Renee's Garden Seeds: Renee's Blog

Announcing the 2009 Photo Contest Winners

2009-10-15T15:56:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the winners of the 6th Annual Renee's Garden Photo Contest. We received so many beautiful entries and enjoyed seeing them all. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest -- we are sending out your complimentary seed packets this week.
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1st Place Winner: "Super Bush Tomatoes"

-Katie Neumann, Woodland, CA

"I took this photo of one of my Super Bush Tomatoes (GREAT for small space gardening!!). I had just finished watering my garden and was struck by the beauty of this particular tomato. The contrast of colors between the red tomato and green leaves in the early evening light really caught my eye.

The past few years I have enjoyed starting my plants from seed. There is a huge difference in the quality of your plants when you start them from great seeds—my friends, family and even our chickies can attest to that! I always give away my extra plants to friends and family and it has been fun to see them have great success in their own gardens."

Second Place Winner - Asclepias Bright Wings
- Liane Doxey, Brookfield, IL

Liane puts it simply: "This one is a family favorite."

Second Place Runner-Up - The Joy of Sweet Peas
Shirley Ward, Big Sur, CAf

"Wonderful sweet peas! Chiffon Elegance, Royal Wedding, Regal Robe,Queen of the night, Watermelon, April in Paris, Painted lady, Mary Lou Heald, Zinfandel, and Cupanis Original.

"This is a 60 foot row of fragrant and delicious blossoms."
Shirley is from Esalen Farm and Garden

Kids Contest Winners

JoAnne Wallace, Hershey, PA
These kids know how to cool off: popsicles and the shade provided by an enormous "Trombetta di Albenga" Italian summer squash plant.

Saniya with Trombetta Squash

"We love your seeds and your company.
We have a half acre of edible garden for our restaurant and just ripped out our lawn in our new house to plant the garden where these photos come from. Saniya loves the garden and I love that she eats anything from it. She spends the day chewing up basil leaves, green coriander seeds and picking cherry tomatoes. She also loves freshly pulled beets and radishes (I have to remind her that they taste better with the dirt washed off!)."
-Kelly Majid, Berkeley, CA,
(Their restaurant is Zatar Restaurant in Berkeley, CA)

Click below to view and download the desktop wallpapers made from our winners' pictures.

To add as your desktop wallpaper, click on the image below to get the full-size, right click on the full-sized image and click "set as desktop background."
Desktop Wallpaper - Asclepias Bright Wings and Super Bush Tomato

Renee's Seeds "do the show" in Chicago

2009-10-03T12:44:00.000-07:00

-by Nellie Boonman, RGS Marketing Assistant

A few weeks ago I took the opportunity to venture back to my hometown, Chicago, to work at the Independent Garden Center show at Navy Pier Exposition Center. Renee and I met up with our East Coast sales manager Jay (who also works as our Vermont trial gardener), to set up our booth. The empty, carpeted space would transform into the home for Renee’s Garden Seeds for three busy days.

If you’ve never been to a trade show, just imagine a space the size of 2 or 3 football fields filled with enormous cardboard boxes, tubing, wire and forklifts. Within a matter of hours, the entire place transformed into a wonderland for gardeners, filled with fire-breathing pots, enormous gushing fountains, and all sorts of plants, trees and every kind of garden tool. It's the place to see the latest and greatest in products for the garden, and we saw a lot of people looking like kids in a candy store.

Companies exhibited at the 2009 Independent Garden Center show for several reasons: to talk to their current wholesale customers, to introduce new products, and to find prospective new independent garden center customers. Attending the wholesale-only show were buyers and owners from garden centers and nurseries from all across the country. Because the IGC is specifically targeted to independent garden centers; no discount or "big box stores" enter in the picture. These independent garden center buyers look hard for products (like Renee's Garden seeds) that help differentiate them from their "big-box" competition. Many retailers also brought their families – after all, many independently run garden centers are family-owned so it’s only natural to bring the kids along!

Renee’s Garden showcased several of our handsome Garden Trellis and Garden Gate displays filled with our watercolor seed packets. For seed companies, well-designed and attractive displays are absolutely crucial. Seed packets aren’t like garden hoses – you can’t just stack them on a shelf or expect people to rummage through a bin to find what they want. Buyers, bloggers (like Mr. Brown Thumb and Linda from Garden Girl) and press people stopped at our booth to “shop” our displays and to look at Renee’s new varieties for 2010. They asked questions about our seeds and talked with Renee, who is a wealth of information and suggestions for encouraging and supporting home gardeners.

Being in Chicago also gave us an opportunity to enjoy some great restaurants and the wonderful atmosphere of this exciting city. We also attend several other major garden trade shows across the country during the year - an excellent opportunity to meet our customers and keep abreast of innovations and trends in the garden world.

It's raining Summer Squash in Seattle

2009-09-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

-by Sue Shecket, webmaster and NW trial gardener

Now that our reputation for cool wet summers and grey skies has been ruined, I'm happy to report that this sunny warm Seattle summer has provided me with an excellent tan and a bumper crop of heat loving veggies. Of course my bounty has been shared with my neighbors and friends, but at a certain point, they start to hide behind the curtains when I'm spotted roaming the street with another bag of summer squash.

Fortunately, Renee has a wealth of ideas for coping with an excess of those little darlings, and provided me with an easy, quick way to make a huge pile of summer squash into a delicious (and reasonably sized) dish that is a great meal in itself. We've been happily eating this all week, and have yet to tire of Oven Baked Squash with Cheese. Here's how to do it:
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees (this is important!)

-Slice summer squash (zucchini, crookneck and/or scalloped) into 1/2 inch thick slices

-Spread in one layer in a large roasting pan and toss to coat with olive oil

(they will shrink a lot, so you can crowd them in there)

-Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste

-Bake for 20-25 min. -do not turn or stir- until flesh is very fork tender and tops are beginning to brown and carmelize.

-Remove from oven and immediately top with chopped fresh basil and freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese.

Serve with crusty bread to soak up juices. YUM

Sizzling in Seattle - by Sue Shecket, webmaster and NW trial gardener

2009-07-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

Mother Nature is having a lot of fun playing tricks on Northwest gardeners this year. After sharing in the cold temps and snow of Alaska all winter, we’ve now seemingly traded climate with our friends in the Northeast.

With no real rain since mid-May, and now suffering through a record breaking 100 degree heat wave, my salad greens are just a memory and the "Sungold" tomatoes and "Asian Trio"eggplant are growing like they are on steroids.

In the spirit of recycling, I found a use for this old Renee’s Garden seed rack frame, which has a new life as jailer for my rampaging tomatoes.

On the bright side, we’ve also traded our usual attire of fleece for cool surfer shorts, and are experiencing the pleasures of sitting outside on warm summer evenings while mastering the art of grilling all that summer squash along with our great NW salmon.

Once again I am kicking myself for not getting around to installing that drip irrigation system for my veggie beds, as it’s been a real challenge to keep things alive and hydrated.

Here's the view from my back deck - it's a very long climb down and up from garden to kitchen, so I get lots of additional exercise points just getting there and back multiple times daily.

