Outside

Seed Order 2008

Here's the list of everything I ordered this year. It's a long list because I had to start from scratch - somehow I managed to lose (or throw away) my seeds from past years.

Suppliers
Fedco Seeds
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Pinetree Garden Seeds
Seed Savers Exchange
Seeds of Change
Territorial Seed Company
Tomato Bob's Heirloom Tomatoes

Salad Greens & Stuff
Merlot loose leaf lettuce: Territorial
Black Seeded Simpson lettuce: Fedco
Space Spinach: Pinetree
Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard: Johnny's
Tendersweet green cabbage: Johnny's
Super Red 80 red cabbage: Johnny's
Cherry Belle radish: Pinetree
Purple Plum radish: Pinetree

Snap Peas
Sugar Ann: Johnny's
Sugar Snap: Johnny's

Potatoes
Rose Finn Apple fingerlings: Seed Savers
Carola main crop storage: Seed Savers

Tomatoes
Sungold orange cherry: Fedco
Sweet Chelsea red cherry: Fedco
Yellow Pear yellow cherry: Seed Savers
Principe Borghese red drying: Fedco
Green Zebra green salad: Seed Savers
Gregori Altai red main crop: Tomato Bob's
Mule Team red main crop: Tomato Bob's
Pruden's Purple purple main crop: Fedco

Beans
Bush Blue Lake: Pinetree
Kentucky Blue Pole: Pinetree
Pete's Romano Pole: Saved from 2007
Purple Podded Pole: Saved from 2007

Peppers
Hungarian Hot Wax: Fedco
Ancho/Poblano: Seeds of Change
Paprika Alma: Seeds of Change

Curcubit Family
Marketmore 97 Cucumber: Territorial
Raven Zucchini: Fedco
Sunburst Scallop: Pinetree
Sugar Baby Watermelon: Pinetree

Ground Cherry
Aunt Molly's: Territorial

 Asparagus
Jersey Supreme: Johnny's

Garlic
Chrysalis Purple: Seed Savers
Music: Seed Savers
Siberian: Seed Savers

Seed Company Links Updated, Plus MN Native Plant Sources

Ruth, fellow Minnesotan of Nature Knitter fame, gently asked if I would provide links to the seed catalog companies I listed in my last post. As a blogger, I was terribly negligent in not providing the links in the first place, but when I wrote the post I was feeling lazy and didn't want to look up all the sites. Now, it's fixed - all the links are provided in the post.

Also, Ruth pointed me to another Minnesota provider of native seeds: Prairie Meadows Native Seed. Thanks, Ruth!

Because there are so many good providers of native plant materials here in the state, I will be purchasing the natives for my garden from within a 100 mile radius of home (30-50 miles is even better). I know that some people are very strict about where their seed comes from. I don't feel as strongly about it, but since I'm able to get everything in a fairly small radius, I'll do it.

Here's my short list of Minnesota native plant and seed purveyors, all within 75 miles of my house.

Outback Nursery: This is where I will probably end up buying a lot of stuff. A few years ago I met the owners and I really like what they're doing. Plus, their selection of trees and shrubs is the best I've seen. Nice selection for all habitats. Within a reasonable driving distance for me.

Prairie Restorations: I think they're the oldest, biggest and most well-known here in the state. Everything for prairie, wetland and woodland. Seed mixes available for various ecosystems. Not so many trees and shrubs, though.

Landscape Alternatives: They used to be right in St. Paul, which I thought was cool because they grew a lot of stuff right in the city. I suppose taxes got too high or something, because now they're way out on the Wisconsin border near Taylor's Falls.

Prairie Moon Nursery: A very nice catalog with tons of seeds and a good selection of plants. A little better on the prairie plants, not as much selection with woodland and wetland.

Prairie Meadows Native Seed: Ruth's recommendation. I'll have to check them out.

Minnesota DNR's list of native plant suppliers and landscapers is here.

Seed Catalogs, 2008

Okay, enough moping about the weather. Yes, it's now 3:00 pm and the thermometer is stuck at -6F, but at least the wind has died down, so the windchill is up to -28F. In any case, I'm snuggled at home where the furnace is working like a charm.

