Thursday, January 21, 2010

And Yet More Seeds

I swear every year that I'm going to pare down my seed order and not be overwhelmed. I swear every year I won't have seeds that can't be planted. Every year I fail. I am a seed addict. I just can't say no to seeds. I thought I was doing well. Really I was.

I spent only $33.80 on seeds from Fedco. That isn't a lot of seed is it? They give free shipping for orders over $30 so I had to buy at least that much. When they came earlier this week I was overjoyed. Then I noticed three in back order. My zucchini and winter squash are no problem. I won't need them for quite a while. But the last was Varsity, an onion. Ack! They send a letter with your order which talks about what is going on at Fedco. What seeds have run out etc. In addition they said six varieties of onion were on backstock. They swear to drop everything once they come in so they can get shipped out. They know we need to start them soon. Yes! I do! At least they know it is an issue. I hope they come soon since they need to get started in a couple of weeks. I'm not freaking out quite yet.

Then the next day another set of seeds showed up. My wintersown seeds. They will let you choose six packets of tomato seeds if you go through their little wintersown quiz. They have lots to seeds to choose from. This year I picked out all paste tomatoes and good canning tomatoes. I got tired of making sauce out of cherry tomatoes last year. Really it isn't the way to do it. Of course they didn't send me just the six that I chose, but they sent me eight tomatoes plus two other packets. The flat leafed parsley isn't really necessary, but I'll grow a few to add to my self sowing flat leafed parsley. I figure a gene infusion can't hurt. Especially since this coming year is an off year for my parsley. Being a biennial and self sowing in my garden, certain years are better than others. The other was Lemon Queen Sunflowers. Score! I grew them last year for the Great Sunflower Project, but the seeds they send are terrible and few. This ought to get a better stand of them in the garden.

So I sorted all the seed out and put those and all the seed given to me by my blogging friends. I came up with a list:

Asian Greens, Chinese Cabbage Rubicon
Asian Greens, Chinese Kale
Asian Greens, Ching Chang Bok Choi
Asian Greens, Choy Sum
Asian Greens, Fun Jen
Asian Greens, Komatsuna
Asian Greens, Michihili
Asian Greens, Napa Cabbage
Asian Greens, Purple Mizuna
Asian Greens, Senposai
Asian Greens, Shanghai Bok Choy
Asian Greens, Tatsoi
Asian Greens, White Stem Bok Choy
Asian Greens, Yokatta-Na
Bean Pole, Scarlet Runner
Bean Dried Pole, Cherokee Trail of Tears
Bean Pole, Kentucky Wonder Wax
Bean Dried Pole, Vermont Cranberry
Bean Dried, Black Coco
Bean Dried, Red Kidney
Broccoli, Packman
Broccoli, Piracicaba
Cabbage, Gonzales Mini
Carrot, Mokum
Carrot, Purple Haze
Carrot, SugarSnax
Chard, Argentata
Chard, Rubarb
Cucumber, Armenian
Cucumber, Diamant
Flowers, Borage
Flowers, State Fair Zinnia
Flowers, Jewel Mix Nasturtium
Flowers, Ground Control Marigold
Flowers, Lemon Queen Sunflower
Greens/Herbs, Golden Corn Salad
Greens/Herbs, New Zealand Spinach
Greens/Herbs, Red Leaf Holy Basil
Greens/Herb, Cumin
Greens/Herbs, Flat leaf parsley
Greens/Herbs, Sweet Basil
Kale, Mix
Leek, King Sieg
Leeks, Hannibal
Leeks, Malabar
Lettuce, Anuenue
Lettuce, Bath Cos
Lettuce, Dazzle Romaine
Lettuce, Deer Tongue
Lettuce, Freckles
Lettuce, Jericho
Lettuce, Korean
Lettuce, Manoa
Lettuce, Paris Island
Lettuce, Red Sails
Lettuce, Tom Thumb
Onion, Evergreen Hardy White/Scallion
Onion, Red Wing
Onion, Varsity
Peas Snap, Cascadia
Pea Snow, Blizzard
Pepper, Cayenne
Pepper, Early Jalapeno
Pepper, Hawaiian Chili
Pepper, Serrano
Pepper, Sweet Cherry
Radish, French Breakfast
Radish, German Beer
Radish, White Icicle
Spinach, Space
Squash, Costata Romanesco
Squash, Waltham
Tomatillo, Verde Puebla
Tomato, Amish Paste
Tomato, Chocolate Cherry
Tomato, Early Kus Ali
Tomato, Heinz 2653
Tomato, Hong Yuen
Tomato, Market Miracle
Tomato, Opalka
Tomato, Peiping Chieh
Tomato, Principe Borghese
Tomato, Romeo Roma
Tomato, San Marzano
Tomato, Siberian Tomato
Tomato, Sungold F3
Turnip, Oasis
Turnip, Tokyo Market

