Gardener’s winter musings (am I a muse?)
Seed orders are arriving, and my cat is excited. New varieties are in the mix now, so a chance to learn new things. Two new radish varieties – a dark purple golf ball and a yellow carrot shape – replacing last year’s exciting new radishes… radishes are seriously underappreciated.
Ever grow astragalus? Me neither, but I will try, and it is not so I can be the only one on the block who grows astragalus. It’s because there’s a lot to learn as a gardener, and folks who apparently know even more than I do claim astragalus has amazing health benefits. Maybe I should learn about it.
That’s the point. Besides the adventure of trying new herbs and vegetable varieties, there is the goal of feeding oneself vegetables and herbs that contribute to better health. Author Bill Bryson knows possibly everything, and in his book The Body, he laments the fact that the nutritive value of fruits and vegetables has declined over the past half century because the trend in agricultural practices has favored productivity over quality – more potatoes, fewer health benefits. Also, vegetables and fruits are bred to be sweeter but maybe less disease resistant than their predecessors. Bryson states, “The fruits that Shakespeare ate were, for the most part, probably no sweeter that the modern carrot.”
So, home gardeners, we can take on the nutrition decline challenge – to grow (or not to grow, that is the question) in your garden tasty, hearty vegetables – maybe misshapen or irregular but nourishing, and you raised them from pups – that did not travel from Central California or southern Texastan. Even better would be if your produce grew from seeds that also grew in that same garden in soil watched over and nurtured by you and your handpicked crew.
Regardless, my cat is getting excited. So, a suggestion is to gather all your seed packets and canisters on a table, browse through them like it’s a neighborhood party, get to know them and see what their plans are and what they need. Sounds silly, but so what! Be a silly gardener. Drink your favorite drink while you’re at it. Some seeds ask for stratification or scarifying (or else they might not germinate), so the conscientious gardener learns and abides.
Seeds of astragalus, also called huang qi, are tiny, unimposing dark dots. They can sprout into attractive perennial plants three-feet tall with a root that is dried for medicinal use. The seeds germinate better if scarified, which means nicked or scratched by the world’s tiniest file or jackknife. Then they prefer basking in tepid water for 24 hours before being scattered on well-prepared soil on a warm, sunny day.
Lavender seeds are different. To borrow a phrase from the President of the United States, “Here’s the deal…” Lavender seeds, tiny like astragalus seeds, want to relax on a damp napkin in your refrigerator for about a month before the sprouts get transplanted into pots and grown indoors for a month. If the seedling transplant time is mid-April, for example, the focused gardener will start the soaking around Valentine’s Day. The gardener will also need to figure out a strategy for keeping a napkin in the refrigerator damp for a month.
St. John’s Wort also requires a damp napkin vacation in your fridge for a month, but then, to germinate, needs to be gently pressed into soil with exposure to sunlight.
Echinacea seeds also require a cold, damp period known as stratification. Planted in late fall and barely covered, the seeds should sprout in spring and flower the second year.
Don’t forget the colorful, irrepressible Joe Pye Weed. Its seeds need either a winter in soil or a tray beside lavender in your suddenly busy refrigerator. It is named for a 18th-century Mohican herbalist who supposedly saved a village of European invaders overcome with typhus fever by feeding them tea made from this plant. He also supposedly met General George Washington, but that was before my time.