2012 Seed Order

This past weekend I did one final check of my seed list, continued working on the growing plan for the upcoming 2012 season, and ordered some seeds to supplement what I already had. After looking around and debating where to order seed from I decided to go with High Mowing Organic Seeds of Wolcott, Vermont.

The order was nothing spectacular as we have more then enough seed for most of what we want to grow. I ordered:
Yankee Salad Mix
Purple Osaka Mustard Greens
Siberian Kale
Darki Triple Curled Parsley
Genovese Basil

That's it! The remainder of the seeds will come from what I've already got stored away in my personal seed bank as well as the random impulse seed purchase I may be susceptible too on occasion. We also have 4 packets of seed coming in each month courtesy of the Seed of the Month Club which is a great way to increase my personal seed collection. As usually I will be buying pepper and tomato starters from a local source, but plan to start the remainder of what we grow from seed, again this is subject to the occasional impulse purchase (last year it was huckleberries).

Have you ordered your seed? How for along is your planning/growing for the 2012 season??

Plotting & Scheming

It's time. By now most of the seed catalogs have found their way to my mailbox and I am ready to turn toward spring and start to plan out the garden for this year! I knew it was time to transition from daydreaming to actual planning when my Membership Renewal arrived in the mail from the Fenway Garden Society last week.
Earlier this week I took a look at the Grown Away seed box to determine what, if anything, will have to be ordered a head of time. For such a small garden space I've built up a fairly good stock of seeds allowing for plenty of variety when planning the garden for this year.

Grown Away seed box.

For such a small garden space I've built up a fairly good stock of seeds allowing for plenty of variety when planning the garden for this year. I plan on only ordering a few herb seeds to replenish what is depleted from my supplies, but when looking through the garden catalogs and reading about the grand plans of other gardeners who knows what I will actually end up with!
Once the concrete plans actually take shape I will make an attempt to share them before the fun (hours and hours of weeding) actually begins.

Have you started planning your edible garden yet? Will you try growing anything new or different this season??

Great Black Friday Seed Deal - 70% Off Seeds of the Month Club.

On Tuesday over at GrafixMuse's Garden Spot this great deal was shared.

On November 25, 2011 between 5:00am and 3:00pm EST, if you order via the link below and use the referral code: Holiday you can receive 70% off a membership of 1 year or longer (Sorry, not valid on lifetime memberships)!

All seeds are non-gmo, open pollinated heirloom varieties that have been tested for a germination rate of 95% and higher. The seeds mailed are customized to your location and climate.

For more info check out GrafixMuse's original post on the seed of the month club!

To order, visit this post at GrafixMuse's Garden Spot and follow the link for the black Friday sale!

Seeds are Sprouting!

The title might be a little misleading. It really should be 'Seeds are Starting to Sprout.' I came home from work yesterday afternoon to this:

The Happy Rich mini broccoli has started sprouting. I can see little sprouts about to push their way through most of the cells. Also, the Arugula disk we planted has began to sprout. No sign from the other herbs or the leeks yet.

Long Time No Blog!

What can I say, sometimes life gets in the way of planning out the garden, daydreaming, and blogging. It's been a few weeks since I've had time to blog about my delicious meals or plans for spring, but Gail and I took a stroll to our plot last weekend and it looked pretty good:

Considering that a few short weeks ago the plot was likely buried in at least a foot of snow, I'd say things aren't looking too bad. While at the Wayland Winter Farmer's Market 2 weekends ago, I picked up some supplies to start spring on the right foot! Last year we weren't assigned plot and working in the Garden until the last weekend of April, so I plan on getting in there just as soon as I can.

With this in mind and some free time on Sunday, Gail and I began our minimalist seed starting operation:

The 9 circular pots make up the bulk of our herb garden which I will be moving to the plot when the weather is right for it. For now they can sit on our windowsill and soak up some residual sunlight. In the back is a flat of mixed sized cells containing Leeks & Mini Broccoli.

I plan on starting a variety of salad greens in the near future as well.

Soon I'll be cleaning up the plot and getting it ready for a new season. With our seed starting operation it's hit me that spring is on the doorstep!

