If you have cabin fever from all this snow and extremely cold weather come on down to the CT Flower Show and warm up by thinking about spring! Starting today through Sunday I will be at the CT Flower & Garden Show. I will have a sampling of my best selling soaps plus, lavender sugar scrubs, lavender body sprays and herbal salves.
PLUS! Show offer only! Interested in turning your backyard or small plot of land into cash? Off is only good during the show get $50.00 off my next full day SPIN Farming workshop March 14th from 9 – 4 in South Glastonbury. Show price $150.00 normally $200.00.
I always leave plenty of green onions to overwinter in the garden because, in the spring, it’s a treat to be able to go out and harvest them to add to my salad and/ or salad dressings. Over the years, I’ve created a few short cuts so I have onions ready to go into whatever I’m making.
Chop by hand
If you don’t want to chop the onions by hand, an easier way is to chop them in a food processor – the goal is to chop the greens into small pieces.
The food processor chops the onion into really fine pieces.
Finely chopped onions make great additions to salad dressings.
They are perfect to add to add to hamburger or meatloaf dishes.
Chopped onions are also perfect in a fresh salad.
Fresh green onions in a container store well in the refrigerator so they are always ready when I need them.
It’s been a cold and icy winter here in Connecticut and we are making the best of it with warm cozy fires in the evenings and bundling up with layers of sweaters and wool socks if we have to go out. On the other hand, my poor cat has had it with the cold temps that keep him inside more than he wants to be and we start hearing about it from him when mid- January rolls around. We’ve learned how to speak cat during these cold winter months. He is very vocal and expressive when he’s not happy.
However, I happen to love January, especially the last week, because this is the time when I begin to implement my growing plan for the upcoming season. I begin to start my seedlings in the greenhouse for an early spring crop. If you are thinking about starting a garden, now is the perfect time to start planning. A well planned garden will make planting and care both easier and more productive.
Before You Dig
Here are some basic things to consider:
Soil – what kind of soil do you have? Is it loose, level, well drained? Is it sandy or hard clay? Plants will not grow in either of these soil types unless lots of organic matter like well-rotted compost is added.
Sunlight – how much sun does that spot have during the day? You need at least 10 plus hours of sunlight per day for high quality vegetables.
Shrubs and Trees – they will compete with the sunlight if they are near your garden. Monitor where the shade pattern is during the day and place your garden outside of the shaded area. In addition, their roots tend to choke out tender vegetable plants, so the further away they are the better.
Water – How close is the water supply to your garden? Gardens require frequent watering during the growing season. If you must carry water to your garden or haul a long hose, place your garden nearer to the water supply.
Location, location, location – garden placement is the most critical piece to growing. If your garden is too far away, chances are it will be neglected. Gardens need to be cared for daily, which means, planting, weeding, pruning, watering and harvesting (which is the best part of all). If your garden is on the “back forty”, chances are you will never reap the full rewards of your hard work.
Create a Garden Plan:
Once you’ve confirmed that you can meet the above basic conditions, the next step is to plan out your garden on paper. This will be your map to building and maintaining your garden during the growing season. This plan doesn’t have to be fancy – I find the simpler the drawing and/or list, the easier it is to implement and to later adjust.
My garden has 22 raised beds numbered 1 – 22. When I create my garden plan, I tend to plant a single vegetable type in one bed. For example, beds 15, 16 and 17 contain arugula and beds 7, 8 and 9 have lettuce etc. I’ve tried fancy garden software but it didn’t work well for me because I have several beds of varying size and conditions (i.e. some beds are part shade).
When creating your plan, consider the following:
Size/ Cost – How big is your garden going to be? Obviously, the available space you have will dictate the size. Remember there are upfront costs to consider when starting a garden and the bigger your garden is the more it’s going to cost.
Vegetable Location – Are you planning an entire row with one vegetable or are you planting half with one thing and half with something else? Are you planting in the ground or in raised beds?
Row Length – This is important to determine how much seed to buy. How many plants can you plant per row? The answer to that question will be in the seed description.
Inter-Row & Inter-Plant Space – A foot wide path between rows is a good rule of thumb. You don’t want your rows too narrow as weeding becomes very difficult. Conversely, you don’t want your rows too wide as this wastes space and requires more weeding. Ick!
