Arrived

All my seeds have arrived.  I am hoping to get lettuces, greens and peas in the ground this weekend.  But I don't have a garden plan yet.  I really need to sit down and figure out where I want everything to go in this year's garden before I can put a seed in the soil.

Finally

Over the past week I inventoried my seeds, cleaned out old seeds, compiled a list of what I needed, scoured catalogs and finally placed some orders.  I placed orders with Pinetree, High Mowing and Johhny's.  I wish I could find everything I need in one catalog to save on shipping costs but then again I like supporting more than one of my favorite catalogs.

I ordered a bunch of lettuce seeds with high hopes but the order might prove to be foolish since the past couple of years I seem to be the only person on the planet who has a hard time growing lettuce.  I ordered a few of my favorites that needed refilling (Napoli carrots, Lacinto Kale etc..) and a few other items for fun just to try ("watermelon" radishes and such).  I am looking forward to the arrival of my seed packages, it means the possibilities of a new garden are around the corner!

Super Late

I should have ordered seeds weeks ago.  But life and work have put my gardening plans on the back burner.  I am hoping to use this long President's Day weekend to inventory my seeds, finish going through catalogs and finally put in my orders.  The first seeds are going to need to go in the ground in about a month!

Arriving

Some new seed catalogs have started arriving in the mail.  I am going to be looking forward to perusing them over winter break!

Starting a Few Seeds

Every year I decide to start more and more plants by seed.  The cost of one packet is often the same or less than one actual started plant.  And when you are buying multiple starts of the same plant it makes complete sense to start the seeds yourself.  

We already had the Jiffy holder so I bought a few of the peat pellets and planted basil, sunflowers and snapdragons.  Everything else I am planting by seed this year will get direct planted into the garden.

Planted

I was able to get most of my spring seeds in by my March 17th deadline.  Last year I didn't get my lettuce, carrots, radishes, parsnips and such into the ground until April 14th due to building the beds and the constant monsoon we had last year.  I am hoping that getting the seeds in significantly earlier will result in better yields.  Although the summer like weather we are having might mean we have a really short spring meaning I am late yet again.

Today I planted the following items: astro arugula, high mowing mesculun mix, buttercrunch, green star lettuce, lettony lettuce, rouge d'hiver, baby romaine, antago lettuce, nevada lettuce, cosmic purple carrots, red cored chantenay carrots, french breakfast radishes, cherry belle radishes, purple plum radishes, hollow crown parsnips, lancer parsnips, rainbow swiss chard, sugar snap peas, cilantro, and bouquet dill.

I still need to plant spinach, but I am trying to chit them first.  I also have an assortment of heat tolerant lettuces that I will get in next week and a second planting of radishes and carrots.

Arrived

I thought this posted last week but it seems it hasn't.  All my seeds arrived last week so I am ready to plant now that the beds have been prepared.

Seeds Ordered!

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.

Late

I am super late in putting in my seed orders.  I almost have them ready but I still need to make a couple more decisions.  I wanted to put in my order weeks ago.  But vertigo has kept me from reading lots of tiny print and life has just gotten busy.  I better get a move on it or I won't get my seeds in time for my earlier March planting dates that I want to try this year.

Getting Organized

 

Before ordering seeds I need to organize the seeds I have to determine what I want more of and what I don't need.  Last year I stored all my seeds in a Ziploc bag but this year I decided I wanted something that kept them sorted and more organized.

I went to the craft store in search of an inexpensive recipe box to put the seeds in but instead found this box.  It was only $3, cheaper than the recipe boxes, deeper than a recipe box, sturdier, and has a clasp so that the packets won't tumble out if it accidentally gets dropped or jostled around.

For now I have pieces of left over card stock from other projects as dividers between groups and filling tabs as labels.  I would like to have dividers that fit properly but these work for now.  I have already filled this one up so I might just have to go get another.

I was thinking I could use old seed packets to decoupage onto the box.  Although these are the only seed packets I have left.  There isn't much variety in them and I write the year they were bought on the outside so I am not thrilled with my selection.  I am tempted to go buy packets that look pretty just to use for this project which would make an inexpensive project pricier.

