2014 Seedlings and Garden Plans

It must have been a March Miracle, but I was only a day behind schedule on getting my seeds started.  On Monday night the Supersweet 100 tomatoes, X3R Red Knight bell peppers, Roma tomatoes,  Red Flame pepper, Red Rocket pepper, Sweet Sunrise peppers, Krimzon Lee peppers, and  Aurora peppers all got planted in the APS seed starting trays.

When the snow melts and the ground thaws, I am planning on sowing the rest of the garden directly in the ground: Sweet Spanish onions, Butter Cream Corn, Farmers Wonderful watermelon,  Triumphe De Farcy beans, sugar snap peas, Cheyenne Bush Squash (pumpkins), Marketmore cucumbers, Northern pickling cucumbers,  Romaine lettuce, Purple Haze carrots,   Sparkle strawberries, Yukon Gold potatoes, Wando Peas, Gold Ball Turnip, Purple Haze carrots, Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach, Chioggia Beets.

I still have to find space for all of this and the blueberry bush collection (includes one 18 month-old plant each of Patriot (Early), Northland (Midseason), and Jersey (Late) and find the time to manage it all.  However, I am optimistic that with Henry’s help and possibly some space in my neighbors garden we should be alright.

I also have been doing some research into developing new gardening habitats.  Instead of investing in cedar raised beds,  I have been learning about hugelkultur  mounds. They seem like an interesting way to create sustainable garden beds.  The concept is simple, dig a trench, fill it with tree stumps and branches, layer soil and organic material on top of that until you have a mound.  Stay tuned to see how they come out.  I anticipate taking the better part of this year to set them up and looking towards 2015 to start planting on/in them.

Shhhh don’t tell my wife

I placed my seed and starts order for the 2014 garden. I still have my hot pepper, cucumber, zucchini,  and carrot seeds from last year.  I also have left over pea and green bean seeds that should still be fruitful. So I did not need to replenish my entire seed stash.

In addition to ordering Yukon Gold potatoes, I added San Marzano and Supersweet 100 tomatoes, X3R Red Knight bell peppers and seedless watermelon ( Farmers Wonderful).

Oh and I also might have added a trio of blueberry bushes and gotten free shipping….but on a fixed income and limited discretionary spending money this would be considered a splurge.

So we’ll just have to wait until April to see what comes in the mail.

Seedlings available

After a delayed start, Howard Farms has started it’s seeds and this year’s seedlings are doing great.  I’ve re-potted the tomatoes and broccoli, and squash already and will work on the rest of the gang later this week.  Anyone in the area that wants or needs some plants…please let me know, we should plenty of extras.

Here’s this list of this year’s garden, most if not all were ordered from Johnny’s: Cherokee Purple tomatoes, Granadero,  tomatoes, Sun Gold tomatoes, Martha Washington tomatoes, Marketmore cucumbers,  Northern pickling cucumbers, Krimzon Lee peppers, Romaine lettuce, Purple Haze carrots, Sweet Sunrise peppers, Leonardis peppers,  Carmen Pepper, Red Flame Pepper, Red Rocket Pepper, Basil, Fortex pole beans, Arcadia Broccoli,  Yukon Gold potatoes, Imperial Star artichokes