BLOG.JESSIEKEITH.COM

Cherry Tomato Choosers Choose 'Sungold'

Jessie Keith — Sun, 20 May 2012 21:43:32 GMT

So many cherry tomatoes look pretty but are lacking in the flavor department. Every year I try something new. Last year it was 'Black Cherry' (flavorful but not sweet enough), 'Snow White' (pretty but bland, like most yellow cherries), 'Isis Candy' (sweet but not sweet enough) and 'Matt's Wild Cherry' (pungent and identical to almost every other currant tomato I have ever grown). My cherry tomato trials have been going on for the better part of 15 years, and to date I have never found a cherry tomato with the perfect sweetness and flavor of 'Sungold.' It's golden orange color is pretty, too.

A salad with a mix of 'Matt's Wild Cherry', 'Snow White' and 'Supersweet 100.'

Certainly, there are close contenders--'Sunsugar' and 'Supersweet 100' are pretty close--but all have a lower Brix (sugar content) levels than 'Sungold.' Other widely popular cherries said to have top sweetness, like 'Sweet Million', fall pretty flat for me.

The tiny, currant sized tomatoes of 'Matt's Wild Cherry' are pungent and flavorful but not super sweet.

Sungold tomatoes are very easy to grow and offer excellent disease resistance. They are indeterminate (vining and everbearing) and should be provided a very tall cage to reach their full fruiting potential. I always plant them in my children's garden so they can snack on the sweet fruits all summer. The vines reach 5 and 6 feet, so there are always extra to harvest towards the top of the vines.

'Sungold' is truly the top tier cherry for sweetness, for now at least.

Before I plant any tomato, I work the soil up to a high tilth and mix in a fair amount of compost along with a teaspoon or so of organic fertilizer for vegetables. These days I use Black Gold Tomato and Vegetable fertilizer. (It's really good stuff.) I also try prune and train my tomato vines to keep them manageable. (If I have the time and inclination. Otherwise they ramble beyond their cages.)

Gardeners should be encouraged to do their own cherry tomato taste test. One easy way is to get the "Garden Candy" mix of three cherry tomatoes-- 'Sungold', 'Sweet Gold' and 'Supersweet 100'--from Renee's Garden Seeds. The seeds are color coded, so you can be sure of planting at least one of each.

Berm Baby Berm

Jessie Keith — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:31:00 GMT

Last spring and summer in the Mid-Atlantic was wet, wet, wet! There was barely a break between heavy rains, so boy was I thankful that I bermed my garden beds to the hilt. Berms are the best because they ensure garden soil is raised, well-aerated and drains well. When heavy rains come, there's no need to worry about standing water at plant root zones. It's the perfect alternative for gardeners that don't want to be locked into set raised beds or can’t build them.

Light, deep, bermed soil enables root crops, like carrots, parsnips and rutabagas, to develop perfect roots because they have plenty of friable soil to sink into. Later in the season, you will be glad you planted your melons on raised berms because light soil with good drainage helps them grow better and develop higher sugar content, which improves flavor.

Before berming the soil up, as with the bermed potato rows above, lightly till or turn your soil deeply. Next, establish bedding rows. Once these are set, begin raking your berms up (using a hard rake). This takes a little elbow grease, but the results make it well worth it.

Once the berms are created, put a layer of removable mulch cloth down and cover that with a layer of straw. This keeps weeding down by up to 75%, so it’s very important for busy people with little time and energy, like me.

It’s best to use a very light weight mulch cloth that’s easy to pull away, roll up and reuse the following season.

Before the plants are in the ground, my vegetable garden looks like a bumpy, straw-covered mess, but once the plants have grown in, you can't even seen the raised berms.

Book Review: The Photographic Garden: Mastering the Art of Digital Garden Photography

Jessie Keith — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:50:39 GMT

Garden photography is one of my passions, so I'm excited about Matthew Benson's new book, The Photographic Garden: Mastering the Art of Digital Garden Photography (Rodale Books, April 2012). As an award-winning photographer and Organic Gardening contributing editor and photographer, Benson has the subject down pat. The 180 page paperback explores good garden photography through loads of practical information, anecdotal stories and 250 beautiful color photos.

This is a book for ardent amateurs-something every shutterbuggy gardener with an SLR or novice garden photographer should have. Through good writing and well organized chapters, it covers all the basics from working with light and design to post production and camera considerations. For me, the sections on light and design were most "illuminating", immediately providing me with better tools for taking and preparing good shots under diverse conditions. My favorite book tidbits are the stopping points where Benson presents a specific technique and offers an assignment for practicing that technique. The assignments are extremely useful and fun.

At $24.99 this book is very reasonable and well worth the money. I highly recommend it.

