I finally got my act together and ordered my seeds. This year I ordered from High Mowing and Johnny's. Last year I ordered from Pine Tree but they are slow in getting their catalogs out and I like to open the catalogs, spread them out and compare seeds. You can do this online but it just isn't the same. Hopefully they will come in time to get the spring crops planted by my goal of March 17th. Last year I was late in planting and had poor results. Although I still need to get a truck of compost in to refill/amend my beds before planting the seeds. Here is what I ordered:
High Mowing
Provider Beans
Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans
Improved Rainbow Chard
Astro Arugula
Mizuna
Tatsoi
Lacinto Kale
High Mowing Mesculun Mix
Sugar Snap Peas
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Palco Spinach
Success PM Straightneck (Yellow Summer Squash)
Bouquet Dill
Genovese Basil
Green Star Lettuce
Nevada Lettuce
Lettony Lettuce
Antago Lettuce
Johnny's
Napoli Carrots (Pelleted)
Northern Pickling Cucumber
Lancer Parnips
Dunja Zucchini
Red Giant Mustard Greens
Double Click Mix Cosmos
Animation Mix Snap Dragons
This year I am ordering significantly more from High Mowing because their prices for most packets were 70 cents less each than Johnny's and when you buy as many as I did it adds up. I am trying a bunch of Asian greens for the first time because they hold up well in the cold and we want more greens. I could have gone crazy with the lettuce options but I figured I could pick a few more packets up locally without hiking up my shipping charges.
This year I am also going to try cucumber and summer squashes from seed directly planted in the ground. I always thought you needed to start them inside and since we don't have grow lights I always bought starts. My sister in law said that she had done both before with great success directly planting in the ground. I decided to go ahead and try it because the cost of seeds is cheaper than buying multiple starts and there are significantly more plant options. Last year my store had one choice in variety for zuchinni and pickling cucumbers. By buying seeds I was able to pick out varieties that I think might work best for my location and garden issues. I just hope this works out otherwise it will probably be too late to buy starts by the time I realize the seeds completely failed.
I absolutely adore your blog - long time reader, first time commenter! I love seeing the list of what other people have purchased for their gardens, I'm stuck trying to figure out what beans to get this year - any suggestions on which you like best?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
-Sara
Hi Sara, thanks for coming back and reading! This is only my second year of growing beans. Last year I did all bush beans. I had good success with Tendergreen and Royal Burgundy both snap beans. They were great for eating fresh and canning. I also grew Jacob's Cattle and Kenearly Yellow which are drying beans. They easily became diseased and had very poor yields. I have extra seed for the tendergreen and royal burgundy and will grow them. I am trying this year Provider snap beans which germinate well in cool soils so that I can get beans sooner. I am also trying Kentucky Wonder Pole. The beans are larger and would be good to break into pieces and can. I am wanting to see how prolific they are and if they take up less space because they grow vertically. I want to be able to can lots of beans so I want high yields. I went with bush beans last year because you don't have to worry about support, and they were easy to grow. But they took up a decent amount of space which is why I want to try a pole bean.
ReplyDeleteI would say go with a variety that you would be likely to buy fresh at the store and try a bush variety first to see how you like it before investing in support, and then the next year go from there. Hope this helps!
I did the KY Wonder Pole Beans last year [bakers creek seeds] and they were great - wonderful producer.
ReplyDeleteI have started my cucs from seed all the time, direct sow, w/o issue. I am hoping to do that with more of what I grow this year since inside grow light space is at a premium!
I usually do start my cucumbers, melons and squash by direct seeding. I found the direct seeded ones caught up with, then surpassed, the seedlings. They really don't like being transplanted, but I had fairly good luck the one time I grew them in soil blocks.
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