Plant. Grow. Eat

Chef Jeff Strawberries

Nothing compares to a vine-ripened strawberry that has been seasoned to perfection in the early summer sunshine. Look forward to large yeilds of sweet fruit in June and for many months after that. Savor the fresh fruit in desserts, juices, jams, garnishes and syrups; they are also a delicious snack. Deep green, shiny foliage and large early blooms are ideal for containers, hanging baskets, and the home garden.

Delicious, easy to grow and will fruit this year!

Featured Varieties:

Strawberry ‘Ozark Beauty
• Everbearing, self-pollinating variety
• Excellent for freezing or preserves
• Grows 12 inches high with 12-15 inch spread
• At least 6 hours of direct sun per day
• Rich, well-drained soil with crown set level with soil
• Perennial, winter-hardy

Strawberry ‘Quinalt’
• New, everbearing variety produces fruit on unrooted runners
• Grows 12 inches high with 12-15 inch spread
• Pinch off blooms for first 2 months to promote larger harvest
• At least 6 hours of direct sun per day
• Rich, well-drained soil with crown set level with soil
• Perennial, winter-hardy

Strawberry ‘All Star’
• Productive, mid-season variety with good flavor
• Grows 12-15 inches high with similar spread
• Entire crop will ripen in mid-June
• At least 6 hours of direct sun per day
• Rich, well-drained soil
• Perennial, winter-hardy

Strawberry ‘Chandler’
• Mid- to late-season variety with brilliant red color & wedge-shaped fruit
• Grows 6-8 inches high with 12 inch spread
• At least 6 hours of direct sun per day
• Rich, well-drained soil with crown set level with soil
• Perennial, winter-hardy

Strawberry ‘Eversweet™’
• Large berries are exceptionally sweet and flavorful
• Fruits throughout spring, summer & fall, even when temps are over 90ºF
• Works well in hanging baskets
• Grows 8–10 inches high with similar spread
• Provide full sun & set crowns just below soil level

Strawberry ‘World’s Sweetest’
• New, everbearing variety produces fruit on unrooted runners
• Grows 12 inches high with 12-15 inch spread
• Pinch off blooms for first 2 months to promote larger harvest
• At least 6 hours of direct sun per day
• Rich, well-drained soil with crown set level with soil
• Perennial, winter-hardy

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Lovely Lettuces

Buttercrunch
A great-tasting, crisp and tender bibbed lettuce with a crunchy heart
• Its superior sweet flavor can be enjoyed by picking leaves individually for use in salads or sandwiches
• For best results feed with a liquid or slow release fertilizer
• 65 days average to maturity

Mesclun Mix
• Assortment of many different colors & textures of greens and may include baby spinach, curly endive, dandelion, red leaf, rocket, romaine & more for a balance of sweet & bitter
• Pick leaves over entire cool weather growing season and greens will continue to produce
• Originated hundreds of years ago around Nice, in southern France
• Quick to mature in 35 days in temperatures as low as 40°F with full sun

Romaine
• Very uniform and attractive, dark green, loose leaf lettuce and firm, crisp leaves
• Can be either harvested whole or leaves can be picked individually to use in salads and sandwiches, and will continue to produce

 Simpson Elite
• Great choice for summer-long production
• The flavor is delicate with almost no bitterness even in latter stages of harvest
• Quick growing with a crisp texture and attractive medium-light green curled leaves
• Single most important quality of this variety is bolt resistance (turning to seed), but needs adequate water to help prevent bolting
• Excellent for salads and garnishes

Red Sails
• Known for its large open “head” of loose leaves up to a foot across that deepens in color and sweetness even as the weather warm
• Fast growing, heat tolerant and slow to bolt but needs adequate water to help prevent bolting
• A very attractive, as well as nutritious, addition to any salad  

Simply Salad Bowls

Truly garden fresh... just grow & clip every 3 weeks!
































Global Gourmet
Red and green leaf lettuces & Asian greens make a nice mix of flavors that works great in salads or stir-fry 

City Garden
A traditional mix of red & green leaf lettuces that are easy on the palate

 Alfresco
Red & green leaf lettuces with arugula, endive & radicchio give a true Mediterranean flavor

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Some Thoughts When Looking for Vegetable Seeds

The number of different varieties of seeds available to the buying public has expanded several-fold during the past ten years. The introduction of seeds that are new to the market include new hybrid varieties which are truly new, hybrids which possess genetically new or improved characteristics in plant varieties that we already know and grow. There are also new introductions which are heirlooms, older varieties, many resurrected for today’s gardens from our agricultural past. These also include varieties of vegetables that have existed for centuries in other parts of the world, but are now available to the shoppers in the US. Even with this tremendous increase in choices of seeds to plant, there are still basic tips which can help you find the seeds you are looking for in your garden center.

Beans
If you want a string bean variety that grows in bush form that does not have to be provided something to climb up on, look for the words “bush” or “bush type”. But if you want the string beans that grow as a climber up a vertical support, you are looking for packets marked “pole”. Pole types may required the extra expense of erecting a support system, but they will produce more beans and for a longer part of the growing season than bush types. Be especially careful if you want to plant Blue Lake string beans. Blue Lake comes in both a pole and bush type.

Each year, I am asked to help a customer to find Fava Beans. Many seed packets do not have the description “Fava” prominently displayed on the front of the seed packet. If you want to find Fava Bean seeds, look for the words “Broad” in the description of the bean, either as “Broad Beans” or specifically “Broad Windsor”. Remember, Fava Beans prefer cool temperatures and should be planted earlier than other edible pod beans.