Besides, look what I'm doing today - going through seed catalogs! Here's my stack. I've received a total of 26 catalogs. Of those, I've whittled down the vegetable catalogs down to eight that I'll actually look through: Pinetree Garden Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, Fedco Seeds, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seeds of Change, John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds and Territorial Seed Company. I may also have to go to Tomato Bob's website to see what they have. I ordered - and received - a print catalog from them in 2007, but nothing this year.

I've also save four flower catalogs: White Flower Farm, Bluestone Perennials, Select Seeds and Prairie Moon Nursery. White Flower Farm and Bluestone are plants only. Select Seeds and Prairie Moon have seeds and plants. I've never ordered flowers from a catalog, but I have big plans for this year, so I may do it. The only one of these catalogs that I requested was Prairie Moon Nursery, a Winona, Minnesota company that specializes in native plants.

So, off to spend the next few hours perusing catalogs before braving the cold to walk the dog!

Seeds

I'm back from Dallas, and my seedlings are doing well. This picture (a poor one fom my Palm Treo 700) is of my seed starting operation in my company warehouse. Since this post is also being done on my Treo, I'm going to keep it short because I am such a slow "thumb typist"!

April Bloom Day: First Day in the Garden

It's the 15th, so it must be Bloom Day in the garden blogger world. Well, here in Minnesota, nothing is blooming yet - not here in my yard, and not in anyone else's yard, either.

But, the good news is, this was the first outdoor gardening weekend of 2007! Although I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, several important items got checked off the list.

I composted four beds - one that's already been planted with garlic, the other three that will be planted with spring veggies this week. (I found several shoots of garlic when I removed the winter mulch.) I've decided to follow the advice in Teaming with Microbes  - I didn't dig in the compost. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it was pretty darn easy to just spread it on top of the beds. On the other hand, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was getting away with something somehow. Well, we'll just have to see how it goes. I also got the bean and snap pea trellises set up. It's obviously too early to even think about planting pole beans, but the trellis is too hard to get it in place once the peas are growing.

At long last, I finally got some seeds started. The seed tray in the front is all tomatoes. I believe I sowed about 10 varieties. (I'll verify this later; right now I'm too tired to go downstairs and get my notebook!) The second tray holds two varieties of cabbage - one red, one green, kale, peppers (Ancho, Hungarian Hot Wax and Paprika Alma), and garden huckleberry. The huckleberry is my "wildcard" this year. From what I understand, the berries are pretty bland when eaten raw, but are a good substitute for blueberries when sweetened. We'll see how they go. Actually, the cabbages are new for me, too - I've never grown them before.

While I was working in the garden, Spouse was able to get two things checked off his list. One was getting the snow blower put away for the summer. That means it cannot snow again until next October - at the earliest! The other thing Spouse was able to do was smoke a cigar while watching me pot up the seeds. I think that was his favorite part of the weekend.

The Seeds are Here, and So Is Spring

I've been back from Palm Springs and Phoenix for a week, and I haven't posted. Why? I haven't felt inspired; it's hard to get back into "real" life after a vacation.

But this morning I finally sat down and opened my orders from the seed companies, and a sudden burst of inspiration hit me. Spring is really here!

Below is the 2007 lineup, all artfully arranged in the new Maine Garden Hod I purchased from Territorial Seeds (my only non-seed impulse purchase - I'm quite proud of myself). A few items of note. One is the package of Mighty Myco on the top left, in the basket. After reading Teaming with Microbes, I have very high expectations for mycorrhyzal fungi in my garden so I'm looking forward to using this product.

The other are the cute little seed packs from Tomato Bob's. They're propped up against the Johnny's seed packages in the lower left-hand corner (if you click on the picture to zoom, you'll see them). There's something about their size that makes the seeds seem precious, like something I need to be very careful with. Plus, my packing slip from Tomato Bob's had a hand-written note that said, "Thanks Tracy, Bob." I will definitely order from them again.

Finally - The Seed Orders Are In

For the past few months I've been reading about people ordering their seeds - even starting seeds! - and have felt more and more behind. Then, I read that Ali over at Henboggle was just finishing her list, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Ali lives in Maine; I live in Minnesota - there is still time for us Northerners. Heck, I can't even start tomatoes until the second or third week of April.

So, gazing out the living room window at a bright blue sky and a fresh coating of 24" of snow that's accumulated in the past 7 days, I finally went online and ordered my seeds.

