by Melinda Myers

Soil is the foundation of a healthy garden, but let’s be honest, most gardeners don’t like spending time, energy, and money on it. It’s more fun to show off pretty flowers or share tasty vegetables. But creating a healthy soil foundation will increase your growing success which means more beautiful flowers, larger harvests, and a healthier landscape to enjoy.

When creating a new lawn, landscape, or garden bed, begin with a soil test. Use soil testing to evaluate your fertilization practices and diagnose problems in existing lawns and gardens. Prioritize and spread out the cost by starting with new and struggling gardens or lawn areas. Then implement an ongoing testing schedule that tests one or two existing gardens each year. Testing lawns and gardens every few years can help improve their health while helping you avoid improper and overfertilization that can negatively impact your landscape and the environment.

A soil test report tells you what if any fertilizer is needed and what fertilizer is best to use for the plants you are growing. It also evaluates the soil pH, acidity, and alkalinity, advising you of any needed adjustments. Testing this before fertilizing or adjusting the soil pH can help avoid years of problems caused by applying too much or the wrong fertilizer, lime, sulfur, or other products.

You can take a soil sample for testing whenever the soil is not frozen, and you have not recently applied fertilizer. Fall is an excellent time as it allows you to implement the soil test results before the next growing season.

Contact your local or state University Extension Service to locate a qualified soil testing lab near you. Many have a state lab that provides this service for a fee while others provide lists of soil-testing labs in your area.

Take separate samples for each type of planting, garden bed, and if needed, lawn area. As you may have discovered, the soil can vary greatly from one place to another. Fill may have been added when the house was built, topsoil used to create planting beds, and other soil amendments incorporated that can impact your growing success. Taking a sample from individual planting beds, mixed borders, and the lawn provides better information on the existing conditions and what is needed for growing those types of plants.

Use a clean trowel and bucket to gather the soil sample. If needed, slide away mulch and remove a narrow slice of soil, four to six inches deep, where many plant roots grow.

Take several samples from the garden or lawn area you want to test. Collect samples from each edge and several throughout the middle of the bed or lawn area. Mix the samples together, place about a cup in a plastic bag, and send it to the soil testing lab. Allow several weeks for the test to be completed and the results returned.

Consider adding soil testing to your garden preparation and ongoing care. This investment will help you grow healthier, more productive, and more beautiful gardens and landscapes.

Melinda Myers has written over 20 gardening books, including Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.

Zowie! Yellow Flame is a semi-tall zinnia with a unique bicolor pattern of blooms with scarlet-rose center and yellow petal edges. (photo courtesy of All-America Selections)

by Melinda Myers

You don’t need a lot of space or a big budget to grow and enjoy garden-fresh bouquets. Just fill a few vacant spaces, add an extra row in garden beds or fill a container with easy care flowers started from seeds.

You’ll jump-start the season and enjoy earlier blooms by starting some of the seeds indoors to transfer into the garden after the danger of frost has passed. If you’re not in a hurry, want to stretch your budget and extend your garden’s bloom time, sow some seeds directly in the garden. Just follow the directions on the seed packet.

Annual flowers like these are known for season long bloom and a long vase life. You’ll need to plant annuals each year, but you may decide the continuous bloom is well worth the effort. Supplementing them with perennial flowers and bulbs means you need to plant fewer annuals each year for a season filled with colorful garden-fresh bouquets.

Here are a few easy-care annual flowers that you can start from seed indoors or directly in the garden. These beauties will brighten those sunny spots in the landscape and bouquets in your home.

Start zinnia seeds indoors four weeks before the last spring frost or sow them directly in the garden. Either way, you’ll have flowers about eight weeks after planting the seeds. Grow taller varieties like Benary’s Giant for long stems, Queeny Lime Orange or Zowie! Yellow Flame for eye-catching color or Profusion and Zahara for small daisy-like flowers on compact mildew resistant plants in your low maintenance cut flower garden.

Like zinnias, cosmos make a great cut flower and both are heat and drought tolerant in the garden. Start cosmos seeds indoors four to six weeks before the last spring frost or directly in the garden. The fine foliage adds texture to the garden and the white, pink, lavender blooms light up the mid-summer through fall garden. Plant tall varieties en mass to eliminate the need for staking. Or grow shorter varieties like Sonata and Cosmic. Once you plant cosmos in the garden, you may be rewarded with volunteer seedlings in subsequent years.

