Olympia Food Co-op Garden Center

This is the Last weekend at the Olympia Food Co-op Garden Center !! All items are 75% off!!
When things are gone, they're gone!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10am-6pm

The Garden Center will not be reopening next year...

We will however, have garden items in the main store! And we will have plant starts as usual in the spring next year!!

We have garlic seed at both stores and the garden center

YOU MIGHT THINK ABOUT PLANTING SOME GARLIC THIS MONTH

It's almost time to plant your garlic. You usually plant Garlic during the second to last week of October, depending on where you live, and then cover in at least 6 inches of a good mulch of shredded leaves or grass clippings, and harvest the following July.

Getting the soil ready is an important and often neglected prerequisite for successful garlic growing. Although garlic evolved in poor soils (most likely in the desert regions of Siberia), application of organic matter to the soil prior to planting will definitely increase your yield. Summer is the best time to add compost or well-rotted manure to the site where you intend to plant.

To prevent w**d growth between when you are finished with preparations and when you plant, cover the bed with black plastic or heavy mulch. You can add a little more nitrogen to your garlic bed in the spring in the form of compost or rotted manure, but lay off after that; too much nitrogen may cause premature yellowing of the leaves.

When you’re ready to plant, it’s best to divide your garlic bulbs into cloves before starting. Plant the cloves 6-8 inches apart, in rows or double rows with room to w**d in between. You may have to remove some of the mulch in the spring if it is compacted and impedes your plants’ growth. Often, though, the mulch breaks down enough over the winter to allow the garlic to push through.

Planting garlic is a joy because the days are crisp and cool and there are few pests that bother garlic. In fact, it is often used in companion plantings to protect other plants from pests.

Selecting the type of garlic you want to plant is a matter of individual taste, but be aware that there are many species of garlic out there other than the California white you usually see at the supermarket. There are dozens of exotic varieties available with names like Russian Red, Purple Stripe Porcelain, Rosewood, Kabar and on and on.

So-called “hardneck” varieties develop a flowerhead on the stem called a “scape,” which curls and then extends upward, eventually becoming woody (hence the name “hardneck”).

Garlic scapes are considered a delicacy in their own right.

They are harvested soon after they appear, and are often sold in bunches at farmers’ markets. Cutting the flower heads off of garlic when they appear also allows more of the plant’s energy to go into producing larger bulbs. Many commercial operations “pop the tops” off of their garlic for this reason.

Please visit us here at THE SEED GUY, when you are ready for some great Small Farm Grown Non GMO Heirloom Seeds. We still hand count and package our Heirloom Seeds for best germination for you, and have Great Pricing on our 10 Heirloom Seed Packages, and all our individual varieties. They are Fresh from the New Fall 2023 Harvest --) https://theseedguy.net/15-seed-packages

We are also available by phone 7 days a week, and up to 10:00 pm each night, at 918-352-8800.

If you Like Us on our page, you will be able to see more of our great Gardening Articles, New Seed Offerings, and healthy Juice Recipes .https://www.facebook.com/theseedguy Thank you, and God Bless You and Your Family. :)

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Basil,basil,so much basil!!😊😋
And tomatoes 🍅

Come by tomorrow for first choice, 10am to 3pm!

This fig needs a home! Little figs developing already!!

Asparagus starts!

Tomatoes galore!!

Today we have tomato starts arriving!

We receive our local starts Tuesday afternoons ! At both stores...

New shipment of Teufel compost, Baby Bu's Biodynamic potting soil and compost, Oly Mountain Fish Compost, and Stutzman Farms Chicken Manure Fertilizer.

Oh,and we got some more gorgeous flowers!!

From the Maritime NorthWest garden guide...April gardening guidelines.🌱

New veggie and herb starts weekly, rhubarb!
We have also received some gorgeous fair trade yard art

"Grounding...."

Just in! Flowers!! And more Hellebore, and some Meyer lemons, for good measure!

Weekend hours: 10am to 6pm

New items in the Olympia Food Co-op Garden Center ! We brought in some Faire Trade garden art! We now have bulbs to plant now for summer blooming. Potato starts and local plants!!
Stop by
Monday through Thursday 10am to 3pm
Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10am to 6pm

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╠═╣ave a ╠═╣ÅṔṔẎ Day! ~💚🌞
╩░╩ •.¸¸. ..•╩░╩ .¸¸Ϡ₡ Ϡ`•💚.👩‍🌾¸ ~ 💚

Opening Day of the Garden Center 2023!
Open hours...today, Friday 10am - 6pm

Hours: Monday - Thursday 10am-3pm
Friday/Saturday/Sunday 10am - 6pm

Getting ready for our opening on March 3rd!!
We will be open 10am-6pm.
These are photos of the Seed starting products, and Amendments!

