I’ve been wondering that same thing, I told her, explaining that I’ve been researching the topic so I have some answers, but many more questions, too. This prompted more people to weigh in on the subject, asking: Was it important to use organic compost, especially when growing edibles? How do you know that even organic compost is safe?

Courtesy of Kabsik Park, Creative Commons

Does composted manure from conventional farmers contain pesticide and herbicide residue that could cause problems in their gardens? Should you have compost tested to find out what’s in it before you use it on food crops and, if so, where? And what about GMOs? Is it safe to use composted manure produced on conventional farms on which cows eat things like Monsanto’s genetically modified Roundup Ready corn and alfalfa?

Complex questions like these are difficult to answer definitively for a lot of reasons. Sometimes, there aren’t many studies, if any, on a particular topic. Or maybe there are numerous seemingly reputable studies, but many of them conflict with one another. For example, as a journalist who interviews people for a living, I can tell you that for every scientist I’ve talked to who dismisses the French study that came out last year linking a genetically-modified strain of maize to huge tumors in rats, I’ve got another scientist saying the study should be given serious consideration.

Compost may sound like a simple enough topic, but like so many things it is complicated by money, politics and personal biases of all persuasions. And so, fellow gardeners, I think the best we can do here is take a look at the science that’s available and make the best informed decisions we can. This is the first of several columns I plan to write on compost in an attempt to answer some of the questions above, and others that will no doubt come up. Let’s start with a little background.

Look for an OMRI label

Organic compost is probably not necessary for all of your gardening needs, but a lot of gardeners, including me, like to use it for edible crops. But what does organic mean, exactly? Compost is by its very nature organic, so an “organic” label doesn’t necessarily tell you a whole lot.

If you’re looking for organic compost, for example, that doesn’t contain sewage sludge and other things that are precluded by regulators, look for an OMRI label on the packaging. This label, from the Organic Materials Review Institute, means that the product has been reviewed and approved for use in certified organic production. You’ll find a list of OMRI-approved soil amendments here.

Does it meet NOP standards?

Compost does not necessarily need to have OMRI approval to be used by organic farmers. In the U.S., the National Organics Programs (NOP) sets the standards for compost. Those standards basically cover what the compost can and cannot contain (like, no sewage sludge or urea), carbon to nitrogen ratio, how often piles must be aerated and how many days the pile must be turned while temperatures are kept between 130 and 170 degrees Fahrenheit (which kills weed seeds and disease-causing pathogens).

Certified organic farmers can use compost that meets NOP standards even if that compost was produced on a conventional farm. That’s because NOP regulations do allow low levels of synthetic substances, including synthetic pesticides and herbicides. The explanation being that, realistically, we live in a polluted world and some level of environmental contamination is unavoidable. (Go here for a list of what can be used on organic farms in Minnesota.)

Cowsmo

Curious about what types of compost local organic farms use, I called Northfield-based Gardens of Eagan, one of the biggest suppliers of local, certified organic produce in the region for more than three decades. They told me they make a lot of their own compost, but they also use Cowsmo, a compost product John Rosenow and his wife Nettie have been selling for more than 20 years. Their business is an offshoot of their fifth-generation conventional dairy farmer in Cochrane, Wis.

Rosenow kindly took the time to explain what he has explained to countless others over the years. No, Cowsmo compost is not certified organic, but it does meet NOP standards and is widely used by certified organic growers in the region. Yes, it really is composted manure from their dairy cows. The cows do eat Roundup Ready corn and Bt-Corn, but the alfalfa they eat is not GMO. (Here is their website’s FAQ.)

Add compost to containers to improve drainage and boost soil nutrients.

Rosenow, who also sells four types of compost-based potting mix used by organic growers, says he hears the disappointment in people’s voices when they call him looking for organic compost. They’d prefer not to buy from a conventional farm, and he gets that. But, once they’ve called around, folks usually call back to order a load because organic compost from an organic farm is in short supply around here. If organic beef farmers have it, they usually need most of it for themselves, he explains. John Middleton, Gardens of Eagan’s operations and field manager, agrees that availability and cost make it difficult to get organic compost from an organic farm in great quantity. So compromises have to be made.

