Our goal at Sprouting Off is to not only teach you about gardening, but to bring to light the truth about the food system in America. In a nutshell it is flawed. Very very flawed.
It has been since the end of WWII when the government had an over abundance of things like nerve gas that they needed to dispose of. What a better disposal method than to spray it on food crops. Turning DDT into a pesticide led the US down a dark road.
But that was the 1940s. People like organic stuff now. It has to be better now… doesn’t it?
No. It is becoming worse.
An article published in the NY Times on May 3rd illustrates just how bad things have gotten. Seed companies have been genetically modifying corn, soybean and cotton seeds for years to be Round Up resistant. This means farmers can spray Round Up on their crops to kill the weeds, but not the crop. Trouble is, weeds are smarter than farmers and companies like Monsanto. Weeds have now evolved to be resistant to Round Up. This means more chemicals and more genetic modification.
To get a better idea of what is so wrong with the food system in America you could read books like Omnivore’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food. You could watch movies like Food Inc. or King Corn (which I highly recommend). However, one of the best films out there on this particular subject is a little known documentary, The Future of Food. You can watch it for free on Hulu.
It isn’t a secret as to what our opinion of GMO food is. We don’t like it and are quite angry about it. What can we do about it? We are very conscience about our food choices. We do our best to purchase food from reputable organic farmers. We plant heirloom variety seeds. We educate ourselves about the state of the food system. We vote with our wallets. It makes a difference.
The other nursery we visited last Sunday was Magnolia Garden Center in Seattle. I had never been to this nursery and was quite excited to go. We needed the aid of the GPS unit to find the place since we don’t frequent the Magnolia area.
I was surprised to see the place as we drove up. We had just been at Swanson’s and Magnolia was such a change of pace. Much smaller and as we walked in we were greeted immediately. It was just a “good afternoon,” but still a greeting.
We did a little browsing and they had a nice selection of edibles. The layout of the nursery was rather confusing as there is nursery material on both sides of the nursery with the gift shop in the middle.
The gift shop portion of the store was nice with a friendly lady who greeted us and chatted with our son. We quickly browsed the nursery stock, but weren’t in the market for anything large so we mostly skipped that part. We made our way into the garden center shop and were greeted with the familiar smell of chemical fertilizers. This was a bit of a disappointment for me, but I do understand that it is the norm in nurseries. Once again the staff was friendly and that was rather refreshing.
On our way out I took one last browse around the annuals and perennials area. As I was looking I noticed a small hanging basket. The price on the basket was $49.99. I was shocked. The plant was barely cresting the edge of the pot. It has 1 small bloom on it. I hadn’t really been paying attention to the other prices in the store, but this one was enough to make me not want to return. I’ve never seen a nursery with such grossly over priced hanging baskets before.
Will I go back? Likely no. It may be nice if I lived in the area, but it isn’t something I would make a special trip to.
When we went to Seattle last Sunday we decided to have lunch at our favorite fast food joint (Dick’s). While there my husband mentioned something about there being a Sunday farmer’s market in Ballard. One of the nurseries we were going to visit was in that area and I do love a farmer’s market so why not stop.
As we entered the market I was ready to put my house up for sale and move to Ballard. My Swedish husband was not opposed to that idea. Don’t worry, we aren’t moving, but if I ever moved to Seattle I’d park my butt on Phinney Ridge and frequent the Ballard area.
The Ballard farmer’s market was amazing. There were plant vendors, vegetable vendors, meat, cheese and food vendors. Soaps, art… everything. If we lived in that area there we would need very little at the supermarket.
The best part about the market is that it is opened year round. There are very few markets in the area that are open in the winter.
We didn’t walk out with anything, but my husband tried to purchase a summer sausage from Skagit River Ranch. Sadly they were out. If we had more money I would have completed my weekly shopping there.
Will I go back? Heavens yes. I would go weekly if I could.