Marigolds have long been favorites in the garden, but they also make great cut flowers. Like zinnias, you can start them indoors or directly in the garden and have flowers in about eight weeks. Include a variety of single, double, large and small flowers to create a marigold only arrangement or mix with other flowers. The Gem series of marigolds have lacy leaves with a citrusy scent and small single flowers all summer long. Not only are these 12-inch tall plants great in arrangements, but the flowers are also edible and attract beneficial insects to your garden.

Include calendula, another edible flower, in your garden and arrangements. Plant seeds directly in the garden in fall through spring when growing in the Deep South, Gulf and Pacific Coast areas. Those in other regions can plant seeds directly in the garden after the danger of heavy frost has passed. Also known as pot marigolds, these plants thrive in cooler temperatures. If plants fade as temperatures rise, cut them back, continue to water as needed and watch for new flowers when the weather cools. These will reseed readily so watch for welcome seedlings the following year.

Sunflowers make dramatic statements in the garden and in the flower vase. The 2022 All-America Selections winner, Concert Bell grows 10 to 12 flowers on each stem. You’ll have a ready-made bouquet with each stem removed. Suncredible® Yellow sunflower produces four-inch flowers on two to three feet tall plants. The plants continue to bloom throughout the season even if you don’t remove the faded flowers.

Keep the flowers coming to enjoy in the garden and arrangements with regular picking. The more you pick, the more flowers you’ll have. Share extras with friends, neighbors, or senior centers. Studies at Rutgers University found cut flowers immediately increased happiness and had a long-term positive impact on the recipient’s mood.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine. Her website is www.melindamyers.com.

by Melinda Myers

Boost your success, save money, and reduce plastic waste when starting plants from seeds this year. The options are many, so you are sure to find one that works for you.

Reuse plastic containers for starting plants from seeds. Disinfect the pots, flats, and cell packs before planting to avoid problems with damping off and other diseases. Soak the containers in a solution of one part bleach to nine parts water for ten minutes. Rinse with clear water. The pots are now clean and safe for starting seeds.

Biodegradable pots are another option. They have been around for many years, eliminating plastic and reducing transplant shock. Just plant the container along with the seedling when moving plants into the garden. You will find degradable pots made from a variety of materials.

Organic gardeners may want to use biodegradable pots made from sustainably grown wood fiber. These contain no glue or binders and are Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) listed. Cow pots are not currently OMRI listed but are made from odor-free composted cow manure and an alternative to plastic and peat. These are biodegradable and add nutrients and organic matter to the soil at planting.

Replace plastic seed starting cell packs with Honeycomb Paper pots. This 50-cell interlocking paper seed starter expands to fill a flat for easy planting. Roots expand through the open bottom and the cells easily separate, making it easy to move transplants into the garden. Once in the garden, the paper liners decompose.

Invest once and use the dishwasher-safe Sili-Seedlings Seeding Tray for years of seed starting. These durable and reusable seed trays are made of BPA-free food-grade silicone. The flexible cells allow you to easily pop seedlings out without pulling and tugging. After the transplants are removed, rinse off any remaining soil and place in the dishwasher so the trays are ready to use for future plantings.

Employ self-watering systems like Pop-Out Pots (gardeners.com). Move tomatoes and other transplants from seedling trays into these larger containers. The Pop-Out system, made from recycled polypropylene, uses wicks to move water from the reservoir to the plants as needed. Transplants are easily removed, and both the pots and wicks can be reused after hand washing in hot water.

Skip the pots and avoid transplant shock by using a soil blocker to create an endless supply of soil blocks for planting. Just moisten the potting mix, preferably one with a high percent of organic matter, to help the blocks hold their shape. Press the soil block maker into the moistened potting mix and rock back and forth to fill. Then place the blocks on a clean seed tray. Once planted, water from the bottom to avoid disturbing the soil block.

Look for ways to repurpose any remaining plastic containers. Use smaller containers to apply fertilizer, animal repellents or other granular material. Just scoop and shake to distribute the fertilizer over the garden bed.

Cover plants with empty pots when applying mulch to garden beds. Spread the mulch then lift the pot when the job is finished. Use them for double potting. Grow your plant in an old nursery pot and set it inside a decorative pot that lacks drainage.
Some nurseries are asking customers to return plastic containers and flats for their use. Other plant retailers have an area set aside for customers to return plastic pots for other customers to use or for recycling.

Sustainable gardening starts with products used for starting seeds. Continue the trend throughout the growing season by conserving water, repurposing leaves into mulch and recycling plant trimmings into valuable compost.

Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books, including Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses How to Grow Anything DVD series and the Melinda’s Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Gardener’s Supply for her expertise to write this article. Her website is www.MelindaMyers.com.

by Emily Cates

With all the buzz about unsafe food, who isn’t sick of the risks? Let’s face it, we all have to eat! And no one wants to eat in a bubble. Life without good food is like a sky without birds. So what can we do to make sure what we eat is safe? How can we see to it that we make it from the dinner table to good health, yet enjoy the enchanting tastes and aromas of delicious food?

Here are 7 suggestions that I hope will inspire you to enjoy food without fear:

1. Grow your own! That way, you will know exactly where your food comes from and what went into it. This is the optimal way to enjoy food, since the freshness and nutrition of home-grown food is unsurpassed. It’s easier than you think- even city dwellers can grow veggies and all sorts of things in containers. Just make sure you grow things in good, rich, uncontaminated soil, and water with clean water free of harmful chemicals. Consult a trusted garden book or a knowledgeable person who can give you good growing tips. If you decide to raise your own meat, the same principles apply. Some city folks have even found ways of raising their own meat in urban areas! I’ve heard of them raising miniature chickens in cages on their patio.

I applaud this, but if you plan on attempting it, please make sure you understand the consequences of what you’re doing! (For example, roosters are out of the question if there will be a noise issue, but a few bantam hens might be quiet enough not to bother anyone. And think of what would happen if your landlord or the town found out!) Hunting game is another option if you’re willing to go through the killing-your-own ordeal. (Remember, it beats eating meat from a factory farm. Just make sure it wasn’t feeding from a toxic waste dump!) Again, there are many books and publications that will help you get started, some of which are on my blog. If these homegrown options won’t work for you right now, try the next suggestion.

2. Shop at a farmer’s market. Now that local foods are in demand, the farmer’s market is in style! It is amazing what one can find there. Not only can you buy fresh, delicious veggies, but there might be some unexpected delights to be found. Look for freshly baked breads, artisan cheeses, free-range meats and sausages, homemade goodies, crafts, and more. Most of the money you spend at a farmer’s market goes directly towards the growers and helps promote a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. This is food with real value, and it has a “face and a place”. And, most importantly, it is safer than supermarket food because it got personal attention every step of the way. Food raised and processed on a small farm with more human care has a drastically smaller chance of posing a health threat than that which is grown on a factory farm and processed exclusively by machines. In fact, many people believe that it’s the human touch that gives food it’s most value when it has been cared for and appreciated. Sort of like with ourselves…

3. Buy in bulk. In most cases, the more you buy the better deal you get. This might be harder to do if you’re short on space. But if you can purchase a significant supply of a safe, wholesome food item, why not? Dry goods are easier to stash than meat, due to the chill requirements. A good local butcher shop might be able to offer a whole beef cow or other meat and package it for you however you like. A deep-bed freezer in your home could be tremendously helpful, or it might be possible to rent a cold locker in a local store for your bulk meats and frozen foods.

The secret to using bulk foods is to promptly repackage them into smaller quantities. This should make them much less vulnerable to insects and pathogens, since you are not opening or thawing the whole amount each time you use it. Instead, you are using an individually packaged portion so that the rest remains fresh in it’s own sealed package. After the initial effort of packing, it is very convenient and saves time later on. And you get to personally supervise this step.

4. Cook from scratch. Not only do foods made from scratch taste better, they are less expensive and have more food value than pre-made and processed foods from the supermarket. In addition, you will know how the food was prepared and what went into it. If you are pressed for time, try using timesavers in the kitchen. My favorite example is the slow cooker. I can turn on the crock pot at night and while I’m sleeping the meal is cooked! In the morning when I wake up I am greeted by the delicious aroma. This is especially a great choice for meats, since it cooks them thoroughly and tenderizes them to a mouthwatering texture.

The meat broth from the slow-cooker is an added useful bonus and can be used along with other foods as a seasoning for veggies, noodles, etc. In a hurry for breakfast? No problem, just cook some oatmeal in the crock pot overnight on the low setting, and when you wake up, there’s your warm breakfast! Try this with whole grains or experiment using whatever you have on hand.

5. Maintain safe and hygienic culinary activities. Perhaps this tip is obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. ALWAYS wash hands before handling food! Keep all surfaces that will come in contact with food scrupulously clean, and be sure to wash all dishes and implements afterward. Always wash and dry any surface that came in contact with raw meat before using that surface for anything else.

Keep pets, animals, bugs, and other critters away from the food preparation and dining areas. Encourage anyone with a contagious illness to forgo being chef and cook for them instead. Quickly chill leftovers, and heat them thoroughly before eating again. Throw out or compost suspect food. Make sure that you wash all fruits and veggies, and discard areas that are past their prime. Use common sense at all times. Consult reliable instructions for further information.

