These Can Be Planted Before Frost Free

I have spent a lot of time reminding everyone not to plant too early. Up here on the mountain we were close to freezing this morning (there was frost on my lawn). I'm sure there was frost at least in protected areas in the valley. A quick review, it's too early for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and especially basil.

On a positive note, however, there are lots of wonderful vegetables and herbs that can tolerate frost in varying degrees. That's what I want to talk about today. I'm sure I won't remember to mention them all, but hopefully it will give you an idea. If you have a question about specific plants you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com.

Hardy herbs like lavender, rosemary, sage, chives and parsley are frost tolerant. REALLY cold weather like we had this winter will damage rosemary (you should see my poor old rosemary plant, it used to be large), but the temps we have this time of the year won't bother most varieties, especially Hill Hardy or Arp. These newer varieties are specifically bred to take more cold. If you get new plants from us next week at the Hillsboro or Sherwood market be sure to ask if the plant you are getting has been in the greenhouse or outside. Plants coming from the greenhouse should be hardened off by putting them outside for a week or so before planting. They will do so much better.

Mint can be damaged by frost, but they will come out of it and with the way mint grows you usually don't notice any damage for long. Because mint can be invasive we usually recommend planting it in pots anyway so you can bring them in if it frosts hard.

A lot of vegetables can tolerate some frost too. Peas, cabbage, Kale, broccoli, onions, lettuce, cauliflower and kohlrabi just ignore the frost and in fact grow better in cool weather. We will have some of those the first couple weeks of May and again in the fall. We also do some summer lettuce that is more heat tolerant, which I recommend planting from mid June until fall. I have probably forgotten to mention some plants, so check our calendar at our website www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com.

I am really looking forward to market next Sat, May 2. We will be at Hillsboro and Sherwood. I should say Krista and I (and Molly) will be at Hillsboro and Peter and Annika will be at Sherwood. Hope we have good weather!!


Grow What You Eat!!

I have spent a lot of time reminding everyone not to plant too early. Up here on the mountain we were close to freezing this morning (there was frost on my lawn). I'm sure there was frost at least in protected areas in the valley. A quick review, it's too early for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and especially basil.

On a positive note, however, there are lots of wonderful vegetables and herbs that can tolerate frost in varying degrees. That's what I want to talk about today. I'm sure I won't remember to mention them all, but hopefully it will give you an idea. If you have a question about specific plants you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com.

Hardy herbs like lavender, rosemary, sage, chives and parsley are frost tolerant. REALLY cold weather like we had this winter will damage rosemary (you should see my poor old rosemary plant, it used to be large), but the temps we have this time of the year won't bother most varieties, especially Hill Hardy or Arp. These newer varieties are specifically bred to take more cold. If you get new plants from us next week at the Hillsboro or Sherwood market be sure to ask if the plant you are getting has been in the greenhouse or outside. Plants coming from the greenhouse should be hardened off by putting them outside for a week or so before planting. They will do so much better.

Mint can be damaged by frost, but they will come out of it and with the way mint grows you usually don't notice any damage for long. Because mint can be invasive we usually recommend planting it in pots anyway so you can bring them in if it frosts hard.

A lot of vegetables can tolerate some frost too. Peas, cabbage, Kale, broccoli, onions, lettuce, cauliflower and kohlrabi just ignore the frost and in fact grow better in cool weather. We will have some of those the first couple weeks of May and again in the fall. We also do some summer lettuce that is more heat tolerant, which I recommend planting from mid June until fall. I have probably forgotten to mention some plants, so check our calendar at our website www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com.

I am really looking forward to market next Sat, May 2. We will be at Hillsboro and Sherwood. I should say Krista and I (and Molly) will be at Hillsboro and Peter and Annika will be at Sherwood. Hope we have good weather!!


Grow What You Eat!!

Garden Prep this Week in Hillsboro, Sherwood, and Tigard, OR

I don't know about where you are at, but we are supposed to have some very nice weather this weekend. The weather people are talking about temps in the high 70's. April, May and June tend to be very changeable here in the Willamette Valley so we could be back to freezing next weekend who knows.

The season here this year is VERY late. Our cherries are not even in full bloom yet. They are usually in full bloom at least by my birthday which was last week even in a fairly late year so you can see how late we are this year. The warm weather this weekend should be perfect for the cherries.

It should also be a perfect time to get your garden prepared and some cool crop things planted. It's perfect for those root crops that you need to seed directly like carrots, beets and radishes. Carrots and beets take a while ( 3 weeks) to germinate so you can plant radishes as markers( plant them about 2" away) for them in your garden. Radishes come up in a few days and are ready to eat before carrots or beets are very big at all. That is also a very efficient use of garden space.

