in the backyard promises instant success in the kitchen. And by themed gardens I don't just mean a cooking garden vs. tea garden. Break it down all the way to a particular cooking style or ethnic region.

 

Start with your favorite style of cooking. Italian, French, Mexican, Thai, Fish etc. There is even a plan for salt substitute garden. These gardens do not need to be large. The size is determined solely on how many you are cooking for or how much room you have to grow, and store dried herbs while drying and then stored for use later on. Since you can't pick basil outside in winter and fresh herbs are a hard find as well a jar of dried herbs labeled "Italian Herb Blend" makes for a wonderful and very inexpensive  spruce up to a winter meal.

 

Here are some themed herb garden ideas:

 

Italian: basil, bay, dill, fennel, garlic chives, marjoram, flat leaf parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme

 

French: basil, fennel, lavender summer savory thyme

 

Mexican: bay, cilantro, garlic, oregano, thyme, lemon or lime basil

 

Thai/Asian: Thai basil, coriander, garlic,lemon grass, ginger, mint

 

Fish: bay, fennel, lemon basil, lemon grass, lemon thyme, parsley, tarragon, savory, sage

 

Salt substitute: basil, bay, dill, lovage, parsley, rosemary, sage, savory (winter or summer) thyme, tarragon

 

Tea: chamomile, lemon balm, lemon grass, lemon verbena, mints, pineapple sage, lemon thyme and stevia for a dash of natural sweetening.

 

To cheat a little on a tea garden simply mix a bunch of mint varieties together harvest when needed, dry and make a pot of tea.

 

Of course these herbs can be used fresh right from the garden for immediate rewards. But remember to save some for drying to use over the winter months. Drying is best done by cutting new growth in the late morning tying bunches together with a rubber band. String can be used but as the stems dry they become smaller and tied bunched fall apart very easily. When dry as fallen autumn leaves strip the leaves from the stems and place in clean dark containers. Label them according to their uses of kind. Stored in a dark place at room temps they remain fresh for about a year.  

Before There Were Pharmacies

It seems one cannot watch television or read a magazine without being assaulted or, insulted, by ads for prescription drugs.  Anything that ails you been be controlled by some new wonder drug. Some of the ads do not even say what the symptoms are just ask your doctor if snake oil is right for you. Snake oil is right. The traveling salesman of your peddled mysterious liquids in clear bottles laying claim to kill all sort of ills. problem was there were not enough real doctors to ask if Barnacle Bill's Bone Elixir was right for you. And if it was not right for you too bad. The snake oil man never returned to fulfill the satisfaction guaranteed part of the deal. In fact his elixir was right for you for a little while at least. The many potions and elixirs often had a good dose of alcohol within to alleviate most any symptom until the next morning. 

 

Today major drug companies push their product direct to the consumer because they realize it is the best way to reach mass consumption quickly. Magazines and TV are happy to take the ads since cigarettes and liquor are often taboo if not illegal to advertise. These drugs are heavily regulated. What is not regulated are the dietary supplements that also lay claim to magic cures for whatever ails you. the problem with the supplement market is lack of regulation. This lack of regulation does a lot of damage to actual plant and herbal cures that do work or at least help somewhat.

 

Before there were  pharmacies and drug companies there were plants mostly herbs that cured the ills that ailed you. In fact the Bible is chock full of references to herbs and spices for various medical uses

Hyssop was often referred to as the herb used in purification: read PSALMS 51:7 It was also used to prevent blood from coagulating which may explain why the Jews in Egypt were told to use it at the time of the Passover: read EXODUS 12:22The medicinal use of Hyssop can be found in read JOHN 19:29-30 Hyssop called hyssopus officinalis- is native to southern Europe and not the bible lands. This is a perfect example of how plant names change over time. The Hyssop in the bible may have been something like sorghum or perhaps even marjoram.

