He Says, She Says

He says: Are these parsnip seeds ready to be cut and dried?

She says: I have no idea.

What do you say?

Seed Saving

We had some left over parsnips in the garden that managed to survive the winter. Those whose roots we didn't use for pencils (Because they're woody, get it? Oh dag, that's entertaining.) were left in the ground to go to seed. From the looks of these heads, they should be going to flower within the next week. What we do after that, we're not quite sure, because we've never done this before. We'll be sure to let you know what's up as we find out.

And then there was corn

Seeds are erupting everywhere in our garden. We could do a whole photo show of the various beans that sprouted since Monday. Two days ago we got our first signs of corn. I think we'll have no problem hitting knee high by the fourth of July.

On a bed of greens

This is our third growing season together and consequently it's our third year growing lettuce. The first year we didn't get to the spring planting in time, but the fall harvest was a boom. The second year saw results that were the complete opposite; the spring planting was on time and plentiful, but the deer and rabbits had their way with the fall sprouts. What has been consistent is that every planting has been direct seed.


This year we reinforced the fence, said to hell with consistency, and started some of the seeds indoors. We were really surprised at how well they did. Out of a tray of 72, only two didn't sprout. If I knew the names of the varieties [Buttercrunch and Black Seeded Simpson --Meg] I'd tell ya, but Meg's at work and she's the wiz at keeping that shit straight. I usually learn food names by consumption. (and I digress) Last week we hardened off our sprouts and Saturday we put them in the ground.

We're pairing this particular bed of greens with poling peas (the ones that survived at least). Last year this bed was a mix of fabulous carrots and failed parsnips. As I was digging the trench to put in the plants and fresh compost I discovered a carrot that managed to go unnoticed last fall.


We made short work of the carrot that evening. It was tasty.

It's been two days since we transplanted our future salads and everything looks great. Hopefully this weekend we can return to consistency and direct seed a bed of lettuce and also get our spinach going as well.

What's Eating You?

One of the many things we've learned since we started gardening is that with the great joys there are also extreme aggravations. This property can be a real pain in the ass sometimes. Our recent bit of fury comes from a mysterious pest that is eating the pea sprouts.

I think we can rule out groundhogs, deer, and rabbits. There is just too much fence for that to be a possibility. Meg thought perhaps that is was the work of squirrels, but what ever it is, it left the seed. Actually there doesn't seem to be any mammal amounts of digging at all. I did see an ant colony, but it was in another bed all together. I know they're industrious, but would they really travel that far for a little green grub?

If you can't tell, we are at a loss with this one. Now I know the photo of the eaten sprout isn't the best, but it was the best I could do. If any of you have a theory about what it might be, please send a remedy our way.

Mail Call!

About a week ago, when I posted our seed inventory for the coming season, I mentioned that we forgot to pick up carrot or parsnip seeds. We were going to run to the overpriced fancy-pants garden store that's down the street and pick some up, but Jenny quickly jumped in with a much more fun alternative. She recently went to a very enviable seed exchange and netted hordes of extra seeds; lucky for us she offered to share her extra carrots and parsnips. When we heard that offer we said, "Hell, yes!" or something to that effect, and a few days later these guys showed up in the mail:

Early Gold and Scarlet Nantes carrots, a mystery parsnip, and parsley root. Awesome!

If you're not familiar with Jenny's blog, Seeded, definitely check it out. She writes about her garden, of course, and cooking, and about how she is covertly turning her husband into a local foodie. Also, she just put up a great diy on how to roll your own ... seed pots. heh.

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

Purple Cabbage

Hello, beautiful.

We're going to eat you.

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.

Seed Stuff

A couple weeks ago Mike of Tiny Farm Blog posted about a big 'ol shelf in his barn where he stores all kinds of miscellaneous farming odds and ends. We've got a similar collection in a room we refer to as the solarium—it's an odd cross between a mudroom and a hallway, and it's got two nice, big skylights. It houses a big table full of potted plants, our coats, shoes, and chicken food, the big freezer, and our seed stuff. In a month or so our newly-sown seedlings will live under the grow lights and all the potting soil, seed trays, spray bottles, and plant markers will once again be put to use. Meanwhile, everything remains in a big pile on and around the tables—is there really any nice looking way to organize this stuff?

From left to right: potting soil, perlite, etc; shoebox o' seeds; harvest basket; October, Cranberry, and Cherokee dried beans; old clementine crate; produce scale; pirate flag awaiting a new pole; eggshells in a bag; random pots; spray bottle; seed trays; more harvest baskets; and hot peppers hanging to dry. Yikes.

Vegetable Varieties

You know how seed catalogues never use quite the same language to describe plants and you have to re-read and go back and forth and back and forth to make sure you know what you're getting? Just me, then? Well, bear with me anyway and check out this pretty cool site that Craig from Ellis Hollow linked to a while back—I believe he played a part in putting the site together. It's got an index of thousands of seeds, and it's part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension:

Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners

It's like the Wikipedia of seeds, sort of. You can register with the site, and that will let you add reviews and varieties that aren't in the system. You can search for something as broad as "Tomato," and the site will return a list of every variety of tomato they have, which you can then sort by different criteria; or you can search a particular variety of vegetable, like "Brandywine Tomato," which will give you a specific plant description, a list of seed sources (with links!), and reviews of the plant. They also have growing guides that give you temperature and soil preferences, potential problems, germination time, and more for tons of different kinds of plants.

