Seed selections

I'm having great fun putting these seed packets together for the home-ed lot. I've finally decided on the following:

Carrots
Green/French beans
Peas
Lettuce
Tomato
Pumpkin/winter squash
Courgette/summer squash
Sunflowers
Calendula
plus... a mystery packet. lol.

There will be growing instructions for the mystery seeds, but no clues as to what it is. Or is that just plain ol' mean? heh heh Personally I think it's exciting, but then that's just me. There are between 4 and 20+ seeds of each kind, depending on the size of the seed. I mean, who really needs more than a couple of courgette plants anyway? You'd have courgettes coming out of your ears... :)

All I need to do now is rustle up some growing instructions. And you have no idea how hard it is to put into words something that I just do without thinking.

I mean, yes, I use books and the like, but all I do is go, 'hmm, early April, let's see, it's time to sow some carrots'. And I sow carrots. If you actually asked me for spacings, depths, rows, soil type, etc, I'd just look at you blankly. So, it's back to the books and an hour's quiet concentration to try and figure out how to explain to kids how to sow carrots.

Although I bet if I just gave them some seeds, they'd plant them with no problems. :)

Miserable bloody day (2* rant warning!)

And I make no apologies for my language.

It's a cold, damp, grey, rainy, miserable, sodden, bloody awful day out there and I'm right royally pissed off as I soooo wanted to get out there with my new azada and dig over the lottie and the garden and now I can't so I'm going to have a rant.

It's blasted January, for gods' sakes. Cold is good. Grey is acceptable. But rainy, miserable and sodden just aren't in it. It should be bitterly cold, with snow and ice and freezing weather. Bright, shiny brittle-blue-skied days when the frost glints and cracks in the air. Dark grey evenings, good for soaking away the aches, caused by digging in good rich soil, in a hot bubbly bath with the company of glossy seed magazines. Damp, miserable and sodden is not really acceptable at any time, except maybe for the odd day in April, and is useful for times when you need to potter around in the greenhouse or polytunnel, pricking out seedlings and weeding. Then it's quite nice to hear the pat-pat-pat of gentle rain on the glass or plastic.

But not when I should be out digging over my garden and allotment. Damn and blast.

I wouldn't mind if it turned to snow and laid a gentle white blanket over the slush and mud. At least I could build a bloody snowman or something with the kids.

Ok, gripe over. :\ Off to make hot ginger tea. I'm even cold sitting here at the computer. Not impressed with today.

Seedy stuff

Well - I didn't realise I had quite so many seeds. lol

Here's a brief precis of what I've got in my seed fridge...

Amaranth - Vietnamese Red

Beans (climing French/pole) - Canelli dry white, Georgische, Siva, Zebrina, Turkish, Cobra, Veense, Cordoba, Cherokee Trail of Tears (white seeded)
Beans (dwarf French/bush) - Miracle, Yellow Wax
Beans (lima) - Christmas pole, Henderson's bush
Beans (broad/fava) - Aquadulce, Crimson flowered
Beans (half-runners) - Mountaineer, Pink half-runner, Taylor horticultural
Beetroot (beets) - Yellow cylindrical, Bulls Blood, Early Wonder, Detroit Dark Red
Broccoli - Purple Sprouting
Brussell Sprout - Evesham special

Cabbage - Early Jersey Wakefield, Primo
Carrot - Dragon Purple, Shin Kuroda 5", Scarlet Nantes, Danvers Half Long, Early Nantes 2
Cauliflower - Early Snowball, Sicilian Purple
Celery - Verte Pascal
Chard - Yellow Chard, Lucullus, Rainbow
Chinese Cabbage - Michihhli
Corn - Hopi Blue, Stowell's Evergreen, Purple Popcorn, Golden Bantam, Bloody Butcher, Strawberry Popcorn
Cucumber - Delnevostok, Marketmore, Richmond Green Apple, Lemon, National Pickles

Eggplant(aubergine) - Caspar
Gourd - Luffa/Dishcloth
Herb - Lettuce leaf basil, Dill, Parsley
Leek - Blue de Solaize, American Flag
Lettuce - Merveille des Quatre Saisons, Oak Leaf, Red Romaine, Organic Mesclun Salad, Raddichio Frumolo Biondo, Iceberg, Green Salad Bowl, Little Gem

