Gardening Progress

Today I transplanted the last of the plants into the community garden that will be going in this month.  I still don't quite trust the weather, so I'm not putting my cucurbits in until June.  Actually, I may go back later this week and seed some anyway, since I've started transplants of my own to get a head start.  It would be interesting to compare the rate of growth outside where it has been rather warm as opposed to indoors under my inadequate lighting.  I desperately need better conditions for starting my own seeds indoors, but at the moment I'm not getting them, so I guess I'll have to tough that out.

The plants I put in today were the 'Green Goliath' Broccoli, the 'Snowball' Cauliflower, and the 'Cour di Bue' Cabbage.  Of those three, the cabbage had the most vigorous seedlings, so I'm hoping at least one of these Brassicas will work out.  I don't seem to have good luck with them in general, though.  It may just be the climate here- we tend to have VERY hot summers and with short spring/fall seasons, it doesn't work out all that well for cool-weather vegetables.  It might also be that I need to just keep experimenting and start even earlier next year.  We'll have to see.  Gardening is a continual learning process for everyone- even people with tons of experience can be taken by surprise.

I will admit that the broccoli thing is kind of discouraging, though, because all I hear everywhere is how "easy" it is to grow.  Yet I've never been successful!  I'm not one to give up, however, so I'm trying not to let it get me down.

I've had to re-evaluate the planting plans for the house a bit- I am thinking now what I will do is have my brother-in-law weed whack/mow down everything that is next to the house and then lay down soil bags to plant the melons and whatnot in.  Then at the end of the season I can pull out the plants and turn the soil under, and put everything under cardboard to kill down grass/weeds/perennials that might still be surviving.  I'm also not sure I'm going to be able to grow the 'Glass Gems' corn this year- which is REALLY disappointing, but I am hoping the seeds will keep until next year when I can do a bit more work.

Overall I am really just trying not to take on too much at once, because I can't do most of this stuff all by myself- I don't have the energy!  So I have to rein it in a bit and take baby steps.

St. Lawrence Nurseries

If you live in Zone 3 like I have for most of my life, then you understand the pain of trying to find fruit trees and shrubs and such that actually are hardy enough to grow in your area.  Most varieties of fruit thrive in Zone 5 or higher, and even the trees sold by traditional garden supply stores that supposedly are OK for the colder areas can have problems- they may be grafted on a NON-cold-hardy rootstock.

So what's a north-dweller to do?  Check out St. Lawrence Nurseries!  They're located in Potsdam, NY and have a huge selection of fruits and nuts that are very cold-hardy, being that the nursery itself is located in Zone 3. 

I should note that I have a personal connection with this nursery, as I grew up in St. Lawrence County- Bill MacKentley helped to coach the 4-H Horticulture team every year I was on it, and we'd take many trips to his nursery to practice plant ID and learn little tidbits.  I was also friends with his daughter, who is my age.  I really have nothing but great memories of those times, and I know that their family are, well, "Good people" as my in-laws like to say.

Now, for this year I missed the ordering deadline, and I'm not sure if we really are ready for any kind of permanent fruit trees or anything here at the 'new' place.  I might put in raspberries or something next year.  But I would absolutely order from here- and if you live anywhere chilly like I do, you should, too.

One thing to note- and this is in their catalog- but they do not offer the popular "dwarf" style of apple that is standard these days.  They use standard rootstock- this is for cold hardiness.  You can prune your trees (you'll need to do it fairly aggressively, so if you go that route make sure you research research research) to keep them somewhat in check, but they will get big enough that you'll probably need a ladder to harvest things on the top, and it'll take a bit longer before you get a big amount of fruit.  So keep that in mind.  You should be pruning every year anyway (for ALL fruits, though please research the particular item because it is different for each kind) for maximum fruit production.

