osprey94's Blog

planning ahead
Feb 14, 2010 | 9:41 AM PST

I need to think before planting. It's like a disease, my addiction to unplanned planting. This time, as I approach  planting the veggie garden, I've got to plan ahead. I know that my green beans I canned were just about enough. In fact, I have plenty of jars left. They might make it till I start canning more this summer. My tomatoes were another story. I have only 3 jars left. They were so good that I used them for everything, all the time. I didn't take notes of how much I canned, I just know it wasn't enough. I made a few jars of salsa and thought it was delicious, I just didn't use it as much as I thought I would. So this time, more tomatoes, less salsa. Also, I made tons of pickles and didn't even finish one jar. They were really good, I just didn't want them. Strange, because I thought I LOVED  pickles. I'll give them away to whomever will take them.

The basil I planted didn't do well at all. It got too cold early on and was stunted. I ended up pulling most of it out to make room for onions which did well. I think one or two really great, thriving basil plants should do it. I grew several cilantro plants, but they bolted so fast and I didn't end up using them enough. Same deal as the basil. Ditto for italian parsley. So, what I'll do is, grow a few pots of herbs for cooking and leave the big beds in the garden for the veggies. Although, I would like to grow enough basil this year to make a bunch of pesto to freeze.

I plant using the square foot method in my raised garden beds, by the way.

Other than that, the amount of zucchini I planted was good. I think I planted 3 plants. I shredded some and froze it for later, used a lot for zucchini  bread, and stir fries during the summer. I planted one 4 by 4 bed of bush beans - perfect amount. A few squares of carrot - just about right. One 4 by 4 bed of onion - good, one short row of snap peas - a little too much, but not bad, 7 - 8 tomato plants - almost not enough, and 4 cucumber plants - too many.

Also, this year, we built some real wood (lumber) raised beds to replace the ones we made from logs. They're so much better. They are more efficient, spacewise, and are 4 by 8 feet. We've fit 5 of them in the garden and I think we could get maybe 2 more in there, if we wanted to.

Seed buying time
Feb 7, 2010 | 5:54 PM PST

I'm NEVER organized enough to keep all of my seed packets, and every summer I grow something I love and want to grow again, but can't remember what it WAS. This time, I'm going to do better. Maybe this will be a New Year's Resolution I actually keep.

Gurneys:

(They were having a great sale: Buy $50, get $25 off. Therefore, most of the seeds are Gurneys.)

Sunflower, Royal Flush Mix and Hybrid Goldrush

Leaf Lettuce, Blend

Large-Leafed Italian Basil

Cilantro

Dark Green Italian Parsley

Broccolini, Hybrid Atlantis

Onion, Candy

Bush Bean, Early Contender

Head Lettuce, Buttercrunch (seed tape)

Sweet Corn, Hybrid Gotta Have It (Frighteningly, with the following warning label: "DANGER: Treated with Captan 400, Thiram, Dividend Extreme, Apron XL and Plymer Sepiret. DO NOT USE FOR FOOD, FEED, OR OIL PURPOSES. KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN). Wha...?

Summer Squash, Black Magic

2 of Carrot, Tendersweet (seed tape) (one for inlaws, one for me)

Cucumber, Hybrid Eureka

Radish, Champion (for inlaws)

 

Burpees:

Tomatoes: Tomande hybrid, Black Truffle hybrid, Sun Gold hybrid

Red Russian Kale

Lilly Miller:

Nasturtium, Cherry Rose and Jewel

Ed Hume:

Purple Coneflower

Nasturtium, Alaska dwarf single flowering, variagated foliage

 

There. Now, as I buy more (which I will, because I can't pass buy a seed packet display without buying SOMETHING), I will TRY to remember to write them all down here.