February Monthly Newsletter
GARDEN CALENDAR
It has been a cold winter filled with lots of snow. We are more than half way through it and we all long for spring. Spring is one of the most beautiful times of the year for us who live in the northeast. February brings days that get longer, the sun gets brighter and each day is one day closer to spending time back in our garden. February is the quiet month to spend time to read gardening books and to plan ones garden. It is a month to read my book 12 Steps To Natural Gardening, read catalogues, buy seeds and find out what is new. February is for planning and spring is for planting. With a planned approach you can save yourselves a lot of time, money and heartaches. Sprainbrook’s emphasis is on the Organic Approach to gardening. This approach will develop more beautiful flowers and healthier and more nutritious vegetables. It is an approach that is moving the country in the right direction. It is simple to follow but requires understanding and planning. There are many books that can help you understand what takes place in the organic world. Below our feet in the ground that we walk on is a whole world of activity. With our chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides we reduce and kill this life. With a little bit of understanding we can enhance it. On page 331 of my book is a list of 13 books that I would highly recommend as winter reading. Each one will help you understand the complexities and the interaction that takes place in our soils and the effect it has on the plants we grow and the world we live in. Our organic growing programs have been built from this knowledge and have proven through time and testing to produces superior plants. We list the products that you should apply. We have developed organic programs that are simple to implement and work. They are the Organic Approach to: Lawns, Perennials, Annuals, Vegetables, Roses, Evergreens and Shrubs and the Home Orchard. They are all at your finger tips, are easy to apply and listed in, ‘12 Steps to Natural Gardening’. The book will lead you through the process of understanding the concept and employing modern technology coupled with old fashioned wisdom. Our goal is to develop strong healthy plants and to make our environment a healthier place to live in. Our concept is to add a mixture of organic materials to the soil. The greater the mix, the greater the success. We have had great personal success and have tweaked our programs in response to hands-on landscaping and gardening experience. We as a society have been abusive tenants of our land and it is important that we make the changes to improve this situation. Pass my book on to other aspiring gardeners and get them to sign up at Sprainbrook.com for my weekly emails. Visit our new website naturalgardennews.com. It will continue to remind you of important timely topics. It is still in the development stage but has lots of interesting articles for you to read. If you can add something to the discussion board it will make the sight more interesting to the general public when we launch it. Right now it is basically a Sprainbrook Nursery sight. We hope to become a leading voice for organic gardening in the future.
February is the month to look at new varieties and to take a good look at what needs to be done structurally in the garden. Time constraints will soon be upon us. Make lists and organize your time. Are your shrubs overgrown and need pruning? Are your trees providing too much shade? Have you adhered to the principles of good design? Are there additions or changes you would like to make? These and many other questions should be thought through during the month of February. Our online catalogue at Sprainbrook.com will give you a great deal of cultural information as well as pictorial guidance. Eventually we will want to move Sprainbrook.com over to Naturalgardennews.com. My book is a necessary planning tool and needs to be accessible at all times. It is a good year to tackle a landscape project. The reservoirs are full of water. The economy is beginning to rebound. Many people will want to spend more time fixing up the garden. . When you have a beautiful garden, there is no place like home. Improving the landscape will add to the value of your property. Many are finding that it is a good time to sell their house and sprucing up the yard will help on home sales. .
February can still be a very difficult month. Chores include protecting trees and shrubs from breakage during large snowfalls by shaking the snow off. Also dormant pruning of deciduous trees and shrubs should take place as soon as the weather permits. Remember you may be cutting off flower buds, so prune selectively. Read my chapter on pruning page 65 before you tackle this project. Bring some branches in for forcing. If the ground is bare, add mulch. On a warm day add some water to your potted evergreens. Don’t forget to add water to the stored plants that you are overwintering. If you planted bulbs for forcing, bring some in. It will brighten your home and your mood.
THE MOST ASKED QUESTION
How do we start seeds indoors? There are some basic requirements that are important. They are covered in my book on page 18. You need an area with good bottom heat, lots of light, our organic soil and a plug tray filled with our soil. The seed must be kept constantly moist once it is sown. In the greenhouses we use a mist system. A homeowner needs to soak the medium and the seed and cover it with plastic. Some seeds require light to germinate, and you will need clear plastic as a covering. Other seeds will require darkness to germinate and you will need to cover the seed with soil. The seed packet will give you this information. There may be other requirements to get seed to germinate such as pre cooling but here again these should be listed on the package. Using milled sphagnum moss as a top dressing will help prevent damping off. Once seeds have germinated, remove the plastic and place them into as much sunlight as possible. After the second leaf stage appears they can be transplanted into 3 inch peat pots using our organic soil. Timing is important and you will need to know how long to wait before transplanting into the garden. I have tackled this subject in depth in my Vegetable garden email series. The whole series will be posted on Naturalgardennews.com. in 2 weeks with the last segment of the vegetable garden being sent out next week. We will be open again in early March. I will be praying for sunshine and warmer weather as my only heat in the greenhouse is solar heat and compost bins. I am very pleased with the outcome and the results many of my customers were able to attain over the past years utilizing the information I have provided them with. I have put all of this information into my book ‘12 Steps to Natural Gardening’. It relays a powerful message and is the perfect book for anyone interested in gardening the natural way without the use of toxic pesticides, chemical fertilizers or harsh additives. The health of family and pets is becoming a great concern for the majority of Americans. This book gives recipes and formulas to make the simple switch to a healthy natural organic lawn and garden. After reading this book, not only will you enjoy a beautiful garden for years to come, but you will also appreciate the philosophical change that occurs when you bond with nature.There are 34 poignant personal stories, one following each chapter. There are blank pages for jotting down notes and observations; and following each story, there are blank pages for adding your own story
The 12 steps are the basic core of knowledge that anyone needs to master to become a good organic gardener. The information in these chapters is important for you to understand. They are Planning, Planting, Watering, Weeding, Feeding, Mulching, Pruning, Composting, Transplanting, Grooming, Observing and Enjoying.
The middle of the book is filled with topics to help you put it all together. It covers the Front Yard, the Back yard. The Organic Lawn, The Vegetable Garden, Annuals, The Perennial Garden, The Herb Garden, Ground Covers, Trees, Evergreens and Shrubs, Roses, Plants That Attract Butterflies, Plants That Attract Birds, Plants that Attract Hummingbirds and Indoor Gardening.
The final part covers three important topics: Focus On Prevention Rather Than Cure, Deer Resistant Plants, and the Drought Survival Manual. You would think the latter would spike sales for my book in California.The 336 pages of this book are packed with valuable information that I have acquired by being a grower, running a garden center and landscape operation my whole life. . Books are available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, New York Botanical Garden, Greenburg Nature Center or at Sprainbrook Nursery after March 1, I am told it is important to enter positive reviews on Amazon.com to spur others on to buy the book.
If you know of anyone who could benefit from this information, pass it on to them. We need to work together to promote a better environment for us all to live in.My hope is you will enjoy the month of February, don’t let the gloomy weather depress you and remember spring is just around the corner. Soon the sun will warm your body and the flowers will lift your spirit and you will be whistling a happy tune as you putter around in your garden.
KRAUTTER’S KORNER
is published at the beginning of each month. Next week we will pick up where we left off and continue our series on the vegetable garden. The following week we will put these three segments together as the article of the month in our new website naturalgardennews.com. This article can be printed out for your use or as a teaching tool in schools or organizations that want to start their own vegetable garden. Involving youth in the organic movement at an early age is important.
