Inventory

We're getting close to the point where we need a more concrete garden plan, so this afternoon I hauled out all our seeds from last year, rounded up the new arrivals that have been deposited all over the house, and printed out the order confirmations for the stragglers that haven't shown up yet. I grouped everything roughly by type and started making lists.

The end result of all this is that we're slightly more organized, and we've also realized that we have accumulated a hell of a lot of seeds.

Below is a complete list of everything we've got going on this year; there are about 90(!) varieties in all. Varieties in bold are new to us, and those with an asterisk behind the are things we acquired randomly and don't know the names of. We still need to get corn, a red potato, parsnips, and some more carrots.

Garlic: Georgia Crystal
Garlic: Russian Giant
Garlic: Music
Garlic: Italian
Garlic: German Extra Hardy
Garlic: Bogatyr
Garlic: Chesnok Red
Garlic: Spanish Roja
Garlic: Emmaus Farmers Market*

Onion: Sweet Yellow Spanish
Onion: Red Burgermaster Hybrid
Leek: American Flag

Celery: Utah

Broccoli: Green Goliath
Brussels Sprout: Catskill
Cabbage: Golden Acre
Cabbage: Ruby Perfection Hybrid
Chinese Cabbage: Wong Bok
Kale: Dwarf Blue Curled

Potato: All Blue
Potato: Yukon Gold

Lettuce: Red Velvet
Lettuce: Oakleaf
Lettuce: Red Sails
Lettuce: Buttercrunch
Lettuce: Black Seeded Simpson
Spinach: Pinetree Garden Seeds Mix
Chard: Five Color Silverbeet

Bean: Good Mother Stallard
Bean: Cherokee Trail of Tears
Bean: True Red Cranberry
Bean: October
Bean: Rattlesnake
Bean: Jade Green
Cowpea: California Blackeye #5
Edamame: Butterbean
Pea: Green Arrow
Pea: Oregon Sugar Pod II
Pea: Mr. Big Pea
Pea: Cascadia
Pea: Amish
Pea: Capucijner

Hot Pepper: Lemon Drop
Hot Pepper: Hinkelhatz
Hot Pepper: Beaver Dam
Hot Pepper: NuMex Joe E Parker
Hot Pepper: Cayenne
Hot Pepper: Jalepeño M
Hot Pepper: Tobasco Greenleaf
Pepper: Red Bell

Tomato: Brandywine
Tomato: Grandpa's Mystery Big Tomato*
Tomato: Grandpa's Howard German
Tomato: Amish Paste
Tomato: Red Heart-Shaped*
Tomato: Matt's Wild
Tomato: Black Tomato*
Tomato: Green Sausage
Tomato: Small Green Tomato*
Tomato: Yellow Peach Tomato*
Tomato: Yellow Brandywine Tomato*
Tomato: Yellow Plum Tomato*

Cucumber: True Lemon
Cucumber: Bushy
Summer Squash: Lemon
Summer Squash: Striata D'Italia
Pumpkin: Connecticut Field
Watermelon: Mickylee
Winter Squash: Waltham Butternut
Winter Squash: Burpee's Butterbush
Winter Squash: Table King Bush Acorn
Winter Squash: Delicata
Winter Squash: Sweet Dumpling

Carrot: Tochon
Carrot: Danvers 126
Turnip: Purple Globe
Radish: Sparkler White Tip
Beet: Gourmet Blend

Basil: Genovese
Basil: Thai
Rosemary
Parsley: Giant from Italy
Cilantro: Santo
Oregano: True Greek
Thyme
Sweet Marjoram
Russian Terragon
Dill: Mammoth
Sage
Chives
Stevia

Here they come...

Pinetree Garden Seeds surprised us over the weekend and delivered our first batch of seeds. We primarily ordered cool season crops from them; since we get so many catalogues from good seed companies, we decided to spread our orders around a little this year. Many of the varieties we got are new to us:

Lettuce "Black Seeded Simpson," "Red Velvet," "Buttercrunch," and "Oakleaf"—You can't grow too much lettuce, right?

Onion "Yellow Sweet Spanish"—We've only ever grown onions from sets and never had good results, so we're hoping that a combination of seeds with an early start and a sunnier location will help us out this year.

Celery "Utah"—Last year we picked up four little celery plants on a whim. They did pretty well until the rabbits ate them, and then two of the four made an impressive recovery.

Pea "Mr. Big Pea"—These guys are supposed to be nice long pods that hold a ton of peas.

Cabbage "Ruby Perfection"—all we have to do is keep the cabbage worms away from this guy.

We also got two kinds of beans ("Rattlesnake" and "Jade") and two kinds of winter squash ("Delicata" and "Sweet Dumpling") along with a big ol' bag of mixed spinach seeds. The only thing in our order that's a repeat is Red Sails lettuce.

Very soon it will be time to sweep the junk off the grow tables and start some seeds, and soon after that we'll finally be eating salad again.

Want to Meet New Bloggers?

Last week, Angie from Children in the Corn tipped us off to The Growing Challenge, which we promptly signed up for. The Growing Challenge is a contest of sorts being hosted by Melinda of Elements in Time, though this isn't the kind of a challenge where someone gets picked as a winner at the end, and there's not even a very specific goal that can qualify you as "finished."

Basically, the challenge is to grow a fruit or vegetable variety that's new to you and blog about it. Easy! I think most of us are already doing that anyway. Many people who've posted their seed orders mentioned some new stuff that they're trying out, and with the glamourization of heirloom varieties around the blogosphere this time of year, it's hard not to be tempted to try something new. So, since we're already blogging, and we're already planning to grow some new varieties, this is a good incentive to blog about the new stuff we're growing. Part of the reason Kelly and I started this blog was to have sort of a record of our garden, and while it's always amusing to look back and see what stupid thing our chickens did at this time three months ago, that's not going to be entirely helpful when we're planning next year's garden.

But really, I think the best part about Melinda's challenge is the ongoing series of incredibly detalied weekly roundup posts that she's doing, which give a full summary of what all the challenge participants have been up to in the past week. This is the closest thing I've seen to a garden bloggers' carnival, and I like it. It's a great way to find new bloggers; I hardly recognize anyone at Melinda's site, yet they all seem to know each other. And of course, their blogs are all lovely. Even if you don't want to officially join the challenge, this one might be good to follow along with just see what everyone else is growing.