*To learn more about other new Rodale gardening titles visit, the Organic Gardening Book Store.

It's Chive Flower Season!

Jessie Keith — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:12:10 GMT

Wedged between my driveway and stone retaining wall is a sun drenched strip of very well-drained, rich soil that houses most of my herbs. Chives are among them and this is the time of year they bloom full force yielding their delicate lavender puffs of deliciousness. Chive flowers taste like chives but are a bit milder and infinitely prettier. I like to add them to any spring dish where chives might be welcome--pastas, salads, spring vegetables and the like. They're also smashing on a bagel with lox. Chive flower season is brief so enjoy these edible flowers while you can.

Chives are easy to grow; just give them full sun and good soil that drains perfectly.

Harvest flowers when they are fairly well-rounded with lots of open florets but no brown ones. Gently wash the flowers before trimming the blooms off and eating.

Cucumber salad with cream and chive flowers is delicious and springy.

Cucumber Salad with Chive Flowers

2 medium sized cucumbers or one hothouse cuke
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 shallot finely minced
2 trimmed chive flowers
Salt & white pepper to taste
a sprinkle chopped fresh dill if desired

Peel the cucumber, if desired, and slice thinly. Mix vinegar, vinegar, sugar, cream and add salt and pepper to taste. Mix the dressing and cucumbers. Mix in half the chive flowers and reserve the rest for sprinkling on top. Add fresh dill if desired.

Natural Tick Repellents

Jessie Keith — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:47:51 GMT

Just one hour in the garden and I found one tick on my daughter and another on me, and it's only mid-April. Ticks are my phobic bane, and this summer promises to be ticktacular, so major ammunition will be needed to keep them at bay. (Nothing is yuckier than little spidery creatures latching onto you and sucking away your life's blood.) Thankfully these days strong chemicals like deet are no longer needed; newer natural options are in abundance and some even smell nice.

Natural repellents may not work as long or as well as deet, but deet is toxic and I won't put it on my children. (According to the CDC, eight deet-related fatalities occurred from 1961 to 2002 and six were children.) The best natural repellent tested is Repel's Lemon Eucalyptus Insect Repellent, and it smells pretty good--something like an herbal citronella candle. I like it a lot better than OFF, though the familiar chemical smell of OFF brings back fond childhood memories of family and Girl Scout camping trips.

ExOfficio's Bugsaway Halo Check Shirt (UPF 30) provides added protection from ticks and sun.

Another option is BiteBlocker Xtreme Sportsman Pump Spray. It smells pretty good and works for quite a long time--up to three hours. Geranium oil is the chief botanical at work in this product.

One I have not tried but want to is Kiss My Face Sunswat Spray with SPF 15. Kiss my Face products have never let me down and this one is powered by citronella and eucalyptus, much like the Repel repellent. It's on sale at Sierra Trading Post, which may inspire me to buy it.

Remaining well covered in light textured and colored clothing, and protecting one's hair with a bandana can also help keep ticks off and/or help you see them before they can get to the skin. I always spray my socks/shoes/shirts and bandanas with repellent for extra protection. ExOfficio makes a line of insect repellent clothing called Bugsaway that is said to be effective, though I've never purchased any. The price tag is pretty high but may be worth it for a pair of garden work pants and a shirt. The styles are simple and attractive.

My favorite end-of-day tick remover is Dr. Bronner's Pure Peppermint Castile Soap in liquid form. The stuff smells minty fresh, makes your whole body tingle and external parasites like ticks hate it. In my experience, they drop off when washed with the stuff. I bet Bronner's spearmint and eucalyptus soaps would do the trick too, though I've never tried them for this purpose.

Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap provides a cooling end-of-day wash that ticks loathe.

Colorado Potato Beetle Picking

Jessie Keith — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:41:59 GMT

Anyone who has dealt with Colorado potato beetles knows they are evil little critters, for solanaceous plants at least. They are ferocious eaters that can decimate a potato plant in no time, tomatoes too but these are secondary plants of choice. I've seen mature beetles consume entire leaf stalks in a matter of hours. Severe potato beetle damage disables plants from storing food, which stops potato development.

As our potatoes just begin to break ground, I await the first potato beetles of the season. Every year they hit the potatoes with force and even manage to attack a few tomatoes and eggplant while they're at it. There are lots of chemicals that can kill potato beetles, but one would need to dump a toxic arsenal on pest-covered plants to really make a dent. So, what's the next best answer? Potato beetle picking. It's a little labor intensive but green and effective.

You can't miss these slow, conspicuous insects. Mature Colorado potato beetles are medium-sized with reddish-orange heads and ivory stripes on their wings. They produce clusters of glossy, oval, bright yellow eggs on the undersides of the leaves, which are easily scraped off and stomped. It is vital to do the same with mature beetles, which are often seen mating on the plants, and their creepy, bulbous orange-brown larvae. The pluck and stomp dance is a must if you want a potato crop to harvest.