Are you planning your garden and starting seeds inside too?

Seeds Orders & Garden Planning

My seed order from Johnny's is relatively small for the spring but it definitely has an unexpected surprise.

Mostly we stalked up on herb seeds: Garlic Chives, Rosemary, Sage, Cilantro, Chives, Parsley, Thyme, Basil, Arugula. The Cilantro, Chives, Parsley, Thyme, Basil, & Arugula come as a collection of biodegradable herb disks made to be grown in containers.

I also ordered Mini Broccoli(Happy Rich) and Leek(Tadorna) seeds as well. The leeks are going to be started on the kitchen counter as soon as they arrive. Finally, the last part of the order is the unexpected surprise: Horseradish!!! I ordered a set of horseradish roots (5 total) which I will be planting in the space that will be freed up by many of the herbs. Hopefully the little horseradish experiment works. If so, come fall I will have enough to make my own horseradish as well as a supply of roots for the following year!

Along with the seed order I've also sorted through my seeds and have begun planning the layout/schedule of my garden.

Already in the ground is my garlic and Egyptian onions. Hopefully both will produce edible results as well as viable seed!

In addition to the herbs, mini broccoli, leeks and horseradish here's a good idea of what I'll be growing based on the seed I have on hand:

Bush Beans (Fresh Pick), Dry Beans (Ottawa Cranberry & Vermont Cranberry), Kale, Dill, Spinach (Bloomsdale), Butterhead Lettuce (Red Cross), Mustard Greens (Ruby Streaks), 2 different Greens Mixes (Johnny's Elegance Greens & High Mowing Mesclun Mix), Beets (Detroit Dark Red), Radish (Champion), & Carrots (Scarlet Nantes).

Lot's of greens and plenty of variety in that mix. In addition to the seeds I will be getting tomato, pepper, and some flower seedlings from a local farm.

Up for debate on planting is another attempt at cucumbers and zucchini (both of which were serious failures last year), as well as Swiss chard.

Missing from what I tried last year: full size broccoli, cabbage, onions, and potatoes. The broccoli and onions produced poor results while the cabbage took up valuable room and the results were less then impressive. The potatoes were fun to grow, but my little plot doesn't have the room to successfully grow them. With more space I would definitely try them again.

Looking back at the list it seems pretty daunting for my little plot, but I'm eager to take the lessons I learned last year and see how much further my knowledge and experience can take me in the upcoming year. Despite my plot currently being buried under multiple feet of snow I am looking forward to getting to work and building upon the great results I experienced last year.

Looking Ahead.

A quick look at the calendar indicates it is smack in the early stages of what is shaping up to be a real winter here in Boston. With two major storms having already passed through Boston, and a third just around the corner it is difficult to look towards spring, but the time is here!

The seed catalogs have been coming in for a month already, with a few more arriving each week. Over the next few weeks I will be going through my seeds, contacting local farms about seedling sales, and browsing the catalogs while imagining fruitful harvests and warmer temperatures!

As the next bout of snow rolls in this weekend I will be sitting with a cup of delicious coffee or tea and sorting through my seeds and marking up these seed catalogs as a plan begins to form in my head and on paper for the forthcoming year.

It will only be my second year of gardening but I am excited to see where the lessons and skills from my first season will lead to greater success in year 2.

Walking Onions

No time to post lately as work and non-gardening life have gotten in the way this past week, but I did receive a lovely gift today:

Gail took a day trip to Maine today to visit some family. While there she stopped by Beach Plum Farm in Ogunquit, ME and visited the community gardens on the grounds. She ended up chatting with 2 gardeners who gave her a few bunches of Egyptian Onions, the biggest one is in the above photo.

Egyptian Onions, known as Walking Onions or Tree Onions are perennial onions which are hardy to zone 3. When a bulb is planted and grows new bulbs form on the step of the plant. Eventually the cluster of bulbs (pictured above) gets so top heavy that it bends the plant and touches the ground, taking root and growing into a new set of onions.