It is nursery season and once again I’m out an about. This year I have less time to get out to visit nurseries because I spend half of the weekend in one. You would also think that since I work in a nursery I would 1) have no need to go to other nurseries or 2) would be so sick of them that I wouldn’t want to go. On the contrary.
The nursery I work in is small and although we can order just about everything it is fun to go to other nurseries. I also love to garden. We are talking looove. It is what I do. Hell, I visit the nursery I work in on my days off.
This week you’ll hear about two nurseries we visited over the weekend. Both were in Seattle and very different from each other.
The first is Swanson’s Nursery. This ranks right up there with Molbak’s in size. Not quite that large, but enough to get lost in. I’ve never had the opportunity to spend more than an hour in Swanson’s simply because by the time we get up to Seattle, have lunch and get to the nursery I’m already tired. Today was not different. The fact that it was cold didn’t help either.
Like I mentioned, Swanson’s is huge. They have a lovely little cafe, many indoor shopping areas and it seems that every time I visit there is a new structure that has been built over the winter. Their selection of plant material is vast and this trip we focused on tomato plants, herbs and veggies. They had at least 15 different kinds of oregano alone. It was a little much.
Overall, I love Swanson’s. It is something out of the ordinary since none of the nurseries in the Tacoma area are quite that large. It is closer to us than Molbak’s and in a part of Seattle that I love visiting anyway. The nursery is clean and the quality of the plant material is top notch.
Like every nursery there are a few drawbacks. Their prices are a little high for my taste. They charge $3.99 on average for a 4″ plant and most perennials are more than that. Their 3″ tomatoes were 3 for $12 and gallons were $6 each. Heirloom or not. That is too high, so I stuck with the 4″.
The other think I don’t care for at Swanson’s is their customer service. It seems rather impersonal to me. While the store was rather busy when we were there we were not greeted by a single employee and the cashier was not warm and friendly. This is the trouble with the larger nurseries.
Will I go back? Of course. It is a fun trip up north and worth it. However, next time I go I will go on a warm day and plan to go when I can spend a good amount of time (and have some money).
On a regular basis I have a customer come into the nursery and get excited about the containers of worms we have sitting on the counter. Yes, there are worms on the counter. There is also a cat and often chickens in the bathroom. It’s a little Dr. Doolittle around there and I like it. Anyway, worms… Customers see the worms and say, “Oh! I need to get some for my bin.” Much to their dismay I deter them from purchasing said worms for such purposes. The worms we sell are earthworms. They are for your garden, not your bin. They are nature’s garden aerator and don’t like to be held captive. Many of the customers ask, “well, what’s the difference.” Quite a bit.
Earthworms are are for just that… the Earth. Bin worms are red wrigglers. They are adapted (my anthropologist husband cringes at that word) for digestion of decaying matter (ie. kitchen scraps). They are much different than soil dwelling worms. Sadly, our nursery does not sell red wrigglers and we cannot find a supplier for them. However, there are multiple locations online that you can purchase your worms from. Personally, I purchased mine 2 years ago from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. This is where I direct people if they are interested in starting a worm bin.
So where is the weekend project in all of this? Actually, it is more of an afternoon project. So easy you could call it stupid easy. First, visit this website to get the nitty gritty on how to make a cheap and easy bin. You don’t need to purchase special worm bins. The worms don’t care.
Next, you’ll need to get your bin ready for the worms. When I started my bin I did loads of research on how to do this and how to get ready. This was all well and good, but some of what I tried failed miserably. Not so much that I had to start totally over, but I did have to let my bin sit for quite a long time.
Place a thin layer of garden soil in the bottom of your bin. Healthy, fertile soil is best, but I just grabbed a shovel full and threw it in. Next is the covering. I’m not talking about the lid for the bin. This is the biggest mistake I made when I started my bin. If your scraps are not covered you will get gnats. Gnats are gross. When you open your bin and are attacked by thousands of flying little insects it’s icky. Shred 2-3 Sunday newspapers and moisten them. I throw the shreds into a giant tub and hose them down with the garden hose. Once they are sufficiently moist, wring them out so they are only damp. You don’t want your bin drying out, but you also don’t want it sopping wet.