I’ve been enjoying experimenting with color combos in the containers on my east facing deck. Here’s a shot of some of my favorites from seed - “Stained Glass” Salpiglossis, “Chantilly” Snapdragons and “Blue Ensign” Morning Glories.

I’m also a big fan of these tuberous begonias that especially enjoy my filtered morning sun and afternoon shade.

My neighbors always expect something spectacular to bloom in my front garden, so this year I went for lots of poppies - the French Flounce definitely got the most attention.

My garden also benefits greatly from the post-meal contributions of our 2 horses. Here's my boy Tazo, who is definitely the Cute One in our equine family.

As soon as our “normal” weather returns, I’ll be doing my fall planting of greens, lettuce, etc. I’ve already got a good stand of "Lacinato" Kale, "Bright Lights" Chard and "Jewel-Toned" Beets, which will be long term garden residents through the fall and winter.

Planting Out Peppers and a Recipe for Chicken Santa Cruz with Fresh Peppers

2009-07-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Renee’s Garden office staff got their hands dirty planting pepper plants into our trial garden’s prepared beds a couple weeks ago.

Harvesting spinach

We’ve been learning the growing process for tomatoes and peppers this season and the pepper seeds that we sowed in March had grown into plants big enough to transplant into the ground. Plus our weather is now nice and warm – perfect for growing lots of delicious peppers.

We’ll be back in a month or so to start harvesting our bounty!

Here's a recipe making good use of peppers from one of Renee's cookbooks, Recipes From a Kitchen Garden.

Chicken Santa Cruz (Printable Recipe Click Here)

The aromatic, subtle flavors of this dish have drawn more raves than many other entrees we've prepared. Slow sauteing brings out the sweetness of the spices, herbs and onions and the rich mellow flavor of the ripe peppers. Please do try it. Don't forget crusty French bread. By the way, leftovers make great sandwiches.

4 boneless chicken breast halves, skinned and cut into 1/2-inch strips
3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 large fresh bell peppers -- use red, yellow, or deep green peppers (or any combination)
4 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large onions, finely sliced
2 teaspoons whole cumin seed or 1 teaspoon ground
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon ground
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh hot chile pepper or 1 teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley or chopped cilantro

Sprinkle chicken strips with lemon juice and set aside. Cut peppers in half and remove seeds and ribs. Cut into 1 1/2-inch-wide strips. In a large skillet, heat the oil. Add garlic and cook one minute on moderate heat. Add the pepper strips, sliced onion, cumin, oregano and chile pepper. Stir the vegetables to coat evenly with oil. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Uncover pan, stir mixture, add chicken strips and stir to distribute them evenly in the vegetable mixture.

Cover skillet again and cook gently for 10 more minutes. Uncover; chicken should be cooked through and vegetable mixture should be tender and very aromatic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or cilantro and serve.

Serves 4 to 6.

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Northeast Trial Garden Journal - by Jay Leshinsky

2009-07-02T10:35:00.001-07:00

The Middlebury College student garden interns and I are well into this year's seed trials for Renee's Garden. Our main focus over the 7 years at this location is building soil fertility with compost and green manures. Middlebury College produces tons of compost from food prep materials, leaves, wood chips and cardboard gathered from on campus. We use the compost to enrich our sandy, stony soil.

One of our summer volunteers, Abel is spreading compost on one of our raised beds. The plant growing in the background is yellow sweet clover which we plant for our bees and for soil improvement. This is the second year we trialed our new Gourmet Golden Beets. Golden Beets are one of our main crops and the old varieties were often inconsistent in their germination and yield. Gourmet Golden Beets outperformed all other golden varieties. Our customers love them! There was even great competition from the Dining Service chefs to obtain our beet green thinnings.

Our mesclun lettuce and baby spinach has benefited from the cold, wet spring here in Vermont. Our yields were heavy and the taste superb! This spring we used predominantly Farmer's Market Blend and Monet's Garden for our lettuce and Catalina for our spinach. Two of this summers interns David and Jessie have just harvested the second cutting from our first planting of lettuce and our second planting (to the right in the photo) will be ready in a few days. Once we harvest the mesclun, we wash it in our well water and then spin it dry in our 2 gallon salad spinner.

Molly, one of the other summer interns, is doing some taste testing before she spins the cleaned lettuce.We are getting our first really hot and sunny weather and our warm weather crop are finally getting some good growth. More on those in my next blog.

Don't miss our featured website article for July :
Growing Vertical Vegetables

Renee at the White House

2009-06-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Renee's Garden was part of the Congressional Club's annual First Lady's Luncheon honoring Michelle Obama at the Washington Hilton last month.

This gala annual event, attended by Congressional, Supreme Court and Administration spouses as well as guests from around the country had a theme of "Forever Green", and event co-chair, Betty Ann Tanner, wife of the congressman from Tennessee, invited me to contribute our seeds for attendees. Individual packets of our Farmers Market lettuce and Pesto Basil were part of the beautiful gift bags given every attendee.

Best of all, I was invited to the VIP reception before the affair and had the thrill and honor of meeting Michelle Obama in person. I was also able to make a personal selection of our seeds to give to Michelle for the White House Garden. Michelle was everything I expected -- vibrant, graceful, clearly engaged and enjoying what she is doing. When you speak with her, you have her full attention and feel like you are the only person in the room. The luncheon itself was really fabulous. I was seated at a table quite close to the First Lady and other honorees, so I got to watch her "up close and personal" as she gave a very insightful speech on community service.

The First Lady also recently hosted a harvest party in the White House kitchen garden with the students from Bancroft Elementary to celebrate their hard work. Click here to read the blog post about it on the White House website. The kids harvested lettuce and sugar snap peas and then cooked a lunch from their harvest. More than 90 pounds of produce has been harvested so far from the White House kitchen garden.

Attract butterflies and hummingbirds to your garden – Our First Contest!

2009-05-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

Although we love earthworms and bees here at Renee's Garden Seeds, there's nothing quite as exciting as catching a glimpse of a hummingbird zipping through your garden, looking for a snack. You can't deny the lift in your spirits when you watch a butterfly crash-land gently onto a bright “Red Sun” sunflower.

So, we thought. Why don't we share our winged friends with our readers?

Contest #1: A Blooming Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden Contest

For our first-ever contest on Renee's Blog, we want to offer each of our two contest winners a butterfly bonus pack and a hummingbird bonus pack. You can grow your very own butterfly and hummingbird gardens.

Here's what they look like:

These are both brand new for this season. Click here to read about these collections.

How does this contest work? This contest is open to our Canadian and US readers. You may enter once anytime before 11:59 PM Pacific Time on Friday, June 5th. The following week, we will select two responses at random, contact the winners, and send them each a butterfly garden and a hummingbird garden.

All you have to do is click on the "comments" link below this article. In the text box, tell us your favorite vegetable or flower and include your name and e-mail address so we contact you. After filling out the box, click the orange "publish your comment" button.

Two winners will be selected at random. The week of June 8th, we'll publish the winners' first names on the blog.

In Other News: Our New Intern!