 

Mint is considered by some Biblical scholars to be part of the "bitter herbs' mentioned in  Exodus 12:8 and Numbers 9:11. Along with mint the bitter herbs concoction included

endive, chicory, lettuce, watercress, sorrel, and dandelions all used as a form of digestive aid. Mint at first cools down hunger pangs but shortly after heightens appetite.

 

Frankincense, also called Olibanum was  used in Old Testament religious rites. It is mentioned often in the first five books of Moses. Frankincense was used for intern al and external ailments and to help with breathing problems. The oils were used to induce a calming affect. Modern herbalists suggest placing the oil in vaporizers to help induce deep slow breathing.

 

Comfrey often used to today as a compost starter due to it's high concentration of nitrogen in the leaves. In the times of the Bible comfrey was used to help alleviate the pains and bruising of sprains. An ointment was made from the crushed leaves of comfrey.

 

One could depend on drinking rosemary water to help soothe upset stomachs. In addition ginger root was chewed to achieve the same results. Today ginger ale is often suggested for easing stomach pain even though carbonated!

 

Headaches were treated with Sweet marjoram oil rubbed on the forehead. rosemary leaves and mint when crushed and rubbed on the forehead treated headaches in Moses time as well. In addition coriander has been used as a mouthwash and aid to digestion. coriander is the seed of today's very popular cilantro the smokey parsley like leaves used in Tex-Mex recipes.

 

The manna God sent to Moses and his  flock as they wandered around the desert for forty years tasted like coriander according to Old testament readings. Coriander is one of the oldest herbs used in medicinal form.

 

So there you have a short round up of herbs and spices used during Bible times to treat everyday maladies. In fact many of today's pharmaceuticals come from plants. Aspirin being made from the bark of willow is among the most important contributions of the plant world to modern medicine. While there is a lot of controversy over how and if herbs are useful in the medicinal world one cannot argue their importance in the old world. There usefulness today has been thwarted by highly questionable late night infomercials.

 

I suggest the way to look at herbs is not in their medicinal aspects but as part of your regular diet. If for instance carrots are known to be good for eyesight why can't the same be said for some herb in the garden? My point is that if herbs have beneficial properties such as anti-oxidants, oils, vitamins and minerals then treat them as food and not some holistic ritual from the Dark Ages.

 

Learn how to grow herbs for whatever use Saturday Feb 26th at Adams Kingston location. At 1PM on the 26th I will be lecturing on the topic of growing herbs. Learn about starting herbs from seeds, cuttings, and divisions. Also learn when to harvest and take cuttings for new plants as well. 

Seed Starting: Gettin to the Root of the Issue

Both famous ground hogs did not see their shadows last week.In facet nobody has seen their shadow since August! Punxatawny Phil and Staten Island Chuck failed to have the sun gods cast shadows of doubt upon the arrival of spring. And with the way the weather has been this winter the arrival of spring can be a glorious thing. There is another event that signifies the halfway point through winter. Seed packs have arrived in garden centers. In fact not just seed packs but peat pots, trays, seed starting soils, lights and more. It is a surprising fact that winter is the shortest season of the year at 93 days with Summer actually being  the longest season. trust me I read it on the Internet so it has to be true. 

 

While spring is still six weeks away regardless of what some hibernating animals tell us there are a few seeds that could, notice could, be started now in order to get them into bloom for our Hudson Valley growing season. The backs of seed packs describe the timing for sowing seeds indoors or outdoors. The usual verbiage is a determined number of weeks before the last frost date. For instance  a pack may say start indoors 6-8 weeks before last frost date. Well frost dates are different across the country. The South of course has an earlier last frost date than we do. A seed company however does not know you live when you pick up their seed pack. The last frost date in the Hudson Valley is on average May 15th. There has been however frost as late as Memorial Day with increasing occurrence in this region. A seed pack stating start seeds 8 weeks before last frost date would mean starting the seeds indoors on or around March 15th.

