First Seed Catalog! - Seed Savers Exchange

Its here! My first seed catalog of the year! (or, as my wife informed me - "Honey, your garden porn has arrived!")

I love seed catalogs. They help me get through the winter. Seriously. The magnificent pictures, the tantalizing descriptions, the titillating promises! Did I mention my wife says this is garden porn?

I get to dream and plan all winter. I get to overplan every inch of garden. And to get this one first...

I love SSE (Seed Savers Exchange). Its a non-profit with the mission of preserving heirloom seeds and heritage breeds. Of keeping and encouraging the once declining (on the upswing now?) art of saving seed. The variety and quality is unparalleled.

I get 99% of my seed from three sources. I may change that over time, and these are not endorsements, but at they are:

1) Seed Savers Exchange - All of the above. And more, they have great service.

seedsavers.org

2) Freedom Seeds - The Dervaes family, or Path to Freedom fame, has just gotten started in the seed business, but the items I got from them last year were top notch. And the service has been the BEST.

freedomseeds.org

3) Burpee - These are the seeds I remember from my childhood. I think thats why I still order them, its a sense of nostalgia. They have great service, but they are not as environmentally progressive as the others, but I think they will come around with time.

burpee.com

Well, back to the SSE catalog. Its well organized, but really almost organized as a good read, not just a quick tool to order from. I like that. I like the profiles and history and stories inside. Love it!

Some Seed Saving

Trying to work on some of the core gardenening skills and decided to save more seeds of my own this year. The seeds I saved from last year did pretty well. The watermelons in particular came out really tasty, although they were not very prolific. I am not sure that didn't have to do with weather, but.... .

Here we have three saved seeds. Those are Costoluto Genovese tomato seeds at the top, zinnia seeds on the lower left and Charantais melons on the lower right. We will have to wait to see, but I am tempted to drop some seeds in a pot to check viability.

Garden Update, and a Brief Diatribe Regarding Rabbits

Hello, its been too long without photos, so without further ado.... The Garden Update...

Here we have the left two beds. The pumpkins, raddichio, tomatoes, etc are doing fine. The peppers (all 5 or 6 kinds) are not doing so hot. Oscar from freedomgardens.org who lives just north of here is having the exact same problem with his. Also, some of the bok choi went to seed and I was going to cut them, but when I saw the gorgeous little flowers, I decided that I would let them seed and collect some. Hope they breed true!

Below, near to far we have potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes all doing well. Next bed we have turnips, beans, radishes, tomatoes, all doing well and carrots (that bald patch) not doing so well. Furthest bed are melons, ground cherries, onions, shallots and more tomatoes all doing well.

My favorite view.

Lettuce recovering on the right, squash, zuchs, etc on the right.

The raspberries (which I foolishly transplanted in late spring) seem to be taking, but just enough to survive, which if they survive the summer, I am all about it!

The strawberries are doing pretty well, but THE EVIL SUBURBAN RATS ARE EATTING THEM ALL. I thought something (hawk, cat, neighborhood kids?) had gotten the baby bunnies, but, in fact they had only gone to visit and are back. And bigger. And hungrier.

Blackberries a year ahead of schedule. Need I say more?

Grapes. Yummy. Concord grapes. Like I had when I was a kid.

Anyways, thats an update on where its at. Any questions or comments or suggestions appreciated!