Zinnia Seed

I have been browsing my seed catalogs deciding what to get for next year.  In addition to veggies I also like to pick out a few flowers for cutting.  It helps to feed my love of indoor arrangements and curb my desire to buy some at the farmers market.  Last year the only variety that worked out really well for me were Zinnias.

This year I plan to try out a couple of different types from last year other than the Zinnias.  I was at my Dad's over the holidays discussing seeds when I found out his wife, Connie, saved all of her Zinnia seeds from last year.  So I was sent home with a lovely and large bag of mixed Zinnia seeds.  I am looking forward to planting them next year and seeing what pops up.  Now I just need to pick out all of the other seeds.

More Plantings

Since the bees didn't come on Thursday I had time to get the rest of our the seeds for Spring in.  I planted all the lettuces 10 different varieties, parsnips, 3 types of carrots, 3 varieties of radish, cilantro, and dill.  I used the dial seed sower for the first time.  It took a bit of practice to get used to how to lightly tap it so that too many seeds don't come out.  But once I got the hang of it the seed sower does help to space out tiny seeds of carrots and lettuce more efficiently than sowing by hand. 

I covered all the rows of seeds with an organic soil that I bought from the store. My soil forms a crust after it rains which makes it difficult for seedlings to break through. The soil that I bought is loose and crumbly and perfect for the seedlings.  Eventually it will get mixed into the rest of the soil.

   

The six leaf lettuce varieties at the bottom I planted closely together because I harvest them as cut and come again and they don't need too much room.  I left a section empty for a succession planting in a week or two.  Then the lettuce head varieties were planted a bit farther apart to give them the proper growing room.  I did space the spinach quite closely together in the upper right because we like them more as a baby greens. 

On the right I planted a decent amount of parsnips about an inch apart in rows four inches apart.  This year I am trying to extend our growing season and the times of year in which we are harvesting food.  I wanted to try parsnips since you can keep them in the ground all winter and harvest them as needed up until the following Spring.  I had never seen Parsnip seeds before, they looked more like dried pear blossom petals than seeds to me.

On the left are the three varieties of radish (purple plum, cherry belle, french breakfast) and carrots (half long danvers, red cored chatenay, cosmic purple) closely together.  Radish grow very quickly and will get pulled about the time that the carrots are needing more space.

More Seeds

My other seed order that I have been waiting on finally arrived just under the gun.  It looks like I am going to have a planting weekend!  I also stopped by my local garden center to pick up onion sets, asparagus crowns/roots and garlic bulbs to plant this weekend.

I also got the dial seed sower that you see in the picture.  I am hoping it will help me plant carrot seeds more efficiently this year.

Seeds

My first seed order from Johnny's came in.  Hopefully my order from Pinetree gets here before the weekend.  As long as the weather continues to cooperate I will get all my seeds in the ground then.

Order Placed

I have finally placed my seed orders with Johnny's Seeds and Pinetree Garden Seeds.  I tried to place a small order with Seeds of Change but when I called most of the items I wanted were canceled for the year or back ordered.  I was bummed because they had a few varieties I was excited to try but I was able to find similar replacements with Johnny's and Pinetree so it worked out.  Here is what I am getting:

Johnny's
Kenearly Yellow Drying Beans
Red Leaf Vegetable Amaranth
VIT Corn Mache
Toscano Kale
Space Spinach
Bouquet Dill
Royal Burgundy Bush Beans

Pinetree
Tendergreen Bush Green Beans
Jacob's Cattle Drying Beans
Red Cored Chatenay Carrots
Cosmic Purple Carrots
Bright Lights Swiss Chard
New Red Fire Lettuce
Beleah Rose Lettuce
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Red Sails Lettuce
All Year Round Lettuce
Hollow Crown Parsnips
Cherry Belle Radish
Purple Plum Radish
French Breakfast Radish
New Zealand Spinach
Borage
Perser Mixture Asters
Pampas Plume Celosia
Cut and Come Again Zinnia
Grandpa Otts Morning Glory
Pumpkin Pepper