This has become my favorite spring gardening event because there is always a great turnout of terrific vendors offering all sorts of interesting plants, seeds, crafts, and gardening accessories for sale.

If you’re drawn towards unique, rare, and heirloom plant varieties then the herb fair is the perfect place to do a little shopping for the garden. From vegetable transplants, berry canes, herb plants, water lilies, fruit trees, antique roses, ornamentals, and native plants… you can find them all for sale this weekend at the museum.

It’s not just about heirloom plants though, the Weathervane Museum Store will be open with its collection of books, gifts and artwork featuring PA German craftsmanship. In addition some of the vendors specialize in a variety of handmade crafts such as baskets, brooms, pottery, herbal soaps, and other handcrafted items for the home and garden.

The Herb & Garden Faire takes place on Friday, May 9th and Saturday, May 10th. Hours are from 9am to 5pm on both days and admission is $6.00 with children under 5 admitted for free. You can find directions and more information on the Landis Valley Museum website, or view the vendor list here.

So if you need to pick up a few heirloom tomato plants, some herbs for the kitchen garden, or a last minute Mother’s Day gift, just stop in at Landis Valley Museum this weekend and be sure to say hello if you see me wandering around with an armload of vegetable seedlings.

A look around the back yard revealed quite a few edible plants that are bolting and flowering, but for the most part it’s not a problem if it occurs at the proper time and shouldn’t be taken as a sigh of something gone wrong.

Here’s just a sampling of all the vegetable seed factories currently in production out in the garden:

Kale - This one is at the top of my list and I frequently refer to it as mock broccoli. It’s not only attractive with the reddish tinged florets of this “wild kale mix” variety, but it’s also edible and delicious whether you enjoy them cooked or raw.

Arugula - Not mush to feast on here but I do like the odd looking flowers and tiny pods that adorn the the seed stalks. My plan is to let a few of these plants fully mature to produce a crop of seed for growing arugula sprouts in the kitchen, and additional arugula plants in the garden.

Garden Cress - Clusters of tiny yellow flowers rise from the peppery flavored, dark green leaves of the cress plants that were planted last fall and are now reaching the final days of their life in the garden.

Horseradish - A little plain Jane, except for the serrated leaf shapes, but at least the stalks give away the location of the spicy roots that are waiting to be dug and turned into the best homemade horseradish sauce you ever tasted.

Chives - These buds are just developing and don’t give much of a clue of the showy display that is to come as the buds open into round, spiky, colorful blossoms. And don;t forget that chive flowers are edible and impart the same familiar chive flavor to your favorite dishes.

Alliums - This row of ornamental alliums is situated between rows of asparagus plants. Once the allium flowers open up they will stand tall and provide a low maintenance accent in the perennial vegetable bed.

Dandelion - This may be the most common and dreaded edible plant of them all. I’ve expressed my affection for dandelions in the past and there must be a reason that they are so plentiful. Look closely and you have to admit that both the dandelion flowers and the seed puffs are pretty amazing!

Rhubarb - A peculiar seed stalk for sure, rhubarb stalks should be removed from the plant as soon as they appear, but I couldn’t resist letting this one grow for a spell just so that I could take a look at it.

It has turned sharply colder and today I heard rumors of frost warnings going out for the Central Pennsylvania area tonight. That’s not surprising, but what is, is that I’ve heard more than one local gardener talk about plans for setting out their tomatoes and other frost tender seedlings… well I sure hope they’re well covered!

No Need to Rush the Tomatoes, Instead Enjoy the Greenery

We have a pretty long growing season so I never rush and usually don’t plant warm weather crops out into the garden until after mid-May. That doesn’t mean a delay in harvesting fresh produce from the vegetable patch. Here’s a short list of the vegetables that I’ve been harvesting and enjoying already this spring:

• Leafy Greens – Including kale, collards, mustard, arugula, cress, and spinach. All of these were over wintered from fall plantings and have been ready for harvesting since the beginning of April!

