Spring is simply so shut and with it – time to sow the seeds. However what do all these phrases on the packets actually imply? NPR’s Scott Simon talks with Grasp Gardener Jessica Damiano, columnist for the AP.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Haven’t any facility in any respect in the case of gardening. In reality, vegetation cower once they see me. However fortunately, there’s assist from Jessica Damiano, a grasp gardener who writes the publication “Weekly Dust.” Welcome again to our program, Jessica.
JESSICA DAMIANO: Thanks a lot. Glad to be right here.
SIMON: Spring is kind of shut, and many individuals are enthusiastic about what to plant, find out how to plant it. That appears all easy, proper? We sow the seeds. Nature grows them. What might go unsuitable?
DAMIANO: Effectively, there are some things that may go unsuitable, particularly when you’re looking for seeds and do not actually perceive what it’s you are shopping for or what they count on from you.
SIMON: I am sorry. What the seeds count on from you?
DAMIANO: Yeah. The seeds count on issues from you. They must be handled a sure means.
SIMON: Effectively, you lately wrote a column about seed packet lingo. And…
(SOUNDBITE OF SEED PACKET SHAKING)
SIMON: By the best way, the print on seed packets is amazingly small.
DAMIANO: (Laughter).
SIMON: Let’s start with some fundamental lingo.
DAMIANO: How about – would you want me to quiz you?
SIMON: Certain.
DAMIANO: OK. So this one ought to be simple for you. What does broadcast imply?
SIMON: It means, like, speaking right into a microphone, and other people hear you.
DAMIANO: No. Truly, broadcasting is one thing that’s finished with very small seeds, sometimes. And that simply merely means sprinkling them versus planting them one after the other, which you’d do with bigger seeds.
SIMON: OK. So that you’d, like, put them in your hand and shake them out?
DAMIANO: Yep, or throw up within the air and allow them to lay the place they fall.
SIMON: Oh. OK. All proper. Attempt me once more.
DAMIANO: Biennial.
SIMON: It means you purchase them ennially (ph).
DAMIANO: Shut – very shut. A biennial is a plant that completes its life cycle in two years. So versus an annual that lives one 12 months, and a perennial will stay two years or longer and are available again yearly in areas that have winter, a biennial lives simply two years. So the primary 12 months, it may offer you inexperienced leafy progress. And solely in its second 12 months will it produce flowers after which seeds, like parsley and hollyhock.
SIMON: Thanks. OK. I am studying. Let’s strive once more.
DAMIANO: How about scarify?
SIMON: Oh, my. Scar – is that, like, a slash on one thing?
DAMIANO: Sure. That is precisely it.
SIMON: Oh (laughter).
DAMIANO: Ding, ding, ding.
SIMON: Yeah. Maintain on. Let me shake these seeds.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEED PACKET SHAKING)
DAMIANO: Some seeds must be scarified. Means you could scratch them, possibly with an emery board or a nail file, or someway compromise the onerous floor as a result of the seed has an particularly robust coating on it. And once you compromise that, it is going to facilitate germination.
SIMON: What different phrases ought to we all know?
DAMIANO: Effectively, it sort of appears like scarify, nevertheless it’s stratify.
SIMON: Stratify. So in different phrases, placing them in numerous ranges.
DAMIANO: You are heading in the right direction as a result of the best way issues traditionally have been stratified is by placing seeds in layers of soil and placing it in chilly storage. Some seeds, similar to bulbs – tulip bulbs, daffodils – they should expertise winter in an effort to develop and bloom the subsequent 12 months. So when you put them in a fridge in fall and maintain them there till spring planting time, they’ll suppose that they’ve gone by way of winter, after which they’ll germinate in spring.
SIMON: Oh, my gosh. You pull an outdated switcheroo on them. I imply…
DAMIANO: Yeah.
SIMON: Do they ever complain? You are those who informed me that they count on issues of us. I imply…
DAMIANO: Yeah, however we’re in cost, aren’t we?
SIMON: Grasp gardener Jessica Damiano, who writes “The Weekly Dust” publication with not one, however two inexperienced thumbs. Thanks a lot for being again with us.
DAMIANO: Thanks a lot for having me. Have an important day.
(SOUNDBITE OF TIM RENWICK’S “ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN”)
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