Also new at Renee's Garden Seeds is Nellie Boonman, the marketing intern (me). I recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship.

I'm very excited to work with Renee and the entire team here in beautiful Felton, California. The trial gardens are absolutely bursting right now with lettuce and spinach, so everybody in the office goes home with bags of leafy greens in their back seats. Definitely a perk. I've especially enjoyed the Mesclun mixes, which you can order online through our catalog. They're incredibly tasty with an Orange Citrus Dressing and our chopped Delicious Duo scallions.

I'll contribute occasionally to the Renee's Garden Seeds blog, Twitter account, and to the Renee's Garden Seeds Ning community. I look forward to hearing your gardening stories and comments.

Lettuce Days: Fields of Green & Red

2009-05-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

Recently we visited Lettuce Field Day at Shamrock Seeds, a premier lettuce breeding company. One of the benefits of our location in Central California is that several of the seed growers we work with are within easy driving distance. Shamrock Seeds hosted us during their “Lettuce Days” open house in their beautiful trial fields in Gilroy, CA.

We lucked out with a perfect spring weather for touring the "living catalog" of Shamrock varieties, existing and under development, with knowledgeable Product Development Manager, Estella Barajas. The trials featured row after row of interesting varieties – from romaines to baby leaf varieties to wasabi arugula. Estella impressed us with her encyclopedic and very precise knowledge of every single variety and her boundless enthusiasm for the details of growing and producing seed for great greens. She showed us how she evaluates the different varieties for form, weight, disease resistance and slow bolting. And taste of course! Renee makes a point of tasting each variety in the field, so we had plenty of opportunity to talk about the various nuances of flavor.

The most exciting find of the day was completely new variety of arugula that tastes amazingly like the spicy wasabi that often accompanies sushi. We didn’t believe it until we tasted it. The first taste is the spicy, peppery flavor of arugula, but then the intense flavor of wasabi hits you. It was a truly uncanny experience discover the tangy, delicious flavor of the wasabi in a salad leaf! We all agreed that there would definitely be a great interest in the market for this new green. It is still in development by Shamrock but we’ll be testing it in our own trial gardens this fall.

Many specialty lettuces also caught our attention, especially a soft, delicate butter lettuce they usually sell mostly to European customers, and the intensely colored red leaf lettuces and mustards that are Shamrock specialties.

On the theme that "everything old is new again", Shamrock has reselected an old home garden favorite, Little Gem lettuce. Renee was especially excited to see and taste both green and red varieties of these old-fashioned little vase- shaped lettuces that qualities of both butterhead and romaine lettuces. Shamrock's breeders have refined this variety to have more crunch, sweetness and heavier heads.

We also were excited about the densely leafed new variety Shamrock is working on called "thousand leaf lettuce." It is the most densely packed l head of leaf lettuce we've ever seen and tastes good too.

Next up will be for us to evaluate these new variety" finds" several times in our own company trials to see if they will perform well for home gardeners before deciding to add them to our Renee's Garden line. There will be many salad meals to come…

-by Sarah Renfro, Renee's Garden Business Manager

Springtime in Seattle - Sue Shecket, webmaster and NW trial gardener

2009-05-07T08:45:00.001-07:00

It was an exceptionally long, rough winter here in the Pacific Northwest. We do expect a bit of snow to dust us now and then in Seattle, but this year was the "real deal" , with bitter cold and lots of the white stuff that stuck around for weeks. While we had some fun sledding down our very steep hillside streets, watching people cross country ski downtown, playing bumper cars on the side streets and bemoaning the inability of the city to plow anywhere but the mayor's neighborhood, the novelty wore off very soon and thoughts turned to the sad fate of our more tender plants and trees.

Indeed I did loose a few old favorites to the snow load and deep freeze, but fortunately there is a happy ending to this tale of woe, as the exceptional cold also gave new life to long ago planted and forgotten bulbs. So when spring bloom season finally arrived (and even our Tulip Festival was 2 weeks late), it was spectacular.

Against all odds, my fall planted sweet peas soldiered through and are up and running, and the early spring seeded poppies and larkspur also stayed afloat. I had sowed fava beans as a cover crop in the vegetable beds, and many plants did survive to be turned under and enrich the soil for my April planting of lettuces, greens, brocolli raab, bok choi, radishes, scallions, spinach, peas, chard, kale, carrots and beets.

The raised beds look a bit like a laundry line with row covers over everything to protect the seedlings from heavy rain, digging cats, hungry birds and murauding slugs and snails (an ongoing NW battle). I do start my warm weather crops indoors, and have a good supply of my favorite Sungold tomatoes to set out and share, as well as a sampling of our container varieties. Cherry tomatoes are more reliable in my less than ideal conditions (half day sun, cool nights), but I have had success here with our container eggplant and peppers, so have started Little Prince Eggplant and Baby Belle Peppers as well.

We are already looking forward to our first spring salads and I am, as ever, thrilled to see so many healthy seedlings sprouting in the beds. I'll be watching those nighttime temperatures closely with my seed packets out and ready for sowing lots of flowers and warmer weather crops.

We just published this month's Enewsletter - click to check it out: Add to your "garden ideas" toolbox.

From Seeds to Seedlings

2009-04-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

Everyone from our Renee's Garden office staff went back to the trial garden last week to learn the next stage in growing the tomato and pepper seeds that we sowed last month.

In just over a month’s time, the seeds germinated and grew to several inches, kept sheltered, warm and well watered in the greenhouse by trial garden managers Lindsay and Mila.

Now it was time for us to learn the next step in the growing process –"pricking out" the seedlings, which we learned simply means moving the rapidly developing seedlings into larger size pots so they have room to grow and thrive.

Although the daytime temperatures have warmed up here in Northern California into the 60°F range, night temperatures are still not consistently high enough (in the 50°F range) to move our baby seedlings outside right away and they need to grow bigger in order ensure survival in the garden when it warms up enough.

The seed flats that we started the plants in have now become tight quarters for the vigorous seedlings and they need more room so they can grow into big healthy plants that will transplant easily into the garden when the weather permits.

So the next step is to transplant them into bigger individual 4” pots to continue growing strong roots, and then to gradually adjust them to the variable garden temperatures outside of the greenhouse.
Armed with our sophisticated tools (chopsticks from the take-out Chinese restaurant near our office), Lindsay showed us how to gently loosen the seedling from the flat by lifting the soil with the chopstick – never tugging or pulling on the plant itself.

We used the chopstick to lift and move the soil in the 4” inch pot, creating a hole with enough space for the roots and no more than about 1/4 inch of the seedling to be under the soil. Taking care to ensure the roots all point down, we gently transferred all the seedlings into their larger homes, tapping the pots on the table to settle the soil back around the seedling rather then pressing it down. We learned how important it is to keep the potting soil fluffy so the containers drain properly.

After finely misting water over the newly transplanted seedlings, they went back into the greenhouse to continue growing. Over the next several weeks, Lindsay and Mila will feed and water the growing plants and move the pots outside during the warm days to “harden off” or acclimate the seedlings to outside conditions. After the night temperatures are consistently above 50°F., we’ll be back to move our babies into their final homes in the ground.

