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Why We Love Our
Garden Shop
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by Julie Harrell
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We in the Great Northeast
just love our gardens. You might be a city gardener with small, neatly
arranged flower pots and herbs that delight you every day, along with
the squirrels and chipmunks who are not so delightful. You could be one
of those Capital District Co-op Shoppers with a habit as large as Lake
George and a yard, formerly known as “the lawn,” that is now entirely
devoted to growing fresh produce, herbs and flowers. You might even
live in the country, raise livestock, build raised beds on rocky soil
and commute to Albany every week to work at the HWFC Garden Shop. We
all share a desire to participate in the miracle that brings life forth
from the soil. We are gardeners and it is now the season to plant.
The HWFC Garden Shop is no ordinary live plant experience. Who hasn’t
stopped to smell the rainbow of flowers, peruse the many fragrant
herbs, check out heirloom organic tomatoes and touch a delicate
cucumber seedling? If you’ve ever been tempted to purchase a plant or
two when you really had no intention of buying anything at the Garden
Shop, raise your hand. You are not alone, we are all under the same
plant spell.
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| Why is the Garden Shop so
magical? |
First, we can thank Gayle
Anderson for rising before the sun most days to visit the Menands
Market by 5:30 am. I’ve heard she’s been getting up early to purchase
the best produce and plants for many years. The Menands Market is a
farmerowned and operated cooperative that sells wholesale plants and
seedlings to participating buyers. Gayle also visits multiple farms and
nurseries during the week to ensure that we have a steady supply of the
latest plants for our customers. Want something special? Just ask her,
and she’ll try to find it. In keeping with HWFC’s commitment to
supporting area agriculture, all the nursery items in the Garden Shop
are locally grown from the following farms:
• The Farm at Miller’s Crossing (organic)
• Burger Farm
• Greenscapes
• Orlops Farm
• Bill Bolber
• Roots & Wisdom (organic)
• John Burger
• Georges Market
• R & K Nursery
• George Brizzell
• Hilltop
• Just Ferns
• Black Horse Farm
• Kristy’s Barn
• Spiaks
• Carol Edwards
• Seagroatts
• Pigliaventos
• McDonough’s
HWFC demonstrates a strong commitment to keeping plants affordable to
everyone by also including conventionally grown seedlings and starts.
Here’s a tip: If you are concerned about organic, and also purchase
conventionally grown starts and seedlings, you can still grow these
“organically” by not applying pesticides, etc. I personally buy both
types, and grow them using organic methods, including introducing a
“native” species (our cats) to the micro-ecosystem (the garden) to
control pesky critters (squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits) who prey on
infant seedlings. I also give beer to the slugs but that’s another
party story.
One reason Co-op Shoppers love the Garden Shop so much is because it is
staffed with very friendly and helpful member labor and staff. We are
available to answer questions, write up tickets so you can leave your
plants at the picnic table, carry plants, bags of organic soil and
compost to your car if you need assistance, and help you decide which
plants will grow the best in your particular micro-climate. Gayle, who
is always working in the background, keeps the Sunset National Garden
Book handy for hard-to-answer questions such how much shade/light a
particularly obscure plant can tolerate.
For those of you who like to order flats of strawberries, tomatoes or
any other plant that’s available in bulk, Gayle will do her best to
order these for you and have them within the week in season. While
perusing the Garden Shop, you may fi nd unique little gems, such as
Patchouli plants, and hard-to-find treasures, such as Nicotania
Sylvestris, a wonderful night fl owering tobacco plant that grows to
over five feet tall. It’s easy to find what you want, as plant
species are kept together, while organic and conventional veggies and
herbs, annuals, shrubs and perennials are all in their separate areas.
We at the Garden Shop thought it might be useful for Co-op Shoppers to
have a quick reference for planting seeds, seedlings and starts for
future use. We’ll begin with highlights from Gayle’s Workshop,
Seed-Starting 101 (see chart below). Before the last frost, you can
plant brassicas, hardy greens such as kale, winter spinach and
collards, carrots, radishes, potatoes and asparagus crowns.
Once the last frost has come and gone, plant your tomatoes, basil,
cukes, beans, peas, melons, sunfl owers, squash and corn. Remember,
peppers and tomatoes require really warm temperatures, so if it gets
chilly at night, cover them to protect against the cold.
A helpful hint from Gayle: Cover your tomato plants at the base with
black plastic (punch holes in it for watering) then mulch over that to
keep them toasty warm. I would add that it’s easy and simple to grow
your climbing plants on cattle panel trellises without tying or
otherwise supporting heavy fruit. Last fall I built an 8 x 12
cattle-panel greenhouse for under $240, which is where my tomatoes,
eggplants, cukes, squash and peppers are living right now. Want the
plans? Come see me at the Garden Shop on Fridays and I’ll email them to
you.
In the fall, you can harvest garlic, then replant it for the following
year. Bring all your questions to the Garden Shop. Collectively, we
will do our best to come up with a solution to your planting questions,
and find the right seeds, seedlings and starts to fit into your
special garden home.
March
Week 1 Onions, leeks, perennials, strawberries, impatiens, petunia
Week 2 Broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, celery, parsley, alyssum,
lobelia, snapdragons, statice
Week 3 Peppers, eggplant (old seeds), nicotiana, celosia, thyme,
rudbeckia (annual)
Week 4 Lettuce, greens, cauliflower
April
Week 1 Peppers, eggplant (new seeds), calendula, tithonia, Chinese
forget-me-nots
Week 2 Tomatoes
Week 3 Marigolds
Week 4 Zinnias, cosmos
May
Week 1 Melons, basil, cukes, squash, morning glories, sunflowers
Late June
Fall broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower
July & August
Fall lettuce, greens, spinach
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