Hello and welcome back to the garden!
Well, it's a new year, a new growing season and a new look for The Frugal Gardener. We all need to have a makeover sometimes and I decided it was high time to spiff up the graphics.
First, thanks to everyone who wished us happy holidays and I hope you had a great holiday too. And welcome to all our new members. I hope you enjoy our community and please feel free to write in with questions and suggestions.
In this issue, we'll talk about the best way to deal with a gardenia plant, some new tomato varieties, and taking the plunge by ordering plants and seeds online instead of from your local nursery.
Ready to get your hands dirty? Let's go!
This past Christmas my mother-in-law, Helen, sent me a gardenia plant. It came from White Flower Farm, a very reputable online nursery, and the plant was beautiful. I'd never had a gardenia plant before so I was excited about it.
It went along just fine for about 2 weeks and then started showing some signs of stress. Naturally, I looked at the instructions and realized that I couldn't give it the 6 hours of sunlight it needed to thrive unless I put it under a grow light.
But that would have to be in the basement where I start my seeds and I'd never get to enjoy it. Strike one.
I also saw that the plant was quite potbound and would need to be transplanted. But my available potting soil was outside -- where we'd had temperatures as low as 9 degrees. Strike two.
It also tended to dry out rapidly, needing to be watered on a daily basis. Strike three.
I'm not sure if this plant was just finicky or my inexperience was showing like a white slip under a black skirt.
I decided to do an experiment. I sat the plant in a basin of warm water where the sunlight comes in through my kitchen window for a couple of hous. Ah! Success. It perked up and started to grow some blossoms.
I'm going to transplant it shortly and have also learned fomr a friend that you don't want to touch the blooms at all because the oil from your fingers will turn the flower brown.
I'm still waiting for the first bloom but I'm sure it'll come. And when the weather warms up, it will sit outside with the other houseplants to get all the sun it wants.
I was looking at the Burpee catalogue the other day and saw that they're offering a lot of new tomato varieties. If you haven't had the pleasure of ordering from Burpee, it's a treat and one of the best online and offline nurseries around.
Let's take a look at some of their new `maters:
Seedless Hybrid
Burpee has taken the idea of a seedless watermelon and created a seedless tomato. This fruit is packed with sweetness and they've also loaded it with tons of disease resistance so you should have really good yields.
Black Truffle Hybrid Tomato
These pear shaped indeterminate tomatoes are an improvement on Burpee's popular Black Pear Tomato. It has a high sugar and acid content for a complex flavor palette and will go well in salads and as an appetizer.
Tangerine Mama Hybrid
This was new last year and Burpee is bringing it back again. It's an orange tomato that stays orange even when it's cooked. I love these hybrids because they look so pretty ... and taste so wonderful! ... in salads. This plant is also indeterminate and each fruit is 3-4 ounces.
For many of us -- me included -- ordering off the Internet can be a little scary. We all hear about people who have had their identity stolen just form ordering something online.
So why do it? Why not run down to your local nursery and get what you're looking for there?
Because (didn't you hate that answer your Mom gave you when you were 10?).
Online retailers have a much bigger inventory to choose from and you'll be able to experiement with a new hybrid seed or plant that your local grower may not stock.
Now, I'm the first one to buy local. I think it's critical, especially in these troubled economic times.
But I also get seed from folks like Burpee or Park Seed because they have varieties I've never tried.
Here's a tip about online ordering: Always make sure that it's secure. when you have a secure ordering page there will be a little lock on the page's bottom right and the URL -- the address at the top -- will show "https" rather than "http". The "s" shows you that you have a secure page that should encrypt your credit card info.
There are also some credit card companies out there that permit you to sign up for an Internet card that hides your personal information.
As with all things, you need to try it a few times before you're comfortable with it. After that, ordering plants, seed and supplies online is a breeze.
This month we have a question from Donna in New Jersey. Donna writes: "I'd love to find a new and different cherry sized tomato for this season. got any suggestions?"
Hi, Donna! Boy do I have just the cherry for you! I tried this last summer and was so impressed I'm going to do it again this season. It's called a Husky Cherry and it's from the growers at Bonnie. I picked my plant up at Lowe's garden center and it produced fruit from May through November. The fruit was bigger and juicier than a regular cherry tomato. I used it on salads, in tacos, and on pizza.
If you have a question or suggestion for The Frugal Gardener, please send us an email.
Well, that's about it for this month. Garden catalogs have started to arrive and I'm planning my garden.
Don't forget to prune your roses this month and feed them with a time-released fertilizer. I like the pelletized kind that you scrape into the earth around the bush.
In March, I'll plant scallions, lettuce, radishes and carrots in the GardenRack. I've had nothing but luck with romaine lettuce and I think I'll stick with that again this year.
See you back here in March!
Yours for a bountiful garden --
Victoria
The Frugal Gardener
