Planting Late...As Usual

Between Mother Nature's harassing rains and waxing humidity and my energy roller coaster, I am FINALLY getting around to planting. Perhaps a bit late, but I'll have to do the best I can. Hopefully the heat and humidity (where the hell did spring go, by the way?) will force things to grow quickly. I'll save my early spring goodies for fall harvesting.

So, in my usual OCD overkill way, here's what I have in starter pots:

Peppers

Sweet chocolate pepper

Napolean sweet pepper

Sweet Pimento Apple pepper

Purira Chile

Sweet pepper

Herbs

Cilantro/Coriander

Cinnamon basil

Dukat dill

Genovese sweet basil

Grandma Einck's dill

Giant Italian parsley

English thyme

Italian oregano

Italian flat-leaf parsley

Tomatoes

Moneymaker tomato

St. Pierre tomato

Santiam tomato

Tall Vine Eva Purple Ball tomato

Black Cherry tomato

Querida F-1 tomato

Eggplant

Black eggplant

All the seeds are either heirloom and/or organic. I have no idea what kind of tomatoes I'm going to get from these--sweet or tart, meaty or juicy, thin- or thick-skinned, so it will be an interesting season.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to get out to the garden proper before the heat and humidity become unbearable and plant the direct-sow seeds.

Planning This Year's Garden

According to The Old Farmer's Almanac Frost Chart for United States, April 22 was the last frost date for our area...which means it's time to get planting! I probably should already have started seedlings for some plants--I'm not very good at knowing when to plant things--but I should be able to plant early crops now, like beets and carrots and lettuce and such.

I've tilled through the garden once during one of the warmer dry spells we had recently, tilling in some organic mushroom compost and tilling under the newspaper shred and grass clippings from last year. The dirt looks better than last year; I hope it is. Enough rabbits pooped in it during growing season that it should be fertilized pretty well.

I have all my seed packets, and then some. I bought the majority of my seeds from four sources this year: Seed Savers Exchange, Seeds of Change, Park Seed, and Ferry-Morse. I tried to select as many organic and heirloom types as possible for variety. So here's the rundown of what I plan to plant this year:

Greens

• FM Organic Spinach, Bloomsdale, Long Standing
  
• SOC Organic Red Oak Lettuce
• SSE Grandpa Admire's Lettuce
• SSE Flame Lettuce
• SSE Red Romaine Lettuce
• SSE Yugoslavian Red Lettuce
• SSE Bloomsdale Spinach

Herbs

• SOC Organic Dukat Dill
• SOC Organic Genovese Sweet Basil
• SSE Cinnamon Basil
• SSE Grandma Einck's Dill
• SSE Giant Italian Parsley
• PS Organic English Thyme
• PS Organic Italian Oregano
• PS Organic Parsley, Italian Flat Leaf
• PS Organic Dill Bouquet

Tomatoes

• SOC Organic Peacevine Cherry Tomato
• PS Organic Kellogg's Breakfast Tomato
• PS Organic Cherokee Purple Tomato
• PS Organic Cherry Sweetie
• SSE Red Brandywine Tomato
• SSE Martino's Roma Tomato
• I'll also be planting tomatoes purchased from Richland Community College's horticulture program sale: Beefsteak, Best Boy, and Sun Sugar.

Peppers

• PS Organic Peppers, California Wonder
• SSE Sweet Chocolate Peppers
• SSE Napolean Sweet Pepper

Cucumbers

• SSE Bushy Cucumbers
• SSE Double Yield Cucumbers

Beans

• SSE Purple Podded Pole Bean
• SSE Provider Bean

Peas

• SSE British Wonder Pea

Zucchini

• PS Organic Zucchini, Black Beauty (and no, I won't be planting 12 plants this year--only 2 or 3)

Eggplant

• SOC Organic Turkish Orange Eggplant
• PS Organic Eggplant, Black Beauty

Radishes

• PS Organic Radish Sparkler
• SOC Organic Cherry Belle Radish

Beets

• SSE Edmunds Blood Turnip Beet
• FM Beet, Tall Top Early Wonder

Other

• SOC Organic Red Wethersfield Onion
• PS Organic Carrot Nantes
• PS Organic Okra Clemson
• PS Organic Broccoli Raab
• SSE Petite Yellow Watermelon
• SSE Sunberry

Edible Flowers

• SSE German Chamomile
• SSE Arikara Sunflower
• FM Organic Sunflower, Mammoth

As you can see, I have way too many seeds as usual. But I will plant a little bit of everything and see what happens! Every year is an experiment, and I learn a little more about what to do and what not to do. For instance, last year I learned that 12 zucchini plants were WAY MORE than a healthy-sized army could consume in a year, so I'll only be planting a few of those.