Daily or twice daily picking is necessary to keep the insects in check. This is especially important early in the season when plants are young and tender. As the season wains, so do potato beetle numbers.

Potato beetle pickin is a great family activity if your child is not squeamish. The trouble is, your child might opt to carry the beetles around and covet them as pets, as mine did.

No stomping for this little beetle. We did make her carry it far away though.

Top Italian Basils for Pesto

Jessie Keith — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:02:14 GMT

Basil is on the mind. I just finished the last of my frozen pesto made from last year’s crop. It’s a sad time. The flavor of fresh grown stuff is so good it maintains in the freezer for a long time. Every year I grow a boatload of basil and include lots of different kinds, each yielding a different taste. But at the end of the day most of my basil will become classic pesto alla Genovese, so it’s the Italian types I go for. Here are my favorite Italian basils that make good green stuff.

Mini basils can be both sweet and pungent and have the double benefit of fitting nicely in small garden spaces or containers. They’re prettier and blend well with flowers too (beside the point but still good to know for the space constrained gardener). 'Verde Piccole Foglie' is a small-leaved basil with big, spicy, pungent flavor. Another short, but larger-leaved basil with stellar flavor is the French ‘Marseillais.’ It only reaches a foot tall but keeps producing those tasty leaves all summer if regularly deadheaded. Finally, ‘Pistou’ is a beautiful little bush type with tiny, super fragrant leaves that are a little milder than those of 'Verde Piccole Foglie.' Just keep it sheared back in summer, like a tiny hedge, and use the clippings for cooking.

The tidy bush basil Verde Piccole Foglie has small, pungent leaves.

The Large-leaved basils are real pesto powerhouses. They can become large, bushy and even a few plants can make jars and jars of pesto. You can’t go wrong with the basic basil 'Genovese.' It has very big, fleshy leaves with great aroma and taste. Mature plant height is around two feet. The classic 'Lettuce Leaf' is similar to 'Genovese', but its leaves are larger, have deeper venation and a little less pungency. It is said to be slower to bolt, but I have not experienced this.

Growing basil from seed is so easy there’s no point ingrowing plants. You also have more variety to choose from when you take the seed route. Start the seeds indoors about six weeks before the last frost date.They should be grown under good solar fluorescent lights and kept warm. Plants should be no further than four inches from the lights when growing indoors. A heat mat will hasten germination and growth.

'Lettuce Leaf' is a prolific large-leaved basil with wonderful flavor.

I don’t usually plant mine outdoors until late May. Don’t forget to harden your plants off before moving them from the grow lights to an outdoor location. I generally place mine in a spot where there’s light wind and bright, indirect light and over the course of a few days move them into more and more sun.

Basils are great for planting around the base of tomato plants. Once the plants are mature and start to set buds, harvest leafy stems furiously. When in flower, the leaves develops a harsher, more acrid taste. Some say they taste sweetest when the flower buds just begin to develop, so this is a good time to harvest and make pesto.

Here's my favorite recipe for classic pesto:

In a Cuisinart, blend together:

4 cups clean, fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup good extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
2 or 3 fresh garlic cloves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon kosher salt

I’ll end this blog with a big "note to self." "Freeze more pesto this year!" Early February is way too early to run out.

Winter Gardens of Osterwald Germany: A Photo Essay

Jessie Keith — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:44:41 GMT

It was a shock when my gracious and lovely mother-in-law, Ursula (Uschi) Marie Meyer, passed away peacefully but very unexpectedly last February (2012). The visit to the small, beautiful village of Osterwald ("Easter Forest") where my husband was raised was sobering, and the time with family and Uschi's many grandchildren was touching and bittersweet. After her funeral, we walked through the village to the restaurant where her reception would be held. I lagged behind to capture pictures for my children that would never remember their beautiful Oma or the town she called home.

Herbarium Story

Jessie Keith — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:13:34 GMT

In 2001, as a MSU graduate student, I visited The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew just outside of London, England to meet up with a distinguished botanist and mentor, Dr. John H. Beaman. Beaman had been the curator of MSU's Beal-Darlington Herbarium and later come to Kew to complete his five volume set of The Plants of Mount Kinabalu for which he became the 2004 Asa Gray Award winner. He first took me through the Kew library and herbarium, which house some of the most important plant tomes and collections on Earth and can only be accessed by researchers. Original copies of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum and Darwin's Origin of the Species sit on open library shelves for the reading and over 7 million specimens from famed collectors fill the herbarium. The experience was a dream come true .