Now you have your bin, worms, bottom layer and top layer. Place the soil in the bottom as mentioned before, place your food scraps in a thin layer on one side of the bin (more on food scraps in a bit), then the worms on top of the food, then cover with a thick layer of the shredded newspaper. The better the covering the fewer gnats. Every few days place your food scraps under the shredded paper on the opposite side that you placed it the week before. If you notice that your worms are not keeping up with the scraps leave the bin alone for a week or two.
The best thing to do is start slow. You won’t be able to throw weeks worth of kitchen scraps in all at once and expect the worms to consume everything. They are small, and need to get to work and reproduce.
As far as the food scraps go… that is where I had to do the most tweaking. I found that if I put in large scraps the worms couldn’t handle it. Or they could, they were just slow. I started collecting my scraps in a bowl on the kitchen counter. I had the tendency to forget about the scraps if they were in a covered bucket. In the bowl they were more noticeable. Every 3 days I put all of the scraps into my food processor and whiz them around until they are finely chopped. I have to do it in batches. I then put that mash in the bin.
As time goes on you will get a nice layer of vermicompost. As that happens keep burying your food scraps under the compost. They deeper it is buried the less likely the bin is to get gnats.
A few other tips and tricks:
1) Don’t put moldy food on the bin
2) Don’t put fat scraps in the bin (no meat)
3) worms don’t like onions, garlic or heavy quantities of citrus.
4) worms won’t break down avocado rinds, but they do like them for reproduction.
5) it is ok to forget about your bin for a few weeks/months at a time. I left my bin outside without feeding the worms the past 2 winters and they are still there.
6) if your bin gets too wet leave the lid slightly ajar and let it dry out a bit. This also works to get rid of gnats.
7) replace your shredded paper bedding as the worms consume it. As you get more castings (vermicompost) you will have to put in less paper.
Good luck on your bins. They are very simple and rewarding. If you have photos of your own worm bins please share them with us. We love to know what creative ideas people are coming up with. You can email your photos to sproutoff@sproutingoff.com.
I’m a little behind in updating what I’ve planted in the week. Mostly because it has been an on going thing this week. I find little bits of time here and there to throw things into the ground or into containers. Here is what has been done this week.
In the Greenhouse:
Basil
Cilantro
Pac Choi
Marigolds
Zinnias
In the Garden:
Kale (I could eat it year round)
Leeks (starting from seed for winter leeks)
Brussels Sprouts (direct seed outside)
Ok, that didn’t seem like that much, but it took me forever to do. Today/ this weekend I need to sow another few rows of lettuce, beets and carrots. I need to finally get my first set of beans in (I’m a week behind on that) and get the last of the beds built since we have another 5 yards of Tagro coming on Monday. Once those are filled I can add corn to one bed. After these last few items are finished I can just do successive plantings until late May. Once May arrives I’ll have tomato and pepper starts to plant, all of the various squashes to plant out and watermelon to start indoors (yes, I’m trying watermelon again).
My great Tagro experiment has mixed reviews on my part. Everyone told me that it wouldn’t work (for review, we are starting this giant garden with straight Tagro Mix, not potting soil). So far most all of the seeds that I’ve planted have germinated. There are a few lettuces that have yet to come up, but I had low germination rates with those last year too. The only issue I’m facing at the moment is slow growth. For now I am blaming it totally on the weather. We have not see more than 12 hours of full sun in weeks. The weather guy keeps promising sun, but it never shows up. I’m not giving up hope.
Throughout the years I’ve been asked to speak at a number of functions. I did a Spring luncheon for a group of Presbyterian church ladies. I did a healthy living seminar at St. Peter’s Hospital in Olympia. I did a series on gardening with kids last year for the Tacoma library. Needless to say public speaking is part of the job.