PlantingDates – You need to figure out the approximate date of the last frost in your area. I start turning over my soil and prepping as soon as the ground is defrosted and warmed up. It could be a few weeks before or after the general frost date for my area.
Succession Planting – What plants will follow when each vegetable is harvested? This is a space saving technique but you need to plan for it to work.
Vegetables – What to Plant?
What are you going to grow? My advice is to plant what you like to eat and don’t over plant. If you plant 20 squash plants your family is not going to be happy with you. You are not going to grow everything so use the available space wisely, especially if it’s small.
Sweet corn is a perfect example of what not to grow on a small plot. Corn needs to be grown in a large space (over 1000 sq. ft.) for proper pollination. So choose vegetables that your family will enjoy and that make sense for the space you have.
Small gardens (less than 1000 sq. ft.) – think about plants with a high yield per plant, which include the following vegetables:
Bush Beans
Leafy greens
Tomatoes
Peppers (hot and sweet)
Squash (bush variety)
Mustard Greens
Collard Greens
Kale
Chard
Spinach
Carrots
Beets, Peas
Eggplant
Onions
Radishes
Turnips
Herbs
Large Gardens (1000 sq. ft. or more) – larger gardens can obviously grow a larger variety of vegetables (including those that take up more space) but remember the bigger the garden the more work required and the higher resulting yield. If there are only two of you and unless you want to be super gardeners or love to be outside puttering around, I’d recommend downsizing to a small plot:
All the vegetables listed above
Melons (vining varieties)
Squash (vining varieties)
Pumpkins
Sweet Corn
Growing Seasons
How will your garden grow? Some plants (i.e.- lettuce and peas) are better suited to grow in the early spring whereas squash and tomatoes are heat loving plants that do well in high temperatures. Make sure that your plan includes a seasonal planting schedule that correlates with your successive plantings.
Successive Planting
Planting every few weeks provides a continuous harvest throughout the growing season. To avoid gardener burnout, spread out your plantings to avoid a monster harvest all at once and instead have a steady flow of vegetables throughout the season. For example, planting new lettuce every two weeks during the early and mid-spring seasons guarantees you’ll have lettuce until it gets too hot.
In addition, successive planting ensures the wise use of your space. Planting squash in place of an earlier crop like peas will allow you to grow two crops in the same space in a single season.
Seeds and Plants
Order seeds from quality organic seed companies now. Don’t wait until the snow melts. I don’t recommend that you purchase seeds from a large box store as their seeds tend to be of poor quality and have low germination rates. In addition, don’t forget that there are GMO seed companies parading around as “your local friendly seed company” so buyers beware!
I’m not going to get into the details of the GMO debate but if you want to know more, just “Google” it. This is a hot topic in the world of agriculture and gardeners and consumers need to understand how important it is to buy properly sourced seeds from non GMO companies. To get you started, here is an article from Mother Earth News.
There are many organic seed companies, but here are a few that I’ve used personally and recommend:
Yes, it is possible to have a garden even if you don’t have available land by growing in a container! All that’s needed is good quality organic potting mix and a container – i.e. – an Earth Box or even a baby wading pool will work! For DIYers, purchase a storage container (or baby wading pool) from a large Box Store. It doesn’t have to be deep as about a foot of growing space is all that’s needed. Drill a few holes in the bottom and sides to allow water to drain out of the bottom and air through the sides for the roots to develop.
Pictured below are some of the containers that I grow in. Easy Peasy!
Baby Wading Pools
Fabric Grow Tubes
Storage Totes
Earth Box
Large Grow Bags
If you have questions about your garden, please feel free to contact me. Happy Garden Planning!!!
There are a few vegetables that I refuse to eat and butter beans is on the top of my list! My Mother is an awesome cook but sometimes she missed the mark on some of her creations. She used to make a dreadful dish consisting of several cans of butter beans (including the liquid) dumped into a round glass casserole dish, layering bacon on top and baking it. The mere smell of it made me sick to my stomach and I hated that dish so much that, at times, I refused to eat.
The turnip was, for reasons I can’t now recall, also a veggie that was once on my banned list. Once while having dinner at a friend’s house, I mistook them for mashed potatoes and fell in LOVE with them right then and there! How could I have disliked the turnip when it tasted so good?
