SACANDAGA GARDEN CLUB - By Barbara Henry

Oh March when winter is slowly relinquishing its grasp suggesting warm days and sunny skies ahead. I have started quite a few perennial seeds for my garden. Those that take months before they can be put in the garden but now is the time to think about starting vegetable seedlings. I am sure you have had your seeds in a cool dry place over winter, sorted and catalogued so that you know which seeds performed well for you. If so you are better organized than I am! Seeds can be saved from year to year and you can germinate most seeds even if they are some years old.

Corn, onions and leeks, parsley, parsnips and peppers have a good life span of about two years. Beans and peas, the cabbage family, carrots, eggplant, the squash family and tomatoes will hold for about four years and cucumbers, lettuce, melons and spinach can last up to five to six years. If you are in any doubt test the germination percentage before you plant. Take ten seeds from your packet and spread them on a wet paper towel. Put them in a paper bag and leave it at room temperature for up to two weeks. If only one or two seeds germinate then you need to buy more seed but if six or seven germinate then you’re good to go. If you have seeds that didn’t germinate well then sow them more thickly then you would normally to make up the difference.

Our frost free date is around the end of May so if you are thinking about starting seedlings now you need to count back from the frost free date to see when to start your plants. Most seed packets give you good growing information including when to start the seeds in relation to the time to transplant. Tomatoes, for example, need about six to eight weeks of growing before transplanting outside so there is no point in starting them early unless you have very good growing conditions indoors. A small transplant will catch up very quickly to one held inside for 12 weeks so you won’t lose out on your early crop by delaying your seed starting.

Seeds from the cabbage family can be started now because they can be planted out before the frost free date. If they are sufficiently hardened of, they can withstand a light freeze and the plants grow better in the cool, bright days of spring. Parsley, onions and leeks are also good seeds to start now. Remember too, that you don’t need to start a lot of seeds at a time. Think ahead, what are you going to do when you have twenty heads of lettuce ready to pick? Can you really eat 12 heads of cabbage in a week? So plant a few seeds now, and in a couple of weeks start some more. That way you will have plants maturing over the season and your neighbors will thank you for not dumping pounds of said cabbage on their door step in the middle of the night.

As the snow finally melts away and your soil begins to dry out run a hoe over the garden to cut off the early weeds. If you do this every couple of weeks and then use a mulch over your garden during the growing season you will have far fewer weed problems than usual. You will know when the soil is ready to be worked if you pick up a clump of soil and try to crumble it in your hand. If it stays a sold wet mass then leave well alone. You want a clump of soil that separates easily. It’s a good time to get your soil tested too to see if you PH levels are within range.

As we and our pets start to spend more time outdoors remember that ticks are active on warm winter days even when we have snow on the ground. So be sure to check them and yourself when coming inside. Warm water doesn’t kill ticks effectively on your clothes but an hour in a hot clothes dryer will kill them.






Our Garden Club meets on Thursday, March 3 when Jim Hoffman of Sand Flats Orchard will talk to us about understanding the insects and diseases we get in our vegetable garden.


As always if you are interesting in joining us or have a question just drop us a line at POB 675, Northville NY 12134.