Such a backlog of gardening news!

My husband and I are both recovering from illness. It hit our daughter first like a regular cold, albeit one with copious, copious mucus and corresponding quantities of tissues all over the house.

We grownups had light congestion and severe exhaustion. Walking the 15 minutes home after dropping my daughter at school felt like a monster hike and I needed to lie down afterwards. Normally I get kind of itchy if I don’t get out and move around for an hour or two each day. But the last couple weeks, my body has been pleading to be horizontal and sedentary.

Strangely, and mercifully, the lack of getting things done has been coupled with a strange psychological symptom: a lack of caring whether or not things get done.

My usual inner voice beating the drum of all the things I should be doing but am not doing at this moment? It’s been very, very quiet. What a relief!

Now that I’m perking back up again - not all the way, but getting there - the voice is returning, and is, shall we say, less than pleased at having been quieted. Freaking out might be a better term. The voice is especially mad that I haven’t written the newsletter for a few weeks. And TBH, I’m not super happy about that either. You signed up to hear from me weekly, and I let you all down.

I’ve been taking pictures though, and banking ideas for you all this time.

So, buckle up for a buncha Seedurday stuff all at once!

Ollas, and dig vs. no dig.

I’m doing an experiment this year with my two side-by-side vegetable beds. In one, I dug up the ollas, thoroughly weeded the bed, added a layer of compost, and then put the ollas back. It wasn’t fully digging over the bed, but it wasn’t exactly “no-dig” either. I’ve planted the bed with lettuce, tomatoes and flowers for cutting (zinnias, celosia, cosmos, bachelor buttons). I got all those in the ground before I started feeling crummy, thank goodness.

In the other bed, I’m doing actual no-dig. I’ve weeded the bed and pulled out anything leftover from winter and spring. Then I did chop-and-drop with all the plant parts that didn’t have seeds. No reason to plant lots of seeds for things you don’t want right now, but I did want to experiment with keeping most of the plant matter in the bed.

Now that I’m feeling a bit better, I’ll head down to the free municipal compost pile, pick up a carload of compost, and add a layer on top of the bed, but without digging anything in, lasagne-gardening style.

Of course this won’t be an apples-to-apples comparison (or tomatoes-to-tomatoes, lolz) because one bed will have been planted up before the other, and with different varieties. But I’ll be able to see if there are any differences in overall plant vigor, how much water is being used, pest pressures, etc.

Have you experimented with dig vs. no-dig? What have you found?

Planting tomatoes directly from Orta pots

After Steve Peters (who breeds the best tomatoes I’ve ever grown) told me that he plants all his tomatoes out from 1” plugs , I was skeptical. (It's here, along with lots of other ideas about tomato growing, in this youtube interview from a couple years ago.)

Conventional wisdom tells us to at least get our tomatoes growing strong in 4” pots before planting out, if not even bigger. Steve, however, said it’s really just a waste of time, effort and potting mix. The little seedlings catch up to the bigger ones very quickly.

I decided to try his method this year, planting out a whole bed of tomatoes straight from Orta pots in the Orta studio garden.

Last I checked on them, they had about tripled in size and were going strong. (No picture - sorry! This whole being sick thing means I’ve been falling down on the picture taking as well as the emailing!)

Speaking of conventional wisdom (vs. Superstition)

Here’s another one. Conventional wisdom says to put tomato cages around your tomato plants when they’re little because they’re hard to corral later on when they actually need the support.

On the other hand, superstition says “carry an umbrella so it won’t rain,” or perhaps “don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched.” Which, in tomato terms translates to: “Putting up tomato cages too early means the plants won’t get big enough to need the cages.”

Which one do you go with?

I’m leaning towards superstition this year. I built a lovely pea trellis this spring before sowing the peas, as one is supposed to do, and every single pea seedling was eaten by slugs! Then I sowed them again, and they were eaten again!

None of my tomato plants have cages yet.

My biggest tomato plants are all about 18” tall now . . . is it safe for cages? Or do I have to wait until they’re so big that it feels too late and unwieldy! 🤔🤣

Phew! The problem wasn’t me! Or the seeds!

Twice this spring I tried starting some special zinnia seeds in gorgeous peachy pink colors that I adore both in the garden and in cut flower arrangements. Twice I got terrible germination. I was so frustrated! What was I doing wrong? Had the seeds gone bad?

Finally I tried again with a fresh batch of potting mix (I used our Dirt Bag mix, recently restocked in our online store, btw), and voila!

Excellent germination and healthy seedlings.

I think the problem must have been that my first two tries used a batch of homemade potting mix that I made last fall (I think?) that may have sat around too long. Perhaps some unfriendly and invisible fungus had taken hold in the bucket? Maybe something else that inhibits germination? Who knows? It was a new problem I’d never encountered, but one that I’ll add to the ever growing list of Things That Can And Do Go Wrong.

I hope your last few weeks have been going well!

Happy Seedurday,

Anne

P.S. I'm preparing the Summer Solstice Seed Club mailing next week! If you're interested in getting in on it, you can learn more about the seed club here.​

When you’re ready, here are some more ways I can help you grow a thriving garden from seed:

1. Plan your seed-starting schedule with our ​free printable planner.​

2. Download the free ​Orta Seed Starting Handbook with all the basics you need to succeed with seeds.​

3. Take the guesswork out of watering with Orta Self-Watering Pots. (Find discounted factory seconds here!)

4. Join the Orta Seed Club to have 5 hand-picked, unusual & high-yielding varieties delivered to you every season.

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