All this planting got me in the mood to get my vegetable garden started at home over the weekend. Although it is still too early to plant the corn, cucumbers and melons, I did get crops of lettuce, radishes, spinach and arugula sown in my new raised beds. Keeping in mind everything I’ve learned so far from our trial gardening experience, I was careful to keep the soil fluffy and to properly space the seeds so they have room to grow.

I’ll be keeping a close watch on the beds over the next 2 weeks to see how everything germinates. Just about the time I’m enjoying my first salad of baby greens, it will be time to plant all those pepper and tomatoes and sow the warm weather crops I’ll be enjoying this fall!

-Sarah Renfro, Renee's Garden Business Manager

"Pack Trials" - a showcase of new varieties

2009-04-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last week was the "Pack Trials" week throughout California. This is an annual event where all the American seed producing companies and many from abroad as well, grow out and showcase all their new flower varieties in greenhouse settings to introduce them to their customers and the media.There are several dozen locations to visit up and down the coast that have these official greenhouse open days and many folks spend a whole week traveling from one to another.

At our office, I take a group to visit some of our favorite vendors that are drivable in one day from Felton where we are located. It's always a fascinating tour with lots of plant material presented in their most alluring fashion given the constraints of greenhouse growing. We see both varieties that we are interested in trialing as well as lots of the varieties that will end up being massmarketed in the next two years by large growers.
Our job is to pick and choose what works best for our customers. Then we make a list, get sample seeds of all our choices and grow them out to see what we think of the varieties grown in our own trial garden from seed. For me, the best part of Pack Trials is not just seeing the flower varieties, but having time to spend with the breeders and developers of these new cultivars which I always find fascinating. Here are a few pictures:
Trial garden manager Lindsay admires the new " Fantasy" series of linaria from Japanese flower breeders Takii seeds . We decided to make a mix of all the pastel colors. Next up will be to grow them out from seed in both California and Vermont to see how they do.

Knowledgeable and delightful Elizabeth Sahin of the extraordinarily talented breeding company, Sahin Seeds , shows off her new fragrant dwarf stock to us. We thought it was very sweet smelling, but prefer the taller one we already sell from another company. She had many other great new selections though, including seed for Stevia, the sweet tasting herb which we will trial this spring and also a Korean mint whose edible flowers attract butterflies and taste like root beer.

Takii seeds product manager Jessica and I consider whether this dwarf red colored Zinnia in their "Dreamland" series is more crimson or scarlet in hue. In the end, I decided to try the whole lovely mix of colors!

Our East Coast trials manager, Jay Leshinsky, was visiting from still cold and snowy Vermont for this event and you can see him how pleased he is to be enjoying this comfortable warm greenhouse surrounded by gorgeous flowers.
My favorite seedsmen Sjaak Ros, from major Dutch supplier Kieft, seeds shows off their new Armeria to Lindsay. We love the color combination of brick and white and plan to try it from seed this spring. This perennial blooms the first year from seed and is extremely weather tolerant.

Beth Benjamin, major Renee's Garden inspiration and our horticultural advisor, and I enjoy the 5 foot tall snapdragon bred for single cuts -- these are very special and wouldn't grow this way at home gardens, but they are spectacular in this greenhouse setting.

The Renee's Garden crew each picked out their favorite new Viola cultivar for this picture and grabbed a sixpack from the display so we could memorialize the choices here for fun. There were about 30 different colors and forms to choose from!

Learning How to Sow Seeds

2009-03-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Sarah Renfro, Renee’s Garden Business Manager

The office staff at Renee's Garden spent an afternoon in the garden last week learning how to sow seeds from our Lindsay and Mila, our Trial Gardeners, (with horse Ruby keeping us company in the background). Since our business office is located about 2 miles away from the trial garden, we here at the office don’t get as much “dirt” time as the trial garden staff.

Lindsay is organizing a series of educational sessions for our staff so we can be more confident and familiar with growing our seeds. Everyone in the office, including bookkeeper Cheri, order entry manager Calley, administrative assistant Heidi, customer service Susan and sales associate Kathy will be coming to the trial garden regularly. This week we learned more about the best techniques for seed starting. Some staff members are already experienced with starting seeds inside (Cheri’s husband is a chile pepper freak so she is very familiar!) but others are newbies.

This summer the trial garden will be evaluating many different types of tomatoes and peppers so this was the perfect opportunity for us to help out!

Mid-March is the time to start seeds of tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse. First we prepared trays with seed starting mix and watered the soil so it is damp but still fluffy. Then we laid out the seeds on top of the soil, about ¼” apart in a grid pattern. Finally we covered the seeds with a thin layer of vermiculite (being careful not to inhale this clay by-product) and gave the trays a gentle watering.

Between all of us we sowed over 500 tomato and pepper seeds! After they germinate and grow a couple of inches, we’ll head back to the greenhouse to transfer the seedlings into individual pots. In another month or so, it’s time to get dirty and plant everything into the ground.

We’ll all be taking home extra seedlings to try in our various home gardens. I am building brand new raised vegetables beds in my front yard this year (more on this in another blog post). Our newest staff member, Heidi will be growing the plants in containers on her deck. One thing is certain – we will all be enjoying the fruits of our labors later this summer!

Vegetables Rule!

2009-03-11T23:38:00.000-07:00

Seed sales, particularly of vegetables and herbs, are up very sharply this season. After years of declining veggie seed sales the whole cycle has reversed and we are experiencing tremendous interest from a new generation of gardeners who want to, for the first time, start a garden to grow food.
What I hear about from customers is a combination of factors:
-with layoffs, and worry about job loss being out of the individual's control, the positive act of making a garden gives you the sense of taking some positive action to manage economic uncertainty and control your own future.
-starting a food garden is a way of dealing with the high price of food and the need to watch spending carefully, given the bleak economic outlook and the reality of many having less cash to spend at the market.
-Many new gardeners have a real interest in eating more nutritious food and an interest in having organic produce without having to spend a lot of money to do it. I also think The Food Network has had influenced its viewers to be interested in where their food comes from; TV personalities like Jamie Oliver, "The Naked Chef", are very successful media advocates of cooking from the garden. What a treat!
-there is growing interest in knowing where your food comes from and not having to worry about if it is safe and healthy, especially given recent food safety scares about peanuts, spinach, salad etc.
-I see a trend for younger families wanting to become more self-reliant and to live simpler lives. I think young mothers have new interest in seeing nutritious food as an important part of raising healthy kids. My "30 to 40 something" customers view gardening at a healthy low-cost way to spend good quality family time together.

I'm thrilled to see a new generation of gardeners get involved and get their hands dirty! We are an online catalog which gives us the opportunity to provide updated and interactive help on how to grow from seed, which is another area where these new gardeners want assistance.

