Seedlings and flowers and books 24 March 2009

I didn’t count it all up yesterday:  The ground cherries have finally sprouted, as I said; so far one ‘Horning’s Farm’ has sprouted, and several ‘Cossack Pineapple.’  The alpine strawberries, ‘Red Wonder’ and ‘Yellow Wonder,’ have also finally sprouted, with ‘Yellow Wonder’ having higher germination so far.  (Unfortunately I didn’t read about cold stratification improving alpine strawberry germination until after I’d already sowed them.)  By now, every chile/sweet pepper finally has at least one sprout as well.   There are still no sprouts of either type of tomatillo ‘Purple,’ though, nor of the three okra cultivars that hadn’t sprouted yet last time I mentioned them.  It is still frigid and windy out, so not surprisingly, I haven’t seen any new sprouts in the garden.  The kohlrabi are starting to develop true leaves finally, and I think it’s time to thin them.  I wouldn’t have even thought of eating them if I hadn’t read recently in a catalog that they are now being offered in some so-called “microgreen” mixes.  (I’m still not completely clear on how “microgreens” are all that different than sprouts, but who can tell with fancy restaurant trends.)  But now that I’ve got the idea, I think I will use them to top a salad, or maybe as greens in a sandwich or a garnish for a noodle dish.

Yesterday and today were/are ‘flower days’ in bidynamic gardening parlance – the best days for sowing flowers (especially) and also doing other flower-related activities – so today I am planning to sow the flowers that need to be started the earliest indoors.  There are a few that I actually should’ve already started, but hadn’t sorted the flower seeds thoroughly enough to remember.  So hopefuly starting late will be OK.  Those are the two mixes of bloodflower/scarlet milkweed/whatever you want to call it – the main tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, which has naturalized in much of the Southern US.  (More information on it here.)  My nursery does sometimes carry them, but man, is it expensive here, so I figured that it would be cheaper to try growing it myself, plus I’d get more variety (as my nursery typically only sells one variety of it, and not many plants at that).  So I have two mixes, a straight-up mix from Monticello and a named cultivar mix (‘Silky’) from Select Seeds.  I also should have already started the petunias and salpiglossis I got from Turtle Tree.  Also on my seed-starting agenda:  Rudbeckias (several species & cultivars from various sources – some annual, some short-lived perennials), snapdragons (1 mix from Turtle Tree), 1 mix of perennial pinks as mine have started to decline as pinks unfortunately do, cleome (1 standard garden mix from Select Seeds and a species I haven’t grown before from Victory Seeds, the one that Lewis and Clark found according to their description), 2 annual phlox mixes, 1 didascus (annual), 2 Tithonias (the common “Torch” and 1 that appears to be the straight species), 1 echinacea ‘White Swan,’ and 1 mix of annual daisies.  I picked up a packet of ‘White Swan’ because I noticed as I was cleaning up the front garden that the birds had nearly picked the white echinacea seedheads clean (it’s the one that was just labelled “white echinacea” at a plant sale two years ago and so I don’t know more about it than that) while leaving a decent portion of the seeds of the standard purple echinacea, so I thought I’d try to grow out more of the white ones, and starting them early inside is supposed to make them more likely to bloom their first year.  I’m also hoping to start some stuff inside that hasn’t produced the greatest germination results outdoors (perhaps due to squirrel & bird eating), in particular sunflowers and Four O’Clocks (that’s also why I’m starting the Tithonias inside), but they grow so fast I’m going to wait till closer to last frost to do that.  (That should also help with space because some of the hardier stuff should have been moved outside by then.)  The okra are growing so fast in my warm and bright kitchen that I think I started them too early, so I don’t want to repeat my mistake. Usually I set up a seed-starting station on the porch, but the porch is open to the air and recent weeks have taught me that on a cold, windy day such as this, I’m likely to freeze as the wind whips the top layer of soilless mix off the trays and tips over the little pots.  Consequently, this time I think I’ll spread some old newspaper out on the floor and just do it inside.

My package of books containing my replacement copy of Four-Season Harvest came this morning, which makes me happy.  That book does indeed have information on hoop houses (he calls them “high tunnels,” the most common alternate name for them), which I hadn’t even remembered – probably because the shape of my old garden made fitting a hoop house impractical – so I am looking forward to reading his take on them.  In the same box I also got a replacement copy of my favorite rose culture book, Growing Roses Organically (inexplicably renamed in the paperback version to the much more generic Growing Beautiful Roses), as well as copies of The Mother Earth News Handbook of Homemade Power and a book I read about on a website by a homesteading woman, called Country Women: A Handbook for the New Farmer by Jeanne Tetrault-Sherry Thomas.  The former was priced at $1.95 in its mass-market paperback state back in 1974, and the latter larger book was priced at $6.95 in 1976.  I wonder if they had any idea back then that their books would sell for triple the original price as used copies over thirty years later.   The worn edges to the cover of the former, and the coffee stain faintly visible at the top of the cover of the latter, speak to their well-used status in their old homes.

