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A Tour
through our Greenhouses!
Wow, what a thrill to walk through our
greenhouses right now! I know you are unable to experience what we do
every day but I wanted to show you some photos of what it looks like and even
though we don't have the ability to let you smell that tomato smell or breathe
the scent of our fresh herbs, at least you can see what it looks like.
Our first shipping week begins on Monday and we are ready! Our plants are
just lovely right now and they are ready to go. Although snow is predicted
for next week here, we will be sending plants to many areas to the south and
west and if the weather gods are with us, all will be well.
So many preparations have gone into making this the best season ever and we
can't wait to start shipping! This is a very exciting time for us
here with lots of new employees, additional greenhouse space, new computers and
lots of training going on. We have been extremely lucky to have so many of
our favorite employees returning and to have fantastic new ones too!
We
have beautiful herbs right now! Our
Fennel, Cilantro,
Stevia, Thyme, and Bay Laurels,
among others, are really gorgeous and are perfect to begin shipping to the mid
and lower south. Many herbs are able to
be planted earlier than Basil, such as Fennel and Cilantro which love to grow in
springtime!
Read more below about when and how to grow
our spectacularly
colored
 Lettuces,
Spinach, Broccoli, Swiss Chard
and even
Leeks and Bunching Onions
which are perfect for
planting in early spring for most areas
during the next few weeks.
(Our far northern friends will have to wait
just a bit longer.)
Asparagus, Onions, and Potatoes
are all ready to ship now. Keep in mind that some of these items will not
be around for long so check the availability dates and get your orders in early
while supplies last. These plants love the cooler weather and need to
plant in your garden before the last frost.
OUR NEW GREENHOUSE HOURS
We have new hours for visiting here at The
Tasteful Garden greenhouses. As much as we love to see you all here and visit
with you, we are hoping you will all understand that we must limit our public
days to Fridays and Saturdays this season so we can give our shipping days the
full attention they require. If you order ahead, you can pick up here any
Friday or Saturday during the growing season. You will be offered a will
call option at checkout in the shipping section, under "Other Shipping Options".
Just specify in the order notes where you want to pick up, either at our farm or
at a special sale location listed below.
The new yellow bar across the top of this page
has links to all the pages on our website. Click on "About Us" for
our new store hours and a map with directions to our location or come visit us
at these special sale locations this spring.
SAVE THESE DATES -
PEPPER PLACE SATURDAY MARKET IS OPENING
EARLY! We have been
notified that the Birmingham Pepper Place market will be open earlier than usual
this year! April 17th will be the first market day and although it will be
a reduced number of vendors than the full summer market, there will be wonderful
plants and produce available early. You may pick up your plants at this
market if you like, just let us know
The
Bloom N' Garden plant sale and
expo in Franklin, Tennessee (near Nashville) will take place the weekend of
April 9th, 10th and 11th.
We will be sending lots of plants to our friends in Tennessee! This is a
great show and sale sponsored by the Master Gardeners of Franklin. Click
here for tickets.
"Catalog on
Demand"
is a new feature that allows you to
create a pdf catalog of our products.
When you see this button
on category pages, on your
search results page, or on your wish list, you can click to order an electronic
catalog to be sent to you with
those
products listed.
After a few minutes, a link will be sent to your email
address that will allow you to open a pdf document (Adobe Reader required) that
you can print or email to a friend. We love this feature and hope you will
too. You can also click on this link to
view catalogs
we already have made up for you.
Growing
Early Spring Vegetables
Broccoli, Spinach, Lettuces
and other greens
are easy to grow as long as the temperature is right for them.
Like all vegetables, there are certain ranges of low and high
temps that create the perfect growing environment for them to
grow, flower and fruit. While tomatoes, eggplants and
peppers prefer hot summers with long days and warm soil, the "brassicas",
(Broccoli and Cabbage family) and all leafy greens (Lettuce,
Spinach, etc.) prefer a bit cooler and can even take a small
amount of shade. They generally mature in about 60-80
days, like tomatoes, but you can also harvest the leafy types as
"baby" sized and the plant will continue to produce leaves as
long as the weather stays cool enough for them. A light
frost will actually sweeten the leaves of many of these
vegetables such as Lettuce, Collard greens, Cabbages and
Spinach.
Timing is
everything. You really want to make sure that these plants
are put in the garden at the right time. This requires us
to have a good idea of what our weather is going to do which can
be a challenge sometimes. Generally, about 3-4
weeks before your last frost date, not your last freeze date, or
about mid March - mid April for most of us. A hard freeze
can be hard on young vegetables so watch for late freezing
weather predictions.