The Renee's Garden Monthly E-newsletter we sent out in February included a good how-to article I wrote on Container Gardening from Seed and I hope it will be helpful for those who aren't sure how to go about getting great harvests from containers and small space gardens. Container growing is another trend that has increased almost exponentially in popularity

For March I've decided to feature sweetpeas, since we have two new ones this season and flowers are, after all, food for the soul! I've given three talks on sweetpeas lately up in the Northwest -- I'm so pleased at the interest in my favorite flower. Nothing matches the scent of sweetpeas nor has their perfume ever been replicated. A bouquet of fragrant sweet peas really does perfume an entire room. My mission is to convince gardeners who think they can't grow them to try them again -- or for the first time. It's a hard sell in some parts of the country, mostly because people don't realize they are cool season flower and need to be started extra early. I've been corresponding recently with great pleasure with Richard Parsons, head the British Royal Sweet Pea Society and it is such fun to chat with such a knowledgeable and respected font of knowledge on all things Sweet Pea. At his request, I sent him some of our newest variety, Zinfandel, and will look forward to hearing if he liked it as much is we have here.

Spring Prep and Seed Sourcing

2009-02-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

Spring is just peeking over the horizon here at the trial garden, but signs of the new season are sharing time with much-needed torrential rains. During a break in last week's storms, I caught this quick snapshot of trial garden manager Lindsey happily bringing in the first big bundle of beautiful daffodils. Right now, late winter/early spring's reliable hellebores and dozens of jaunty daffodils that are beginning the spring season for us. I planted hundreds of daffodil varieties around our irrigation pond several seasons ago and am really beginning to reap the looming rewards. I look forward to the luxury of having armfuls of these bright beauties to enjoy and give away for the next several months. We will have a big vase of them to greet everyone who walks in the office starting next week.

Lindsay has been hard at work pruning our fruit trees and beginning to sow seeds in our greenhouse. Assistant trial garden manager Mila has, at long last, reluctantly decided to take out roses that are not disease-resistant and replace them with newer cultivars that just don't get the black spot and other rose diseases we have been plagued with in the landscape. Lindsay is going to turn her capable horticultural hands to grafting some new European pear varieties onto our vigorous Asian pear tree. We are planting yet another supposedly rain and cold tolerant apricot tree variety even though this will be our fifth attempt to grow apricots ; our cold nights and late, heavy rains make us less than ideal candidates for these delicious fruits. Trying yet another variety demonstrates once more how even experienced gardeners always try to push the envelope. Or simply that I am exceptionally stubborn and greedy for apricots!

Seed Sourcing:

Many of our customers are curious where we get our seeds. We offer varieties grown by seed producers both large and small, and early spring every year is when I work hard at finding new varieties and setting up growing contracts for the coming year for varieties we currently offer.

I have just returned from the annual conference of the American Seed Trade Association, held in Tampa, Florida this year. This meeting is my opportunity to sit down with many of the seed producers we work with, and it's especially important because our best European and Asian suppliers attend regularly. There's nothing like sitting down face-to-face with the folks who you ordinarily work with over long-distance most of the year.

I come prepared with a wish list of things we are looking for and unbounded enthusiasm, because I love to talk about seeds. I also try to be well prepared because I usually have ten meetings per day for three days straight and that takes some organization to make the most of each one.

I use my meetings first to review our trial garden results, because most of our suppliers really appreciate the feedback on how their varieties do in our trials. The main part of each meeting is devoted to hearing about and discussing their new introductions and individual variety suggestions for Renee's Garden.

These days, I get to see videos of plants growing in vendors' trials because everybody carries a laptop. I look forward to seeing my friends at our favorite French, English, Japanese, Italian and Dutch suppliers because I've known some of them for many years. They know the kinds of vegetables, herbs and flowers we'd like to offer at Renee's Garden, so I can count on their suggestions.

We also contract to buy seeds regularly from small organic farmers who have the expertise to grow high quality seeds for us. While these seed growers often don't travel to the Seed Association annual meeting, this is the time of year I contact them individually to see which crops they have room for and make formal agreements for growing out seeds we will need for next year. All our heirloom tomato varieties, for instance, are grown by these knowledgeable small seed producers, most located in the agricultural valleys of northern California and Oregon.

Generally the arrangement I make with them is that we supply the basic " stock seed", and they multiply these seeds for us, according to agreed on standards of germination and purity, subject to independent seed lab tests.

The Great Sunflower Project

2009-01-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

Over the last week or so, I've been working to source good quality seeds and create sunflower growing instructions and graphics for The Great Sunflower Project. This fascinating and ambitious "citizen science" project was founded and is directed by Dr. Gretchen LeBuhn, a conservation biologist and associate professor at San Francisco State University. She is particularly interested in the effects of climate change on bee communities and this project is creating data to help understand what is happening to the bee pollinators in all the different bee species, focusing on urban and semi-urban areas.

Here's how Dr. LeBuhn describes the background of the project for participants:
"We know that pollinators are declining in certain wild and many agricultural landscapes. However, little is known about urban pollinators. Because natural habitats are uncommon in urban landscapes, they may not provide enough resources to support viable pollinator communities. However, if other habitats, such as urban gardens and restored areas, are sufficiently connected to natural habitat, then native populations may thrive.
By finding a way to track and value the goods and services provided by natural ecosystems, we will find a future in which conservation is not a luxury but a guiding principle of daily decision-making throughout the world. The data you collect from your sunflower will be a start. It will provide an insight into how our green spaces in the urban, suburban and rural landscapes are connected as well as shedding light on how to help pollinators. The Great Sunflower Project is the first step."
The Project works by sending a sunflower seed packet to all the individual volunteers who sign up on The Great Sunflower Website to get one and agree to collect data on the bees attracted by the flowers. I'm pleased and proud to have been selected to write the packet to ensure growing success and provide the sunflower seeds for The Sunflower Project' s 2009 seed packet. When the these seeds are sown, grow and flower, the volunteers will be observing and reporting on the bees that visit them, using standardized data sheets that are then sent back to the Project for analysis.
Currently, 40,000 American and Canadian volunteers ranging from preschoolers to master gardeners and from rural, suburban and metropolitan locations are participating.
With the help of her students Fern Canton and Shannon Messerly, Dr. LeBuhn is looking forward to getting a wide range of data about urban bee populations that would not otherwise be available: "We have grown a ‘virtual’ community of teachers, community gardeners, nature center staff, beekeepers, pollinator enthusiasts, retirees, home schooling groups and parents interested in participating in a project with their children. If everyone plants seeds this year, we will have sunflower samples from the Arctic Circle to the tip of Florida and west to Hawaii and east to Puerto Rico!"

You can see a map with about 25,000 of the locations on the Great Sunflower Project Website http://www.greatsunflower.org/

Last year, the project had the misfortune to use a sunflower species from another seed company that didn't germinate at all well and was very disappointing. This season, Dr. LeBuhn came to me looking for a sunflower that was produces pollen, has multiple flower heads and was easy to grow and attractive. I settled on a wonderful old-fashioned variety called "Lemon Queen" and have written the packet back expressly for beginning gardeners since many of the folks who are participating in the project haven't had much garden experience. Today I finally sent the packets off to the printer to start things rolling and ordered the seeds to be shipped for filling the packets once they are produced.