Years later during a Christmas dinner, my Mother discovered she was eating turnips instead of mashed potatoes and we had a family crisis on our hands! (True confession – she was technically eating mashed potatoes, turnips and rutabagas, but I didn’t tell her that). My Mother hated turnips and never cooked them or even allowed herself to try them until she unknowingly ate my mashed medley of root vegetables (recipe will follow below). She projected her dislike of turnips on her children as we grew up and so we developed the impression that turnips were bad. My repulsion to the butter bean was similar to her repulsion to the turnip. Who knew?
I have since learned that the turnip is a wonderful vegetable and I’m surprised that so many people don’t like them. This year, I have included turnips in my CSA distribution and I love to hear customers’ comments about what they are doing with them each week.
Some have also grown to love the turnip and gleefully share the different ways that they cook their bulbs. Others are not so much in love but have a favorite recipe or two that will do the job. Then there are others that just plain hate turnips (a similar disdain that I have to the butter bean) and ask to take them back.
According to Wikipedia, the turnip has a long history and was domesticated before the 15th century. Throughout the world, the turnip has been a popular and a not so popular veggie. In Ireland and Scotland, turnips have been used as Halloween lanterns. In traditional Celtic festivals, rutabagas (which are larger turnips) were hollowed out, carved with faces and placed in windows in the hopes of scaring off evil spirits.
In Nordic countries, turnips provided the staple crop before their replacement by the potato in the 18th century. In Turkey, turnip flavored salgam, is a juice made from purple carrots and spices served ice cold. In Middle Eastern countries such as Lebanon, turnips are pickled.
The Japanese also like their turnips pickled as well as stir fried in salt and soy sauce. In addition, they are fans of turnip greens, the very nutritious top of the turnip. In Brazil, the turnip is not a favored veggie as it is in other parts of the world and is thought to have an unpleasant taste.
However, part of the bias may be more of a social stigma vs. actual taste as, since the Middle Ages, turnips were an inexpensive crop that were associated with the poor and avoided by the nobility.
Here in the United States turnips are popular throughout the country. In the 1800’s, Westport Massachusetts was considered the turnip capital of the U.S thanks to two brothers, Aiden and Elihu MaComber. In 1876, they returned from the Philadelphia Exposition with a pocket full of turnip seeds and decided to go into the turnip business. The Bristol Whites were descendants of Swedish and Russian turnip seeds and flourished in the fertile ground of Westport. They soon became a popular and sought after commodity from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island.
Today they are a popular root crop used in all kinds of dishes. Personally, I prefer to treat them as a potato. If counting calories, the turnip is a good substitute for potatoes. The turnip root is also high in vitamin C and turnip greens (the tops) are a good source of vitamins A, C & K as well as folate and calcium.
The USDA states that one medium turnip (122 g) contains the following nutritional elements:
Calories: 34
Fat: 0.12
Carbohydrates: 7.84
Fibers: 2.2
Protein: 1.10
Cholesterol: 0
As is the case with potatoes, there are many different ways of preparing turnips. All that’s needed is a little imagination and you will have treasure trove of recipes. There are simple techniques like simmering in water (low boil) to the more detailed techniques such as Turnips Au Gratin. All in all, turnips are one of the most versatile root vegetables imaginable.
Here are my favorite techniques:
Quick Simmering/Low Boil Method:
Water: Peel, cut into chucks and place in a pot big enough to cover them with cold water. Simmer on low heat until fork tender and then drain well.
In a bowl, add a few tablespoons of butter (or coconut spread will also work well – vegan option) to hot turnips and mash in salt and pepper to taste and serve.
or
Leave in chucks, add butter, favorite spread and chopped herbs such as parsley, rosemary or thyme. Then add salt and pepper to taste.
Milk: Peel and cut into chucks and place in a pot big enough to cover them with milk. For a different twist, add either a sprig of fresh rosemary or thyme to the milk while the turnips are simmering. Since I don’t drink milk, I use Almond Milk and the turnips taste wonderful. Simmer drain well, discard the herb and reserve some of the cooking milk.
In a bowl, add a few tablespoons of butter (or coconut spread – vegan option) to the hot turnips and a little of the reserved milk and mash. Don’t add too much milk so that the consistency of the turnips will be smooth and not runny. Add salt and pepper to taste while stirring in some newly chopped herbs used in the cooking and serve.
