Timely Gardening Tips for where you live

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New England/Canada Maritimes
The days of strawberries and the sweet smell of newly mown hay are six months behind us — and six months ahead. Summer’s plenty is stored in the freezer and helps us through the darker days of winter. Pull some strawberries from the freezer and make a strawberry mousse. Delicious hot soups are easy to make from just about anything on hand. Winter flies by if you get out and move around in it — shovel, ski, skate or walk, then come in for hot soup or tea, and pull out the new seed catalogs.

I’m looking forward to planting a few new varieties in my garden, including ‘Piracicaba,’ a multi-headed broccoli, and ‘Limon,’ a lemon-yellow habanero-type pepper. This summer, I also plan to conduct a Thai basil trial, looking for plant mass and bolt resistance.

— Roberta Bailey, Fedco Seeds, Waterville, Maine.

Mid-Atlantic
Now is the time to reach under the fabric row cover and pull up a carrot so sweet it makes you dizzy. If your cold frame is full of tasty greens as well, you are the fortunate benefactor of your good timing, hard work and wise variety selection. To make sure you get the varieties you need, place orders early before seed stock starts running low.

Mid-January is the time to start bulb onions and artichokes from seed indoors. Sow the onions thickly in a flat and the artichokes in 5-inch pots. Move them to a greenhouse or heated cold frame two weeks after they sprout. Allow interior temperatures to dip to 40 degrees, but no lower — a light bulb can help regulate temperature in a tight cold frame. Artichokes must endure these cool temperatures soon if they are going to succeed in this region.

— Cricket Rakita, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, Mineral, Va.

Central/Midwest
Current gardening trends include a return to native plants, which of course, have been updated. For example, echinacea (purple coneflower) can now be found with larger flowers and reliable first-year blooms in ‘Primadonna Deep Rose.’ The new ‘Arizona Sun’ gaillardia won the 2005 All-America Selections award for its first-year blooms, which illustrates another trend in perennial growing — we aren’t as patient as we used to be. Many new selections grow quickly and easily from seed, including ‘Origami’ aquilegia, ‘Camelot’ digitalis and ‘Miss Tilly’ platycodon.

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