As they are left to grow they will spread or walk across your garden. You can pull each set of clusters off and divide the bulbs in order to plant them. The stalks of the plants can also be cut before the onion clusters form and used similar to chives.

Planting a cluster or 2 should yield enough for stalks, bulbs and to save some for planting next year. Like traditional onions bulbs also will form below the ground. If planted in the fall they can be dug up as spring onions.

I'll be prepping and planting fall seeds this weekend and will most certainly be planting some Egyptian/Walking Onions, so stay tuned for future Walking Onion updates!

Below is the full hall of the 3ish clusters of Walking Onions I was gifted:

(Walking Onions: Some for Eating, Some for Planting, Some for...?)

Seed Potatoes: Planted!

The seed potatoes from Wood Prairie Farm were planted this afternoon!

After visiting the family on Sunday to show reverence to my wonderful Mother I set out to prepare the potatoes and their future home. First I cut up the potatoes, making sure there were at least 3 eyes per piece.

While the potatoes sat in the light I headed to the plot and got to work digging the trench which will house the potatoes. After some digging and clearing I was left with a nice 10 inch deep trench, sprinkled with a generous helping of compost.

My hard work was clearly appreciated. This bird below was extremely excited to see a freshly dug trench for him to patrol, a veritable bug buffet! Here he (she?) is just about ready to dive in.

While at work on Monday I realized the temperature might drop too low to plant the potatoes in the next few days, I was also concerned with the brown cavities in the Russian Banana Fingerlings in the 1st photo so I called Wood Prairie and spoke to Jill at the potato growers helpline. She was extremely helpful informing me that the brown cavities in the fingerlings were of no concern, and despite the unreasonably cool temperatures I would be alright to plant out the Potatoes today. I cannot stress how excellent the customer service from Wood Prairie has been- I explained to Jill I was a first time gardener and merely wanted to alleviate my concerns before putting my potatoes in the ground. Jill patiently answered all of my questions and gave me some additional tips for successful spuds!

With my newly found potato confidence I stopped at the plot and placed my cut potato pieces in the trench, being careful to evenly space the pieces out.

I made sure not to note which potatoes were places where in the trench so that when they grow I can be surprised by what sort of potatoes I'll be able to randomly pull from the forthcoming hills.

Once the potatoes were evenly spaced I covered each piece with a few inches of a soil and compost mixture.

Next stop: Spud City!

Seeds, Seedlings, and What I Hope to Grow

A few readers, friends, and fellow community gardeners have asked me what I'm planning to grow now that I have a plot so I thought I would give a break down of the seeds I've acquired and seedlings which will be picked up soon.
1)From Fenway Community Gardeners & The Fenway Gardens Spring Meeting:
Leeks (transplants gifted to us from a fellow gardener), Chive Seeds & Spinach Seeds - The Fenway Garden Society was nice enough to provide some seeds for their spring meeting, I got Chives & Spinach!
2)From the down:2:earth expo Gail and I attended in early April:
Mesclun Mix(planted last week!), Scarlet Nantes Carrots(planted last week!), and Dill seeds were all given out from the different garden & landscaping companies at the expo. Coincidentally all 3 seed packets were from High Mowing Organic Seeds.We also picked up packets of Basil & Sage seeds at the expo, but these come from the farmers of the Cabot Creamery Dairy Cooperative! Gail and I are huge fans of their cheese's and I think their business model is fantastic. They do not seal their seeds, they were giving them out as a gift. I am a proud supporter of their cheese products and will be proud to grow their herbs in my garden.
3)From fellow bloggers:
Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions was kind enough to send me some delicious looking Ottawa Cranberry Beans(seen here). While Ottawa Gardener at The Veggie Patch Re-imagined provided me with Garlic Chive seeds, some of which were successfully grown indoors over winter, while the rest are ready to be planted in the plot soon!
4) Hometown Seeds:
The kind people at Hometown Seeds saw my blog months ago, long before I had a plot and were nice enough to send me their Survival Seeds package to try out. The Survival Seeds package contains 16 non-hybrid 100% GMO free seeds which are meant to have a shelf life of at least 5 years. The seeds were not in individual packets, but in 5 0z, 5 gram, & 10 gram packages, more then enough for my small plot. From the Survival Seeds package we will be planting Golden Acre Cabbage(planted last week!), Long Green Cucumber, Utah Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions (planted last week!), Detroit Dark Red Beets (planted last week!), Black Beauty Zucchini, Parris Island Cos Romaine Lettuce (planted last week!), & Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans.
5) Natick Community Organic Farm:
The Natick Community Organic Farm is a non-profit certified organic farm just west of Boston. Their mission is to provide farm products, hands on education for all ages, and to foster community goodwill through love of the land. I have visited the farm numerous times since I was a child and am honored to support them in their spring seedling sale. Next week Gail & I will be picking up the following organic seedlings for our plot:
Yankee Bell & Hungarian Wax Peppers. Peacevine, Early Girl & Striped Roman Tomatoes. Diplomat Broccoli and Cilantro.
Along with the above vegetables we will also be adding Morning Glory, Autumn Beauty & Mammoth Sunflowers, and a mix of Nasturtium's
6) Wood Prairie Farm
The prospect of having a garden of my own made me think of Potatoes. I absolutely love them. Wood Prairie Farm has a reputation as one of the best sources of certified organic seed potatoes. Not wanting to limit myself to 1 variety of potato and taking into account the limited space I will have for potatoes I decided to order the Experimenter's Special which allows you to choose 4 different varieties of potato. Each package contains 3 potatoes of each variety for a total of 12 hills. I picked All Blue, Cranberry Red, Russian Banana Fingerling, and Yukon Gold for a nice variety of color, size, and taste. Potatoes were ordered last weekend and shipped out on Monday. They should be here before the end of the week!

