Make Your Own Nasturtium Vinegar

Gently rinse and air dry 15-18  nasturtium flowers. Combine with 1 1/2 cups of white wine vinegar in a glass jar with  a screw-on lid. (If the lid is metal, line it with plastic wrap.) Put on the lid and let the flowers steep  and color the vinegar for 10 days to 2 weeks. Strain the jewel-colored vinegar through cheesecloth.

Use with a fine olive oil for a delicious vinaigrette dressing.

What to Plant in May

Many of us think that May is somehow already too late or behind schedule for the best planting possibilities. Not to worry! Now that temperatures are consistently in the 50’s at night and daytime weather is warm and settled, it’s the perfect time for sowing seeds right into the garden.
Read What to Plant in May for details.

View "When to Plant Renee's Garden Seeds" for a reference chart of planting time for all of our seed varieties.

May in the Trial Garden - by Lindsay Del Carlo, Trial Garden Manager

We are now starting to harvest the many cool weather Mesclun salad mixes sown last month. Some of these mixtures are made up only of lettuces , while others contain lettuces plus other various greens like Arugula, Chicory, Mizuna, Mustard, Tat Soi, etc. Mesclun mixes are usually our first harvest because they are ready so quickly – just 30 to 40 days.

We are also starting to taste a very handsome new baby leaf mix made up of all greens: yellow and silver chards combined with green and purple-leaved beets. When you cut them at the baby leaf size, these colorful greens are a wonderful addition to salads, and the tender leaves can also be steamed with a simple dressing. The seeds were sown at a very close 1/2 inch spacing so they grew into a thick carpet. When they were 3-4 inches tall, we sheared a portion to eat, leaving a leafy crown to regrow for a 2nd cut.

Now that weather is warm enough, we have begun direct seeding summer flowers that we are trialing like sunflowers, cosmos, gaillardia, zinnias and coreopsis. We have found it is important to wait until both soil and air are warm enough to enhance seed germination: it is tempting when you get beautiful mild early spring days to want to sow seeds right in the garden. The problem is that the night temperatures are still too low and the soil has not had a chance to warm up enough. This really decreases the germination rates and the low night temperatures combined with cool and wet soil causes seeds to rot in the ground before they have a chance to get going.

We found that if we wait until conditions are right, (mild, settled weather with temperatures in the 50 ° F. (10° C) both day and night) we get very quick and uniform germination with seeds sown directly into the garden beds. We've learned to ignore spring fever, and wait several more weeks to sow summer flowers. The results are so much better!

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