I can see already that I went tomato-happy this year.

Here's what's in store for 2007:

Mighty Myco (Territorial): I ordered this after reading about the wonders of mycorhyzzal fungi in Teaming with Microbes. I'm now expecting humongous, ultra-productive plants. (But then, don't we all?)

Tomatoes
Cuoro de Toro Tomato (tomatobob.com)
Gregori's Altai Tomato (tomatobob.com)
Beaverlodge Slicer Tomato (Territorial)
Siletz Tomato (Baker Creek)
St. Pierre Tomato (Baker Creek)
Carmello Tomato (Scheepers)
Pruden's Purple Tomato (Fedco)
Green Zebra Tomato (Fedco)
Be My Baby Cherry Tomato (Fedco)
Sungold Cherry Tomato (Fedco)

Peppers
Ancho/Poblano Pepper (Seeds of Change)
Paprika Alma Pepper (Seeds of Change)
I will also plant Hungarian Hot Wax from last year's seeds

Legumes
Fortex Pole Bean (Johnny's)
Bush Blue Lake Bean (Pinetree)
Roma Pole (from friend Pete)
Potentially Purple Podded Pole, left over from last year
Sugar Ann Snap Pea (Johnny's)

Roots
Mokum Carrot (Pinetree)
Red Cored Chatenay Carrot (Pinetree)
Cherry Belle Radish (Fedco)
Plum Purple Radish (Fedco)

Cucurbits
Diva Cucumber (Johnny's)
Lemon Cucumber (Fedco)
Sweet Zuke Hybrid Zucchini (Burpee)
Glory Sugar Watermelon (Pinetree)
Blacktail Mountain Watermelon (Baker Creek)

Greens
Space Spinach (Territorial)
Oriental Giant Spinach (Territorial)
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce (Seeds of Change)
Merlot Lettuce (Territorial)
Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard (Burpee)
Gonzales Cabbage (Johnny's)
Super Red 80 Cabbage (Johnny's)
Red Russian Kale (Seed Savers)

Pototoes
French Fingerling Potatoes (Seed Savers)
Rose Finn Apple Potatoes (Seed Savers)

Herbs
Genovese Basil (Scheepers)
Hidcote Lavender (Scheepers)
Dukat Dill (Scheepers)
Borage (Scheepers)

Miscellaneous
Garden Huckleberry (Seed Savers)

Sunday Miscellany

It's a typical winter Sunday. Football on the TV, dog lazing on the couch, seed catalogs spread around my chair, and snow gently falling outside.

Spouse is getting back into brewing beer. It's been about 4-5 years since the last time he made some homebrew, but decided sometime in December that he wanted to get back into it. So, for Christmas I bought him a beer kit: Phat Tyre Amber Ale from Northern Brewer.

The Phat Tyre was bottled last weekend, so Spouse decided to brew another batch this weekend. Here's his next project - a Belgian Witbier, also from Northern Brewer. He just cooked up the wort yesterday, and today it's started to ferment. Within a week or two, fermentation will be complete and he'll be able to bottle it. When Spouse first started brewing, we learned that letting the beer sit for 4-6 weeks after bottling really improves the taste, so we'll just have to wait until March to enjoy this batch.

In the meantime, I've been reading through the incredibly large pile of seed catalogs that have been cluttering up the area around my reading chair. Unlike others out in the blogosphere who have already placed their orders, I'm still trying to decide who to order from this year! The short list (which needs to get shorter) is: Fedco, Territorial, Pinetree, Seed Savers, Seeds of Change, Johnny's, Baker Creek, John Scheepers, and Burpee.

Two companies that I ordered from last year are off the 2007 list. Vesey's had good quality product but it took much too long to get here. They are in Canada and seeds take too long to go through customs I guess. The second is The Cook's Garden. Three of the varieties I ordered from them last year didn't do well, the growing information on the seed packets was quite poor, and the prices were high compared to others.

Of course, if I were really good, I'd get out all my old seed packets, compare them to my potential order, and ensure that I had just the right amount of seed without any duplication. However, what will really happen is that I'll order far too much and my grocery bag of half-used seed packets will fill up even more. Oh well, there are far worse (and far more expensive) habits that one could have.