It's time to start early-season vegetables
Sow beet, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprout seeds indoors now
Hi, guys!
It’s still too early here in New York’s zone 7 to start seeds of my favorite tomatoes, but cool-weather crops like beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts can be sown indoors now and moved outdoors in 4-6 weeks (start them 5-7 weeks before the last frost date is expected in your zone.)
📰This week in my Associated Press gardening column
I started writing a bi-weekly gardening column for the AP in January, so you might be seeing my byline in your local paper (or news website) — wherever in the world you are. In case you miss it, though, I’ll post the most recent here every week.
Black innovators who reshaped American gardening and farming: The achievements of 19th-century scientist George Washington Carver have landed him in U.S. history textbooks, but many other agricultural practices and innovations that traveled with enslaved people from West Africa or were developed by their descendants remain unsung. Here’s a look at five.
Tips for indoor seed-starting: When to start planting seeds indoors? First, check your frost date.
Holey leaves and vines! A look at houseplant trends for 2022: A look at trends in houseplants for 2022. Popular varieties include fenestrated plants, that is, those with leaves that are split or contain holes. Vines are another hot category.
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📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: Thanks for your weekly column. I almost always learn something new, even though we have lived and gardened at this house for 52 years.
We have had a problem for many years: One area of our backyard lawn has very poor drainage and is mostly shaded. In winter and during rainy periods, the water collects into a 6-foot-by-6-foot circle. Right now, we have an ice skating rink!
I would like to get rid of the grass and plant something that loves to have its roots wet most of the time. Do you have any ideas? —Pat Gobler
DEAR PAT: Swampy conditions certainly pose challenges in the garden, and for you, that’s compounded by limited sunlight, but you do have options!
If your problem circle is not level with the rest of the yard, my first recommendation would be to build it up. Use a 50/50 mix of topsoil and compost, which will improve the drainage.
If you simply want to replace the grass with a suitable groundcover, try creeping Jenny or spiderwort — or both. They look nice when planted together, as the purple flowers of the latter play nicely off the chartreuse foliage of the former to brighten up dark, shady areas.
Tress like pawpaw (an underused thee that produces edible fruit), red maple, pagoda dogwood and American hornbeam will do well, too. Evergreen choices include false cypress, Eastern hemlock, balsam fir and giant arborvitae.
For shrubs, consider summersweet, arrowood viburnum, inkberry, spicebush and rosebay rhododendron (also commonly called great laurel).
You can have flowers, too! Perennials like bee balm, turtlehead and Canada lily can handle moist, shady spots, as can most ferns (read the plant tag, as some need dry conditions).
💡 If you do one thing this week…
Prune deciduous shrubs and trees — except for spring bloomers (wait until their flowers die back before pruning them).
For more great gardening tips — 365 of them! — get a jump on the growing season with my Day-by-Day Gardening Calendar. It’s like a complete gardening course in a wall calendar! By the end of the year, I promise, you’ll have earned a green thumb! Plus, your wall will be adorned with award-winning photography provided by The Weekly Dirt readers. Take a look:
👏 Sunday shoutout
“This is not the clearest of pictures because it was taken with my cell phone…through my snow-spotted window,” writes reader Barbara Silpe of Lido Beach, NY.
She captured the cardinal mid-flight in the precise moment before it landed on her window feeder.
Send in your photo, and you could be featured next!
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📧 How’m I doing?
I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Ask Jessica section.
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It's time to start early-season vegetables
This is my first year trying a brussels sprout ,can’t go wrong it’s actually called "Long Island Improved” let’s see how it goes !