More legumes in the ground 20 March 2009

I placed my order with Kitazawa Seed Co., a company I’d never used before (though it got good recommendations on the Garden Watchdog site), on the 17th.  I was stunned today to find a box sitting on my porch waiting for me!  The whole way from California!  So I already got to put fava/broad bean ‘Nintoku Giant’ in the ground, as well as the two peas I ordered from them, ‘Dwarf Grey Sugar’ and ‘Taichung 13.’  ‘Nintoku Giant’ only had seven (appropriately gigantic) seeds in the packet (seriously, they were by far the biggest fava seeds I’ve ever seen), so I only planted three of them, in case disaster strikes as per my recent comment about my low-seed-count pea as well. My pea cultivar experiment some years ago in my old garden showed heirloom ‘Dwarf Grey Sugar’ to be the most frost- and snow-tolerant/resistant of all the cultivars I grew that year (literally growing up through a late snowfall), so I planted more of those than I’d planted of any other pea.  ‘Dwarf Grey Sugar’ has also become a popular variety for shoot harvesting, so I figured I can always harvest them if I have 100% germination anyhow.  Yum, pea shoots.

I’d also become attached to the idea of growing out an eggplant despite Amishland Seeds being out of the one I’d ordered, so I ordered seeds for one from them, Japanese eggplant ‘Kamo’:  A highly prized traditional “kyo yasai” or Kyoto vegetable, from the Kamo area of Japan. It has been a delicacy in the region of Japan for many hundreds of years. A Kamo eggplant is unique. It is fat and round with a flat bottom. It has lustrous purple-black skin and purple calyx. The fruit is about 4″ in diameter, and weighs up to 1/2 pound. This is the choice eggplant served at top restaurants in Japan. Its tight pulp has a rich flavor. Particularly delicious when coated and baked or fried with miso and tofu.

I may be one of the few white Americans that generally prefers Asian eggplant cultivars to European ones, and I would be fine with that.  A couple of the farms at the market sell the long and typically somewhat curved type of Asian eggplant on and off from July to early autumn, but I’ve never seen one like ‘Kamo’ here, not even in Chinatown (though, in fairness, I don’t actually go there very often).  So in keeping with my general focus in this small garden on growing things that are difficult or impossible to find here or are only available for 1-3 weeks out of the year, I thought I’d try it.

There are more basils, fennel, and tomatoes up.  The last time I checked on the chiles (this morning) there weere still five ‘Cochiti’ and no other chiles at all.

Seedling update 15 March 2009

I was right that a second okra ‘Dwarf Green Pod’ was sprouting, and it definitely appears that a third one is as well.  This morning two okra ‘Burgundy’ also appear to be sprouting, the first non-‘Dwarf Green Pod’ to do so.  None of the other three cultivars show signs of it yet, though. There are more seedlings of scallion ‘Evergreen Hardy Bunching’ and sweet Annie, but scallion ‘Ishikura’ appears static, and the other seeds have yet to show any sprouts.

Today is supposed to be 50 F to 59 F depending on what forecast you believe.  I am planning to sow more flower seeds – finish up the “earliest” ones (more poppies to go) and sow a portion of each of the “fairly early” ones – calendulas, sweet peas, and various other smaller-number ones. It is beautiful out, brilliantly sunny with a perfectly clear blue sky, though it is still somewhat cool.

More seed descriptions, pasted from the sources:

Okra

• Dwarf Green Long Pod 52 days – The pods are fleshy, ribbed and dark green developing to seven to eight inches long and one inch wide. Plants grow twenty four to thirty inches high.  Pods can be used boiled, fried, in soups or frozen. (Victory Seeds)
  
• Burgundy 49 days. [Introduced 1988. AAS winner.] Stems, leaf veins, and pods are deep red-maroon in color. Plants average 4′ high, bearing narrow 5/8 ” spineless pods that remain tender nearly to their mature length of 7-1/2 “. Other red okras bear longer and handle disease better but ‘Burgundy’ is earlier, attractive, and of fine quality.(Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)
  
• Choppee [Dates from 1850, from the Jacobs family of Georgetown, South Carolina. Named for the Choppee Indians native to the area.] High-yielding, semi-dwarf (3.5′ tall) variety. Tender okra, great flavor, almost as spineless as “Clemson Spineless.”  Seed savers note: unlike most other okras, the dried pods for this one don’t shatter easily! (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)
  
