seed potatoes arrived
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My seed potatoes arrived in the mail today. I have to get their bed ready and get them planted – next weekend.
pea planting
It was a beautiful spring day yesterday. Perfect for planting peas. I cleared off a couple of my garden beds, added a few bags of compost and manure, and then put int 3 wide rows of peas.
mail ordered seeds
Here are seeds from my last mail order. I am trying seeds from an Asian seed catalog for the first time: Kitazawa. They look really interesting! Also a bunch here from an old favorite: Botanical Interests. I love their plant drawings. I was pleased to spot their Komen for the Cure seeds – Celebration in Pink cosmos. An over-sized package with a donation to breast cancer research. I bought extra so I can share, since bc research is my profession.
heirloom versus hybrid seeds
Betsy just sent me the link to an article in the NY Times about “heirloomism” and vegetable gardening: Heirloom Seeds or Flinty Hybrids?. Its a long article, exploring lots of aspects of hybrids and heirlooms. It also describes the new movement that goes beyond heirloom seeds, striving to “rebuild the regional farming culture that invented those cultivars”. Betsy says, “It hadn’t occurred to me that the heirloom tomatoes could be at the root of the blight problem – too long a season with varieties that are not disease resistant. Interesting.”…
potato order
I just ordered my seed potatoes. Fedco/Moose Tubers has a nice selection of “Keepers” that includes: German Butterball, Katahdin, Elba, Red Pontiac, and Russet Burbank. 2 1/2 lbs of each for only $19. Can’t beat it. I’ll pick of a few blues at the supermarket to add to my planting.
catalogs
I’m trying to limit myself to just a few more packets of seeds. I placed an order from Johnny’s yesterday. Carrots, squash, parsnips, etc. And I’ve circled a bunch of things from the Kitazawa catalog. So many seeds, so little space…. My son has been asking me several times now to please grow popcorn again this year. How can I refuse? He says it tastes much better than anything we’ve been able to buy. He’s a real connoisseur! I don’t know where I will find space – popcorn needs at…
sprouting sweets and saving squash seeds
Today, I finally remembered to bring my small (finger-sized) sweet potatoes upstairs to see if the warmer temperature will get them to sprout. (I left the big ones downstairs to keep for eating.) I’d like to get the sweet potatoes to sprout soon. They start off slow. Also, I roasted a nice buttercup squash from my local CSA and couldn’t resist saving a few of the fat seeds. It is a nice variety with thick orange flesh that tasted great and kept very well until now. Even though squashes do…
organizing last year’s seeds
I got out my seed basket, spread out all the seeds, stacked them by the type of vegetable, and then wrapped the little stacks with rubber bands. The basket is all organized and ready to go now. My first seed order arrived yesterday and I added these to the basket. I’ll be setting up my lights and starting up a few seeds soon.
seed catalogs!
Seed catalogs have started arriving in the mail. They seem to come earlier every year. Christmas seems to come earlier every year too. Maybe I’m just getting further behind.
Sunshine Yellow watermelon seeds
I got a fantastic yellow fleshed watermelon from Piccadilly Farm. They told me the variety is Sunshine (Johnny’s Seeds). I collected seeds from my watermelon, but now that I see its an F1 hybrid, I will throw out the seeds 🙁 and put them on my list to order next year. I hope I can grow this great variety myself.
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy
weeks and counting until my last spring frost
My garden this week
Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!
