Succession planting is the practice of planting a crop several times to spread out the harvest over the longest possible period. The recommended length of time between plantings is based on how long a crop produces and how long it maintains quality i
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Birds, butterflies, and bees have all been in the news lately for the sad reason that they are in serious decline. As gardeners, we have the ability to help them by growing more of the plants they depend on, and growing them over a longer period of t
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Last year I conducted a side-by-side comparison of onions grown from Franchi seeds with onions grown from plants purchased at a local garden center. The seed-grown onions were so successful that I will never again be tempted to grow onions any other
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In recent years, garden centers have been offering plants in ever-larger containers - with proportionate price increases. The upscaling of plants has been in response to consumer demand for immediate gratification. Which is fine when you need only on
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Braiding is an easy, traditional way to store onions. Here are a few tips to help you get started:As the onions are curing (as described in the previous article), check the stems frequently — you want them to be mostly but not entirely dry. The stems
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Onions are ready to harvest when the tops are falling over on more than half of them. That’s the sign that the bulbs are done growing and it’s best to get them out of the ground while they are in optimum condition. Pull the onions if the soil is
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When planning your fall garden, you first need to write down two dates: the date when there is a 50% chance of a light frost (32*F) and the date when there is a 50% chance of a freeze (28F). You can find this information by putting your zip code i
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Many of summer’s best flowers are easily started from seed about 6-8 weeks before warm weather arrives. Seed-grown flowers save you money compared to buying plants. And our generous seed packs mean you can plant lots of flowers — for a beautifu
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At Seeds from Italy, we sell 30 varieties of lettuce and five salad mixes that contain lettuce. Sometimes customers will ask “What’s your best lettuce?” That’s like asking “What’s the prettiest color?” Or “What’s the best ice cream flavor?” The
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Planning the garden is a winter ritual that brings pleasure to experienced gardeners. Just a few hours of planning and plotting now will ensure that you are ready to go as soon as spring arrives. Here are five steps to help you organize your garden p
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Italy is a vast country with a varied climate and has the culinary diversity to prove it. Each region is famous for its own specialties, many of which would not be possible to cook without the local heirloom vegetable varieties that have been lovingl
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Fall can be the most invigorating time in the garden -- for many vegetables as well as gardeners! Cool-loving crops like lettuce, spinach, kale, broccoli, and chicory take on their best flavor as the nights get chilly. And who among us doesn’t enjoy
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Winter squash and pumpklns require a large investment of garden space and time, but reward the gardener with sweet, delicious, vitamin-rich fruits that hold well into fall and winter. For a successful crop, you must harvest them when fully ripe. Harv
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Many culinary herbs love cool weather — and when summer hits, they bolt (go to seed) or get tough and lose their delicate flavor. That’s why early summer is the best time to start preserving herbs for later use.There are lots of ways to preserve herb
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A male squash flower produces ample pollen; it just needs a bee to carry it to a female flower for pollination to occur.Every summer, we hear from a few people who say their squash, cucumber, melon, or pumpkin plants are flowering but not setting fru
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Getting early tomatoes is a kind of a game for most gardeners; we start our seeds inside in winter, surround young plants with plastic or water walls, warm the soil with black plastic mulch, even build hoophouses over the plants. And that first sun-r
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Here is a schedule for starting seeds indoors, relative to your frost-free date. It assumes you will have good indoor seed-starting conditions so that seeds germinate fast and grow quickly. If you can't provide the ideal environment, start sooner.Wee
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Vegetables vary in their tolerance to cold, so gardeners generally use the frost-free date as the benchmark for scheduling outdoor plantings. Some cold-tolerant veggies can be planted weeks before the frost-free date; others should be planted a few w
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Starting seeds indoors is one of the best parts of gardening. You get to work with plants long before spring, and there is nothing more satisfying that watching seedlings push their way out of the soil.Indoor seed starting isn't difficult at all, but
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We had a tremendous summer garden this year and we ate our fill of zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and basil. As the days shorten and the nights turn chilly, we find ourselves losing interest in the flavors of summer and instead craving a cri
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We recently asked our customers to tell us about their favorite zucchini varieties. Quite a few people mentioned two varieties that technically aren't zucchini at all — they are known as Zucchetta. But the flavor is comparable and perhaps even better
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Arugula is one of those typically Italian vegetables that has become mainstream in America. And for good reason. It's a delicious green, with a lot more flavor than lettuce, plus it's quick and easy to grow. We offer three types and here is a qu
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In our global economy, where almost every kind of food can be imported from afar, only rare, regional, and highly perishable foods remain elusive. Agretti is a prime example — it’s a Mediterranean vegetable available for only a few weeks each spring
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In late 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture abruptly imposed a ban on the import of tomato and pepper seeds until they are tested and found free of a new virus that is afflicting commercial tomato and pepper crops around the world. The
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If you’re the kind of gardener who likes to flex your horticultural muscle with a challenging crop, may we suggest Italian artichokes? Artichokes are perennial in their Mediterranean home, where it never gets too cold or too hot. In the U.S., there i
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Paste tomatoes are essential to every dedicated gardener who wants to preserve a bit of summer by making their own passata. With so many Italian paste tomato varieties available, how do you choose? Weather, soil, and scheduling can have a huge effect
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In the U.S., most people grow basil into large plants and pick individual leaves from them all summer. That's how we did it when we were market farming: we would start the seeds indoors in winter, transplant them into the field with at least 12 inche
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½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)¾ cup sugar1 large egg1 tsp. vanilla extract¾ tsp. baking powder¾ tsp. sea saltLemon zest (1/2 lemon)2 tsp. dried lavender flowers (crushed between your fingers)8 ounces white chocolate (chopped)4 tablespoons c
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We import 40 varieties of Italian tomatoes, all of them traditional favorites, and our selection represents every possible shape, size, and flavor. They all can be grown in the U.S. and, because they are heirlooms, they all have been passed down for
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Two types of vermouth and cocktails made with them."With a drink in your hand and the other hand in your pocket, the world opens up." - Mauro Lotti Those words of wisdom were imparted to us during a seminar we attended on the history and tradition o
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When getting started with garlic production, growers soon learn that there are literally hundreds of named cultivars or strains available in the U.S. and Canada. Choosing among that wealth of options is a challenge that has befuddled many beginners.
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We can't imagine a vegetable garden without garlic. We have found it to be one of the easiest and most satisfying vegetables we grow, and we would love to persuade you to give it a try if you have never grown it before. We have a terrific selection o
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A Summer Menu from the GardenFrigitelli PeppersCeci with Garlic and RosemaryFresh Strachetti Pasta with Zucchini and Tomatoes topped with Fried Squash BlossomsPanna Cotta with Glazed PeachesWe spent four days at Podere le Olle, an agriturismo in
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The grand prize winner of our summer 2016 photo contest is Hayshaker Farm in Walla Walla, Washington. Farmer Chandler Briggs sent us several photos of their amazingly beautiful radicchio grown from Franchi seeds. We wanted to know more, much more, ab
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Arugula, or rucola, is such an important part of our diet around here that we try to keep it growing all year long. It’s actually fairly easy to grow in winter, because it loves cool weather and can tolerate a frost. Summer’s heat is a much bigger ob
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Lidia Bastianich, perhaps the most famous Italian chef in America, writes in the April issue of Fine Gardening magazine about how important gardening is to good cooking."I learned how to garden—and subsequently cook—from my grandmother," sh
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A recent vegetable variety trial in Washington State has heaped some lavish praise on several Seeds from Italy varieties. The joint project by the Organic Seed Alliance, Port Townsend Food Coop, Washington State University, and Port Townsend Farmers
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