• Pitre’s Short Bush Red Cowhorn Exciting dwarf red cowhorn okra! This variety was given to our friend, Kurt Bridges, about 18 years ago by one of his patients, who has been growing this unique okra for many years. It is believed that this okra may have been brought to Louisiana by African slaves, and then grown for generations in St. Landry parish. The plants average about 3’ tall and spread some, and produce many giant 12” fluted red pods that have some green on the part of the pod that does not receive much sunshine.  (Baker Creek)
• Vidrine’s Midget Cowhorn A dwarf cowhorn okra from St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. The 3’ plants are quite good producers of long “white” pods up to 15” long, which are actually a creamy, pale green. A fine okra for frying and gumbo. This old variety is from Mr. Vidrine, Lawtelle, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, and is very popular there. Sent to us by Louisiana seed collector Kurt Bridges.  (Baker Creek)

Scallions

• Ishikura 65-75 days. Outstanding long-day Japanese bunching onion with a long thick, white single shaft. Tall plants. Winter hardy. (Turtle Tree)
• Evergreen Hardy Bunching 60-120 days. HEIRLOOM from Japan circa 1880. A good scallion for early transplants, or direct seed for fall harvest. This hardy perennial overwintered for us through -40 degree Minnesota winter to produce clusters of extra early spring scallions. (Turtle Tree)

Tomatillos

• Purple (Physalis subglabrata) 68 days Beautiful purple fruit, large size. Many are a bright violet color throughout their flesh. Much sweeter than the green types, it can be eaten right off the plant. Turns purple when ripe, rare! (Baker Creek)
• Purple (Physalis ixocarpa) 70 days – Identical to ‘Toma Verde’ in plant structure except that the plants and leaves have purplish veins.  The obvious difference is that the fruits ripen to dark purple.  Can be used interchangeably in recipes with the green variety. (Victory Seed)
  
• Toma Verde Easy to grow, tomatillos look like large green cherry tomatoes, each wrapped in a thin papery husk like a candy.  Green-skinned Toma Verde is imported from Mexico, with crispy fruits on strong vines.  (Renee’s Garden Seeds)
• Purple Coban A flavorful tomatillo that is 1” in size, being green with varying degrees of purple on many fruit. Very popular in Guatemalan cuisine; we collected this heirloom at Coban, Guatemala, a beautiful mountain town.  (Baker Creek)
• Zuni The small sweet fruit have been semi-cultivated by the Zuni of northern New Mexico for more than a century. Can be roasted in an oven, blended with garlic, onion, chile and cilantro as a hot sauce. (Native Seeds/SEARCH)

Ground cherries

• Cossak Pineapple (Physalis pruinosa) 60 to 80 days – This is an Eastern European cousin of the Mexican tomatillo.  The plants reach about 12 inches in height and spread into a bush of about 24 inches in diameter.  Loaded with small (about 1/2 inch in diameter) fruit, in husks, that have a pineapple flavor and are good in pies or for jams. (Victory Seed)
• Horning’s Farm (Amishland Seeds)  aka (in Pennsylvania dialect: “JUDDEKAERSHE” – WINTER CHERRY, HUSK CHERRY, STRAWBERRY TOMATO – To the best of my knowledge, I am the only person who has grown out seeds of this local heirloom ground cherry and am offering it for sale. I live amongst a number of Mennonite and Amish farms here in Amishland in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.These cute little fruits are related to both tomatoes and to the “Chinese Lanterns” (they are in the physalis family so that is why they look a lot like little tomatillos). This local heirloom comes from a field on Mr. Horning’s dairy farm. In among this huge field filled with swan and birdhouse gourds, grew a very different looking ground cherry from any I have seen around here. They oftentimes grow wild on the edges of fields. This variety was more of an orange color on the actual fruit, and had an extra sweet fruity taste. I asked Mr. Horning ( who is Mennonite) permission to pick them and he laughed and said ” take em all ! We can’t possibly eat all of them.” The locals make fine preserves and pies in falltime when the fruits ripen and fall to the ground, hence the name. When I asked if he knew anything more about their history or where they came from, he laughed again and said: ” they always have grown here, and I am the 4th generation in my family to farm this land.” So, if you are looking for something rare, unusual,and very easy to grow and eat, this is it. Ground cherries are typically grown like tomatoes, although they grow so easily you can just throw the fruit or seeds on the ground and they will come up like gangbusters! They self seed readily so choose a spot where you wish to continue growing this plant. It tends to sprawl and crawl in the wild but can be staked a bit to “behave” better.
  Since the seeds dry up very hard in their husks, I will send you ONE entire husk and you just throw it on the ground or soak it to help remove the teeny tiny seeds. 1 Pack is One entire dried fruit.

Sweet Annie/Sweet Wormwood (Artemisia annua): [A/70 deg. F/LtDk/ds/sun/72 in./Self sows readily.] Grown mostly for its sweetly scented foliage, its ornamental value, its use in wreath-making, and for use in pressed leaf and flower arrangements. Seed is difficult to clean and contains some light chaff. Medicinal: Sweet Annie is currently being investigated for its medicinal value as an antihelminthic, and for the treatment of chloroquine-resistant malaria. (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)

I’ll list the chiles/peppers and tomatoes (full-sized and cherry size) in another entry.

