Grown From Seed Exchange Seeds

It is so rewarding to see our little Washington Gardener Magazine Seed Exchange seeds go out into the world into the hands of avid gardeners, but I rarely hear back on what happens to those seeds. I was so excited to get an email from Lilian Cerdeira that enclosed some pictures of flowers that she grew in her garden with seeds that she acquired at last year's Seed Exchange at Green Spring Gardens. The photos in this post are fabulously colorful -- note the goldfinch!

She added, "Thanks for organizing this wonderful event. This was my second year, and it is definitely something I look forward to."

BTW, if you missed last Saturday's event, you can still join us for the second 2012 swap in Virginia next Saturday, February 4, at Green Spring Gardens. We still have spaces left, but they are filling fast so I reccomend you pre-register by mail. Here are more details.

Washington Gardener Magazine 6th Annual Photo Contest Winners Announced!

Open publication - Free publishing - More flower photos

Here are the top 17 winners in the  Washington Gardener Magazine 6th Annual Photo Contest.  All entries were taken in the Washington, DC region in garden settings. There were over 300 photos submitted in this year's contest and I know our three expert judges had a Herculean task picking out the best of the best.

Note that what you are viewing online here, is a low-resolution version of the photo images. Winning images will be published in Washington Gardener magazine Spring 2012 issue. They will also be displayed during the Washington Gardener Seed Exchanges this winter and will appear in a local photo exhibit this spring/summer in the Washington. DC region.

Seed Exchange Update: Still Spaces Left, No Seeds Required!

We still have some spaces left, so you may register on-site at the Washington Gardener Magazine 2012 Seed Exchange on Saturday, January 28 12:30-4pm at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD.

On-site Registration opens at 12:00noon. The program begins promptly at 12:30pm.

We recommend that you print out the registration form and fill it in and bring it along with a check made out to "Washington Gardener" in order to speed things up and keep the registration line moving quickly.

For the registration form and event details go here. To read about the speaker program, go here. To prepare your seeds and yourself for the swap, go here.

We also still have spaces left for the Seed Exchange on February 4 at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA. You can mail in your registration for that, please ensure that it will arrive by February 2.

And yes, you can attend and participate, even if you have no seeds to swap. We always have plenty of extra to share with new and beginning seed starters!

Seed Starting Survey Results

Our January 2012 Washington Gardener Reader Contest winners chosen at random from among the submitted entries are:

~ Arlene Wagner, Reston, VA
~ CJ Rock, Hyattsville, MD

They each won two passes to the upcoming Washington Gardener Seed Exchanges (a $15 value per pass).

These seed swaps are in-person and face-to-face. You bring your extra seeds and swap them with other gardeners. Everyone will leave with a bag full of seeds, new garden friends, and expert planting advice. The Seed Exchanges are held on Saturday, January 28, 2012 in Maryland at Brookside Gardens and on Saturday, February 4, 2012 in Virginia at Green Spring Gardens from 12:30 – 4:00pm. See full event details here.

We asked our contest entrants to tell us:
What plants you are planning to start from seed this year?

“I will be starting several heirloom tomato varieties, broccoli, cucumbers, arugula, basil, beets, chard, and carrots from seed this year,” said Fred Pinkney of Takoma Park, MD.

“Tomatoes of course, and tomatillos, 5 kinds of basil, spaghetti, acorn, and some odd field cross squash, & melons. Big seeds for small hands. Artichoke if we get ambitious,” said Luc Phinney.

“I plan to start at least cilantro and thyme from seed this year, as well as (possibly) avocado (working on some pits currently!), tomatoes, and other plants,” said CJ (Chelsea) Rock of Hyattsville, MD.

Vernon Roberts of College Park, MD, is planning on starting white habanero chili peppers, cilantro, and tomatoes from seed this year, at the very least.

Arlene Wagner of Reston, VA, said, “This year I plan on starting from seed (and I already bought the seeds for them!): Broccoli, Cauliflower, Edame (soybeans), San Marzano tomatoes, Sugar snap peas, Herbs (like basil, chives, thyme, oregano), Hollyhocks, Japanese anemones, Corn, and Peppers (chocolate, yellow, red, orange, purple).

