How I Plan My Garden: Part 2, What Do You Want to Plant?

Part 1 talks about starting from an existing garden, but what if you're planting a new garden?  or your first garden?  Starting can be overwhelming, because we want everything!  Every flower, every fruit and vegetable and herb, and all the trees!  You probably don't have infinite space, time, and money to grow absolutely everything.  Yes, climate and light will eliminate some things from the list but to really narrow it down and still plant a garden you truly enjoy, you'll want to focus on what's most important.

This is the time to think about your big picture questions.  Why do I garden?  Why am I making this garden?  Recognize that you may have different answers for different gardens around your property, and ask them for each.  Give yourself permission to apply different priorities to each garden.  You don't have to make every one of them for pollinators, or strictly organic, or highly productive.  It's your garden.

What do I plant? comes from Why do I garden?  And Why this garden?

For Flavor  This is why so many gardeners start with tomatoes!  Grocery store tomatoes just don't compare to home grown.  If this is you, prioritize growing the fruit and veg that taste significantly better than store bought, and look for varieties whose descriptions mention excellent flavor!  If it tastes the same as what you can buy, you don't need to grow it.

To Save Money  We've all heard the jokes about the $200 tomato, but you really can save money by growing your own over buying.  If this is your goal, look for the most expensive items on your grocery list, and prioritize space for them in your garden.  I recommend growing your own herbs.  One bunch from the store costs several dollars, and I often can't finish a big bunch of parsley before it goes bad.  A pack of parsley seeds costs the same as that bunch and provides years of parsley...and speaking of seed...search for local seed libraries, where you can get a wide variety of seeds for free.  You can't beat free!  If you're more of a flower grower, look to perrenials that you only have to pay for once, and join any local gardening groups in person or online.   Gardeners often give away perennial divisions to anyone willing to come pick them up.

Even garden amendment can be free.  If your town collects branches and leaves, they may well have a pile of free wood chips and a pile of free leaf mold compost for the taking.  

Preserving the harvest can cover your needs for a full year.  You can replace most or all of your canned and frozen vegetable purchases, based on how you strategize your garden.

Save your own seeds to plant the next year.  I've never bought garlic because I save and replant some of what I grow each year.

For the Environment/Wildlife  This is a fun one, because there is so much out there for you right now!  Look into planting natives, and meadows, and permaculture guilds.  Even if you only prioritize planting for insects, you will benefit the whole ecosystem, because everything else up the food chain eats them.  One of the best things you can do for insect and birds is less.  Less cleanup, less cutback...who doesn't love doing less work and watching more life in the yard?

To Avoid Pesticides  If this is important to you, find one of those dirty dozen lists and prioritize growing anything on it that you love to eat and can grow in your climate.  For instance, bell peppers always make the list.  They are easy to grow in my climate, and I've never had a pest problem with them.  I'm working towards growing all of my peppers for the year, which also goes back to gardening to save money.  I overwinter my peppers, so I've maybe spend $15 in seed and soil over several years.  $15 buys what, a dozen or less organic peppers?  My plants have paid for themselves several times over, even with the cost of the lights they sit under for the winter.

For Family/Cultural Heritage  My father grew up in the southwestern US, and learned to cook Chinese food from a second generation Chinese friend/roommate.  When he moved to Western New York State in the 60s, he couldn't get the foods he had grown up with.  He came here as a young adult a year or so after his parents.  The story goes that he filled his station wagon with coolers full of dry ice and tortillas for his parents and every formerly southwestern friend they had made in the area.  In my childhood, Dad grew many varieties of peppers for both Chinese and southwestern cuisine that couldn't be bought here.  He also got seeds from owners of the local chinese groceries.  My Italian husband's grandfather was one of many Italian immigrants in our area who had the expertise to grow fig trees in USDA zones 5-6.  It's wonderful to grow our own heritage fruits and veg that aren't consistently available in stores.  Seed catalogues have vast offerings, and recently I've discovered a few companies that specialize.  Kitazawa Seed Company is over 100 years old and specializes in Asian vegetables.  True Love Seeds sells seeds from around the globe.  I heard abou them through Soul Fire Farm, an organization I support, who grow seeds of the African Diaspora for them.  These folx are growing peanuts in New York State!  That's some impressive heritage growing!

For Beauty  Grow some gorgeous plants!  Even food plants can be beautiful when presented that way and intermixed with flowers!  or just grow the foliage and flowers!  Just because I'm obsessed with food doesn't mean you need to be!

