The Seed Order

Today I placed my seed order. The only one that I'm going to make this year. After doing a detailed inventory last week, it became apparent that I really need to use up some of my seeds. I have too many packets containing only a few seeds. No, I can't just throw them away. That would be like asking a quilter to toss out all of her scraps. We keep them all, even the small ones.

So I'm dubbing 2010 the year to "Grow What You've Got". Aside from the few things I ordered today, I'm just going to grow what I already have. Yes, my garden is going to look a bit like a patchwork quilt, with a touch of this and a little of that. But it always does and I like it that way.

If you are curious, here's what I ordered and why:

MAJOR BROCCOLI (F1 hybrid 43 days)- Home grown broccoli is delicious! I know, I know. It gets those little green worms. And aphids. My Grandma told me to just soak the heads in salted water before I cook them and it works! All the extra protein floats to the top. I don't have a favorite variety yet, so I decided to give this one a try.

SAMBUSCUS CANADENSIS or Elderberry- These will arrive as small plants. I like bushes that are beautiful, native to my area, and produce berries I can eat. Check, check, check. Plus, elderberry syrup is supposed to be good for what ails you - but costs a pretty penny! So I am going to try growing my own.

AMARILLO CARROT (70 days) - The yellow carrots in the Rainbow mix are my favorites, there just aren't ever enough of them. So I'll plant some extra yellow ones.

COSMIC PURPLE (65 days) - Purple carrots that are orange inside - the boy's favorites.

ATOMIC RED (76 days) - Dark red-orange carrots loaded with lycopene and other good things.

RAINBOW CARROT - We love this mix! They are fun to pull up because you never know what color you are going to get. I never have left over carrot seed because I let Picasso plant them. He has better luck than I do with carrots, even when he spills the seeds!

JERSEY SUPREME ASPARAGUS - Green asparagus crowns. We have a patch of Purple Passion asparagus and it is sooooooo good. I want to increase my patch, so we will plant this year and will be able to harvest green asparagus in a couple more years. You have to plan way ahead with asparagus

GONZALES MINI CABBAGE (F1 hybrid 55 days) - I like these little cabbages because they are tiny! The original head will be about the size of a softball. The secondary heads will be more like a tennis ball. They taste sweeter and I don't end up wasting half of each head because they are a more realistic size for our family to eat.

FALSTAFF BRUSSELS SPROUTS (95 days) - Experiment #1. I like sweet brussels sprouts. These are supposed to be sweet, nutty, and purple. The plants will be cool, if nothing else. I've never grown them before. Actually, I've never seen a real plant in anyone's garden either.

HYBRID RED MARS ONION PLANTS - Red onion plants, ready to grow.

HYBRID CANDY PLANTS - My favorite onions ever! Once again, arriving in time to be planted in the garden.

IMPERIAL STAR ARTICHOKE (F1 Hybrid) - Experiment #2. I've never grown (or seen) these either. But they are good to eat and the plants (in the book) look like big thistles. This variety is supposed to be able to produce the first year from seed. Important because there will be no over-wintering in my climate!

LINCOLN PEA (65 days heirloom) - We loved these last year so we are going to plant lots more.

EMERITE BEAN (58 days) - My long-time favorite green bean.

CREAM OF THE CROP ACORN SQUASH (75 days) - Short season acorn squash.

SWEETER YET CUKE (F1 hybrid 48 days) - Miss Wendy has a thing for cucumbers. She loves them at lunch with Ranch dressing. This one is supposed to be sweet and mild. If they aren't sweet and mild, the chickens will enjoy them instead of Wendy and I.

Garden Successes and Flops - Part 2

I went back and read some of my ambitious gardening posts from last year and had to chuckle. I was laying out some mighty big plans in the midst of my morning sickness. Here are a few more follow-up comments, sure to draw some smiles from anyone who has had life thwart their best laid plans.

In response to this post: http://camillesgarden.blogspot.com/2009/02/final-order.html

• Graceland Queen Anne's Lace - I didn't have very many come up and those that sprouted didn't survive the June dousing. I seem to have a hard time with the carrot family. I wonder if it would work better if I just scattered the seeds here and there outside. It is a weed, after all. I usually have good luck with growing weeds.
  