• Baby Garlic – Mmmm, a special treat from the early spring garden. The baby garlic is being pulled from a bed that was planted with closer than normal spacing, as well as from those bulbs that were missed at harvest time last summer and have sprouted into tight clumps of garlic plants.
• Edible Weeds – This is a great time to go out and harvest young dandelion leaves, colorful red bud blossoms, huge bunches of succulent chickweed, or the wild garlic mustard that is all over the place.
• Asparagus – Their growth has slowed a little because of the cold snap but the delicious asparagus spears have been springing up for past week or two and are always a welcome sight in my garden.
• Perennial Herbs – Chives, horseradish, lemon balm, tarragon, and thymes have all made their appearances but the lovage is by far the largest and fastest growing plant in the garden so far. The bay laurel plant also survived the winter indoors and has been happily enjoying life back outdoors.

Other Veggies that are Finally Getting Off the Ground

Vegetables recently seeded directly into the garden include; beets, carrots, turnips, salsify, rutabagas, and parsnips. All of them, except for the carrots, have sprouted and began growing within less than a week after sowing.

I’m also growing broccoli, kale, mustard, raab, Oriental greens, lettuce, cabbage, kohlrabi, and collards that were started indoors and transplanted out a few weeks ago. Finally, there are the leeks, onions and globe artichoke plants that I purchased from a local nursery and set out into the raised beds.

Tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings are growing comfortably indoors under a bank of grow lights and I have no intention of moving them for at least another two or three weeks. I’d rather put the effort into gradually hardening them off than to have to worry over protecting them form unexpected spring frosts.

And Much, Much More to Look Forward to in the Garden

This weekend I’ll start more heat loving veggies indoors to transplant out once it really warms up. That list includes; cucumbers, squash, and the melons. Other seeds that will be planted directly into the garden include; green beans, cowpeas, okra, and lima beans, but those will wait until after the soil has thoroughly warmed up.

Every day brings us closer to that first vine ripened tomato, sweet fruit picked right from the tree, juicy berries and melons, and loads of other produce from our own backyard gardens. Not to mention all those favorite recipes made from fresh and locally grown ingredients.

I’m happy and thankful to see yet another growing season roll around and ready to uncover as many new discoveries and experiences as I can. Here’s hoping and praying for the blessings of great weather, plenty of rain, relief from destructive insects and four legged pests, and a fruitful growing season for all!

“Please help I planted romaine lettuce with no knowledge of what I was doing. The plants have not died instead they have long stems and flowers. I do not like to throw away any plant that is alive yet I do not know what to do with them?” – Olga

When lettuce bolts and runs to seed long before the plants mature it’s usually a sign that the plants were stressed in some manner. That’s not uncommon and can be the result of drought, high temperatures, overcrowding, or other unfavorable growing conditions.

A Plant’s Prime Objective; Be Fruitful and Multiply

The plant’s ultimate goal is to produce offspring and if it senses a threat to achieving that objective the response is often to speed up maturity in an attempt to bear seed before it is too late. In this case the romaine lettuce couldn’t produce a lush head of edible leaves for whatever reason, and instead it ran to seed prematurely.

I’ve noticed vegetable seedlings the size of transplants that were deprived and stressed to the point that they sent up a seed stalk and flowered right in their cell-paks on the shelves of the greenhouse. Once the plants reach that stage and switch to seed production mode there is really no way to turn back or fix the problems.

All you can do at that point is to chalk it up as experience. Next time around adjust the timing of your seed sowing or provide adequate space, water, nutrients, and conditions for the lettuce to grow properly. As distressing as it may be to remove a plant that is still growing, there is no shame or harm in adding the bolted plants to the compost pile where they will serve to nourish future crops.

What’s a Gardener to do with Bolted Romaine Lettuce?

Here are your options for dealing with those lettuce plants that have developed a stalk, flowered, and gone to seed in the garden:

• Let the lettuce continue growing – not awfully attractive but maybe the flowers will help attract and support some populations of beneficial insects.

• Produce a crop of lettuce seed – not recommended, as future generations from the seed may show an inherited tendency bolt and run to seed too quickly.

• Add the plants to the compost pile – just make sure the seeds haven’t matured or you might just be setting yourself up for weedy lettuce volunteers in the future.

• Or you can always eat the lettuce – it’s bound to be bitter and not the best tasting romaine around, but the leaves and even the tiny yellow flowers are still edible.

