Planning for Spring, 2013

I ordered my onion sets yesterday as well as a slew of seeds to round out my garden for the spring. I had ordered some seeds late summer for the fall that never made it in the ground, so those will be planted this coming spring. I should be off in a couple of weeks, so I'm going to sow my maters and peppers then. I plan on using my roaster oven to germinate my seeds in. That will be a fun experience! LOL

Here's a list of what I ordered yesterday:

Dixondale:
Onions--1 bunch each of the short day sampler and Texas Legend

Baker Creek:
Pepper, Red Bullnose (very tasty!)
Tomato-Pantano Romanesco
Watermelon, Royal Golden (this is an experiment)
Borage (to plant with my maters)
Parsley Giant of Italy (for the butterflies)
Stevia

Victory Seeds:
Muskmelon Honey Rock (cantaloupe)
Tomato-Homestead 24, Rutgers, Beefsteak
Morado Tomatillo (purple)
Cucumber-Ashley, National Pickling, and Muncher

Now I'm in waiting....

I grew National Pickling Cucumbers years ago , That was in a major city ,lots of concrete around and it was very hot. Those did well , good production, a little wilt from time to time, they got a little tough but still tasted good with later fruit. I always looked forward to growing them.
I never seem to have much luck with Rutgers or Beefsteak , I hear some have great results growing them.
I just started a couple of Pantano Romanesco under lights ,trying them for the first time myself, I hope they are as good as the reviews about them..( and all the time I will be cultivating them)
As for me ,never have been all that good with melons ,so I will pass about my efforts and spare you from stories..

Good luck with those and will look forward to hearing about your garden results . Talk some then, see ya

I've still got plants that have been in nursery pots since last spring.lol peppers and tomatoes. The peppers are producing and I'm planing on making them perennial container plants. Im going to put the tomato plants in the ground just as an experiment. Haven't even begun to make an official list. I love reading everybody elses.

My tomatoes
the aforementioned and
Great White
Black Krim
2 Burpees super beefsteak
Next five;
Chocolate cherry
Broad ripple currant
Belle starr
Marglobe
Ester Hess That is all I can handle as it is . Possibly there will be a couple of more of Roma or Super sauce

We had good success with both Rutgers and Beefsteak this past year, which is why we're growing those again. We'll do more plants this time, tho.

For spring (whoa, 6 weeks away!), I have:
Turnip - Hakeuri, White Ohno
Spinach - America
Lettuce - Green Romaine, Iceberg
Carrot - Danvers 126, Little Finger
Beet - Cylindra, Bull's Blood
Broccoli - Rapini, Early Green
Radish - Early Scarlet Globe, Saxa II, Cherry Belle
Mustard - Southern Giant Curled, Yukina Savoy
Peas - Amish Snap
Herbs - Parsley

Plus a new strawberry bed and I have already direct seeded one bed of asparagus. I'll plant crowns in the other planned asparagus bed if I can find any decent ones. The crowns I planted last year and the year before never came up. Grrr.

I also planted jerusalem artichokes and ground nuts in the tree line where I hope they will naturalize.

Summer...I haven't done summer yet. :)

Like it is , changes from year to year everything from the gardener to the weather , lol (a little humor). I really enjoy the Rutgers when they do well, that and Marglobe were old time garden market tomatoes , Their productivity has long been surpassed ,only for those of us that enjoy them their taste has not.
I am going to try to fit a Gardener's Delight in there someplace , it didn't produce well last season but did produce in the 100 degree "cook me raw" temperatures with little care, along with drought.(fun season?)

If the weather permits after all that, I will try to go back to growing them for taste!LOL
I can grow tomato plants and weeds and that seems to be about it...