Here at the
farm in Alabama, our last frost date is about April 15th.
We will plant our Broccoli and Spinach and other greens around
March 15th while making sure to check the predictions for late
cold snaps. Up north, this would be more likely around
April 15th to plant while some
 areas
plant these plants as late as mid May and far south may not
plant until winter season. Peas also can be cold hardy and
make nice early spring plants so check our catalog for
Garden Peas, Snow Peas and Sugar Snap pea
seeds
for starting them when you plant your "cool season" plants.
Strawberries
should also be planted earlier than tomatoes and can take even
freezing temperatures so give them a good start and get them
into the ground well before summer heat for the best results
with June fruiting.
Another plant that should be
planted in early spring is
Asparagus sold as "bare root"
crowns that will need to plant before they break dormancy.
At least 3-4 weeks before your last frost date is the best time
to plant them and any later will result in decreased production
and too much heat may even kill the new plants. We have two
varieties available this spring,
a
Mary Washington
heirloom variety and
UC157
a very
nice hybrid variety.
 Onions
are planted during very early spring in the
South, and a bit later in the
North for harvesting "young" onion bulbs in late
spring, and full-sized bulbs in summer or early fall. Here in the South,
we plant in January and
February so the young bulbs get the chilling hours they
need and the bulbs are being formed when days are short. In the North,
onions are planted as soon as the ground can be dug and the bulbs will form when
the days are long, during the summer months. It is critical that onions be
planted at the proper time in your area or the plants may not form large round
bulbs, although you can harvest slender small "spring onions" anytime. If
you are in the middle of the US, plant intermediate or choose short day or long
day based on how far above the Mason-Dixon line you are. Our onions are
indicated for which area they are appropriate to plant and each has a map on the
growing information tab. Our shipping dates for onions are based upon the
best time to plant in your area.
Leeks and Bunching Onions
can be planted at the same time and will be a great addition to the garden.
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(Keep in mind as you order these varieties,
they will only be available
through the first week in May and they may need to be sent ahead of the tomatoes
in your order to be planted at the appropriate time. When purchasing these
items, you will be asked if you need an earlier shipping date for them. When you split your order in this way,
we may need to add an additional $6.50 shipping charge, depending upon the size
of your order. If your order is large enough to require two boxes, we
generally don't need to add anything.) |
Artichokes
are also plants that should be planted early however they are
not cold hardy so they must be covered if your temperatures will
be dropping below freezing. Being long season type plants,
they will need to grow to over 4 feet
before they start producing artichokes! Getting a head
start by planting them early, and allowing them to do most of
their growing while it is cool is the best method for success.
View Artichoke plants in our catalog.
 Last
but not Least...More Tomatoes!
Mortgage Lifter tomatoes
are another very old variety with very
smooth, meaty flesh and with few seeds. There is a funny
story about this one saving a mortgage for a guy named Radiator
Charlie but this tomato really is the epitome of the heirloom
tomato. While some folks think that a "Pink" tomato would
have no flavor like the "grocery store" tomatoes, this tomato
will make you forget all about those store bought tasteless
varieties. Silky smooth texture and sweet juicy
flavor with just a touch of acidity make this one perfect
for the BLT or BLTA or BLTC or whatever you can come up with!
Huge fruits run about 16-20 oz. .
Pineapple,
(some call it Hawaiian Pineapple) is the best of all the gold
striped heirlooms. Around for many years, the color and
texture almost surpass the sweetness and melt in your mouth
flavor of this tomato. Best sliced on a plate for a
caprese salad or chopped into the most colorful salsa, we
really love growing this tomato and even the plants are
beautiful.
Specials in our catalog: Free Gifts
and more...
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(One free
gift per customer only while supplies last. Add
them to your cart before you checkout.)
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 We
are in the Top 5 on Dave's Garden!
One of the most respected gardening web
sites, Dave's Garden, has the "Garden
Watchdog" which rates mail order nurseries all over the country based on
comments from actual purchasers of their products. We have been listed on
this site for many years and have lots of nice comments from our customers so we
are proud to announce that we are in the top 5 for vegetables on their listing
of hundreds of nurseries and garden supply stores. Click on this logo to
add your own comments to our listing on Dave's Garden Watchdog to help other
folks discover our great products.
 Spring
is just around the corner, we hope it will fill your life with
warmth and get rid of the cold winter doldrums very soon.
Cindy & George Martin
The Tasteful Garden
contact us at mail@tastefulgarden.com or call us at
256-403-3413.
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