We are so excited that the weather is finally promising to clear and that we may have a few dry, warm days in a row.  Gardening in Central Illinois may actually begin!    Looking ahead then into April – we hope to see all of you at one of our Spring Plant Sales (kickoff Friday, April 16).

The following is just a partial list of the plants we will have for sale this Spring:  French Tarragon, Greek Oregano, Italian Parsley, Large leaf Italian Basil, Sage, Brussel Sprouts, Stonehead and Red Acre cabbage, Fennel, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cucumbers and Eggplant.

Then there are all the wonderful tomatoes:  Jubilee Tomato – golden-orange small, Early Wonder Tomato – 55 day 6oz, Gulf State Market – nice red tomato (sold out of these last year), Lemon Boy Tomato – yellow 7 oz, Pink Girl Tomato – 8 oz. (new to us this year; highly recommended by expert gardeners) Celebrity Tomato (you cannot go wrong with a Celebrity),Better Boy Tomato and back by popular demand, the purple Cherokee tomato.

And Big Bertha sweet green bell peppers.  It makes me wonder who names these varieties…

Have a great week.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

Thanks for the question.  Yes, we will have some seeds for sale on April 16 &17, but we won’t have the German radish seed.  We order the seeds that we intend to grow and then because we can buy in bulk quantities, sell smaller portions to interested gardeners.  This process works well for us since we know and like these products.

Seeds: Blue Lake Green beans (great variety, sold out of these last year), Jade Green Beans (another outstanding green bean), endive, Ruby Queen beet seed, Candy King (all yellow sweet corn variety), mixed gourd and Connecticut Field  pumpkins (large, jack o lantern pumpkins), Black Seeded Simpson and romaine lettuce as well as Sparkler (25 day) radishes, Sugar Bon and Super Sugar Snap snowpeas, Melody and Unipack 12 spinach.

For unusual varieties of seed, we have had a great experience with:

http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/

http://www.totallytomato.com/

http://www.jungseed.com/

Have a great week and keep those seedlings warm!

This year our annual flowers highlight the spectrum of warm tropical colors.  So prepare to shake off winter with these wonderful beach like additions.

French Vanilla Marigolds, Orange and Yellow Marigolds, Zinnias, Nasturtiums, Wave Petunias- pink, purple, red and starfish (a variety of colors), and Up-right Elephant ears

Wave petunias will be available in hanging baskets as well as the traditional 4″ pots.

 We are very excited about this year’s perennials.  A few like red  yarrow and the hellebores (or Lenten rose) are new to us while others like red hot poker and large hostas are staples for any flower garden. 

Red Yarrow, Hellebores- mixed colors, Astillbe, Delphinium, Dianthus, Fox glove, Coral bells, Large Hostas, Pink Hydrangea, Red hot Poker, 2 kinds of Lavender, 7 Kinds of Asiatic and Oriental Lilies, Phlox, Rubeckia, Bi-color butterfly bush and Blue Butterfly Bush

Just an aside, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a blue butterfly bush- and the pink hydrangea bushes we have are gorgeous!

New plants have been arriving all last week – so we have begun transplanting them into larger pots.  This process is a full fledged family affair as everyone from the smallest to the biggest has a role to play – from the mixing potting soil (the boys’ job) to taking the pictures (one of Vanessa’s girls)  even the sweeping up afterward (she’s three, and she is great at it!) – good times spent with family and a great place to learn and then practice real life skills. 

Some new items we are particularly excited about this year are the hellebores, lime green coral bells, pink hydrangea and caladium as well as more of the gorgeous oriental lilies!

New greens we are excited to be planting this spring include cress and bordeaux red stemmed spinach.  We know these will be a welcome addition to the wonderful blue kale, spinach and red leafed lettuce we love.

April is just a month away so check out the plant sale dates posted on the Spring Sale and Produce Page!  Have a great week.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

Sometimes starting plants from seed can be a daunting and rather costly experience.  Because good soil and great seeds truly are essential – His Glories Farm always reuses as many of the seed trays, pots and other containers as we can.  (We’re always pleased when our customers return pots or trays )

But I was particularly impressed with my husband’s genius yesterday as he found a plastic box I had purchased spinach in – added moist warm soil, seeds and the lid.  He placed it in the south living room window.  Now all we have to do is wait.

Bottom line:  Don’t think you have to buy the fancy black trays with lids.  You can spend your seed dollars on the best seeds then use something you already have!

Wondering which seeds we started this past week?

Italian Basil, Night Shadow Eggplant, Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers, Large Red Cherry Tomato, Talladega Cucumber, Early Girl Tomato and Parsley

This past week we began planting cabbage and preparing for Valentine’s Day.

I am not quite sure how to create a connection between cabbage and the infamous cupid, but surely one does exist?  Perhaps cabbage is incredibly heart healthy -

Cabbage usually takes seven to ten days to sprout depending on the amount of sunlight and heat.

While you are starting those new plants, challenge yourself to do something special this week for those you love.  If you are at a loss for what to buy (inexpensive) for the men in your life, think duct tape.  It comes in pink and red!  (I bought red at WalMart) and believe me, they’ll be impressed! While in the electrical tape area (a topic I know nothing about) there was also a package of amazing double sized tape in red that says it can hold over 100#!  Awesome, Gary will be thrilled.

Have a great week and Valentine’s Day.  Enjoy those in your life, keep thinking Spring- while we watch the snowflakes.