You’re probably tired of the cold and snow and it’s only January, that’s why we’re excited it’s seed time.
We’ve received most of our seed catalogs and will order for 2019 in upcoming weeks. Looking forward to testing some new varieties for next year. This year we will offer for sale some of the varieties tested in 2018. We will offer varieties of beans, beets, carrots, chard, cucumber, herbs, lettuce, peas, pumpkin, spinach, and squash.
Container gardening is beneficial for several reasons. It takes less space than a conventional garden – if you have a small driveway or deck, you can grow vegetables in containers. Since your plants are contained in a smaller area, weeds are not a problem because you can easily pluck them out. You save on water because only the containers receive water, unlike a garden plot where the whole thing needs water. In inclement weather (frost, heavy rain, high winds) the containers can easily be moved or covered if necessary. Disease and insects oftentimes invade plants in garden plots and can be difficult to eradicate – containers are much easier to work with because you can treat and move those with problems away from the rest of the plants.
Last summer we experienced lots of warm days – many plants love it warm so they grew very well – we’re hoping for another warm summer so we can share .
This year we want to offer something new for our Sydney’s Green Garden fans. We’re looking for researchers for a couple different vegetable seed varieties. We’ll give two or three people some seeds to plant and take care of – you can harvest and keep what you grow, or donate to local food shelves. Check back soon as we give more details of this research opportunity!
Help Mom celebrate Mother’s Day by giving her a Sydney’s Green Garden (SGG) container gardening kit, or some seeds.
SGG seeds and container gardening kits are now available online, and at the Bookstore at Fitger’s, and Engwalls in Hermantown. When you shop at our online store, your purchases are conveniently delivered to your door!
SGG containers are made of plastic that is designed to hold up for many years, so it is a gift that is useful and long-lasting. Mom will love a Mother’s Day gift of planting containers.
SGG 2018 seeds
Beans
We offer Blue Lake, Kentucky Blue, Kentucky Wonder Pole. If you prefer bush bean plants, try our Purple Queen Bush – they’re fun to grow and easy to see on the plants – and yes, they turn green when you cook them. You’ll love the pretty bluish color on the Kentucky Blues, too.
Beets
This year we have Cylindra Long Red and Chioggia Beets. The growth habit of these root vegetables make them ideal for container gardening.
Carrots
Containers are a great place to grow carrots as well. This year we offer Danver, Nantes Scarlet, Rainbow Blend and Tendersweet. Since carrots can vary in taste, try a few varieties – you’re sure to find one or two family favorites! Carrots make a tasty snack while you’re puttering in the garden – kids love ’em, too!
Swiss Chard
Sydney’s Swiss Chard Blend is easy to grow and adds some nice color to your container garden. These colorful leaves will spruce up your salad and other dishes.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are so delicious when they’re fresh – try our Bush Pickle, Bristol, and Speedway. The Bush Pickle makes great pickles, and Bristol are delicious when eaten fresh from the garden.
Herbs
Sweet Basil, Cilantro and Dill are staple herbs every gardener should grow. Grow enough basil to add to fresh salads throughout the summer and to make pesto – nothing beats fresh pesto!! Cilantro is a great addition to salads and salsa – you can actually add it to many dishes. At the end of its growing season you may get seed pods – now you have coriander – it’s the plant that keeps on giving and what a great time to give it – for Mother’s Day!
Lettuce
Our lettuces are picked with care, and therefore grow very well in containers in the Northland. Black-seeded Simpson is a great heirloom variety. We also have Salad Bowl Red, Parris Island Romaine, Super Red Romaine, and Sydney’s Loose Leaf Gourmet Salad Blend. Sydney’s Loose Leaf Gourmet Salad Blend is a delightful combinations of flavors and colors.
Peas
We have found that these peas do well in containers: Mammoth Melting Snow, Oregon Giant Snow, Sugar Ann, Super Sugar Snap, Sugar Sprint peas. Mammoth Melting and Oregon Giant are great in stir-fry. Our snap peas are delicious eaten fresh or cooked – when you choose Sugar Sprint you are enjoying a pea that has almost no strings.