You can also plant lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and onions, but I recommend plants for those. If you don't get some started yourself we will have them at the Hillsboro and Sherwood Farmers' Markets starting on May 2 and also at Orenco and Tigard on Sundays starting the following weekend. The OHSU market starts in mid May, but they are having a special Earth Day market on April 24th. Krista will be there.

Be sure to save some room for warmer weather plants too. Tomatoes can go in after ALL danger of frost is past. In Hillsboro that is usually about the 10th or 12th of May, but you can keep an eye on the weather as we get close. A warning: Hillsboro had a hard frost on the 18th of May last year. I think Sherwood and Tigard have a little earlier frost free dates than Hillsboro usually, but again I would keep a close eye on the weather.

Some plants really need to be planted when the weather warms up and NOT before. Those include peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant and BASIL. We will have lots of those plants at the market when we get closer to the proper time to plant them.
Putting those types of plants in too early usually stunts them and they just can't seem to get going.

I am really looking forward to garden season this year. I have my raised beds all ready to go, and they are properly protected from the deer and my dog. We also have added a large garden space for corn, squash and cucumbers this year. We will be ready to enjoy all of those crops fresh from our garden this year. They taste so much better than what you buy at the store. Also, a few tomato plants can produce a $100 worth of tomatoes. Think what that will do for your food budget.

I am going to go get to work transplanting tomatoes now.

GROW WHAT YOU EAT!!

I don't know about where you are at, but we are supposed to have some very nice weather this weekend. The weather people are talking about temps in the high 70's. April, May and June tend to be very changeable here in the Willamette Valley so we could be back to freezing next weekend who knows.

The season here this year is VERY late. Our cherries are not even in full bloom yet. They are usually in full bloom at least by my birthday which was last week even in a fairly late year so you can see how late we are this year. The warm weather this weekend should be perfect for the cherries.

It should also be a perfect time to get your garden prepared and some cool crop things planted. It's perfect for those root crops that you need to seed directly like carrots, beets and radishes. Carrots and beets take a while ( 3 weeks) to germinate so you can plant radishes as markers( plant them about 2" away) for them in your garden. Radishes come up in a few days and are ready to eat before carrots or beets are very big at all. That is also a very efficient use of garden space.

You can also plant lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and onions, but I recommend plants for those. If you don't get some started yourself we will have them at the Hillsboro and Sherwood Farmers' Markets starting on May 2 and also at Orenco and Tigard on Sundays starting the following weekend. The OHSU market starts in mid May, but they are having a special Earth Day market on April 24th. Krista will be there.

Be sure to save some room for warmer weather plants too. Tomatoes can go in after ALL danger of frost is past. In Hillsboro that is usually about the 10th or 12th of May, but you can keep an eye on the weather as we get close. A warning: Hillsboro had a hard frost on the 18th of May last year. I think Sherwood and Tigard have a little earlier frost free dates than Hillsboro usually, but again I would keep a close eye on the weather.

Some plants really need to be planted when the weather warms up and NOT before. Those include peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant and BASIL. We will have lots of those plants at the market when we get closer to the proper time to plant them.
Putting those types of plants in too early usually stunts them and they just can't seem to get going.

I am really looking forward to garden season this year. I have my raised beds all ready to go, and they are properly protected from the deer and my dog. We also have added a large garden space for corn, squash and cucumbers this year. We will be ready to enjoy all of those crops fresh from our garden this year. They taste so much better than what you buy at the store. Also, a few tomato plants can produce a $100 worth of tomatoes. Think what that will do for your food budget.

I am going to go get to work transplanting tomatoes now.

GROW WHAT YOU EAT!!

This Week at the Nursery

I love spring and I am getting so anxious for vegetable gardening season to really start! I have already planted radishes, carrots, beets, onions and peas. With the warm weather we had last weekend I have to keep reminding myself that it is too early to plant frost sensitive plants like tomatoes or plants that need warm soil or night time temperatures to grow like corn, cucumbers and peppers.

Earlier this season I blogged about planting dates and microclimates and if you missed it you should go back and check it out. I know I will keep an eye on the calendar and plant accordingly. My husband regularly visits a local large home improvement store and he noticed several weeks ago that they had tomato plants out already. Several days later he returned (I did say regularly) and all of the plants were dead. Frost will do that to tomatoes.

We have been so busy the last couple of weeks transplanting peppers, tomatoes and annual herbs. We will bring them to the Farmers' Markets at the appropriate time to plant them because we really do want our customers' gardens to be successful. Some of the hardest plants to wait for are basils. They need minumum nightime temps of 50 to 55 degrees and we don't usually get that until around the first of June.