Gack! Those are not going to fit into my garden. Take the tomatoes list for instance. I have 13 currently on the list (not to mention Cherokee Purple that Dan is sending me and I really want to taste). I have room for only about 10 tomato plants. I'll have to pick and choose. Opalka (from EG), Amish Paste, San Marzano will all make the cut as paste tomatoes. I'll have to think about the others. Two of the Asian tomatoes are great uniform ones for whole canning so I might pick one. Sungold F3, Market Miracle and maybe Chocolate Cherry will make the list. Knowing me I might just start them all then have to put them in pots again this year. I swore to myself I wouldn't do potted tomatoes this year. It might be another broken promise.

As you can see my Asian green supply runneth over too. Again I'll have to pick and choose. I might do all new ones this year and let the old ones sit in their seed packets. Except mizuna. I need my purple mizuna. It is too pretty not to grow.

Then there are the lettuce varieties. I only have a 3'x3' spot every year for lettuce. And that is a lot of varieties. How will I keep them all separate? I had trouble with five varieties last year. Some at least are summer lettuces - Jericho (Israeli), Manoa (Hawaiian), and Anuenue (Hawaiian) will all be grown at different times than the others.

So I have more seed that will ever fit in the garden. Again. I ought to know better. Somehow most of it will get shoved in. If my garden weren't surrounded by a cedar fence and maple trees I would be eyeing the land outside of it, but as it is I've only got about 250sqft. Hmm that community garden plot is looking better and better.

19 comments:

  1. Isn't it an interesting thing that buying $100 of groceries can leave you feeling poor while buying $33 of seeds leaves you feeling rich?

    Been out of the blogosphere for a while due to "other junk", but I've been making a priority of checking in to see your progress Daphne. You go girl! Such wealth!

    Maggie

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am filled with seed envy! Love Fedco! I can imagine all the lush and delicious veggies you will have spilling over in your potager later when springs finds us. I guess you will have a continual supply of lettuce... I look forward to seeing how you fit all these 'plants to be' into your garden. I am determined the rabbits will not eat my veggies this year. They defeated me last year and for me not to have my veggie garden seems criminal! Truthfully it is my favorite part of the garden. Luckily we have great farmer's markets so I had lots of great fresh food... but it is not the same at all. Do you not have trouble with rabbits?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! Maggie couldn't be more right. What a fantastic stash.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such a list of seeds.... that I am very much envious. Even with my little vegetable garden, I do have more seeds than needed too... happy gardening Daphne ~bangchik

    ReplyDelete
  5. Daphne! Guess they'll be no grass for you in your yard! It's going to have to be ALL GARDEN!

    Then you're going need to do a LOT of entertaining so you can share your bounty!

    : )

    OR... maybe you'll have to get a table at the Farmer's Market... and start selling you extra garden yummies!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh, do I resonate with this post! I do the same thing, especially with heirloom tomatoes. I way overestimate what I can fit in my small vegetable gardener, and I'm convinced I have some kind of seed addiction.