Seeds and seedlings 14 March 2009

This morning, I sowed most of the radishes and carrots (I decided it wasn’t worth risking the rare mixes on an experiment, so I am saving them to sow in a pot) and before heading out I did some thinking about the earliest greens.  I decided that since the ground is in a freeze-thaw cycle at this point, maybe it was worth experimenting with sowing some on ‘root days’ and some on ‘leaf days’ and then hoeing the ground (to give them a boost) and seeing if sowing on ‘root days’ provides good root development that helps them survive the freeze-thaw cycles.  So in addition to the radishes and carrots, I sowed a heap of greens – kale, chard, cress, purslane, mache/corn salad, mustard, turnip greens, and a couple of Asian greens I haven’t grown before (one is called “spinach mustard” but I don’t know if it’s really a mustard or just similar).  An arugula accidentally made its way into the pile, and I weeded it out of the stack.  It was only after I’d come inside and warmed up a tad that I realized it might have been an interesting experiment to see just how cold-hardy arugula really is.  One of the neighbors across the street came out onto his balcony (he was cold enough that he went back inside for a jacket) and looked around for a bit, and I saw him do a double-take when he realized someone was actually outside working, which I thought was quite funny.  I’m used to things like that; some years I’ve planted bulbs on days when the ground isn’t frozen but it’s cold enough to warrant a winter coat.  I like being outside when there aren’t many other people out, for whatever reason.  It makes it slightly easier to momentarily forget I live in a very urban area.  Plus, I just like the (comparable) quiet.

When I came back inside, I checked the seedlings for water needs and to see if anything new has sprouted.  There are more kohlrabis up (they have an extremely high germination rate this year!), and the lone okra seedling looks to have doubled in size just since I took that bad photo yesterday.  I checked the ground cherries, alpine strawberries, tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers/chiles, and other okras, but nothing looked to have sprouted yet.  On first glance it looked like none of the CowPot herbs had sprouted yet either, but upon a second look, I realized that the scallions were up!  There are several seedlings of ‘Evergreen Hardy Bunching’ and a smaller number of ‘Ishikura.’  A third look at the pots revealed that there were two seedlings of sweet Annie, two of the tiniest seedlings I’ve ever seen, each only about a centimeter tall so far, if even that.

This afternoon had passed on to ‘flower days’ and I sowed the flower seeds that need to be sowed earliest of all – the poppies (European and Californian), love-in-a-mist and other Nigella species, tassel flower (Emilia), clarkia…  I actually sowed half the clarkia and about half the poppies, the clarkia because I want to sow some more in a bit to stagger bloom and the poppies because I have so many of them and, frankly, I was tired and cold out there in the shade and stronger wind (this morning the garden had been sunny with a much softer breeze; by midsummer at least a portion of the front garden will quite literally be in sunlight the entire day, but the sun is not so generous at this time of year).  Plus, sowing poppies – especially Papaver rheos – in a stiff wind is really rather a pain.  The tiny (really, really tiny) seeds fly out of one’s hand at the slightest provocation.  I also sowed one of my two packs of bishop’s flower (Ammi majus) and one packet of annual candytuft (Iberis).  I am planning to sow more flowers tomorrow.

Checking on the seeds a short time ago, it looked like one more okra seed was pretty definitely sprouting and a third might be starting to.  They’re all ‘Dwarf Green Pod’ (including the one that sprouted yesterday).  I sowed six seeds of each of the five okra cultivars, so if there really are two more sprouting, that means that ‘Dwarf Green Pod’ has already had a 50% germination rate before any of the others have sprouted anything at all.  There are also more teeny tiny sweet Annie sprouts in their little pot.  I tried to take pictures of the seedlings, but none of them turned out.  Instead I just have a couple photos of the kohlrabi seedlings to share, taken yesterday.

Kohlrabi seedlings: The purplish-bulbed kohlrabis sprout with purplish stems (and sometimes purplish-tinged leaves), as can be seen here.

Kohlrabi seedlings

Somehow I forgot to include two of the peas yesterday.  I am adding them to that post, but posting them here too for anyone who already read the other post and thus might miss the edit:

SNOW PEA Corne De Belier A delicious French snow pea that pre-dates 1860! Wonderful, gourmet flavored, large, flat pods are perfect for steaming, sauteing and nibbling on fresh from the patch. A historic variety that is finally available in America. Creamy-white blooms. (Baker Creek)

SNOW PEA De Grace A lovely dwarf variety that was grown in America before 1836, and likely much longer ago in Europe. This variety has been extinct to the North American seed trade for more than 20 years, so we are happy to bring back this great pea. The pods are medium sized and sweetly flavored, crisp and tender. The vines produce over a long season and are more frost hardy than many modern varieties. (Baker Creek)

Spring and peas 13 March 2009

Look what I spied on my way home today!