In addition to personally contributing in building an important database about bees, participants can really learn about both honey bees and lesser-known native species. Besides, it's really fun to be part of a big effort like this! I'd like to encourage everybody to go to their website and sign up to do this project! We will plan to have a great big row of Lemon Queen in our trial gardens this year. This is an interesting and serendipitous way to find a new variety, but if all goes well, we'll probably also add Lemon Queen to Renee's Garden in 2010.

New Year's celebration and salad

2009-01-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

Here is my New Year's portrait -- I expect it needs a little explaination: I belong to a group of 10 friends who have been getting together to celebrate New Year's Eve together at each other's houses for at least the last decade or so.
We have a fine dinner together and then spend the evening playing everyone's favorite board games and occasionally, even old-fashioned ones like charades. (My favorite!) Our website photographer Karen and her husband Bob are part of the group and instituted a costume theme every year because that gives them an excuse to take pictures of everyone.

This year the theme was masks and I'm afraid mine was the least elaborate and store-bought at the last minute. My only excuse is that I don't consider myself particularly artistic or crafty -- but I'm fortunate that many of my friends have both of those talents, and their masks were homemade and really fun. Here are a few of my favorites taken by photographer Kevin Osborn.

As always, I brought the salad for our meal. Despite the fact that we've had lots of frost with temperatures well below freezing at night, my lettuce beds are in a protected spot and my Blush Batavian lettuces and Escarole look great and are especially crisp. I also have the most incredible deep, deep dark red new lettuce variety that I will be introducing next year. I really want to call it "Blood Lust” - but I think that might be a little over the top. Maybe "Passion" would do. We'll be growing it again in spring, so I'll see what inspires me then.

In a large stainless steel bowl I bought from the restaurant supply, I combined 2 heads of the light green and deep green leaves with 2 heads of the gorgeous deep red ones. Then I put in a hefty handful of finely chopped chives and approx. 2 cups of chopped Italian plain leaf parsley from the garden (the cold weather really makes the parsley sweet , it's SO good for you). From the store, I had a long English cucumber to slice thinly into the bowl and then peeled and cut 2 blood oranges and 2 regular Navel oranges into small 2 inch chuncks. Finally, I added about 2 1/2 cups of freshly toasted walnut pieces and sprinkled 2 pomegranates' yields of ruby- colored sweet/ tart pomegranate seeds over the top. This New Year's salad was as colorful as the holiday, tasted seasonally perfect and served 10 big eaters comfortably.

I can recommend my standard homemade vinaigrette to go with it: 3/4 of a cup of good-quality, fruity extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup (not too sweet) good quality balsamic or unseasoned rice vinegar, 3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1 smashed garlic clove, a good pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and several good grindings of fresh pepper. This time, I also added approx. 1/3 cup of fresh orange juice and a little orange zest. Cover container and shake well and allow to blend for at least 15 minutes at room temperature. Freshly made vinaigrette is so much better than any kind of bottled dressing that once you try it you won't go back.

Last post, I profiled three of my favorite things to give his garden gifts but I forgot to mention one of my favorite garden supplies catalog companies - Gardeners Supply Company (http://www.gardeners.com/). It’s important to know about if you don't have a good source of seed starting supplies anywhere nearby or aren't sure what's available. They carry a variety of all the critical equipment needed (as well as all kinds of gadgets) for folks who garden from seed. I particularly recommend looking at their indoor seed starting equipment which is often hard to find. They've been in business a good long time and know their stuff. If you ever are in Burlington, Vermont, they have a great retail store there as well.

This company was started by Will Rapp, I think in the mid-80s. When I first was getting started in the catalog business, I called him up out of the blue (he was on a different side of the country and didn't have any idea of who the voice on the other end of the phone was) and asked for his help in how to design and mail catalogs effectively. He was most generous with excellent advice and played an important role in getting me started. I have always been very grateful to him and had a soft spot for his business.

Will has also been instrumental in developing many innovative demonstration projects in ecological farming and gardening in the area next to his business. One of the most fascinating I remember seeing at his location in Burlington was a demonstration of how energy can be derived from methane produced by dairy cows!

Three Favorite Garden Gifts

2008-12-18T18:18:00.000-08:00

Here are three really useful, practical and functional tools that I truly appreciate and use with pleasure and satisfaction throughout the gardening season. I think all three make wonderful holiday gifts, so I wanted to share why I really like them and tell you where to get them as well. I really don't have any association with these companies, these are just my personal faves!

Sunday Afternoons Hat's "Sport hat" model
Great for comfort, looks, convenience and sun protection. I have always had a hard time finding a good garden hat because I find most hats to be uncomfortable and annoying. Several years ago, I discovered this one and everything changed. I actually own 3 of these hats so that I can have one stashed in the house, in the garden shed and in my car. The hat is so lightweight (2.2 ounces) that you forget you have it on. The design features a full crescent 4 inch sun protection brim that extends around the sides of the head, tapers over the ears, and includes an extension you can tuck up or wear down to cover your neck and it even accommodates a ponytail. I think it's still pretty good-looking even with all of this protection. The mesh air vents keep my head from getting too hot and the hat is adjustable for all head sizes and easily washed in the machine. I buy them right from the company's website, while not cheap at $34, they are often available for $19 on their sale page, although in more limited colors. Look for these hats at: http://www.sundayafternoons.com/

Joyce Chen "Never Dull" Scissors
My favorite go everywhere scissors for kitchen and garden.I carry these little handy all-purpose scissors when I go out in the garden. At 6 1/4 inches, they are especially well sized to work for a woman's hand and great for everything: trimming dead leaves, cutting bouquets, snipping lettuce and herbs and as a main workhorse tool for cutting bouquets and harvesting vegetables. The bright red scissor handles are made from soft vinyl, making them freely comfortable for heavy use. The well-balanced high carbon steel blades give excellent leverage and easily cut even woody stems. They "never dull" as their blades are electronically hardened and don't require sharpening over a lifetime of use. They fit easily in my jeans pocket and I think they're essential for every working gardener. I also keep another pair in the house to use for kitchen chores -- these well-made small scissors are truly multipurpose. Usually available for about $21-$25 from many websites -- just google Joyce Chen scissors and take your choice.

Bloomsaver Flower Harvest Caddy
Every Flower Gardener Should Have One
The idea for the Bloomsaver began in the garden when two good gardening friends decided to design a tool making it easier to collect flowers for bouquets. The Bloomsaver Flower Caddy they came up with is a lightweight, three section container with a detachable handle. It allows you to harvest and collect large quantities of blooming flowers without wilting, crushing or bruising them and carry them around the garden as you harvest. With three different sections, you can sort your flowers by size color or type as you harvest them if you like. The base unit is molded of high-quality plastic and the detachable Lexan handle is shatterproof. I find the Bloomsaver easy to carry and very stable.

