5 things to do in the garden this week:
1. Fruit trees. Now is the time to order bare-root fruit trees. You will receive the trees sometime between this winter and next spring. A bare root tree is dug up and packed in peat moss with no soil attached. You may feel less secure in planting a bare root as opposed to a containerized tree but in truth there are distinct advantages to bare-root planting. Most importantly, you will not have to worry about roots that circle the container and need to be cut and straightened prior to planting. If you plant a containerized tree whose roots are circling the interior, you simply must prune them or the tree may exhibit stunted growth and never perform up to its potential. With a bare root tree, there are more roots ready to grow right now, root pruning is unnecessary, and planting is simple. When you select deciduous fruit trees make sure they have a low chilling requirement (no more than 300 hours), so as to be compatible with our mild winters. You can order bare root trees from Peaceful Valley (groworganic.org), Bay Laurel Nursery (baylaurelnursery.com), and other mail order vendors.
2. Vegetables. You can plant peas in the fall and there are three types available. Shelling peas are the ones you buy in frozen condition at the grocery store but you can grow them, too. However, their pods are inedible so you eat their seeds (we call them peas) alone. Snow peas have flat pods that can be enjoyed freshly picked while the pods are still young and tender or cooked in stir-fry dishes. Snow peas are harvested before their seeds/peas have had time to develop. Snap peas, which are sugar-sweet, combine the best of both worlds since both pods and seeds are meant to be eaten.
3. Herbs. Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) is one of the most gratifying selections for the herb garden. It blooms heavily from now until winter and beyond. The foliage of pineapple sage really does smell like pineapples and they may be used for making tea. Flowers are edible and utilized to garnish salads. Up to 20 tubular blooms may be found on shoot terminals of this perennial that grows five feet tall and four feet wide. In the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (Vol. 107), it was found that an extract of pineapple sage showed promising potential for the reduction of depression and anxiety. Pineapple sage is indigenous to a mountainous region stretching from Mexico to Guatemala where it grows on forest edges at elevations more than a mile high.
4. Bulbs. Now is the time to start thinking about bulbs. To make a noticeable display, mass planting is recommended. There are two ways of doing this. You can make a large hole where numerous bulbs of the same type are planted or you can dig a trench and plant different kinds of bulbs in layers with your biggest bulbs on the bottom, medium size bulbs above them and your smallest bulbs on the top layer. Separate the layers with an inch of soil and the bulbs should be offset so they are not directly on top of one another. Finally, you can extend your bulbs’ flower show by emulating the practice employed by the Keukenhof bulb garden in Holland, where 7 million bulbs are planted each year. In a single hole, plant three bulbs of the same type, one on top of the other. The bulb on top will bloom first, followed by the one below it, with the bottom bulb blooming last. For best results with spring-blooming bulbs, refrigerate them for 10 weeks prior to planting.
5. If you grew heirloom vegetables that are being harvested now, make sure to save their seeds since they will produce a crop identical to what you just harvested. Wait until the crop representatives from which you wish to take seeds are overripe before harvesting. In the case of dry-fruited seeds such as those in bean pods, simply remove the seeds and store. Where wet-fruited seeds – in tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and eggplant — are concerned, put them in a strainer and separate them from the gel or pulp that surrounds them and then put them on paper towels at room temperature to dry. Placed in envelopes, dried seeds store for up two years in a cool garage or shed. For long-term storage, place seeds in airtight jars kept in a refrigerator or freezer.
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