Dressed Up Boil Method:
This is my all-time favorite recipe from “The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas: The History of the Season’s Traditions, with Recipes for the Feast” by Jeff Smith (copyright 1991).
Mashed Rutabaga, Turnip, and Potato
1 ¾ pounds rutabaga, peeled and quartered
1 ½ pounds turnips, peeled and quartered
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
½ cup whipping cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
The vegetables can be peeled ahead of time if you keep them in separate containers covered with water and Fruit-Fresh to prevent browning. Drain before cooking. Place the drained rutabaga in a 6-quart pot with ample fresh water and a pinch of salt. Boil 15 minutes. Add the turnips and potatoes and boil an additional 15 minutes until all the vegetables are tender. Drain well. Mash the vegetables with the remaining ingredients. They can also be pureed in several batches in a good food processor.
Roasted Method:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut turnips into chunks and put in a bowl. Drizzle olive oil over the chunks and season with your favorite herbs such as rosemary, thyme or your favorite herb blend. Salt and pepper and pour onto a cookie sheet. Place in pre-heated oven and roast for 5 – 8 minutes. Remove cookie sheet and stir turnips and place back in oven for another 5 – 8 minutes and stir again. Total cooking time should be 20 minutes but will vary depending on the size of the chucks.
Baking Method:
The final cooking option is baking and there are some great recipes online such as Turnips Au Gratin that can be found by searching your favorite cooking site.
Today Thompson Street Farm is participating in Small Business Saturday at the Glastonbury Farmers Holiday Market (Market is open every Saturday through December 20th) at The Old Cider Mill 1287 Main Street Glastonbury 10 am – 1 pm. So why is supporting small businesses so important? Here are 12 reasons why…
Why is shopping locally so important?
You support local businesses.
You protect the character of our community.
You keep local dollars in the community.
You help protect the environment (factory farm food uses a lot of resources)
You help create jobs.
You increase your home value (yes, towns with independent local business districts tend to have higher home values).
You safeguard your families health, Fresh is best!
You protect New England’s beautiful scenery. Yup, buying from farms helps preserve land.
You discover amazing new and delicious food items you’ll never find at a big chain store.
You play a larger role in our community. Shake the hand that feeds you.
Have fun! Local farmers markets are more lively, creative, have beautifully decorated products and locally sourced compared to the big box stores.
Even if you just replace one of your holiday items with a local product you’ll be making a difference in our community.
Thompson Street Farm is all about local, “Because Local is Best!” – we hope you will join us at the Old Cider Mill!
(adapted from Fresh New England 12 Great Reasons to Shop Locally this Holiday Season – Blog)
Spring has arrived here on Thompson Street Farm. My raised beds are finally defrosted and the rain has stopped, we’ve been busy cleaning out winter debris and prepping the soil for planting.
Maintain good soil health: One of the most important parts of being a successful gardener (or in my case farmer) is maintaining good soil health without dumping expensive fertilizers that are bad for your health and environment. Soil is a biological system which has millions microorganisms living in it that needs to be cared for. Understanding what is in your soil and what is not, will determine how successful your garden (or farm) will be.
I’m not a biologist and to be perfectly honest, soil biology is one of my weakest areas in my farming operation. I’ve read extensively on the subject; however, for me personally, I need things broken down in easy to understand language. I need a recipe of sorts specific to my land. There is so much information out there most of it doesn’t apply to my situation and I am frequently confused and frustrated.
I’ve learned I’m not alone. Finding soil amendments in small quantities can be hard for small plot growers. Some elements are only sold by the ton. In other situations when I could find smaller quantities (e.g. 1 lb. bag); it was too expensive to buy in the numbers I needed (e.g. 50 bags). This was my problem with bloodmeal. In the end, I resorted to ordering a 50 lb. bag from Amazon, paid the shipping fees because it was cheaper than buying (50) 1 lb. bags from my local garden store.
Use a good lab for soil testing: Last year I hired a soil fertility expert to help me figure out what to do with farm land I am leasing. My first year, I had very little seed germination. I knew I needed a soil test, but I wanted help translating the results and help sourcing a reliable retailer who would sell me soil amendments in the quantities I needed.