I found out about the Bloomsaver from one of my rose loving friends and now I wouldn't be without it. For flowers like sweet peas or zinnias are roses which can crush and bruise easily if you pack them together tightly, it really is a wonderful solution. Sometimes I just fill it up with flowers and don't even bother to transfer them to individual vases because it looks quite lovely as a casual arrangement. The Bloomsaver sells for about $28.95, but it's worth it and I've had mine for years. Still made by its original developers, it is only available on their small company website: http://www.bloomsaver.com/

Receiving the Seed Harvest

2008-12-10T22:45:00.000-08:00

At this time of year, our warehouse is getting filled to overflowing with new crops of seed that were just harvested this fall, carefully winnowed, sorted, cleaned, tested for germination and purity and finally shipped to us from all over the world. The warehouse floor is filled with the sweetly pungent odor of carrot seeds, the spicy scent of very fresh dill seed, and the simple physical beauty of dozens and dozens of different seed shapes, colors and sizes. In the old days, just 10 years ago, seeds were routinely shipped in muslin or linen sacks, but nowadays they come in airtight buckets or foil packages; not as romantic but probably much more moisture proof. When they arrive, we take out a sample and send it off to the seed lab to be sure that the germination rate has stayed as high as when we first arranged to purchase the crop.

Many of these purchase agreements were made long before the seed was planted last spring, so getting the seed into the warehouse means we finally can relax, knowing that variety has been successfully grown and we will have plenty of seed to fill our packets all season long. When we place our purchase orders to growers, there is no guarantee that a crop that meets our standards will result nine months later. Too much or too little rain; disease or pests; harvesting too early or too late; improper postharvest handling; all of these factors can mean we will get no crop that season and we never know for sure until the harvest is complete and the seed is inside our doors.

All of this involves lots of communications throughout the growing season with growers in very far-flung places. It reminds me again that in today's world, planting a garden can be a truly ecumenical act because we enable gardeners to grow vegetables and herbs from all the world's regional cuisines, and flowers from every continent. The seeds we are offering have been grown by producers both large and small in the US, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, England, Israel, China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. All have their histories and stories in their home countries.

I think one of the most enjoyable parts of my job is the annual process of connecting with our growers to hear about their varieties and how they are used. When I first started in this business, I really had to travel to far away places to find new varieties, but now the Internet has meant that I can more easily find out about new introductions and track down the varieties that we need from among the world community of seed producers. I have been working with many of these folks for over many years. The next step is getting and beginning the long process of growing them out and evaluating, first in our California trial garden and then in our other regional gardens. The end result is where I began -- the seeds coming to our warehouse so I can share them with all of you!

The Slowest Performing Art

2008-11-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a quote I read this week that I want to share:

"Gardening Is the Slowest Performing Art"

...the more you think about it, the more it seems to unfold in your brain...

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This week I wanted to share a few of my favorite seed variety requests:

We heard from a family in New Jersey who had just bought a horse and wanted to know if they could buy some grass mix to grow in the windowsill to take to their new horse for winter treats. I explained that it probably is much more practical to rely on carrots and apples, which are perennial horse favorites. In actual fact, unless you have some additional artificial light boost, it's really pretty hard to grow things on your windowsill in the winter, let alone enough grass to satisfy a horse' s treat tooth. But what a charming image this makes anyway!

Then we got a request for dandelion greens to feed tortoises from a woman in Southern California who is an avid tortoise hobbyist. I suggested that I could buy some seed for edible dandelions and her tortoise hobby group could distribute it to other members if they liked. Edible dandelions are a popular salad in France and that's where I would go for the seed if she is interested.

I would love to hear from other customers who have nontraditional pets they would like to grow food or treats for. I'm hoping that our blend of 4 different organic grain seeds for "cat grass" will meet most needs, but I'd be interested to know what folks need for other pets like hamsters and lizards, etc. Getting these kinds of questions and requests is what makes this job fun and makes me feel like we are connected to the everyday lives of so many of our customers.

Here's my latest answer to that perennial question: What to make for lunch:? It's a really delicious and vitamin- rich salad dressing that's a scrumptious way to use up any parsley that might still be available in the garden:

Creamy Parsley Dressing:
1- 1/2 cup of chopped fresh Italian parsley
3 green onions chopped
1/4 cup fruity olive oil
1 clove garlic minced
generous pinch of salt
generous grinds of fresh black pepper
1/4 teaspoon fish sauce or use 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 cup fresh plain yogurt -- whole milk is best but low-fat is fine
Blend all together well and enjoy on crunchy greens with sliced cucumber and colored bell peppers strips or over leftover cooked vegetables. A whole meal if you add cold sliced chicken or chilled salmon or shrimp.

Cover crops and fall salads

2008-11-06T15:13:00.000-08:00

The last few weeks have been busy as we finish removing and building new compost piles with all the vegetation from our summer crops and generally cleaning up. We clean, sharpen and oil our garden tools before storing them, and tackle the inevitable task of organizing our garden storage shed after a busy summer of pulling things out without putting them away properly. (Now if I could only be as organized about all the CDs piling up around my stereo or at least act on my last year's resolution to get them onto my computer so I can listen to them when I work! )
Trial garden manager Lindsay and her assistant Mila are busy sowing fava beans as a "green manure" crop in many of our biggest garden beds that grew heavy feeders this summer and will lie fallow over the cold season. Although we get hard frost here, the sturdy fava beans will grow through the winter and both fix nitrogen in the soil and produce lots of top growth. When they begin to bloom in spring, we will pull them and compost all the green material so they end up being entirely recycled. ( Of course we always save a little patch to grow the beans to the shelling stage and harvest them. I particularly like to quickly steam young ones to make fava bean pâté with fruity olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice and salt-and-pepper!)
In our upper garden beds, we are enjoying looking at and eating a late crop of our "Summer Bouquet lettuce" trio. Alongside is a small bed of Merveille de Quatre Saisons butterheads, one of my other favorite late-season lettuces for their bronzy color and sweet flavor.
These tasty lettuces make really appetizing fall salads combined with a few fresh chives, a big handful of Italian parsley and slices of golden orange persimmon with a sprinkle ruby red pomegranate seeds and toasted sliced almonds over the top. New harvests of fall fruits like these are in the markets now as we head for Thanksgiving.

I've been lucky to have had a persimmon tree for years but it got split by lightning last fall and what remains of it has taken a year off from fruiting. Our local farmers market continues weekly through the end of November and I've been going regularly to buy persimmons, artichokes, new crop walnuts, almonds and raisins.
Finally, we've grown out our King Midas carrots. They are ready to harvest now although we'll probably keep some in the ground to sweet up even more with the frosts. Little Pepper, the adorable ( but feisty) dog that Lindsay takes care of when his owners are away, has been a regular trial garden visitor and love his carrots. Here's a picture of him guarding them and another of my harvest basket yesterday afternoon.

Northeast Trial Garden Journal

2008-10-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

-by Jay Leshinsky

For the past six years I've been running the Renee's Garden's northeast seed trials at the Middlebury College Organic Garden in Vermont where I serve as "farmer/advisor". The garden is located about a half mile from campus on a 2 acre knoll with sweeping views of the campus and the Green Mountains. During the spring and fall student volunteers do the planting and harvesting at the garden. Over the summer four student interns work with me to grow vegetables, herbs and flowers for the college's dining venues and for local restaurants. This gives them lots of opportunity to trial Renee's Garden varieties against those from other seed companies and to do a lot of taste testing!

