I think that planning a garden is a little bit like making new year resolutions. One starts out with these grand plans and visions for what the year (garden) could contain. Weight loss, paying off debts (fruits, vegetables) – it’s a new year (season) the opportunities are endless! Well, that is endless until you realize that there isn’t enough time (space) to make all of your plans come true and the truth is that you can’t really alter your life (weed, till, care for) as much as you thought that you could. It’s sort of like that. But every new year you still sit down and make the resolutions because, well, it’s fun!
My garden planning went along this year as normal and my seeds arrived in the mail just a few days ago and I am certain that I have bit off more that I can chew with an infant in tow, but I plan to make the best of it. I mean, if nothing else, I can usually produce a few dozen carrots and a handful of tomatoes. Here is a list of my seeds and plants that my grand garden plans consist of this year:
Jackson wonder bean: A fancy name for a small lima bean. I know, I know lima beans are gross. But I ask you this- have you ever eaten a fresh lima bean? Or one that wasn’t in some veggie mix in the freezer isle? The magazine Organic Gardening did a recent section on dry shelling beans and that was my inspiration to order this seed.
Nelson carrots: These are a basic Nantes variety of carrots. David is a big carrot fan and eats them as fast as I can grow them. I have had excellent results with direct-sown Nantes variety carrots here in the Pacific Northwest.
Raider cucumbers: These are slicing cucumbers that claim to lack bitterness…in truth I have never even gotten a cucumber to sprout here much less produce an actual vegetable, but I, in my stupidity, buy seeds every year anyway. Who knows, this could be the year. These cucumbers have a short number of days to maturity to I am hopeful.
Kolibri kohlrabi: I believe that I have sung of my love of kohlrabi before on this blog. These are a purple variety that I planted last year and they were definitely one of my top producing crops. So crisp and delightful eaten just plain raw and in salads.
Super sugar snap peas: For anyone who has never eaten fresh snap peas let me tell you that you are really really missing out. The ones that you can buy at the store taste like sand compared to fresh snap peas from the garden. Snap peas tend to be a little hit and miss here so I always try.
Pot and patio lettuce blend: Okay, so we get a lot of lettuce from our CSA why in the world am I growing more? For variety, of course. This is a blend of mostly small lettuce plants that I will mix with our Root Connection bounty to make salads with more interest. That is, if the slugs don’t eat them all first. I have never been able to save lettuce seedlings from slugs. But I try.
Gypsy peppers: This was probably my most ridiculous purchase of the year. Peppers don’t grow well here and everyone knows it. But, wait, Territorial said that this pepper grew well in London. If it can grow in London I feel that it out to be able to be grown here. It is not a traditional bell pepper, but rather a small fancy sweet pepper. I sure hope it grows because it sounds delicious!
Seascape strawberries: These I purchased as plants and they will ship mid-March. I used to have a fairly productive strawberry patch in Eastern Washington and have toyed with having one here. My sister-in-law decided to order some plants so I thought, what the heck why not join in. Who doesn’t love fresh strawberries?
Tomatoes- I always purchase tomatoes at the Woodinville Garden Club’s annual plant sale. Last year I bought too many plants. This year I think I am going to stick to one cherry plant and one bigger tomato plant and cage them instead of stake them and see how it goes.
As you can see...way too ambitious. But we shall see how it all goes! I am hoping to sink the first seeds into the ground next month.
*Please note that all seed varieties were purchased through Territorial Seed Company. Different companies have different names for their seeds.