Sweet Vitriol

It came to my attention that the RSS feeds for Sweet Vitriol weren’t functioning properly. I apologize for the inconvenience. I had inadvertently broken it while puttering about making a few cosmetic and code changes. Sorry!

Since the feeds weren’t working, I held off making the seed-starting post that I had planned for today. I believe the oops is fixed now, and that I can return to my regularly not-so-scheduled postings. In the works are the seed-starting post I mentioned, a post on garden tools, tomato varieties I’ve grown, and the beginning of the new garden beds. I promise pictures and excitement, or at the very least pictures.

In the meantime, Colleen over at In The Garden would like your opinion: Is there widespread support for being able to nominate more than three blogs, or should I leave it as-is? Let her know- maybe we’ll all be able to add a couple more blogs to our nomination lists!

Yesterday was bloom day, but you wouldn’t have known it around here. After a few days of warm “open-window” weather, we’re back into the cold and snow flurries. The weather can’t make up it’s mind, and as a result the flowers have decided four-square against coming up yet. Even the bulbs are just barely showing timid growth. Even this native to gloom and drizzle will be glad when all this gray is gone.

Now, that’s not to say that there’s nothing blooming in the house of the ether garden! Jeremy is having some swimming success with one of his aquatic plants, the Anubias barteri (possibly v. nana). In addition to this lovely bloom, there’s another bud stalk reaching it’s way upwards which I belive shall unfurl itself within a few short days.

Sweet Vitriol is also blooming. You may have noticed a few new items in the sidebar. Because I know how anxious we all are for something to happen in our gardens these days, I’ve added a twitter update widget. I’ll keep quick little updates running there, giving the heads-up on upcoming posts and the like. Also added to the sidebar is a handy link to the Mouse and Trowel Award nomination form. Nominations are open until April 15th, I already made my nominations- did you?

If you peruse the garden supply section of any nursery, garden center, home center, or hardware store, you’re sure to find them. They come in all colors, not nearly enough sizes, and run the gambit of price points. No, I’m not talking about flower pots or silly little garden statuettes, I’m talking about gloves. Gardening gloves to be exact.

Even if you’re new to gardening, you might have had a pair when you were little. It seems every household has a few pairs of gardening gloves laying around somewhere. I used to purchase a certain style of such glove religiously for my stagehand work as a flyman. They were excellent gloves, and I wish I could still get them as I probably would use them as my gardening glove. Alas, as Amy of Garden Rant talks about in her post The Year in Gloves, the gloves never lasted me more than one season of fly work. The store where I bought those gloves is long-gone, as the gloves seem to be as well. So now I’m on the hunt for a new pair.

Amy brings up a good question- how do we find a good garden glove, and what is a good glove worth? Do we really need garden gloves? Personally I like to have a glove. As much as I’d love to be able to root around in the dirt and mud bare-handed, I have a day job where I need to look more like a professional and less like a ragamuffin. Working in the garden is hell on your nails, and dirt stains on your knuckles are hard to scrub out. Also some plants are downright thorny, and weeds often cut your hands when pulling them, especially crabgrass. I think Amy is right as well in saying that a good glove shouldn’t cost too much, as they will fall apart sooner or later. Probably sooner rather than later. I like a glove that fits me well, most are too short for my long skinny fingers, that allows me dexterity and precision of motion, and that protects me from the sharp and pokey things of the world.

I’ve recently been eyeing a pair of Mechanix gloves. They’re a bit cutesy, but they actually fit when I tried them on. I do like that they are a lovely olive-green tone too, although they appear more spring-green online. Still, $20 seems a bit high to me for gardening gloves, so I’m undecided. Maybe I’ll go back to my roots and get the big floppy canvas gloves from the hardware store- the kind where you have either two right- or two left-handed gloves and just sort of muddle through. Check your parent’s garage or your dad’s work-shed, I’m sure you’ve got a pair laying around somewhere already.

In mid-february Megan of Not Martha had a giveaway of some lovely Method cleaning products, just in time for spring cleaning. Guess who won?!

So, what did I win? A wonderful “green” package of home-cleaning goodies! There’s a re-usable sturdy bag of durable dual-layered rip-stop nylon with a handy zip pocket inside to keep your wallet while you’re shopping, or whatever. Then, inside the bag are even more goodies! All in the great spring-fresh Cucumber scent are bottles of All Purpose Surface Cleaner, Cleaning Wipes, Hand Wash, and Dish Soap. Also included is the DVD Simple Steps to a Greener Home by Danny Seo

All this just in time for spring cleaning! Method is one of my favorite cleaning supply companies, and they actually just release a few new products which have me quite excited. They recently announced the release of a soft-scouring creme for scrubbing our tubs and sinks, as well as a new toilet bowl cleaner. I’ve been wanting a less chemical means of toilet cleaning and this seems to be just what I’ve been looking for! I can’t wait for it to hit the shelves.

