Friday, January 16, 2009

Seed Inventory

Before I put in my seed order, I thought I'd better have a look and see what I've got leftover from last year. Here's what I found. (Clockwise from left)
1) French Breakfast Radishes (Scheepers)- these were one of my favorite crops last year. They were sowed early, nice tasting greens when young, and I always leave a few in so I can get some seed pods too. Definitely planting again.

2) Tricolor Bush Beans (Renee's) - these are leftover from some that I planted with my son's class in the school garden. I may plant a few, but as fun as they are to grow, beans just aren't my favorite thing to eat.

3) French Crested Marigolds (Saved) -Part of an experiment. A bunch of these were left in the garden to see if they'd re-seed themselves, too.

4) Echinachea (saved) My first time saving this kind of seed. Will try in my perennial/wild flower patch and hope for the best. May try starting a few indoors.

5) Painted Lady Scarlet Runner Beans (saved from Scheepers) Vigorous! Pretty flowers, but not edible. I'll only plant this if I have extra space. The variegated seeds sure are pretty, though.

6) Morning Glory (Burpee Heirloom) Since I have more vegetable garden space below, I may try some of these on a trellis on my deck.

7) Gooligan pumpkins (Scheepers)- the tiny white ones. Not nearly the yield I'd hoped. I think I got a total of 6 from 5 plants that took up lots of space. May try them at the school in June if extra space is available.

8) Windowbox Basil (Renee's)- I may start this now in a little flower pot inside.

9) Kentucky Wonder Bean (Lake Valley Organics) again, beans are just not my thing, but these shot up really high planted in an earthbox on my deck. Lots and lots of beans from these. I pickled some!

10) Zucchini (Burpee Hybrid) - the location I picked for these last year was too shady, so I'll try them this year in the new beds.

11) Moon Shadow Purple Hyacinth Bean (saved from Scheepers) It took them awhile to appear, but these were some of the prettiest flowers in my garden last year. May combine them on a trellis with Morning Glories.

Now I can start looking at the seed porn (catalogs!)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool list! I've got to get through mine, too, and then try not to order everything I don't already have! Er, what don't you like about beans? When I first moved North, I didn't like the way they were prepared, either--they just tasted too "raw," I guess. Then a friend showed me how to boil them 'til just tender (but yes, tender clear through), drain them, put some butter in the pan with the drained beans and shake it, and now I love beans again! Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds' catalogue says of 'Painted Lady' runner beans, "The large beans are also good as snaps, freshly shelled or as dry beans," FYI. I've never tried them, so if you decide to, you'll have to tell us what you think!

Avid Reader said...

Seed Porn! Haaaa, been there ! Margaret Atwood suggests red runner bean vines to help attract hummingbirds. Beans are great.

Plant your peas when the Forsythia blooms and plant your beans with the lilacs used to be the saying, but with new plants like early blooming lilacs, late blooming forsythia, and global warming... !

ps there are now 4 quickie soup recipes in my comments section.

Joanne said...

Wow, you have a Whole Latte Garden Potential going on here. We grew zucchini last summer, and it was sooo good fresh off the vine, onto the grill, basted with olive oil and sea salt. Oh, you've brought me straight back to August with the memory (sigh).

tina said...

Boy, with all those seeds you already have a headstart on the season.

tut-tut said...

I just received my order from Renee's; I think I'll follow your lead and do a seed/planting post!

JGH said...

OK, Ben I'll try beans again with your recipe. I do like to put a handful in a soup or stew. So the Painted Ladies ARE edible, too! I'll have to try em.

Avid, nothing I've done has ever attracted a hummingbird. Never seen one in my yard. That is one of my goals this year. Thanks for the timimg tips, too.

Joanne - glad you had a good zucchini harvest. I'm determined to do better with mine this year. Grilling would be awesome.

Tina- I'm just hoping these are still good. I gotta get my flats ready now.

Tut, can't wait to hear about your plantings.

Avid Reader said...

I have a lot of hummingbird tips, will tell you later.

Avid Reader said...

If you want more traffic on your blog just change this title to Seedy Porn

JGH said...

Avid, that is too funny! I'm tempted.