Sunday - Noon to 6pm
Monday - Noon to 6pm
Tuesday - Closed
Wednesday - Closed
Thursday - Noon to 6pm
Friday - Noon to 6pm
Saturday - Noon to 6pm
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Although we are busier than usual, you still don't have to worry about large crowds here. The peak period on weekends is when we first open. Counters and handles are constantly being disinfected. I was at a local grocer and although they had signs up about social distancing, they had two lines open right next to each other, and customers standing side by side. A man came up right next to me, so I stepped back, out of line to keep my distance. This is how this disease can spread -- bad practices by the business, and a customer ignoring proper social distancing.
Any of you who read our emails know that we have a
very healthy respect for microbes -- both good and bad. I have spent many, many hours over the last few years learning about them.
We are doing everything we can to protect and educate ourselves
and our customers.
The best advice today is -- avoid unnecessary exposure and strengthen your defenses (your immune system) by eating nutrient rich and fiber rich foods. These are foods for your gut and 70% of your immune system is in your gut.
Don't forget your organic potatoes, one of the best foods for your gut microbes. They must be organic because Roundup,
a potent antibiotic, is often used to ripen non-organic potatoes. This would mean feeding your gut microbes and poisoning them at the same time.
As resistant starch and fiber is consumed by gut microbes, one of the side products is butyrate - a potent, natural anti-inflammatory. Why is this important?
"Lung inflammation is the main cause of life
-threatening respiratory disorders"
COVID-19 infection: the perspectives on immune responses, published March 23, 2020. This report is from front line researchers in Italy and China.
"We propose some simple, but largely ignored, approaches to the treatment of COVID-19 patients. We believe that the two-phase division is very important: the first immune defense-based protective phase and the second inflammation-driven damaging phase. Doctors should try to boost immune responses during the first, while suppressing it in the second phase." Inflammation is the immune response in the second phase.
Resistant starch and fiber can both boost your immune system -- and -- reduce inflammation.
Note of caution: some news reports are stating the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, could worsen affects of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
We now have garden fertilizer and lawn fertilizer in stock and we will be restocking, and making more, every week. We also have grass seed, but our grass seed supplier says that they need a minimum of 3 employees to stay open, so they are on a day to day basis. This is a local supplier who specializes in the best varieties for this area.
We also have mycorrhizal fungi spores for inoculating our seeds. The addition of mycorrhizal fungi to our yard has made a dramatic difference -- and the best way to apply it is when overseeding. Since we applied it, our lawn has thickened, stays green longer, and turns green faster after dormancy.The pic below show the difference the addition of this fungus makes to your grass roots. Inoculated on left, not inoculated on right. For more info -- see our
website.
Now is the time for planting peas and spinach -- and we have both in stock. Our peas and later, beans, are all inoculated with beneficial nitrogen fixing bacteria. We also have onion sets which are strong supporters of mycorrhizae, and mycorrhizae spores for inoculating them. Just dip the onion sets in the powder and plant. Start your garden's mycorrhizal network now so your tomatoes don't have to waste time and expend energy later.
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We are obsessed with the seeds we plant and sell -
because it matters, big time
I have been talking to seed companies and they are now seeing a run on seeds.
Don't worry, we will have plenty! The shortage lies with seeds that are packaged in small, consumer packages. For example, I looked at one variety of green beans we sell, and while consumer packets are sold out,
I can buy all I want in lots of 100,000! That scenario is repeated over and over with different items. There are plenty of seeds, but they cannot get them packaged fast enough and still supply farmers and greenhouse growers. They are also swamped with shipping small orders so farmers and growers are faced with premium shipping and handling costs to get seeds on time.
This is just another example of panic buying disrupting the supply chains. If seed companies are spending an extraordinary amount of time packaging seeds, they cannot get larger purchases out to growers, farmers, and retailers.