 

Do you rally have to wait until March 15th to start seeds? Well no you don't. In fact there are some seeds which must be started now if you hope to have any flowers by the start of summer. Geraniums must be started by Feb 15th in order to have the seedlings strong enough to withstand cool spring weather and bloom by summer. While they are called Patient Lucys in Great Britain they are misnamed here in the U.S. What are the misnamed bedding plants? Impatiens............they grow so slowly they need to be started 10 weeks, March 1st, to be ready for planting out around the middle of May.

 

Flowers are not the only seeds needing an early start. Jalapeno peppers take a while to get under way. Jalapeno could be started as late as March 15th however they are better off hitting the seed flats on the first of March Bell peppers on the other hand can wait until the first of April. I would suggest getting them in the same time as the hot peppers. An interesting fact is there are some hot weather vegetables that need extremely long seasons but cannot be started indoors with their other warm weather friends. Melons for example need very long growing seasons. It would seem to make sense to start them indoors and give them a head start. But since melons  and cantaloupe are vines the end result of starting them indoors would be you own version of Little Shop of Horrors. The vines grow very fast but the flowers and fruit lag well behind the growth spurts of the vines.

 

The vast majority of seeds need darkness in order to germinate. Seeds require a snug warm moist environment to begin the germination process. Air temperature is not critical at this point but will play a pivotal role in how sturdy seedlings are down the road. Soil temperature should be 70*-75* for seeds to germinate properly without rotting. Seed packs will list days to germination. Some seeds germinate very quickly others like olive seeds taking 10-16 months. It is very important to place some kind of label on the flats or containers seeds are growing in. The information on the label should be the variety of plant growing, date seed was planted and how many days to germination. The name of the plant is a no brainer. But putting the date of sowing and days to germination allows more detailed control over the crop and assist in timing should something go wrong. If a label says 10 days to germination and nothing has shown after 21 you know something is wrong. Days to germination and date of planting go hand in hand. Only listing days to germination is no good if you don't know when they were planted.

 

To keep the soil warm  a heat mat is a godsend. Heat mats fit perfectly under seed flats and gently warm the soil and nothing else. A clear plastic dome of two or more inches high helps to keep the humidity high and control temperature as well. A tall dome 5-7 inches tall with adjustable events is even better allowing for total control over seedlings and young plants. Keep the heat mat on until you see young shoots appearing from the soil. Shortly after their emergence remove the ehat mat.

 

Young seedlings now need bright light, even direct sunlight, to maintain growth. What they don't need however is high heat. High temps cause plants to respirate faster. Fast respiration requires more nutrition. Plants need sunlight to complete the nutritional cycle of photosynthesis. However in February and even April the sun is still very low in the sky and as well the strength of the sunlight is weak. Weak light combined with high temps cause plants to stretch towards the sun or light source in order to make photosynthesis happen. The way to combat spindly stems is cool temperatures say 55*-65*. Cooler temps slow down respiration in plants thus slowing their need for sunlight.

 

An additional strategy is to place grow lights just above the tops of young plants about 4-6 inches over the top set of leaves. This best done with florescent grow lights especially the newer T5 high output bulbs. T5s are 40% smaller than regular T8 styles and their light output is double. T5 light fixtures with adjustable heights are readily available in two and four foot lengths.

 

Any well drained soil will grow a great crop for you. I am partial to lightweight soiless blends that are peat moss based. These blends drain extremely well and contain a large percentage of air space for young roots to penetrate. However any soil can grow seeds if you are careful about watering. Adding compost or worm castings to any soil will aid in growth and provide some much needed nutrients.

 

Once seeds have sprouted they have no storage of food needed to grow. If our soil mix does not have any fertilizer mixed in you will need to begin a feeding program. I prefer to feed every time I water so that I can maintain an even supply of fertilizer in the soil. Erratic uneven feeding leads to plants with grow spurts followed by periods of little growth as the supply of nutrients in the soil dwindles. To use a continuous feed program simply reduce the amount of fertilizer recommended on the package to 1/8 recommended dose.