I have discovered that I have pretty much gotten carried away with varieties. Of course that's how I earned the "Crazy Seed Buyer" title. We have variety lists on our website www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com. Hopefully you can find something there that will suit your needs. If you have questions you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com and we will try to help you. I love hearing from first time gardeners.

Only 3 weeks to the first Hillsboro and Sherwood markets so get your gardens ready for hardier plants like artichokes,cabbage, brocoli, onions, and lettuce. Don't forget herbs. Plants like thymes, parsley, chives, sages, and lavenders don't mind a little frost either so they can go in early. I love Spring!!


Grow What You Eat!

I love spring and I am getting so anxious for vegetable gardening season to really start! I have already planted radishes, carrots, beets, onions and peas. With the warm weather we had last weekend I have to keep reminding myself that it is too early to plant frost sensitive plants like tomatoes or plants that need warm soil or night time temperatures to grow like corn, cucumbers and peppers.

Earlier this season I blogged about planting dates and microclimates and if you missed it you should go back and check it out. I know I will keep an eye on the calendar and plant accordingly. My husband regularly visits a local large home improvement store and he noticed several weeks ago that they had tomato plants out already. Several days later he returned (I did say regularly) and all of the plants were dead. Frost will do that to tomatoes.

We have been so busy the last couple of weeks transplanting peppers, tomatoes and annual herbs. We will bring them to the Farmers' Markets at the appropriate time to plant them because we really do want our customers' gardens to be successful. Some of the hardest plants to wait for are basils. They need minumum nightime temps of 50 to 55 degrees and we don't usually get that until around the first of June.

I have discovered that I have pretty much gotten carried away with varieties. Of course that's how I earned the "Crazy Seed Buyer" title. We have variety lists on our website www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com. Hopefully you can find something there that will suit your needs. If you have questions you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com and we will try to help you. I love hearing from first time gardeners.

Only 3 weeks to the first Hillsboro and Sherwood markets so get your gardens ready for hardier plants like artichokes,cabbage, brocoli, onions, and lettuce. Don't forget herbs. Plants like thymes, parsley, chives, sages, and lavenders don't mind a little frost either so they can go in early. I love Spring!!


Grow What You Eat!

Small Space Gardening

I have not always been interested in small space gardening. I mean, why would I need to be? I live on a farm after all. Well, the local deer population forced me to try it when they either ate or stomped my garden, particularly my tomato plants year after year.

I really wasn't very good at it at first and I have decided to share my experiences so others don't have to make my mistakes. I have done things that have worked and things that have been disasters. I started slowly, but now I really love it. My raised bed garden is really becoming my little gardening retreat.

The first thing I tried was small raised beds placed near or within my large garden space. Doing raised beds can be expensive and I tried to do my first ones on the cheap. It was one of those disasters. My first ones were too short. If you don't mind bending way down to weed, etc that could be ok, but it didn't work for me. The big problem though was how I tried to protect them from the deer and other critters that wander the area. I thought I could just put frames over the individual beds and use deer or bird netting over them. The frames were about 3 to 4 feet high that held up the netting. The first problem was that it was hard to move the netting out of the way to work in the garden which could have been fixed by changing the design, but there was no point since the deer just walked over the nets and completely stomped my garden anyway. So much for that idea!

After that I decided to explore my yard to find places to plant vegetables, fruits, and herbs that the deer would be less likely to destroy. I had a large of yard area with lots of high maintenance flowering plants like roses and rhododendrons. I converted a small area into a structured herb garden and left some space for vegetables. After that I was really hooked on edible landscape. It was so much fun to go out and harvest fresh vegetables and herbs for dinner. And the deer were a little more nervous about getting that close to my house so they would only top my plants and I would still get plenty of tomatoes to eat.

We took out most of the roses and planted a long row of blueberries, nine large plants that came out of field we were removing. Those nine plants provide us with so many blueberries that we often have a few to sell at the market late in the season after the commercial growers are finished! They are the varieties "Duke" and "Darrow". We will have those varieties available for sale at the markets this year in 2 gal pots.

About 3 or 4 years ago I convinced my husband that we needed to try the raised beds again so I could have test gardens for the many vegetable starts that we grow. This time we made them about 2 feet tall, put poultry wire under them to keep the gophers and moles out, got a load of topsoil so we didn't have to fill them with our heavy clay soil, and put a fence around them. That fence was the biggest issue. We used large garden stakes that first year ( those 1 in. plastic poles with a little metal inside) and used bird netting for the fence.

