Almost Instant Green Thumb
Cutting Garden
A cutting garden is a working garden, designed for function; not form. The idea is to grow flowers you can regularly cut and enjoy in your home. Ideal picks: long blooming perennials (campanula, lavender and lilies), foliage plants (eucalyptus, flowering cabbage and coleus) and annuals (cosmos, snapdragons, sunflowers and zinnia).
What you’ll need | Compost, fertilizer, seed packets, a pitchfork and a trowel. You’ll also use mulch and liquid fertilizer.
Best advice | Susan Schieffelin of the Greenwich Garden Club suggests selecting a sunny spot with six to eight hours of light each day, as well as adding compost or chopped leaves to enhance the soil. Mix in a granular, slow-release fertilizer to feed your plants for weeks to come. Plant your seeds following the instructions on the package and group the annual seeds by early season, midseason and late season blooms. Group flowers with similar sun, water and drainage requirements and keep tall plants together so they don’t shade out small ones. Organize your plants and flowers in wide rows and within arm’s reach of where you might stand to cut the stems. Once the plants grow a few inches, spread two to three inches of mulch across the bed; avoiding stems. When the plants fully bloom, apply diluted liquid fertilizer periodically to the soil. Once they stop blooming, pull them out of the garden, re-cultivate the soil and plant again.
Kid’s Garden
An empty Clementine crate makes for a perfect children’s garden. Choose plants smaller than six inches by six inches — try little finger carrots, cherry bell radishes, speckled dwarf head lettuce and micro-tom tomatoes, which produce tomatoes that end up no larger than the size of a penny. If you’d like to include some flowers, try some nasturtium, whose leaves, seeds and yellow, orange or red flowers are totally edible.
What you’ll need | An empty clementine crate, some newspaper, potting soil, some seeds, a spray bottle and a plastic tray liner (a cookie sheet works just as well).
Best advice | Lisa Beebe of the Garden Education Center of Greenwich says you should start by lining the crate with newspaper, then place it on top of the plastic liner. Fill your crate with moist potting soil and decide how you’d like to arrange your garden. Every two inches, place a cluster of seeds in the soil, according to the packet instructions. Cover the seeds with soil and label each row with the names of each veggie or flowering plant. (It might be fun to encourage your children to get creative with the labels using fun colors and stickers.) Once you’re organized, decorate your garden. Add a mini stone walkway or another personal touch. Place your crate in the sunniest spot in the house and mist it heavily every two days (never use a watering can). You should have a few sprouts pop up within one week.
Edible Garden
Try your hand at growing edible flowers, which can add a unique flavor or embellishment to meals. It’s best to plant an edible garden in a spot away from plants treated with chemicals.
What you’ll need | Annual seed packets (marigolds, violets or nasturtium) and perennial seedlings (bee balm, fennel, chamomile or daylily) and some compost.
Best advice | John Horn of McArdle’s Florist & Garden Center in Greenwich recommends starting with a sunny spot. Loosen the soil up to eight or 10 inches deep and spread two to three inches of compost throughout the garden, turning the soil over a second time until it’s mixed and crumbly. Sprinkle the annual seeds over the soil, two to three inches apart and lightly press in place. Meanwhile, your perennial seedlings should be six to eight inches apart. Sprinkle the area with water daily. Your garden should mature in eight to 10 weeks. Pick your flowers on cool mornings once the dew has evaporated, and don’t pick anything that isn’t fully open. Harvest your flowers three to four hours before using them, placing long-stem flowers in a container of water and short-stemmed flowers in a plastic bag in the refrigerator (use some damp paper towels in the bottom of the bag to maintain high humidity). Horn suggests buying a reference book to help you along and mind allergies. He likes Edible Flowers by Kathy Brown. *