All of my seeds finally arrived and yet again I bought too many!!! This year I decided to expand into starting more herbs which led me to buying from three different places - Seed Savers Exchange, Southern Exposure and Baker's Creek. Each year it seems that I need more and more space. I am going to go with 6 different types of tomatoes (16 plants), green arrow peas, bush string beans, I am bringing back the squash and zucchini, 1 sweet corn, 1 ornamental corn and 1 sweet corn, 6 type of lettuce, swiss chard, leeks, beets, peppers, cucumbers, butternut squash, 4 types of garlic, asparagus and 3 types of carrots. I am definitely going to regrow Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry as well as a new unusual cousin of the tomato - the Litchi Tomato. Supposedly it will grow in a pod and when the pod opens, it will reveal a small red cherry tomato ready for picking. Whats so unusually is it looks like a tomato plant with long thorns and the fruit has lingering hints of cherry......cannot wait for this one.....
We got hit with another snow storm one week after my last post. It dumped another 18 inches for an overall pretty snowy Feb. With a blanket of snow, it felt sort of weird trying to gear up for starting my seeds. Finally, once the weather hit 50 degrees (1 day after the snow) I realized I had to get going. This year, the kids started to tag along. With Jen being pregnant, I am trying to take the kids as much as possible to give her a break. For seed starting, it means Jackson and Charlotte needing to buy their own seed starting kits, seeds and soil. For my stuff, Jack helped fill the 200 peat starter pots with soil and I laid out the seeds. As always, covered them with the lids and sit back and wait. This year, the salad germinated first, followed by the chard and then beets.
Different this year are the herbs and heirloom perennials I am trying to start from seed. We are trying to start Borage, Lemon Bee Balm, German Chamomile, Peppermint, Lovage, Fennel and Dill. With 90% of the seeds now germinated or about to break the surface, I need to start thinking tomatoes and peppers. From a tomato perspective, I will have about 6 varieties equalling about 50-60 plants. The only varieties that I am sure of are Brandywine, Big Rainbow, Stupice, Dr Wyches, Mexican Midget, Charlies Mortgage Lifter, Wisconsin 55 and Nebraska Wedding. Peppers are a whole different story - I have hod zero, zilch, nada success with peppers here in planifield. If they grow, they produce little and what is produced doesn't last long enough to turn ripe.Soon, very soon I will start digging outside - the garden is going to be rearranged a little, a pergola will be going up in April, bees are coming in May and I am going to Maui!!!
Food Harvested:
None
Things Planted:
Seeds Started - Greens, herbs, leeks, ....
Seeds Saved:
None
Preserved/Cooked:
Not too much
Things to Remember:
I can't remember
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