In the herbarium, Beaman gathered some pressed specimens of the rare Texas Monarda species I was studying at the time. (How often to you get to study Texas flora in London?) The experience made me realize how important and precious herbarium collections are (something lost on many institutions worldwide). In fact, I could not have completed my thesis research (Monarda Section Cheilyctis: Patterns of Speciation and Endemism) without the many specimens I borrowed from a suite of herbaria.

Most don't even know that an herbarium (plural herbaria) is a collections of pressed plants, dried and cured fruits collected from all over the world. Each specimen has a wealth of information including the plant's Latin name, collector, collection date and exact collection location as well as other notes.

The purpose of an herbarium is to fuel plant research of all kinds, from identifying new species to distribution, ecology and conservation studies. Genetic studies can even be conducted. (DNA of varying qualities can be extracted from even the oldest, dryest specimens.) And, as plant populations are increasingly destroyed by development and sprawl, and climate change impacts plant populations, these collections become more and more important.

Many land grant colleges and institutions have herbaria, but they remain undervalued and are often decaying and consumed by destructive herbarium/tobacco beetles (Lasioderma serricorne), aside from a few highly valued collections. (Another excursion took me to The Academy of Natural Sciences Herbarium where I was shown pampered pressed specimens from the original Louis and Clarke expeditions held in locked, environmentally controlled chambers. They were the best maintained specimens I'd ever seen.)

So, the take home message of this story is support your local herbarium. A little bit of financial support allows for the purchase supplies and better care for specimens. To learn more about American herbaria and find an herbarium near you visit the US Virtual Herbarium.

Image used with permission from usvirtualherbarium.org

Tibouchina urvilleana Not Blooming? Never Fear!

Jessie Keith — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:36:21 GMT

A recent L2G reader asked, "Why isn't my princess flower blooming? I have it growing in a conservatory and it just stopped flowering this winter." Fortunately, there's an easy answer to this puzzle. The Brazilian Princess Flower (Tibouchina urvilleana) is an outstanding tropical that blooms through most of the year, usually from May to January, but it usually refrains from blooming from midwinter to late spring.

Most plants, tropicals included, have a period in the year where they quiesce or slow down to drum up energy for the next growing season. Princess flower is no exception. In the winter and spring months, when plants are quiescent, it is best to water them a bit less and refrain from feeding them. This is also a good time to trim back ungainly branches.

Once late spring arrives and temperatures are warm and accommodating, princess flower will begin to put forth its flushes of rosy red buds and brilliant magenta-violet flowers once again. Plants often bloom most prolifically in the mild, warm days of late-summer and fall.

Garden Book Review: Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way

Jessie Keith — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 16:05:20 GMT

Image used with permission of Rodale

We can always learn new things from old ways, and Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way by Wesley Greene (Rodale Books, 2012, $30.00) is ripe with early American gardening techniques for today's gardeners. Colonial Williamsburg is the nation’s center for historical preservation, and Rodale is the most trusted name in vegetable gardening, so you know this book has to be good! And it is. In addition to offering sage vegetable gardening tips of yore, this 246 page instructional is laden with loads of beautiful color photos, taken by Barbara Templeton Lombardi, that also make it a visual pleasure to peruse.

Eleven chapters cover 18th-century lore and cultivation techniques for different vegetable groups; 50 vegetables are discussed, some common in today's gardens and some not. Lesser known and grown veggies include the root crops salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius), scorzonera (Scorzonera hispanica) and Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus). All are flavorful, vigorous and worth trying, and you'll quickly learn everything you need to know for successful culture.

Information on more commonly cultivated veggies is also illuminating. Cultural essentials are given in concise, easy-to-read sections and many techniques are accompanied by helpful, descriptive photos. Even the most seasoned vegetable gardener will learn new tricks. For example, I'm keen to build a "tomato table" to support my indeterminate tomatoes this year and can't wait to try the wax and lime treatment suggested for keeping squash vine borers at bay.

At $30.00 this sturdy hardback is well worth the money. Buy it to revolutionize your vegetable gardening this year!

(As a supplement to this book, gardeners seeking early American vegetable varieties should check out the seed offerings at Jefferson's Monticello Store.)

Best Books for Budding Beekeepers: Hive and the Honey-Bee

Jessie Keith — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:33:58 GMT

Beekeeping 351, taught by the ever-enthusiastic Dr. Fischang, was a magical college course. It opened up a world that I hope to enter one day; one where I have my own farmette along with enough land to allow for a few hives. (I keep my great-grandfather's old beehive smoker on hand in case I may need it one day.)

A key bit of information gleaned from the course, which covered both honeybee biology along with practical lessons for apiarists, addressed the best written works on beekeeping, most notably Langstroth's Hive and the Honey-Bee: A Bee Keeper's Manual. The seminal work was first published in 1853 and has gone through countless revisions. Anyone wishing to start their own apiary, however small, should begin with this technical but accessible tome.

