Beware of 'northern' mail-order catalogs

For most of the rest of the country (well, above Zone 8b - which is us and portions of Texas and California), this is the month for planning, plotting and ordering seeds. After all, soil temperatures above our latitude are still too close to chilly, and that's no warm bed for what our spring vegetables prefer to germinate and sprout.

Do NOT randomly succumb to the lure of catalogs (and if you've ordered one, you will end up on the mailing list of many; they seem to be interconnected). Some come from afar. My latest was from Randolph, Wisc. Look it up. It's up near Sheboygan, north of Madison. It's cold there, even in the summer. Sure, they get to grow asparagus (in roadside ditches!) and ginseng and, in parts, morels. But when they offer tomatoes and corn and peppers and melons, by the time you get those in the ground here, it's way too late.

You've heard the saying corn is "knee-high by the Fourth of July?" They mean it up there in the frozen North. By Fourth of July, we Floridians have been harvesting for a month, and starting seeds for our fall crops. Lucky us; two full seasons.

The best bet at this point - and this is not to give free advertising for nurseries and Big Box stores - is to buy transplants for many of our spring/summer vegetables. Granted, you may not get the particular variety you want, but you will most likely get a sturdy plant that can be put in the ground and hit the road running.

There are some caveats here. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants endure the rigors of transplanting well. Beans, corn and squash (including melons) - not so much. But fortunately, the germination parameters of the latter are not very precise, and they pop up out of the ground in no time if the surface is warm and they get adequate moisture.

Another caveat: Warm-weather vegetables won't make significant growth until temperatures are reliably in the 60s. You know Florida: Don't like the weather? Wait a couple of hours. We have experienced frosts as late as April, so be prepared to protect the tender vegetables when there is a cold-weather warning. I find using a small tomato cage covered with a bag (make sure the plastic or paper goes all the way to the ground) is a reliable cold-protection unit. I have also invested in frost-cloth, a roll of woven, permeable fabric that allows a lot of light in, but cold out. It's a little unwieldy to install on a frigid, windy night, but it can stay on for weeks.

Mulch does moderate soil temperature, but it's tough to manage when you are expecting seedlings to emerge, particularly if you practice broad-band sowing, in which - instead of sowing in rows - you prepare the bed, scatter the seed and then rake to cover loosely with soil.

For this method, it's good to use light mulch the seedlings can power through. In late summer/fall, I can find plenty of dried grass clippings from my neighbors to keep the soil moist and cool. In the spring, I go for straw or hay. Keep in mind that first-cut hay may have weed (i.e. its own) seeds; straw is the second or third cutting, and normally doesn't contain as many fruiting bodies. If you can find a source of old (called spoiled) hay, grab onto it. The horses may not find it palatable, but your garden will.

Once the individual plants are up, spread more mulch. You can't do a garden any better. Keep it reasonable: 2-3 inches deep is enough, or else sometimes critters are attracted to the slowly decomposing organic matter. §

For some semi-tropical mail-order sources for now or later (this is no way comprehensive), check out:
www.mailordergardening.com
www.southernexposure.com
www.tomatogrowers.com
www.parkseed.com

Marina Blomberg is a freelance writer who has lived and gardened in Gainesville since 1972. She may be contacted through the editor: editor@towerpublications.com.

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