It's snowing and darn cold outside, so I mapped out the summer garden, too:

Scarlet runner beans
Corn - Fisher's Earliest, Blue Jade
Sunflower - Sunspot
Pepper - Jackpot, California Wonder, Orange Bell, Sweet Spot XR, Sweet Banana
Cucumber - Muncher, H-19 Little Leaf
Zucchini - Costata Romanesco
Winter Squash - Waltham Butternut, Nutterbutter, Upper Ground Sweet Potato
Melon - Minnesota Midget, Delice de la Table
Tomato - Gold Medal, Brandywine, two different genetic strains of Cherokee Purple, and my mutating tomato project of 2011 German Striped and 2012 German Striped

For the annual herbs - Basil, Mace, Chervil, Borage and Dill
Perennial herb garden - adding hyssop

For me & the hubby, we don't need a lot of tomatoes. As of right now, I don't can, but that might change!

Y'all are getting me excited. I just renewed my Dave's subscription yesterday, cleared old vines out of the garden the day before and have received 3 or 4 seed catalogs in the last week -- let the new garden planning BEGIN! I will post my plans a bit later (just starting that phase at the moment). For right now, I'm sure enjoying reading all the lists and plans of others. Keep it up, you guys are giving me ideas.

I'm making my plans, also. So many seeds and not enough space!! LOL
~Susan

I bought everything from Southern Exposure Seeds, which I just found out about, and am very happy that they grow the seeds right down the road from me! They are mostly organic as well.
Here's what's going into my vegetable garden this year:
Crosby Egyptian Beet
Green Arrow Pea
Forest Green Parsley
Brandywine YELLOW Tomato
Sugar Cherry Tomato
Edmonson Cucumber
Slo-Bolt Lettuce
Pablo Batavian Lettuce
Red Wethersfield Dry Bunching Onion
Deep Purple Bunching Onio
Costata Romanesca Zucchini (noticed that NicoleC is growing this as well)
Long Standing Bloomsdale Spinach
Bolloso Napoletano Basil
Common Sage
Ginseng Sweet Potato
Chataney Red Core Carrots

Well, that the start of it, anyhow...decided to try the Yellow Brandywine, although at this minute I am going to the SES website and ordering my favorite Abraham Lincoln tomato seeds and some other stuff...LOL!

I am really liking this new style of gardening, with the older techniques and varieties...most of the above is new to me but I do have experience in vegetable gardening.
Best of luck to all of you!

Oh you poor thing - huge and prolific zucchinis! I just ordered Romanesca (I'm hoping it's the same as Costata Romanesca) because Darius says that and the lemon squash seem somewhat resistant to the squash bugs that have decimated my zucchini for the past few years. I'd love to get even a few!

I ordered online from Baker Creek and Gourmet Seeds International; Johnny's seems to run heavily to hybrids which I don't care for since I like to save seed sometimes. Still haven't gotten those catalogues or Pinetree's yet, though. I really like sitting by the fire leafing through seed catalogues. Computers aren't the same...

Today, I ordered some potatoes. It was a last minute decision since we've not grown taters in a couple of years. From The Potato Garden, I ordered:

2 lbs Purple Majesty seed potatoes (purple inside & out and supposedly healthier for you)
5 lbs Yukon Gold

The other day, I also ordered a couple of packets of seeds from Sustainable Seeds. I forgot to print off my invoice....

means it will be like Christmas when the order arrives. Lookin at Burpees corn on the deck, lemon cukes, and their hybrid supersweet carrot, sunflowers, thats only the seeds

I feel good -- got the bulk of my seed ordering done. This year I am ordering mostly from Baker Seeds (for the first time).

Basil - Dark Opal and Emily
Beans - Old Homestead (Kentucky Wonder)
Broccoli - Calabrese Green Sprouting
Cabbage - Early Jersey Wakefield
Canteloupe - Charentais Melon
Cauliflower - Snowball Self-blanching
Cucumber - Marketmore 76
Eggplant - Black Beauty, and Fengyuan Purple
Peppers, sweet -Patio Red Marconi, Thai Long Sweet, Tequila Sunrise
Squash - Costata Romanesco, Early Golden Summer yellow crookneck
Tomato - Pink Oxheart (love these), Beefsteak, A Grappoli D'Inverno (grape tomato)

Onions - from Dixondale, a sampler pack of 3 varieties.

