• Do you notice areas of standing water?
• Do you have problems with slow or poor drainage in your yard?
• Are there areas in your lawn & garden where you see slow or weak plant growth?

Any one of these conditions could be the result of clay soil in your lawn & garden.

When it comes to your lawn and garden, the presence of clay soil can create a number of problems:

1. Clay soil drains slowly. Thus, as the winter snow melts and the spring rains start, the clay soil tends to remain saturated long after average or sandy soils have drained. Wet or saturated soils do not make for a good growing environment long term.
2. Clay soil is much slower to warm up in the spring. Because of its’ density, the clay soil is resistant to the warming effects of the spring sunshine. Colder soil temperatures slow plant growth. Until the soil warms up sufficiently, springtime growth will be slow and difficult.
3. Clay soil compacts (pushes together or bonds to itself), making it hard for the roots to penetrate. When the root systems can’t penetrate, they become “stunted” or stop growing. This is not a healthy growing environment.
4. Clay soil is alkaline (has a high pH), which is hard on plants.
5. To top it off, clay soil is very heavy and difficult to work with. And messy!

SoilLogic’s Liquid “Gypsum” product (also sold in some areas as “Liquid Thrive”) can help with all of your clay soil problems. While it is not a miracle, it works very quickly. A program of regularly scheduled applications should help improve poor soil conditions within weeks. It is very easy to apply (much easier to use than bags of traditional dry gypsum), and is relatively inexpensive for the job that it does.

Liquid “Gypsum” may be just your answer for reconditioning your soil, because it can be applied on the surface soil in your flowerbeds, vegetable gardens, or on your lawn. This is easily done with the quart (32. Oz.) ready to spray (“RTS”) bottle, which covers up to 1,000 sq. ft. SoilLogic offers other sizes of  Liquid “Gypsum” for larger yards and repeated applications.

What does  Liquid “Gypsum” do? Its’ concentrated formula has the ability to penetrate the millions of fine clay particles in heavy or hardpan soils, and help to loosen the structure of the soil. This creates air and moisture space that gradually loosens and breaks open the soil structure, which is what your plants, trees, shrubs and lawn need for better growth.

Please note that  Liquid “Gypsum” does not contain any major plant nutrients, so it is still necessary to apply it in conjunction with a regular fertilizing program. However,  Liquid “Gypsum” does contain some ingredients that are very good for healthy plant growth.

To recap,  SoilLogic’s Liquid “Gypsum” (also sold in some areas as “Liquid Thrive”) can help solve your common clay soil problems:

1. Improve drainage
2. Open up compacted soil
3. Create a better growing environment for your lawn and garden!

We don’t want you to miss a single issue of this fabulous, FREE resource. Please sign up in the opt-in box on the sidebar and you will be all set. As our way of thanking you, you will get our 65 Seed Sources for 2010 absolutely FREE just for signing up. Our goal is to have regional gardening information for each gardening zone in each newsletter.  This means that YOU will get the information that you need most for your gardening area.  We hope this becomes an invaluable resource for you!

We hope you enjoy the changes we will be making here at Successful Gardens over the next few weeks!

Thank you so much for your support,

Gary and Brenda Emmett
Successful Gardens

Photo by Darko Skender

It has happened again!  The seed catalogs came to my house and I couldn’t resist looking at everything that was new and wondering if some of my favorites were still around.  Well, maybe I looked a little too hard and a little too long.  I started thinking of all the things I could do with the tomatoes, and other vegetables, I wanted to grow.