In addition to Cowsmo, Middleton likes Purple Cow Organics’ compost, which is available locally in bags at many garden centers. Cowsmo compost and potting soil can be purchased locally in bulk, totes or bags at several Twin Cities’ locations, including the Wedge Co-op, Mother Earth Gardens and Mississippi Market. If you shop for other types of compost, he advises checking the labels carefully. “You’re looking at what’s in it,” he says. “Don’t buy something that contains things you can’t pronounce  or has numbers in it, which would indicate things like dyes and fungicides.”

Stay tuned for Part Two on all things compost. In addition to other things, I’ll be talking about more quality compost products offered by Kern Landscape Resources in St. Paul, Mississippi Topsoils in Cold Spring, Minn., and more.

This process destroys centuries-old bogs, doing away with wildlife habitat, releasing C02 into the air, and eliminating wetlands that help prevent flooding. Because of this, conservationists and scientists all over the world have been pushing for limits and even bans on peat moss harvesting.

I grow all of my veggies and ornamentals without using peat moss.

In Britain, for example, where peat is often burned for fuel, harvesting has become so intense that the government has set goals for phasing out peat for home gardening use by 2020. Professional growers will need to go peat free by 2030. For more information, check out the Royal Horticulture Society’s website: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Sustainable-gardening/Peat-and-the-environment/More-about-peat.

Most of the peat used by the horticultural industry in the U.S. comes from Canada where talk of limits and bans is also heating up. So, whether you are concerned about the sustainability of peat of not, now seems like as good a time as any to explore some peat-free potting soil options.

Topping the list of sustainable peat alternatives is coconut coir. Coir is coconut husk fiber, a byproduct of the coconut industry in Southeast Asia where it is largely considered waste. Dehydrated and sold as small bricks or bales, coir can hold nearly 10 times its weight in water. In fact, researchers at Auburn University and the University of Arkansas recently compared peat and coir and found that the two were on par as soil amendments (http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/coir-sustainable-alternative-peat-moss-garden). Like peat, coir is low in nutrients, but it is also less acidic.

Coconut coir is an earth-friendly alternative to peat.

You can buy peat-free potting soil mixes, which are slightly more expensive than peat-based blends, and consist primarily of compost, pine bark (or another type of bark) and coconut coir. Some mixes may also contain materials that help to improve drainage such as perlite (a type of volcanic ash) and vermiculite (a mineral that comes with its own set of environmental challenges).

You’ll save money if you make your own peat-free potting soil. And it’s easiest to buy your ingredients and mix them in a wheelbarrow before filling your containers. Here are a few recipes that are easy, affordable and still offer good drainage.

For seed starting:

Wet coir according to package directions and use it as you would peat in trays or other containers.

For seedlings:

1 part compost

2 parts coconut coir

1 part builder’s (sharp) sand

For ornamental plants:

1 part coconut coir

1 part compost

1 part good garden topsoil

1 part builder’s sand or perlite

For edibles:

2 parts compost

2 parts coconut coir

1 part builder’s sand

Keep in mind that compost makes a good slow-release fertilizer. But container-grown plants, especially edibles, will need additional nutrients throughout the season. Some good choices include: additional compost, bone meal, feather meal, vermicompost (worm poo), fish emulsion, cottonseed meal and alfalfa meal. Earth-friendly fertilizer blends can also be purchased by the bag. I particularly like some of the organic products offered by Espoma.

Straw Bale Gardens: The Breakthrough Method for Growing Vegetables Anywhere, Earlier and with No Weeding

Karsten tending one of his straw bale gardens

Karsten isn’t just another gardener talking about straw bale gardening. He invented straw bale gardening. That’s right; he came up with the idea for a growing technique that has now become an international sensation. And it all started when he was a kid growing up on a farm right here in Minnesota.

Farmers, he told me, have no need for piles of wet, unruly straw. So when a bale would break open for one reason or another and get rained on, his family would push it up against the barn to break down over time. “I always noticed that those stacked up, broken bales would have the biggest, tallest weeds growing out of them, so I knew there was nutrition in there,” Karsten recalls, adding that he didn’t think much more about it until 15 years later.

By then, he had earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from the University of Minnesota, and he and his wife Patty had just bought a house in Roseville. After looking forward to gardening at their new home, they were disappointed when they realized that their whole lot consisted of little more than construction debris in which nothing was going to grow well. Then, Karsten remembered those straw bales. “And I thought, what if I just line those bales up and try growing vegetables in them as they decompose?” he recalls.