The "Hive and the Honey-Bee" holds even greater meaning for bee book enthusiasts. It is also the name of a massive beekeeping library founded in 1925 at Cornell University by apiculture professor, Everett F. Phillip. Since 2002 library staff and collaborators worked to digitize most of the collection and in 2004 The Hive and the Honeybee site was launched. The site has a searchable database filled with digitized beekeeping books available to all! Those responsible for this impressive effort include the Mann Library at Cornell University staff along with collaborating staff from the University of Delaware, Mississippi State University, Mary Washington College, the Finger Lakes Beekeeping Association.

For the time being my urban dwelling keeps my beekeeping dreams on hold. (Visits to the small apiary at our community garden help tide me over.) But one day that may change. It's exciting to know the best books on beekeeping are readily available for the reading, just when I might need them.

Choosing Good Garden Seeds for Children

Jessie Keith — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:09:43 GMT

Pin It
Garden planning has become a family affair; as my daughters grow older, they want more say in what we grow. They tend to choose flowers and veggies that are fun, unique and pretty--the more colorful and strangely shaped the better. It's my job to make sure their choices are also easy-to-grow and non-toxic. (Plenty of garden plants are extremely toxic.) Overall, I strive to steer them towards seed for plants that are:

visually cool
easy-to-grow
fast-growing
rewarding with good harvests
extra tasty

Packet images used with permission from Renee's Garden Seeds.

So far, this year's pickings are good. We've chosen lots of seeds from Renee's Garden because they tend to have a colorful mixes as well as miniature plants--both kid-friendly traits. For flowers, we bought Raggedy Anne Mixed zinnias, 'Cappuccino' gloriosa daisies and 'Van Gogh' sunflowers. The large-flowered zinnias come in all colors and have quilled and twisted petals that should glow alongside the warm gloriosa daisies and green-centered sunflowers. (The sunflowers truly look like those in Van Gogh's famous painting, Sunflowers.) All are sure to look fine in a vase as well as the garden. As an added creative flourish, we've discussed creating a 'Van Gogh' sunflower house twining with old-fashioned 'Heavenly Blue' morning glories. (Sharon Lovejoy was the first to dream up this clever flower house idea.)

Our veggie choices are equally fun. Watermelon radishes were a clear winner. They are truly the geodes of radishes. Each mild, crispy, magenta-hued bite is magical for kids. 'Baby Persian' cucumbers will be fun to harvest, and the plants are more drought tolerant than standard, which is better for our climate. We picked chard Neon Glow Mix, which is even more electric than Bright Lights Mix, and the kids actually enjoy eating the young, tender leaves. We also can't go a season without growing yellow currant tomatoes. Melons are another yearly must, and I couldn't resist the baseball-sized melons borne on 'Serenade' despite the steep cost for the seed. (Last year's melon crop was the pits!) We also picked out plenty of cucurbits including the bumpy 'Knuckle Head' pumpkin, diminutive 'Wee-B-Little' pumpkin and Warts and Wings gourds for fall fun.

We've also gotten a few garden kits to make growing even cooler. Growum's Pizza Garden was on the kid's list as was their Taco Garden.

These are but a few of our favorite picks for this year. We'll post pictures when all our summer plants are big and pretty. Have fun making your own groovy kid's garden seed picks!

My oldest daughter at age two in her favorite patch of garden.

The Bulbs Say It's Too Warm

Jessie Keith — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:57:58 GMT

A late December trip to Kentucky showed Crocus and early Narcissus blooming two months earlier than expected. In mid-January, I observed a Wilmington, Delaware lawn awash with pretty pink Crocus tommasinianus, which usually appear in early March. My snowdrops, which normally bloom in late February or early March, have been blooming since mid-January and bulb foliage is popping up everywhere. And the bulbs aren't alone. Just last week a friend walking through a Maryland field found a chilly, confused toad slowly hopping along, our yard is filled with twittering robins, and bees are buzzing around searching for flowers to pollinate. WTF!?

Wayward blooming bulbs.

Two outcomes are possible in this scenario and neither are good. Either the weather's being tricksy and plans to descend with arctic blasts in February and March, thus killing everything biologically inept enough to break bud or hibernation (plants and insects alike), or it's just going to just stay warm and that's not good either.

Lots of plants need significant chill for specific periods of time to flower and produce fruit, particularly fruit producing trees and vines, which means yields could be impacted. Many weeds, pests and diseases will proliferate because fewer will be killed by the cold and longer warm periods mean time for more insect and weed life- cycles. A recent Cornell University article by Craig Cramer titled, Will Warm Weather Wither Plants?, gives an excellent overview of possible impacts on plants.