I couldn’t help myself; I might have gone a bit overboard. However, I will share with you five (how can I pick just five?) of my most favorite tomatoes:

• Fourth of July- This is a Burpee exclusive.  It is true to its name. Some growers swear that they pick their first tomato on the 4^th of July.  I won’t say I do that every time I’ve grown this tomato, but it is the earliest tomato that I pick and it has more flavor than any other early tomato.
• Oregon Spring- This is a variety introduced by Oregon State University and is great for cooler summer temperatures. Even though we have hot days, our nights can be cooler and most tomatoes and other vegetables like warm nights.  Great flavor and taste.
• DX-52 (Hamson DX-52-12) This is an introduction from Utah State University and should be a staple for the northern climate and area. I grew this tomato when I was in Idaho and had great success.  Good for canning.  This year I had to get my seed from a garden center in Utah. The name doesn’t offer much insight, but the real treasure is the fruit itself.
• Delicious-This is an older beefsteak variety.  It truly offers a one slice tomato sandwich option. However, I never could stop at just one sandwich though.  Wonderful flavor, great size and about a week to ten days earlier than other beefsteak varieties.  Funny thing about this variety, was the deer decided they like this variety too, it was the only one they would eat off of the vine.
• Sweet Million-This too is an older cherry variety, but still my favorite.  Even though it is prone to cracking, if not picked quickly, I find that it has better flavor than the Sweet 100 variety.  However, if you see me trying to give cherry tomatoes away on the street corner, I am planning on growing 4 different varieties of cherry tomatoes.
• (bonus) Big Mamma-This variety is again a Burpee exclusive.  It is a Roma variety, great for salsas, very meaty, and not a lot of juice compared to others. And the name is very fitting, twice the size of your regular Roma varieties.
• Others not to be forgotten: Celebrity, Fantastic.

Most gardeners would probably stop at fewer tomatoes than this in their gardens… Not me.  In fact this is just the beginning. I will be growing about 8 more varieties to see how they perform in our climate. That is just what I will be starting from seed.  Who knows what other varieties might find their way into my garden from some garden center I happen to stop by.

I don’t know what it is about tomatoes, but I have always enjoyed a good tomato.  As a child, it seemed that we were planting, growing, and covering a hundred tomatoes each year.  Funny thing is I have vivid nightmares of growing up and having to help my father cover (and then uncover) the tomato crop that was in the family garden, protecting them from the pending frosts of fall.  He was determined to keep tomatoes on the vine as late into September and even into October as he could.  Now it seems that I possess the same tomato gene as he does.  I even found one of his old favorites and planted it last year.

I realize that tomatoes aren’t for everyone, and not everyone might be as crazy as I in growing so many different varieties. Oh but the rewards of a wonderful tomato sandwich, cucumber and tomato salads, homemade salsas, and of course a slice of tomato on a hamburger right off the grill.

With the news reports indicating that the current tomato crop has been damaged, due to the weird and abnormal weather and temperatures, summer can’t come quick enough bringing the wonderful flavors of the harvest.

Photo by Arcelia Vanasse

I have started my seeds (tomatoes and peppers) growing, pretty soon I will actually start working the soil out in my garden preparing it for an early crop of peas.  Yes, we have had a cold hard winter, not a lot of snow in my area unlike others across the country, but the cold that chilled us to the bone.  As the days are getting longer and warmer, it brings comfort to know that Spring is around the corner.

What are some of the Tomato varieties you like to grow?  Please feel free to leave what you like so others can share.

When choosing seeds for the garden, it is important to remember that what you purchase is what you will get.  If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is and you should look elsewhere for your seeds.  So how do you know if what you are purchasing is truly what you want?  That is a great question and here are some tips to help you know how to choose the best seeds.

• Remember to invest in quality, rather than quantity.  Seeds of a higher quality will give you the best results.  Often cheap seeds are available in greater quantities.  But remember that they are just that–cheap seeds.  Higher quality seeds may cost more initially, but will give you more for your investment.

• Only purchase seeds that have been packaged for the current growing season.  If you are looking at seeds that were packaged for a previous growing season, have they been tested within the past 6 months?  If this information is not readily available on the seed packet, then do not buy it.  Look for another brand of seed that does list this information instead.

• Choose seeds that match your needs.  Most seed packages include information on starting dates, germination times and growing conditions.  Know what your needs are.  If you live in place that has a colder climate, understand that you will not be able to effectively grow a plant that requires tropical conditions.

