Mud season is capricious; spring-like one week, back to winter the next.

Oh cold climate wise one, Have you seen the forecast for Friday?! Snow and lows in the high teens. What does this mean for all the little perennials I’ve pulled leaf mulch off of? Should it go back on? I’m really looking forward to actual gardening this weekend, but Friday is a bummer!

As I mentioned last year, if you live in a cold climate, you really don’t want to uncover every plant on the first mild day, because, as you’ve discovered, there are sure to be more wintry days before spring is truly here. (Ahem. Do you remember that hard freeze we had in late May last year?)

Clean Up the Pretty Views

The fact is, most plants can grow through whatever mulch or dead plant growth that happens to be laying around. There are two primary reasons for spring clean-up: aesthetics and rodent control. Using this criteria, the first places I clean up are the locations where I know the earliest spring bulbs are coming up. The window of opportunity (WOO) for this is pretty narrow, because before you know it, they are too far along to pull a rake over them. For the same reason, I tidy up the areas I can see from inside the house, so even on cold, blustery days the view outside looks good.

Clean Up the Rodent Hideouts

Here's one example of the vole mischief I find all over my garden in spring.

Search Out and Destroy the Weeds

Of course, the same mulch that protects your garden plants also shelters the weeds. In early spring, I sometimes remove the mulch (or last year’s garden remains), pull the weeds, and put the mulch back. That’s assuming that the soil has thawed enough to remove them, as it already has this year. I avoid stepping on the soil as it is still quite sodden and stepping on it will compact it.

Try Not to Fret

Most established plants in your garden should be fine, covered or not, unless you have a severe case of zone denial, or we get some really out-of-season weather, like that freeze last May. If you have anything that you planted just last fall, or that you especially prize–I’d leave that covered for at least another month, perhaps to the first week of May. For me, that’s four to five weeks before the last frost. Ideally, you’d take it off in stages, but it’s really a judgment call, balancing the time you have, the expected weather in the near future, how far along the plant is and your gardener’s instinct.

Kerry Mendez (see above) emailed me briefly about the Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium that she has organized for the sixth year in a row. Since it is focused on gardening with cold hardy plants, I thought it was worth passing on to my readers.

Besides Kerry herself, Paul Tukey, Tara Dillard, and Dr. Mark Starrett will be speaking over the course of two days (which includes the pre-symposium workshop). The workshop and symposium will be held April 24-25, 2009 at the Mirror Lake Inn and Resort at Lake Placid, NY. Topics range from new perennial introductions to organic lawn care and award-winning cold hardy woody plants.

Registrations are still being accepted, but the symposium has sold out the last two years, so don’t wait until the last minute to finalize your plans to attend.

This is a lettuce seedling, not a tomato seedling. But at least it's a seedling. Photo 2007 by Talitha Purdy

I live in area between Syracuse and Ithaca… near Cortland. I have tomato seeds–many different varieties. When should I start the seedlings to grow in peat pots inside the house? Is it too early? While I am at it…what else should I be starting? Thanks a bunch.

My name’s Talitha, and I’ve been growing vegetables for our family for the past several years, so my mom asked me to answer your questions.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a very quick answer for your question, because it depends on so many different things. I know where Cortland is, generally speaking, but even knowing your general location really isn’t enough, because micro-climates can differ so much. For example—I normally get one last frost in the last week of May or the first week of June–but people just 1 1/2 miles away don’t get cold enough for this last frost! This is because we live in a deep valley, and the hills on either side of us really funnel the cold air right at us. People at the end of the of the street are out of the valley, and they don’t have such extreme cold.

The Standard Advice

So the standard advice is to start your tomatoes inside about 6 weeks before your last frost date. For me, that would be starting them around the last week of April. You will have to count back from whenever you think you get your last frost.

Because tomatoes dislike cold so much, it has been recommended not to plant them outside until 2-4 weeks after your last frost. If I did that, I wouldn’t be planting them out until the middle of June or the beginning of July!!

Pros and Cons of Wall o’ Waters

Wall o’ Waters work quite well for mitigating situations like this, and you may find it is a good solution for you. For me, my garden is on a hill, and Wall o’ Waters need level ground to keep from collapsing. Because my last frost date comes so late and my growing season is so short, I start my tomatoes around the first of April, and pot them on many times. By the time I plant them out, they’re in gallon sized containers and have thick stems and are quite bushy. I could, I suppose, plant them out and cover them for that last sneaky frost (there are often weeks before that last one where it doesn’t frost at all), but since tomatoes don’t like cold and I don’t like worrying about losing all my tomatoes, it doesn’t seem as good an option to me.