An idea takes off

Karsten ran the idea by some of his former professors, but they were nonplussed. So he called his dad, hoping for encouragement. “Well, let’s try it. What’ll it hurt?” his dad said. (If only everyone could have a parent like this.) The two of them started their straw bale gardening trials the very next weekend, and Karsten began taking detailed notes on everything they tried.

Not surprisingly, all those straw bale gardens attracted a lot of attention on the family farm. Finally, tired of explaining what in the heck they were to everybody who came by, Karsten’s dad asked him to write up a handout that he could give to people. Over the years, that handout evolved into a booklet that grew fatter and fatter and was purchased online by thousands of people who visited Karsten’s straw bale gardening website: http://strawbalegardens.com. Publishers began contacting him, and the result is his new book, which was just published by Cool Springs Press.

Why try it

Straw bale gardening is a great option for gardeners who have poor soil, a small amount of space, limited mobility or just an insatiable curiosity to try new things. As the book explains, bales can be placed on the ground to become instant raised beds—even in a parking lot. But they are more than containers. As the bales decompose, the organic matter provides nutrients to the plants inside. In addition to holding water well, straw bale gardens don’t need to be weeded and have fewer pest and disease problems. Another advantage is the ability to start planting earlier in the spring. New straw releases heat as it decomposes, helping seedlings get established faster than they could in regular garden soil. “Vegetables like to have warm roots and cool tops,” Karsten explains. “So having the inside of the bale be warm in the spring means you get early root establishment very quickly.”

How to do it right

It’s not hard to grow vegetables and annuals in straw bales. But there are some make-or-break tips that Karsten has learned over many years. He shares all of his know-how in his book, which includes lots of beautiful, helpful photos and planting schematics. Those who want an in-person demo can attend one of Karsten’s many straw bale gardening talks this season.

Dates and times can be found on his website, but I want to call out Straw Bale Gardening Day at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds on Saturday, April 27 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Karsten will do a short talk at the start of every hour in the parking lot just north of the main entrance. Straw bales will be available for purchase (and can be delivered), and he will also be selling books. Be sure to check out his demonstration garden so you can see exactly how to try straw bale gardening at home. Count me in!

Didn’t spot this hot trend coming in 2013 did ya?

Seriously, they should pay people to attend this event. Or at least let people in for free: the hope being that once they’re inside folks will buy some mini doughnuts and cheese curds followed by copious amounts of beer. Enough beer to, say, allow them to throw down a credit card for a hot tub as big as a Volkswagen. “Ah, who the hell cares where we’ll put it, honey. Let’s just get it!”

Okay, if you’re not a local, you’re probably thinking: “Hey, it’s not like anyone is holding a gun to people’s heads to make them go to this home show thing.” But you’re wrong. There is a gun, and it’s called winter. In Minnesota, by the time March rolls around, most of us would pay any amount of money to go anywhere to see anything different than what we’ve been looking at for five months indoors. Add the word “garden” to the name of the event, and you’ve got yourself a crowd. Even people that don’t give a hoot about plants will fork over cash just to see something ALIVE, maybe smell some dirt, see some flowers. We are a desperate lot.

And they say there’s nothing new in gardening.

But therein lies the problem. There ain’t much Garden in our Home and Garden Show. Yes, there are some interesting gardening talks given by local gardening gurus, as well as some of my fellow master gardeners. But those are usually off in some airless side room far from the arena’s main floor. To see actual plants you have to thread your way through countertops and hot tubs and super-absorbant sponges to get to one small area in the back of the arena where mostly lesser-known landscape design firms have their displays. Some years are better than others. This year, though, was just plain weird. For reasons I am completely unable to fathom, there seemed to be some kind of TV show theme to the booths. This would have been bizarre no matter what, but why Fantasy Island, Miami Vice and Gilligan’s Island? Did the organizers of this event swear off TV in the 1980s? Are the TV shows of my adolescence already so kitschy they’ve actually become cool?

Were people worried that visitors would be bored looking at some dumb, old plants outside the context of a TV theme? I don’t get it. Do you?

Is it me? Or is this just creepy?

At least these guys had the sense to just make a poster.

Everyone wants a Gilligan in their landscape, right?

Smoke came out of this Gilligan’s Island volcano, which was kind of cool.

Who’s up for dinner on the ground next to some really hot rocks?

So, tell me. Do you have a good garden show in your city? If so, please email me a photo so I can live vicariously through you. Or, hey, maybe I’ll send them to next year’s local planning committee. They could use some ideas.