Melon(round) - Kolchoznitsa, Georgian, Small Persion, Minnesota Midget
Melon(watermelon) - Kolb's Gem, Black Diamond, Golden Midget
Onion - Bianca di Maggio, Rossa Lunga di Firenze, White Lisbon (spring), *Stuttgart Giant sets
Oriental greens - Mizuna, Chinese Pak Choy

Peas(round) - Green Arrow, Alaskan, Thomas Laxton, Laxton's Progress No9, Alderman
Peas (sugar/snap) - Dwarf Grey Sugar Pod, Sugar Snap, Mammoth Melting Sugar, Carouby De Mausanne
Peas (crowder) - Red ripper, Running Conch, Zipper Cream, Mississippi Silver, Black Crowder

Pepper(sweet) - Corno di Toro Giallo
Pepper(chili) - Tabasco, Thai Yellow Chilli, Cayenne Long Thin, Donetsk Ukranian Chile, *Hot Tepin
Pumpkin - Jack O'Lantern

Radish - French Breakfast, Chinese White Winter
Spinach - Bloomsdale

Squash (winter) - Ukranian Heirloom, Spaghetti, Pink Banana, Spaghetti, Turks Cap, Red Warty Thing, *Butternut Sprinter
Squash (summer) - Bennings Green Tint Scallop, Black Beauty Zucchini, Courgette All Green Bush
Swede - American Purple Top

Tomato - Lescana, Vjerino Paradijz Sjeme, Black Krim, Ballada, Black from Tula, Snow White, Red Fig/Pear, Amish Salad, Golden Roma, Thai Pink Egg, Red Cherry, Great White Beefsteak, Rutgers, Balconi Red, Gardener's Delight
Turnip - Purple top White Globe, Shogun

Flowers - *Giant Yellow Sunflower, *Black Beauty Pansy

If you actually made it all the way to the bottom - well done! Go make yourself a cup of ginger tea and relax...

And not a single variety listed here is F1 or hybrid. The majority are heirloom or heritage varieties, hence the fabulous names. :)

(edited to add * packets 24/01/05)

It arrived!

Yippee - my azada arrived today!

It's so cool - and I wish I'd had a camera to record Fred dragging it around the place with a big cheesy grin on her face. Must go down to lottie tomorrow and try it out.

I've also been in touch with an American friend today, and she's buying me some more seeds. :) At Walmart, they've got packets of seed for 97c, which is a little under 50p, and so I've asked her to get me about $20 worth, which should give me a huge variety of stuff that you can't get over here, and I'm going to paypal her for whatever I owe. Like I need more bloody seeds - I've got them coming out of my ears. But it's no good - I'm addicted to buying them. Trouble is, my spare fridge outside is full of seed.

I think I might be putting together some home-ed packages of seed. It's an idea that has just occured to me. I have so many kinds of seed, and there's no way I can hope to plant them all in the next few years. I'm thinking, off the top of my head, that if I put 4 or 5 of each kind of seed, say a pumpkin and a runner bean, some sunflowers and french beans and maybe a courgette, a tomato and a lettuce... put them together in a little envelope and make it into a home-ed style project. And then get the kids to record what they grow, when they plant the seeds, how many germinate, what kind of stuff grows, what they did with the veg, if they ate it or gave it to elderly aunts etc, and get them to grow some seed for following years.

Hmm, now there's a thought... will cross post to other blog and see what the response is. :)

Done it again

Never let me loose on the internet with a credit card - especially when I've got gardening on the brain. It's not good...

See, it's like this - I was looking for more seed websites to post the links of. And got sidetracked mooching around Vida Verde. And then linked over to another page... and ended up here. Get Digging.

And have bought an azada. (Although I prefer the african name of jembe). Well, I've got a bad back, ok? And if I hurt it, how can I chase small people round all day? After all, good tools are important. Right?

Hopefully it should be here in time for the weekend. Then I'm going to go play at the lottie. I've got all that green manure to dig in...