Crocus blooming in nearby garden (with crocus bud behind it)

Crocus blooms in nearby garden

It’s been a long, hard, snow- and ice-filled winter, because it’s already March 13th and these are the very first crocus blooms I’ve seen this year, though I did also see some hellebores blooming downtown today, right there on a strip by a major road (so much for their reputation as needing coddling).   I’d guess they are Golden Bunch crocuses, but I don’t know.

And then look what was waiting for me inside!  I readily admit that this is possibly the worst picture ever (amazing that it was the best of several, isn’t it?), but if you look in the top row’s center seed tray square, way on the left-hand side of it there is a curled white sprout with the seed still attached!  An okra sprout!!  And I didn’t even pre-soak the seeds like is often recommended!

Okra 'Dwarf Green Pod' sprouting

I really hope that starting the okra indoors early works better than the abysmal failure that was starting them directly outdoors last year.  If they make it to transplanting size, I am planning to transplant them into coir or cow pots.

I organized my “to sow outside soon” seeds into further categories yesterday:

• Garden peas (mix of shelling, snow, and snap/sugar)
• Other legumes (almost all fava/broad beans, plus the bean ‘Yellow Arikara’ and the garbanzo ‘Kabouli Black,’ which is in this pile because it is purply-black and thus can sprout in cooler weather than average just like purple garden bean seeds, which I should actually really add to this pile but haven’t yet)
• Lettuces
• Brassica greens
• Other single-cultivar/species packs of greens
• Mixes of greens
• Root veges (carrots and radishes)
• Sweet peas
• Other flowers (about half calendulas)

I think I’m going to sow all the greens mixes in pots as I get enough weeds blowing in on the wind in my uber-windy front garden that I’d be concerned I might accidentally eat a weed otherwise or, alternately, accidentally assume a plant in the mix was a weed and pull it.  I only have a few mixes anyway so it shouldn’t be hard to fit.

I forget sometimes how much I love sweet peas, and then I do things like look at the stack of their seed packs vs. everything else (though, granted, their large seeds makes their stack look even more impressive), and remember all over again.  As I was looking at the stack yesterday, I got a very silly knock-off of a song stuck in my head:  “You might as well face it, you’re addicted to sweet peas.  Might as well face it, you’re addicted to sweet peas!”

I also realized yesterday that while I have more garden peas than in recent years, I have many fewer peas than my typical bean planting, so it’s really not as ridiculous as I’d said recently.  Here are the peas I’ve got, with the descriptions from the company where I got them (pasted):

SUGAR PEA Mammoth Melting Sugar 70 days. Wilt resistant vines grow to 5 ft. High yielding peas have a sweet flavor. A 35 foot row can yield as much as a bushell. The creamy white seeded pods have an excellent flavor that hold their quality even when picked a little bit late.  (Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)

SUGAR PEA Sugar Lode 65 days. Tremendous yields from a 3 ft. high plant. Pods sweeten slowly and develop a good pea flavor that becomes sugary when they are full. Plants hold up well in heat.  (Turtle Tree)

SNOW PEA Golden Sweet More than a novelty, this variety produces flat pods that are a beautiful, bright lemon-yellow, great in stir-fries. Tall 6′ vines with purple flowers. Collected from a market in India, rare and tasty. (Baker Creek)

SNOW PEA Russian Sugar Vigorous 6’ vines produce delicious green snow peas that are perfect for salads and stir-fries. Vines also produce beautiful mauve and purple flowers. This is a rare Russian Mennonite heirloom that was brought to Saskatchewan, Canada, and grown there. (Baker Creek)

SNOW PEA Corne De Belier A delicious French snow pea that pre-dates 1860! Wonderful, gourmet flavored, large, flat pods are perfect for steaming, sauteing and nibbling on fresh from the patch. A historic variety that is finally available in America. Creamy-white blooms. (Baker Creek)

SNOW PEA De Grace A lovely dwarf variety that was grown in America before 1836, and likely much longer ago in Europe. This variety has been extinct to the North American seed trade for more than 20 years, so we are happy to bring back this great pea. The pods are medium sized and sweetly flavored, crisp and tender. The vines produce over a long season and are more frost hardy than many modern varieties. (Baker Creek)

SNOW PEA Schweizer Riesen (Swiss Giant) 70 days. An old Swiss HEIRLOOM. Vigorous, attractive purple-flowered plants bear large, tender, tasty snow peas. People sometimes mistake the showy flowers for sweet peas. 5-6 ft. vines need trellising. (Turtle Tree)

GARDEN PEA Blue Podded A beautiful and ornamental pea that produces lovely purple-blue pods that can be harvested young and used as a snow-pea, or let mature and shell for fine soup peas. This unique variety dates back hundreds of years in Europe, and is still popular in parts of Europe and Canada. It also produces lovely purple flowers! Fun to grow and good to eat, the perfect crop for kids and those who like color. (Baker Creek)

