2014 Seed Order

My seeds have been ordered! This year's garden will mostly be using old seeds from a couple years back, but I also wanted to supplement in some newer seeds as well. I only ordered new varieties of seed and will attempt to use up all my old seeds this year and then save what I can at the end of the year.

The shopping cart was:

Description	Unit price	Qty	Amount
TIP OFF ROMANESCO CAULIFLOWER	$1.95 USD	1	$1.95 USD
MISTICANZA MESCLUN (30 days)	$1.75 USD	1	$1.75 USD
HOLLOW CROWN PARSNIP	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD
BIG RED PEPPER (75 days)	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD
CUBANELLE PEPPER (65 days)	$1.25 USD	1	$1.25 USD
HABANERO HOT PEPPER	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD
COCOZELLE SUMMER SQUASH (heirloom)	$1.35 USD	1	$1.35 USD
JARRAHDALE SQUASH	$1.35 USD	1	$1.35 USD
TOM WATSON WATERMELON (90 days )	$1.25 USD	1	$1.25 USD
COUSTRALEE TOMATO (heirloom)	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD
OPALKA TOMATO (83 days)	$1.50 USD	1	$1.50 USD

I ordered from Pinetree Garden Seeds located up in Maine. I ordered from them one other year and was very happy with the quality of what they sent. Plus, they have amazingly cool seed envelopes!

Now comes the hard part… waiting for my order to arrive and then waiting to plant things at the appropriate time. I just want it to be July already!

What I'm Growing - Onions, Sprouts and Leeks

Yesterday I started my first seeds of the season. I planted some onions, brussels sprouts and leeks. Though I will say I'm not expecting too much, as I decided to try to use up some of my old seed instead of buying a whole new bunch of seed packets in an attempt to keep the costs of restarting the garden to a reasonable amount. So instead of new seed, I sowed thickly and am keeping my fingers crossed!

Onions - Southport Red Globe

These seeds were supposed to go in my 2012 garden, but I unexpectedly ended up without garden space that year. There is widespread agreement that onion seeds are only good for a year and any that are not used up should be thrown away. However, I say bollocks to that! Mostly because I don't yet need the seedling tray they are currently occupying for anything else. So why not try and see what happens?

Brussels Sprouts - Long Island Improved

Despite using old seeds (again from the 2012 garden that never came to fruition), this is a new plant for me and of course I am already experimenting! Hopefully, these seeds should be fine. Based on my research most sources estimate a viable life of 3-5 years for sprout seeds.

It appears that most people only plant sprouts for a fall harvest. But…. I say why not try for both a spring and fall harvest? I'm not expecting the spring harvest to work, but it will certainly be a nice surprise if it does. Plus, it gives me a practice run at growing sprouts before my "real" go at them this fall.

Leeks - American Flag

This is another new plant in my garden - well, kind of. I started growing these for the 2012 garden, but they were never planted. I'm not quite sure what to expect from these. It looks like opinions tend to vary about the longevity of these seeds. Some places I looked categorized them with the short-lived onion seed, but others gave it a 1-3 year range. I sowed thickly and am hoping that the 3 year range isn't just dreaming!

What has everyone else started so far? Has anyone had any experiences using old leek and onion seeds?

I'm Back!

It has been a couple of years since I last posted here. Mostly because life got busy and in the way of my gardening. I have not had garden space for the past 2 summers due to traveling and then moving to England for 8 months. However, all of that has officially changed!

This past year I graduated from university, got a grown up job and was able to talk my father into letting me rip up part of his lawn to grow some vegetables. Only condition being that he gets to reap some of the rewards!

It has been far too long since I've had a garden and as such I probably should take this season slowly. However, I am way too excited to be cautious! I've got the blueprint sorted for the layout and have gone though all of my old seeds to check what is still viable and which need to be tossed out.

This past week I even made final decisions about what new varieties of veggies I will be growing and will be officially finalizing my seed order shortly.

It may only be February, but I already can't wait for the summer!