Pumpkin
Baby Pam are fun pumpkins to grow with the kids – how delicious is your fresh pumpkin straight out of the garden? Do you love pumpkin seeds? So do we! What a wonderful treat that is nutritious, too!!
Spinach
Olympia and Unipack 12 hybrid are the newest additions to our spinach lineup – we think you will enjoy them. Bolero is one of our all-time favorites, and we’re happy to say all of these spinach varieties grow well.
Over the years you may have noticed that we no longer offer certain seed varieties – perhaps it was a favorite of yours. Some years commercial growers experience crop failure of a certain variety and it is no longer available.
Squash
Two favorites, Sebring Yellow and Spineless Beauty Summer squashes are a great addition to your container gardening fun. Did you know squash blossoms are edible? They are – but if you eat a blossom that’s one less squash you’ll have at harvest (oh, it’s so worth it, though). Besides, don’t many people struggle to give away summer squash because the plants produce so many?
Mom is sure to love her Mother’s Day gifts of SGG container garden kits and seeds 🙂
Seeds are ordered and our suppliers have shipped most of them. We’ll start packaging them this week.
Sydney’s Green Garden container garden kits are perfect for small yards and decks – you’ll be amazed at how much produce you can grow in just a handful of containers.
Seeds and container gardening kits will be available by March 15.
Here at SGG we’re excited for the 2018 growing season!
Familiar and New Seeds
We’re offering many long-time favorites as well as some new** seed varieties this year.
Beans
Blue Lake
Kentucky Blue
Kentucky Wonder
Purple Queen
Beets
Chioggia
Cylindra
Carrots
Danver**
Forto**
Nantes Scarlet**
Rainbow Blend
Tendersweet
Chard, Swiss
Sydney’s Swiss Chard Blend
Cucumber
Bristol**
Bush
Speedway**
Herbs
Sweet Basil
Cilantro/Coriander
Bouquet Dill
Lettuce
Black-seeded Simpson
Parris Island
Super Red Romaine
Salad Bowl Red**
Sydney’s Gourmet Salad Blend
Peas
Mammoth Melting
Oregon Giant Snow
Sugar Ann
Sugar Snap
Super Sugar Snap
Pumpkin
Baby Pam
Spinach
Bolero Olympia**
Unipack 12
Squash
Sebring
Spineless Beauty
New for 2018**
Carrots
Danver carrots grow 6-8” long and are deep-orange, are heirloom, keep well and are heat tolerant. Grows well in different soils and has nice strong tops. 65-75 days
Forto carrots grow 8” long cylindrical roots and stores well. 62 days
Scarlet Nantes carrots grow 6” red-orange roots and are crisp and sweet – will grow in clay soil. 65 days
Cucumbers
Bristol cucumbers grow to 8.25” and are heat resistant. Great fruit quality and color, and matures early. 54 days
Speedway cucumbers grow to 8” and the uniform dark green color holds well – great for slicing. 56 days
Lettuce
Salad Bowl Red lettuce has attractive maroon-red serrate leaves that are deeply cut and finely divided. Harvest over a period of time. 50 days
Spinach
Olympia spinach grows 10” and the plain dark green, upright leaves are slow to bold. Great for cooking and use in salads. 45 days
Unipack 12 spinach has plain, even green-colored leaves that are slow to bolt. Grow in fertile well-drained, moist soil. 50 days
We planted Cylindra beets this summer. Cylindra beets are a Sydney’s Green Garden specialty seed.
They grew beautifully this year. As you can see, they grew big and juicy!
Did you know you can cook the greens too? Beet greens are delicious and taste like spinach when sautéed.
Here’s a basic recipe:
Ingredients
1 pound beet greens (2 large or 3 small bunches)
1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, to taste
2 garlic cloves, minced
Freshly ground pepper
Salt, dash
Preparation
Bring a large pot of water to a boil while you stem the greens and wash the leaves in 2 rinses of water. When the water comes to a boil, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the greens. Blanch for 2 minutes, until tender. Transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water, then drain and squeeze the water out. Chop coarsely.
