Timely Gardening Tips for Where You Live

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In the midst of cold, rainy December, we open our mailboxes and find new seed catalogs. For garden enthusiasts, these lift our spirits and cure the winter blues far better than sitting in front of a full-spectrum light.

Holiday shoppers may want to place a few carefully selected seed packets, a pair of great garden gloves and maybe a nifty tool like the Korean “EZ Digger” in a basket for gardeners on your list. Other popular gift ideas include kits for saving seeds or growing mushrooms, or garden markers. With catalog in hand, start planning for the 2007 garden season. The average item on the American dinner plate has traveled 1,500 miles, so it’s satisfying to know that much of yours can come from your own garden!

Rose Marie Nichols McGee
Nichols Garden Nursery
Albany, Ore.

Josh Kirschenbaum
Territorial Seed Co.
Cottage Grove, Ore.

Southwest

In the Southwest, the dark days of December are brightened by ristras: dried red chilies strung together and hung from doorways. While many chili varieties can be used to make a traditional ristra, we recommend ‘Española Improved,’ an early-season classic, or ‘Numex Big Jim,’ an extra-long chili we are offering in 2007. Both these varieties were developed through the chili breeding program at New Mexico State University, where the nonprofit Chile Pepper Institute celebrates all things capsicum.

Winter days also are brightened by the harvest of cold-hardy greens from cold frames: the French lettuce varieties ‘Brune D’Hiver’ (‘Brown Winter’) and ‘Rouge D’Hiver’ (‘Red Winter’) develop beautiful rust and red colors as the cold deepens, and make a colorful winter salad mixed with bright green mâche leaves. We love this season, and give thanks at each meal for the stored, preserved or dried bounty of our gardens.

Emily Gatch
Seeds of Change
Santa Fe, N.M.

We would like to thank Almanac editor Carol Mack and the regional Almanac contributors for lending their expertise to the magazine. — Mother

Digging Deeper

with Barbara Pleasant

The Price of Peat Moss

Recently I started a garden, and many books I’ve read recommend using peat moss to improve the soil. I’ve heard that peat moss may be a nonrenewable resource, plus it’s expensive. The less I spend, the more I save by growing my own vegetables. What do you recommend?

Jim Maroon
Lawton, Oklahoma

Avoid using large amounts as a soil amendment, but do use small amounts for seed-starting mixes. Here’s why:

Over 10 million cubic yards of peat moss are harvested each year from bogs in Canada, plus another million or so from bogs in the northern United States. Those are big numbers, but because less than 1 percent of North American peat lands are currently being mined, peat bogs remain more plentiful here than in the British Isles, where harvesting has reduced peat acreage by nearly 80 percent. However, peat comes from such slow-growing, slow rotting plants that it typically takes 1,000 years for a bog to add 1 yard to its depth. Once harvested, peat bogs are changed forever.

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