For Ease of Care  Let's be honest.  Some ways of gardening are back breaking.  I can't speak for you, but I want to live a long life, and garden up to my last day.  I've been reworking a lot around my garden to make it easier as I get older, trying to stay ahead of the curve.  I'm raising beds and widening paths.  Perennials are always less work than annuals.  Keeping up with mulching is easier than weeding.  Meadow plantings and forest gardens practically take care of themselves.  Each time I plant a new bed, I want it to be less work, and less environmental impact, than the lawn it replaces.

For Sense of Place  For me there is something about how gardening connects me to the seasons and the flow of time.  Native plantings also connect me to my place on this land.  Trying to plant so that something is blooming or harvest-able at each day through the year keeps me connected.  So does watching the birds, insects, and other wildlife.  If you have a harvest/bloom gap, look around your area for what others have blooming or ripe at that time and consider adding it.  Use your plantings as needed sources of shade, or wind blocks.  It's also ok to have times of rest in the garden.

To Experiment  In the age of "fake news" its nice to know that we can test nearly every gardening claim.  Someone says, "you have to put this in the hole when you plant tomatoes"  I can plant half of my tomatoes with "this" in the hole, and half without, and take note of yield and plant health over the rest of the summer.  My garden is my science outlet, and if that sounds exciting to you, keep your eye out for places you can do side by side comparisons.  They will help inform your long term success.

For Joy  Enjoy every bit of your garden.  Do the things that bring you joy, let go of those that don't,  If you're satisfied with what you have, don't listen to anyone who tells you it's "wrong."  If you aren't satisfied, visit other gardens, think deeply, find what you need, and if it isn't there yet, add it.  Happy gardening.

My first year growing luffa in a cold short season (zone 5b)

Note:  if you are hoping for sure-fire how-to information on successfully growing luffa in a short season, look elsewhere, or come back here in a few years.  If you are experimenting, and want to read about how my first year of experimenting went:  wins, losses, and plans for next year, then read on!

My primary goal is to grow enough mature gourds to supply luffa scrubbers for my own bath and dish scrubbing needs, plus gifts.  If up until this moment you thought the natural luffa in your shower was a sea creature, not a plant, don't feel bad--that's what most people think.  Luffa or loofah is a vining gourd related to cucumbers.  They grow in more tropical parts of Asia, which is why learning to grow them outside of Buffalo New York will be a multi-year challenge.

I started from seed.  After reading lots of conflicting information about how far ahead to start the seed indoors, I decided that experiment #1 was to determine the best indoor start time.  I started the first plant in mid January, the second mid February, and the third mid March.  My final frost date is May 15th, so that was 4, 3, and 2 months before the first frost.  For all three plantings I nicked the side of the seed with a nail clipper and soaked overnight before planted in a peat pot filled with potting mix.  I kept the peat pot on a heat mat and under a clear plastic dome until germination.  Once the seed germinated I moved the peat pot off the heat and directly under flourescent light.  I had 100% germination.  Success #1!

I followed my usual routine for planting out into the vegetable garden.  I mulch all of my beds heavily with chopped leaves in the fall.  By spring that layer of leaves has gone down quite a bit, usually to 2-4" of mulch.  For the luffas, 3-4 weeks before planting I raked back the leaf mulch to help the bed warm up in the sun.  2 weeks before planting I spread a 2" layer of screened compost on top of the bed.  I don't work anything into the soil and I don't till.

I planted out all three seedlings in an 18" diameter x 5' tall tomato cage a week before my last frost date and then re-mulched with the fall leaves.  The forecast showed no more frost for the next 2 weeks.  This was mistake #1.  All three plants shriveled, turned brown, and nearly died.  Clearly these tropical plants need more warmth than just a lack of frost.  While they did survive, they were stunted and didn't get any bigger for at least a month.  Planting out early put them behind.

They did eventually grow and start climbing up their tomato cage, and across the neighboring bean cages.  They made beautiful, short lived yellow flowers that the bumblebees loved success #2.

They seem to make male and female flowers like zucchini do, with the male flowers growing first and just being flowers, while the female flowers eventually grow a little gourd at their base.  The little gourds got a little bigger, and a little phallic.

they got a little bigger and less startling...

As we got closer to the fall frost--mid October here, it became clear that there was one fully mature gourd, a half dozen that might become mature, and another half dozen medium sized gourds that were to small to become bath sponges.  Happily, luffa is edible!  I searched online and found several thai recipes for stir frying luffa with fish sauce and eggs. 

I picked all the smaller gourds and followed the recipe.  They were delicious!  This was definitely success #3--a tasty meal from the garden.  They have a mild flavor and a satisfying texture.  The meal was filling and yummy served over rice.

According to the internet, at the end of season the gourds will dry and turn yellow brown on the vine.  When the first true frost came, even the largest gourd was still green.  So I left them.  The plant died after the first light frost.  So based on that and mistake #1, its safe to say that this is a plant that does not tolerate cold.  That's conclusion #1.

