Gardening Q&A

I want to have a garden full of perennials such as coreopsis, columbine, foxgloves and all of those wonderful flowers you hear about in cottage gardens, but I am on a tight budget. Can I plant them from seed?

Absolutely. And now is the time to plant seeds of those plants so you have nice, healthy starts to put in the garden this fall. There are two ways to go about this. First, you could buy a few of the plants you desire and let them go to seed. Either collect the seed as it ripens (the plant will be your guide) or let it fall where it may for new plants for next year. The second option is something I enjoy every year: browsing through seed catalogs. I do my ordering online, but find the most enjoyment in having a hard copy of a catalog and a cup of tea while it is stormy outside. Some of my favorites include Seeds of Change, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Abundant Life Seed Foundation, Seed Savers Exchange and J.L. Hudson. Also, don't forget the seed rack at your local nursery.

When you plant your seeds, use a good planting mix, keep the soil damp but not waterlogged and make sure the seedlings get plenty of sun once they germinate. Too little sun and they will be leggy; too much and they will burn. Morning sun is best. If you have sown them in flats, you'll have to pot them into larger containers once they get their first set of true leaves. If you have potted them in larger containers, they can stay there until it is time to put them in the ground.

What kind of soil do I use for a window box?

Choose a planting mix that has plenty of compost in it. Avoid sterile mixes. Because a window box is like a pot and every time you water you are washing nutrients away, I'd add a time-release fertilizer to the mix.

A friend gave me a bag of iris rhizomes last summer, and I forgot to plant them. I just found the bag, and the rhizomes look shriveled and dried up. Do I have to toss them out?

Amazingly, you do not. They may look desiccated and dead, but there is still plenty of life left in them. Get them in the ground and get them watered. You probably won't have any blooms this year, but by next year, those rhizomes will never remember they were neglected for months.

I've never planted a vegetable garden, but the house I just bought has a raised-bed vegetable garden. What can I plant?

Lucky you! Sounds like you are off to a good start. Most beginning vegetable gardeners plant everything and are usually successful. Really, the key is to plant what you like and what you will eat. Also, don't plant the whole garden at once. Get the tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and peppers in now, then visit the nursery again to see what new veggies and herbs they have to offer. Leave room for planting cauliflower and broccoli in August, garlic in October, and greens in the fall and spring. Your garden can become a never-ending source of fresh vegetables and herbs. Don't be afraid to try anything. I've always said you learn as much from failure as from success. Another tip: When you take a crop out, add compost before putting the next one in.

 

When shopping at the nursery, I am drawn to the plants in bloom, but they never seem to last long once I bring them home. What am I doing wrong?

You aren't doing anything wrong. Flowers last a certain time, and then they fade. My advice would be to admire those plants in bloom, but select ones that are just starting to produce flowering stalks—ones that aren't quite open, but have lots of buds ready to burst. This way, they will bloom for you and not for customers at the nursery.

The plant tag on my tomato plant says "determinate." I've never seen this before. What does it mean?

Tomatoes come two ways: determinate and indeterminate. Those terms refer to their growth habits. You need to know which types you have because one of them requires a much stronger, taller, bigger support system.

Determinate types have a short main stem, grow fairly compactly, grow to a certain size and stop. They are generally short and close to the ground. They bloom and then bear fruit in one big flush, and that's it. They're finished for the season.

Indeterminate types keep growing and blooming and producing fruit the entire season. They are the ones that need tall, stout tomato cages. They typically produce more fruit than determinate types.