Garden Advice

Halfway to Spring: Imbolc

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Also called Candlemas, Oimelc, or St. Brigid’s Day, Imbolc was a Celtic celebration that took place on February 1st or 2nd each year. This celebration symbolizes the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

The Romans and ancient Brits also celebrated this important time of year. The Romans called it Lupercalia, and the Brits called it Sul-Minerva. There’s evidence that this celebration dates back to the Neolithic, when megalithic chambers marked the light of the rising sun on this day.

Imbolc was believed to have originally meant “in the belly of the Mother” or just “in the belly.” It was a time when many herd animals were pregnant, and winter food stores were getting low. It was a time to look forward to the season to come. 

For the Celts, this festival celebrated Brigid a maiden sun goddess who brought spring to the land. She’s associated with light and warmth; candles and fires were often part of the celebration. Brigid was later added to Christian celebrations as St. Brigid.

According to the Boston Public Library, a modern celebration can include a chant to send away winter:

“Old man winter, it’s time to go!

Take with you these piles of snow!

Melt, snow, melt!

Spring will soon return!

A flame, a fire, all the warmth it brings,

melt the snow, cold be gone, welcome back the spring!“

Agricultural Calendar

History aside, this time of year is an important date in the agricultural calendar, and it’s time we start looking ahead to spring too! In zone 7a, we begin sowing seeds indoors this time of year. Here’s what we’re planting: 

  • Broccoli (Sow indoors Jan 31-May 31)
  • Cabbage (Sow indoors Jan 31-Jul 1)
  • Cauliflower (Sow indoors Jan 31-Mar 7)
  • Celery & Celeriac (Jan 21-Feb 15)

Coastal gardeners, you’ll have mild winters that will allow your planting dates to be 2 to 4 weeks earlier than ours. Mountain gardeners have harsher winters and will be 2 to 4 weeks behind us.

Find the complete list of our recommended planting dates in the back of our catalog or click here.

Seed Starting

It’s also an excellent time to learn about or review good seed starting practices. Good practices like consistent watering, using a proper potting mix, potting seedlings up as needed, and hardening off transplants lead to a more healthy and prosperous garden throughout the season.

Garden Planning

If you haven’t already done so, it’s also time to plan your garden. You’ll want to consider crop rotations and successions, new varieties, and isolation distances.

Here are some of our resources to plan your garden:

Are you getting ready for spring yet?

Garden Advice

Seed to Plate: Cherry Tomatoes

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Tomatoes are a big highlight of the summer garden. Their stunning colors and incredible, complex flavors make them a hit with the whole family, especially cherry tomatoes. They’re fun for kids and adults alike to grow, pick, and eat.

How to Grow Cherry Tomatoes From Seed

Even if you’re new to gardening, cherry tomatoes are a great plant to start from seed. You’ll need to start your seeds indoors about six weeks before your last expected frost date for best results. 

Plant your seeds 1/4 inch deep in shallow flats filled with quality potting mix. Maintain soil temperature between 75-85° F for good germination.

When the seedlings have produced several leaves, transplant them into 3-inch pots to promote root growth. After transplanting, keep seedlings at a lower temperature at night, 50-60° F, to encourage earlier flowering in some varieties. Day temperatures should rise to 75-85° F to promote rapid growth. 

Expose plants to light and air currents to harden the plants and to encourage stockiness. Water sparingly, but do not allow the growth to be checked. Fertilize with complete, soluble fertilizer or fish emulsion if leaves become yellow or purple. Keep phosphorous levels high. Too much nitrogen will delay fruiting. 

Growing Cherry Tomatoes in the Garden

Tomatoes should be planted out after your last frost date when the average soil temperature has reached 60-65° F. Tomatoes need plenty of space to grow. Staked plants should be about 24 inches apart, and caged plants should be 36 to 48 inches apart. Rows should be 60 inches apart. This spacing helps ensure they receive adequate light, airflow, nutrients, and moisture.

Select an area for tomatoes that receives full sun or as close to it as possible. To avoid soil-borne diseases, don’t plant them anywhere you’ve grown tomatoes in the last four years. Tomatoes thrive in rich, well-drained soil. Consider adding a couple of inches of finished compost and broad-forking your plot before planting if needed.

When you plant your tomatoes, you want to plant them deeply. Dig a hole deep enough that about 2/3 of the stem is covered, even if you have to remove some lower branches. This buried stem will send out roots giving your tomato a better start.

Keeping the soil consistently moist is key to good tomato production. It should be moist but not saturated. Mulch around the base of your plants and water regularly.

Don’t wait for tomato plants to begin to sprawl to trellis them. Set up stakes or trellises early. These make harvesting cherry tomatoes much easier!

How to Grow Cherry Tomatoes in Containers

Cherry tomatoes are perfect for gardeners with limited space too! They can thrive in containers on sunny porches, patios, and even driveways with just a bit of care and knowledge.

The first thing you need to do is ensure you have an appropriate place. Tomatoes should be grown in spots where they’ll receive at least 6 hours of sunlight per day. You’ll also want to consider how far the location is from a water source because your plant will need to be watered fairly often at the height of summer.

Then, select an appropriate container. You’ll want to find a pot that’s at least 5 gallons. Know that the smaller the pot you choose, the more often you’ll need to water and feed your plant. Except for fabric containers, you’ll need to find a container with drainage holes or drill some yourself. Cherry tomatoes can be grown in plastic, terracotta, or ceramic pots. Note that black plastic pots may be detrimental to plant growth in the deep south as they can make the soil temperatures high.