My big worry is that people will buy seeds from the first seed rack or company they see, and take away sales from smaller, independent seed companies who have been really struggling for years. Seeds may be sold under a name that makes them appear to be independent, but they are just another brand name for the same companies.
The chart below show the seed company consolidation since 1996. In 1996, all of the blue discs were independent seed companies. Today, a handful of companies (names in circles) control all of them. Since the acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer,
all of the seed companies on the top third of the chart are under the control of one
company
-- Bayer -- who like Monsanto, does not have a good reputation for social responsibility.
This is shocking and should concern us all of us.
The answer to this is not saving your own seeds -- the answer is supporting the small companies with your purchases while they are still alive -- like we do. I believe saving seeds harms small companies more than the big ones. The big companies will still make their sales.
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Graphic courtesy of Philip H Howard, Michigan State University.
Like always, we have plenty of seeds now, we are buying them weekly, and we will have plenty of seeds available when you need them. I am in touch with our suppliers, many of whom I have dealt with for decades. Our seed packets also sell for the same price you find online -- without shipping costs and long delays. We inoculate our peas and beans for free.
These are crazy days for us right now. Our salad mix and produce sales have more than doubled in a couple of weeks -- and we are also busy planting seeds and getting things ready for spring planting. Please let us get our seeds planted for Spring transplants, our salad made, and our produce stocked. We will be packaging seeds you need in plenty of time for planting.
For example, green beans should be planted in early June, and we will have fresh green beans seeds ready weeks before that. There is no reason to have to buy them now, months in advance of planting, and run the risk of buying old seeds as described below.
As always, we will also have the best varieties available for purchase.
This is critical to garden success, so don't just run out and panic buy seeds because you see them on a half sold rack somewhere. A poor variety selection can severely damage your garden productivity. (see below)
My first rule of vegetable gardening is
"Never buy seeds off a seed rack". These are always price point varieties (meaning older, cheaper and less productive), and the oldest seeds in a seed company's inventory.
Having a successful garden using the wrong seeds is like trying to run a horse race with an old mule. No matter how well you train that old mule -- it is still an old mule! And no matter how good a gardener you are, an inferior seed will produce inferior results. Often this mistake means lower productivity, sometimes inferior flavor, and sometimes disease susceptibility.
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If you have ever seen an older man or woman (like myself) spending weeks, or even months, going through seed catalogs (like I do), it is not because we are senile -- it is because we know the importance of good seed selection. In vegetable gardening, making little mistakes adds up to greatly inferior results. At Canterbury Creek Gardens we choose only the best varieties to sell.
After 40 years of growing and selling vegetable plants, and planting gardens, I have many stories to tell of the incredible difference seed selection makes. I'll just mention a few examples.
Don't buy seeds early
For years, I thought I was doing something wrong with seed starting soil or temperature because I was having germination problems with some early seeded crops. I started recording lot numbers from seed packets and found out what the real problem was. My early seed purchases often had the same lot numbers as seeds purchased the previous year. Seed companies rotate inventory like everyone else does.
So much of really successful gardening is patience. Patience to wait on a hot Spring day for the soil to warm and soil biology to get busy, patience to wait for the right time to plant and the right time to harvest, and patience to wait for old seeds to be shipped to someone else.
Hundreds of millions of years of evolution has programed plants for the best time to germinate their seeds, when to grow vegetatively, and when to reproduce. Their signals include soil temperature, angle of the sun in the sky, and their age. Today's gardeners are often growing very confused plants -- which greatly lowers their vigor, productivity and ability to deal with pests and diseases.
These are all Mountain Magic plants in the video below. The row on the left was planted 2 weeks before the one on the right -- trying to rush the season. Although we harvested the earlier planted ones earlier, they never had the vigor or productivity of the properly planted row on the right.
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Future emails will offer planting suggestions based on the calendar, the soil temperatures, and the 10 day forecasts.
