I forgot the name of my blog for a moment and decide to Google search it. To my surprise if you type in an elm city veggie garden blog in Google, I’m on page 2.
This blog is officially big time.
Anyway seeds are coming in. I’ll start planting stuff at the beginning of March and post way more then I have been.
I saved extra seeds from last year so I don’t have to go broke buying all the following seeds, but I’m probably going to have to steal some of the front yard if I really plant everything below.
Indy Gold Yellow Wax Beans
Kentucky Wonder Pole Bean
Provider Green Bean
Detriot Dark Red Beet
Calabrese Broccoli
Nautic F1 Hyrbrid Brussels Sprouts (Can’t find an open-pollinated variety that produces big straight sprouts.)
Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage
Nantes Fancy Carrots
Goodman Cauliflower
Tango Celery
Ruby Red Chard
PA Dutch Butter Corn
Stowell’s Sweet Corn
National Pickling Cucumber
Black Beauty Eggplant
Zefa Fino Fennel
Lacinato Kale (aka Dinosaur Kale)
Korridor F1 Hybrid Kohlrabi (This thing was too crazy not to grow. See High Mowing Field Day post.)
Bandit Leeks
Four Seasons Lettuce
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
Green Ice Lettuce
Green Towers Lettuce
Mesclun Salad Mix
Blenheim Orange Melon
Dakota Tears Yellow Onion
Southport White Globe Onion
Southport Red Globe Onion
Walla Walla Onion
Cascadia Snap Pea
Blizzard Snow Pea
Early Jalapeno
Ring-O-Fire Cayenne Pepper
Jupiter Sweet Pepper
Thai Hot Pepper
Red Norland Potato
Yukon Gold Potato
Baby Pam Pumpkin
Dave (Four-o-seven) Quinoa
Cherry Belle Radish
Bloomsdale Spinach
Success PM Straightneck Summer Squash
Butternut Winter Squash
Beauregard Sweet Potato
Midnight Lightning Zucchini
Mountain Princess Tomato
Sweetie Cherry Tomato
Amish Paste Tomato
Purple Top White Globe Turnip
Ali Baba Watermelon
Cream of Saskatchewon Watermelon (This guy looks awesome.)
You should have a rough idea of how big your garden will be and what you would like in the garden. Now comes the tricky part. What kind of tomatoes should you grow?
I suppose if you don’t already get seed catalogs you should request some. Unless you prefer surfing the web.
I try to get heirlooms and open-pollinated seeds. Hybrids may produce more, but I can get a stale version of an Early Girl tomato at the grocery store. I’m not going to find a Cherokee Purple Tomato to many places. Also you can’t save hybrid seeds, well technically you can, but you’ll end up with some mutant.
Try to find a seed companies in your area. Most of their varieties will do better at your house. Then just narrow down what you would like to grow. I live in the northeast so I know to go after varieties that can survive in a short summer.
I get most of my seeds from High Mowing Seeds and Fedco. I’ll post my the seed list soon.
Hope everyone has a good 2010.
I’ll get back to blogging soon. I gotta start ordering some seeds.
We got a little snow over the weekend. Hopefully we’ll get some more soon.
Hopefully you decided on what kind of veggies you want to grow. Before picking your seed varieties you gotta factor in space.
Your garden will need two things. First southern exposure with at least six hours of sunlight a day, you should shoot for 7-8 hours though. It needs to be direct sunlight.
Secondly everything you plant is going to need space and you need enough room to walk around it. I always try to do 4 foot beds. You can go wider or narrower, but always leave a foot for yourself to walk down the row if you’re making a big garden.
On the back of seed packets it will always have a row spacing or plant width, forget about it. Unless you have a ton of space. For the rest of us you can get by just following the plant spacing. It shades out weeds and utilizes space better. For a rough guide of plant spacing see below.
Now let’s pretend like your making a tiny garden. It is going to be 4 x 10 (40 sq ft). You’re planning on planting 4 tomatoes, 4 peppers, a lot of onions, 4 romaine lettuce, 4 cucumbers, and 16 beans.