The biggest one concerns GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the need to avoid buying GMO seeds for our gardens, and you’ve probably seen at least some of the various lists going around touting  ”safe” seeds. Many people, including me, don’t want to buy seed that has been genetically modified. So I was happy to find out from my friend Jeff Gillman, a hort professor at the University of Minnesota, that GMO seed is not yet available to home gardeners.

Farmers have long been able to buy GMO seed, particularly for corn and soybeans, alfalfa and sugar beets. But, at least for now, that seed isn’t available to the general public so we can’t unwittingly buy them off the shelf or online—unless we pretend to be farmers for some weird reason. So where does the confusion come in? Well, maybe because you can mistakenly buy seeds from Voldemort, I mean Monsanto. And where there is Monsanto, we assume rightly or wrongly, there are GMOs.

How could you mistakenly buy from Monsanto? Well, as you may already know, the company has purchased many independent seed companies in the U.S. and abroad over the years. The biggest coup was in 2005 when Monsanto acquired Seminis, Inc., estimated to control more than 40 percent of the U.S. vegetable seed market and around 20 percent of the world market.

Credit: iStock

Following the acquisition, several sellers have phased out, or are in the process of phasing out, Monsanto-Seminis varieties. Others have stopped working with Seminis all together. This was certainly a tough financial decision for all of these sellers because Seminis seeds no doubt made up a good deal of their sales. I really can’t say how much their decisions were influence by consumer backlash, but I do know that informed consumers have been very vocal regarding their concerns about this complicated issue.

So how do you know whom to buy from? That’s a good question. If you don’t want to buy from any seed seller with ties to Monsanto, you can deal exclusively with heirloom seed companies, such as Baker Creek and Seed Saver’s Exchange. But if you want a wider selection that includes hybrids, you’ll need to ask each seller directly whether they have a relationship with Monsanto/Seminis before making a purchase.

If you’re okay with buying from a seller that carries Seminis seed that is clearly labeled as such, go that route. As I said, GMO seed is not yet on the market. So saying no to Seminis seed is really about saying no to Monsanto and what Monsanto stands for rather than avoiding GMOs. After all, there is nothing inherently wrong with the seed coming out of Seminis. In fact, over the years, the company has been known for offering many beloved open-pollinated seeds, as well as popular F1 hybrids that were either bred in-house or in partnership with universities and companies such as DuPont.

Of course this leads us into yet another confusing topic, the difference between GMOs and hybrids. Simply put, hybrids and GMOs are not the same thing. Hybrids are created when breeders cross-pollinate two or more plants of the same genus, species or variety to create a new plant with benefits like improved disease resistance or the ability to produce higher yields. GMOs, on the other hand, contain one or more genes from species that are completely different and created using techniques such as gene cloning.

Is it harmful to eat GMO foods? You read all the time that concern over genetically modified foods is overblown. I’d be rich if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard GMO proponents natter on about how organizations like the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association say that no ill health effects have been documented so far. I don’t find that comforting. And I don’t want to give any money to Monsanto if I can help it, either. That makes seed shopping trickier, but that’s okay.

Or is it that people think we need music in order to conjure up the appropriate emotions for a given situation? This thought came to mind last week when my husband Mike and I were visiting my family in Arizona, and we took a short sightseeing cruise with my dad. We had just taken our seats aboard the Dolly Steamboat for an hour and a half nature cruise around Canyon Lake when the peaceful sound of paddlewheel against water was drowned out by Enya’s 1988 hit “Orinoco Flow.” Booming out of the boat’s crackling speakers, the song was both fittingly epic and completely cheesy in a not altogether disagreeable way. But why not enjoy the sounds of nature on the nature cruise? we groused to each other.

Canyon Lake (imagine Enya playing)

 Touted on the brochure as Arizona’s “Junior Grand Canyon,” Canyon Lake feels like an almost surreal oasis in the middle of the otherwise rocky, dry and cactus-filled Sonoran Desert. And it is, really, since the man-made lake was formed in 1925 when the Mormon Flat Dam trapped water from the Salt River. The steep canyon walls are the main attraction on the tour, and the boat’s captain explained how many of the rock formations we could see were the result of volcanic eruptions dating back as far as 15 million years. We brought along binoculars, hoping to see some bald eagles but, instead, we spotted several bighorn sheep defying gravity as they made their way along the face of the cliffs.

That’s one tough saguaro cactus growing out of that rock. Can you spot the bighorn sheep?

