"Someone should not be able to walk into a restaurant and order a plate of an endangered species."

-- U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.

Plate Tectonics

Toward four-season, in-town gardening

-- Karla Cook 02-28-2010

Toward four-season, in-town gardening

The experimental 4-by-8 pup tent cold frame has survived two winter storms, one with gusty winds. The next step is to plant cold-loving crops beneath its shelter. In "The Winter Harvest Handbook" (Chelsea Green, $30), Eliot Coleman lists lettuce, endive, arugula, spinach, chard, mizuna, mibuna, tatsoi, beet leaves, carrots, leeks, mache, radishes, onions, scallions, watercress, beets, new potatoes and turnips.

I want more land. But less involved than a physical move - uprooting family, changing schools - is using the eight raised beds and associated space more effectively. Hard choices: Fennel is beautiful but I use it sporadically - is it in, or out? Ruthlessness is required, especially in small-space gardening, but the sight of a volunteer tomato seedling, and knowing that it has survived the winter to fulfill its destiny - can I rip it out?

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Seeding the growing season

-- Karla Cook 02-21-2010

Seeding the growing season

As a monument to optimism, hope and change of seasons, we have installed a grow-light in the kitchen window. That meant seed-starting, and so I did: two pots of mesclun and one of radishes, plus an experiment that worked in the past (and has worked again) - sticking a basil plant with rootball still attached into a spare pot filled with garden dirt.

The radishes are looking a little leggy and the lettuce needs thinning, but other than that, success.

My grow-light is fancy, but there's no need. A no-frills fluorescent fixture propped up on upended flower pots or bricks (or cookbooks) works fine. Keys to seed-starting are strong light, cozy temperatures and even moisture. Old milk cartons, washed and dried, with a side cut out, have worked as seed-starting flats, and a bit of dirt scraped up from the back yard will work almost as well as seed-starting medium (bought at any big-box store).

As for seeds, there are abundant sources, but these are my current favorites: Fedco Seeds, Kitazawa Seed Company, Edible Landscaping, Seed Savers Exchange, The Cook's Garden, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Renee's Garden Seeds.

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