Several common garden crops are biennial plants. These plants must be overwintered before seed can be collected.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Saving seed and heirloom varieties is extremely important work, whether on a large scale like at Southern Exposure or a smaller scale like a family's backyard garden. Saving seed helps to preserve genetic diversity, provide people with secure food sources, and connect people to the earth and their local community.If You want to buy some| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
by Debbie Piesen Garden planning can be a complicated business. But for most home gardens, your main concerns are fitting everything in the most space efficient way, rotation, and planning for succession planting. These factors are covered by Southern Exposure's Garden Planner, a very useful tool for the small scale home grower. When we start| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Photo of the USDA Hardiness Map (https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/#)One concept that’s often brought up in gardening literature and rarely fully explained is hardiness zones. While they are a simple concept, to a new gardener it can be helpful to know exactly what a hardiness zone is and how to find theirs.| blog.southernexposure.com
Fall is the perfect time to save squash seeds from your favorite variety! | blog.southernexposure.com
Fall is the perfect time to save squash seeds from your favorite variety! There are four species of pumpkins and squash, including zucchini. While they all share the same characteristics for care and seed saving, home gardeners can grow one of each species without worry. Crossing between species is rare. Isolate Your Plants In our … Continue reading Squash, Pumpkin, & Zucchini Seed Saving Guide→ The post Squash, Pumpkin, & Zucchini Seed Saving Guide first appeared on Southern Exposure...| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Echinacea is a beautiful native flower but it needs cold stratification to germinate from seed. This means fall is the perfect time to grow echinacea.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Our fall frosts always sneak up on us. It still feels like summer now, but autumn is right around the corner. If you’re like us, when Jack Frost comes knocking, your garden will still be full of green tomatoes. Thankfully, it is possible to ripen many of these tomatoes indoors. What Happens If My Tomatoes … Continue reading Harvesting & Ripening Green Tomatoes Before Frost→ The post Harvesting & Ripening Green Tomatoes Before Frost first appeared on Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Fall garden clean-ups can harm wildlife, but they can also help prevent plant disease and pest issues. Find a balance and do a wildlife-friendly fall tidy.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Nitrogen fixing plants have a symbiotic relationship with specific bacteria. The bacteria colonize the plant’s roots and pull nitrogen out of the atmosphere. The bacteria uses the nitrogen and then it becomes available to the plant. Nitrogen fixing plants include most plants in the legume family. They also include certain grasses like buckwheat but legumes| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
In the Southeast, it’s tough to grow cold-loving, heat-sensitive crops like spinach during the spring. Too quickly, the spring showers give way to summer heat and humidity, and the spinach bolts. Thankfully, we can enjoy spinach right through the winter with a bit of care. These tips will help you grow winter spinach like a pro.| blog.southernexposure.com
In the Southeast, it’s tough to grow cold-loving, heat-sensitive crops like spinach during the spring. Too quickly, the spring showers give way to summer heat and humidity, and the spinach bolts. Thankfully, we can enjoy spinach right through the winter with a bit of care. These tips will help you grow winter spinach like a … Continue reading Winter Spinach Production→ The post Winter Spinach Production first appeared on Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
In August, peppers dot the garden like holiday lights. We’re harvesting large sweet bell peppers like Charleston Belles, fiery little hot peppers like Serrano Tampiqueños, and fragrant spice peppers like Trinidad Perfumes. Whatever peppers you’ve grown this year, knowing how to harvest, store, and process your crop will help you make the most out of … Continue reading Harvesting and Storing Peppers→ The post Harvesting and Storing Peppers first appeared on Southern Exposure Seed Exch...| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Collards are a hardy biennial crop. You can hHelp preserve rare varieties by learning to save collard seed in seven easy steps.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Fall is a bit like a second spring. In the Southeast, we can take advantage of the dropping temperatures to get a second batch of heat-sensitive vegetables like lettuce, radishes, cabbage, and spinach. July and August are when we start many of these fall crops. It may still be hot, but this gives them enough| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Row cover is an excellent tool in the organic grower's repertoire. Learn how to use row cover to protect crops from wind, intense heat, pests, and frost.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Heirloom tomatoes are the superstars of the vegetable garden world. They have endearing stories, gorgeous colors, unique shapes, and a flavor beyond compare. Unfortunately, all that flavor and charm comes with a cost. Heirloom tomatoes can be tricky to grow. Many heirlooms lack resistance to fungal and bacterial diseases and have thin skin that splits and cracks easily.| blog.southernexposure.com
“It’s exciting to see things coming up again, plants that you’ve had twenty or thirty years. It’s like seeing an old friend.” | blog.southernexposure.com
“It’s exciting to see things coming up again, plants that you’ve had twenty or thirty years. It’s like seeing an old friend.” ― Tasha Tudor, The Private World of Tasha Tudor Many of the perennials we offer are not as productive as our annual and biennial crops, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t offer … Continue reading Perennials You Can Start This Fall→ The post Perennials You Can Start This Fall first appeared on Southern Exposure Seed Exchange.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Fall gardens aren't started in the fall. Follow these tips to successfully start your fall garden brassicas during the heat of summer.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Learn to test your seeds' germination rate, store them properly, and save seed at home to have a productive and affordable garden.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Fertilizer can improve your yields, but it's not a magic wand. Learn about when it's appropriate to use fertilizer and how to use it efficiently.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Creating a sustainable garden means that we’re focusing on soil health year round. Find the perfect summer cover crop and how to use it in your garden.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Cucumber beetles are among the most common pests in North America. Learn to identify, manage, and prevent them to protect your cucumbers, squash, and melons this season.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Here’s everything you need to know to have success starting seeds indoors. Keep reading for seed starting benefits, guidelines, supplies, and common mistakes.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Cover crops are a cost-effective way to improve soil. Select appropriate spring cover crops to increase soil fertility, add organic matter, and suppress weeds.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Crop rotation is an excellent way to reduce pest and disease pressure without resorting chemical amendments. Maintain a basic crop rotation with this guide.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Whether you’re growing fresh herbs, an enormous self sufficiency garden, or cut flowers for bouquets, good healthy soil is the base of production. While we can sometimes buy in fertility and organic matter and add it to our beds, this is time-consuming and expensive. Green manures help us produce nutrients and organic matter on the| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Knowing more about plant hardiness zones can help you make informed decisions when selecting varieties for your garden.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Winter is an important time to rest both for the gardener and the garden, but it can also be a productive period. It is a great time to work on building healthy soil, which can improve your harvest for years to come. One of our favorite ways to improve soil is by planting cover crops.| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange | Saving the Past for the Future
Whoever decided that pumpkin spice food is just for autumn got it wrong. Now is when I scrambling to pack all the winter squash and pumpkins we put up this summer into our meals. Before long it will be spring and as much as I love the stuff I don't want the house to still be| Southern Exposure Seed Exchange