My dog loves tomatoes and can actually be as hard on them as the deer. The first year she crawled under the netting to get at them. That left a space under the fence that the deer just couldn't resist. It looked like a buck put his head under the netting to browse on the tomato plants then got his antlers tangled in the netting and tore it while bending the poles. We did get some tomatoes, but several plants were pretty much destroyed.

Last year we switched to regular metal fence posts, but my dog continued to crawl under the netting even though I put metal stakes in to hold it down. She really loves tomatoes! I fooled her this year. We invested in poultry wire and I feel like we now have a dog, deer, gopher, bunny, cat proof garden area. That is if my grandchildren remember to close the door!

We have already planted radishes and carrot seed and onion plants. Peas came up as volunteers before all that cold weather and they survived almost 3 feet of snow. They're starting to grow and Molly and I are starting to look forward to fresh peas.
Annika and I planted parsley plants yesterday too so at least one of the beds is coming together.

I will update on the progress in those beds, but now it's time for you to get to work and prepare for the upcoming season. We will have lots of plants at the Hillsboro, Orenco, Sherwood, Tigard and OHSU markets for you to put in your own garden. It is also time to plant early season root crops like radishes, carrots, and beets. Those need to be direct seeded.

I hope this will be helpful to you in creating your own garden spot. If you have questions you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com and we will try to help. We can also take orders for plants or let you know about availability of specific varieties. Please see our plant lists on our website mountainsideherbalnursery.com .

Have fun and GROW WHAT YOU EAT!

I have not always been interested in small space gardening. I mean, why would I need to be? I live on a farm after all. Well, the local deer population forced me to try it when they either ate or stomped my garden, particularly my tomato plants year after year.

I really wasn't very good at it at first and I have decided to share my experiences so others don't have to make my mistakes. I have done things that have worked and things that have been disasters. I started slowly, but now I really love it. My raised bed garden is really becoming my little gardening retreat.

The first thing I tried was small raised beds placed near or within my large garden space. Doing raised beds can be expensive and I tried to do my first ones on the cheap. It was one of those disasters. My first ones were too short. If you don't mind bending way down to weed, etc that could be ok, but it didn't work for me. The big problem though was how I tried to protect them from the deer and other critters that wander the area. I thought I could just put frames over the individual beds and use deer or bird netting over them. The frames were about 3 to 4 feet high that held up the netting. The first problem was that it was hard to move the netting out of the way to work in the garden which could have been fixed by changing the design, but there was no point since the deer just walked over the nets and completely stomped my garden anyway. So much for that idea!

After that I decided to explore my yard to find places to plant vegetables, fruits, and herbs that the deer would be less likely to destroy. I had a large of yard area with lots of high maintenance flowering plants like roses and rhododendrons. I converted a small area into a structured herb garden and left some space for vegetables. After that I was really hooked on edible landscape. It was so much fun to go out and harvest fresh vegetables and herbs for dinner. And the deer were a little more nervous about getting that close to my house so they would only top my plants and I would still get plenty of tomatoes to eat.

We took out most of the roses and planted a long row of blueberries, nine large plants that came out of field we were removing. Those nine plants provide us with so many blueberries that we often have a few to sell at the market late in the season after the commercial growers are finished! They are the varieties "Duke" and "Darrow". We will have those varieties available for sale at the markets this year in 2 gal pots.

About 3 or 4 years ago I convinced my husband that we needed to try the raised beds again so I could have test gardens for the many vegetable starts that we grow. This time we made them about 2 feet tall, put poultry wire under them to keep the gophers and moles out, got a load of topsoil so we didn't have to fill them with our heavy clay soil, and put a fence around them. That fence was the biggest issue. We used large garden stakes that first year ( those 1 in. plastic poles with a little metal inside) and used bird netting for the fence.

My dog loves tomatoes and can actually be as hard on them as the deer. The first year she crawled under the netting to get at them. That left a space under the fence that the deer just couldn't resist. It looked like a buck put his head under the netting to browse on the tomato plants then got his antlers tangled in the netting and tore it while bending the poles. We did get some tomatoes, but several plants were pretty much destroyed.

Last year we switched to regular metal fence posts, but my dog continued to crawl under the netting even though I put metal stakes in to hold it down. She really loves tomatoes! I fooled her this year. We invested in poultry wire and I feel like we now have a dog, deer, gopher, bunny, cat proof garden area. That is if my grandchildren remember to close the door!

We have already planted radishes and carrot seed and onion plants. Peas came up as volunteers before all that cold weather and they survived almost 3 feet of snow. They're starting to grow and Molly and I are starting to look forward to fresh peas.
Annika and I planted parsley plants yesterday too so at least one of the beds is coming together.

