Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs

• For an interesting ornamental plant and a culinary addition, buy a plump, unshriveled, ginger root at the grocery store and plant it in a light, sandy soil just under the surface in a 6- to 8-inch pot. Place it in a warm, sunny window and keep damp until shoots appear. Water more frequently and fertilize monthly with high-phosphorus fertilizer. Harvest your crop in about eight months saving a piece to replant.

• Start planning now for next year's holiday gifts and decorations. Record those items you wished you had this year (dried flowers, herbs, pickles and preserves) and make sure you plant appropriate plants for next year's harvest.

• Parsley seeds are slow to germinate. Sometimes it can be three or more weeks before they show signs of growth above the soil. To encourage them to sprout more rapidly, soften the seeds by soaking them overnight in warm water. Then put 3 or 4 seeds in a pot full of soilless mix, such as equal parts of peat moss and vermiculite, plus a tiny bit of ground limestone and fertilizer. Keep the media moist during the entire germination time. Set plants in garden in early May.

• Start snow peas and sugar snap peas outdoors around the Martin Luther King holiday.(in zone 7) Soak seeds overnight (or pre-sprout them), and use a legume inoculant to encourage beneficial soil bacteria.

• By the end of the month, start lettuce and brassicas, such as broccoli and cabbage, indoors for transplanting outdoors in March.

• Spread an inch of rich compost or rotted manure, plus an organic fertilizer, on your asparagus bed, and weed it well.

• If you've cover-cropped your vegetable garden and annual beds with a grass or grain, such as cereal rye, you can turn it into the soil any time after the middle of the month. Mow it first to make incorporation easier. You can leave your crimson clover cover crops alone until they bloom in the spring.

• Check your old seeds. Some vegetable seeds, such as beans, okra, and sweet corn, have a fairly short life. Other seeds, such as tomatoes, can last several years. When in doubt, do a germination test - count out 10 seeds, wrap them in a moist paper towel, put the towel in a baggie, and keep the baggie at room temperature. Keep the paper damp (not soggy!), and check daily. If 7 seeds germinate, then you can expect a germination rate of about 70%, and you'll just need to over-plant a bit. Seeds that germinate at less than 50% should be composted.

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