Cindy Walczak of Olney, MD, wrote: “I'm planning to start from seed: lettuce, radishes, snow peas, beets, malabar spinach, sweet peppers, butternut squash”

“I'm so excited for Spring!,” shared Nancy Davis of Edgewater, MD. “Sitting here writing this email with a dusting of snow on the ground, I'm anxiously awaiting to go outdoors and plant my seeds. I had never really grown anything from seed until last year. A friend and I were talking about gardening and I had said I wish there was more of a selection of plants to purchase at local garden centers. He suggested I buy seeds and grow the things I wanted to grow from seeds myself! For some reason this had not occurred to me. Sometimes the most obvious answers are not so obvious to the person trying to figure things out. I like to grow herbs, vegetables and flowers. Below is a list of what I'm growing from seed this year in all three categories:
~ Vegetables
Shell Peas, Bush Beans, Cucumbers, Squash, Cherry Tomatoes, Lettuce, Spinach, Onions, Broccoli
Carrots,Zucchini, Cauliflower
~ Herbs
Dill, Evening Primrose, Nettles, Burdock, Valerian, Wood Betony, Chamomile, Sage, Yarrow,
Marshmallow
~ Flowers
Nasturtiums, Zinnias, Sunflowers, Daisy”

Joe Schechter of Silver Spring, MD, plans starting these seeds for this spring: Lablab beans; purple pyramid peppers; asclepius tuberosa; black seeded Simpson lettuce; beets for greens and root; marigolds from saved seed. “Probably a lot of others that I've saved and exchanged at last year's seed exchange.”

Kenneth Moore of Washington, DC, said, “I plan on starting a couple things from seed--edibles such as tomatoes and peppers, of course, as well as lots of herbs (a ton of basils, in particular). I don't have a large seed collection anymore, since donating my entire collection to the Farm at Walker Jones when I moved to Saudi Arabia--I've only purchased a few (maybe 20 or so) seed packets since I returned to the U.S. I also am uncertain whether I'll have allotted outdoor space--I mean, I'll find my own *somewhere*, but it would make me much happier to know I could plant a sweet potato somewhere that it won't get ripped up or mowed.”

Ruth H. Axelrod of Frederick, MD, replied:
“Although I’m an experienced ornamental gardener, until two years ago I had not raised food crops except herbs, an occasional tomato plant and a wide terra cotta bowl of salad greens. Partway through that summer, having settled into our new suburban townhouse in Frederick, we bought oak boards and posts, cut to our specifications at a local mill, and built a trio of small, raised beds. That year and the next, I filled the new garden with purchased seedlings from my favorite Washington-area nurseries. My reward was the thrill of preparing and eating salads made entirely from our tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs, and supplementing store-bought lettuce with fresh romaine. But I have been disappointed at the limited variety of greens available as seedlings. So, now, I am ready for the next step--raising them from seed.
Last fall, I purchased a chrome rack that fits along the wall of our basement bathroom, hung a silver mylar emergency blanket behind it and a 4' shop light from each shelf. Last week, I bought two seedling trays to augment those that I scrounged from nurseries last year (and disinfected with 10:1 water and chlorine bleach).
Now, I am creating my schedule--planning when to start each type of seed that I have and looking around for any interesting ones that I haven’t acquired. Two years ago, when I started thinking about doing this, I attended the Washington Gardener magazine’s Seed Swap at Brookside Gardens, which is the source of some of my vegetable and flower seeds. I enjoyed that swap so much that I organized one for my fellow Frederick County Master Gardeners last year and, by popular acclaim, again this year. I am trying not to be too ambitious but I am planning a succession garden this year and, so, will hold some back some seeds to start later in the growing season and the fall.
Why am I doing this? We don’t save any serious money with our tiny garden of edibles and I certainly don’t need more things to do, but I relish the magic of tiny seeds potent with life and rejoice at bringing into the world such a basic necessity as food. It gives me yet another reason to indulge my love of partnering with nature and soothing my spirit by mucking around in the dirt!”