My choice would be to remove the bolted romaine lettuce plants from the garden, add them to the compost pile, and to try planting again for fall, or better yet early next spring. When I’ve experienced bolting lettuce in the garden it’s usually been the result of poor timing and forcing the lettuce mature when it was just too hot outside.

Jack recently sent in the following email in which he shared a tip for harvesting collard greens, along with some interesting observations on the state of affairs in the dwindling seed industry:

“Hi Kenny, I liked the page you have on the web about collards, and I though you might find my somewhat unconventional harvest method interesting. I discovered this method by chance or maybe desperation.”

Doing Away with the Book… and Tough Collards

“Collard greens are not part of my culinary heritage. I started growing them to expand my repertoire of fall and early winter vegetables, and so I harvest the big outer leaves for cooking as all my garden books said I should. This made for healthy eating, I kept telling myself, but it also seemed like a sort of penance, not to mention the long cooking time.”

“The second year I was growing them, it was a loose-head type, I had a real nice row, way more than I could eat, and a severe and early cold snap was headed our way so I knew I would soon lose them all. (I am in eastern PA.) One night I said, I’m just going to cut one of these tender blanched hearts, forget the chewy strong flavored big leaves.”

“I brought it in, chopped it up fine and cooked it in a frying pan with some bacon, onions and just a little bit of water – steamed it really. I have never bothered with the big outer leaves again. The tender hearts are mild and sweet and cook up fast. The only downside is you have to plant a longer row.”

Gourmet Quality Collard Greens and Seeds

“In the spring of 86, I lived in England, down in the SW on the Devon Cornwall border. The local green grocer offered what looked to me like collards, which he said was grown down farther in Cornwall where the weather is milder.”

“It looked like the collards as I had harvested them with loose inner heads of frilly chartreuse colored tender leaves. So that is apparently how they do them there too.”

“It’s getting harder to get much choice in collard varieties these days. The seed companies are drying up and trimming their offerings. And even the Seed Savers Exchange only offers a handful. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has four varieties including Morris Heading.”

Jack, thank you for sharing your tips for harvesting tastier collard greens. I usually shake my head when I see the bundles of huge collard leaves for sale at the grocer. I agree with your preference for picking leafy greens when they are young, tender, and much smaller in size.

Mother Nature’s Natural Seasoning for Leafy Greens

The only down side is that if you harvest the growing tip in the center of the plant it will not continue to produce additional leaves. That’s not a concern at the end of the season but can limit overall production during earlier harvests. To get around this harvest the leaves individually and allow the very center of the plant to continue growing and expanding.

When harvested long before maturity, collards and other leafy greens are delicate, tender, and will cook in a matter of just a few short minutes. Baby collards or kale picked while the leaves are just a few inches in size are also great for including in tossed salads or simply eating raw.

Frost and cold temperatures also have a way of sweetening and enhancing the flavor of greens. While the leaves can be harvested and enjoyed at any stage, the taste is improved by harvesting leaves that have been seasoned by exposure to cold and frost. The cold temps will bring out the subtle colors of the greens in addition to the naturally sweet flavors.

I share your concerns over the loss of seed varieties. There aren’t a lot of collard varieties to begin with so the last thing we need is to lose any. And while there seems to be a healthy number of small heirloom seed companies around, there are also huge corporate seed conglomerates buying out the smaller seed companies and discontinuing more and more seeds.

“I really like your website… your honesty about breaking a cardinal rule and not hardening off your cool weather seedlings, got my attention!” – Cameron

Well I usually do harden off my transplants and always recommend that you do likewise to protect your precious seedlings, but it’s true that I have managed to cheat occasionally and have gotten away with it. If a little insubordination catches your attention then here’s a long list of popular gardening ideas that I always refuse to abide by:

1. An edible garden has to be an eyesore – In reality a planned out and well tended vegetable garden is every bit as attractive as a flower or ornamental bed. You may not want to place them in your front yard, but there are a ton of great reasons to grow vegetables as part of any home gardening landscape.
2. You must grow veggies in rows – Organized and orderly maybe, but just plain boring and inefficient in my book. Give me a raised bed that is inter-planted with a mix different of crops arranged in a matrix pattern that covers the entire bed. It can’t be topped for yield, appearance and making life simpler for the organic gardener.

