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According to Nick Mancini, certified master gardener who designed and created the vegetable garden at the Bartlett Arboretum in Stamford, fall is the most important time in the gardening year. Fall is when you must amend and fertilize your soil so that your garden is ready for planting in the spring, he says.
Mancini has no trouble transmitting his enthusiasm for growing vegetables to his students. Recent sessions on how to harvest organic seeds, the secrets of growing garlic and how to prepare the soil for spring were sold out. One student observed that however much one thinks one knows about growing vegetables, Nick Mancini always has more to teach.
In order to collect your own organic seeds, Mancini explains that three flowering plants of the same variety must be growing together so that they can pollinate each other. This will keep the variety pure. If different varieties cross-pollinate, a hybrid variety will result.
Growing garlic is easy, but Mancini teaches students how to grow it from seed, which requires patience since its a three-year process. The results are worth it, he believes. His large bulbs of garlic are always disease-free and tasty.
If youve ever bought saffron for a recipe you know just how expensive a tiny packet can be. Mancini has solved that problem by growing his own. Saffron is harvested from a variety of crocus which will flower in the next couple of weeks. I have it growing all over my garden, front and back, he says.
In order to know what fertilizer a garden needs it's necessary to test the soil. Mancini explains how, and also teaches students how to blend their own organic fertilizers,
Mancini teaches classes on vegetable gardening at his workshop in Westport, as well as at Norwalk Community College and through the Fairfield and Westport Continuing Education programs. Classes start this week. For information contact Nick here.
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