Grow Vol 11

Taunton Press

Yay!  The latest issue of Grow is available.  I wonder if Fine Gardening has ever thought of a supplement called "Kill".  It would really be handy.

Waiting For Spring

I could go on for paragraphs about the fact that this winter is of normal length where as last winter was very mild and short and my potatoes were already sprouting.  But, those of you in the north are dealing with the same issue, and those of you in the south don't need to hear us whine about it...

This month's Country Living has a two page feature on collecting seed packets to tide us over.

www.CountryLiving.com

I've already spoken at length about my passion for seed packets (and vintage seed catalogs, particularly those of the Three Seedswomen, and covers for magazines with garden themes).  But I don't believe I've ever shared this relatively recent purchase with you.

This is the lid only of a seed store display box.  It is from the Card Seed Company in nearby Fredonia, NY where I went to college.  Card Seed packets are very easy to come by.  A large, unused stock of them was found in a warehouse and has been widely circulated.  Now and then I'll find an an example of an older version in an antique store.  Those are more fun to come across.  This lid hangs on the wall in my kitchen.  I'm so glad someone, nearly a hundred years ago, pulled it off it's crate and hung it up to enjoy so that all these years later, I could do the same.

I love illustration art and lithographs.  I am also a sucker for boxes and crates and such.  Almost every tall piece of furniture in our house is topped with a lithographed advertising box.   The Rush Park seed box below I got for a bargain on Ebay some years ago.  It stays on top of the Pie Safe and hides my seed packets from year to year.

This Nabisco (Niagara Biscuit Company) cracker box my mother picked up at an auction long ago.  It tops a chest of drawers and hides large salad bowls.  Sadly, someone painted over the litho on the front but it doesn't hurt it's looks much.

 This very rare Jamestown Baking box originally held "Honey Cart Wheels", or so says the label on the side, and comes from my hometown.  I eyed it at the antique mall for well over a year until such time as  a discount and cash in pocket tempted Tim and I beyond reason.  It now sits on top of our office hutch.

Well, that's all the garden inspiration I can manage for this week.  I just know my crocuses are up, buried under 10 inches of lake effect snow.  Spring Cleaning has commenced although Spring itself seems a bit tardy.  I am now off to order some Hollyhocks to cheer myself up.

Think Spring!

Seed Catalogs Botanical Interests

 

 

A terrific little seed catalog came in the mail this week that contains only illustrations, no photos.  The artist is Marjorie Leggit and I just LOVE her work.  Recently I showed the picture below of the purple beans and stated that I did not remember which seed catalog it was from.  Well, I found it.

 

The purple beans are from the Vermont Bean Seed Catalog.  I have not been able to confirm who this artist is though. 

The Botanical Interests catalog is very through.  I will likely order at least a little something from them, and since the seed packets are also illustrated, I'll be putting them into my seed pack collection!

 

Fine Gardening Grow Vol. 8

Fine Gardening's special issue of Grow Volume 8 is on newstands now.  I picked up my copy at Tractor Supply, but you can order it online here.   Warning: I ordered Volume 7 from Tauton Press (as I have done before), and this time it came from Nova Scotia or some damned place (no joke).  It took forever since it had to go through customs.  Look for it in town before you resort to that.  All the articles in this issue are of interest to me and I've already wasted some ofice time previewing it.  The "Tips From Readers" section is back which I missed in Volume 7, and there is an entertaining piece on Dangerous Garden Gnomes.  Don't miss it.

In other News:  I pulled out the peas in Bed #1, which I planted March 15th, and planted bush beans in their place.  I got every last pea off those vines and yielded 19 meals for two from two packets of 200 seeds.

Grow ~ Fine Gardening

From the publishers of Fine Gardening, the lates issue, Volume 7 is on the newstands.  This is one of my favorite glossy gardening magazines.  I picked the first one up, by chance, in an airport newsstand, and have been hooked ever since.  It is published quarterly (approximately) and has so many useful gardening tips and great articles that I refuse to part with any of my back issues.

For those of you who cannot find it locally, it is available mail order, along with most of the back issues, from Taunton Press.