GARDEN PEA Tall Telephone Long vines reach up to 6 feet with support, and large pods yield 8-10 peas each. The peas are large in size, being sweet and tender. This popular garden favorite was introduced in 1881 and is still a standard with many.  (Baker Creek)

GARDEN PEA Thomas Laxton (75 days) Bred as a cross between ‘Gradus’ and ‘Alaska’ by Thomas Laxton and released in 1898.  Does well in maritime conditions and it is wilt resistant.  Peas are bright green, excellent quality, and high in sugar content.  Pods grow to about 3½ inches filling with six to eight peas. (Victory Seeds)

GARDEN PEA New Mexico A typical smooth-skinned, beige Spanish soup pea. Grown throughout New Mexico. (Native Seeds/SEARCH)

GARDEN PEA Capucijners Blue Pod Heirloom AKA Pois a Crosse Violette These large ancient heirloom peas are a total delight to grow. They are originally from Holland and were grown by the Capuchin Monks. They are a beautiful , delightful, truly deep purple-podded pea. They are absolutely delicious served in traditional Dutch manner, fresh or dried, soaked overnight, and then pan-fried with bacon and onions. They are considered a soup pea and are best served in their own rich, dark, sweet “gravy” or in soup. Also the eye catching pods may be eaten when quite young as snowpeas. Vines reach to 5-6 ft. and look lovely climbing across a fence or up a trellis. Another example of edible landscaping! But the really fantastic part is that they bear exquisite, sweet-pea-like blooms in a two-tone mauve and purple color. These are every bit as lovely as the traditional cottage garden sweet pea flower and they smell sweet as well.   (Amishland Seeds)

Seedlings to be 11 March 2009

I double-checked the Stella Natura calendar yesterday (I can’t imagine how much difficulty I’d have keeping track of biodynamics without it) and it’s a good thing because I abruptly realized that yesterday was the last Fruit Day (in biodynamic parlance) in a while, so I spent some more time sowing the rest of the ‘fruit seeds’ that need to be started indoors.  That took a while!  I started three more trays of seeds, though these seed trays have bigger holes, so there are fewer seedlings per tray than in the tray I’d already started.  I put in all the tomatoes (both full-sized and cherry tomatoes), tomatillos, and chiles/sweet peppers.  Then today I took some pictures of my set-up.

Here is the main part, which is currently balanced on top of my ancient stove fan with a grow light clipped to the pot that’s on top of the fridge.  These are the trays of full-sized tomatoes (1 tray), cherry tomatoes and tomatillos (another tray), and chiles and sweet peppers (third tray).

Seedlings to be! - My seedling tray set-up.

And here is the sea of plant tags (these are the nice big ones from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange):

Awash in a sea of plant tags

And here is the grow light; I highly recommend this kind, AgroSun Clamp-On, which I purchased from my garden nursery (here is a random link to more info; I haven’t personally used the company at the link):

Grow light

And here is the other part of the set-up so far.  Here is the tray containing the kohlrabi, the okra, the alpine strawberries, and the ground cherries, as well as CowPots containing herbs and sweet Annie (plus the cactus garden and the back yard):

More of the seed-starting set-up

The second grow light is clipped to the freezer handle.  Welcome to apartment life!

More plant tags

More of the seed set-up (the seeds in CowPots)

One of my best investments for indoor seed-starting, this is a little sprayer with two strengths in nozzle (light and heavier):

Seedling sprayer

I know it looks like a grenade.  However, the plastic-y material is very flexible, and you fill it with water, reattach the nozzle, and then squeeze the “grenade” to produce a rain-like water flow.  I got mine through the mail-order company Lee Valley.

The view out the back kitchen window on this grey, rainy day:

View of a rainy day: Back yard (with top of composter) and neighbors' trees.

And just to be goofy, here’s the circle-drawing thing and architect’s scale that I’ve been using for my landscaping class:

Gadgets for landscaping class

Here are the seeds I started yesterday after posting here:

• Full-sized tomatoes ‘Jaune Peche,’ ‘Transparent Heirloom Yellow,’ ‘Manyel,’ ‘Hartmans Yellow Gooseberry,’ and ‘Purple Dog Creek’ (all from Amishland Seeds); ‘Paul Robeson’ (from Baker Creek); ‘Myona’ (from Turtle Tree); and ‘Graham’s Good Keeper’ (free from Bountiful Gardens)
• Cherry tomatoes ‘Aunt Ruby’s German Cherry’ (free from Baker Creek; apparently it is a tiny-fruiting selection of the full-sized tomato ‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green’); ‘Matt’s Wild’ (two times over – I ordered it from Turtle Tree and Amishland Seeds sent it for free); and ‘Chadwick’s Cherry’ and ‘Black’ (both from Turtle Tree)
• Tomatillos ‘Purple’ (one from Baker Creek, one from Victory Seeds; I ordered two hoping to get some variety from them since it seems to just be a generic cultivar name for any unknown purple tomatillo), ‘Toma Verde’ (from Renee’s Garden Seeds), ‘Purple Coban’ (from Baker Creek), and ‘Zuni’ (from Native Seeds/SEARCH)
• Chiles ‘Chimayo,’ ‘Cochiti,’ and (primarily ornamental, though edible) ‘Ordo~o’ (sorry, this interface appears incapable of reproducing a tilde), all from Native Seeds/SEARCH; and ‘Royal Black’ from Amishland Seeds
• Sweet peppers ‘Amish Pimiento’ and ‘Tennessee Cheese’ (both from Amishland Seeds); and ‘Coban Red Pimiento’ (from Baker Creek; both this and tomatillo ‘Coban Purple’ were collected in Guatemala, according to their catalog)

