Sunday - Noon to 6pm

Monday - Noon to 6pm

 Tuesday - Closed

Wednesday - Closed

Thursday - Noon to 6pm

Friday - Noon to 6pm

Saturday - Noon to 6pm

Please be understanding.

There is an incredible surge in people planting gardens this year. Some major seed companies, who have been paralyzed by small seed orders, have now totally suspended sales to all but established commercial accounts so they can get seeds to farmers and professional growers. Don't worry, we have hundreds of thousands of seeds of the best vegetable varieties in the world and they will be available for sale before you need them.

For example, we have over 50,000 pelleted carrot seeds, and these are the best varieties for home gardeners here. We normally sell about 5,000 of these seeds. Anybody who has planted regular carrot seeds vs pelleted seeds knows the difference is like night and day. By keeping in touch with seed companies we have been buying from for decades, we have been able to get whatever we need, and then some. A great thing about small companies is how they appreciate loyal customers. I have been very busy on the phone, and online, to make sure the needs of our customers will be met.

Forty years ago, I ran a test garden for the Cleveland Community Gardens program -- testing vegetable varieties. I have been testing plant varieties every summer for my whole adult life. I have grown close to 1,000 tomato varieties -- starting before Brandywine was considered an "heirloom" variety. I am one of those "eccentric" gardeners who obsesses about seeds and varieties -- because I know the genetics (and freshness) of seeds is critically important to a really successful garden.

Most green bean varieties produce over a 2-3 week span. Last year we harvested a new non-hybrid Dutch variety every week until frost and it was the best eating bean I ever tasted. More about them in a later email.

A particular great tasting heirloom tomato variety may produce 10-12 tomatoes per plant -- but if you cross that variety with another, more vigorous heirloom, the offspring of the two heirlooms may produce 60-80 tomatoes with the same flavor. Genetics makes a big difference in garden success -- and we grow and sell only the best varieties. This is why we don't have a seed rack.

We want only the best varieties and freshest seeds for our plantings and our customers.

We have also ramped up our production of seedlings dramatically. Barb is so meticulous at seeding, people think our seedlings are machine sown. Every seedling here is nurtured until it is ready to plant. Germination is excellent and they are off to a great start in our seedstarting mix, building relationships with many soil microbes from our compost pile. This minimizes transplant shock and gets plants off to a faster start.

We can handle everything but the questions. We know people are going to have a lot of questions this year and we are doing our best to help. We are a tiny business, and we offer more good gardening advice than all of the other garden centers in the area combined -- but we have to do it in a way that doesn't paralyze our business. We are trying to help but we also have to communicate to a large audience of our customers.

There is no better gardening aid than timely emails telling people what to do and when to do it. Please, take advantage of this. Many of the questions we get have already been answered in our emails. We actually have email replies asking questions that I answered in the same email.

I am approaching 120 hours of work a week now. There is no more time to extend my day to get work done. I want to help people have successful gardens. I have been conducting seminars and teaching people about organic gardening my whole life. But when I take time to personally answer hundreds of questions a day (most of which are covered in our emails and website) during our busy period, I cannot be helping all of our customers who read our emails carefully -- and we cannot be getting ready for the main planting season that is almost here.

Help us out by reading these emails.

Please do a little homework first and then ask

Help us help you by reading our emails and checking out our website. where there are growing tips for different veggies. Our old emails are all posted on our Facebook page .

Like many businesses today that are shorthanded, we have to figure out a way to help as many people as possible with the limited resources we have. Our emails will let you know what we have ready for planting -- as soon as we have it ready.

Patience -- Patience -- Patience

We will let you know what to do and when to do it via these emails.

If you want to get started, prepare your soil now -- set up plant supports -- and plant cover crops like peas and onion sets now. This weekend we should have some cole crops like broccoli, baby broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and maybe a few lettuce plants.

Our emails will continue to let you know what we have to plant -- as soon as it is ready for planting -- and when is the best time for planting different crops.

Plan Before You Plant. Don't fill up your garden with cabbage now, and not have room for even more productive Summer crops in a few weeks. Or plant quick, cool weather crops like peas early, and replant in summer after they finish. Think about days to harvest for crops and how you can follow them up.

I always talk about using fresh seeds. Here is an example you wouldn't see unless you did a side by side comparison. We tried some parsley seeds from last year. Germination was very low, but also look at the difference in vigor between seeds from last year and fresh seeds. The old seeds (on the left) were actually started a week earlier, waiting for the new seeds to arrive.

Note: Seeds from seed racks are the oldest seeds in a seed companies inventory, and usually less productive varieties.