Biologists project that the warm winter weather will also mean more pesky rodents, ticks, ants, mosquitoes and other bothersome creatures. Oh goody! That means more money spent on products to keep these critters at bay. Expect the repellant, pesticide and pest control industries to thrive.

At this stage, I am hoping for a sharp decline in temperatures and heavy snow. The cold will help manage populations of unwanted creatures and maintain needed dormancy in lots of plants, and the snow will insulate ground-dwelling plants that have already begun to spring forth. Trees and shrubs that have broken bud would suffer, as would all the robins and wayward amphibians, but it's a small price to pay. Bring on the cold. Please!

Canning 101

Jessie Keith — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:05:22 GMT

When it comes to storing produce, canning is where it’s at. Well-canned produce lasts longest, tastes best, and makes excellent gifts. But home canning also strikes fear into the hearts of newbies because when it goes wrong it ruins food and invites deadly botulism—both nasty outcomes. No worries new canners! Good canning is easily done, with the right steps, and by following this easy guide you’ll be ripe with its rewards.

What one cans may make or break initial success and canning confidence. Canning truly crispy gherkins, for example, can be tricky while fully cooked fruit butters or jams are easy to get right. They allow new canners to work on basic technique while ensuring end products will be texturally correct.

Good equipment is crucial too. All the essentials must be laid out prepped, cleaned and ready to go before canning can commence. Sterile technique is at the heart of good canning. That means keeping everything hot and germ-free, especially food stuffs and jar interiors. This is laid out in just seven basic steps that will put you on the path towards preserving the harvest through canning.

Materials:

Canning Pot with Jar Rack

8 oz Quilted Crystal Jelly Jars

Canning Jar Lifter

Canning Lids and Screw Bands (new)

Labels and Permanent Marker

Ladle

Wide-mouthed Jar Funnel

Steps:

1. Wash your hands and workspace before starting.

2. Sterilize jars by filling a large pot with water to a depth that will cover them. Submerse as many jars as you can in the pot. Bring the water to a rolling boil and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the hot jars with clean tongs while gently pouring the hot water out before removal. Place the jars upside down on a clean towel and avoid touching their interiors. (Keep the water in the canning pot simmering.)

3. Using a clean ladle and wide mouthed funnel fill jars with hot prepared chutney, jam or butter. Fill to a level that allows around an inch of headspace from the base of the preserve to the top of the jar. Wipe messy jar rims with a clean damp cloth and gently tap the base of the jars to remove any internal bubbles.

4. Place lids and screwbands on the jars. Manufacturer’s instructions may vary so follow those on the box. Lids can be added one by one if you’re concerned about leaving open jars exposed for too long.

5. Place the jars on the jar rack and lower them into the canning pot of hot water, if you have no rack lower the jars in with a canning jar lifter being sure to keep jars from touching. Cover the canning pot and keep at a low boil for 10 minutes.

6. Remove the jars from the pot and place them on towels to cool. Once cool, dry outside thoroughly and apply labels. Include the name of the preserve and date made. Store in a cool dry place.

7. After jars have set for 12 to 24 hours, check for success. If the lids are tight, air free and cannot be pressed down, they’re fine. If they pop down, they are improperly sealed, but don’t throw them away. You can either put them in the refrigerator for immediate use or try to re-cap them using steps 4 through 6. As a general rule, canned food is best used in the first year.

Wilder Quarterly Volume I Corrections

Jessie Keith — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:11:59 GMT

I'm a really nice person, but I turn into a tough perfectionist when it comes to getting plant information right. If it's wrong or subpar, it drives me crazy. I take my plants seriously; I know my stuff; I've worked hard to know my stuff; I want to share good gardening information with the public.

So when the first issue of Wilder Quarterly came out laden with copious plant ID errors, in captions and text relating to my articles, I had a cow. (Teach plant identification on the college-level as I did for years, or manage a huge plant database as I do now, and you will understand the gross, pukey feeling the misinformation gave me.) I resigned from my position as WQ Horticultural Editor once my writing and preliminary edits were complete, but I offered to help with final edits to keep content clean. Sadly, I was excluded from making final edits or adding photo captions, but that can be remedied. In the spirit of definitude, I offer corrections to readers who value accuracy. (I know this may tick off a few young, pseudo-erudite, NYC garden publishing upstarts, but oh well. I need to wash my soiled hands and free my inner plant snob.)