Book Review: The Dirty Life

Another way a gardener makes it through the long cold winter, is reading gardening books. I have a lot of large, glossy "coffee table" type books to supplement my favorite veggie magazine and seed catalogs, but what I really love is personal experience type books. Garden Novels. I was surprised, when I searched back through this blog, to find that I have never reviewed any books.

The first one I ever read was "The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden"

This is a great book about how a normal middle class person can go insane trying to create, maintain and make use of the perfect kitchen garden. It's a struggle I am now quite familiar with. But a far better book is Animal, Vegetable Miracle, a Year of Food Life.



Animal Vegetable Miracle diaries a family's year long attempt to eat nothing but local food. Food they raised in their garden, and in their chicken coop and food bought from other local farmers. These are the pretty much the only two I reread over and over. I've now got another "read again" book. The Dirty Life a Memoir of Farming, Food and Love by Kristen Kimball. She hasn't written anything else, but she has a website and a blog to be found at KristenKimball.com




The book tells the story about how she fell in love with a free thinking, rather challenging man and left her life as a writer in NY City, gave up her vegetarian diet, and helped him create a "whole diet" CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in Upstate NY where they farm with horses, feed a couple of hundred "members" and have learned to use all parts of the pig except the oink.

She soon learns there is a lot more to gardening and farming and the far rural lifestyle than meets the eye.

"Did I really think that a person with a genius for fixing engines, or for building, or for husbanding cows, was less brilliant than a person who writes ad copy or interprets the law? Apparently I did... There' s no better cure for snobbery than a good ass kicking."

She also learns to milk cows by hand, butcher chickens, pigs and cows, till crops with a team of Belgians, and get along with her husband-to-be in the process. This isn't just a book about gardening, although they have acres and acres of garden crops this is about farming as a whole and the lifestyle that goes with it.

“‎A farm is a manipulative creature. There is no such thing as finished. Work comes in a stream and has no end. There are only the things that must be done now and things that can be done later. The threat the farm has got on you, the one that keeps you running from can until can't, is this: do it now, or some living thing will wilt or suffer or die. Its blackmail, really.”

And it is about eating locally and seasonally.

"The central question in the kitchen would have to change from 'What do I want?" to 'What is available?"

I thoroughly enjoyed this book right down to the last paragraph. I have to admire her for her resourcefulness and determination. While I would happily learn how to adjust harness and aim a harrow, I don't think I could either make or eat blood sausage. I can certainly relate to her not feeling clean for weeks or months at a time as she toils in the fields. And I can commiserate with the havoc a wayward herd of cows or a runaway team of horses can cause.

I don't often recommend books. Taste in literature is a very subjective thing. But, if you enjoy this blog, you will enjoy any of these three books, and The Dirty Life in particular.

Magazines: Heirloom Gardener

Besides seed catalogs, what is it that gets a gardener through the long cold winter? The answer: Glossy Magazines. And I have a new favorite, Heirloom Gardener. I subscribe to very few magazines, preferring to pick them up at the newsstand depending on how the issue strikes me. Then I usually copy articles and info I like for a ring binder, and give the issue away. I subscribe to Hobby Farms and Hobby Farms Home which I promptly share with my mother. I plan my errands around the release of Organic Gardening so I can check out the latest issue at the "fancy" grocery. Then a couple of months ago I happened to pick up an issue of Heirloom Gardener at Tractor Supply.




I was hooked! I had seen this magazine before back when it was a plain paper (boring) publication with illustrated covers and lots of practical advice. It is put out by Baker Creek which not only does great work offering heirloom seeds from all over the globe, but also hosts a very informative and busy gardening forum called I Dig My Garden. I used to spend quite a bit of time on that forum, and it is still a wonderful place to research questions and ask for advice.

The magazine has been revamped, glossed up, and is now offered at some newsstands, including Barnes and Noble and Tractor Supply. You can even follow them on Facebook. I was lucky enough to stumble across their first release to TSC and am now a subscriber.

Besides articles on gardening and vegetables, they feature other topics of interest such as cheese making, bees, poultry, apples, plenty of recipes and lots and lots of glossy photos! Next time you are at Tractor Supply, check for it. The Spring issue with the tomato on the cover is at the printer now and will soon be on news stands. Search for them on Facebook to keep abreast of the release date. See if you don't fall in love with this magazine too.