    But then, as I told my husband, it's not as bad as if I had an addiction to jewelry or shopping. Seed packets are only a couple of bucks a piece -- and what wealth is contained within each! :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have the same problem with seeds. It's not much of a problem to have though. There are worse addictions. I am however, having fits about Fedco. I'm still waiting on my order and it includes onions. Ack!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Quite a list you have going! And there will be a few more. The tiger's eye beans came in weds so I will be packing up your seeds tonight and sending them tomorrow. That is a bit of a pain about the onions! I can spare some of those amish bottle onions if you would like?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good lord.....that's alot of seeds! Maybe you could do most of the leafy greens in planters hung from the top of the fence? That would give you more room....

    ReplyDelete
  10. Been there. Done that. Will do it again, I'm sure.

    So Fedco gives free shipping on orders of that size (mine are always at least that). I'll have to remember that next year, as there were a couple of varieties I wanted that you had, that I couldn't get when I ordered my seeds.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Maggie, lol yes it does that. I'm a very seed rich gal.

    Carol, I was going to tone down the lettuce in the middle of summer and just do spring and fall,but then ended up with three summer varieties. Now I have to keep growing it. There are lots of rabbits in the neighborhood, but I've only seen signs once last year. The garden has a picket fence with closely spaced pickets, but occasionally I leave the gate open, or the wind blows it open (the latch no longer works and I've never fixed it). I think my late dog used to keep them at bay too. I rarely saw a rabbit in my yard, while I would see them all the time at the neighbors. Now of course we have had more rabbit and turkey sightings in the yard.

    Ribbit, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the abundance of tomatoes and greens, but I'll figure out a way.

    Bangchik, it is hard to keep from getting too many seeds. I think it is a disease.

    Toni, lol well most of my yard is in shade, so unless I cut down my trees I think I'll still have lawn.

    Meredith, true. Clothes and jewelry are much more expensive. A few seeds are pretty paltry. Plus a lot of them are from blogging friends.

    The Mom, I'm sure yours will get out soon. But the onions. Six is a lot of varieties to have on backorder right now. Especially since they only have about 15.

    Dan, I'm still pretty confident that I'll get my onion seed on time, so I should be fine. Thanks though.

    EG, it is a ton of seed for such a tiny little garden. I could just imagine pots everywhere. LOL It would be a great idea too if I didn't travel so much in the summer. Some year I'll invest in some drip irrigation and I'll be able to not worry about pots.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Granny, well tell me which ones you wanted. I might be able to spare seed. Some things I have plenty, some I ordered more than one packet because I knew I'd use it all up.

    ReplyDelete
  13. That's very sweet of you, Daphne. I really have more seeds than I need this year, but next year keep me in mind, and I can send $$ and have you include a few packs with your order. I have summer (bolt resistant) lettuces, Mokum and Sugar Snax carrots and Gonzales cabbage on my wish list for next year. I'll be ordering some stuff (mostly peppers) from Ohio Heirloom Seeds next year, if you want to combine with my order. It's a good way to save on shipping costs ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Granny, I can send you some of the lettuce seed. I'll look into the packets to see how much, but I can always spare some. And the cabbage. I don't even know if I have room to grow it with all my Asian greens. But the carrots are one of those I got extra of so I wouldn't run out (them and my spinach). I tend to put a lot of them in ground and thin. Hopefully you can find them from somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  15. That would be great, Daphne. I already ordered four varieties of carrots, so that's more than enough for this year's garden. I just stuck with my old tried and true varieties, but I need to branch out a bit ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Impressive list, Daphne ! Lots of great stuff in there ! (Kind of relieved I'm not alone in a space predicament :P)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Holy cow, Daphne - what a great list!! Thank you for posting it - now my stash of seeds suddenly looks reasonable to my husband. :-) I'm sure you'll find a place for everything you want, even if it does mean a few pots here and there...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Sometimes I think that we are twins - separated at birth. Really I do! I have a terrible time resisting seeds.

    I had the same thing happen last year with my onion order (thankfully not this year too). I ended up using some old seed which worked but the germination rate was significantly lower and quite frankly I was dissappointed in not growing the variety I had set my heart on growing for that year.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Holy heck! These are a lot of seeds! Maybe you should grow some ptted tomatoes on a porch or deck to increase your growing space. I did the quiz today. I just couldn't help myself. Also, I got the seeds. Thank you!!!!

    ReplyDelete