I was talking to a friend of mine who has been in this business since childhood because his father had a greenhouse. He said he couldn't believe that he could buy lettuce seeds one week and get poor germination and weak growth -- and the same seeds, from the same company a week later would all practically leap out of the soil. Now he waits until he needs them. Below is a result of us using some old seeds.
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Several years ago, we tried planting some old onion seeds to save money. This is what happened. The first four rows on the left were old seeds. Some of the old seeds eventually came up, but weaker and more sparse. I used to think I would just plant old seeds closer, but I found out they also were not as vigorous as fresh seeds. Sometimes it works, but if it doesn't, you could have wasted the whole year.
Choose varieties carefully -- or let us do it for you
Forty years ago, I started out in horticulture by running a test garden for the Cleveland Summer Sprout Community gardening program. We tested the difference between different vegetable varieties, and the results showed a remarkable difference. While an older, open pollinated variety of pepper, like California Wonder would yield only a few peppers per plant, a newer hybrid variety would yield dozens -- planted next to each other. This was because Calif. Wonder can only set fruit under a narrow temperature range. Too hot or too cold, and the flowers fell off without forming fruit.
I have continued this testing every year since then, I love finding another garden, and/or culinary gem. But while we do continue to test new varieties every year, we mostly sell varieties that have proven themselves to be dependable in this area. For those willing to take a little gamble, we always have a few new highly touted varieties available.
An example of what poor variety choices can do
We now sell Super Sugar Snap peas instead of Sugar Snap peas because Super Sugar snap is more resistant to powdery mildew. This disease will show up on your peas in June. Not only will this lower your yield for your peas, the powdery mildew spores, from the peas, can float down and infect other crops like squash and cucumbers. (We also sell mildew resistant varieties of cukes and zucchini, which are rare).
Your choice of pea seeds can not only reduce your pea harvest, but your harvest of cucumbers and squash, and others.
Seed choices can be very important.
We will try to help
Although a few weeks before planting season is not the best time to start learning about preparing soil, choosing healthy plants and good fertilizer, knowing when to plant different crops and performing maintenance needed to produce a bountiful harvest -- we will try to help.
Think again about our obelisk kits. They should pay for themselves the first growing season. For those of you who already ordered them, yours are almost ready. Get a few fiber pots and living soil. With vegetable gardening, any money spent is an investment in better food and better health.
If you can't garden,
join our summer CSA program and build your immune system while you save money.
We still have a handful of spots left. Our CSA members always get first dibs on our harvests, because they helped us plant them.
If we have any more organic gardening seminars this Spring, they will have to be outside where we can spread the chairs to the appropriate social distance. We will do what we can via emails, but that can only be limited due to my time constraints. The first step however, is starting with the best soil possible.
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The outdoor planting season has arrived. Plant some crops early when it helps, like spinach and peas -- and have the patience to wait for the soil to warm and the soil biology to start cooking to plant heat loving plants. Choose your varieties carefully, prepare your soil well (
see previous email, Think before you dig section), and keep them properly supported, properly watered and well fed.
Read future emails. Our past emails are on our Facebook page. Our website has a lot of great information. I cannot possibly help everybody personally, but I can guarantee you can get more, and better, advice from Canterbury Creek Gardens than any other garden center in the area.
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We now have the best selection of citrus of the year. They are mostly organic but we have a few great tasting, so more nutrient rich varieties available.
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A delicious new
mandarin with superior fruit quality and sweet flavor. It's totally seedless with easy-to-peel fruit
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This crop of organic Navel oranges rivals the flavor of any citrus I have tasted this year -- at a very reasonable price.
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Sumo citrus oranges are a “dekopon”—a cross-breed between a satsuma and mandarin-pomelo variety. The juicy, ultra-sweet oranges were developed in Japan with traditional plant-breeding techniques (so they are non-GMO), where they are often given as gifts.
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A seedless variety developed at the University of California Riverside breeding program.
Easy to peel, sweet, juicy with a very robust flavor.
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26273 Detroit Road
Westlake, Ohio
440-899-2740
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