Heat the oil over medium heat in a large, heavy nonstick skillet. Add the garlic – stir until the garlic is translucent for 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in the greens. Stir until the greens are seasoned with garlic and oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, remove from the heat, and serve.
Optional
Instead of blanching the beet greens, rinse well and add them to the olive oil, salt and garlic. They will cook down. It may be tasty enough you won’t need the garlic.
Add:
Lemon wedges for fresh lemon juice
Parmesan cheese
Onion
What a great added treat above and beyond the beets themselves!
2018
We hope you plan to grow some beets next summer – they’re easy to grow in containers from seed.
Sydney’s Green Garden seeds will be available around mid-March 2018.
Oftentimes we experiment with new seed varieties. This way we can offer our customers the best seed options for growing conditions in the Duluth and Superior area.
Check our website early in 2018 to see which seeds we are offering!
Email us with questions: grow@sydneysgreengarden.com
We cleaned up the garden by Midi this week. There were plenty of grape and yellow tomatoes and they were so tasty! The squash featured on this post was glowing in the sun – it’s not there today – we hope Chef was able to use it in a dish!
Next or the following week we will harvest beets, carrots, and potatoes – all should be delicious.
We still have some great herbs growing! Our oregano, basil and chives are still looking healthy – we can use them fresh and dry some, too! Next week we’ll harvest coriander seeds.
We hope you’re getting a plentiful harvest from your garden – we are.
In a few short weeks we’ll clean up the containers and the garden area in preparation for winter’s rest – it’s good to give ourselves and the garden a rest after a busy summer, right?
SGG garden at Midi is growing great with all the great gardening weather this summer (I’m including some pictures of the container gardens here at Midi Restaurant where the plants are big and healthy)!
Midi uses some of the fresh produce throughout the summer growing season. Peas, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and spinaches all did very well.
Fresh off the vine tomatoes are so delicious. The spinach and lettuce combined with tomato, squash and little cilantro make for a zesty and fun salad – our Sydney’s Gourmet Salad Blend has variety of color and flavor, as well as texture.
Of course the herbs need mentioning – cilantro, dill and oregano all look great! We planted lots of basil – who doesn’t love basil? Just touch the basil and you can enjoy its aromatic splendor – then you have to pick some to eat!
Soon Midi will have a great harvest of potatoes and pumpkin in addition to all the other veggies that are still producing.
Isn’t it amazing how much you can grow in a small space! SGG solves the problem of a small growing area.
If you don’t have a container garden this summer, consider it for next year – if you have some, enjoy your garden produce!
Now is a perfect time to reap the benefits of all your hard gardening work – pick that produce! The more you pick, the more your plants will produce for you. Beans, peas, cucumbers and squash are in season right now.
We have some recipes on this website you might like to try. It’s always fun to try new recipes. You can also find many great recipes online and in cookbooks. Experiment – that way you won’t get tired of eating plain beans, etc.
We’ve included some photos of the beautiful garden outside Midi Restaurant.
Midi’s container gardens are looking good. The plants are loving this warm, humid weather.
We hope you’re enjoying your summer. Your garden is probably looking good, too! Pick those veggies while they’re fresh – they’re so much tastier when they’re fresh, right?
Warm days with little rain require us to water the gardens a bit more often. The plants love a gentle rain to keep their roots moist and thriving.
Saturday is Grandma’s Marathon and it is pretty exciting here at Fitger’s. Good luck if you’re running in Grandma’s. When you’re out and about on the Lakewalk be sure to check out the Midi Garden.
Sunday is Father’s Day – make it special – perhaps a stroll along the Lake walk – enjoy!
Last week was a busy week at SGG. We planted 66 containers in the Midi Garden! The larger ones have seed potatoes. Carrot, spinach, lettuce, pea, bean, beet, pumpkin, squash, cucumber, basil, dill, and cilantro seeds (many varieties) kept us planting for several hours. We also set in some plants: tomato, oregano, peppers, and chives.
Luckily we had ample rain for a week so watering was taken care of for us and some of the seeds are germinating – exciting times at the Midi Garden, for sure! Sydney’s Gourmet blend, Black-seeded Simpson, Super Red Romaine, Parris Island and Oak Leaf lettuces are up. Unipack 151, Menorca, and Bolero Spinaches are also up.