I recently received the following email:

I’d like your advice on a few things regarding gardening. I’ve secured at least one plot at a nearby community garden that’s in a raised bed 3.5/ft wide and probably 15 feet long. I’m so excited about it!

I picked up Square Foot Gardening and it seems like I can do pretty well with three square foot rows going the length of the raised bed. I still need to spend a couple hours out there and see what the sun does–I have a feeling, though, that we’ll have some issues with it being too shady.

I was wondering what you might suggest growing for a first-timer. Should I go all-out and try to grow three seasons spring, summer, fall? When’s the earliest I can start in this climate and what crops should I choose? Finally, I was just reading your post about heirloom varieties and the health benefits and such, and I’m wondering if you have a favored mail-order source for great seeds.

Just want to make sure I’m ahead of the game before the season is suddenly upon us!

Blake [The Paupered Chef]

Congrats on your new gardening plot! Community gardens are great ways for those of us who live in the concrete jungle to still have healthy, local, inexpensive produce. I’ve been lucky the past few years, having rented in a house with a patch of grass in which I grew tomatoes, broccoli, and the odd pepper. Now that we’ve moved into our new house with a full yard I’m rather excited to be able to resume the type of growing I grew up with.

You’re starting off on the right foot. A good gardening book is always handy. I have a whole shelf full. Square Foot Gardening is my suggestion for anyone who is an urban gardener or is working with a small space. With the Square Foot Gardening method you can even garden if you only have a paved patio and no grass space!

You’ll want to check the sun patterns where you are planning your garden. Most vegetables need long hours of sunlight to produce their best. You can make do with less sun, but you’ll get fewer and smaller vegetables. You’ll want to keep in mind the sun patterns over the various areas of your garden if it’s a long-skinny plot. Plant the sun-loving veggies such as tomatoes in the sunniest area, and put those plants likely to bolt, lettuces and other cool-temperature veggies in your shadier areas.

For first-time gardeners I suggest only trying for a single crop season with some light succession planting of lettuces. This won’t mean that your garden will produce everything all at once. Everything has a different period of maturity. Your squash and melons will take a while to fully mature, whereas your lettuces with be in and out pretty quickly. Generally, planting in the late-spring for a summer crop is the best bet for beginners. You’ll have a mix of hardy and tender plants to care for, and a bit less unpredictability in the weather. To determine exactly when you should start planting your transplants and seeds you’ll want to determine your hardiness zone. Many seed packets will say when to plant them or when to start them indoors based on your hardiness zone. Other seed packets and nurseries will go by the date of last frost. This date is the average when your garden will be safe from deep killing frosts. To determine the date of last frost you can either keep track on your calendar for a number of years or you can check some of the handy charts out there such as Clyde’s Garden Planner. Clyde conveniently keeps the list of last- and first-frost dates online, as do many seed companies and gardening websites. You can always contact your local USDA co-operative extension office for information on your zone, frost dates, as well as for soil testing.

With the information on your hardiness zone and your frost dates, you’re ready to start looking for your plants. This is when you decide if you’re going to start your seeds indoors, or buy seedlings either via mail-order or from your local nursery. Seed starting is fun, cheaper in the long-run, but a little bit trickier than buying seedlings. It’s nothing to be afraid of though. I start my own seeds, and my seeds generally come from Seed Savers Exchange, purveyors of heirloom vegetable and some fruit seeds. I find that most varieties which Seed Savers carries are suitable for my area, though most vegetables will grow throughout the U.S. just with differing care requirements. Seed companies are very knowledgeable about the varieties they supply. So feel free to contact them with hardiness questions.

When choosing what to grow, the first thing to remember is: only grow vegetables that you will eat. If you don’t like zucchini then don’t grow it! I see plenty of first-time gardeners growing tomatoes and zucchini because they think they have to, even though they detest eating them. Tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, strawberries, beans, and peas are all good choices for a first garden. I plan the number of varieties and the number of plants in each variety to grow based on my intended usage. I’m a big tomato eater, and I do a lot of canning of tomato products, so I grow both paste/sauce tomatoes and steak tomatoes in abundance. I’ve never had too many tomatoes in my garden. I like to grow a number of varieties in each category when I can, though this isn’t always cost-effective for me. I do try to save seed, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.

For an expanded list of garden planning resources including books, charts, and seed suppliers, check out the resources page.