I first noticed the incorrect captions in the Carrot and Dahlia Plant Profiles (pages 12 and 14). I said to myself, "WHAT?! Absolutely NONE of the identifying plant captions match the plants in the pictures!? Crap! What if people actually want to find and grow these plants?" Captions on four other pages are totally wrong too. I guess the editors hoped nobody in the know would notice. Pretty magazine pictures are nice, but they're pointless if they don't provide the right information. On point, here are the right captions for those with bad information:

Carrots (page 12): The plant names given are not those depicted in the photo. The correct carrots in the picture are of Kaleidoscope Mix, which contains the five cultivars 'Atomic Red', 'Bambino', 'Cosmic Purple', 'Lunar White' and 'Solar Yellow.'
Dahlias (page 14): The plant names given are not those depicted in the photo. The correct Dahlias are (clockwise from the left): 'Jason Matthew', too miserable to ID, 'Miss Delilah', a past-peak 'Hakuyou', 'Pooh'

How to Grow: Cauliflower (page 26): Once again, the plant names given are not those plants depicted in the photo. The picture shows the orange 'Cheddar' and what is most certainly 'Snow Crown', or the like. (White cauliflowers all look the same, but the caption manages to name no white-headed forms.)
Keep Houseplants Healthy with a Thorough Cleaning (page 32): This bylineless article of mine shows two plants being cleaned. These plants are a variegated Philodendron and Boston fern rather than a false aralia, rubber tree or Dracaena as the inaccurate photo caption suggests.
Seasonal Pest: Nip Loopers in the Bud (page 19): This awesome article by Longwood IMP master and APGA director Casey Sclar lacks a much-needed byline, but it also strangely identifies the cabbages in the pictures as red monkey flowers (Mimulus coccineus).
Plant Life: Q&A with Russell Stafford of Odyssey Bulbs (page 51): The picture of Russell Stafford is captioned as being six named bulbs instead of a human.
Bulb Planting (page 157): Bad captions aren't the problem here. Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis) and grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) are each inexplicably given the Latin name, Fritillaria meleagris, which is not what was written in the original text I submitted.

I hope those at Wilder Quarterly do a better job with the next issue. Securing a new horticultural editor (and giving that person due respect, pay and recognition) would certainly help. A few really stellar plant photographers might make their garden publishing efforts a bit easier too. They could also stand to take tips on botanical Latin formatting from my blog, Botanical Latin, the Language of Gardeners.

(If I come across as a big plant snob, I mean to. Spread the word.)

Five Best Tools for Easy Weeding and Hand Cultivation

Jessie Keith — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:42:19 GMT

Over the years I have used any number of different gardening tools for hand weeding, planting and general cultivation. A few have stood out and become fast favorites. The three key characteristics I look for in a good gardening hand tool are: 1. ease of use, 2. working power and 3. durability. These criteria are met by the following tools:

Fine-bladed hand trowels are excellent all-purpose tools for weeding and planting. They quickly cut at deep or shallow roots in no time and withstand lots of wear and tear if made well. The "rockery hand trowel" at Clarington Forge is just such a fine-bladed tool and it's beautifully crafted for the long haul.

The fine blade of this rock garden trowel makes for easy weeding and planting--especially in heavier or pebbly soils.

For super fast hand weeding nothing beats the classic Korean Ho-Mi (hoe-mee), also called the Korean hand plow or cultivator. This sharp, downward facing tool can get to the base of a dandelion root in seconds with just a chop, chop, chop. Nothing is more effective. For smaller weeds, I use the side of the Ho-Mi to scratch and smooth the soil. It’s an excellent tool for lightly aerating the base of a plant or getting to the root of a tough herbaceous weed as well as planting new plugs. If well cared for, a ho-mi will last forever (if cleaned after use and oiled to prevent rust). It's relatively cheap too.

Long handled versions are also very useful. Just be careful when chopping away with this sharp tool. Its tip can be nasty.

The sharp blade of the ho-mi can chop deep into the soil quickly and makes weeding easy.

A child-friendly weeder that's easy for the little ones to wield is the Dutch hoe from Clarington Forge. It's not sharp, scrapes up surface weeds with little effort and keeps the kids helping out in the garden.

This kid-sized Dutch hoe allows kids to get into the weeding act too.

I could not get by in the garden without my trusty garden knife (also called a soil knife). It can reach and cut deep roots. You can saw through the bases of tough plants or even use it for harvesting greens and kohl crops. One side of the knife is sharp for slicing and the other is serrated for sawing. Both can easily break through skin so its best held in a leather belt holder.

The soil knife is a versatile hand tool that you will never want to be without once you try it.

For large woody weeds nothing is more effective than the amazing, sapling pulling Weed Wrench. In a matter of minutes, an area riddled with small weed trees can be cleaned beautifully roots and all. It works like no other tool I've tried. Just clench the base of the sapling or small tree and pull. Ignore the fact that it’s a bit pricey. It will pay for itself quickly in time and effort saved wrangling with hard-to-pull woody weeds. There are several sizes available to fit the needs of any gardener.