Allotment checkup

Went and had a nose at the allotment today. Poor old lottie is looking a tad neglected. I half-heartedly pulled a few dead corn stalks up, but realised that I needed something a bit more substantial to make a dint in the healthy covering of chickweed that seems to have smothered the beds. Oh well, I can just dig it in as green manure, I suppose.

Also, I've been perusing the seed catalogues. Which is incredibly dangerous, as I really don't need any more seed. I have enough seed in the fridge in the storeroom to last me for years and years and years. But, still, I have to look. Call it window shopping...

Last year I bought the 'medium homestead package' from Baker Creek Seeds in the US. Oh, man... there were so many seeds. So many wonderful, varied, exotic seeds in that packet. All heirloom, rare, or just plain old fashioned varieties, all open-pollinated. I spent hours drooling over packets with names like 'Red Ripper Cow-Pea' and 'Hopi Blue Corn', 'Black From Tula tomato' and 'Red Warty Thing winter squash'. 'Christmas Pole Limas' are so beautiful in themselves they demand to be admired and displayed, let alone eaten - I'm advised that they are divine to eat, when you manage to grow enough in this climate to afford to use some for actually eating.

And that's my problem - they are from the US, so some things just won't grow in the British climate. ::: sigh ::: I'm doing more stuff in my greenhouse this year (now there's another saga - remind me later), so I'm going to put a few vines of Lima beans and the like in a corner.

One day, I'll finish cataloguing my seeds... till then, here are a few of my favourite seed websites. Enjoy. :)

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Tamar Organics

Vida Verde

Will stop there, or I'll have people shouting at me. :D

Thought this might raise a smile

Reserved, quiet, wise and free spirited.

You are a sprite of the Earth: You have a deep connection with the earth and all its creatures, preferring plants and animals to people. You are quiet and reserved. You understand things on a different level and can often see straight through to a persons true intentions.

You are mysterious to everyone, even those in your family. They may live with you but that doesn't mean they 'know' the real you. Being inside the house for long periods of time can be torture, you crave the outdoors and love simply escaping up a tree or into the forest where you can be free. Although you may be smart, you reserve judgement on a person because you fear what they 'may' be going to do. You are wise in things that most overlook and you are very creative in many aspects like art,music, etc... Although try as they may to seek you, you are a free spirit. Just let them try to catch and put you in a cage.


.::=What type of Mythical Sprite are you?=::. -With Anime Pictures and detailed answers-
brought to you by Quizilla

Front garden

I wandered around the garden today, whilst the small ones were napping and was struck by the sheer size of the job in front of me. I love my garden, but it's big. Or should that read, AND it's big. lol. So, I figured start at the front and work my way to the back - if nothing else, at least it would make my little house look halfway presentable.

Out front we've just got a nice square of grass, with a driveway to one side. There's little brick wall that runs along the sidewalk, about 3 bricks high, and a rectangular flower bed butts up against the wall. At least, it's supposed to be a flower bed. Today I removed the thick carpet of weeds, dandelions, dead flower stalks, half rotten geraniums and various other detritus that had accumulated over the winter.

Yes, yes, I know winter hasn't technically finished, but to me, once the days start to get longer at Yule, I begin to think about the coming year. To me, true winter runs from Samhain to Yule (Hallowe'en to winter solstice). Yule to Imbolg (Candlemas, Feb 2nd) is my stirring time. I like to start pottering around the garden on fair days. Poking the ground and thinking about what I'm going to do in the coming year. And come February, I clean up the greenhouse and start planting seeds. :)

But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. So, for today, I contented myself with grubbing about in the front yard. There is another flower bed in front of the large living room picture window, but I'm saving that for another day. I'd found a bag of 50 white daffodil bulbs that we'd picked up at a farm sale in August, and had forgotten about. A fair few of them had started to sprout, so I thought, hey, they're still alive - let's give them a chance. So I've stuffed them in the front bed, along with a hebe and a white hydrangea I discovered lurking in the back garden (another remnant from the farm sale).

By this time, the light had begun to fail. Small people had emerged from nap time some while previous and had spent a good deal of time with noses pressed to the front window, demanding in comic mime to be let out to play. Not a chance.

So here we are...

My gardening blog.

Damn... guess that means I'd better get my backside into gear and do some gardening then.