Seed Swap Essentials

Seed swaps can be a fun way to connect with other growers and share samples of favorite heirloom cultivars, and gardening knowledge and experience that will help other growers succeed in their own gardens next season. And not surprisingly, late fall and Winter are the most popular times of year for many seed swap events, as seed crops have been harvested and dried, and there’s still time to think over and plan what you’ll grow in the next season’s garden. 

START SMALL

Plenty of swaps are large, heavily promoted  events open to the public or are part of a large event, but a seed swap doesn’t have to be a complicated, large gathering with catered food, entertainment, and a whole day of workshops. Plenty of seed swaps consist of a small group of friends gathered around the dining room table, or meeting up at the local brewery or coffee shop. If you’ve never hosted a seed swap before, a small gathering like this is a good place to start, or you could even make your seed swap a fun and memorable theme for a winter birthday party or part of a holiday gathering.

PROMOTE THE EVENT

Once you’ve chosen the date, location and size of your seed swap, it’s time to begin promoting the event. For a smaller gathering, digital media like Evite, social media pages, and group text messages and emails will work great. Give two or three weeks advance notice of the event and be sure to follow up with reminders. To build excitement and boost attendance, you might include a few specifics about what guests can look forward to at your seed swap, like your uncle Tony’s prized orange bell peppers, a rare heirloom watermelon variety, or a raffle for a cool prize.

CONSIDER SEED SOURCES

Now, letting guests share their own seed that they’ve harvested, as well as seed purchased from retailers will mean more seeds to share at your seed swap, and probably better attendance, too.  But whether their seed is self grown, or store bought, remind your guests to only bring open pollinated seed varieties. Seeds from hybrid plants , even though they be non-GMO , won’t grow ‘true to type’ ; in other words, there’s no way to know for sure what result you’d get from planting hybrid seeds. Store bought seed packets will almost surely already be labeled, but remind guests that bring their own harvested seed, that it should be clearly labeled with the type of crop, name of the variety and the date of harvest. And planting seeds is way more fun when they actually sprout, so be sure to ask your guests to bring only seeds should have been carefully stored (in a dark, cool, dry place), and are not more than three or four years old at the most. And consider that all of your guests, but especially the new gardeners attending your seed swap would, appreciate having at least one experienced grower to ‘lead’ the event. This seasoned gardener would answer questions, ensure seeds are properly labeled, event guidelines are followed, etc.

HOW MANY SEEDS TO TAKE

Larger seed swap events often have a firm limit on how many seeds one guest can take of a single variety -  usually, somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty five seeds. But a simple verbal reminder, or a note included in the digital promotions of the seed swap, should suffice for a smaller gathering. Large seed swap events also sometimes allow guests that arrive empty handed to leave with a packet or two of seeds, but consider that a smaller seed swap wouldn’t really be much of a swap if every guest didn’t at least bring one or two seed varieties. To encourage folks to arrive with seeds to swap, one common rule of thumb is that a guest not take any more seed packets than they bring. And there’s no need to fret over what to do with a cache of leftover seeds after the swap is over ;  these can simply be stored away until the next seed swap, or donated to schools and similar non-profits who will be delighted to have them.

 

WHAT TO SUPPLY

At the very least, you’ll want to have plenty of blank labels and a few pens so that everyone knows exactly what they go home with. You should also have some blank paper seed packets or small resealable plastic bags for any bulk seed samples that your guests will take home. Signs that clearly spell out the guidelines of the event and indicate specific areas at larger seed swaps are almost essential to keep things running smoothly there. And even though these signs aren’t as crucial at a smaller seed swap, your guests will still appreciate some creative signage and, perhaps, a little colorful decor. These small touches will make even the coziest winter seed swap more fun. Have a few scoops or spoons handy if you expect anyone to bring large amounts of bulk seed to your event. And if possible, send your guests home poised for success by having printed seed-saving and growing guides that they can take home along with their new seeds.

Stylish and Strong ; The Garden Loft Coop Design

Protection from the elements and security from predators are the most important features of any backyard coop design, and plenty of coops seem to manage this with an effective, but all too often, unappealing design.

But you’ll get way more enjoyment from your backyard flock when you combine these must-have strengths with an elegant design that enhances your existing landscape, and earns the approval of the neighbors and even the neighborhood HOA. 

And The Garden Loft does just that. This spacious backyard coop plan from the designers of the Garden Coop is large enough for up to sixteen hens, and like it’s smaller cousin, has a covered run integrated into the design. 

