Pumpkins with warts look pretty weird, and in America, and especially at Halloween, weird often sells well. So the Siegers seed company is attempting to patent and “own” all pumpkins with warts, even though pumpkins with warts have been grown by gardeners for centuries. As heirloom vegetable expert Will Weaver put it, “This is like trying to patent all trees with twisted limbs.” But Siegers is claiming they have somehow “invented” warty pumpkins, and threatening to sue other companies if they try to sell seeds of warty pumpkins if the patent is granted. The ETC group has sounded the alarm and called on the U.S. Patent Office to “reject all 25 claims of the patent application on warted pumpkins.”

Warty pumpkins are clearly not a new invention. Patenting a “new and improved” variety is one thing, but Siegers is attempting to claim ownership of all warty pumpkins.

Read more in the GRIT blog by Mother Earth News contributing editor (and plant geneticist) Hank Will: Siegers Attempts to Patent Pumpkin History and Siegers Seed Co. Threatens Action Over Warty Pumpkins.

Gardeners and farmers have seen this kind of attempt to abuse the patent process before. Maybe an outpouring of objections, directed to the folks at Siegers and to the patent office will convince them to withdraw their patent application.

 
If you itch to start growing things weeks before it's time to start most of your seedlings, use the space under lights (or your sunniest south-facing window) to grow quick crops of lettuce.

There is a happy symmetry to the fact that translucent clamshell boxes used to package gourmet salad greens also make ideal containers for growing lettuce indoors. To get the boxes ready for duty, use the tip of a stout knife to make 8 or 9 gashes in the bottom of each one. Then add 2 inches of moist potting soil before planting a pinch (about 25) lettuce seeds, barely covering them with soil. After generously spritzing the surface with water from a pump-spray bottle, pop on the tops and slip the boxes under your grow light, or in any warm, bright spot.

Five days later, when the seeds are up and growing, remove the tops and place them under the boxes, so they become watering trays. The soil usually stays nicely moist if you fill the trays with water every day. By the way, don't try to remove the labels from the lids. Hot water will warp them, especially if they're made from cornstarch.

You can let your boxes of lettuce bask in the sun from a south-facing window on bright days, but they will be happy to spend most of their time under the light. Keep the lights on for about 12 hours a day, like from 7 in the morning until 7 at night.

The first cutting is ready in 3 to 4 weeks. By holding the boxes sideways, you can clip the leaves right into a colander while keeping the growing crowns intact. The plants will be ready to cut again in about 2 weeks.

If you want to use the clamshell boxes to start another crop, you can lift out the mat of seedlings and transplant it to a larger container. As days get warmer in the spring, you can start lettuce and other salad greens in clamshell boxes and transplant the mats into a cold frame or plastic-covered tunnel. 

Have you tried similar tricks at your house to grow good things to eat indoors in late winter? Please share your stories in the comments section below.

To get a head start on spring planting and enjoy an extra-early crop of spinach or any other cold-hardy garden goody, try this simple tip. Cover a garden bed with clear plastic right now, and this will warm up your soil faster. Go ahead and sow spinach seed into the bed first chance you get, and your spinach will be ready to harvest a couple weeks sooner than without the plastic. It's that easy!

For more tips on getting the most out of your early spring garden, check out the following articles:

  * Easy Early Salads with Perennial Greens

  * Know When to Plant What: Find Your Average Last Spring Frost Date

  * All About Growing Spinach

 * Grow Great Salads Year-Round

 * The No-Spray Way to Protect Plants 

 
Don't ask me where I got my red holiday cactus, because I've had it so long I can't remember. The old girl has been knocked off the porch a time or two, and still she covers herself with blooms just as real winter blows into town. Like many older strains of Schlumbergera, Old Red blooms like mad once a year, but many newer strains can easily be brought into bloom twice -- in fall and again in spring. And their flowers are bigger and better, too. 

You won’t have to search for superior Schlumbergeras, because they are exactly the ones sold in stores this time of year. My favorite pink and white plant began as a rooted cutting bought for $2 at a discount store several Decembers back. It promptly dropped those first buds (as newly purchased plants often do) but since then it has bloomed twice each year. 

The vigor in today’s Schlumbergeras is the result of over 150 years of breeding work. The early-blooming Thanksgiving cactus (S. truncata) has been crossed with Christmas cactus (S. bridgesii) hundreds of times, so most plants carry genes from both parents. In the last 20 years, plant breeders at the University of Massachusetts and in Europe made steady progress improving flower form, size and color, so your eyes are not deceiving you when you marvel at the intricacy of new-generation Schlumbergera blossoms.

