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This year’s seed order

March 22, 2013

Since it seems like so many people are dealing with less-than-stellar spring weather, I’m making a concerted effort not to spend too much time complaining about it. So instead of mentioning that there is still a 5-foot tall pile of snow in my yard, or that I’m behind on pruning things because I can’t get through the snow to actually get to them, I decided to talk about what I’ve ordered so far in terms of seeds.

Here’s what I’ve ordered so far (I still need to pick up some cukes and nasturiums):

From Dagawalla Seeds & Herbs (first time ordering from them):

Huichol Nicotiana: I’ll admit that I ordered these on a bit of a whim. Margaret Roach wrote about interesting Nicotianas  on her A Way to Garden blog and I feel hard for them. I figured it was worth a shot.

The seeds arrived yesterday and what I found when I opened the envelope pretty much charmed the pants off of me. Check it out … a hand-written note (and a free pack of seeds)!

From Fedco Seeds (my first time ordering from them):

Beans: I love beans and usually eat them straight out of the garden. I never have enough beans because I get stingy with my garden space. This year I’m hoping to actually have enough. I grew Velour last year and loved it although the beautiful green color doesn’t stay when you cook it.

Jade Bush Green Bean
Velour Haricots Verts
Golden Rocky Bush Wax Bean

Peas: I love peas too and this year I’m going to try to get them in on time, which never, ever happens. Cascadia is a bush variety and Sugarsnap is a taller variety that is supposed to produce really well.

Cascadia Snap Pea 
Sugarsnap Snap Pea

Beets: I didn’t grow beets last year and I missed them. So they are back for this year. Margaret Roach says this is the best beet mix there is. Good enough for me.

3 Root Grex Beet

3 Root Grex Beet mix

Scallions: I never have a lot of luck with these but then again I don’t treat them very well either. They are cheap and don’t take up much space so I figure it’s worth a try.

Evergreen Hardy White Scallion

Lettuce: More than almost anything, I love lettuce from the garden. Nothing you could ever buy in the store tastes like homegrown lettuce. I think these are mostly made up of leaf varieties, so I just cut as needed. The key is to do lots of plantings which I usually forget to do.

Lettuce Mix
DeLuxe Lettuce Mix

Swiss Chard: I have grown to absolutely love chard and I grow this one as much for the taste as for looks. This produced all summer for me last year.

Bright Lights Chard

Swiss chard ‘Bright Lights’

Broccoli: I kind of hate broccoli, but I do use rapini and broccolini in a couple of recipes and I don’t mind it. I’ve found that the best way to learn to love a vegetable is to grow it yourself. Funny how things taste better when you grow them. This kind is a non-heading variety.

Piracicaba

Kale: I love kale as an ornamental. I am always amazed at the beautiful containers Deborah Silver creates with kale. But kale is also really, really good for you and it’s another vegetable I’m trying to make a concerted effort to learn to love. Whether I learn to love to eat it or not, I will certainly enjoy its beauty. And the dogs absolutely love kale (and all other leafy vegetables) so I can always feed it to them if I have too much.

Redbor Kale
Rainbow Lacinato Kale
Nero di Tuscana Kale

Redbor kale

Other than the aforementioned cucumbers and nasturiums, I think that’s about it for me for seeds this year. I also grow onions from slips, and tomatoes and zucchini from plants, but mostly because I just don’t need tons of those so growing from seed doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

I’m excited to get growing. Now, if I could just find the vegetable garden under all this snow ….

seeds spring vegetables
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
1 Comment

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Comments

  1. Heather - New House New HOme says: March 23, 2013 at 12:26 pm

    Our lists are very similar. Although I don't grow broccoli mainly because I haven't tried. Can't wait to get my lettuce and beets in the ground. We actually have sunshine this morning – the first time in over a week. Maybe we've turned a corner?

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Here’s a combo I’m totally digging this year: Wicked Witch coleus with Compact White Sunpatiens. I should have planted more Sunpatiens because they haven’t filled in as much as I expected in this part sun spot, but it’s a great look.
When you leave your garden in the middle of summer you know there’s going to be some clean up on the back end. It’s amazing how the little things we do every day in the garden, even when we’re not “working” in it—pulling a weed, propping up a plant, tucking tendrils into a trellis—add up to important jobs. And you don’t realize that until they aren’t being done. 

When I came home after 8 days away I was planning to whip the whole garden into shape and ended up spending all day in the vegetable garden where things went awry quickly. 

I was rewarded though with lots of cucumbers and zucchini and a few pretty bouquets to put around the house. This is Madame Butterfly Bronze with White (a name I don’t understand at because I wouldn’t use any of those words to describe the color) snapdragon and Apricot Shades strawflower. 

Check the link in the bio to see the whole video and what I found when I first laid eyes on the garden after some time away.
It’s a nighttime hunt in the garden and it’s the best time to find hornworms. You’ll need a black light and a tough gag reflex but you have to remove these guys from your tomato plants or they’ll be gone quickly. If you find a hornworm with white things that look like grains of rice in it, that is parasitic wasp larvae that will eat them from the inside (everything about this is gross). Remove those hornworms from your plants but don’t kill then as you’ll be aiding the beneficial bug population by allowing those parasitic wasps to hatch. For other hornworms you can kill them or feed them to chickens or put on your bird feeder. They do turn into beautiful, big moths but you want to make sure they can’t get back to your plants if you let the hornworms live.
When it comes Echinacea, @garden.evolution (aka Coneflower king) and I don’t often agree, but I think we both feel the same about Color Coded ‘The Price is White’ being an outstanding variety. The flowers are big and flat, hold their white color really well, are sturdy and, well, put on a great show. I’m loving them growing with Rock ‘n Grow ‘Back in Black’ too. Both are @provenwinners varieties from @waltersgardens

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