It really depends

So with tomatoes it really depends on your last frost date, your micro-climate, how many times you would like to pot them on, and how much season-extending you would like to do. On the year I used Wall o’ Waters (with much effort, as I had to level every single spot), I planted my tomato plants into the ground in the middle of April!!! The Wall o’ Waters were quite effective at keeping them alive, but I can’t say I really noticed a significantly earlier yield for all my trouble.

Using Wall o’ Waters

My guess is that your last frost date is typically in the middle of May. If you had level ground and the inclination to use them, I’d plant your tomatoes outside, with Wall ‘o Waters, at the beginning of May. I’d take the Wall o’ Waters off about 2 weeks after your last frost date (I’m guessing around the end of May), after the nights have moderated and don’t get so chilly. That would mean starting your tomatoes inside around the end of March.

Using Peat Pots

However, I also notice that you were planning on starting your tomatoes in peat pots. Peat pots are meant to allow the roots to grow through the pot; they are not meant for potting on. If you want to grow your tomatoes in peat pots instead of potting them on to bigger pots, I don’t think I would start the tomatoes any more than 3-4 weeks before the last frost date. Otherwise, your tomatoes will get too big for your pots.

Start these seeds first

As for your other seeds, the first ones to start would be broccoli, leeks and cabbage. Leeks can be started the very first of all, as you want them to be strong seedlings by the time you plant them out—so you can start them two months or more before your last frost date, maybe around early March (or even earlier). Broccoli and cabbage can be started 8-9 weeks before your last frost date. Those are cold weather crops, so if they have been properly hardened off, they can be planted out before the last frost.

Cold Weather Greens

The next batch of seedlings to be started are the cold weather greens, like lettuce, spinach and chard. These can also take light frost if properly hardened off, but they grow faster than broccoli and cabbage, so they can be started about four weeks before last frost date. These can also be sown straight into the ground as soon as it can be worked, but that doesn’t work as well for me. First of all, I have a better and more reliable germination rate starting inside, and can use a lot less seed. Second of all, although my ground might be technically unfrozen, it is still very, very sodden, and seeds that are kept too wet for too long rot instead of sprout. So I start my greens inside instead of out. Peas, however, I have always planted in the ground as soon as I possibly can, but I try to make sure they are in a well-drained or elevated area, especially if we are having a very rainy spring.

Heat loving vegetables

Squash and cucumbers need only be started a few weeks before last frost date, or if you please, straight into the ground after any chance of frost. Although they appreciate a long growing season, they grow so fast it is unfeasible to start them very much ahead of time.

I hope that helps. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask!

Not too long ago, a reader emailed me and asked,

I bought some hostas and dwarf bleeding hearts to plant. Shortly thereafter I hurt my knee and I can’t go out there and plant them. They are all planted in one gallon plastic pots. How can I safely winter them? If I put them in my garage they will still freeze.

You may have plants in containers that should have been planted, but weren't. How do you winter them over?

It is the roots you are worried about freezing. The rule of thumb is that roots in a pot will effectively be in a situation two zones colder than plants in the ground. So if the plant tag says zone 5 and you are in zone 7 they should be fine.

But I’m guessing you live in a colder place. Definitely keep them outside until the tops die down. You want them to go dormant. After that, you want to put them in a situation where they will stay dormant but not get colder than two zones warmer than the hardiness zone on the tag. That will be different depending on what is available at your place. The garage might be okay, if it gets cold, but not as cold as outside. You could put them up against the house, and surround them with bags of leaves for insulation.

The other thing to consider is the greater the volume of soil in the container, the more insulation the roots will have. A one gallon container is not that big, and won’t have much insulating soil mix for the roots, so you might err on the side of caution and make that three zones warmer than the tag.

I have a drafty, dirt floor cellar that barely stays above freezing. I have put dormant plants in the coldest corner of the cellar and pulled them through the winter. They did start growing sooner than they should have, and made some pale spindly growth, but I very carefully hardened them off and planted them after all danger of frost. It was a pain in the neck but better than losing them.