A few weeks ago I was contacted by the organizers of Pecha Kucha Tacoma to be a presenter for their upcoming volume. I had heard of it and said of course! Actually, they asked both mom and me, but mom isn’t much of a public speaker. I had approximately 2 weeks to come up with a title, 6 minute and 40 second presentation and 20 accompanying images. Had I had more time the presentation would be better and the images certainly would have been better, but it is what it is. Tonight is the event (eek!)
Presenters were given the theme of eARTh in honor of Earth Day (Week) and I opened it up to readers on my personal blog. Michele, who is a regular reader here suggested PLANeT EArTh & eARTh. It was better than what I had come up with and I ran with it. I wrote out most of the presentation in one evening and blazed through my arsenal of images. The overall theme of the presentation is eating healthy, growing your own and how that doesn’t have to be boring.
Still confused about Pecha Kucha? It is a gathering where presenters are allowed to show 20 slides and speak for 20 seconds on each slide for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. I did my presentation a little backwards. I wrote the presentation and found accompanying images.
If you would like to check it out please do so. Doors for the event open at 5:30 p.m. with presentations starting at 6:00 sharp. I’m not sure what presenter I am, but you can find out at the Bone Dry Shoe Building at 2111 Pacific Ave., Tacoma. Hope to see you there.
I was 23 when I first started working in the nursery business. Hard to believe it has been over 10 years. That first job was in a retail garden center in Leawood, KS. I had just quit my job with a major greeting card company and was driving aimlessly around town wondering what I had just done and what the heck I was going to do next. At the time my husband was an archaeologist and I’m here to tell you they don’t bring in the big bucks. I was the primary bread winner and I had just thrown that all away. I did it for the good of my health and marriage and it wouldn’t be the last time I did that.
There was a “now hiring” sign in the window of an Earl May Nursery & Garden Center. I liked plants so I thought I would give it a go. In reality I wanted to be an interior designer, but an interior design firm had just informed me that I really needed to go to school for that and I needed a job right at that moment. The nursery seem as good of job as any. I filled out an application, went home and the phone was ringing. It was the nursery calling to schedule an interview. I didn’t have anything to do so I hopped back in the car and had an interview. The assistant manager hired me on the spot. Thus began my career in the horticulture industry. Little did I know how it would change my life.
I worked for Earl May for about 9 months before moving back to Washington State. Once back in Washington I enrolled in school at South Puget Sound Community College. Two years later I graduated from their technical program with a degree in horticulture. In the years since that first interview with Earl May I’ve been a nursery grunt, an assistant manager, a buyer, a landscape designer and an operations manager. Six years ago I gave it all up to try to become a mom.
Now just then you did the math and figured that my “career” in horticulture was only 5 years long. This is partially true. When I gave up working at the tropical greenhouse I did stay home for a while. Once I got bored with that I restarted my landscape design business. I’ve also consulted along the way and then started this blog. However, most of what I did in the nursery business I did when I was in my 20’s.
Earlier this year I decided that I needed something to occupy my time and make a little extra money. Not that I don’t like staying home with my child, but there comes a point when adult interaction is a must. I sought out a job in a retail garden center at the beginning of February. It wasn’t until this week that I finally got started.
I was recently hired by a local nursery and I quickly learned that nursery work is much like riding a bicycle. I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to remember the plants or their care. The biggest learning curve I face is the onslaught of new products on the market. Especially those in the organics genre. I garden organically, but I do so by benign neglect. Much of what I was taught in school about organics was soil health, soil health, soil health. While this is a major factor in organic gardening, there are new advances in products to help the gardener along. I have much to learn from these young boys that I’m working for.
I have come to realize that while I am by no means old, a 33 year old body is not a 23 year old body. Let’s just say I sleep well at night. I think it is mostly the standing and the mental stimulation of having to think to answer questions on a constant basis. The questions are much more complicated than, “mom, can you get my legos out of the garage.”