With the entire footprint of the coop covered with tinted polycarbonate roof panels, your hens will stray drier and more comfortable during the cold, rainy months, and shaded during the hottest part of the summer. 

And the Garden Loft is completely protected from predators and pests, whether they fly, dig, slither, or bite. This backyard coop design’s sturdy frame is clad with a combination of T1-11 siding and 1/2” galvanized hardware cloth mesh that’s buried around the entire perimeter of the coop. The open ceiling is protected with the same 1/2” wire mesh, keeping out predators and letting in fresh air. 

Some of the other delightful features in this clever coop design include the waist-high high hen house area on the back of the coop that makes it easier to clean, and helps protect the hens from sun and wind. There’s an interior access opening and chicken ladder that lets the flock go back and forth between the henhouse and the run, while the outside human entry door remains securely locked. And the Garden Loft has lots of perch space and plenty of nesting boxes.

 
The placement of the egg door makes it easy to collect eggs without having to enter the coop, and, perhaps the most delightful feature of the Garden Loft is that the open design that makes it easy to watch and enjoy the show from many angles.

The Garden Loft measures 11.5’ wide,  9’ deep, and 8.5’ tall, making a building permit unneccessary in many cities.  

And remember that just because the Garden Loft is large enough for sixteen hens, doesn’t mean that you have to actually keep that many in your coop. 

In fact the Garden Loft is the perfect sized coop for a smaller backyard flock of, say, five to eight chickens. A smaller flock will appreciate the extra space, and owners that travel or may not be available to let the hens out to forage every day, can feel better about leaving them inside this spacious coop for longer stretches of time. 

We love building the Garden Loft design for our customers because the step by step plans make it easy for us to deliver the same high-quality finished product every time ; you get a Garden Loft coop that looks just like the one in the photos. We build the Garden Loft’s frame with untreated red cedar that’ll last for many, many years, and gives the Garden Loft a special elegance and enhances the simple beauty of the design. Our team can complete much of the initial assembly in our workshop, reducing the time spent on site to about two days. And we’ll be happy to stain the siding on the back side of the coop to your specification.  

Of course, handy chicken keepers can roll up their sleeves, download the Garden Loft plans, and build one themselves. The plans are indeed beginner friendly, just like the website says, and there’s no complicated wood joinery. Take your time with it, recruit at least one capable helper, and you’ll be just as delighted with with the finished product as we are. 

Donnie Cates' 8'x8' Cedar Greenhouse

When a back injury sidelined Donnie Cates’ golf game, he bought a few plants and set them up beside a sunny window. That cheerful diversion for a golfer with too much time on his hands tuned into something bigger. As it turns out, Donnie really likes working with plants, and the sunny window was soon overcrowded. A greenhouse was the only way to get his new plant hobby out of first gear, and after researching greenhouses online, Donnie called us up with a few questions.

GREENHOUSE KIT. VS. HANDMADE GREENHOUSE

The biggest question was whether to buy a greenhouse kit, or choose a handmade greenhouse design. Since we assemble greenhouse kits, and also build cedar-framed greenhouses, we aren’t necessarily partial to either option. But when it comes to greenhouse kits, perhaps the main consideration is that they vary widely - in quality and price - and the lower priced greenhouse kits are infamous for collapsing during severe weather events - often resulting in a total loss of the owner’s investment, however much of a ‘bargain’ that may have been.

The well-worn adage “ you get what you pay for” seems to be especially true when it comes to greenhouse kits, and the higher priced kits do seem much stronger than their budget counterparts. 

But assembling greenhouse kits is time-consuming work, and often our fee to build a greenhouse base and assemble a kit isn’t much less than the cost of the kit itself. So, after considering this true cost comparison between the two options, and after weighing factors like the strength of the frame and quality of the glazing, very often a customer chooses a handmade, cedar-framed greenhouse design over a kit. And this proved to be the case with Donnie.

 

SITE SELECTION

The site we selected for Donnie’s  greenhouse is in a small nook on the right side of the house. We chose this location because it gets lots of sunlight during the cooler months of the year, but is shaded by an enormous oak tree during the summer. This combination of sun and shade is ideal for most hobby greenhouses, which seldom have cooling equipment, and during the summer, typically serve as more of a work space or storage shed for garden tools and equipment. Shading a greenhouse during the summer also helps extend the lifespan of the polycarbonate glazing. Donnie’s greenhouse location is really convenient, too - just a few steps from the back door, and right beside a most delightful backyard water feature.

