8
District LOCAL LIVING
DC
GARDENING
on gardening
Cool and collected, old seeds
fare better in the refrigerator IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
ADRIAN HIGGINS
ocked in a seed the size warm temperatures and
L
of a speck is all the moisture to germinate, but first keeping it chilled, if not frozen.
mystery of the universe. they also need cool The unused seed is kept in a
Unless it is locked in a temperatures and some gray metal index card file, sorted
shed. humidity to remain in a viable alphabetically. Big old bean and
Then, one discovers, the seed dormant state. Behold the pea seeds are stored in recycled,
is no more a miraculous and crisper. jumbo-size coffee cans.
latent life force but a grain that Here were some of my shed Some dated back to 1999 and
is dead for all time. Or as any duds: turnips from 2004, 0 were still sprouting when
caveman will tell you, “Fridge percent germination; carrots needed. “I just seal them up and
good, shed bad.” from 2004, 0 percent; rutabagas put them back for next year,”
If you are a vegetable from 2007, 0 percent; that said gardener Donna Stecker,
gardener and a pack rat, as I am, arugula, 15 percent germination. having no sense of just how
you will find half-used packets For seeds in the fridge, the smug that sounded to a
of seed all over the place and results were: tomatoes from seed-killing scribe. All is
dating back years. Seed pouches 2007, 100 percent germination; dutifully noted, including the
turn up in the pockets of an old
ADRIAN HIGGINS/THE WASHINGTON POST
cantaloupes from 2002, 35 current year’s germination rate.
coat, in drawers of the bedroom At Green Spring Gardens, unused seeds are filed in the fridge. percent germination; spinach “The fresher the seed, the
dresser, in the recesses of a from 2007, 80 percent. better it is, of course,” said
gardening bag stored in the shed back. Nowhere was this rift for example, that over the past The one pleasant surprise is Stecker. “One year we took
and on the pegboard behind the more pronounced than in a two years the price of tomato that beet seeds and their very everything from the 1990s,
workbench. monster packet of arugula seed seeds was up 11 percent, carrot close relative, Swiss chard, seem especially lettuce, and just
Like a bookworm who cannot that I bought six years ago. I 12 percent, bean 10 percent and to survive the rank neglect of the mixed them up and put them
part with the least valuable don’t know why, but I purchased my favorite pumpkin, a squat shed shelf, possibly because under the pea trellising and got
book, no matter how bad or old, a quarter-pound of arugula seed. red thing called Cinderella, 20 their seeds are formed and beautiful seed up.”
I am faced at every turn with old That’s 60,000 seeds, enough to percent. protected in enclosed clusters. I’ve got the message: Fridge
seed packets, reminders of years plant a row almost half a mile I took the old arugula and 17 Thirteen of the 20 chard seeds, good, shed bad. My own
when my winter ambitions were long. Or enough to sit forgotten other seed packets and put their dating to 2005, germinated. experiment has at least allowed
bigger than my spring real in a canvas bag for years. contents to the basic Sixteen of the beet seeds sprang me to throw out seed I now
estate. Mostly, they were packets With seed prices creeping up germination test: Using a given to life, though they had been know to be poor, and that itself
that had been opened with great each year, no doubt because of number of seeds (I chose 20 of purchased in 2004. is a step toward liberation for a
anticipation, but now contained the back-to-the-garden each), I wrapped them in moist The gardeners at Fairfax seed hog. This winter, I’ve
the leftover seeds in muddied movement and the ensuing paper towels, placed them in County Park Authority’s Green bought all manner of fresh new
pouches. Recalling the demand for seed, it seemed opened plastic bags and set Spring Gardens west of seed, and yes, the unused
excitement of first receiving logical to see if any of this germ them aside at room temperature. Alexandria are old hands at portion has been dutifully
them was nowhere near as great was still viable, and if the The results contained few real keeping alive their seed stock, wrapped, noted and placed in
as the actual excitement of first method of storage made a surprises: Seeds that had been and needless to say, the practice the cosseting chill of a modern
receiving them. difference. kept in the fridge survived, more involves spare refrigerators. It is icebox. Perhaps you can teach an
The whole point of a seed, I have old catalogues (that or less, while those left astonishing how long seed will old dog new tricks.
after all, is to look forward, not pack rat again) and could see, elsewhere did poorly. Seeds need last if you take the small effort of higginsa@washpost.com
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a cook’s garden
10
20
11,
What to eat until summer delivers on spring’s promise
spring can be a time of painful stored in a cool room, remain right now. You’ll have spring there for the digging. And while
,
MARCH
Y
by Barbara Damrosch longing before summer’s edible well into spring. At times salads before you know it. you’re rejoicing in those, sow
A luxurious bounty. Some have I’ve even managed to close the This is the time to prowl your peas, lettuce and scallions
pring gardeners put in even traced the origin of Lent, potato gap and the carrot gap by around and see what greens as soon as the ground is dry
THURSD
•
S
a lot of time starting the pre-Easter spring fast, to refrigerating some of the last have overwintered right in the enough to be worked.
seeds and getting the this time of dearth. ones until the first earlies are garden. Late-fall greens may In short, if you grow
garden ready, but often Exactly when the gap begins dug in the unheated have looked battered and vegetables with a little
there’s little on the or ends depends on the garden. greenhouse. unappetizing after this year’s forethought, spring is not a
table to show for it. Daffodils With a nice full root cellar, you Greens are even easier. We snow, but if the roots are still hungry time. The saddest old
pop up, but where’s the salad? can subsist for a long time on have mâche and spinach intact you may have Swiss stories are about those who
Fruit trees bloom, but where’s storage crops such as potatoes growing abundantly in the chard, kale and beet greens depended on grains for survival.
the fruit? and beets, even if they are a greenhouse now, with new crops sprouting anew. Sorrel, which is For them the hungry gap came
In England, historically, this little spongy. Celery root has of both, sown in late fall, soon to perennial, will soon be in midsummer before the wheat,
period was called the “hungry sometimes lasted until early take their place. If you have a abundant, along with fresh barley or rye had been cut.
gap,” and for those everywhere summer, for me, and in a good cold frame, try sowing some of herbs. Parsnips, which
ASHINGTON POST
who depend on what they grow, year I’ve had butternut squash, these, plus lettuce and arugula, overwinter in the ground, are garden continued on 9
THE W
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