Yukon Gold Potatoes

 Purchased from: Fisher Garden Store for $9.95/10 premium seed potatoes
Type: Potato

I was starting to get a bit antsy about whether or not my order had gone through at Fisher's Garden store, but I was happy to see this came in the mail yesterday!  They *did* say they'd mail when it was time to plant, so I guess that means this weekend I need to get down to the community garden and plant these.  Because I've realized that Yukon Gold is apparently not a good variety to use for the
"Potato tower" method, I am instead planting these in one of the Pea Pods community beds.

 The seed potatoes themselves were packed nicely in a paper bag, labelled with contents.  They smell earthy- which isn't surprising, but is a bit of a change from all my 'sterile' seed packets.  Underneath the bag was a pamphlet put out by MSU Cooperative extension that detailed potato illnesses in Montana and ways to keep things like Potato Late Blight from becoming a big issue.  I know if we get hit with Late Blight in the community garden, we're going to really be suffering because it WILL jump to other Nightshades like Tomatoes.

 The pamphlet also emphasized sourcing potatoes from within Montana, which I'm more than happy to do in the first place.  I don't know if there are strict regulations because I didn't dive into it that closely, but I do know that Gurney's won't ship seed potatoes to Montana.  Another nice thing was a little rundown of how to plant potatoes, which I didn't really need, but is definitely nice for a beginner who might not be super comfortable with searching around on the internet.  We all know I am, though, so that's a moot point as well.

Curious as to what the seed potatoes actually looked like?  Well, they look just like small potatoes!  They're meant to be planted whole according to Fisher, but their catalog said that you can cut them in half, you just have to let them cure for a day or two before planting.  Since I only have a 4x4 area to plant them in, I'm going to just plant em whole.  I'm not entirely sure how much of the harvest I'll get my hands on, since they're going in a community-run bed and I'm just going to "adopt" the care of it, but you know what?  As long as I get to taste a few, I think I'll be fine :)

As usual, the experience with Fisher's was great- they always include a quick little hand-written thank-you in the  order, and everything is prompt once it's actually shipped, and I just overall feel really good about supporting a local business, especially one that actually bothers to stock items that are meant for growing here.  I think that's really important, and a little later on I'll be featuring a nursery I know from New York that specializes in cold-hardy fruit trees.  Exciting!

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own.

Seedling Progress

I'm not sure if it's apparent here, but the tomatoes are pretty much shot.  I don't know what happened- they look dried out, but given that I watered everything well I'm not sure what the issue is.  The mass of green you see is cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower.

I need to harden these off and get them into the ground under the frost blankets, but I'm procrastinating pretty hardcore because it's such a pain to get into the closet where I'm growing them, and my back is still bothering me.  I do know better- it's not really that smart to spend time procrastinating when it comes to gardening stuff, but I suppose a couple more days before I can get them planted won't hurt me *too* much.

I didn't get to the garden today like I had planned, because I'm just too sore- I am doing core strength exercises and stretching to try and get my back in working order, but we'll see how that works.  Yesterday I went through all my seed packets and marked the square foot spacing on them.  At least I'm feeling semi-productive!

Early Planting- with Photos!

This is what the front yard raised bed looked like on Monday at around noon.  Please excuse the horrible state of the lawn- we aren't lawn people, and it's not really growing from winter yet anyway.  The snow from Sunday was mostly melted and though you can't see it from the photo, there was moisture from the melted snow slowly seeping through the row cover, which is specifically meant to allow sunlight and water through it.

We had a group meeting on Monday evening at the garden to discuss the early season, and there are a couple people there who've had things planted since the beginning of April, and are starting to see some sprouting.  I am HOPING to get down there sometime this week to start planting, but we'll see how the weather and my back fare.

My back has been bothering me for a few weeks now, to varying degrees of severity and as of right now I can still move around and sit and sleep and such, but it's worrying.  I am really hoping it doesn't become an issue this summer, given that I've taken on a much larger load gardening-wise.

