Grow your own again looks big

Last year the nation’s largest seed company, W. Atlee Burpee & Co., reported sales of vegetable seeds up 37 percent. Half of that increase was in sales attributed to new customers (Washington Post, Sep 4, 2008).

This month the big Maine vegetable seed company, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, reports the strongest growth year in their history, 30 to 50 percent. They say their discussions with other seed companies reveal they are up just as much (New England Cable News, February 16, 2009).

The rise in seed sales and it is assumed planting of home and small scale vegetable gardens is variously attributed to desires to:

economize in bad economic times

cope with the high cost of food

produce something to eat from a home that is difficult to sell

deal with food safety worries

seek control in the face of a prolonged recession and job layoffs

engage in horticultural therapy during worrisome times

get back to basics

plant community roots gardening with others as people travel less

use the increased time spent at home in food gardening

reduce their carbon footprint by growing food locally

What can be recommended to these many new gardeners? Front Range Colorado is certainly not their mother’s or grandmother’s gardening circumstances on the East Coast or in the Midwest. In those humid climates growing conditions are more predictable.

Our Front Range area features a short spring for growing cool season vegetables, hot summers with cool nights problematic for heat loving vegetables, and a short growing season. Actual frosts may be a month earlier or later than the average last spring frost and first fall frost. Intense sunlight and dry air both tax plants. Then there are the predominant heavy clay soils discussed in the last post.

Don’t assume that advice given for growing in other climate areas is going to work here. Know the Front Range soil and climatic challenges you are up against. Prepare the soil with amendments, observe narrow planting times and use climate modification measures for a big payoff. Future posts will discuss many of these techniques for success.

[Seed packet photo credit Carl Wilson]