My current supply of 2011 seeds (a mix of Ferry-Morris, Burpee, Johnny's Select Seeds and some guy off ebay, lol):
Beets: Cylindra (few), Dark Red (few)
Broccoli: Green Magic (few), Barbados Hybrid (few)
Carrots: Danvers 126
Cilantro: standard
Chives: standard
Contender Bush Bean from this past fall (pods were hidden and dried on the vine),
and leftovers of the following seeds from 2011 packets -
Bok Choy/Pack Choi - white-stemmed
Cucumber - Diva, Tendergreen Burpless
Dill - Mammoth
Kale - Vates Blue Curled, Vates Dwarf Blue Curled
Lettuce Prizehead, Red Lollo, Red Grand Rapids, Black-Seeded Simpson
Oregano - Mediterranean, standard
Parsley - Flat Italian, Single/Standard, Triple-curled
Pumpkin - Jack O'Lantern
Radish - Cherry Belle, Icicle, French Breakfast
Spinach - Bloomsdale Longstanding
Squash - Patty Pan or Scallop
Zucchini - Partenon F1

As you see, I have plenty to play with -- too much -- but I would still like to find the following:
A watermelon that grows a few small melons instead of one big one, lol.
Acorn squash
and I probably want to do something about potatoes (red or purple or gold) and sweet potatoes.
Lastly, maybe sunflowers again, in an unused corner of the yard. (They seemed to attract bugs and didn't produce anything edible last year, but I so love sunflower seeds, I'd like to try again.)

Did I mention I just have a small suburban yard? LOL

Thats what sunflowers are for- the bugs prefer them to your veggies! I am lookin at sweet taters- Beauregards-

Just don't plant the sunflowers IN the garden. Plant them away from the garden, but close enough to attract the bugs. Don't ask me how I learned this....

Few small melons, try a bush variety. Lots of choices if you want more small melons per vine. Micky Lee and Wilson Sweet are my favorites but they grow multiple melons per vine. By the way I tried Royal Golden back in the 70's. Looked like a pumpkin and did not taste much better.

Yes the sunflowers will go far away from the rest of the stuff.

Farmerdill, thanks for the advice on the watermelons. I'll look for those varieties.

Hmmm. I don't seem to have a problem with sunflowers attracting bugs. What kind of bugs? Bees and birds, yes! This year I plan to cover a few heads so I can get some for myself. The goldfinches check constantly for any sign of a seed ripening, but they are fun to watch.

Regarding the acorn squash, I was fairly pleased with "Sweet Reba," if only because the plants managed to produce one squash each before the SVB got them. I'm giving up on C. pepo, though.

I was doing fine without bugs until I planted sunflowers. Once those got going, I had a horrible time with squash bugs and leaf-footed bugs. I can't stand either of those!

Ah, well, I couldn't possibly have any more squash bugs than I do already. I do some egg squishing plus I have some help from the assassin bugs and a few of the birds eat them. Other than that, the plants just have to deal with it or outgrow it. :p

I see a few leaf-footed bugs each year but they never seem to do any damage.

From Sustainable Seeds, I ordered Curly Parsley, Orange King Bell Peppers, and Large Red Cherry Tomatoes. They arrived today! What a great way to end 2012!

You cannot imagine how good this thread sounds , store vegies? I am thankful for the food, all the work that goes into the food, but this time of year I am already tired of green beans and peas that taste like wet grass and carrots that taste like dirty feet smell .. Were not even going to go into hard steamed Broccoli for a hay substitute!!!
I miss the garden vegies ,, I really miss the garden vegies!!!!

Steph? I think the sunflowers simply were going good at the time the leaf footed bugs population grew up and became noticed, I don't think the sunflowers caused the bugs to show up. Honest.

Juhur? Do you not have a winter garden? or do you just miss the spring ones the most?

