Look Ahead to Gardening
by
Elizabeth Bassett

So you didn't take my advice. You're still slumped by the woodstove
grousing about winter. Well try this. Dig some garden catalogs out of
the recycling bin and pull a chair to a sunny window. Peppers spill
across the pages- red, orange, purple, black, green; baskets brim with
beans; beets come in unimaginable colors. You can practically smell
the bouquet of sweet peas. If you're still in the dumps, seek
professional help promptly.
Penny White of Plum Hill Farm describes the February Disease. Not the
grumpy part, the seed temptation part. Penny's smile is a feature at
the Charlotte's Farmers Market. She sells peaches that gush juice down
your chin. (She always has paper towel handy, too.) She also grows
tomatoes, potatoes of many colors and, in a good year, apricots. Any
day now Penny will graft her fruit trees. But I'm getting ahead of
myself.
Penny orders many of her seeds by mail, trying new varieties every
year. "I can't resist something new," she says. "I keep a packet for
several years- four is my cut-off." Penny orders from Johnny's in
Maine, Fedco, Seedsavers Exchange, Harris, Park, and Burpee. Her
latest discovery is Seeds from Italy, on the web at
www.growitalian.com. Serpent of Sicily is one of thirteen varieties of
zucchini. Try visiting the website and not clicking "add to cart."
Penny loves their lettuce leaf basil. "Wrap a leaf around slices of
tomato and mozzarella. Italian fast food!" she exclaims. "My gardens
are inspired by hunger."
At Plum Hill Farm sixteen seed flats warm in a southern window where
fluorescent lights augment nature's rays. Penny's pepper and pansy
seedlings already stretch toward the sun. In coming months they will
graduate outdoors. "Eric built me a sun shed," Penny says. "Later in
the spring we'll heat it at night with an electric space heater."
Plastic stretches over the metal arches of a high tunnel to protect
garden rows. "It functions like a big cold frame," she adds. "You can
stand up and walk in it."
What about pests? "I laminate sheets of colored paper- yellow and
white, to create sticky traps. Then I apply a thick coat of oil- car
oil works. When the traps are coated in critters I wipe them clean and
start again." Penny says, "I use common sense- we're just folks, you
know."
Not every folk in town is testing stone fruit varieties. On her
west-facing hillside Penny learns more every year about her peaches,
plums, and apricots. "If you want to grow apricots in Charlotte, plant
the tree in a cold spot where the snow lingers. It's not winter but
spring that causes problems. If trees blossom too early, cold weather
is sure to follow and the fruit is lost."
On a recent frigid day I settled on a bench in the book room at
Gardener's Supply in Burlington's Intervale. I perused how-to manuals
on tulips, orchids, and bonsai. I ogled delicate drawings in Chez
Panisse Fruits- Meyer lemons, kumquats, and huckleberries. I leafed
through Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, Annuals for Dummies, and
The Feng Shui Garden. Then I roamed the seed aisles. Some packets are
so beautiful I'm inclined to frame a few after planting. Plants of
Distinction from England include ruffled black beauty poppies and
pitcher plants so exotic that I can't imagine them out-maneuvering the
pig weed in my garden. Seed Saver's Exchange is reintroducing your
grandmother's vegetables to a new generation, carrot-shaped cylindria
beets, true lemon cucumbers, and the picturesque fish pepper. Johnny's
proposes 19 varieties of basil from a bright yellow-green to lustrous
purple ruffles. Anise and clove-flavored sweet Thai basil spouts
cascades of purple flowers- the most beautiful plant in my garden last
season! Holy basil, sacred to Hindus, hints of mint. Enroute home from
the Intervale, stop at Thai Phat Asian grocer on North Street for
jasmine rice, coconut milk, and curry paste to accompany the exotic
basil.
If Burlington isn't on the itinerary, Companion Hardware sells Page's
and Burpee seeds, including a new organic line of the latter. Barrels
of onion starts and potato eyes will join them shortly.
Don't want to bend over? Think grapes and fruit trees. Miller
Nurseries in the frigid Finger Lakes region of New York, offer a
staggering range of fruits for this climate. Who would imagine that
pawpaws and persimmons are hardy to zone 4 where the minimum average
temperature is -20 to -30 degrees? The catalog features sweet
cherries, dwarfed, self-pollinating, and hardy in zone 5 where average
annual low temperature ranges from -10 to -20. Only the occasional
night in Charlotte dips below -20. Bowls brim with raspberries,
blackberries, and strawberries and branches bow under the weight of
blueberries, pears, and apricots. "No bog" cranberries grow where
blueberries would, up to two pounds per plant. You will have to bend
over the harvest them, however.
This year, consider planting a garden row for the Charlotte Food
Shelf. Karen Doris recommends root crops. "Many of our families raise
fresh vegetables throughout the summer but can't store them into
winter. Be easy on yourself," Karen adds. "If you grow green beans you
have a short window for harvesting. Carrots, garlic, turnips,
potatoes, or beets can stay in the ground until you're ready to dig
them. Do the work once when you harvest your own crop." The Food Shelf
has plenty of refrigerator space for carrots. "We've still got a few
winter squash in the basement."
In my pantry I've got bottled sunshine, sweet little bursts of
summer. Last August, with my arm in a cast and boatloads of cherry
tomatoes, I spread the red, yellow, and orange spheres on a window
screen in the sun. Now, on grey days when spring doesn't seem to be
around the corner, I devour a few and all is right with the world.

Elizabeth Bassett is the author of nature "Walks in Northern Vermont
and the Champlain Valley" and a CVU School Board Member.