Look at plant spacing as blocks. If a tomato needs 24 inches that means 4 tomatoes will take 16 sq feet. Four peppers take 12 inches each for a total of 4 sq feet. Onions need about 4″ and if you give them 4 sq feet you would have 36 onions. I’m too lazy to do anymore math and I’m not sure if my current math is correct, but you get the idea.
Now start mapping your garden and use the guide below. These are all rough estimates in inches.*
| Artichoke Asparagus Bean Beet Broccoli Brussels Sprouts Cabbage Carrot Cauliflower Celeriac Celery Chard Collards Corn Cucumber Eggplant Fennel Garlic Specialty Greens Kale Kohlrabi Leek Lettuce Melon Okra Onion Scallion Onions |
72 12 6 4 18 24 18 3 18 12 8 8 12 18 12 18 6 4 6 15 6 6 12 18 12 4 3 |
Parsnip Pea Pepper Potato Pumpkin Radish Rhubarb Rutabaga Spinach Summer Squash Winter Squash Tomato Turnip Watermelon Zucchini Basil Chives Cilantro Dill Oregano Parsley Thyme Specialty Herbs |
4 4 12 12 24 2 24 6 6 24 24 24 4 24 24 6 12 6 8 18 12 8 12 |
*You should follow the plant spacing on the seed packet if it is a higher number.
Oh, I forgot to mention my garden is 1350 sq feet. Minus a couple feet for walkways.
I got a couple more seed catalogs, so I started making the list of what I want to grow. It’s the first step in making an awesome garden and since we got all winter (unless you’re in the southern part of the US) and this is a garden blog. I decided I would show you how to plan the garden and grow everything from seed.
Here’s a good list of what you can grow (minus trees and grains). Pick the veggies you want to grow and we’ll talk seeds and space next time.
|
Herbs
|
* Easy to grow
** You should grow them even though it takes a little more work.
My 2010 High Mowing Organic Seeds catalog showed up. It seems a little early, but I can’t complain. I’m already mapping out next years garden.
Since I went to High Mowing’s field day I got to check out some of the new veggies early. After trying the gourmet Haogen melon and a couple different carrots I may have to pick up the seeds. I’ll scan through and come up with a complete list of things to grow after I get a couple more seed catalogs.
You can request the catalog here http://highmowingseeds.com/2010%20catalog%20request.html
Two things you never realized about pineapples. First to grow one pineapple it takes 18 months. No joke.
Secondly you can make a pineapple with the top of another pineapple, because they grow on the ground. (Is that three things?)
Jacked picture from http://www.deadprogrammer.com/pineapple-grows-in-brooklyn
It’s actually pretty easy. You buy a pineapple for the ridiculously low price of $3.99 ($2.99 on sale) at the grocery store.
Take it home let it ripen and eat it. When you cut it up take the top off where the fruit section meets the leafy green.
Let the top dry for a 2-3 days. You’ll see little goose bumps forming on the bottom. Those are roots.
You can do two things at this point. Put the bottom in a cup of water and let the roots grow longer or just put it in some potting soil in a bucket.
I chose the easy way and dropped it in some potting soil. Then the pineapple sat around for a year and half and did absolutely nothing. I thought it was dead, but I stuck it outside in late May this year and a little nub started growing off the side.
I moved it into a larger bucket and set the nub straight and I got a pineapple plant. Of course you’re suppose to water your pineapple daily. Which I never do. He’ll barely grow at all this winter, but in the summer I’ll throw him outside and put him in a bigger bucket.
So in about two years I’ll have a pineapple.
I got really lazy last week and I’m running out of material. I suppose I can give you day by day shots of the garden.
As you can see my Winter Rye looks like green grass now and that’s overgrown bitter-tasting Kale to the right and the little guys in the middle are turnips and the really little red things are Chard. They’ve all turned into science experiments for the winter, minus the turnips. I’ll eat them.
Oh, I know what I’ll talk about all winter. My pineapple. Tomorrow I’ll post him on the internet.