Well it is 2013 not spring yet though.. My first post of the the new year!!!!
No winter garden ,, if I did have it would be under 20 inches of snow right about now..lol
Only it is a new year and time to plan..lol

Kitt, that's a possibility, but I didn't have ANY in my garden last year.

I know Indiana is bitter windy and cold, but greens and lettuce ought to grow there- snow insulates plants under it, onions, collards, leeks should grow...turnips, beets, at least, we have 45 minutes to go, and Happy New Year Juhur!

Steph- they were all at my house

I have leeks garlic onion and radish plants that grow wild now all year (the radishes) I keep trying turnips, and must have been fed too many beets as a youngster or something , never did develop a taste for those, I hear they are one of the healthiest foods ..
Who knows one these days I may be digging frozen carrots and such.. About all I have planned is turnips and Brussel sprouts as soon as weather allows..
Drought this past summer and I did not get much, I miss them dry beans from the garden , did not even make it to amount to beans , That's bad!!!! Worst garden I had ever grown in 50 years , really....
I will not say any more at risk of teasing fate and mother nature!!lol

These little guys saved it all..
Melon ended up with a hole chewed through it if it enlarges notice the radish seed pod laying on the ground to the right...

Should be about close? to return your Happy New Year , Maybe the squash bugs will move away,,,,

Juhur,

I remembered eating Turnips raw right out of the garden as a kid back in the 1930's, so i planted some, but found out i have lost my taste for them, too.

You did not mention Kohlrabi in your post, and i suggest you try some of those, as they taste like a turnip should. They are one of my favorites, so no more turnips, but lots of Kohlrabi is going to grow here.

Ernie

Kitt--please feel free to keep them. ;)

Yesterday, I sowed seeds for 24 bell peppers and 84 tomato plants:
Beauty Beefsteak
Eva Purple Ball
Mortgage Lifter
Mule Team
Russian Rose
Kimberly Cherry
German Giant
Giant Belgium
New Big Dwarf
Virginia Sweets
A NOID from my saved seeds

California Wonder Bell
Early Sunsation Bell
Emerald Giant Bell
Roumanian Rainbow Bell
Satsuma Bell

Hardening off target date is 02/11/13
Plant out target date is 02/16/13

I'm prepared to protect the transplants from frost between mid-February and late-March, with hoops, frost cloth, and perforated plastic sheeting. I'm also toying with the idea of a portable cold frame over the seedlings, once they're in place in the RB.

In any case, the lion's share of my sowing is done!

Linda




This message was edited Jul 1, 2013 10:40 AM

I am still a little envious of the southern length of growing season ,not of the summer temps .Sounds of good size gardens here..

I Put some good canteloupe on the greens it improved the taste considerably . Only still miss a green flavor , started some leaf lettuce in a container because of that , Lettuce is good from the market so it is not as worth doing as much as it might be.

Wow, Linda, you rock! Are you using seed trays? And a re-do of the water bottle method you used last season? Just curious.

I used 4" square pots for the seedlings. I sowed the Kimberly cherries in 6-8 oz. Yogurt cups.

I sowed the seeds in 100% Roots Organic Potting Soil because I need them beefed up and growing fast in the next 6 weeks. My past observations have shown me they should be ready by my target dates.

My method was to moisten batches of recycled RO and run through my Potting mix microwave for 20 minutes to sterilize and heat it up. I let it steam a bit in the bowl to cool down just enough to handle it. Then, playing "beat the heat," I filled the pots, dropped the seeds, tamped down and watered in with warm water. Then, I quickly shoved the tray into a clear plastic drawstring bag, and tucked the end under to keep the heat buildup inside. I put the trays on the floor of my warm room, away from the light on my grow shelf. I expect them to pop by this Sunday or next Tuesday.

I also used fresh Roots Organic. Same method as above, except I only nuked it for 7-10 minutes, to heat it up. Since I don't use heat mats, I had to find heat from somewhere else to help my seeds pop.

I have a detailed pictorial of my process.