Wyn recently commented elsewhere:

I live in zone 2 and am looking for a shade plant that is non-poisonous to pets for the north side of my fence. When I entered that info in google it sent me to this site. Lovely pictures and great info, unfortunately not really my zone. LOL.

Judging by my commenter’s email address, I’d say this gardener lived in Saskatchewan, and it’s not clear whether that’s Zone 2 on the Canadian map or the US one. Either way, it’s definitely colder than my neck of the woods. I told Wyn that even though I was in the balmy climate of USDA zone 4/5, many of my readers were in colder climates.

I also suggested visiting Northscaping, which has a lot of good plant info and an active discussion forum, and Blotanical, which has a map-based garden blog directory, where Wyn can find bloggers dealing with similar conditions.

But I hope you really cold climate gardeners will make suggestions in the comments. Probably some of the plants growing in my shady border are tough enough to take it, and I don’t even know it.

Mary emailed me and asked:

I understand that using seaweed in your garden helps the build the soil. How much seaweed do you use? And does the bromine in the seaweed help get rid of the bugs in turnip?

Now, the seashore is probably a four hour trip from here and I know nothing about seaweed. If any of you readers can answer this question, please do so in the comments. Mary and I would both appreciate it.

A reader asks:

I am considering relocating to a colder clime (UP of Michigan) and I have never gardened further north than Wichita, KS so am wondering if I can have a koi pond if I run the heater (I do this now to keep a spot open in in the ice) and what plants do well.. I love iris, daylilies, peonies, shrub roses, daffodils, japanese maple, bee balm, phlox, clematis, hosta, etc. all of which I have now. not finding much information with my first quick search. Anyone have any comments or help for me with a web site reference? Thanks in advance for your time.

I know there are gardeners from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula reading this blog, and others from similar climates. Please respond to Amy in the comments.

A reader wrote last night

I would very much like to purchase Jewell Weed Seed. I live on 47 beautiful acres, that is infected with poison ivy. I am VERY allergic to poison ivy. Can you help me?

I don’t know of a source for jewel weed seed. If anyone does, please comment. But I think there are better remedies for a poison ivy rash. Please share your best remedies.

There is a lot of information out there on poison ivy. I hope a search on the internet will turn up better solutions.

Readers, I’d like your help in answering this email:

I live at 8800 ft. in the Rocky Mountains ( yes, we have had snow recently also) and want to garden. I did not get 1 tomato last summer because nights are cold.–although my flowers and herb pots did well. This year I have cut out 2 areas to do about a 300sqr.ft. garden.

Where can I get a comprehensive list of vegetables that thrive in the colder climate? At least then all I’d have to worry about is beating off the elk!

I certainly have not gardened at such a high altitude and I wonder if tomatoes and other hot weather crops are even possible at such a height without some sort of “helper” structure: wall o waters, cold frame, etc.

If you have experience to offer please do so in the comments. Also if you know of websites, books, and/or mail-order merchants that provide the information this gardener needs, let us all know.

And, of course, if you know a thing or two about dealing with elk, share that as well. Thanks in advance.

This is the ninth part in a series about the early days of garden blogging, written to commemorate my four years as a garden blogger. For those just joining us, the the names of the respondents to my email questions, and links to their respective blogs, can be found at the end of this entry. Links to previous posts in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8.