Many people are getting itchy to plant their gardens. We are busy getting things ready for our crops too. We are cleaning up, planting, and putting up structures. We have a lot of clover and peas taking off -- including snow peas for soil building, and snap peas. We will have peas shoots and snap peas for eating in a few weeks, and use the vines for mulching the summer crops.

There is no better mulch than clover and pea residue and we are trying to grow all of our own mulch this year. This reduces our summer water and weeding requirements. They feed the soil now, and later their decomposition also provides natural cover and food for soil inhabitants. If you want to minimize slugs, give their predators, like beetles and toads, some cover.

Last weekend, we built several new obelisks using the same pipes that were already there for a different purpose. We didn't like the way things were set up, so we redid it using the same materials. We have also converted pepper beds to tomato beds using the same pieces. That is the beauty of an interchangeable plant support system.

This is also a time for final planning -- deciding what you want to grow and how to best grow it (not how you want to grow it). I am going over catalogs, for one last time I hope, finalizing what varieties we will be growing and selling, and deciding the best place and way to grow them.

I have heard people, including professionals say gardening is simple and easy.

Well, it is -- and it isn't.

Almost anybody can plant a garden and have some success. People are happy if they get six peppers per plant. We have picked 142 large, sweet peppers from one plant.

Someone might be happy to harvest 30-40 paste tomatoes per plant. We have harvested over 1200 from a single plant.

We also spend less time doing it.

A major point that people seem to miss is that less productive plants are, by their very nature, producing less nutritious food.

Gardening is fairly simple.

But, the devil is in the details.

For example, understanding soil ecosystem is very important. But the leading soil scientists in the world have spent their entire lives studying this most densely populated place on earth, and still don't fully understand it. For us, to manufacture a system that provides everything a plant needs to reach it's potential is wishful thinking.

Fortunately, there is a way to get great soil. Hire somebody to do it for you. Not a landscaper -- these are tiny workers that do their work invisibly -- you can only see signs they are working. They do great work and basically work for room and board. Decomposing organic matter (quality organic fertilizers) gives them nutrients that they can trade with plants for their food (sugars). A loose, fertile soil is where they thrive.

The best way to hire these helpers is to use compost -- and better compost means better helpers and more of them.

This is just One Important Soil Dwelling Plant Helper

"If your local garden center isn't promoting the use of mycorrhizal fungi, they can't be a very good garden center." This quote was sent to me by a customer. It comes from the longest running garden radio show in the country, originating on the west coast. Why would he say this?

In nature, plants share nutrients through a natural internet structure made by mycorrhizal fungi. It is nature's way of sharing nutrients, sugars, protective compounds and information. It dramatically extends the absorption area of a plant root system. It allows mature plants to nourish seedlings -- and each other.

One of these networks is the largest (and possibly the oldest) living thing on earth. In the Blue Mountains of Oregon, a single mycorrhizal network occupies 2,384 acres (four square miles) and could be as ancient as 8,650 years. Across the size of 1,665 football fields, plants share nutrients and communicate. As a young plant starts to grow, it is fed by more mature plants that are feeding sugars into this network.

This very brief video illustrates the process.

By working with nature, you can have a garden (or a lawn) where plants share nutrients and information with other plants. They communicate to other plants about insect predation they are experiencing -- warning them to ramp up their defenses and begin calling predatory insects in for help.

Your yard should be a community of plants helping plants.

We inoculate our seedstarting mix and all of our seedlings with mycorrhizal fungi. We keep it alive in our soils by planting Winter and early Spring cover crops. Establishing microbes now means less energy spent by summer crops on it later -- and earlier Summer harvests.

We will have fresh mycorrhizal spores available for purchase next week. You will also get living cultures when you buy our transplants.

Inoculating your lawn is best done by overseeding with inoculated grass seed,

Use this network in your garden by inoculating seeds and transplants -- or buy your plants from us.

If you want to have a garden that is healthy, productive and makes gardening less work, easier, and more interesting, you have to do it 100% organically, and use the tools that nature offers us. Plants and soil microbes have been refining their relationships for hundreds of millions of years. In a similar fashion, living creatures above ground protect and pollinate plants in exchange for other foods they produce (like nectar and fruits).

High Tech -- High Touch

When you find insects (or diseases) in your garden this summer, have your kids look them up on the internet. Have them find out what they are doing. If you have to take action, we can help you with a safe and natural remedy (like planting the right flowers). This is a great way to get your kids interested in gardening and learning that we are part of a great and wonderful world -- and we should learn to respect it.

Fruit Picks