• Gaura lindheimeri - Came up but pouted about growing in the house. Made it into the garden, got overwatered by Mother Nature then underwatered by Mother Camille. I don't believe there were any survivors. I hope I am wrong and that a happy clump of 'Whirling Butterflies' pops up in the spring. I keep trying because I am hopeful that if I got a plant to live longer than one season, it would be strong enough to live forever. So far (four attempts), it's only a one-season wonder. I'll try again with a plant from the nursery so I'll at least get to enjoy the flowers before it dies. It's a perennial and usually doesn't bloom the first year when grown from seed. I really love this plant or I would have given up long, long ago.
  
• Annual Sea Holly - Didn't grow. End of story.
  

And in response to these plans: http://camillesgarden.blogspot.com/2009/02/things-i-havent-tried-to-growyet.html

• Nicotiana mutabilis 'Marshmallow' - Germinated fine, but was tiny when I planted it out. It rained so hard that all of the leaves got covered in mud. Plants in this family really don't like that...so they died.
  
• Sweet Pea - Lathyrus odoratus 'Matucana' - Started to grow, but got root rot and died in June.
  
• Bupleurum rotundifolium 'Green Gold' - Surprise! This one didn't die...because I never planted it! I'll try it this year instead.
• Bluebells of Scotland, Scottish Harebell - Never planted this variety either. It's probably a good thing since most of my flowers didn't do very well last year! Maybe this year.

One a more positive note:

• Celery - I think the variety was 'Utah'. I got the plants from the nursery and tried them on a whim. It looked beautiful, but I didn't eat any of it because it was hollow, bitter, dry, and stringy. It was my own fault. I'm certain that the celery just needed more water. Sorry celery!
• Yukon Gold Potatoes - These were a grand success. We planted them out in the field and they were extremely productive. It's always nice when something does well with minimal effort from you. They are storing beautifully.
  
• Red Pontiac Potatoes - Not as productive as the Yukons, but they made huge potatoes. They aren't storing as well, and I like the flavor of the yellow ones better. However, I love baby red potatoes - maybe I should just dig all the red ones throughout the summer?
• Incredible and Miracle Sweet Corn - Another success! Our family patch produced lots of corn for eating fresh and freezing. Both varieties were delicious. We didn't get smut and the raccoons didn't like our guard goats and ate our neighbor's corn instead. We did have to replant half of the patch because it didn't come up - I'll blame it on June. She was oh so cruel last year!
• Wonderberries - So these were supposed to be a sweeter type of garden huckleberry. But they weren't! The plants were spreading instead of upright. (hard to water and pick) The fruits were numerous, but very small. (hard to pick) And they didn't taste good. (bitter - so why bother picking?) Plus, when they finally got ripe, the berries dropped off on the ground. (Aghhh!) It was a shame because my Dad grew beautiful transplants and we had high hopes. However, they are still out in the garden under the snow. In a few months I'll be having a wonderberry weed problem. Chalk another one up for learning the hard way.
• Brandywine Heirloom Tomatoes - O.k. for just eating fresh. Not for canning - the fruits are so lumpy that they were impossible to peel by blanching. By the time they turned red, the fruits were always rotten. Turns out that these were Pink Brandywines (but not labeled as such) and they are ripe when they are pink. Too bad we didn't realize this until the end of the season. I'll plant some good old modern hybrids next year!
  

Yesterday

We hadn't seen the sun for over a week, but yesterday it burned through the fog. Jake captured these pictures just as it was setting. Beautiful.

Garden Successes and Flops - Part 1

I'm taking a break from Mount Washmorelaundry to reflect on some of last season's garden successes and failures. These comments are in response to the plans I'd made here: http://camillesgarden.blogspot.com/2009/02/this-years-seed-order.html

• INDIGO - These poor little plants were not happy in my garden. They weren't able to handle the extremes in our weather and would prefer a more acidic soil. Now I know. In my garden, indigo dies instead of dyes.
  