Today and the next couple days are Root Days in biodynamics.  I really need to plant the onion set from Native Seeds/SEARCH today (I rather sheepishly forgot about it, though thankfully it looks OK so far), and am thinking I’ll start it in CowPots.  I’d like to also start some small radishes and carrots in a pot inside that I can move outside if the weather settles a bit, but I don’t know if I’ll do that today.  I suppose it partly depends on whether any of the bags of soil that have been stored outside over the winter have un-frozen.  For the seeds, I’ve been using soilless seedling mix from Gardens Alive (which, by the way, I am very disappointed in this year; I left an opened bag tied up for a couple days and when I opened it yesterday, there was a transparent [from lack of sunlight] seedling growing inside!  I understand and expect that my home composting system won’t get hot enough to kill off all the seeds, but I expect better from commercial composting facilities.  So if anyone has a recommendation for another animal-product-free, peat-free soilless seedling mix, I’d love to hear about it!), but I want to use actual soil for the radishes and carrots, since I won’t be transplanting them.

Geese have been flying right over the house a lot in the last few weeks, and as I was writing this post, they did again.  It has been so humid so often that they have been flying very low-down most days; today they were so low it’s a wonder they didn’t hit the roof.  I am guessing from statistical likelihood that they’re Canada geese, but they keep flying by too fast for me to get a good enough look to be sure.

The seed extravaganza continues! 10 March 2009

Today I’ve written out labels for the ‘fruit’ seeds (in biodynamic nomenclature) that I am starting indoors and sowed about a third of them – the ground cherries, okras, and alpine strawberries.  I’ve still got the tomatillos, tomatoes, and chiles to go.  (When I opened up the packet labelled eggplant, I found a check refunding me the amount of the seeds instead of the seeds themselves.)  Here’s what I sowed today:

• Ground cherries ‘Cossak Pineapple’ (from Victory Seed) and ‘Horning’s Farm’ (from Amishland Seeds, from a farm in Pennsylvania Dutch country)
• Alpine strawberries ‘Red Wonder’ and ‘Yellow Wonder’ (from Baker Creek)
• Okras ‘Choppee’ and ‘Burgundy,’ (from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange); ‘Pitre’s Short Bush Red Cowhorn’ and ‘Vindrine’s Midget Cowhorn’ (from Baker Creek; both from Louisiana, according to the catalog); and ‘Dwarf Green Long Pod’ (from Victory Seed)

Somehow I ended up with a bulk size packet of one of the tomatillos.  I checked my receipt and it does indeed list the bulk size, so I guess I must have clicked on the wrong size on the website when I placed my order.  I can’t see myself ever using the full amount in the time they’ll still be viable, so I suppose I’ll divvy up the extras amongst friends and acquaintances who want them.  I’ve ended up with more tomatillo seeds than I’d realized!  I’ve got ‘Purple,’ ‘Purple Coban,’ ‘Zuni,’ Toma Verde,’ and another I’m currently forgetting.  I will talk more about them when I sow them, which will hopefully be within the next day.

And now I must end and go finish my classwork for landscaping class.

Seeds!! 8 March 2009

I finally started indoor seeds today!  Doing it biodynamically is a whole other ballpark from my recent years of seeding in, because of the way you start certain things on certain days and times and do certain tasks at certain times and so on.  So, this morning and early afternoon were considered part of a Leaf Day, in biodynamic parlance, and so I started the kohlrabis (which biodynamics considers leaf plants) and the leaf herbs – bronze fennel, basil, scallions (which I really should have started way back before I even got the package that contained their seeds, as they should be getting planted out shortly), and sweet Annie.  After a “no seeding” spell this afternoon, this evening is a Fruit Day, but Fruit Days continue tomorrow and beyond, so I’m going to start the majority of my indoor seedlings tomorrow.  Chiles, tomatoes, and strawberries are all considered fruit plants, and though the book I’m currently reading on biodynamics doesn’t mention tomatillos or ground cherries or eggplant or okra, I’m comfortably self-categorizing them as fruits (I also did self-categorizing with the leaf herbs). I started four basils, ‘Red Leafed’ from Turtle Tree, ‘Eritrean’ from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and two from Native Seeds/SEARCH – ‘Mrs. Burns’ Famous Lemon’ and ‘Mayo/Yeome.’  I started two kinds of scallions, the very common and generically titled ‘Evergreen Hardy Bunching,’ and the more unusual ‘Ishikura,’ both from Turtle Tree.  I thought for a while about whether to categorize scallions as onions (and thus, root plants) or herbs and ended up deciding that since I primarily use their leaves, I’ll try seeding them as leaf plants and see how they do.  The bronze fennel is from Renee’s Garden Seeds, and I can’t recall offhand where the sweet Annie is from.

