Tuesday, June 12, 2012

What is growing in the veggie garden?

This year I did something different. I normally order seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I won a $20 gift certificate for FedCo (a Maine-based seed company). I commented on a blog post by Margaret Roach and won the gift certificate.

I was excited because this was a paper certificate and it required me to order seeds the old fashioned way (by mail). I was able to take the time and place an order not do a rush-job online order. [Here's information on Margaret in case you are interested: "Called "the best garden blog" by NY Times, ex-Martha Stewart exec Margaret Roach's horticultural how-to and woo-woo. Newsletter: http://tinyurl.com/ykk9gf4"]

As usual we started some seeds inside (with a heated mat and florescent bulbs on a timer (one warm, one cool). I find that starting seeds indoors in March gives hope of warmer weather to come. However, it just creates really leggy seedlings and not the strongest of plants (sadly). This is what we have growing right now:

  • Green beans (we hope to make dilly beans again this year)
  • Cranberry beans for drying
  • Heirloom tomatoes (these I do not do from seed, because I like to plant 6 different types). One of the tomatoes is called 'Watermelon' which pleases me greatly (it's green and red on the inside)
  • potatoes (not from seed, I just put 4 organic potatoes in the ground and we have 2' tall plants at this point)
  • Butternut squash  
  • Sugar pumpkins (for beer-making in the fall)
  • 2 types of cucumbers, both heirloom (sadly not doing all that well, the seedlings got eaten by bugs and we're starting over from seed outdoors)
  • Bell peppers (from seed)
  • Asparagus (this will take 2-3 years, but at least we have them planted in root form)
  • Spinach and lettuce (from seed, we've never had luck with lettuce and spinach--I'm so ready to buy them in plant form next spring and just throw up my hands in defeat)
  • Basil from seed (best quality basil from seed ever, thank you FedCo!). I grow this on my kitchen windowsill because I'm too lazy at 8pm to walk down the hill to harvest basil!
What are you growing in your garden this year? I'd love to hear from you! Container garden, bucket, backyard garden...all count!

Cranberry bean:

1 comment:

  1. "A lot" is the short answer to your question. Green beans, jalapenos, carrots, eggplants, tomatoes...the list goes on and on.

    And it's my wife's list. She has a green thumb the size of Milwaukee. I kill plastic plants.

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