We never had any garlic in the garden until last year. The year before last we were given some bulbs from a friend. He didn’t know what kind they were, but being Italian and a great chef, we took his word that it was some great garlic. He has since remarked that we’ll be mad at him this year because we’ll have garlic all over the garden. He’s not too far off the truth, either!

We planted in about 6 garlic bulbs in the Summer of 2008. Those bulbs matured and we harvested a few. The others were let go over the winter. In the late summer their seed heads fell over and planted many new garlic sets.

The garlic sprouts were thinned out and grew last summer and left to grow and overwinter. Now they’re growing again, and noticeably so! (Photo taken 29Mar2010.)

Garlic plants in the garden, two years old.

I’m looking forward to harvesting that garlic in the weeks ahead!

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Check out this Hummingbird Antique Bronze-Style Planter (16-inch) -

Or, this smaller Gothic Planter (9-inch) -

Don’t forget, Park Seed has more than just seeds! Shop Our Most Recent Catalogs Without Leaving your Seat!

If you don’t have any plants to bring in from the cold, there are lots of houseplants you can enjoy. See what Wayside Gardens has to offer in the way of houseplants, dwarf plants and Internet-Exclusive deals from their Container Plantings for Indoor, Patio Garden From Wayside Gardens.

Gardener’s Supply Company: Save up to 50% in our Garden Outlet

With a 50% off Sale, you can’t go wrong. Sure, the garden centers will all be having their season close out sales. I prefer shopping online – you can see so much more and never leave home.

I never know what I’ll find…look at these cute chickens for the flower garden:

How about a new planter for some of those herbs you’ll be bringing in soon?

(Those pictures are links to the catalog!)

Check out Gardener’s Supply Fall Sale: Save $10 off orders of $65 or more!

Free Shipping!

If you like roses and you’re ready to shop for perennial plants to grace your garden, you’re gonna love this deal. A new promotion by Wayside Gardens offers you a free Don Juan Rose – check it out:

Offer: Receive FREE Don Juan Rose with $75 Purchase at WaysideGardens

Coupon Code: FREEROSE
Expires: 04/30/2008

During the checkout process look for “Enter Bonus Codes Here”
Coupon code is required to get discount.

Visit Wayside Gardens and look at their selection of perennials. You might find something you like!

Composting is a major part of reusing materials. Yes, our mantra reduce, reuse, recycle can be put to work in our gardens. Avoiding the purchase of fertilizers and insecticides is a side benefit of making the best compost. Read on to learn more in this great resource, World’s Best Compost.

Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll discover in Worlds Best Compost:

• The method of feeding plants in a totally natural way that results in the most tastiest, divine food you and your family will ever have.
• Why do you use much less water in your garden now using colloidal humus compost? (and how you will be saving money and effort and the environment)
• What’s the sheep mentality that almost all agriculture and garden advisors suffer from that costs you time and money on dangerous, toxic gardening and horticulture practices. (and is killing our planet in the process)?
• How to achieve a soil that “feeds itself” so you always get consistent results!

Read more about composting!

Some of the varieties that may be available include: American Arborvitae, Eastern White Pine, Black Walnut, Red Maple, White Oak, American Cranberry and Serviceberry. Birdhouse kits and Wildflower mixes are also available by some districts.

You might want to act fast though, a few conservation districts in our region are no longer accepting orders. Clinton County will take orders until April 1, Union County until April 7, and Synder County until March 31, 2008, to name a few that are still accepting orders.

The seedlings are inexpensive and the monies go toward supporting the Conservation Districts. Do something a little green today. Purchase a few seedlings and support an organization that helps to educate our children about conservation of our natural heritage.

In the catalog guide you’ll find contact information for 92 companies that offer seeds and plants for your gardens, including their addresses, phone numbers and clickable links to their online offerings.

The original database was trimmed down to include only companies located in the U.S.A. Unfortunately, federal regulations have stopped shipments of live plants coming in from Canada and other parts of the world. Some foreign companies have voluntarily quit shipping anything to the U.S. due to the newer, more stringent rules. That’s ok, we’d like to show our support for businesses that can claim Made in the U.S.A., so from now on we’ll only be mentioning American businesses.

Make sure to check out the websites as many of these companies have Web Only Specials that you might like to take advantage of!

Beyond the contact info, the catalog guide describes products from each company so you can find out who is offering bulbs and who is selling lettuce seeds.

Our goal is to ultimately provide an online service that is searchable so you can find where to purchase tarragon seeds or mesclun mixes for your early Spring garden.

If you sign up for usethatherb’s RSS feed, you’ll be notified when we have new content on usethatherb.com. Sign up today – you don’t even need to give us your email address.

Grow fresh greens, cherry tomatoes and herbs right in your own kitchen with the world’s first kitchen garden appliance! No soil is required: Just add pre-seeded grow pods, nutrient tablets and water — no green thumb needed! AeroGarden does the rest, automatically providing optimal light and signaling when to add more water or nutrients. Within 21 days you’ll have a fresh crop of salads ready for continual harvests for months!