 

By mid April days will be warming and your seedlings will love being outdoors on 60* days. Just remember to bring them back indoors at night so they don't get cold or freeze.

 

Want to learn more about starting seeds in greater detail? Stop by Adams Fairacre Farms  Saturday, February 12th, at 1PM where I will be lecturing on the subject of seed starting. 

Food for Thought from Your Garden

 

 

We live in an age of information overload goes without saying. If there is still any doubt just look at your smart phone and what it can do. Or at least what it is supposed to do. There are literally thousands of "apps" for most phones. A quick look at them however reveals that most are duplications of gadgets or processes that are already on our phones or in our dashboards. For instance at least twice a week I sync my Blackberry with Outlook so all me appointments and deadlines are together. Yet several rocket scientists decided to create appointment calendars for Blackberries. Yet they are not compatible with Outlook. There are GPS apps for phones that already have GPS capabilities built in.

There are even apps now for gardening. Apps that you can use for information on plants you may see at a botanical garden. Do you see the same disconnect to the outside world here that I do? How strange would it be to walk through a botanical garden or garden center come across a cool flower and then immediately search for information on your smart phone?

 

This brings me to my point of the day, simplicity. Every management and time expert guru pushes the acronym KISS for Keep It Simple Stupid. Few however end up practicing what they preach. For example an activity as sublime as barbecue it is very easy to get all knotted up determining which recipe to use for ribs. There is one book on BBQ with more than 500 recipes for ribs alone. A closer look reveals that despite there being 500 recipes, rubs, and sauces it comes down to four basic needs each time. They are ribs, rubs, sauces and smoking chips (or chunks). Further study of the 500 rip recipes reveals that the ingredients in almost all the rubs are based on this system of four. Same for BBQ sauce, marinades, etc.

 

Just for the record the four ingredients I see the most are garlic, oregano, tomato and, salt. There are many others that could be grouped into fours as well but the topic here is four not eight or twelve!

 

Could it be that ancient cave dwellers knew something we did not? Is there something more to four ingredients and say the four directions of the wind. I would say compass but I do not believe Ogg and Orga had such luxuries. If you adhere to Darwinian Theory it would make since that Ogg and Orga were the first BBQ pit masters since they were the first to cook with live fire for sure.

 

I fell Simon and Garfunkel put it best in their hit song Scarborough Fair when the melody went: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Move them around, change an ingredient or two and you get the message, simplicity. If you are panning an herb garden this summer consider what you cook the most, what aromas you enjoy the most or what colors you enjoy the most. Pick four and see how far that gets you. See how far that gets you this winter! I would love to have access to my herb garden right now but it is buried under snow. I do have however four pots of herbs in the dining room window.

 

It just so happens that I only have room for four pots of herbs in that window. I hope my cousins Ogg and Orga are somehow aware of this fact and quite pleased with their influence upon me several millennia since their clubbing food to death. These four inhabitants denying themselves hibernation are rosemary, thyme, chives and oregano.

Simon and Garfunkel cannot get me on copyright charges since I have only half of their suggested mix. But I will give them a footnote just in case. These four are the superstars in my herbal potions. Basil is a glaring missing in action here I know. However basil does not perform well indoors over the winter. Plus basil, extra virgin olive oil, garlic and balsamic vinegar are everywhere anyway. Again you can see the power of four!

 

Four can suffice just about any garden need as well. For example a salad garden need not bee an entire back yard production.

 

The four salad stars are, greens, tomato, cucumber and………… (add your own fourth part here)

 

Root crops for the cellar: Onions, potatoes, beets, carrots.  Does anyone see these four doing double duty as soup?

 

Tomatoes: plum, pear, slicing, and salad

 

Vines: cucumber, melon, winter squash, summer squash

 

And just in case you haven't noticed there are four groups of four here. Four gardens with four crops. Not a potager per se' for the gourmet but a solid base from which to start.

Now it would be easy to add to the list of four but it may be getting picky.