In our first meeting I explained I used my states university lab and I was frustrated on how to interpret the information. They use a general rating system:
• Below Optimum
• Optimum
• Above Optimum
In the recommendations section on every lab result regardless of what was rated they recommended 10-10-10 fertilizers. I started asking myself why do soil a test if the recommendation is always going to be the same? I knew the lab wasn’t explaining my test results accurately. They knew I was an organic grower, so why were they always recommending the use of commercial fertilizers.
I learned from my soil specialist some soil labs are better than others. He strongly recommended I stop using my state lab and use a lab that will give me the actual numbers of each element.
Test your Soil: Standard recommendation is once every 3 years in the fall. However, if you need a starting point don’t worry what time of year it is – just do the test. This will be your baseline.
Collecting your soil sample: If you have multiple beds (I have 22 raised beds) save some money by taking a sample of dirt from all your beds. Mix the dirt in a container and remove 1 scoop and send it off to the lab. This will give you an overall baseline of your soil make up.
If you want to know what’s going on in each bed take samples from different sections of the bed and mix together and remove a single sample. But be aware this can be expensive.
If you are growing in the ground, take samples from several different locations in your growing area. Mix together in a container and pull out 1 sample.
Soil Testing Check out Dan Kitterage YouTube Video introduction on soil testing
According to Dan Kitterage from the Bionutrient Food Association in MA he recommends your base minerals should be as follows:
Sulfur – 75ppm
Phosphorus – 75ppm
Calcium – 60% – 75%
Magnesium – 12% – 18%
Potassium – 3% – 5%
For more detailed information on soil biology I recommend you check out Dan’s website www.bionutrient.org
Manure vs leaf compost/mulch: Once you have addressed your soil mineral issues there is the question of organic matter. How much, what kind and how often? An old friend of mine is always telling me “You need nitrogen and lots of it!” “Use whatever you can find! That will really get you going.” My response is always “Not so fast my friend…..”
As an organic grower dumping manures in my beds or field is not the magic cure to all soil ailments. There has to be a balance between minerals and organic matter. In addition, manures are often mixed with the animals bedding which tends to be higher in ammonia verses nitrogen and other nutrients because the bedding is soaked with urine.
What kind of manure matters: Chicken, cow, horse, rabbit, goat, pig etc. Not all manures are the same. They all have different nutrient levels. Is the manure mixed with the bedding? If yes, what kind of bedding did they use? Stay away from wood shavings and sawdust bedding if possible.
Wood shavings and saw dust are often sprayed with chemicals which will leach out into your soil. Add the additional high levels of ammonia and you have a potent mixture that could burn your plants.
I realize finding manure free from the wood bedding maybe difficult but if you check around you may find someone who doesn’t use that type of bedding with their livesstock. If the bedding is straw then it’s ok because straw doesn’t absorb urine and breaks down quickly.
How old is the manure? Never ever put fresh manure on your soil. Last year a new gardener at our local community garden put several inches of her daughter’s newly made horse poo on her bed. Her rational it’s organic and free! What could go wrong? The result was she killed everything. That was a hard lesson for her to learn.
One year or more is best as it has time to rot a little, cool off so it won’t burn your plants. In addition, a little goes a long way, especially in small spaces.
How often should I put down manure? If the manure is composted (which is different than pure manure) you can put it down every year. If it’s straight manure its best to add it on your field and let rest for 1 month before planting. There is no information available on adding straight manure every year is wise. I recommend you consult with a soil fertility expert.
BEWARE of Toxic Manure: Not to be an alarmist, but sourcing your livestock manure is important. It’s what the animal digests and comes out the other end is the concern.
Some farmers spray their hay fields with herbicides to keep the weeds down. The hay is baled, sold or fed to the farmer’s livestock. When the cow or horse, for example, eats the hay, the residue from the herbicides passes through the animal and there you have it – toxic manure. It can stunt, mutate, or kill whatever you are growing and now you have a bigger problem – you have toxic soil.
Grass clippings collected from lawns that have been sprayed with herbicides and composted can also pose a similar danger. As much as I would love to ask for grass clippings from local landscapers, I don’t. In my neighborhood, we have a lot of those white and green trucks with tanks on them spraying Lord knows what on people’s lawns. My concern is the long term effects from the large number of residences that use these companies will be on our ground water. I doubt anyone’s monitoring this.
Using Manures as a soil amendment: Several sources recommend finding farmers that feed their animals with clean feed and use the manure solids minus the bedding. The challenge will be finding a source that will give you just the manure. It can be done. One gardener told me she asked an organic farmer friend if she could collect his cow patties in his pasture. Even though he gave her a strange look, he told her to knock herself out.
