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Plans and Schemes

One of the biggest challenges in gardening is figuring out what grows well in your area.  I think we can safely say that snow peas, carrots and chinese broccoli (kailan) are all winners here…

This is the North box back on Dec 1:
 

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And the same box 29 days later (ie. today):

 

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The snow peas are more robust than they might appear, some of them are winding in and around the carrots, and lying down in the kailan section.  Here’s the first harvest this morning:

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Of course, you’ll have to imagine about one-fifth more pods there to account for the ones I ate on the way back into the house.  *whistles innocently*
 

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If you’re like me, you’ve received in the mail in the past two weeks enough seed catalogs to completely remulch some portion of your landscape.   They really go all out in the design, and the use of full-color glossy pages, don’t they?  The more effectively to tempt us, you know…I’ve already received my Seed Savers Exchange order, placed the Johnny’s Seeds order this morning, and still have Baker Creek Heirlooms and Territorial Seed Co. catalogs to get through!  

Here’s what’s on deck for winter/spring planting…

From Seed Savers Exchange:

  1. Sunberry
  2. Cucumber – Bushy
  3. Carrot – Dragon Purple
  4. Melon – Sakata’s Sweet
  5. Melon – Delice de Table
  6. Bean – Jacob’s Gold
  7. Cucumber – Crystal Apple
  8. Spinach – Monnopa
  9. Carrot – Scarlet Nantes
  10. Carrot – St. Valery
  11. Lettuce – Red Rapids
  12. Onion – Yellow Borettana (Cipollini)
  13. Tomato – Federle
  14. Leek – Blue Solaize
  15. Carrot – Oxheart
  16. Corn – Tom Thumb
  17. Cucumber – Boothby’s Blonde
  18. Watermelon – Blacktail Mountain

From Johnny’s Seeds:

  1. Pepper – Padron (per Matt’s glowing recommendation)
  2. Carrot – Atomic Red
  3. Carrot – Yellowstone
  4. Carrot – Kinko
  5. Carrot – Hercules
  6. Carrot – Purple Rain
  7. Carrot – White Satin
  8. Carrot – Yaya
  9. Greens – Green Lance
  10. Greens – Yukina Savoy
  11. Greens – Red Choi
  12. Lettuce – Galisse
  13. Onion – Red Marble (Cipollini)
  14. Peas – Premium
  15. Peppers – Krimzon Lee

Argh, just look at that list.  I am just a sucker for Heirloom varieties, the unusual stuff you can’t get in grocery stores or farmer’s markets.   And if you even suggest that Thomas Jefferson once grew it at Monticello, well, hand it over, dammit.  Oops.

UPDATE:  The final selections have been made from Territorial Seed Co. and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds:

From Territorial:

  1. Bean – Black Pearl Edamame
  2. Pepper – Italian Sweet
  3. Bean – Misono Green Edamame
  4. Tomato – Orange Paruche
  5. Pepper – Whitney

From Baker Creek:

  1. Onion – Tokyo Long White Bunching
  2. Onion – Bianca di Maggio (yes, another Cipollini)
  3. Pea – Sugar Ann
  4. Tomato – Striped Roman
  5. Tomato – Carbon
  6. Watermelon – Chilean Black Seeded
  7. Watermelon – Gold Baby

And that’s IT, dammit!

Yeah, right…because I forgot about Heirloomseeds.com, Victory Heirlooms, Amishland Heirlooms and Seeds of Change!  I’m DOOOMED!

Happy New Year to all!