I will update on the progress in those beds, but now it's time for you to get to work and prepare for the upcoming season. We will have lots of plants at the Hillsboro, Orenco, Sherwood, Tigard and OHSU markets for you to put in your own garden. It is also time to plant early season root crops like radishes, carrots, and beets. Those need to be direct seeded.

I hope this will be helpful to you in creating your own garden spot. If you have questions you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com and we will try to help. We can also take orders for plants or let you know about availability of specific varieties. Please see our plant lists on our website mountainsideherbalnursery.com .

Have fun and GROW WHAT YOU EAT!

Grow What You Eat!

Krista said that I should write this week about why growing your own food is a good idea so I will. There are so many reasons that I can't possibly name them all, but here are a few of my favorites:

1. THIS IS THE BIG ONE!! The food you grow is fresher and tastes better. You simply will not believe how good a homegrown tomato tastes!

2. It is satisfying and fun to grow something you eat. It is very liberating to know you grew this for yourself and your family. Kids especially love to eat something they helped to grow and going out in the garden to "graze" encourages them to eat healthy snacks (and gets them out of the house).

3. You know what was put on the food as it was grown. You can grow conventionally or organically, or anyway you like. You also know where the water came from that was used to grow it. My hot button for this is green onions. I grow them indoors in the winter because I simply will not feed my family green onions grown in Mexico. There have been too many cases of food poisoning from those things and they are so hard to wash. If the ones in the store are not clearly marked I make the produce people go look up where they came from before I buy them. Of course in the summer I can simply get them at the farmer's market if I run out of my own. We eat a lot of them.
I also substitute chives, garlic chives and welsh onions for green onions if I run low. Those are all easy to grow even in a pot on the deck.

4. You can actually lower your food bill, especially if you preserve what you grow.This year there is a water shortage in California. That means that a lot of summer vegetables are not going to get planted. Tomatoes and lettuce in particular could be in short supply and expensive.

5. You can eat varieties of produce that appeal to you and your family. We grow over 40 kinds of basil plants, over 30 kinds of tomato plants, over 20 kinds of pepper plants, and lots of different cucumbers, squash, corn, and of course herbs for you. You can see our variety lists on our website: www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com

6. This is the ultimate in being a locovore ( someone who eats only food grown within a certain radius of where they live). How can you get any closer than your own backyard?

There are probably at least a dozen other reasons to Grow What You Eat, but these some of my favorites.

It's time to really start to plan what you are going to grow this year. Next week I will talk about my experiences with small space raised bed gardening.


Grow What You Eat!

Krista said that I should write this week about why growing your own food is a good idea so I will. There are so many reasons that I can't possibly name them all, but here are a few of my favorites:

1. THIS IS THE BIG ONE!! The food you grow is fresher and tastes better. You simply will not believe how good a homegrown tomato tastes!

2. It is satisfying and fun to grow something you eat. It is very liberating to know you grew this for yourself and your family. Kids especially love to eat something they helped to grow and going out in the garden to "graze" encourages them to eat healthy snacks (and gets them out of the house).

3. You know what was put on the food as it was grown. You can grow conventionally or organically, or anyway you like. You also know where the water came from that was used to grow it. My hot button for this is green onions. I grow them indoors in the winter because I simply will not feed my family green onions grown in Mexico. There have been too many cases of food poisoning from those things and they are so hard to wash. If the ones in the store are not clearly marked I make the produce people go look up where they came from before I buy them. Of course in the summer I can simply get them at the farmer's market if I run out of my own. We eat a lot of them.
I also substitute chives, garlic chives and welsh onions for green onions if I run low. Those are all easy to grow even in a pot on the deck.

4. You can actually lower your food bill, especially if you preserve what you grow.This year there is a water shortage in California. That means that a lot of summer vegetables are not going to get planted. Tomatoes and lettuce in particular could be in short supply and expensive.

5. You can eat varieties of produce that appeal to you and your family. We grow over 40 kinds of basil plants, over 30 kinds of tomato plants, over 20 kinds of pepper plants, and lots of different cucumbers, squash, corn, and of course herbs for you. You can see our variety lists on our website: www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com

6. This is the ultimate in being a locovore ( someone who eats only food grown within a certain radius of where they live). How can you get any closer than your own backyard?

There are probably at least a dozen other reasons to Grow What You Eat, but these some of my favorites.

It's time to really start to plan what you are going to grow this year. Next week I will talk about my experiences with small space raised bed gardening.


Grow What You Eat!