More Seedlings

Planted melon and watermelon seeds today.  Will plant in two week succession.

A Look at Varieties

Most of the vegetables we buy in our grocery stores today are infertile and cannot produce another plant from the seed it produced. In addition, these fruits and vegetables are bred for their shelf life and uniformity, not their nutrition or taste (which I find completely backwards). I find it strange that we need to have seeds called "heirloom varieties" which basically mean that they are normal seeds that can produce a plant year after year (not necessarily a perennial, simply meaning that if you save the seeds properly, you can have another plant just like it the next time you plant the seed). For more on heirloom varieties, check out the wiki page. Another great resource is the Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa.

Without going into a long lecture, suffice it to say that I've chosen all heirloom varieties because I believe in the importance of preserving our food freedom (more on how seed manufacturers are working for a monopoly here). I ordered my seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds in February, a company that does not carry Monsanto or GMO seed.

Of course I completely over-purchased - February in Minnesota is pretty cold, and all the plants looked like so much fun! Below is a list of what I plan to plant. The categories are probably not botanically correct, just how I separate them in my mind. Also, I will only be planting a few of each of the varieties, as my goal is to have variety through the winter.

Root Vegetables
Beets: Detroit Dark Red, Golden
Carrots: Danvers 126 Half Long, Lunar White, Muscade, St. Valery
Celeriac: Giant Prague
Parsnip: Hollow Crown
Radish: China Rose, Miyashigi Diakon, Round Black Spanish
Rutabaga: Laurentian
Turnip: Navet Des Vertus Marteau, Purple Top White Globe

Melons/Squash
Cucumber: Himangi, Uzbekski (believe it or not, these are storage cucumbers! We'll see...)
Gourd: Dishcloth or Luffa
Melon: Casaba-Golden Beauty, Eden's Gem (Rockyford Green-Flesh), Valencia Winter Melon
Winter Squash: Thai "Rai Kaw Tok", Iran, Lady Godiva, Pipian from Tuxpan, Queensland Blue, Sugar Loaf Delicata, Tennessee Sweet Potato
Watermelon: Ice Cream, Stone Mountain

Leafy Greens
Chard: Rainbow (Five Color Silverbeet), Oriole Orange
Endive: De Meaux
Kale: Dwarf Siberian
Lettuce: Val D'Orges
Spinach: Gigante D'Inverno

Green Vegetables
Broccoli: Early Purple Sprouting, Waltham 29
Brussel Sprouts: Long Island Improved
Cabbage: Mammoth Red Rock, Premium Late Flat Dutch
Celery: Tendercrisp
Fennel: Di Firenze
Kohlrabi: Early White Vienna
Leek: Giant Musselburgh

Herbs
Parsley: Hamburg Rooted
Cilantro: (no variety name)
Parsley: Giant of Italy
Tarragon: Russian
Oregano: Vulgare

Miscellaneous
Tomato: Dad's Sunset, Moonglow, Thessaloniki, Egg, Rev. Morrow's Long Keeper, Green Skin Long Keeper
Amaranth: Love-Lies-Bleeding-Red
Sunflower: Mammoth Grey Striped
Garden Berries: Hardy Kiwi

Whew! As always, I'm overly ambitious. I may not be planting all of these, we'll see what space allows. I hope to get my garden plan posted soon.

Pansies Sprouted!

Miracle of miracles, my pansies sprouted today. They look a bit weak, but then again they have been in the dark, so I'm not sure what I expected them to look like. Since only some of them sprouted, I'm now stuck with the decision on whether to keep them in the dark or move them to the light. I think one more day in the dark, and then we'll see where we are.

I forgot to take a picture when my leeks sprouted, so here's where they are today, looking fairly healthy I think. I do have to consider transplanting them sometime soon, although I don't have a tray to move them to.

Leeks Sprouted!

Today I got home to find that my leeks had sprouted! All week I had been keeping them moist, using a spray bottle and covering in plastic wrap. I kept them under the light all the time (did not shut off at night). Still no word from the pansies.

First Seedlings

Well I haven't figured out my garden layout and plan yet, but I did plant some seedlings. I don't have a seedling area in my basement, so I just lowered a utility light I had above my washing machine as low as it would go, and added some plastic bins to bring the seedlings high enough. I planted pansies and leeks.

From what I've read, pansies need complete darkness and steady moisture to germinate, and even then sometimes they won't sprout. So I'm taking my chances, I guess! I'm doing mostly vegetables but decided to try some flowers for the planters outside my place of business. It's so expensive to buy the little plants at the nursery in the spring! I planted a tray of 72 pansies. I covered the tray with plastic wrap to retain moisture, then covered the whole thing with a piece of cardboard to keep it dark.















To save tray space, I planted the leeks in an old plastic bin. I barely covered the seeds, made sure they were moist, covered with plastic wrap, and then put them directly under the light.

History and Purpose

So I'm fairly new at this gardening thing, and every book or expert says to keep a gardening journal, so I thought a blog might be a good idea. I've also looked around for anecdotal advice on gardening in the Twin Cities (Minnesota), but have come up fairly short, so I thought sharing my experiences online may help others. Keep in mind I'm new at this!

History of me gardening: When I was a kid we had a large garden full of all sorts of veggies. Unfortunately, I didn't pay too much attention to what we were doing and I was pretty young so I can't remember too much. More recently, I had a small 48 sq ft garden where I grew tomatoes, carrots, beans, lettuce and some other stuff I can't remember. I was wildly successful actually, my two tomato plants ended up looking like a JUNGLE and we had fresh veggies for months. I attribute my success with that garden to the soil mix I used. Unfortunately, I didn't keep a good record of the soil mix, the mix was much too expensive to reproduce on a larger scale, and the garden only lasted a few years because I started a business and got too busy. I haven't gardened since and the rabbits have completely ravaged my old garden plot. I joined a CSA as a way to still get fresh veggies through the summer and also support healthy farming practices.

Purpose of my garden: I still have a share in a CSA, so I don't really need vegetables through the summer. My purpose with my new garden is to have vegetables to store in a root cellar through the winter. I hope to have tomatoes in December and carrots in March! I am concentrating on vegetables that I can either store in a root cellar, overwinter in the garden, or grow in a cold frame through the winter months. More on varieties later. Also, I will be trying to plant everything as late as possible (except fruits, grains, nuts) to have the freshest vegetables possible to store.

Although I've already received my seed order, I'm still in the planning stages. Next post I'll try to touch on my garden layout and varieties.