Nothing is fresher, safer and healthier than food you grow yourself.

Take advantage of this limited time offer and try AeroGarden FREE for 30 Days.

Grow your plants with no dirt, no mess, no fuss and no green thumb needed!

Gardening How-To
Your National Home Gardening Club Magazine
Get a FREE Preview Issue PLUS—Your FREE Gardening Shears

Gardening How-To magazine, official publication of the National Home Gardening Club, is your personal guide to planning, planting and cultivating your way to a beautiful garden!

Through in-depth articles and step-by-step instructions, you’ll have everything you need to create an oasis in your own backyard.

FREE Issue and FREE Gardening Shears!

Any container can be used for starting seeds that provides at least two inches of soil depth and that has drainage holes. Old containers, flats, cut-off milk jugs and plastic bottles are just fine, provided that you clean them with warm, soapy water. If you want to be really careful, take a few extra minutes to disinfect your containers with a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach plus 9 parts water).

Put your soil in the containers to a depth of at least two inches. The kind of soil that you use for starting seeds does make a difference. Regular potting soil is too dense and allows for little water drainage. Potting soil or dirt dug up from your garden will work fine if you add vermiculite and perlite in approximately equal parts. As an alternative you can use equal mixtures of garden soil, sphagnum peat moss and sand. The vermiculite, perlite and sand all serve the purpose of increasing drainage, lightening the soil and allowing for good oxygen exchange.

Actually, potting soil isn’t even a requirement. You can mix equal parts of vermiculite and perlite, or sphagnum peat moss and sand, instead. Going a different route, you can try rock wool for starting your seeds. Rock wool is used for plants in hydroponic setups and may not be easily found in your local gardening center.

Sterilization of the soil can improve results significantly. Some folks opt to purchase the more expensive, commercially prepared seed starting potting mixes, which are available in specialty garden shops. Commercially prepared soils are conveniently sterile for starting seeds, but more expensive than doing it yourself.

Sterilizing soil basically involves heating the soil long enough to destroy the disease-causing bacteria and fungi, but not too long for toxins to develop in the soil. You can do it at home in your conventional oven, too.

Porous containers, like clay pots, can be sterilized in the oven the same time as your soil mixture, but make sure to disinfect your clay pots first with a 10% bleach solution.

We can get by without sterilizing the soil, but if you want a better result bake the covered soil at 180-200 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Follow these steps for oven sterilization of soil and containers:

• Heat oven to 180-200 degrees F.
• Use metal containers or clay pots to hold the soil for sterilizing. No plastic containers.
• Fill containers with moist soil mixture no deeper than 4 inches.
• Cover containers tightly with aluminum foil.
• Heat at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. Use a meat thermometer poked into the soil.
• Do not let temperature go over 200 degrees.
• Allow the soil and containers to cool to room temperature.
• Leave the foil on the containers until you’re ready to use the sterilized soil.

While the oven is baking your soil, you’ll want to open a window or turn on a fan to get rid of the odors being released!

You can use the microwave for sterilizing small batches of soil but you’ll have to use plastic containers and not metal ones or aluminum foil. The key here is to hold the temperature at 200 degrees for 20 minutes, so if you have a programmable oven you’re good to go. Oh, poke a hole in the lids of your plastic containers to allow steam to escape while the soil is getting zapped.

Now that your soil and containers are ready, let’s plant seeds!

Read the seed packets. Seed packs are usually full of great information that pertains to the species or variety of seed you’re planting. Things like how far apart to plant the seeds and whether the plants do well in full sun or partial shade should be on the seed packet.

Place your planting containers on a tray or in a shallow baking dish that will hold water. When it comes time to water your seedlings, gently pour lukewarm water into the tray or dish. Watering in this manner will not disturb the seeds as watering from the top often does.

Place seeds on the soil and cover with a light amount of your sterilized soil, no deeper than 2-3 times the width of an individual seed. Certain seeds, like the lettuces, do not germinate well with a soil covering. In those cases just press down on the seeds. In the garden we step on the lettuce seeds and they’re planted!

Cover the container with plastic wrap, a plastic bag or a piece of glass in order to retain moisture. Until the seeds actually germinate don’t put the containers in direct sunlight which could heat up the soil too fast and possibly dry it out.

To add a little warmth to the soil you can place the containers on a heating mat or other radiator.

Remove the plastic or glass coverings when the seeds germinate and place under florescent lights. Sunny windows are not sunny every day and those cloudy days can lead to some spindly growth. Place the lights about 3-4 inches above the seeds and raise the lights as the plants get taller. Lights need to be on about 16 hours every day, so use a lamp timer to make this a no-brainer.

Water seedlings from the bottom by adding water to your tray, but remove any standing water after about five minutes. Refrain from fertilizing seedlings until they grow at least two sets of true leaves.