Today I looked through the seeds still in sock at the nearest nursery and bought some packs. In previous years the nursery has stocked Burpee’s seeds and sometimes (much to my delight) also Renee’s Garden Seeds (http://www.reneesgarden.com/) and/or Plants of Distinction seeds (http://www.plantsofdistinction.co.uk/). This year, however, they are stocking a seed company I’d never heard of before - Olds Seed. (I was charmed by the sub-heading on the seed pack for the gourd Goblin Eggs, proclaiming that yes, goblins are monotremes.) In looking Olds Seed up on the web just now, I’m further surprised to discover that their specialty is Upper Midwest seeds. I wonder why the nursery picked them (or even knew about them), since we are certainly not Upper Midwest.
Regardless, the flower seeds were pretty well picked over, mostly now consisting of sunflower cultivars and morning glory cultivars. I already have sunflower and morning glory seeds in my box of seed packets, so I didn’t get any more of those. I did, however, get both kinds of Sweet William that they had in stock - the descriptive if dull “dwarf mix” and “tall mix” (which both list the height as 12-14″; I don’t know if one of them is a typo) - as well as Sweet Sultan (Centaurea moschata), which is an old cottage garden annual that’s difficult to find nowadays here in the States and which I was quite surprised to discover on the seed rack. In addition, I got some more vegetables - two more kinds of pea (my favorite, Dwarf Grey Sugar, as well as Mammoth Melting, which I’ve never grown before) as well as a bean (the best performer I’ve grown in this climate, Royalty Purple Pod), a cowpea (more later in the post), a lima bean (Henderson Bush, a “baby lima” that is supposed to mature faster than most limas, thus having a higher chance of actually producing in this climate), a soybean (more later), and two okras (the common Clemson Spineless and the less common Burgundy).
I love okra but most Yankees don’t much like it and it tends to be finicky in our northern clime, so even the farmers’ market doesn’t carry it every year and when they do, usually only one to three weeks all season. It’s been several years since I tried to grow it and never in this garden, so I am curious to see how it does. It is a member of the large mallow family and another member, Cape mallow ‘Elegant Lady,’ did superbly in the front garden this year - despite dire claims that mallows should never be transplanted past seedling stage and that Cape mallow would be felled by a hot summer climate and that mallow taproots in general are too shallow to stand a poor soil, fairly xeriscaped garden - so I am especially curious to see what it will do if planted there. Okra has such gorgeous flowers that when I see it in bloom, I’m always surprised it’s not grown as an ornamental, like some other plants you can eat are (see: nasturtiums).
Cowpeas, another veggie more common in the South, are great plants for city gardens because they can take more shade than most veggies. I’ve even read that they can be planted under loosely branched tree canopies, though I’ve not tried that myself. What I like to do is plant them under taller veggies like pole beans. I’ve got some seeds saved from last year’s cowpea crop (’Papago’). Today I bought a cowpea that’s supposed to do well in the north, which on the label is identified as the cultivar ‘Blackeye Pea’ (which is actually another name for cowpeas; I’m not sure yet if it’s also a cultivar name, or if this is some unnamed cowpea). According to the photo on the seed pack, this cowpea is white or cream with dark coloration around its eye.
The soybean I got is labelled “Vegetable Soybeans, GardenSoy” (yes, no spacing - GardenSoy). According to the sead pack, Richard Bernard of the Unversity of Illinois-Urbana developed GardenSoy for growing in home gardens. I’ve grown soybeans in the past but felt like the yield was so small with the cultivars I tried that it wasn’t really worth taking up the space in my small garden. I want to try this one to see if one that’s specifically developed for home gardens gives more yield per plant than the previous ones I’ve tried, which I’m guessing (with no proof) were developed for small-farm farmers. Like okra, soybeans (specifically edamame) are only sometimes available at the farmers’ market and when they are, it’s usually only for a week or two. This is my favorite fresh edamame recipe: http://www.recipetips.com/recipe-cards/t–2174/edamame-pilaf-rice-with-soybeans.asp It’s so good I can’t even tell you.
While I’m on the subject of seeds, I’d like to tell you about something that it seems too few people know about. Monticello, the historic estate of Thomas Jefferson, has a Center for Historic Plants (http://monticello.org/chp/index.html) that has information on various heirloom plants (with the largest focus on irises, dianthus, and roses) and publishes a newsletter that has some articles online, and the Center also sells plants, seeds (including vegetable seeds), and other things for gardens at Monticello’s online shop (http://monticellostore.stores.yahoo.net/plants—seeds.html).