 

 

Looking Back To Move Ahead

The 2010 garden season ended several months ago and the calendar 2010 is ending as well. It is now a good time to look ahead to the next garden year and look back on the current one. Another example that gardening should not be a mad dash in April and May is the fact that the garden year ends quietly and starts later than the calendar year in these parts. What other clue could anyone want that gardening is a fun PASSIVE activity. In fact gardening is the number one outdoor activity in America followed by bird feeding and bird watching. One can combine these two in one massive........passive activity and get the best of both worlds. Color from flowers and sound and color from attractive songbirds.

 

First a review of the garden season that was 2010. Tomato blight that devastated the 2009 season was almost extinct this year. A few cases did show up in the Hudson Valley but remained isolated. Another sign that buying local is better than buying from a huge provider located in another state. It was still a strange year for tomatoes however. I had no tomatoes at all for the second year in a row. Neighbors just a few mile away had hundreds. I am beginning to think they stole mine and tied them to their the plants in their garden. I will try many methods of growing them this year to discover the secret. None will be in raised beds. They will all go into containers enriched with my secret blend of compost, weird strains of bacteria, humates, endo and ecto things that I am told will not only grow really good crops but may glow in the dark. I will settle for a tomato that glows in the day time at this rate.

 

Peppers did incredibly well last year. Helped by the warm weather, unpredictable rain and a new plot to grow them in. Chiles did well especially in my outdoor hydroponics pots. I will use the same esoteric strains of soil" amendments" to grow more chiles in  for 2011. And maybe just maybe et to sell something at a farmers market come summer. My favorite pepper this year was the marconi Italian frying pepper. Long and beefy is the best way to describe what is looks like. About as long as a good bell pepper is tall but not fat. Maybe 4-5 inches across. Marconis are great to stuff with cheese, sun dried tomatoes in oil, sausage, and even eggs. Cook the eggs and sausage before hand to make sure they are cooked through. Then stuff the peppers to the gills and slow roast them on hardwood charcoal using the indirect method. My recipe is called "sausage IN Pepeprs" instead sausage and peppers. This way you can skip the carbs on the hard roll and enjoy slicing a pepper and munching on the goodies inside.

 

Broccoli and cauliflower went bust in my yard this year. After growing broccoli and cauliflower the size of basket basketballs in '09 I was excited to see what would happen this year. Nada, no, nothing. Small florets that blasted way to soon even when it was cool outside. I think the tomatoes and cauliflower were in a scheme to deny me a salad this year.

 

As always I am planning on a bigger garden for next year. I planned on that for this year too. Did not happen. Don't know if it will in 2011 either. But at least I am admitting that early and not getting my hopes up. I really have no excuses though. Plenty of compost is ready and more is being placed in the bin though frozen solid toil spring.

 

As for 2011 here is what I see happening as I not only read the tea leaves but drink them as well. Homemade herbal tea of course. I have no idea what the exact ingredients are as to the proportion but suffice to say not enough lemony stuff as the tea is more like a grog or potion than tea. But that is how I like it. I just do not think a nice tasting blend of lemony stuff fights colds and flus like a bitter tea. We'll see. So far no bronchitis like I always get! Thank you horehound!

 

Urban farming will continue to grow, pardon the pun. the only thing standing in the way of more urban farms in inner city areas are the city officials themselves. Now that folks have found uses for empty lots the powers that be feel the need to impose regulations upon lettuce farmers. Even worse in some cases community gardens are being run by what I call "Garden Owner Associations" akin to home owner associations in condo and vacation communities. GOA's have gone so far as to tell plot renters what to grow and what they cannot grow.

 

Urban farming involves small farm animals like chickens and rabbits. after all it is farming. As long as the powers that be understand this urban farming will bring healthy food to inner city areas that have little access to fresh veggies. It is less expensive to allow urban farming than to coax supermarkets to downtown with hefty tax breaks.