Even though it may be a little late for the spinaches, we decided to give it a go since we’ve had cooler weather for June than is typical. We’ll let you know the verdict on planting spinach later than is recommended.
Since Midi is a Mediterranean restaurant we added chives and oregano to our herb lineup this year – who doesn’t love fresh oregano and chives in their salad? Tom also requested we plant lots of basil – so we did! Salads and other dishes will taste extra special this growing season at Midi.
Memorial Day weekend is here. Be sure to stock up on SGG container garden kits and seeds. After a hectic day at work, what better way to wind down than to do some gardening? Besides, warmer and longer days make us want to be outdoors.
As you know, ease and convenience are key components of Sydney’s Green Garden products. After the initial work prepping for planting, container gardens are relatively maintenance free, with the exception of regular feeding and watering during dry spells.
Our seeds and kits are available online and at three Duluth locations: Mount Royal Market, Engwall’s Greenhouse in Hermantown, and at the Bookstore at Fitger’s. If you attended any of Scott’s vegetable container gardening workshops you can redeem your percent off coupon at the Bookstore at Fitger’s. Do consider taking a workshop next spring to get a percent off coupon, if you didn’t get to one this year.
After Memorial Day, Scott will plant the vegetable containers just outside of Midi Restaurant right here at Fitger’s – be sure to check it out if you shop or dine here. We’re just a short climb up the stairs from the Lakewalk if you’re out and about and have a few minutes to stop by.
As always, we welcome your questions and comments either here on the blog, or at: grow@sydneysgreengarden.com
Hi Sydney’s Green Garden Friends,
Container gardening kits make wonderful Mother’s Day gifts – one that keeps on giving over the years – she will only need to buy seeds and some planting soil in future years. The containers are designed to provide many years of planting pleasure! What better way to say, “I love you, Mom”, than to give her a container gardening kit?
Last week Scott gave two Whole Foods Coop workshops – one at 4th Street and the inaugural workshop at Denfeld. Turnout was great – everybody had fun and learned a lot about container vegetable gardening. Scott gave out vegetable seeds and planting guides to all participants.
Good news – Sydney’s Green Garden kits and seeds are now available online at this site, at Engwalls Florists & Greenhouse in Hermantown, Mount Royal Market, and of course at The Bookstore at Fitger’s.
The next few weeks will be busy for gardeners as they prep their gardens and containers – hopefully you can get outside and get your gardening started soon . . .
Until next time,
Happy Mother’s Day – and happy garden prepping!
SGG
It’s been a chilly start to April but that doesn’t need to stop us from getting ready for planting. That’s the wonderful thing about using containers to grow vegetables and other plants – they don’t take up as much room. But more importantly, they’re much less labor intensive than even an average sized garden and you can do some of the prep work indoors in a garage if you choose. Another positive attribute of container gardening is the bountiful harvest that you can get from 12-inch containers.
Sydney’s Green Garden offers containers that are resilient to extremes in weather – they’re built to last, and they look great, too! Scott has also tested many different seeds over the course of several summers to determine the best varieties to grow in containers, as well as for our climate. Seeds, kits, and containers are available for purchase on this website, at The Bookstore at Fitger’s, and at Mount Royal Fine Foods.
Giving back to the community is a great way to be involved and help. Scott likes to give container gardening workshops throughout the Duluth and Superior region. He does this free of charge – when a monetary fee is given, he donates it to Northern Lakes 2nd Harvest Food Bank. He believes it’s important to give back whenever we can – what a great way to show you care by helping to feed the hungry in our own neighborhoods!
His philosophy carries over to his business by helping people to feed themselves by growing healthy, pesticide and herbicide free vegetable plants.
If you ever have an opportunity to catch one of his workshops, you’ll be hooked on container gardening. He has two upcoming workshops:
April 26, 6 PM, Whole Foods Coop – 4th Street location
April 28, 6 PM, Whole Foods Coop – NEW Denfeld location
We welcome your questions and comments: www.grow@sydneysgreengarden.com