Your cherry tomato is going to need some support. This can be as simple as using cloth strips to tie them to your porch railing or driving a metal t-post in behind your pot to use as a stake.

Don’t let your potted cherry tomatoes dry out completely. Keep the soil moist but not saturated by watering regularly. You should also consider feeding them with a water-soluble fertilizer like liquid kelp a few times throughout the season, especially if they develop signs of a nutrient deficiency.

Grow a Rainbow 

Red

Yellow

Black/Purple

Pink

Multicolor

Green

What to Do With Cherry Tomatoes

There’s nothing better than a cherry tomato popped in your mouth on a stroll through the garden still sun-warmed off the vine. However, cherry tomatoes are super prolific! Here are a few ideas to make sure you can put all those cherries to good use.

Garden Advice

Improving Heavy Clay Soils

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Gardeners rarely begin their journey with a plot of perfect soil, but it’s something we all dream about. In the Southeast, many gardeners have to work with heavy clay soils. While clay soil is rich in minerals and many nutrients, it’s prone to compaction, doesn’t drain well in wet weather, and doesn’t hold water well during droughts. Growing certain root crops like large carrot varieties can be especially tough.

Clay soils are a great foundation to improve on. Here are a few organic methods to improve your heavy clay soil. 

Practice No-Till (or minimal-till) Agriculture

It may sound counterintuitive, but tilling can make clay soils worse. Tilling increases soil compaction and kills beneficial fungi and micro-organisms. 

Cover Crops

Cover crops add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Great choices for improving clay soils include buckwheat, clover, and wheat. Clover has the benefit of being a nitrogen-fixing legume, meaning that through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria, it captures nitrogen from the air and adds it to the soil.

You may also want to mix in large or deep-rooted cover crops like daikon radishes, lava beans, and alfalfa. These crops help break up compacted soil and create channels for air and water as their roots decompose.

Chop & Drop

You can also use a method commonly used by permaculturalists called “chop and drop.” This method involves growing crops like comfrey, pigeon peas, moringa, sun hemp, and sorghum. These crops are chopped and dropped on the soil to decompose. Comfrey is a popular choice for this in perennial gardens and fruit tree guilds.

Broadfork

Broadforking your soil is a great way to loosen soil without disturbing the layers or structure. It helps mitigate compaction and preserve beneficial organisms and fungi in the soil. 

Create Permanent Beds

Even just walking on your garden soil can cause severe compaction. Creating permanent beds that you don’t till, step on, or use machinery will help make light, fluffy soil. 

Use Terraces or Swales

If your property has heavy clay soil and a slope, you’ll probably deal with water issues. Planting in rows or terraces that are perpendicular to the slope of the land will help slow down the water in your garden and reduce erosion issues. Swales built on contours take this further and are a great way to catch large amounts of rainwater, allowing your plants to access it slowly, even on significant slopes. 

Spread Compost

Finished compost is the quickest way to beef up the organic matter in your soil. Adding a couple of inches of compost to each bed adds nutrients, improves water retention and drainage, and lightens the soil.

Use Mulch

Mulch helps block weeds, hold moisture, and keep soil temperatures cool. It also adds a lot of organic matter to your soil as it decomposes. Any organic mulch can help improve your clay soils, including straw, leaves, grass clippings, woodchips, and hay. Keep in mind that hay tends to have a lot of weed seeds.

Grow Varieties Adapted to Heavy Clay Soils

Improving clay soils isn’t something that happens overnight, especially in large gardens. If you’re planting in a garden with heavy clay soils this year, try some varieties that are adapted to these conditions.

  • Chantey Red Core Carrots
    This blocky, broad-shouldered variety with a blunt tip is well-suited to growing in clay. It was introduced from France in the 1800s.
  • Danvers 126 Carrots
    These carrots taper to a blunt point and are especially suited to growing in clay soil. The strong tops aid harvesting.
  • Everona Large Green Tomatillo
    These plants produce large, tasty tomatillos and thrive even in heavy clay soil and drought.  Seed collected by Barbara Rosholdt from tomatillos planted by Mexican workers at the Everona sheep dairy near Unionville, VA. Introduced in 2008 by SESE.
  • McCormack’s Blue Dent
    This beautiful dent corn makes delicious light blue flour and is especially suited to the eastern U.S., clay soils, and drought-prone areas. Introduced in 1994 by SESE. Bred by Dr. Jeff McCormack from a cross between Hickory King and an unnamed heirloom blue dent.
  • Oxheart Carrots
    A good carrot choice for shallow or heavy clay soils that most carrots don’t like. Dating to 1884, this variety produces thick, sweet “oxheart”-shaped carrots, 5-6 in. long and 3-4 in. wide, weighing up to a pound!
  • Pike Muskmelon
    Bred specially for growing in unirrigated clay soil, this vigorous melon has outstanding flavor and good disease-resistant. Introduced in 1935, Aaron Pike of Pike & Young Seeds; seedstock supplied to SESE by Aaron Pike’s niece.
  • Tennessee Red Valencia Peanuts
    This pre-1930 produces rich, sweet peanuts with red skins. It’s easy to grow without hilling, even in clay soils.
  • Texas Gourdseed Corn
    Originally brought to south Texas by German farmers who migrated from Appalachia during the late 19th century, this variety withstands drought and does well in clay soil. In south Texas, this is considered to be the best choice for tortilla flour.
  • Turga Parsnip
    This Hungarian heirloom produces short, stout roots that are good for heavy clay soils.
  • Southern Peas (Cowpeas)
    These productive peas are well-adapted to poor soils and drought. We carry 16 varieties at SESE.

Saving the Past for the Future