10. What’s next for gardeners interested in internet communication? Today, blogging. Tomorrow?

• [JZ:] “Wow. I wish I could see ahead. I’ve watched the careers of the creators of Blogger, Moveable Type, and LiveJournal all become incredibly successful from the fruits of their labor. If I knew what was coming, I’d be busy planting the seeds for the next big thing!”
• [PO:] “Let’s see. Judging from comments received on gardening/nature blogs, our readers are passive, solitary, thoughtful, introspective types. They prefer to read and watch rather than to interact. So then, I think a personally revealing, highly interactive site like Myspace for gardeners (Myplot, perhaps) would be a bust. Gardeners are more akin to anglers or the blue ribbon winners at county fairs — they like to brag about the big ones, the best ones, and to tout their successes. I think a garden blog devoted to reader submitted pictures (my biggest tomato) and “things that worked for me” along with a dollop of interesting new tools, gadgets, plant introductions al la boing-boing would be a hit.”
• [TG:] “I’d really like to see an all-inclusive site that offers gardeners everything they need to blog, post pictures, participate in forums, create a database of your own plants, find disease and pest info, design beds and plots, etc. all in one place. Davesgarden.com tries, but the journalling part of the site is really clunky.”
• [IL:] “Maybe audio sharing . . . little garden shows springing up. That’s a hard question, Kathy. Maybe we will be instrumental in cultivating some of the plant businesses that gave way to the big centers likes Lowes and Walmart. I really miss being able to find seed like ‘Reseda odorata’ in my local garden stores. Or heliotrope plants that are in flats for a decent price as in days of … my early gardening (it only seems like the Medieval times). Maybe gardeners online can make it more economically feasible and easier for small growers to plan.”
• [EBD:] “. . . dunno. Podcasting doesn’t appeal to me so even if I had the time, I wouldn’t be doing a Gardenspot podcast and I probably wouldn’t be listening to anyone else’s gardening podcast.”
• [MSS:] “Vlogging. Video blogs seem like a natural for those of us who like to watch the progression of the seasons via time lapse photography. And garden how-to’s via video blogs would be great!

  The lines between self-publishing and mainstream media are becoming blurred. Syndications services, such as Blogburst, are publishing blog content in more mainstream media. And more online newspapers are encouraging their readers to write blogs. If paid publishers can access content for free, what will happen to garden writers who write for a living…or those of us who would like to go back to writing for a living?”

• [DW:] “As I mentioned earlier, I have already taken the next step with A Gardener’s Notebook. With my audio podcasts and video tours and demonstrations, I have taken my gardening interests off the written page and into the world of ‘media.’

  I often describe podcasting as ‘whispering in someone’s ear’ and the thought of another gardener listening to me, as they go about their own garden work, thrills me to no end. While it is often a one-way communication, it allows me to feel that I have had visitors in my garden, even though they might never be able to visit themselves.

  Photo sharing and video sharing are already adding a new element garden blogging today and it is only a matter of time before people start offering real-time video garden tours to those who live too far away to make the next Open Garden Day.”

Podcasts? Vlogs? If these words sound like Greek (or Martian) to you, come back tomorrow, when M. Sinclair Stevens and Doug Welch discuss these new ways of getting the message out in more detail.

Lost, But Not Forgotten

The following garden bloggers met the criterion of starting more than four years ago, but could not be contacted for their insights.

• Frank and Lisa Richards, first publishing Notes from Zone Four, and later of Mack Hill Farm (no working link and no pages available on the Wayback Machine.)
• Jennifer and Johnny of 13 Labs Garden
• Kurt Indermaur of Viviculture

Other Gardening Internet Pioneers

I would like to recognize the following websites, which, while not exactly blogs, have had a gardening presence on the web for more than four years:

• Moosey’s Country Garden
• The Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl
• You Grow, Girl!
• Renegade Gardener
• Soul of the Garden
• GardenWeb
• Garden Bits

Other nominations for Gardening Internet Pioneer will be accepted in the comments. Nominee must have had a gardening website before August 27, 2002 to qualify.

This concludes my nine-part series on Garden Blog Pioneers. Thank you all for visiting and adding your insights in the comments. And I’d like to thank all the pioneers who took the time to respond by email, and often had to reply to my further emails asking for clarification. Many of these bloggers have said in their own blogs that they were honored to be included. Each one of them earned it. They weren’t trying to be trailblazers; they had a need to communicate, whether to themselves or to the world, and they had the passion to learn what they needed to know to accomplish their goals. Pioneers, we salute you!

The Pioneers

• Tamara Galbraith [TG], formerly of Talking Dirty, now publishing Can You Dig It?
• M. Sinclair Stevens [MSS], longtime publisher of Zanthan Gardens.
• Paul Owoc [PO], observant chronicler of a greenZoo.
• Pam Shorey [PS], originally blogging at Outside in the Garden, and now at Rivermantic.
• Erica Bess Duncan [EBD], writing at GardenSpot.
• Ilona [IL] of Ilona’s Garden Journal.
• Doug Welch [DW], keeping A Gardener’s Notebook.
• Jennifer Zynischer [JZ], aka the Garden Djinn.
• Kathy Purdy [KP], that’s me, the principal contributor to this blog you’re reading.