Looking back at this massive list of vegetables and herbs I realize successfully growing all of these varieties will be extremely daunting. I don't expect every crop to be a smashing success so I am growing a large variety in smaller quantities in the hopes that the success's will outweigh the failures. My hope is that smaller plantings will allow Gail and I to slowly ease our way into the challenge of caring for all of these(hopefully) delicious edibles.

With research, hard work, and some luck hopefully the season will be full of gardening success and delicious vegetables!

Getting down and dirty at the new plot!

This weekend Gail and I were finally to get to work on our plot at the Fenway Victory Gardens. We both had friday off and were able to spend most of friday and saturday working on our plot. We met quite a few of our neighbors while we worked. It's really nice to feel the sense of community as complete strangers came by and said hello or struck up a conversation with us. We were offered tips on identifying some of the major weeds in our plot, given advice on having a successful plot, and we were even gifted a few plants! The knowledge that many of our fellow plot holders passed to us went a long way in helping us prepare the plot. We also managed to meet some of the animal inhabitants of the gardens:

Gail spotted these mourning doves with her young expertly camouflaged in a neighbors plot. We don't know anything about birds, but were fortunate enough to intrude on a group of birders (thank you Gail) who were able to identify the species. We also learned that it was a great surprise the nest was so out in the open and the birds were really relying on their ability to blend in rather then having a nest on safer, higher ground. According to the birders the young were between 2 and 4 weeks old.

After the short distraction it was time to get to down to business. Here is look at what we managed to accomplish with two days of hard work on plot Z-1:

Gail began weeding and outlining plots while the major cosmetic task was undertaken: I built and installed a new gate(above) for the plot using 1 in x 3 in x 8 ft boards and some wire mesh fencing.

With the gate installed Gail and I weeded and started to dig out our beds...

and we kept digging...

and digging!

Over the course of two days we got the gate built and installed, weeded the entire plot, as well as digging, amending with compost, and cultivating the soil in all six of our beds!

We even managed to do some planting:

The above photo shows our half rows of newly planted Mesclun Mix, Romaine, & Spinach. We also planted Beets, Onions, Carrots, and Cabbage. Along with the seed we were given the gift of leeks to plant, which we planted along side some volunteer plants Gail found while cleaning up the plot. I suspect they are pearl drop onions or something closely related (our volunteers are the healthier looking bunch on the left, the leeks are the smaller looking bunch closer to the fence):

After two days of hard work our plot is clean, weeded and starting to look like a garden:

All in all it was a fantastic way to spend my birthday weekend!

