Yeah!!!!seed ordering time is here..

Well i finally ordered all our seeds for the year. I have made a few changes from last year in order to diversify and blend crops together a bit better than last. Our biggest new thing is making the switch to all heirloom seeds, finally.

I have also ordered a few more berry and fruit type plants to give us a little bit better variety than what we have here on the land.Attempting to go with the most drought tolerant in anything we have bought has led to quite some odd purchases. I cant wait to get them all growing to give me a bit more to do while i wait for spring to spring..

I still have a few crops of lettuces and collards etc growing in the greenhouse but yanked up all the outdoor beds minus one of the cold frames in order to give the ground some time to recuperate. One of the gardens I am also direct composting , more of an experiment than anything and just want to see how that turns out. I do know it icertainly is easier than playing in a pile of compost and if it works well saves alot of time moving the compost heaps to different areas of the land...

Anyone else getting excited and have cabin fever and ready to get the new season started?

 

I'm ate up with cabin fever and have been doing seed orders/plantcuttings for a mont already...mostly flower stuff. If ya want a good garden fix try www.davesgarden.com if you haven't already...tons of great gardening ideas and talk...pretty straight crowd but decent folks...have fun.

 

I have cabin fever big time this year. We are buy a place out in southwest Missouri and moving out there in the middle of February. There is so much to do not just with gardening but getting everything fixed up and ready for us and the chickens and goats we plan on raising as well. I am excited to get started.

We will be growing mostly heirlooms as well.

 

So what all are you growing this year?

 

In Texas, we don't have to worry much about cabin fever...right now we're in the middle of a 2 week rainy 'cold' snap, lows in the 20's highs in the 50's. Still, seed shopping time is always cool, cabin fever or not I helped organize a seed robin for zones 7, 8, & 9 in my gardening club this year & am anxious to see what comes back. Thanks to last year's robin, I was introduced to butterfly vines & candlesticks trees, both drought tolerant. Dilli, are you interested in any flower seeds? I'm sure that I'll wind up with more seeds than I can use.

 

I'm trying out "winter sowing." Hope it works, this is the first I've done this. I used gallon milk bottles and water bottles. Winter-sowed these today:
morning glory

mugwort

fennel

alpine strawberry

celeriac “giant Prague”

feverfew

poppy

[font=&quot]blue throatwort[/font]
Here's a link if anybody's interested:
http://wintersown.org/wseo1/FAQs.html

 

I basically went with things i was comfortable with growing and that we use on a constant basis , but also with things that i felt if they were not overly important for use right now at some point they would be in the future .So the list thus far is . amaranthe(2 varieties), brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, a couple types of cucumbers, okra,some lil tiny cute carrots black eye peas,spaghettie squash, delicata squash n hubbard.Zuchinni, lemon squash, a couple types of tomatoes, a few different lettuce mixxes cayenne peppers, and chinese five colored peppers. .Having decided i would like a few more fruits options to choose from in the future, I am also trying wonderberries, huckleberries and some tigger melon .The herb garden will now add to it, more thyme, echinacea, feverfew, patchouli and soapwart. There is a couple more on my list but i have forgotten what n hell they were so will have a nice little surprise when they arrive... We will also add some sweet potatoes and perhaps a few other things over the coming months when i realize, whhoooops , how did i forget this or that but hopefully the early spring plantings will keep me occupied for a while til its time to get back on outside...

oh and would love some flower seed hippiestead
If anyone is is need of some lemon, cinnamon or regular basil seed holler.I have enough saved to seed all of north georgia...

 

Hey Walker, Sounds like a Fun February you have planned. I'll be doing the regular stuff like tomatoes, corn, squash etc. There are so many gardeners and truck patch farmers around here it's almost easier to get stuff from them than to grow all the veggie stuff. I've got 80 acres butost of it is wooded or sink-holes, not much good for growing stuff. I'll be doing lots of perrenial flowers and native stuff. I also have a thing for tropicals so I'm nursing bananas, cannas, brugmansia and other stuff to have a bit of jungle look to go with southern Illinois heat and humidity in zone 6b. Some of my sons live close by and we kind of cooperate/compete with some of the stuff we grow. Keeps an old man amused and off the streets. Have fun with your projects.

 

Thanks, yarapario It should be fun. Have fun bringing the tropics to Illinois.

Since I have been keeping a list of what we plan to get I will post it here. It is not final or complete as we plan on growing a few varieties of colorful corn, possibly some raspberries, bush cherries, and some other fruit. This will be the biggest garden I have ever had so hopefully everything will go well.

Amaranth- Hartman's Giant
Golden Giant

Beans- Cherokee Trail of Tears
Jacob’s Cattle

Beets- Chiogga
Broccoli- Waltham 29
Brussels Sprouts- Long Island Improved
Cabbage- Brunswick
Carrots- Rainbow Mix
Cantaloupe- Thayer
Cucumber- Black Diamond
Eggplant- Listada de Gandia
Greens- Arugula
Mustard Greens
Spinach- Gigante D'Inverno
Lettuce- Red Romaine
Chard- 5 Color Silver Beet

Herbs- Slo Blot Cilantro
Cilantro Oaxaca
Fine Verde Basil
Fennel Florence
Lemon Balm
Echinacea
Lavender
Soapwart
Dill
Kohlrabi- Early Purple Vienna
Leeks-Carentan
Onions-Yellow of Parma
Peas- Sugar Snap
Hot Peppers- Aurora
Beaver Dam Pepper
Anahiem
Sweet Peppers- Jupiter
Multi
Chervena Chushka Pepper
Potatoes-
Sweet Potatoes-
Pumpkin- Connecticut Field
Purslane- Green Purslane
Radishes-Pink Beauty
Summer Squash- Yellow Scallop
Winter Squash- Butternut
Tomatoes- Cherokee Purple
Beefsteak
Black Cherry
White Beauty
Orange Banana
Yellow Brandywine

Turnips- Purple Top White Globe
Watermelon- Golden Midget
Orangeglo
Klondike Blue Ribbon Stripe
Zucchini- Black Beauty

Miscellaneous- Kiwano

 

i have toyed with the idea bananas n citruses and other tropical fun however havent gotten anywhere close to being able to actually grow them but hopefully one day i will get there...

