February 1, 2018

new varieties for this year!!

I have a lot of new varieties planned for this year. Why not be a bit adventuresome! Planning for fun in the garden takes my mind off of this winter. Not that it’s a bad winter, but I really want to get back outside in the dirt. Some of these are new varieties of plants I’ve grown before. Some are whole new plants that I’m trying for the first time – like artichokes, celery, and cumin. Artichoke, Tavor, only 95 days to harvest – I’ll grow some for flowers too…

January 25, 2018

seed catalogs

I received the Adaptive Seeds catalog today. Excellent reading. It will keep me busy at least several days to read all the way through it. A few days ago I got FarmTek, Johnny’s Seeds, and McMurray‘s Hatchery. If reading catalogs brings the spring on sooner, I’m there.

January 22, 2018

when to plant spring seeds

To time when I plant my seeds, I use an app that I’ve written. Skippy’s Vegetable planting calendar. We’ve been working on this for a few years and a new update is due out next month. This update makes the app retain settings and fills in some missing planting information and is free for any previously purchased apps. I have about 100 vegetable varieties that I’ll plant this year. The app is a very simple way of planning when to plant vegetable seeds. This year I entered info from all…

January 19, 2018

my tried-and-true, old favorite vegetable varieties

Bush beans, Jumbo, big flat pods Mini broccoli, Happy Rich, broccolini that keeps producing all season Green storage cabbage, Murdoc, a big storage variety, very mild Popcorn, Robust 997, super yields, great popping and taste Pickling cucumber, Salt and Pepper, small white cuke, chartreuse inside Seedless cucumber, Diva, my favorite cuke for many years, can be finicky to get started Asian mini eggplant, Hansel, awesome yields of small black Asian type fruits Black round Italian eggplant, Barbarella, low yields but the best taste ever Broad-leaved Escarole, Natacha, a beautiful plant…

January 15, 2018

2018 garden plans

August 3, 2017

fall and winter garden planning

I’ve finished planting most of my fall vagarables now. This week I’ll plant a couple more. Fall vegetables are ones I harvest before they are killed by cold weather and don’t use any cold protection. I’m beginning to plan my winter bed now. I’ll use the same double layered tunnel that’s worked well for me the past couple years. I’ll fill this bed with crops that are full grown by early November so I’ll be able to harvest them all winter. My fall vegetables: beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, lettuce,…

May 28, 2017

fall planting with my calendar app

Please go to Apple Store for the current update on Skippy’s Calendar app. It corrects the bug on the fall date changer. Yes, it’s time to start thinking about fall planting. I planted my Brussels sprouts a couple days ago. I’m hoping to have some for Thanksgiving this year. It seems pretty far ahead to plan for that!

March 21, 2017

update of planting calendar apps

I’m so excited about our new updates of our planting calendar apps! I think they are great. We put a lot of work into both our Vegetable and our Flower & Herb app. – We added many, many more plants. Now more than 100 vegetables and 100 flowers & herbs. – We added an “info page” for all of the plants that describes how to plant and grow it. – We added many photos of plants we have grown. – And … we added several photos of Skippy, helping out…

March 5, 2017

2017 seed sowing

Here’s my 2017 planting list that I’ll add to as I continue to plant. I’m noting in () the season the seeds were sold for. I’ll mark if they germinated for me. I plant a lot of different varieties but the amounts of each are small and I risk no germination for many by planting old seeds until they don’t germinate. Everything is at 70 degrees F for germination and growing this year, except the peppers that will go at 78 degrees F for germination. February 23, sow indoors under…

February 23, 2017

it’s time to plant onions!

I sowed my first seeds of the season. A tray with several types of onions, leeks, and celeriac. My planting calendar said it was time. I couldn’t find my leftover plant labels from last year, so I cut up a plastic tofu container. I’ll get better labels before I need to mark the rows outside. I’ll start up a post soon with a list of the onion varieties I planted. I’ll continue fill in this list as I plant more seeds. Next on my planting schedule are cabbages and escarole,…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost