Signs of Spring!
© Leda Meredith
If you're lucky, Spring is already in full swing where you live. Here in Brooklyn, Winter is still toying with the weather and there are many weeks to go before it will be warm enough to plant most seeds directly outside. Nonetheless, there are signs of the warm months to come! Indoors, tomato, pepper and herb seedlings are growing towards their plant light in our bedroom (the only place in our apartment we had room for them!). Outdoors, a few wild friends are ready for harvesting now: field garlic , day lily shoots, chickweed, and dandelion.
If you are dreaming of a garden that is much bigger than what your windowsill can provide, now is a good time to approach your local community garden and see if there are any plots available. Community gardeners take note: if there are mounted police or horseriding schools in your town they will probably bag up free fertilizer (horse manure) for your garden as long as you arrange to have it hauled it away.
You don't need to spend a fortune to ensure an abundant harvest this year. To collect vegetable, herb and flower seeds for no more than the cost of a postage stamp, consider participating in a seed exchange. Even if you don't have any seeds to trade yet, many seed swappers will send you their extras in exchange for a self addressed stamped envelope. GardensDFW and Garden Exchanges and Trading and Swapping are two of the better seed exchanges on the internet. Containers to start your seeds in indoors can be made of coffee tins (use a can opener to punch out drainage holes in the bottom) or juice or milk cartons (cut out one long side, punch holes in the opposite side, and tape or staple shut the pouring end).
If your space is limited, you might consider growing a multi-purpose hardy perennial such as Daylily. Its blooms will delight you in summer, it will do full sunshine or partial shade, and it has edible shoots, buds, petals and tubers. Plus, you can leave it outside over the winter and it will faithfully return the following Spring. Orpine or Live-Forever and its cousins, often sold as Autumn Joy Sedum, is another beautiful plant that is happy in containers and not fussy about how much sunshine it gets. Most people don't realize that this ornamental is also edible. The leaves are delicious in salads and make an excellent relish. Harvest them anytime before the plant flowers in the Autumn.
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