 

CEDAR BASE

Like any well made structure, a greenhouse requires a strong, level foundation. We made Donnie’s greenhouse base with two courses of red cedar 4”x4” timbers, joined together with structural steel screws and waterproof wood adhesive. With a little digging, we soon leveled the base, and then filled in the floor with several inches depth of small glacier pebbles. 

Now, we prefer decorative gravel for greenhouse floors instead of concrete for two main reasons.

One is that a gravel floor can never become clogged and back up the way a drain in a concrete floor sometimes does.  Water drains evenly through the entire gravel floor, anywhere inside the greenhouse.

Another advantage is that a gravel greenhouse floor offers more traction and stability. With exposure to the perpetually wet environment of a greenhouse, concrete slab floors can get slimy and slippery over time.

Plus, decorative gravel varieties like pea gravel and glacier pebbles have a natural beauty that a concrete slab just doesn’t have.

CEDAR FRAME

A good greenhouse frame maximizes strength and minimizes any shade cast by the frame itself. To achieve this, the components must be substantial enough to be strong, but not so big that they cast excessive shade. And a greenhouse frame has to hold up in a constantly wet environment, too, which means the frame material is just as important as the design itself. 

Our first choice for our greenhouse frames is always rough sawn red cedar, which is strong and famously long-lasting in demanding outdoor applications, and in wet environments like a greenhouse. Hefty 2”x4” cedar rafters spaced 24” apart, and joined to a stout 2”x6” ridge pole, create an extremely strong roof that easily shrugs off heavy snow, wind, and ice loads, and still minimizes the shade cast by the frame. Two roof vent windows are neatly built into the rafters, and open and close automatically, based on the temperature inside the greenhouse.

 

POLYCARBONATE GLAZING

There’s so much to love about twin-wall polycarbonate greenhouse glazing, and it’s always our first choice for custom greenhouse designs. It’s lightweight, and easy to cut and work with. It can be screwed directly to a cedar greenhouse frame, making the structure more rigid and strong. It has much better insulation value than single-pane glass glazing, and it’s virtually shatterproof, and safer to work under than glass glazing. And 8mm twin-wall polycarbonate glazing comes in clear, and also a matte/opaque finish that diffuses sunlight, making it gentler for the plants inside. We chose matte polycarbonate glazing for Donnie’s greenhouse, but because the door faces that captivating water feature, Donnie requested that we use clear glazing on the front of the greenhouse. We were happy to accommodate that request, and now he can tend to his plants inside the greenhouse and still enjoy that amazing garden pond at the same time.

Essential Steps for Planting a Fall Garden

Comfortable weather, fewer bugs, less weeding. Tasty leafy green varieties that continually produce all season long, and are packed with nutrition. There’s so much to love about gardening in Autumn! Consider these simple tips before you plant, and this just might be your best fall garden yet.

Timing 

Make sure that what you’re about to plant is actually a cold-hardy variety - i.e., it can survive night time temperatures that may dip down into the 20’s. Just double check the label to be sure - there’s no harm in confirming that you aren’t wasting money planting a heat-loving summer variety at the wrong time of year. Leafy green varieties like lettuces, kale, collards, Swiss chard, and arugula are all examples of cold hardy edible varieties.

Those fall seedlings may look strong and eager on the shelf at the at the local garden center. But going from a gentle nursery environment where the intensity of wind and sunlight are heavily controlled, and professional growers water them frequently, out into the ‘real world’ in your backyard, can stress even the most vigorous plant starts. When you bring them home, ‘harden off’ your new seedlings by setting them in a sunny area protected from wind for an hour or so. As a general rule, you’ll want to double the amount of time that the seedlings spend in this sheltered outdoor area each day, for the next few days. Of course, you’ll need to make adjustments for any extreme weather that pops up, like an unusually hot day or severe thunderstorm.

When your seedlings are ready to be planted in the garden, choose a cloudy day or plant them late in the afternoon to help make the transition a little easier for them.

Sunlight

Your garden got plenty of sun this summer, but as we move into autumn, and the sun shifts lower in the sky - from directly East to West down to SouthEast to SouthWest - will it still get at least four hours of sunlight? Hopefully the answer is ‘yes’, but sometimes nearby buildings, a fence, or tree will shade a garden too much as the days shorten during the fall.