• Check for the germination percentage.  The higher the percentage number, the more likely that the seeds will sprout and grow.  Choose seeds that provide this information to you.  Keep in mind that some seeds are more difficult to start than others.  But a higher germination percentage will equal greater success.

Now that you know what to look for when purchasing your seeds, what are you planning to grow in your garden this year?  We would love to hear what you are interested in growing.

I might have a problem! I started requesting seed catalogs in the mail, to help me in selecting the perfect collection of seeds for my garden. Wow! I didn’t think that it would be so overwhelming, because I didn’t realize how many I had requested. What do I do now? Toss them all together, throw them up in the air, and whichever lands in my hands are the ones I order from. However, I don’t know if I could get that many catalogs in the air at one time.

That might be a silly way of going about it, but it could work. However, may I suggest another approach? Let’s start with a plan: a plan of the garden. How large of a space is going to be your garden? Do you want it to be small enough just to enjoy the harvest throughout the season, or do you want to plant enough to can or freeze your bounty?

Have an idea of what you want to plant from seed and what you will be planting from actual live plants. Normally, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, and broccoli are vegetables that you would plant live sets or plants into the ground. Beans, peas, carrots and other root crops, corn, also lettuces and other leafy greens will be planted directly in the soil by seed. I realize this is a condensed list of vegetables, so more information might be needed about which method is correct for the vegetable you may want to plant.

Order the seeds that you want to plant in your garden. However, I have never ordered live vegetable plants for home delivery, and this service is available, but I just don’t know though–I have seen how packages are handled and delivered…you make that decision. I am going to start some of my seeds indoors, ahead of time, but I will be getting some of the plants from the local greenhouse in town.

It has been funny to see what people insist on planting in their garden and why they plant certain vegetables. For some, it might be for the simple fact that they remember their parents or grandparents planting those vegetables. For others, it might be that they don’t quite understand what will be produced. I remember talking with one excited family about what they had planted. While I was working in a garden center, they called to ask about how soon they could expect zucchini from the plants that had just germinated and were pushing up through the soil. As I reported that it would be several weeks before they could be tempted to pick their produce, I ask how many plants they planted. They reported that they had planted a 20ft row with seeds about 6 inches apart. I wished them good luck and locked my doors. If you don’t like how beets taste, don’t plants beets just because your mother and father did. Know what you want to plant and how those plants will produce.

Know when the average last frost date for your area is. I currently live in planting USDA Zone 4, average last frost date in that area is around the 20^th of May. Call your local County Extension Agent for the correct date, or check with your favorite garden center. By knowing this date, it will help you with what you can plant outside safely. But remember that this is an average date. The last freeze can happen before and also after this date.

Back to the catalogs; the options and selections that you can choose from can be mind boggling. Where does one begin? What do you choose? How much do you order? Oh the questions! Maybe this is why the catalogs get tossed in the air. All companies offer similar seed choices, yet some seeds are exclusive. You will look at the catalogs and not realize there are so many varieties to choose from for planting green beans, or corn, even radishes have a lot of differences. Compare the harvest dates, check to see if the seeds germinate in cool soils or do you have to wait until the first of June. Read, Read, Read.

If you haven’t received any garden seed catalogs in the mail, and you are feeling left out, you can actually do a search on the internet for FREE SEED CATALOGS and start requesting. Over the years, I have had experience and great success with Henry Fields, Gurney’s Seed, Burpee Seeds, Johnny’s Select Seeds, Thompson and Morgan, and several other companies. This year I am trying a new company called Territorial Seed Company out of Oregon. If you request their current edition of catalog and find out that it is gone, most of them have their own website to browse and select seeds from.

The list and possibilities seem endless. Just think of the conversations that could be started when you bring to the local church potluck, a purple carrot salad, stripped pickled beets, or a seedless tomato salad. Have I got your interest yet?