 

Organic gardening will continue but has reached a sustainable pace. So to say the band wagon has become mainstream and sensible. In fact we are already moving to the next more mature stage of organic gardening and replaced it with the buzzword sustainable. What that means to gardeners is there are times when organic growing is more detrimental to the overall environ men than some traditional methods. It may not seem so when looking at the crop one  is trying to grow but presents itself readily when considering the overall footprint, carbon or otherwise, an organic method leaves behind. If you add up the total "cost", again economically and environmentally, there are times when the natural methods incur more costs than non standard ones do. For instance in the case of a sudden huge infestation of pests. I will use Japanese beetles for example. There just is not a quick effective natural control for them. By the time you add up the cost of materials, packaging, shipping, manufacturing costs and water to mix a natural spray that cost is much higher than a quick effective standard pesticide.  

 

Vertical gardening will be everywhere roof gardens and rain gardens will not. Vertical gardening on walls, in homemade PC pipes, and commercial devices will be everywhere. Vertical gardening works as a space saving logical way to grow more stuff in smaller places. It works because folks are moving in to retirement communities with small yards but plenty of wall space. It works because you do not have spend all day bent over weeding. It works because you can see the garden easier in a vertical planter than an in ground bed. I will also add elevated garden bed contraptions to the list. Picture a 3x5 wood garden bed supported by three or four foot tall legs that a wheel chair can pull up to! No bending, plenty of room to grow real gardens. You cannot grow real gardens in an average size window box.

 

Rain gardens came about as a secondary trend in 2010. the idea behind a rain garden was to create a garden at your downspout that would filter out contaminants before the water entered storm drains or percolated back into the water table. Nice idea but not reasonable or productive. They are not cheap to build and only work when it rains. In order for them to survive they need a lot of water to maintain the wetlands environment during dry spells. So in the end the amount of water needed to maintain an artificial wetland may outweigh the amount of filtered rainwater. If you have clay soil that can hold plenty of moisture during dry spells a rain garden makes sense. Also if you have a sump pump like I do and clay soil better yet. The cool thing here is my "rain garden" has been in existence since my home was built 25 years ago. Water being pumped out of my basement and deposited outside has created an environment on it's own. Cat tails, iris and other wetland plants started growing there because of the ample supply of moisture. My point. If you have an area that is subject to constant runoff leave it alone. In time if there is enough moisture running through it a natural "rain garden" formerly called bogs will develop on its' own.

 

Micro farms will continue to replace large farms and diversify the agricultural treasures of the region. While large dairy farms are going away smaller specialty dairy farms are thriving. They supply natural hormone, BVG and steroid  free milk to producers of speciality diary producers that make products from ice cream to cheese.

 

Indoor gardening will explode with the advent of indoor growing systems that no longer look like laboratories but resemble fine pieces on furniture. Smaller more energy efficient LED lights are already hitting stores. Check out the cool new trend called window farming. Homemade systems that "hang" in windows to grow greens and herbs all winter long. Often these hanging gardens are made from two liter soda bottles.

 

So there you have my look back while looking forward to the next gardening season. I feel a cold coming on so enough reading the tea leaves...it's time to drink them!

garden aticle

The sun is now setting at the earliest hours of the year for a while. I find the weeks immediately after the New Year the most depressing. After all the holiday season is over the college football season done and the Super Bowl is still a month away. I mean what is there to do when the ground is frozen, it's dark and little to do? The biggest tease to me is that during the first weeks of January the days are getting longer. But still it is dark before 5 PM. The joke gets worse later in the month when the sun is just above the horizon when I pull in the driveway. Then I get out of the car and BLAST! Cold winds being thrown down from the Catskills on us poor souls in the valley between the mountains and the river. I guess the "beings" in the mountains are getting us back or sharing with us the colder weather and shorter seasons they have. Small price to pay I say for the better view of the horizons east and west they have than we do.