As we continue to peruse our seed catalogues and try to narrow down our choices, we're doing a lot of browsing around this site. I can see us checking in at the site for the rest of the season, too, as some of our plants will inevitably deviate from schedule or start to die in weird ways and we of course will need to run to the internet to see what we did wrong.

It Begins

It might not look like we need more seeds, but we do. And today we placed our very first seed order of the year, for capucijner peas (check them out here and here) and a type of cherry tomato from this local place we blogged about earlier this month. I realize we should probably be turning our attention to lettuce and potatoes and all the stuff that needs to be put in the ground relatively soon, but it's a start.

Local Seeds

I started writing a post inspired by an article I read today, but it is becoming way too long and befuddled, so it will just have to wait until some other day. Instead, let's do what everyone else is doing and talk about ordering seeds.

Yesterday I came across this post at Skippy's Vegetable Garden which featured wonderful-looking capucijner peas. I'd never heard of them before, and a Google search took me mostly to other garden blogs, including Bifurcated Carrots, who posted about capucijners and their place as a staple food in the Netherlands. Yum!

I was determined to try them in our garden this summer, because we're interested in amassing as much winter food as we can for next year. Dried peas that we can keep in a big jar and cook with would be great. The only problem is that none of the seed catalogues we've collected so far offer capucijners. The enormous Seed Savers Yearbook that's due to arrive in February will probably have some, but I wanted to find an alternate source just in case.

A little more searching, and I came across this one-woman, organic seed operation: Amishland Heirloom Seeds. Lisa, who lives practically down the street from us, specializes in heirloom seeds from Pennsylvania—especially Amish and PA Dutch varieties. Apparently she used to work at a Pennsylvania Dutch history museum, and is really interested in collecting the stories that go along with her seeds. Her site might not be the prettiest in the world, but in reading her description it's clear she knows her stuff. I emailed her last night to ask about the 2008 selection, and she replied that new seed availability will be up in a couple weeks. Now I'm kind of excited not only to try a new vegetable, but also to get local, organic seeds.

While Huffing Sage

I have no idea how to introduce this post...
I was gathering some sage and thyme this afternoon for a batch of cabbage and potato soup. Although this is all we have going on in our garden, other than some root veggies, I do like to hang out in there and mentally map out our possible plant rotation.

So there I was, huffing sage, staring off into space, cogitated, when I realized, "Man we are going to need a shitload of nasturtium seeds." You see, our squashes (oh yeah, all of them) were eradicated by squash bugs. After the disaster we discovered that nasturtiums are great companions to squash plants, specifically to keep away these types of pests. As I was daydreaming about our garden for next year I realized that we are planning to have a good deal of squash in all sorts of varieties. Since the squash bug will suck on anything in the squash family I figured that we were going to need, you got it, a shitload of nasturtiums.

Meg and I have been trying our best to save seeds this year and have done fairly well in our quest. Now most of our garden is cleared out and turned, but there are some flowerbed corpses that still have not been scoured for seeds. I ventured to the shade garden area to see if I could scrounge up some yellow-nasturtium seeds, but soon realized that I really wasn't too thrilled with digging through all kinds of frozen debris for little brain-looking seeds. However, I did manage to grab a few more cardinal climber seeds (pictured above) that were dangling nearby.

Better Than a Red Ryder BB Gun

In todays mail we received an early Christmas gift. Although we are trying to save our own seeds to use from year to year, nothing beats a good seed catalogue to add variety to the winter planning. As is the same for the most of you I'm sure, we receive a healthy collection of catalogues from all sorts of purveyors. The one that has been the most reliable and feel the best about supporting is the Seed Savers Exchange. They are an independent company, we respect their methods of gardening and seed saving, we're members, and we're definitely looking forward to the 200 page catalogue in February.

This Is Kelly's Hand Modeling Portfolio

Incidentally, it's also the troupe of heirloom tomatoes that provided the seeds for most of next year's tomato crop.

Since we expanded the garden at the beginning of this year and realized that we have a lot more space than we thought we did, we decided that next year we'll squeeze in as many different tomatoes as possible. We bought the above 'maters at the farmers' market in October, and diligently saved the seeds before devouring the tomatoes. We're not really sure what they are, aside from the fact that they're heirlooms and they're organic. They'll join our Brandywines and German tomatoes, plus an unpictured gigantic yellow thing that we also picked up at the farmers' market.

Seeds

Meg and I have been collecting seeds from our garden as the growing season progressed. Last week we went to see the Renoir exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (if you live in the area, it is a must see) and since then I have been trying to gather as many flower seeds as possible. There is something about an impressionist depiction of a French garden that gets us fired up for color. With the addition of three small flower beds we saw a significant increase in the number of beneficial insects that buzzed through our garden. We're hoping that next year's new beds will attract even more.