Thats a hella list ya have there walker, but then again with moving i am assuming alot of new needs to be planted,,, i didnt include anything that is already here .... i had fun with that herb n flowery edible list last year ... iam however thinking though i just may go head n order any other herb i may ever want to grow just to have it on hand ,,, even if i dont use it this year or have no idea what to use it for...

 

WOW! Walker, you are gonna be some kind of busy this upcoming season. Are you gonna be selling at a farmers market or a co-op? Me and the guys did truck patch farming for a few years, lotsa good, hard work in that....lots of satisfaction too. Is this a solo project or do you have other folks helping? Heres wishing you rich soil and beniegn bugs!

 

Yes, I am going to have to plant new stuff at the new place. This will probably be a busy year but after getting things established and going next year should be better. I might cut down on the list some since it will be a lot of work getting a new garden going. Work up to everything.

You can't have too many herbs, or herb seeds, can you?

Thanks We are planning on selling some at the local farmer's market and possibly some other options. For the most part it will be me and my wife. We might have a little help from others.

 

it is definitely doable walker... I found last year that its quite amazing ... one person dedicated to it each day makes all the difference.. I actually was able to begin enjoying the garden work again after many years of having it a huge chore... the lack of working out of the house 40 hours or more a week made huge difference,,, dunno if yall will have that luxury or no but its definitely not an overly huge a job if atleast one is able to commit a couple few hours a day... n yes work up to it,,, dont turn it into a chore or job like i did for a while and begin to really dislike it all.... causes all sorts of horrible frustration that is just truly a giant waste of our energies...

i have also found the successive plantings works wonders too... a lil of this n a lil of that then something new when they have played out...

i am trying a couple of the square foot beds this spring too. am more curious as to how that will work more than anything ...it is not lack of space but for things that we dont especially like to preserve or dont care a whole lot for i thought it would be an interesting experiment

 

We hope to not have to work for anyone else. I am quiting my job here, taking 401k, paying off some debts and buying the place with the money. We shouldn't have any debt so that will help a lot. We hope to be able to make enough money working from home on a few things to be able to pay for what we do need. That is the plan anyway.

That is a good point, not everything will be planted in early spring so that gives us more time.

I have been studying wide row and square foot planting and variations. They all look promising, atleast for certain crops. We are going to try it.

 

Guys, that davesgarden.com site has a lot of really sound information. Its mostly a bunch of people who have been gardening forever, lots of 'em are real into what they're doing and experimenting with stuff. Good luck with your plan, it should make for a more peaceful garden in your heart as well as your property.

 

we're getting ready to put in some raised beds next week...our soil is hard clay...everyone who gardens here says to pitch the clay & haul in some real dirt, and since we haven't been having much luck with the veggie gardens, we decided to try 'bought dirt'...friends say that the square foot gardens are wonderful, not as much maintainance

Question...Does anyone else have an Ace Hardware that stocks bulk seeds? I'm all grins today cuz I spend $2 on seeds and got way more than I would have if I'd have bought pre-packaged, a scoop that's about an 1/8 of a cup for a quarter; bought 2 varieties of squash, 3 lettuce, one spinach, red-core carrots & some dark green zucchini

 

Around here there are still some old fashion feed and grain stores where you can buy bulk seed for cheap. We've got FS stores, Farm Supply, they're kind of like a coop thing for local farmers. Rural King and some other places carry bulk seed too.

Hippiestead, We got nothing but clay here too. I've fought it for years and I'm going with raised beds and "bought dirt" I also been taking my tractor down in the woods and getting scoops of topsoil to till in with the clay and mulch and bulk dirt I've been getting. I found a nursery that had a huge amount of garden mix bags that burst so they sold it off super cheap. You might check around different places to see if you could find anything like that. I've been reading about strawbail gardening too. Soaking bails of straw for several days then punching into them and setting plants in a small amount of potting soil. Sounds interesting so I'm gonna try that for a couple of things this year. Good luck.

 

i have made a couple of the lasagne beds too HS.I have not planted anything in them yet but sposedly they are a good alternative for those of us with real yuck soil I do know they were really simple to build .. may be good idea for yall..

 

We have heavy clay soil here, too. It can be such a pain. Getting lots and lots of organic matterial into it helps a lot, though. Add compost and/or manure if you can.

From what I have been reading lately I think dilli & hippiestead have the right idea. Raised beds are suppose to be really good for clay soil. Combine that with some lasagne gardening to build up some good soil on top.

I think we have an Ace Hardware around here some where but I have never been to it. A friend was telling me about some store that sells bulk seeds at a good price. I might need to check it out before I leave to see what they have.

I have used davesgarden.com to check on different seed companies. It seems to be a pretty good site.

 

we've read about lasagne gardening but haven't really tried it yet...maybe this year now that my job is over (took a job I thought was going to last for 6m-1yr then found myself starting my 4th yr in Dec...thankfully, the job ended a couple of weeks ago)


we have a local farm store too, they have some bulk seeds, not as many as Ace...our Ace is weird tho, it has a radio shack inside it & the radio shack has a music section with guitars & strings & such...never seen another Ace quite like this one

we have one garden that we amended with lots of sand and compost, but its on a lower part of the yard where there is some topsoil