 

There is a small glimmer of hope this time of year in the garden world. Your local greenhouse. The inside of you car is a nice warm place on a sunny day in January even without the blower scalding your knees or knuckles with the same scorched air from your indoor furnace. The difference is that in a greenhouse you do not need your seat belt and an air bag will not go off if you bump your shopping cart into a table of plants at 2 MPH. Insurance on shopping carts is also cheaper since they do not go as fast and you don't really own them but rent them from the shop owner. I say rent because when you buy a tropical plant part of the price goes to pay for the shopping cart you just rammed into the plant display. I am not sure how the damage to the display table gets paid for.  

 

Another advantage, the best of all, is the humid lung repairing air in a greenhouse in the winter. Cold winter air just hurts when you inhale deeply. Scorched air from a car heater or furnace also hurts when taken in deeply. There us just something calming about a tropical greenhouse in the winter. Whether it's the longing for return of summer weather or just a respite, however brief, from Old Man Winter, humid warm greenhouse air has a healing affect on me and others. Add to that a fountain or pond filled with swimming fish and it is irresistible. Madison Avenue could not come up with a better marketing plan than a greenhouse in January.

 

While not possible without large wads of cash and even bigger oil tanks to recreate the entire experience at home we can create a  small piece of a tropical garden in a room in our home. Most plants end up in living rooms. Not a bad place. But is the living room a place we spend a lot of time in in the winter? How long do you stay in bed in cold weather? Have you ever thought of taking the private sanctuary of your bedroom to the next level? A tropical paradise perhaps even with a table top fountain or at least a nature CD of waves, birds and moving water. 

 

You already have part of the equipment for complete relaxation away from the TV. A bed, huge comforters and if like me several pillows. Also nearby is a lamp to read by and a small bookcase complete with 6-10 books I am in the middle of reading. Most master bedrooms have at least some windows. These windows have at least a 50% chance of facing the right direction to support life (plant life).

 

Should you not have windows facing the right direction there are plenty of light fixtures that fit neatly onto bakers racks that can hold many plants all in one tidy garden space. Plants clean our air by filtering out toxins like formaldehyde. They also provide oxygen. No amount of houseplants will provide enough oxygen for our needs but they will give you fresh air like never before. Plants by their very nature have a calming and nurturing effect on people. Any doubters of this fact just need to visit a greenhouse on a sunny day in winter.

Smiles abound people slow down and enjoy the experience.

 

A simple primer on light for indoor plants. During the winter the sun is low enough in the sky so most any plant can handle direct sun. The best light for most of the year is called bright indirect light. This simply means as much light as possible without getting any direct sun. This is generally just to the side of south facing glass or 6-8 feet across the room from such facings of glass. The same quality light can be gotten directly in an easterly window or a western window that gets early evening sun.  

 

Medium light comes from  sitting directly in a northerly facing window. No room for error here. Moving to any side out of the northern exposure and you end up in the dark in most cases. Very few plants grown in dark areas.

 

Room color plays a huge role in lighting for plants. Brightly painted rooms scatter light all around offering up larger canvasses of bright light and limiting areas of medium or low light. On the other hand dark colored rooms limit dramatically the bright light areas as the darker colors soak up rather than spread light around.

 

And last and most important for "planting up" a master garden suite, always by the plant for the lighting you have or will provide. Do not buy a bright multi-colored Croton if you have dark walls and no plans on running plant lights 8 hours a day. Plant care tags should have the lighting and care instructions right in place sight. Often the light needs are color coded. Yellow usually means bright light and purple or dark colors indicate plants that will take lower light conditions.

So there you have it...........a remedy for the winter doldrums and a healthy start to the New Year.

garden article

Hopefully by now the triptofan has worn off and we have all made it back across the river from Grandma's house. Our gardens and many furry creatures that habitate near our gardens have all but gone to sleep for the winter. The closest we get to enjoying the winter off is the afternoon nap after getting filled up on turkey. Another close call is so called elusive long winters' nap. I never get the long winters' nap probably because I would look kind of foolish putting on a cap before going to bed. Probably would not sleep well either as the brim of said cap would always be in the way or I would fumble around looking for it after it fell off somewhere between the good dream and the nightmare.