Cranberry Beans & Cranberry Bread.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the wonderful gift of seed I received from Daphne's Dandelions last friday:

A packet of Ottawa Cranberry Pole Beans for the forthcoming garden!! They look delicious & can't wait for them to be in the ground! Once grown & harvested I will surely be passing on a few packets of dried beans of my own to spread into the gardening world.

As noted in my previous post I was quite disappointed due to the lack of black cranberries in my produce delivery. I had grand plans for cranberry walnut bread, chutney and a tart wonderful snack. Not to be deterred I was off to the neighborhood natural food store for a large container of dried local cranberries. They are a good substitution for what I was expecting.

In celebration of cranberries I made a delicious & incredibly simple cranberry walnut bread:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

3/4 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg, orange juice and peel; stir into dry ingredients just until blended. Add the cranberries and walnuts.
2. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

The recipe is easy and worked well enough, though I would reduce the heat 10-15 degrees and bake a tad longer next time. After years of cooking adventure I am slowly dipping my toe into the world of baking (primarily with bread making), and thus far I've enjoyed it.

Garlic Chive seedlings!

On the 2nd of the month I posted about my little indoor garlic chive seed experiment. 2 of 3 cups have seen a few seedlings emerge. The first seedling in cup 2 emerged December 10th, while I first spotted a seedling in cup 3 on the 13th. 8 and 11 days (respectively) after planting. Cup 1 still hasn't produced any visible seedlings. I am not worried though, as I read that garlic chives typically take 12-15 days to emerge.
Given the success of this trial, I plan to plant most of the remaining seeds in late dec/early jan.

Garlic Chive seed planting (indoors)

For the sake of getting something growing in the apartment I planted some of the Garlic Chive seeds (from my last post) last night.

My supplies: soil, yogurt cups, tape, toothpicks, spoon, x-acto knife, plastic food container, scissors, marker, seeds & plastic wrap (not pictured)

Step 1-Use x-acto knife to cut small holes in the bottom of the yogurt cups:

Step 2-Fill yogurt cups with soil, place seeds in soil, sprinkle a little soil over the top & moisten soil:

Step 3-Label the yogurt cups:

Step 4-Place yogurt cups into food container. Place toothpicks in yogurt cups:

Step 5-Place plastic wrap over the container/yogurt cups resting gently on the toothpicks (so as not to bake the seeds). Do not seal the plastic wrap, leave room for air to flow:

The final product (above) is now resting atop a kitchen cabinet until sprouts are visible, when it will be transfered to a sunny window. I like this little setup because the materials were found within my living space. Better the yogurt cups and food tray go to use then getting tossed in the trash/recycling bin.

Seeds!

I recieved my first seed packet in the mail. Not from a seed company but from Ottawa Gardener over at The Veggie Patch Re-imagined! 3 weeks ago she posted a free seed offer. A few days before I started this blog I sent an email requested Garlic Chive seeds. The seeds arrived saturday moring. Most of the seeds are going to be saved for spring but I'll be planting some this week to grow indoors as I've got the itch to grow something, and these seems like just the thing.

My indoor planting space/system consists of various windowsills and planters made from recycled yogurt cups, juice/milk cartons, and soda bottles.

1st Seed Catalog

After a long day at work I came home to find my first seed catalog waiting for me:

Seeds of Change is a USDA certified organic seed company based in New Mexico. A number of home gardeners & farmers have cited Seeds of Change as an excellent jumping off point to the world of seed catalogs.

I chatted up a few farmers recently at the end of season markets around Boston and was advised that looking at a variety of seed catalogs would give me a good idea about special or heirloom variety of veggies I may want to grow, but my best bet would be finding a reputable and well known seed company based in the same region that I am. If a reputable source in my area has success on their farms with varieties that I'm interested in, chances of my success go up due to similar (not the exact same) climates. The name which came up most often from the farmers was Johnny's Seeds of Winslow, ME. I won't be ordering all of my seeds from Johnny's but for starters a good number will be coming from them.