Canyon Lake is one of four man-made lakes along the Salt River. Located about 15 miles up the Apache Trail, it was traveled by Apache Indians before becoming a stagecoach route through the Superstition Mountains. As we drove to the boat cruise, my dad told the story of how my family once tried to hike the trail. It was 1970, not long after we had moved to Phoenix from Indianapolis when I was five and my sister was three. It takes awhile to understand how dangerous the desert can be, so like a lot tourists and newcomers to Arizona, our family set off on a hike up the difficult trail with no water or food, imagining we’d be back to the car in an hour or two. Eight hours later, thanks to the kindness of strangers, we made it out of the mountains hungry and thirsty but otherwise unscathed. 

Me, mom, little sister and cactus in 1970.

I’ve said it before and I’ll surely say it too many times to count again: I hate the desert. It’s hot, dry and full of things capable of hurting or killing you. I can’t recall a single Girl Scout camping trip that didn’t involve at least one incident of sobbing due to an attack by cactus, usually cholla, which you don’t even have to touch. As I recall, segments of the dreadful plant seemed to just “jump” off onto our synthetic Girl Scout knee socks if we so much as churned up the breeze as we passed. Prickly pear, barrel cactus, scorpions, rattle snakes, javelinas, tarantulas, coyotes—these were the things nightmares were made of following troop leaders’ warnings about the dangers of the desert. All that before we’d even pitched our tents.

Still, sitting on the deck of the Dolly Steamboat last week, I couldn’t help but enjoy the view from afar. If you visit Arizona, I’d highly recommend the trip, though you might want to bring your iPod or a good pair of noise-canceling headphones.

As you can see, she is absolutely right, and I wrote her back right away to say so, and to ask permission to post the photo on my blog. Cindy wasn’t trying to boast. I think she just wanted to remind me that there’s more to winter than smashed ornamental grasses, buried outdoor furniture and yellow snow. And she did concede that, “It’s a little easier to landscape for winter in the country than in the city,” which it is for a variety of reasons.

Still, while urban dwellers like me aren’t likely to experience the kind of snowy backyard wonderland that our more outlying counterparts do, her kind note did motivate me to try to see more beauty in what has so far been a pretty ass-kickingly tough winter. So, let’s not focus on the loveliness of my own backyard, which includes this focal point by the driveway.

There’s a tamarisk under there somewhere.

Instead, behold this amazingly cool Christmas tree made of sphagnum moss and potted orchids and bromeliads that I saw at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum last week.

Outside at the arboretum and down by the lake near my house, there are these sights to behold.

Back inside where it’s warm, there’s fern frost on the bathroom window.

And a kitty sleeping on the dining room table in the sun.

And the answer is: Hyacinth bean

The vine is native to the tropical areas of Africa where the flowers and beans are a food source. (I got varying reports from people about the actual tastiness of these beans, and some readers cautioned against eating the beans raw.) According to several plant history websites, hyacinth bean was introduced into the American nursery trade in the early 19th century after having been a part of European gardens as far back as the early 1700s.

The plant attach to structures by twining, so keep that in mind if you want to grow this vine. (It’s always good to know how a vine attaches to things because some have tendrils that are good at gripping trellises and chain link, some stick to things like stucco and others twine.) Plants are fast growing and can reach 6 to 15 feet or more in one year, depending on the length of the season. Choose a spot with well-drained soil in full sun. Many people warned me that seeds can be hard to find and/or in short supply in stores, so it might be easier to buy online.

And now, for this week’s winter getaway, how about a time-lapse cherry blossom extravaganza and a few virtual tours of botanical gardens around the world?

Click here to see the time-lapse video of cherry blossom time at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

And go here to go on a lovely tour of the Montreal – Quebec Botanical Garden. (Normally, I would advise turning off the sound since the promotional nattering takes away from the scenes. But in this case, everyone is speaking French, which is actually quite nice, I thought.)

Or go here to visit the Missouri Botanical Garden. (No sound would be advised here.)

You’ll find a little peek at the Beijing Botanical Garden here. (Nice music and no narration, but did they need to put their copyright symbol in the middle of the frame?)

Think spring!

So, come on, then. Let’s go on a garden tour!

Okay, this isn’t really on the tour. But does anybody know what vine this is? Those pods are gorgeous.

I’m definitely planting succulents in window boxes after seeing this.

I love marsh marigolds.

Ah, spring is coming. Whew!