February 28, 2010 Ordered the Seeds

I placed my Seed Saver's Exchange order today.  Here's what I ended up with:

1. Bean, KY Wonder Pole , Packet 50 seeds
2. Bean, Purple Pod Pole OG, Packet 50 seeds 
3. Carrot, Dragon , Packet 250 seeds
4. Cucumber, Crystal Apple OG, Packet 25 seeds
5. Cucumber, Longfellow OG, Packet 25 seeds
6. Lettuce, Amish Deer Tongue , Packet 250 seeds   
7. Lettuce, Slobolt OG, Packet 250 seeds
8. Lettuce, Yugoslavian Red OG, Packet 250 seeds
9. Pea, Amish Snap , Packet 100 seeds 
10. Radish, French Breakfast OG, Packet 250 seeds
11. Spinach, America , Packet 250 seeds 

When you add up the number of seeds it seems like a lot.  I was thinking that I wanted a good variety of the veggies I grew successfully last year.  For example I'm looking forward to the Purple Pole Beans, the unusual Crystal Apple Cucumber, and a couple of new varieties of Lettuce.  Will I need 750 heads of lettuce or 250 Radishes? No.  But I figured I could give some seeds away and hold on to the rest for next season.  And I know I said I wasn't going to do radishes this year but I once again couldn't resist.  This variety is long and supposedly has a mild flavor.  I'm a sucker for anything I can harvest that early!

I've got a week or two until they arrive (free shipping!) so I need to figure out the the logistics of starting the seeds indoors soon.  All those seeds are going to take up some serious space!

We also had our 4th blizzard of the year roll through this past week (although this last one was mostly wind and the snow accumulation was way lower than the 12-14" they were predicting), so the snow is still ever present.  The forecast for the next few days is in the mid-40's with lots of sun.  So I'm hoping that the snow will melt away and the ground will finally begin to thaw soon. I haven't been down to the garden plot in a  month because of the 70+ inches of snow this season, but from the porch it looks like I've got a lot of work mending the trellis and cleaning up the plot, but I'm looking forward to it!

February 6, 2010 Planning During the Blizzard

 NOAA foretasted about a foot of snow for this past Friday into Saturday as early as Monday and the storm did not disappoint. We ended up with nearly 2 feet!  There was enough warning that we were prepared with groceries and libations this time!  While the snow was blowing outside I stayed warm hashing out the 2010 garden plan.

This year I am planning on a little less of everything to allow for greater spaces between plants.  The three biggest changes will be to the tomatoes, peppers, and the squash plants.  I'm going research what flowers that both look nice and will attract beneficial insects to plant in the spaces between the tomatoes.  I also still may find room for more peppers, but I am definitely giving them more room.  One square foot just wasn't enough. The same goes for the zucchini.  I'd like to plant only two in the same space I had four last year to see how that helps with the powdery mildew and overcrowding.  If I can, I'd also like to swap out one of the two zucchini for a yellow squash plant to give a little more color and variety during harvest time.

Gone this year are the watermelon, cantaloupe, and sunflowers.  They just didn't work out well for me and I needed to cut some things to make room for the extra spacing.  I am however going to give eggplant another try so I'll have to be watchful for the flea beetles again. Gone also is the separate trellis for the peas.  Trying to make my life easier and keeping all the climbing plants to one trellis.

And finally I'm looking into trying some more things from seed this year, especially the salad greens, peas, beans, and cucumbers.  I have a $30 order in my shopping cart for the Seed Saver's Exchange site (thanks Anne Marie for the tip) waiting for me to pull the trigger.  We're trying to figure out first how much room inside we have to set up little sun boxes to start them in.  There's a bunch of really interesting plants on there and I want to experiment with at least a few this year.

I These caught my eye:

Apple Cucumbers

Dragon Carrots

Purple Pole Beans

Amish Deer Tongue  

Yugoslavian Red  

Listada de Gandia Eggplant

I haven't thought yet about what to do with the "Annex" I recovered from the weed patch next to the berry bushes.  It might just be flowers, or another zucchini.  Any suggestions ?