At this point I ran experiment #2.  I cut two of the almost mature gourds off the dead vine and hung them in a mesh bag in the basement, but left the fully mature gourd and 3-4 almost mature on the dead vine to compare the two drying methods, indoor or out.  Once a month or so I peeled one of the almost mature gourds on the outdoor vine.  There wasn't a sponge inside, just a dead slightly overgrown cucumber.

By Christmas both the outside and inside gourds had browned and dried, and seemed to have stopped changing significantly.

Here's how the big guy looked just before Christmas:

Close up of the skin.  Is it dry or rotten?  Only one way to find out.

On the left are the two that dried in a hanging mesh bag in the basement, on the right the final two that dried outside on the vine.  They all feel fairly dry and crispy on the outside.

The less mature gourds were a pain to peel, and didn't yield anything useful.  Yes, they were old fibrous gourds, but they weren't fibrous enough to be sponges, just sort of rotten.

But the big guy should work.  It isn't as lovely and fine grained as the luffas I've bought, but I sent it back to the basement to dry some more without it's skin.  The seeds inside looked mature until I remembered that the original seeds I planted were thicker and black.

So here's what I learned and how I'm going to use that knowledge going forward:

conclusion #1 Luffa can't take any cold.  Waiting until hard frost is over isn't enough.  Next year I need to plant them into warm soil, like I would do with tomatoes or peppers.  Last year I had great success planting out my tomatoes and peppers early, but inside water cloches (like Kozy Coats, or Wall-o-Water) so I will try doing the same, and at the same time with the luffas.

conclusion #2  Planting 3 luffa in a tomato cage with other climbing apparatus nearby seemed to work well for them.  They only took up 3' x 18" of planting space in the bed.  That's worth it even just for the one meal and one sponge I got this year.  I will give them the same amount and kind of space next year.

conclusion #3  No conclusive data on best seed starting date.  The most mature gourd came from the February start date, but the January seedling had been damaged early on by spider mites and everything else about the three vines seemed pretty equal for most of the growing season.  I will run experiment #1 again next year using the same parameters.

conclusion #4  Once the vine was dead, there wasn't much difference between the gourds dried inside and those dried outside.  The goal would be to make the right changes next year so that several gourds can fully mature and dry on the vine BEFORE the first fall frost.  Which leads to:

conclusion #5  I suspect that even if everything else goes perfectly, my season may be too short to reliably get this variety to fully mature and dry on the vine before frost.  As I looked through my records I see that I planted a 120 days to maturity variety of Luffa.  Looking through this year's seed catalogues, I found a 90 day variety offered.  So I am going to plant that variety next year.   I realize that changing the variety is crap science, effectively negating the other conclusions, but I contend that my crap science is still decent gardening.  So I am putting experiments with this variety on hold to start over with the new quicker maturing variety.  I'll run experiment #1 again on this variety, keeping my seed starting technique the same.  I'll plant out into warmer soil with more protection, as it's very likely this will benefit the new variety as it would have the old, and I'll learn from there.  Perhaps the next experiment will be to plant both varieties in the same year and compare them side by side.  I can even do a taste test!

Erica's Science Corner: Grow Lights or Proof I Should Have Listened to My Dad In The First Place

For me, starting seeds indoors has had a steep learning curve.  I've improved my soil mixture, watering techniques, and started sterilizing my pots in bleach  before using them, all of which led to a moderately successful batch of seedlings last year.

My father advised me to use shop lights and regular florescent bulbs like he does, but not having the time or tools to build a wooden stand for the lights, I thought I would save myself the trouble and buy really expensive grow lights that come with their own stand.  They haven't been everything i hoped for.  My seedlings seem smaller than they should be, and the lights fall off the stand every third time my arm brushes up against it.

Since starting, I've seen some great set-ups online using wire utility shelves to hang shop lights above rows of plants.  I wanted to double my growing space this year, so I bought a utility shelf, a shop light, and LED bulbs for less than half the cost of those fancy grow lights.

I still worried that the shop light wouldn't work as well as the official grow lights, and had no idea if LED was a good idea, so I set up an experiment.

Two identical flower pots, with equal amounts of the same potting mix and a teaspoon of micro green seed mix planted in each.  I like using micro greens when I'm testing a new procedure or potting mix because they germinate quickly and grow well.  Plus I can eat them any time of year.

I was careful to keep the lights at the same height above the pots and to water equally.  The only variable was which light each pot was under.

The pot on the left was under the grow light, the right was under the LED shop light.

It isn't night and day, but there's a distinct difference.  The shop light with the LED bulbs is the clear winner.  Science has proven that I should have listened to my Dad (the science teacher) in the first place.

Anyone want some used grow lights?