This year, I'll also plant marigolds and white alyssum to try to keep bugs away from some of the plants, and I'll probably plant some nasturtiums to add to salads. They're quite good, having a kind of peppery flavor.

So, there you have it. OCD kicks in again this gardening season. If you'd like to trade some seed varieties with me, let me know asap before I plant them all!

I Think I Can Be Classified as OCD

It happened. I received my seed catalogs a few weeks ago and knew I had to place an order immediately. When my gardening buddy, Michelle, saw the Seed Savers certified-organic, heirloom bean sampler I had ordered, she asked me how many beans I was expecting to plant. (Garden-ese for "please, may I have some?"; of course, I promptly supplied her with some from each of the six varieties.) She also suggested donating some to our local college horticulture program, which I'll do. And then, I'll probably save the leftovers for next year and add some new varieties to the mix.

[Left to right, back row: Hutterite Soup, October, and Good Mother Stallard; front row: Jacob's Cattle Gasless, Ireland Creek Annie, and Lina Cisco's Bird Egg.]

But I didn't stop with beans. No, you just can't sustain yourself on just beans for a year. I've added plenty of veggies to the mix:

Peppers - Orange Bell, Chocolate Beauty, and Buran

Tomatoes - Amish Paste, Sweet Pea Currant, Red Zebra, John Baer, Marglobe Supreme, Illinois Beauty, Cherokee Purple, and Beefsteak (my favorite)

Lettuces - Amish Deer Tongue, Bronze Arrowhead, Forellenschuss, Red Velvet, Susan's Red Bibb, and Yugoslavian Red Butterhead

Other Greens - Strawberry Spinach, Apollo Arugula, America Spinach

Squash - Black Beauty Zucchini, Golden Zucchini

Eggplant - Florida High Bush

Radishes - Plum Purple, Early Scarlet Globe

Beets - Chioggia, Bull's Blood, Detroit Dark Red

Carrots - Danver's Half Long, Scarlet Nantes, Dragon

Okra - Clemson Spineless, Star of David

Peas - Green Arrow, Amish Snap

Green Beans - Ideal Market, Empress

Cucumbers - Double Yield, Boothby's Blonde, A&C Pickling

Celery - Cutting Celery

Onions - Australian Brown, Red of Florence

Herbs - Fernleaf Dill, Grandma Einck's Dill, Omega Flax, Santo Coriander, Cilantro/Coriander, Chives, Greek Oregano, Giant Parsley from Italy, Rosemary, Cinnamon Basil, Genovese Basil, Stevia

Edible Flowers - Dwarf Jewel Mix Nasturtiums, Empress of India Nasturtiums

So, as you can see, I have ordered far more seeds than I have room for in my garden. I got a bit carried away due to spring fever. But all is not lost--I will share some seeds and save some seeds for next year!

Cabin Fever

I can't believe it was just nearly 70 degrees, and now the temperature has dropped into the high 20s today, bringing sleet and snow and winter weather advisories. I am suffering from cabin fever, and I am desperately ready for spring! I ordered heirloom seeds on Sunday from my Seed Savers Exchange, Johnny's Selected Seeds, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. catalogs. I put a rush on the Seed Savers Exchange order, where the bulk of my seeds will be coming from, so I should have them by Thursday. I know I've ordered far more seeds than I'll need, but I'll share with my gardening friend, Michelle. Plus, if I stagger the plantings, I can get 2 or 3 harvests out of some of the crops.

The next thing I need to do is take a calendar and start marking planting dates. I'll start many of my early season plants indoors--peas, tomatoes, and the like--but I don't want to start them too soon, so I need to sit down and do some date estimating. That sounds like a good weekend project.

What are you doing to get ready for spring planting?