Turtle Tree Seed (a new company for me this year) has more varieties of kohlrabi than I’d ever seen in an American catalog, and I rather sheepishly admit that I went a bit kohlrabi crazy.  In addition to growing the fairly common ‘Early Purple Vienna’ (which I got elsewhere), I’m growing Turtle Tree’s ‘Superschmelz,’ ‘Azure Star,’ ‘Logo,’ and ‘Lanro,’ which, yes, is their entire kohlrabi selection.  What can I say; I’ve never seen a kohlrabi for sale here – not at a farmers’ market, not at a store – so if I want kohlrabis, I have to grow them myself.  I’ve missed their delicious brassica-ness, and hope that they’ll grow out OK in pots.  If I have high germination, I’ll be able to give extra seedlings to friends.  (And if I have low germination, I’ve got seeds in reserve to try a second batch.)  I’m looking forward to doing an informal kohlrabi cultivar trial like I’ve done in past years with such things as peas, beans, and tomatoes.

Seed starting, finally almost here! 4 March 2009

I finally organized my year’s seeds today!  I was rather ridiculously proud of myself, particularly since it took a lot longer than I was expecting.  Tomorrow I will, will, WILL finally actually get the indoor seeds started.  I’ve now got my seeds organized into the following categories:

• Seeds to sow immediately indoors:  Chiles, tomatoes, tomatillos, ground cherries, the eggplant I ordered and wrote here about and then forgot I had gotten (oops)
• Seeds to sow indoors closer to last (expected) frost:  e.g. sunflowers (as part of my experiment to try to decrease birds eating the seeds), four o’clock
• Seeds to sow outdoors as soon as the snow melts (which should be soon–it’s supposed to be in the 50s F again this weekend!):  e.g. poppies, love-in-a-mist, California poppies
• Seeds to sow as soon as the ground can be worked:  e.g. calendula, garden peas, sweet peas, fava/broad beans, and greens and radishes (though  those last two likely in pots)
• Seeds to sow outdoors closer to last (expected) frost:  e.g. cilantro
• Seeds to sow outdoors after last frost: e.g. zinnias, nasturtiums, garden beans
• Seeds that I am not sure when to sow, and am going to check on them before putting them in another pile

I realized a couple of things as I was sorting the seeds.  One is that I ordered more garden peas and lettuce than I’d really consciously realized!  (My problem with lettuce seed has always been catalogs’ whimsical and/or delicious descriptions and their beautiful color photos, leading me to think, “I’d like to try that one.  And that one.  And that one…”)  Another is that in addition to ordering more tomato seeds than I’ll be able to grow out (that’s OK, I like giving seeds to friends and will give at least part of the excess of each cultivar away [probably keeping some in reserve for unforseen disasters], in addition to giving away my extra seedlings if I have a high germination rate; I’m used to this what with being in a small urban garden), I got two free extra packets of tomato seeds.  I’m not sure why companies love giving me free tomato seeds, but they do, as I also got a free tomato seed packet last year, and I didn’t even order any tomato seeds that time!  I also got a free packet of (mixed color) California poppy seeds, which makes me very happy, as I love California poppies, and they love my sunny, windy, rocky front garden.  I like to think it reminds them of home.

Seed starting 3 March 2009

After completely failing to get organized enough the other day to actually do the seed-starting, I’m hoping to do it today.  By now there is snow on the ground and it is frigid and windy, so the outdoor seeds are out, but I really, really need to start the indoor ones ASAP, and am aiming for today or tomorrow.  I am going to start out with the chiles, tomatoes, ground cherries, and tomatillos.  I am considering starting them in my small-hole seed trays and then transplanting them into the cowpots before transplanting them out into the garden, but we’ll see.  There are some other things I should probably start inside since my outdoor germination rate is so abysmal – parsley, cilantro, scarlet pentapetes (an unusual flower I get from Monticello), and Mexican sunflower immediately come to mind – so I think I will do an experiment this year, seeing how my indoor parsley vs. outdoor parsley germination rate is.  I also read a trick this winter about freezing your parsley seed shortly before sowing it that seems worth trying with some of them to see if that improves germination rates.

Spanish lavender blooming in sunlight