Botanical Interests seeds at Holiday Nursery

Botanical Interests Seeds

The awesome gang at Holiday Nursery have out-done themselves again! They've begun stocking relatively 'local' seeds from Botanical Interests seed company in Broomfield, Colorado. In addition to huge selection of vegetable, herb, and flower seeds in stock-- many varieties are organic, too-- custom orders (of sufficient size) can arrive in just 3 days. The seed packets have beautiful artwork on the cover, but the really neat thing is the packets are also printed on the inside with a host of detailed planting/growing/harvesting/preserving information for that specific variety. I've already had great germination results from variety of radishes, lettuce, spinach, and peas. They also have the rare yellow and striped varieties of beets!

The inside of the seed packet

The nursery has also received their spring shipments of seed potatoes (Yukon gold, red lasota, russets, and Pontiac reds); $1/pound and Cory recommends planting potatoes on May 1st. Red, yellow, and white onion sets are also available at $2.25/pound; plant those now. Please stop by and support our local nursery!

Peas, hydrated over-night and mixed with nitrogen-fixing innoculant

Favorite Garden Tools

My 3 favorite tools at work

As the number and size of my garden beds expand, and the labor pool--me and two dogs-- remains the same, I've really come to appreciate several of my trusty garden tools. All acquired locally, I don't think I could do without my wheelbarrow, pitchfork, and rototiller. The wheelbarrow has self-explanatory utility, a common 6 cubic-foot Tru-temper, was bought from Holiday Nursery at 1214 E. Aztec Ave. Spending a couple extra bucks to buy from a local dealer paid dividends when they gave me the contractor tip of installing a thick sheet of plywood below the pan to give it extra strength and longevity when hauling rocks. Keep in mind you'll have to buy 4 longer bolts to reach through the 3/4" plywood.

Partly composted leaf mold and straw

The pitchfork is the newest addition to my stable of hand-tools. It's turned out to be indispensable for handling compost and manures in the clumpy stages before in decomposes into soil-like particles best handled with a shovel. I picked mine up last fall at Big Mike's Sales, Rentals, and Service at 606 E. Hwy 66 in Gallup. It was made in-house out of square angle iron and has 3 tempered tines. You have to add your own handle padding, but the best part is it only cost $8!!!

The tiller without the removable wheels

I have a love/hate relationship with the rototiller. It's invaluable when breaking up clumps of soil and mixing in soil amendments, or chopping up compost and manure. However, the noisy, polluting, and temperamental 5 horsepower engine has had me pulling my hair out on more than one morning. Luckily, Gallup has a great small engine repair place, C & L Saws at the corner of Maloney and 2nd street. A basic tune-up runs $30 and an overhaul $110. Unfortunately, the cheap Briggs and Straton motor on my machine needs the latter just about every year. If you don't own one, you can save yourself the headaches and just rent a great self-propelled 8.5 HP rear-tine BCS tiller from Big Mikes for $107/day. Pick it up late on a Saturday and you can keep it until Monday morning for a single days rental fee.