What are you starting from seed this year?

Video Wednesday: New Plant Hardiness Zone Map Unveiled

This video is from today's press conference held at the U.S. National Arboretum. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today released the new version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM), updating a useful tool for gardeners and researchers for the first time since 1990 with greater accuracy and detail.

The new, interactive map is available online at: www.planthardiness.ars.usda.gov

According to the USDA:

"Compared to the 1990 version, zone boundaries in this edition of the map have shifted in many areas. The new map is generally one 5-degree Fahrenheit half-zone warmer than the previous map throughout much of the United States. This is mostly a result of using temperature data from a longer and more recent time period; the new map uses data measured at weather stations during the 30-year period 1976-2005. In contrast, the 1990 map was based on temperature data from only a 13-year period of 1974-1986.
However, some of the changes in the zones are a result of new, more sophisticated methods for mapping zones between weather stations. These include algorithms that considered for the first time such factors as changes in elevation, nearness to large bodies of water, and position on the terrain, such as valley bottoms and ridge tops. Also, the new map used temperature data from many more stations than did the 1990 map. These advances greatly improved the accuracy and detail of the map, especially in mountainous regions of the western United States. In some cases, they resulted in changes to cooler, rather than warmer, zones."

The USDA representatives did not think this was conclusive evidence of climate change, in that the data is from a 30 year period and that a much longer period of data (50-100 years) would need to be examined to warrant that assertion.

Kim Kaplan of the USDA stressed that the plant zone map is merely a guide and that home gardeners should use their best judgement when selecting plants for their own nano-climates.

What I find most exciting about this new zone map, aside from the interactive search and increased detail, is the listing of cold hardiness ratings of woody plants that will thrive in each zone. That will be a truly valuable addition for home gardeners to explore.

Seed Exchange Sponsor Swag

I've been tweeting out as new Seed Exchange swag has been coming in my door. (And my living room becomes a bigger mess than normal!)

Here are just a few of the items that have come in so far:

American Horticultural Society http://twitpic.com/8au2lr
Cobrahead http://twitpic.com/88vuqf
Botanical Seeds http://twitpic.com/88uy8s
Plant More Plants http://twitpic.com/88h1bb
Renee's Garden http://twitpic.com/8996zf
WinterSown.org http://twitpic.com/8b7bsu

Most of these items will go into the attendee goody bags and the rest will be door prizes.

I'll be tweeting more pics as the donations come in the door. You can follow my tweets at Twitter.com/WDCgardener and drool along with the other seedheads.

If YOU would like to donate items for the Washington Gardener Seed Exchanges, please contact wgardenermag (at) aol (dot) com.

For full Seed Exchange information and registration see pages 4-5 of our latest Washington Gardener Enews posted here.

Reader Contest: Seed Exchange Passes

For our January 2012 Washington Gardener Reader Contest, Washington Gardener is giving away passes to the upcoming Washington Gardener Seed Exchanges (a $15 value per pass).
These seed swaps are in-person and face-to-face. You bring your extra seeds and swap them with other gardeners. Everyone will leave with a bag full of seeds, new garden friends, and expert planting advice. The Seed Exchanges are held on Saturday, January 28, 2012 in Maryland at Brookside Gardens and on Saturday, February 4, 2012 in Virginia at Green Spring Gardens from 12:30 – 4:00pm. For full event details, see pages 4-5 of the current Washington Gardener Enewsletter issue.

To enter to win a pass to the Washington Gardener Seed Exchanges, send an email to WashingtonGardener@rcn.com by 5:00pm on January 25 with “Seed Exchanges” in the subject line and tell us what plants you are planning to start from seed this year. In the body of the email, please also include your full name, email, and mailing address. The pass winners will be announced and notified on January 26. (Note: your entry response may be used in a future Washington Gardener publication.)