6. Learn to preserve. When done properly, home-canned and preserved foods are without peer for taste, economy, and safety. This is a subject worth researching, especially if one lives in a cooler climate. If you are new to the rewarding art of food preservation, then surf the net or stroll on down to your local library. Check out my blog for some great books to read. Or talk with someone who knows how to can the modern way, or an old-timer who is known for food preservation. A food dehydrator is a great investment and the results take up little space. If you’re the adventurous sort, learn how to lacto-ferment. Just make sure whatever you are doing is safe and contributes to a healthy, self-sufficient food supply!

7. Cut out junk food. It makes us unhealthy and lowers our resistance to germs and toxins. The worst offenders are processed foods and food with refined sugars, white flours, and artificial ingredients. Read the ingredients, and avoid ones you cannot pronounce. Just because it’s at the store doesn’t mean it’s safe to eat! The empty calories and additives can be as harmful to one’s health as eating spoiled food. In fact, many times processed food is rancid anyways, but the chemicals are added to mask that fact. And who needs to eat chemicals that Mother Nature never meant to exist?

Know your body and know what health foods are good for YOU. Yes, I realize that avoiding junk food takes effort, but it’s worth it! If we stick to fresh fruits in season and homemade goodies (in moderation!) from local ingredients, then we will be rewarded with healthier minds and bodies and a safer food supply. And lots of times we are surprised at how delicious homemade goodies taste.. Mmmm! Much better than from the supermarket! And what a great way to involve our children or friends, making goodies together! Let’s get together, experiment, and have fun!

Left, first you gather the sap from the tree using a spout and bucket. Most “backyard” syrup makers use a turkey fryer as an evaporator. It works very well.

by Emily Cates

Wake up, wake up! No more excuses for hibernation or procrastination, Springtime is here. Yes, I know I know — it’s still cold and there’s plenty of snow, each flake erasing an equal amount of motivation to be outside in the garden.

But let’s look at the possibilities anyways, since eventually the window of early-springtime activities will close whether we complete them or not. Why not enjoy a taste of spring by making maple syrup? Let’s whet our appetites by taking a look at this delicious task.

Ah, maple syrup — the amber nectar of our beloved maple tree, made from the sparkling, crystal-clear sap that is a delightful Spring tonic on its own. At 40-45 degrees in the daytime and freezing at night, this luminous sap flows from tree wounds and can be collected.

Maple sugaring supplies are super easy to find at hardware stores or online, and YouTube has an amazing amount of helpful how-to videos.

It is extremely important to use clean, food-grade materials for anything that comes in contact with the sap and syrup. Avoiding trees in polluted areas might is a good idea as well. Also, never overload a tree with too many taps. The best advice I can think of is to use recycled materials if possible, be safe, and to have fun!

To collect the sap, I gather containers such as traditional metal sap pails, water jugs, or buckets. Then, with a 5/16th drill bit, I drill a hole slightly upwards about 2-2 ½ inches, preferably on the south-facing side of the tree. Depending on the setup, I’ll either hang the pails on the tree by the hooks provided on spiles that are gently hammered in the hole, or I run food-grade tubing to a container set on the ground.

Once there’s enough collected, it’s time to strain it and boil it down. Since I only have a small amount of taps and my wood stove is already running this time of year, I usually evaporate the sap in big pots on the stovetop.

40:1 is a common ratio for sap to syrup, which is quite a lot of work for a small amount of product. Oftentimes, depending on how full my hands are this time of year (and how much of it gets raided by my family or myself!), I’ll make the decision to cook with the sap instead of making syrup. I always try to reserve some to slow-cook a chicken…Delicious!

Large quantities of sap are traditionally steamed off in a sugar house with an evaporator suited for many gallons. (I know folks who make a fire in a barrel on its side with foodservice basins fitted on the top.) The sap boils in the basins and is carefully watched, especially as it thickens. Ladle off any foam and impurities from time to time, adding a drop of cream if it threatens to foam over.

Now it’s down to the nitty-gritty! Tell the kids and pets to wait at a safe distance, and put on a pair of steady hands, because this is hot stuff. When the syrup reaches 7 degrees above boiling, or 219 degrees F, it’s ready to carefully strain and pour off into containers. I prefer mason jars, which are handy for canning the syrup. If desired, process in a hot water canner for 10 minutes.

Enjoy maple syrup in as many ways as your imagination allows. How sweet it is to start spring on such a delicious note!