Adopting a New Holiday Cactus

• Choose a flower color that works well with your interior décor. As you decide upon a color, keep in mind that light colors such as white, pink and lavender show off better indoors compared to dark purples or reds. 
• Instead of repotting a new plant right away, choose a temporary cachepot (outer pot) for the plant, such as ceramic pot or a basket lined with Spanish moss. 
• The trauma of moving from greenhouse, to store, and then to your home often causes plants to drop most of their buds and flowers. If this happens, gently shift the plant to a slightly larger container, and let it rest in a cool, bright room until late winter. When brought into a warmer, well-lit room, rested plants that shed most of their fall buds often bloom beautifully in spring.

 To Learn More

Purdue University has a great FAQ on holiday cactus, but North Dakota State horticulturalist Ron Smith holds the record for fielding the most questions from cactus keepers, including tales of plants that spontaneously changed colors. 

Veggie production slows to a feeble crawl as winter sets in, but below ground, microorganisms in the soil keep working year-round. To support this process, you can mulch over beds with leaves, grass clippings, straw, or another biodegradable material, or grow cold-hardy cover crops. 

Letting your beds go through winter naked is a cruel option that exposes soil to the triple threat of compaction from rain and ice, erosion caused by wind and water, and nutrient loss from leaching. Mulches and cover crops cushion and protect the soil, and as they decompose they improve the soil's ability to retain nutrients by increasing its organic matter content.

Use leaves, stockpiled grass clippings, old hay, or whatever you have to tuck in your beds for winter.

Consider Your Options

At this late date, mulch is the most practical option for most of us. Use whatever you can get your hands on, and pile it on thick. You can keep mulching all through winter if you don't have snow, because there is no such thing as too much winter mulch. In spring, when you want your beds to dry out and warm up, simply rake the mulch into pathways, or pile it up and re-use it later on, when your plants are up and growing. 

Hardy grains including oats, rye and wheat make great winter cover crops because their extensive roots do a good job of improving the soil's structure, and they will often germinate in cold soil. If you have a small garden, try sowing small patches using handfuls of whole grains purchased at the health food store. The seeds will sprout during mild breaks in the weather. In spring, you can chop the plants into the soil or pull them up and compost them.

Nitrogen-fixing legumes are an even better choice, particularly hairy vetch, Austrian winter peas and crimson clover. These crops need a bit of a head start in fall (planting dates range from September in the North to October in the South), but if you can get them established before winter, you'll have a dream situation in spring. Simply use a sharp hoe to sever each plant at the soil line. Let the foliage dry into a mat for a few days, and then make openings in the mulch to plant your veggies.

What are your beds wearing this winter? Use the comments section below to share your favorite winter soil-soothing techniques.

Winter wheat grown from bulk-bin wheat berries make a fine winter cover crop in a small garden.

Sometimes it can be quite difficult to locate a company that sells the particular variety of beans you've been wanting to grow or the odd garden tool you remember you used to love so much. Well, we can help. We have developed two customized search engines that can make your life a little easier.

The Seed and Plant Finder 

Search the online catalogs of more than 500 mail-order seed companies. Just type in the variety you're looking for, and you'll get a list of links to the companies offering it.

Organic Pest Control and Garden Products Finder 

Search the Web sites of about 30 mail-order companies that carry the best selections of organic insecticides, tools and other products.

Garlic is one of Mother Nature's most versatile herbs, with qualities both culinary and medicinal. It's one of the easiest plants you can grow, and it also happens to be one of the few things you should plant right now — in the fall. (Unless you live in Wasilla, Alaska, in which case it's probably too late for you this season — but feel free to bookmark this article for next year!)

GROWING GARLIC
For those of you with still-unfrozen ground, here are a few resources to help you get started:

• Plant Now for Great Garlic 
• Plant Garlic this Fall 
• Gourmet Garlic from the Ground Up 
• Growing Garlic Scapes 
• Garlic: A Plant to Love 
• Harvest Time and Planting Time 
• Garlic Seed Sources 
• A Few of My Favorite Garlics 

GARLIC FOR HEALTH
Garlic is one of nature's greatest nutritional powerhouses. Learn more about the long list of battles it fights so well:

• Great-tasting Garlic is Good for Your Heart 
• Garlic and Your Health 
• Garlic: Nature's Gift for Life 

GARLIC IN THE KITCHEN
And now for some super garlic recipes to put those beautiful bulbs to work:

• Garlic Scapes 
• More on Scapes 
• Garlicky Bruschetta
• Extra-creamy Roasted Garlic Guacamole 
• How to Roast Garlic
• Easy Refrigerator Pickled Garlic
• Make Your Own Garlic Powder 
• Great Garlic Recipes 
• Garlic Makes It Good 

Love garlic/Don't cook? Check out these Specialty Garlic Restaurants.