Soil 

If you’re planting a fall garden right on the heels of a summer garden, the soil will need to be replenished before you plant your fall seedlings. This crucial step is skipped surprisingly often by gardeners who know better. Think about it - how did those huge tomato, cucumber and squash plants get so big? Because they fed heavily on the nutrients in the soil all summer long. It doesn’t matter how much organic compost and fertilizer you mixed in before you planted in the spring, when the summer plants are cleared out of the garden, the soil is now spent ; there isn’t enough nutrition left to feed hungry fall varieties like kale and collards.  After clearing the summer plants from your garden beds, top-off the soil with an organic soil blend and fertilizer. Shop with your local nursery or garden center for the best quality organic soil and fertilizer - products there will be a step up from what you’ll get a Home Improvement center.

 

Water

Even healthy, hardened-off seedlings will experience some transplant shock. Minimize this with a generous watering them when you transplant them, and then frequent watering - perhaps even daily - for the first week. Consider that the root systems of your new fall seedlings are only a few inches deep, so you don’t need to shower them for twenty minutes at a time to soak their tiny root zones. The idea is to help them get established by keeping their roots evenly moist. Remember that overwatering can damage or kill any plant, so give your new fall seedlings enough water during that first week to help them get established in their new environment - don’t drown them.

Pests

One of the best things about fall gardening is that many insect pests taper off as the weather cools. But get too comfortable, because there are still a few fall garden insect pests that you’ll almost surely encounter, and cabbage worms are perhaps the most likely fall garden villain to watch out for. A white fluttering moth lays eggs on the undersides of the leaves of brassica varieties including cabbage, kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi. These eggs hatch small worms that have a green color that closely matches the green color of brassica varieties. In fact, the similarity of the color is truly remarkable, and it’s easy to overlook cabbage worms that are sitting in plain view. So, inspect your plants frequently for cotton-colored eggs on the undersides of leaves, and for hatched, hungry cabbage worms, which are usually found along the center stems of the top sides of leaves. If you see damaged leaves on your broccoli and collards, it’s a good bet that cabbage worms aren’t far away. Inspect your plants often to find, and dispose of cabbage worms ; Like other insect pests, if left unchecked, they’ll quickly get a foothold in your garden. Once established, they can do serious damage and are much harder to eradicate.

How to Clean Outdoor Cedar Projects

All exterior wood projects will eventually weather and fade from exposure to the elements -  even wood that’s been stained, painted, or sealed. And even though its reputation for outdoor durability is well deserved, red cedar is no exception ;  a cedar garden bed or greenhouse in a sunny location will fade from red to silver in a matter of weeks from UV exposure. Fortunately most people seem to delight in the attractive silver color of weathered cedar, and their new cedar project couldn’t fade from red to sliver fast enough.  Give it few years, though, and you may want to freshen up the appearance of the wood a little. And if you do decide to clean your cedar garden beds, chicken coop, or potting bench, here are two ways to approach the task that will help keep your cedar wood project intact and help protect your family and landscape. 

Wood Cleaners

The most important consideration with wood cleaners is the impact the product will have on nearby plants and trees, not to mention pets and your family. This can’t be overstated, and stories abound of overzealous homeowners killing trees and landscape plants with harsh wood cleaners that contained bleach or toxic chemicals. If your cedar project has become shabby enough to need a heavy-duty, toxic cleaner, it may be time to replace the wood instead of trying to clean it.

Non-toxic cedar cleaning products that contain no bleach - like Wash Safe Cedar Wash or Strip & Brite from Timber Pro Coatings -  are your best bet. Both are powerful cleaners with no harmful fumes, and that are safe to use around people, pets, and vegetation.  Strip & Brite is a two-step cleaner for outdoor wood surfaces brightens heavily weathered, discolored wood. It’ll wash away mildew and strip off transparent and semi-transparent oil-based stains, but won’t strip acrylic stains, silicone or latex products, urethane, or paint. Choose one of these non-toxic wood cleaning products, and your plants and trees will love you for it! 

Pressure Washer

A pressure washer may just be the way to go, but before you begin, remember ;  pressure washers are powerful tools, and if you’re not careful, can damage your cedar project. Start slow and take it easy - you’re gently cleaning the wood surface, not etching your grocery list on it. For soft woods like cedar and pine, use the lowest pressure setting that still gets the job done - 500 or 600 PSI should be about right, but never go above 1200 PSI when cleaning wood. And you probably won’t even need to add a cleaning solution to get the results you want -  try cleaning with just water, first, and see how it goes.

The goal is an evenly clean appearance, with no missed spots or small strips of dirty wood. To achieve this, use a fan-tip with a 40-60 degree spread, and move the wand with a sweeping motion, with the tip at least 6” away from the surface of the wood. Spray with the wood grain, and move your body and arm laterally, back and forth to help maintain a consistent distance between the spray tip and the surface of the wood.