3. It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature – Let’s be honest, messing with the old lady is what gardening is all about… planting gardens in the fall, northern grown artichokes, starting seeds indoors, planting under artificial grow lights, how’s that for starters? Ok, just call it “working with Mother Nature,” but whatever you do please say no to GMO (genetically modified organisms) in the garden.
4. You need to pull all those weeds – Well to start with my garden doesn’t produce many weeds thanks to a few simple and very effective weed control techniques. But on the other hand an occasional and well behaved dandelion, lambs quarter, or chickweed is always welcomed and appreciated in my backyard.
5. You must spray chemicals – I have my own twist on this universal gardening practice… rather than use the sprayer to deliver pesticides, insecticides, and poisonous weed killers, I use it to apply foliar fertilizers like liquid kelp, compost teas, and fish emulsion which all add micro-nutrients and trace minerals to nourish the organic garden.
6. Hybrid seeds are superior – Claims of disease resistance and productivity, labeled as new and improved… okay, if they say so. But I prefer to grow those unique and flavorful heirlooms such as; Japanese Climbing Cucumbers, Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce, Black Krim Tomatoes, Thai Long Green Eggplants, Prescott Fond Blanc Melons and other varieties that were familiar to our great grandparents!
7. The primary objective is to kill bugs – But what about all of those beneficial insects that make their home in the garden? Sure there are some bad bugs out there too, but if the situation isn’t critical then I’ll leave it to nature to sort things out, or if necessary I’ll employ the least invasive organic insect control that’s available.
8. You must till the garden each year – Refer to the 2^nd rule above; raised beds are the only way to grow. Frequent tilling probably creates more problems than it solves in the typical home garden setting. My tiller hasn’t moved from the corner of the garage in at least five years and I haven’t missed it a bit.
9. Spring is the best time to plant – Well I actually prefer to do as much planting as I can during the fall season. Winter vegetables, gourmet shallots, fall planted garlic, hardy greens, who says that you can’t grow an incredible vegetable garden outside of the usual spring and summer season?
10. Tomatoes are the Essential Garden Crop – I do plant tomatoes in my garden, but I also plant tomatillos, sea kale, elderberries, mushrooms, edible flowers, goji berries, and other plants that you seldom find growing in back yard veggie gardens. The point is to make room for something new and unusual rather than simply grow row after row of tomatoes, squash, or green beans.

So don’t be afraid to experiment or try something unconventional out in your vegetable garden. I’ve had fun breaking every one of these popular gardening practices and most of the plants lived to see another productive harvest!

Sure, it’s not the most agreeable time for an organic gardener to be outdoors, but it is perfect weather for setting out hardy veggie transplants, relocating over wintered crops, or thinning direct seeded plants to give them additional space to grow and mature.

Reducing Plant Stress When Moving Seedlings

Transplanting just before wet and cloudy weather rolls in will result in the least amount of stress, transplant shock, or stunting for the vegetable plants that are being uprooted, handled, and replanted. The young seedlings will barely notice the disturbance and will happily continue growing without interruption.

But I only advise roaming around in a wet garden to those who use raised beds and can move about without trampling on the actual growing areas of the garden. As long as you don’t do any serious cultivating or step on the beds you can get away with gently transplanting into a raised bed garden even in the midst of a light rain shower.

Chalk this up as another springtime perk of growing your vegetable garden in raised beds; one that ranks right up there with eliminating the need to till the garden to prepare it for planting each season.

Making Good of Unpleasant Weather in the Garden

During the cloudy and rainy spell this week I relocated some of the over wintered veggies to consolidate them into a smaller area of the garden and fill in the gaps between plants. Next I moved the cress, arugula, and tatsoi plants that were crammed into the cold frame out into the garden beds.

Then there were there were the vegetable transplants that I picked up at a local nursery; broccoli, leeks, globe artichokes, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts that found their way into the raised beds during the cloudy weekend.

I also planted kale, lettuce, cabbage, kohl rabi, and seedlings of other cool weather crops that were started indoors out into the open garden. Yes, I admit that I was guilty of violating the gardener’s oath of never planting seedlings outside until after they have been properly hardened off, but they are doing just fine.