Which brings us to the subject of long winters. Any season the precludes gardeners from playing in the dirt is a long one. Winter for gardeners starts with the last bulb planted or garlic harvested and ends with the last mud pit drying up. Mud pits in my back yard clay can last until May in a rainy season. So what to get the gardener on your shopping list this holiday season? I know that gardeners get itchy when the seed catalogs come in which would make buying a garden gadget for a gardener seem more like punishment than a present of good thought.  Fact is though we like getting seed catalogs. I spend my lunch hours in January at the local book store looking through all the new garden magazines, catalogs disguised as magazines and garden books looking for what is new. Fact is I already what is new having seen many new items at all the trade and garden shows I attended the previous fall, eleven to be exact. What is refreshing to see is the items I chose made the cut and appear in the magazines in January. One of the pit falls of being responsible for purchasing items for sale is visiting the bone yard, the corner of the warehouse, where items that seemed like a good idea end up when they turn out not to be good idea.

First and foremost every gardener needs a good pair or two of pruners. If the gardener on your list has a lot of cut flowers on the table from their garden they need a pair of bypass pruners. These work like a pair of scissors with two moving blades that are sharp enough to cut through tender foliage without crushing tender stems. Anvil pruners, the ones with a fat blade on the bottom are not the kind to buy the cut flower gardener or someone who like me does a  lot of soft stem cuttings to make new plants. The gardener who has a lot of woody trees, shrubs and other such ornamentals can certainly benefit from the anvil style of pruners. A flat blade on the bottom holds the stem in place so the the cutting blade coming down from the top can get through the thicker and often dead branch being removed. Trying to prune pencil thick or fatter dead or woody plant tissue with bypass pruners will damage the pruner and the plant. Just like trying to cut through to many pieces of paper with scissors the blades will separate and become useless. The pages will shred and so will plant tissue  causing acute and chronic damage to the plant.

Gardeners love to dig. A round point shovel is the worst digging tool ever used in a garden. The end result is a bowl shaped hole that is narrow on the bottom and wide on the top. Plants come in containers with straight sides and need holes the same shape. Gardeners who like to dig to plant also like to dig things up as well. A round point shovel used to transplant spreading perennials or herbs cuts off a majority of the important feeder roots. No feeder roots on transplanted material stunts and can kill the plant. The proper digging tool for gardeners is spade, basically a shovel with straight sides. Much more root structure is dug up with a spade making the transplant success rate much higher. Spades also dig holes that look like the pots plants come in, straight sides.

Any gardener would love to garden all year. These days we can at least pretend we are in a greenhouse with the slew of new grow lights on the market. Gone, or at least on the way out are older style tube lights. They are being replaced by smaller tube lights called T5s. They put out twice as much light and use 40% less energy. Being smaller they easier to ship and put less strain on landfills when the burn out, in 125,00 hours or so. The fixtures are much more attractive and come in blue spectrum for seedling or foliage growth and red spectrum for flowering/fruiting plants. Next on the horizon are LED grow lights. They use even less energy than T5s and are even more compact. A really cool unit I have seen lets you change the blend of red and blue lights according the stage of growth your plant is in.

And of course for really high tech indoor gardeners hydroponics continues to head towards mainstream acceptance. With the right set up it is possible to grow tomatoes and herbs year round on a window sill or a full fledged grow room. HID, high intensity discharge lighting systems, up to 1,000 watts can light up a 10 x 10 room with sunlight quality light for all one's growing needs. The mixture of nutrients and measuring devices, meters and pumps and stuff will make any smart phone groupie want to grow something not just know something.

Last but not least remembers gardeners are a hearty but sensitive bunch. We will get over the winter blues quicker than golfers and baseball fans who cannot wait for the grapefruit leagues to start.