Spring Spinach and Beyond
Spinach is a annual that grows to maturity in about 40-50 days in the Pacific Northwest. It is a hardy cool-season crop that does best at temperatures of 60 to 65ºF, but can withstand temperatures as low as 20ºF. Spinach is intolerant of temperatures above 77ºF, these warm temperatures combined with long days initiate the plants reproductive stage, causing it to bolt or flower prematurely. That means right now is a good time to seed spinach for a late spring harvest. To do this, simply direct seed into your garden bed. Once the seeds have germinated and are an inch or...
Read MoreFirst Transplants of the Year!
Garden Peas (Pisum sativum) It can be easy to forget that the sweet crunchy peas we enjoy on warm summer days are actually a cool season crop. This means they grow best at temperatures of 50 to 60ºF and should be planted early enough that they have a chance to mature before temperatures are consistently above 85ºF. Luckily for Pacific Northwest peas it is rare that temperatures around here remain consistently above 85ºF. Even at 75ºF pea yields will drop rapidly and pod fiber and seed starch content will increase leaving you with pithy peas encased in stringy pods. We started our...
Read MoreGarden Show 2011
We will put up some new photos of our display at the 2011 Northwest Flower and Garden Show ASAP….In the meantime, here is a link to the video of our 2010 Display “Crops For Clunkers” which is approximately 22 minutes long, entertaining, and informative…
Read MoreCultivation Conversation
A few weeks ago Sky Nursery hosted our first garden seminar of the season and from what we hear it was a success! Close to 50 people joined us to discuss “Garden Design and Planning,” and in a few hours we were able to cover everything from site selection and materials to soil testing. This was just the first of many talks we will be giving throughout the spring, the next of which will be the first in a two-part series on growing veggies, hosted by the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture. These talks are a great way to get motivated to get out in your...
Read MoreThe Onions of Impatience
For me, the beginning of February is a very trying time. The sun comes up earlier and goes to bed a little later each day. I can see that the buds on trees are starting to swell and that the earliest spring bulbs are starting to send up green shoots. Spring is on its way. The first seeds that we plant each year are the “long-season” Alliums (i.e bulbing onions and leeks). These seeds are started in early or mid-January. Growing these crops from seed takes a bit more planning than most: even though they are started so early in the year, they won’t be ready for...
Read MoreJanuary says: “its never too early for spring”
Perhaps spurred by the recent spell of warm weather, there is a fair bit of activity outside in the garden already. If you look outside, you may see that your garlic has started to appear. The timing of emergence is dependent on the date that it was planted, so it is possible that yours is farther ahead or a bit behind ours, but in the garden here it started to emerge on Thursday night (I saw the first sprouts on Friday morning). The rhubarb, chives and parsley have also started to push out some new...
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