Day 74 THIS ALKALINE YEAR: Dreaming A Garden
Winter used to be the time to peruse the plant catalogs; now I study online. It’s much more interesting than most of the staid old catalogs; the new Websites offer much more than seed and starts. Some, such as www.homegrownediblelandscaping@blogspot.com, offer design support. This Pensylvania-based company is big on Facebook. One Seattle-based site, www.eatyouryard.com, states: “The goal of this program is to cultivate year-around gardeners.” And www.kitchengardeners.org offers support, encouragement, and a funny view of Barack and Michelle Obama in a Grant Woods pose with carrots in their mouths.
Still too early to order as we won’t be home from Arizona until April and our car won’t hold much more than ourselves, a few bags, and Binka. Here are some more of the Websites to which I’ll turn at that time, or four days before we leave, so they’ll be home when we arrive:
www.ediblelandscaping.com. This Virginia-based company has more fruit and nut trees than actual vegetables, includes the most detailed zone chart I’ve seen, and detailed planting and caring information. Particularly intriguing to me were their Knight asparagus, Arapaho thornless blackberries, and a dwarf blueberry for which I have the perfect pot that would, of course, need netting against our hungry northwest birds. Although almonds don’t usually grow well in the Pacific Northwest, I may try their Halls Hardy Almond, a cross of almond and peach trees.
Again in the starts department (tomorrow I’ll do a whole blog on seeds),
www.tastefulgarden.com, an Alabama-based firm, offers organic fertilizer, no zone chart, but shipping dates for most states. They must know what they’re talking about for Washington state, as they recommend different dates for eastern and western Washington, which if states were based solely on climate would be two different ones. I want ALL of their vegetables, which include skinny little French filet beans, leeks, fennel, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash.
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