I am loving this new adventure in life. It reminds me of when I was young, but not in a bad way. It gets me out of the house and interacting with people. It lets me flex my plant muscles, both internally and externally. And most of all it lets me meet the gardening community of Tacoma. So if you are out and about and in need of gardening assistance stop by Gardensphere in the Proctor district Wednesday or Thursday mornings or anytime on Saturday to say hello. Of course you could stop by other times too just to shop, Gabe & Travis would like the business.
The sun has come out around here and it is time to get planting. I am in a unique situation because I built myself a cold frame outside so I don’t have to hassle with lights, heating and indoor space. This week I started squashes and cucumbers in the cold frame and planted out a few things.
In the Cold Frame:
Pumpkins, Summer Squash, Winter Squash and Cucumbers
Planted out:
Broccoli, Cabbage & Cauliflower seedlings
Onion starts
Raspberry Canes
Strawberry starts
I was late in purchasing my raspberries and strawberries this season so I ended up ordering them from Raintree Nursery. I drool over their catalog every season wishing I could order on of this and one of that. It wasn’t until this season that I had a need to purchase. I ended up with Cascade Delight Raspberries and Jewel Strawberries. Both are summer bearing and sound wonderful. The quality of the plants I received was outstanding. The likelihood of me getting raspberries off of the canes this year is rather slim, but it was fun putting in a plant that will add a little winter interest in the garden.
What did you plant this week?
Flowering tree season is quickly approaching and we have already been graced with the beauty of the Magnolias. Quick on their heels are the Pacific Dogwoods (Cornus nuttallii). It happens to be one of my favorite trees, but not one that I would elect to plant in my own garden. There is something so majestic about at 50′ flowering tree, but the thought of it getting anthracnose would break my heart.
There are so many other people out there that are in love with the Dogwood. I would have to say that in all of my years working in retail nurseries the “pink flowering dogwood” is the best seller.
Some time around the end of March customers would start coming in asking for this very specific tree. The actual name is Cornus florida and more specifically they were looking for Cherokee Brave, Cherokee Chief or Cherokee Sunset. Those were the most common in the nurseries.
The flowering Dogwood is a lovely tree. It grows to about 25 feet tall, flowers in late April to early May, fairly easy to care for and has vibrant fall foliage. It is, for all intents and purposes, the perfect tree… on the surface. However, like it’s northwest native cousin Cornus florida is susceptible to anthracnose. An awful canker that kills the trees.
Despite this death sentence we still sold out of the trees. The nursery owners (and later me as a buyer) would bring in 40-50 dogwoods and sell out of them in a matter of days. They sold for $40+. Today they sell for much more and nurseries still sell out. Like a fuchsia basket everyone wants to buy one for mom. On Mother’s Day weekend I would take no less than 20 calls from people, “do you have any pink dogwoods?” They were all met with the same response, “sorry, we sold out in April.”
Luckily, I was able to convince a few people (ok, maybe more than a few) that Cornus florida wasn’t the tree for them. I had a better solution. Don’t be like Dick and Jane next door. Be an individual and buy a dogwood that would stun your neighbors. Cornus kousa was a much better choice.
Like Cornus florida, Cornus kousa comes in a pink flowering variety. The difference is that it blooms after it has leafed out in late May to early June. When most trees are now big and green the Korean Dogwood (also known as Japanese Dogwood) puts on a show and is center stage. What’s more, the Korean Dogwood is disease resistant. The other features that make Cornus kousa the better choice is that it has a more upright habit rather than the sprawl of the florida and it produces large red fruit that are edible (and quite sweet and tasty).
Some people have their heart set on the old fashioned Cornus florida. I applaud you for your stick-to-it-ness. However, next time you are digging out a dead dogwood consider and Cornus Kousa. You’ll thank me for it.
Recent Comments