A Short Cut to Hardening Off Your Vegetable Transplants

Another good reason for transplanting during an extended stretch of cloudy and rainy days is that if you’re careful, lucky, and can gauge the weather forecast accurately, it will enable you to cheat and save time when it comes to hardening off of your delicate vegetable transplants.

A cloud cover usually brings milder temperatures and of course will reduce the amount of direct sun rays bombarding those vulnerable little transplants. Add in the comforting rain showers and your plants will receive plenty of moisture to help ease the transition into their new living quarters.

Caution: This isn’t intended as a substitute for hardening off transplants, which it is ALWAYS best to do before setting out your seedlings. You can easily speed up and reduce the time spent hardening off but there is a risk to your seedlings any time that you totally eliminate the process.

So when the forecast is wet and gloomy, you can brighten it up by using the occasion to welcome your new plants and get them acclimated to the outdoor garden. If you time your transplanting to coincide with favorable weather conditions you will make life easier on the plants and get them off to a faster start out in the vegetable bed.

It wasn’t the harshest winter that we’ve seen here in PA however we did suffer through our share of damaging ice storms and freezing temperatures. As far as a snow cover is concerned, there wasn’t much of it around to insulate the garden and shield those over wintering plants from the wind and cold.

No Pampering Allowed in the Garden this Winter

I’ll confess that it was tough love for all this winter out in my back yard. Nothing was protected from Old Man Winter, with the exception of the shredded leaf mulch applied to the garlic bed, a potted fig tree that went into the garage, and those pampered Bay Laurel plants that spent the winter indoors under a sun lamp.

Other than those exceptions everyone else was left to fend for themselves this winter. No floating row covers, no wall of water devices, no blankets of mulch, no seed in the bird feeders (thanks to the squirrels), no heater in the pond (instead the pump ran all winter), and I didn’t even put the tops out on the cold frame.

Call it what you will, I just didn’t fuss with all of that this winter! And what was the result; well you can see many of the rugged veggie survivors that made it through just fine. Also, the birds are still singing, the goldfish are swimming in the pond, and there are plenty of greens growing in the open cold frames.

Missing in Action in the Raised Vegetable Beds

So what’s up with the disappointing underachievers that haven’t shown up for this spring’s coming out party? At the top of the MIA list are those exotic globe artichokes that are vigorous and lush when the weather is mild, but seem to shrink under summer’s heat, and completely fall apart during even a moderate northern winter… Wimps!

I’ve always struggled to nurse artichokes through the cold winters so it’s really no surprise that they didn’t survive on their own. They often don’t make it even with a thick mulch, or when tucked inside a portable cold frame. The best success I’ve had was when I lifted the artichoke roots from the garden and over wintered them in a bucket of sandy soil in the garage.

Next is that beautiful sage plant that survived last winter with no problem, but now looks like its dead and gone without a single leaf or shoot showing any sign of life. Likewise for the Swiss Chard plants that live through some winters, but not this one… Losers!

Weak Performing Veggies and Slow Arriving Herb Plants

I even discovered a few pale and deformed garlic plants struggling beneath a paltry mulch and had to help them to the surface. I really expected better from a plant that boasts a tough Russian heritage and goes by rough and hardy sounding names such as Siberian, Ontario Giant, Thermadrone, Wild Buff, Leningrad, French Germinador, Polish Hardneck, Allium Gladiator, and Belarus. Come on now, you can’t muscle your way through a few shredded leaves?

And I’m probably jumping the gun and being a little impatient with this last group, but where are all those perennial herbs and what is their excuse for delay? French Tarragon, comfrey, lemon balm, thyme, oregano, mints; I know you’re out there… Slackers! The only herb plants on the scene so far are the chives and tansy.

So am I being harsh and demanding, expecting too much, and unfair in my expectations? After all, there are plenty of kale, collard, spinach, and arugula plants growing in the garden and almost ready to harvest. And those indoor veggie seedlings are also growing rapidly and getting taller and taller by the day.

I’m even toying with the idea of booting those pampered and spoiled Bay Laurel trees outside to battle the frigid nights and frosty mornings. If I’ll do that to my prized herbal pets then you can bet I won’t put up with loafers or deserters out there in the vegetable and herb garden!