• BORAGE - Slow to germinate...I think my soil was a little cool when I planted. But wow! Once these finally came up they grew like crazy! The flowers were lovely and attracted lots of bees. The plants look fuzzy, but they are really prickly hairs and mine were planted near a pathway. Ouch! Note to self - don't plant them near where you plan to walk. They also got pretty tall and started to flop over.
• DUKAT STRAIN DILL - Struggled through the cold, wet June. But did better once it warmed up.
• EMERITE BEAN - Delicious as always. Very productive.
• PINETREE BASIL MIX - Basil loves the dry heat. June killed half of my plants with all of that rain. Then the tomatoes ran over what was left. No basil for me :( This year I will plant it far away from anything tall and pray that June isn't so wet. Perhaps I'll just wait and plant it at the end of June since I don't use too much of it until the tomatoes are ripe anyway.
• HYBRID CANDY ONION PLANTS - Fantastic! These were the best onions I have grown. They were big and sweet. I used many of them fresh and dried the rest.
• TALL TELEPHONE PEA - My boys kept these picked - they like them raw - so I don't know how productive they were. I liked the flavor of the Lincoln peas better, but these were easier for the kids to pick because they grew up a trellis.
• MONARDA CITRIODORA LEMON MINT - The flowers were pretty, and the leaves smelled good. I used some for cut flowers.
• LINCOLN PEA - These small peas were very sweet. And I got enough of them to freeze a few. I'll plant more this time because they were so good.
• SENSATION MIX COSMOS - Well...my cosmos poked along doing nothing until August. Then they shot up about 5 feet tall. The first flowers opened the week that my garden froze. Bummer.
• FRECKLES LETTUCE - Didn't ever plant this one! I'll try it this season.
• AFINA CUTTING CELERY - Tasted like celery and was easy to dry. I used anyplace you'd use celery for flavor instead of texture (because it isn't crunchy, it's leafy like parsley). A good addition to the herb garden. I only need one plant though, not 3 or 5 or however many I had!
• ATOMIC RED CARROT - Yum! These were good and very pretty.
  
• RAINBOW CARROT - Mmm!
• COSMIC PURPLE CARROT - Purple on the outside, orange inside. Very colorful and tasty to eat. All of our carrots had poor germination - We had a little spillage problem at planting, then June came...but the ones that made it were great.
• DETROIT BEET - I froze my beets because I was too sick to eat them when they were ready. I kind of like 'em that way. These were very productive.
• ALATA THUNBERGIA - Black-eyed Susan vine. Didn't end up planting these. I'll do it this year because I really like them.
• KISS ME OVER THE GARDEN GATE - Never came up. Sigh.
• ROYAL ENSIGN CONVOLVULUS - Lovely as always. These are so happy and carefree. I especially liked how they looked growing with the little Chamomille daisies. So cute!
• LEMON STAR MARIGOLD - Well...these were supposed to be French signet (single) marigold with ferny foliage with delicate yellow flowers. Something happened at the seed place because the marigolds that came up were huge, dorky, orange Inca's. The ones that look like a big orange pompom stuck on a green stick. Not what I was going for.
• EARLY BUTTERNUT - Produced a few fruits, but I picked them and stuck them in the garage because they were all wet and muddy. Then it froze hard enough that night to damage them and they went all mushy. So I don't know if they were good or not. Better luck next year!
• SUPER SUGAR SNAP PEA - These struggled this year too. Mostly because I let my hens out. They decided these were delicious and they ate off all the leaves. It's hard to make peas when you don't have any leaves.
• DRAGON LANGERIE BEAN - About the time these came on, I was too big to bend over. So I picked them a couple of times and then gave up.
• HORN OF PLENTY - Yellow crookneck squash. Oh so good! And not mushy. These are a definite keeper!
• DWARF CHERRY ROSE NASTURTIUM - Beautiful, but late maturing (at least this year). I thought they were dead after June, but they sent up new shoots from the ground and by fall they were lovely.
• CACTUS FLOWER MIX ZINNIA - Didn't get them planted before June came. So they didn't get planted at all. This year I'll get them in. I really missed them!
• FOOLED YOU JALAPENO PEPPER- Very productive, even through my neglect. The peppers matured a dark purplish green color and they weren't too hot. Worth planting again, but I really only need one plant. I had way too many this year.