The weed wrench doesn't look like much but it's a powerful weeding tool!

Pecan Bust 2011 (Plant Pecans Folks!)

Jessie Keith — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:54:40 GMT

Chinese markets are buying up pecans, and the 2011 crop was crap. These tidbits remained outside my radar until I went to buy pecans for holiday baking. A small bag for $6.00 was too high, so I didn't pay up. When I decided to bite the bullet a few days later, the price was higher and none were left. Supply and demand in action. What to do? I say plant pecans.

Established pecans are trouble-free trees. A mature specimen will produce loads in a good year. For this reason, pecans were cheap nuts where I grew up in southern Indiana. My grandparents could buy enormous bags of unshelled, fresh pecans for just a couple dollars. (Granted, you'd get the occasional withered, bitter reject, but overall they were fine.)

Technically speaking, the pecan (Carya illinoinensis) is a large, deciduous, hardwood tree native to the southeastern half of the United States. Wild stands grow in uplands and flats where soil drainage is good. (So as long as you don't have soggy, clay-rich soils you can grow them.) They have tall straight trunks and broad, oval canopies with compound green leaves that turn yellow shades in fall. Trees take up to 20 years before they produce nuts, though some cultivars produce much earlier. The husked nuts ripen in early to mid-fall. Nut production is inconsistent from year to year, typically in one to three year intervals with boom crops followed by one to two weak crops. More than one tree is needed for cross-pollination.

'Apalachee' is one of many new pecan cultivars released by the USDA-ARS. (Picture c/o the USDA-ARS)

The USDA ARS has a very successful pecan breeding program. In it they list over 100 variants developed , each with different nut and production qualities. The list is worth perusing, but here are some of the best trees for home growers:

'Deerstand' -A very hardy selection that produces medium-sized nuts in mid-fall.

'Snaps' -The hardy trees produce small nuts early in the season, even as young trees.

'Desirable' -High vigor and good nut production make this a great selection for home growers.

'Cheyenne' -Young trees yield pecans and yields remain consistently high from year to year.

'Mohawk' -Nuts are thin-shelled, prolific and trees begin producing when young.

Lots of specialty nurseries sell pecan trees. Those that sell large trees being the best. Some quality specialty sources are:

Woodard Pecan Nursery

Williams Pecans

Bob Wells Nursery

Womack Nursery

Texas Pecan Nursery, Inc

Be sure to secure trees early if you want best picks. Mid-spring is the ideal time to plant pecans. Some nurseries will hold trees until spring planting season. I'm considering buying two in hopes of relieving future pecan woes.

Marian's Ghoulish Christmas Pumpkins

Jessie Keith — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:07:41 GMT

This post is in honor of my sister, Marian Keith. For the past few years she's decorated her rotten Halloween pumpkins for Christmas. The result is ghoulish and hysterical. I commend her for her resourcefulness and creativity! (They'd make great Christmas card covers, eh?)

Marian's jolly Christmas pumpkins 2010

Marian's even jollier Christmas pumpkins 2011

Winter Pine Cone Crafting

Jessie Keith — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:14:35 GMT

Behold our goofy pine cone animals! The antlers are contorted filbert twigs and the hat an Echinacea seeadhead.

My doctor's office is surrounded by white pines (Pinus sylvestris) that produce loads of the prettiest, largest white pine cones I've ever seen. They used to waste away on the ground until the scavenger in me kicked in a couple of years ago, and I asked if I could collected some. Since then, we've made pine cone crafting a yearly tradition.

Wreaths are expensive but with a basic $4.00 grapevine wreath base from Michael's, our pine cones, some florist's wire and a few baubles, we constructed a very pretty pine cone wreath for very little money. I think the final tab was $7.00. I sprayed it with a little balsam room spray from Williams-Sonoma as a final wintery flourish.

Glitter pine cone ornaments remind me of childhood. Isn't that a craft that every kid creates sometime from preschool to third grade? This year we were inspired by mini pompons and google eyes in addition to iridescent glitter. The ornaments don't look complete without little ribbons. We like to hang ours upside down as one would see them in nature.

Pine cone animals are cute and fun to make. Twigs make great legs and antlers for mini deer and bits of bark serve as perfect little ears. We also used a few of our flower seedheads from the garden as heads and ears. Parts requiring fast, secure fixation, like legs, were hot glued on by me. (For safety's sake, I keep the glue gun far away from the children.)

All these things make fun (and cheap) gifts. They also create pleasing memories for the kids. And any cones we don't use for crafts get stuck here and there indoors or out as decoration. No waste.

Our wreath has a little golden bird my daughter picked out.

The final wreath had tinsel embellishments alla Franzie.

The rest of the cones served as rustic trees in our mantle winter village.