Cold Climate Gardening

I visited Bachman’s once–the store was bigger than my hometown!
When I worked at a nursery in Grand Forks ND, we kept an extensive library of all the handouts from the Minnesota and ND Extension services and the U of M. They were always a resource to us and we gave them to our customers. I still use the information from them though back at home things aren’t so severe–I can grow several varieties of pears and sweet cherries here for example, as opposed to just hoping for ones to be developed for Grand Forks! Many of those handouts are online now. Those folks know from cold–most of ND is Z3.

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When I read This Green World for the first time I kept running outside to check things, and inside to call my Mother to exclaim over what I had just read. That sense of wonder is exactly what I love about this book–and the amazing facts. Then I lent the book to Mom and whenever I would stop in there would be a leaf and a magnifying glass on the counter, or a flower in a cup of water. . .
Sometimes you can find the book at ABE Books–where I got a copy to give to my brother. Right now I am reading Winter Botany by William Trelease and Nature in Winter by Donald …

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I think I have not bought things from Richter’s yet. I may still, but I am trying to play it by ear. I have figured out that I need at least another 400 square feet of garden space in order to plant the seeds I already ordered, not including 2 varieties of corn that I can’t imagine that I will be able find room for. I have a formal garden planned out for the 400 square feet, but I need it dug by April15th or earlier, and since I am never, ever, ever going to give birth, I don’t see how I can do all that digging with an 18 pound baby in my uterus.

I took …

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I am growing cardoon this year - I grew artichokes last year, but it is my understanding that cardoons get much larger, and the flowers or thistles are beautiful. In order to eat them, you have to blanch them. It is traditional in the piedmont region of Italy to eat them dipped in a hot bath (bagna cauda) of butter and anchovies, with a shaving of white truffle. Or, you can fry cardoons in batter.

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Correction to the rosemary hints. They can freeze–just not way deep like you’d get outside. I think something like 10F is the limit, maybe 15? Does your porch get colder than that? (Prescott AZ where I saw the planters full certainly sees that cold in the winter. They have some snow now.) And keep the plants on the dry side.
As to germination requirements, the wonderful pages from Tom Clothier and Norman Deno’s books are huge, HUGE resources and I wouldn’t be without them. I am always finding some lovely thing I want that won’t germinate easily and they are my two best places to look.
Garden chores for today: snowshoe …

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Kathy, if you want to keep rosemary happy in the winter, keep it cold & bright (as if it were having a milder winter than you are!)–I either keep it on a barely heated sunporch so it doesn’t go below freezing or above 50, or against the coldest window in a cold room. They seem to need about 6-8 weeks of this type of cold, and probably short days/long nights to initiate flower buds, so natural lighting is best. Last winter’s cuttings, now in 4″ pots, are all blooming as well so I think it is conditions more than age that favor bloom. Interestingly, different varieties are more precocious than others–I have an upright one that didn’t …

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Have to put in my 2 cents since you are talking about seeds. All of my seeds are received and sorted by start date. I got a huge chunk of mine from Johnny’s, because they come from a northern climate, and they actual give you meaningful cultural information on the back of the seed packet. My second biggest order was from Pinetree seeds, again, the northern climate, interesting selections, and, cheap! (less amount of seeds per packet) Stokes Seeds was my next biggest order, mostly flowers, cheap, cold climate, good info. Select Seeds, next, then a few things from Nichols garden nursery, Park’s, and Thompson Morgan.

Seeds of Change sucked me in last year with their …

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