Another farmer friend recommended I check into large chicken producers who are overflowing with chicken poo and will deliver it by the truckload. Large producers often don’t use bedding in their operations. The chickens are in cages and the waste drops to a space below them and is shoveled out. In addition, owning chickens myself, I know there are a great many benefits other than collecting their eggs and/or eating them.
“They found that cotton yields peaked 12 percent higher with organic fertilizers (sic. specifically chicken litter), compared to peak yields with synthetic fertilizers…”
Manures are not sterile: As wonderful manures are, you need to be aware there are pathogens in manure that can contaminate your produce if it hasn’t been properly composted. It can have some pretty nasty bugs such as E-coli, Listeria and salmonella just to name a few. As a commercial grower I have be very careful what I put on my soil as the last thing I want is contaminated lettuce from manure not properly composted.
For my piece of mind, unless I’m guaranteed the manure has been sitting for a few years, I will only use it on my open field. For my permanent raised beds I use leaf compost. In addition, I only recommend trucking in manure if you are farming ¼ acre or more. Anything smaller I recommend leaf compost.
Leaves are easy to find. I discovered last fall some people were more than happy to collect and bag leaves if I hauled them away verses the homeowner hauling bags to the town dump and paying a dump fee. In addition, ask your neighbors to blow their leaves into your yard. I was lucky last fall my neighbor was more than happy to blow his leaves down the hill in-between our houses.
I run my leaves through a leaf mulcher which gives me nice chopped mulch ready to be put on my beds. I recommend about a 1 to 2 inches of mulch on top of your beds or growing area in the late fall and leave there over winter. Come spring, I mix whatever is left into the soil and as long as I don’t have to add any rock minerals I’m good to start planting.
Since its spring now, check if you have leaves hanging around from last year and go ahead and put them in your garden or if you’ve already planted side dress your plants. It will help retain moisture and keep weeds down.
Recap:
Test your soil in the fall every 3 years. Or test now for a baseline.
Use a lab that breaks down everything by the numbers verses using general terms such as Below Optimum, Optimum etc.
Use leaf compost/mulch on less than a ¼ acre or in raised beds. If you want to use animal manures, try to use manures that are bedding free (i.e. wood shavings or sawdust), and are fed clean herbicide free feed.
Spring is days away and it’s been so cold the snow has turned into solid ice. My cat has lost his mind from not being able to go outside. To pass the time of day he has resorted to playing fish on my daughter ipad. Although I think he knows something up with this “pond” – he keeps shaking his paws thinking they are wet and but they are dry, and then there’s no smell.
As a farmer, I cannot wait for warmer weather to start digging in the soil again. In January, I completed all my shopping for seeds, and on March 1st, the new season began I started planting my new seedlings in trays. The best part is my new aquaponics system is finished and I am excited to see how well the system works. This system was designed to grow hundreds of lettuce and herbs. In another week or so, the fish should be arriving and that will really boost the system.
(These are garlic cloves sprouting into garlic greens)
While talking to a friend recently, she mentioned she couldn’t wait to start eating fresh local greens. I suggested she start a small kitchen herb garden on her counter – it’s the fastest way to get fresh greens and in less than 10 days she can be cutting fresh greens for her salads.
Start with any kind of container. I personally like the containers our Chinese food come in. They hold enough soil to do the job.
Gently poke holes in the bottom of container. An easy way to do it is using a board underneath the container and hammer the nail through the bottom. For those who want a higher tech method, a drill with a small bit will work fine. Just make sure there are enough drainage holes in the bottom so the water can drain.
Moisten the potting soil prior to filling the container. The soil should be wet enough to make a meatball size clump – but not soaking wet where there is water dripping from your hand.
Sprinkle your seeds over the top of the soil and cover with plastic wrap until the seeds sprout then remove the plastic. If the container has a lid, gently close it but don’t seal it tight. The goal here is to keep the soil moist until your seeds sprout. Remove the lid completely and water when soil appears dry on top.
Easy Kitchen Garden Varieties:
Arugula
Basil
Chives
Garlic Greens – (need a deep container for this) just peel a few garlic cloves from the grocery store and plant.
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Fabric Grow Tubes
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