Peas
Will grow in cool weather, so they are an spring and fall harvest crop. But if you find yourself late in planting peas, look for a variety named Wando. Wando is the exception to the rule and hold up well into the early summer.

Inoculants
Legumes are plants that have the ability to fix nitrogen from the air and store this important plant nutrient in nodules (round nodes) on the plant’s roots. To encourage the formation of the nodules, you need to coat the seeds of legumes such as beans and peas with an inoculant, a black-colored granule which contains a special bacteria which promotes nitrogen fixing and nodule formation. When you clear the vegetable garden after the crops are done, cut off the plants at the bottom and leave the root portion still in the ground. The nodules will release the nitrogen back into the soil as they decompose, enriching the soil for other plants. Buy the inoculant when you buy the seeds and wet the seeds at planting. Shake the wet seeds in a plastic bag containing the inoculant granules, which will coat the seeds.

Tomatoes
When reading the seed packet of tomato seeds, look to see if the variety is listed as a determinate or an indeterminate type. Determinate tomato types grow into a compact bush and produce all of the tomatoes they will all of their season’s crop of fruit during a two-week period in mid-summer. They are favored if you want all of your tomatoes at one time (for canning) or if you want small tomato plants (for small containers). Most gardeners want the indeterminate types of tomato varieties, which grow into extended “vine” rather than a compact bush and continue to bear fruit all summer long till season’s end in the early fall.

Cucumbers
Cucumber are a vining plant and have tendrils that help the vines attach to supports. Many gardeners grow the plant on the ground. This method is an easy way to grow cucumbers, but it can take up more garden space than letting them grow up a support. Other advantage to growing support-grown cucumber fruits is that those grown on supports will not have the yellow belly skin color that comes from lying on the ground and the cucumber fruit will grow straight, rather than bend.

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Easy Indoor Herbs

How would you like to have a beautiful, lush garden of herbs right at your fingertips throughout the winter? Sounds great, right? You've seen lots of pictures in magazines and the home & garden television shows do it, so why doesn't it work for you? Well, here's a little secret: it's not as easy you have been lead to believe. But don't let that discourage you--there are some relatively simple solutions to common mistakes and challenges when growing herbs indoors.

First of all, let's remember that most popular herbs are from the Mediterranean region, which means that they are used to warm, sunny days, cool nights, and a refreshing sea breeze. A minimum of 6 hours of sunlight is essential. A south or south-west facing window is best, but a south-east exposure will do.  A simple fluorescent shop light fixture is a quick fix--two white bulbs (one warm and one cool) placed 6-8 inches above the plants, left on for 12-16 hours per day. Most herbs will also appreciate  60-70 degree temperatures during the day, with a drop to about 55 degrees at night. Consider setting up a small fan to recreate those lovely sea breezes. Along with good spacing, the gently moving air will greatly help to keep away powdery mildew and other diseases. For added humidity, simply place your herb pots on (not IN) a saucer filled with pebbles and water. It is important to let your herbs dry out between waterings. If your herbs are actively growing, fertilize gently--once a month at half the recommended rate.

Here are your best bets when it comes to indoor herbs:

Cuban Oregano:
Also called Spanish thyme. The variegated form has two-tone green-centered leaves with a wide, white border. The fleshy, soft, hairy leaves have elegantly scalloped edges. It  has a wonderful, strong, spicy scent, and can be used in cooking as a substitute for oregano or thyme. This is a very easy plant to grow indoors.

French, or Fringed Lavender:
Lavender is extremely sensitive to over-watering, especially the popular English varieties, but the French varieties are much more tolerant. They exhibit a strong, upright growth habit, with wider, greener leaves with very serrated edges. The flowers usually range from pale lavender to pink, and they seem to flower more easily than the other varieties.

Chives or Garlic Chives:
This is a very easy one--just remember that if you bring a plant in from outside, it will appreciate a dormant period. Place the pot in an unheated garage or shed (or even the refrigerator) for a month or two. It should begin to push new growth when returned to room temperature.

Greek Oregano:
This is a true oregano, with an excellent flavor, somewhat stronger than the better-known Italian oregano. It has a bushy, spreading habit with slightly fuzzy medium green leaves that are a bit larger than those of Italian oregano. This is a much more attractive plant than the Italian, and it is usually the chef's choice as well.

Spearmint:
Mints need a little less light than some of the other herbs, so this would be the herb to try in that less bright south-eastern exposure. They are difficult to over-water. Keep them clipped to promote bushiness, and put them in a pot large enough to accommodate their substantial root system.

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No Luck with Rosemary in your House?

You buy it, and within a few weeks or months the leaves begin to turn brown and drop. Don't feel bad, you're not alone. Here are some tips to help those of you that just can't resist this deservedly popular plant.

Probably the hardest thing for rosemary is to acclimate to the poor lighting inside. It's just a fact that plants that have been growing in a bright-light environment will have difficulty adapting to the sudden drop in light levels that occurs either when you take your own plant in for the winter, or buy a new one from a brightly lit greenhouse. Leaves produced under high-light are less efficient at producing food, so the plant reacts to a sudden drop in light levels by shedding those leaves and producing more efficient leaves higher up and closer to the light--that explains your brown, leggy plant.

The trick is to reduce light gradually so that the plant has time to acclimate itself to the changing conditions. Put your rosemary in successively dimmer light over a course of a month or so, and when you see new growth, it's time to take it in. Also, remember to NEVER let your rosemary dry out completely. Don't constantly soak it, or it will rot, but if you let it get too dry, the leaves will drop. Check the condition of the roots for proper watering, and re-pot if pot-bound. A few good squirts of one teaspoon of baking soda to one quart of water will do a good job on powdery mildew if you catch it right away. Good air circulation is essential to prevent this problem.