If you have been pruning your apple trees and have collected a bundle of water sprouts, save them and use them to create a perfect framework for your perennials that will need staking in the next few months...

Photo gardengatemagazine

In case you can't wait to start seeds, we have seed starting items inside the Westside and Eastside stores!
Starting March 3rd you can get products from the Garden Center! Opening day, 10am to 3pm

Tools, tools, tools!
We open March 3rd, 10am to 3pm, for the 2023 season...if you need some garden tools!

Currently available at the Eastside store.

We will have a large array of local plants available at the Westside Garden Center starting March 3rd! Opening day!

Seed garlic is now available at both stores! At the Westside store you can find them in Garden Center on Thursday through Sunday 10am to 3pm, and/or in the front vestibule area of the store during regular open hours. At the Eastside store the display is located by the checkout stands.

What is seed garlic?
We say seed garlic and not garlic seed because true garlic seed is a very rare thing - most garlic varieties do not produce flowers at all, and even among those that do, the flowers rarely produce viable seed. In fact, until the 1950's it was popular opinion that garlic didn't produce viable seed at all. But, humans have successfully grown garlic for thousands of years by propagating it asexually from cloves. Meaning, each clove separated from the bulb can form a new bulb of garlic. The cloves that people plant are what we call "seed garlic". Seed garlic is selected from the healthiest, most vigorous plants and is tested to verify that it is free from disease. Garlic has a lot of viral, microbial, and fungal diseases that are spread through cloves - even cloves that appear healthy to the naked eye. These diseases can wipe out your crop, and in the case of white rot, will remain in soil for decades, meaning you will likely never be able to grow garlic again. So, it is important to plant seed garlic rather than whatever old garlic you find hiding in your pantry or on display in the produce aisle.

Choosing the variety
One of the other reasons to buy seed garlic is that you can know exactly what kind of garlic you'll be planting. The first thing you will see when looking at seed garlic is that varieties are classed as either hardneck or softneck. Hardneck garlics form large, flavorful cloves, but won't store well. Softneck, on the other hand, forms smaller cloves, that are often more mild, but they can keep for up to 10 months. Softneck is also the kind you'll want if you have dreams of making a garlic braid.

How much to plant?
Once you know what kind of garlic you'll be planting, you can decide how much to buy, either based on how much space you have (about 20 cloves will fit in a 10 foot row and rows should be 18 inches apart), or based on how many you figure you can eat before the go bad. If you go through 5-6 cloves per month, then what you plant should keep for about 6 months after harvest. This means try to get 30-40 cloves planted.

Soil preparation and Site selection
Garlic wants to grow in loose, rich, neutral soil in full sun, so choose a spot in your garden that gets 8 hours of direct sun, and where soil pH is 6 - 7 and at least somewhat loamy. Before planting, loosen soil 6 inches deep with a digging fork and work in 1 - 2 inches of compost and all-purpose organic fertilizer.

Planting
Break apart your heads of seed garlic. Select only large, healthy looking cloves. Plant cloves upright with the flat/rooting side down so that the tip is about 1 inch below the surface of the soil. Space cloves 5 - 6 inches apart in rows 12 to 18 inches apart. Cover loosely and water well. Garlic's greatest enemies are inconsistent moisture levels and w**ds - so getting mulch down is important. Straw, shredded leaves, or light, woody composts are all good choices. Once the green tops appear in the Spring, side dress them with organic all-purpose fertilizer and repeat every couple of months until harvest. You will harvest your labor in June or July when the tops are dying back! Hang the bulbs somewhere dark, dry and airy for a few weeks to cure, then the whole cycle will start again!

It's canning season! The Westside store, and Garden Center has your canning, and fermentation needs! Gorgeous crockery, canning jars, and canning supplies! You can also get canning supplies at our Eastside location...

Garden Center is open Thursday through Sunday, 10am - 3pm

Happy Prude Month!

Dowload this free Vegetable Germinatoin Guide form our partners at Siskyou Seeds!
https://siskiyouseeds.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4aea7306c9e6d28f6bfd7d812&id=679ce7c9cf&e=9a386e187e

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We’ve got veggie starts at both stores💚 These include peas, spinach, arugula and mustard greens!