This summer was a most challenging one for the student gardeners. Almost no rain from mid April to Mid June, twenty inches of rain from mid June to mid August and back to very little rainfall to end the season. The Middlebury College student interns were up to the challenges and we managed to produce bumper crops of most vegetables, spectacular flower blooms and abundant herbs.
Most of our trial vegetables and herbs go to the Middlebury College Dining Services and some local restaurants. Raven zucchini and Baby Persian cucumbers were two favorites of our customers. Although there were the heavy rains during harvest, we consistently harvested the fruits when they were small and kept the plants well picked. Despite the spate of wet weather neither the cucumbers nor zucchinis had any mildew and the usual challenges from cucumber beetles and squash bugs were almost non existent. I think this was a benefit of the ample rain on our well drained soils. As an extra gift from this abundant harvest we consistently brought large amounts of zucchini and cucumbers to our local Food Shelf program where they disappeared not long after we delivered them. Middlebury College runs its own dining program and takes the extra effort to buy local whenever possible.

Our favorite chef in Dining Service appreciates our fresh, flavorful offerings. Since he serves our produce to an international array of students at the College's summer language school, he has a ready audience for the stunning colors and sweet flavor of sautéed Bright Lights, Scarlet Charlotte and Neon Glow Swiss chard, or the full tomato tastes of Summer Feast heirloom tomatoes with our Pesto Basil in a Caprese salad.

Each garden bed has an insectary planting of flowers and herbs to attract insect pollinators and beneficials. Many of our insectary plants are annuals and this year we planted all varieties of Renee's Garden zinnias, nigella, and nasturtiums to enhance the insectary rows and provide swaths of color throughout the vegetable plantings. It gave the students great pleasure to cut bouquets of zinnias and deliver them as gifts to offices all over campus. As a bonus the Catering staff bought our nasturtiums as a garnish for many of their offerings.
Now that we've had several frosts it is time to review the summer planting data and begin plans for next year's trials.

Three Sister Harvest and Bean Recipes

2008-10-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

We had our first frost in the trial garden at the beginning of this week, a full three weeks earlier than I can ever remember it coming. It was a reminder to get everything in that needed harvesting. One of the prettiest things we grew this summer was this coxcomb celosia sourced from a Japanese seed company. I really loved its vibrant color, but the plants were quite short and I want to see if there is a variety that will grow a little taller for garden use to grow in our trials next spring.

I had Lindsay harvest the stalks of bloom to hang up and air dry in the cool dry air of the garage. If they keep their striking color , I'll substitute them for the more faded flowers I have in the big arrangement of dried blossoms I keep in our living room.

One of the true treats of closing the garden down was to bring in the little sugar pie pumpkins pumpkins and the beautiful ornamental corn we grew out in our Three Sisters Garden, one of our larger sized themed bonus packets. This dent corn, which can be ground for cornmeal, is called Earth Tones, and as you can see, it has the most marvelous shades of blue and green as well as the traditional reds and oranges -- I've never seen anything like it! I've been thinking about whether we should offer it as a separate individual packet and would love to hear if our customers are interested. We get Earth Tones from a fine family farm called Bisek Gardens in Minnesota who specialize in an amazing array of different shades of ornamental corns as well as broom corn and other unique varieties.

Just a follow-up on last week's post, I did make up recipes for both the dried Christmas lima beans and Rattlesnake beans. I found that the freshly harvested dried beans didn't need a very long preliminary water soak -- just about 3-4 hours. For the Christmas limas, I sautéed onions and garlic, added salt and pepper and a couple of bay leaves, dried lemon thyme, finely chopped celery and a few big handfuls of chopped Italian parsley. Then I added the drained, soaked beans and covered them generously with chicken broth. The beans which are beautiful and big and striped white and burgundy cooked up in just about a half an hour.

For the dried Rattlesnake beans, I sautéed up onions and garlic, added lots of sliced carrots, six chopped up tomatoes, a couple of bay leaves, a generous amount of dried marjoram, salt and pepper and a pungent dried chile and three pieces of smoked ham hock. I added a generous amount of chicken broth, brought to a boil and then turned the heat down so the covered pot cooked at a very slow simmer. The Rattlesnake beans took much longer to cook -- a couple of hours. The cooked beans have a delicious firm texture and the addition of the carrots and ham hock gave it a bit of savory sweetness. Truly delicious -- Lindsay and Milo and Miguel from the trial garden and Sarah from the office came over to feast with me and I still had enough to take to a last of the season picnic potluck with the folks in my swim class.

Battle of the Giants

2008-10-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well, the battle of the Garden Giants is finally over for this year. We grew and compared four tall sunflowers to see which was the tallest, most sturdy and had the nicest, biggest heads. I was in love with the cool -sounding name of the variety "Mongolian Giant", which we got from Seed Savers, but it turned out the weakest in germination and growth and sadly uneven in height.
Our own proud Sunzilla shared the first-place ribbon for tallest variety with heirloom Titan, but Sunzilla proved its hybrid vigor in that the stalks were thicker and stood up better to heavy winds. Our soil here at the trial garden is super sandy, so it's a good test for sturdy sunflowers, although we don't have too many really bad windy days. One useful trick that I just learned at our meeting of the Home Garden Seed Association last month was that if it really gets windy where you garden, you plant 3-5 sunflower seeds in a circle about 4 inches apart, then space these little planting circles about 3-4 feet apart. The sunflowers grow up into amazing tall clumps that help support each other in high winds -- what a great idea! I'm going to try it in our own trials next season for sure and check it out.

Mila just finished shelling all the dry Rattlesnake beans , Christmas lima beans and Scarlet Runners out of their dried pods and storing them in 1 quart glass Mason jars. They are so beautiful with their rich colors and they make me feel quite proud and self reliant to have them stored away. Next week, Lindsay and I are going to make some slow cooked bean recipes with them to prove to ourselves that both of these varieties are really good eating.
I've had lots of requests for Christmas limas in the last two years but have never trialed or cooked with them before. They bore well, but were ready to harvest somewhat later than I would like, so we'll try them again next season and grow them in our trial garden in Vermont too see how they do.

My plan is to offer the Rattlesnake pole beans paired with Purple Podded pole beans as a mixed packet. At the fresh pod stage, Rattlesnake pods are deep green handsomely streaked with purple and in combination with the purple pods it's really a pretty mix to eat the fresh pods as snap beans. Once I know how the mature, dry rattlesnake beans taste in the pot, I'll know if we can recommend leaving some to mature their beans inside the pods to the dry stage to shell out in use in cooked bean recipes. I'm thinking to make them by sautéing some garlic and onions in olive oil, then adding the soaked beans, dried oregano or maybe marjoram, a bay leaf or two and maybe some of my freshly canned tomatoes, plus salt and lots of fresh ground pepper. While adding a ham hock would be nice, I think I will leave the meat out the first time so I get a good sense of what the beans themselves taste like.