First seeds in the ground- And snow

I really need to take photos of all this stuff, and I promise I will- but I did not do it today, so I don't have them for *this* post.  Anyway, when we moved into the new house there were a couple wooden garden beds already built- one that I think is probably about 2'x4' (based on the relative size to the one we've actually measured), but since I'm bad at estimation of size I will update you later on the actual size of it.  Anyway, the other bed turned out to be 3'x6', and is situated under one of the conifers we have in the front yard, but gets a decent amount of sun.  After finally getting some row covers and a couple bags of garden soil to fill the 3x6 bed in, I got some cold tolerant items planted yesterday, on Saturday. 

In the 3x6 bed, I did an entire half of it (3'x3') in the Rocky Top Lettuce Mix, with 5 per square foot- arranged as the 5 dots on a die would be.  I was a bit generous with the seeding, so thinning will have to happen, but that's good anyway since you can eat the plants you thin!  If it hadn't been so windy I may have just very thinly scattered the plants around, but it's Great Falls and we're known for our wind.  So much so that when I bought the row covers, the nice woman at Big R was very careful to inform me that the U-stakes would not be enough to keep the row covers anchored and to make sure I used some extra means to keep them secure.  We used some rocks and tucked the edges of the row cover into the bed.

In the other 3'x3' area of the bed, we did 3 blocks (1' square) of 'Ching Chang' Bok Choy, 3 blocks of 'Dwarf Blue Curled' Kale, and in the final 1' x 3' strip we did a row of half 'Dwarf Grey Sugar' Snow Peas and 'Golden Sweet' Snow Peas.

I'm still pondering what to plant in the other raised bed and the pots that came with the house.  I may have my Pea Pods planting setup completely set up, but here at home I'm having much more indecision about the whole thing.  Also, I'm seeing what sorts of spring plants we have already with the house- already I've been surprised by crocus and what look to be tulips popping up!  I know for sure we have Daylillies as well.

I also found out that Big R, where we got our row covers- has seed potatoes (their claim that they carry almost anything really isn't that far off)!  So if the potato experiment works out this year (Planning on using rubbermaid containers and layering to grow them), I will be able to economize a bit next year buying more locally.  Not that the $16 I spent for the seed potatoes + shipping from Fisher's Garden Store is unreasonable, especially considering I did not have to buy like 20+ pounds of seed potatoes- but being able to just pick up a few is much more ideal for our limited space, especially if we end up doing something like this rather than rubbermaid bins.  Though considering this family, the bins may end up being the go-to.  We seem to always have an abundance of them.

Tomorrow if the snow happens to melt, we'll be going to the community garden to get some planting done, but I heard we're supposed to get a couple more inches overnight (on top of the 2" we got already), so we'll see.  If not, I'll find other things to occupy myself.  I did not get the very early start that I was hoping for, but this is good enough, so I'm not going to sweat it too much.  And at the very least, the row covers/frost blanket will keep the critters from chewing on my peas.  And I didn't get ANYTHING in the ground till the second week of May last year, so we're not doing too badly.

Mammoth Russian Sunflower

Purchased from:  Fisher's Garden Store for $2.50
Type: Sunflower
Growth: TALL

This package of seeds did not even get opened last year- I just did not have a place to grow sunflowers.  This year, though, I do.  Right outside our kitchen door, where there were hollyhocks last year.  The area gets plenty of sun.  Hollyhocks are coming out, sunflowers are going in!

I love sunflowers, though I haven't grown any myself in ages.  At least, none that I got to look at- the ones I grew in Rochester got ripped out before I got back from visiting my fiance one fall.  I have some video of one of the many fields of sunflowers that we ran across when we drove from NY to MT, but it's not very clear, so I'm probably not going to share it on the blog.  I just think Sunflowers are so COOL, though!  Don't you?  The seeds are a bonus, though it's always a race to get to them before birds do.  The coolest thing about sunflowers is that they're an aggregate of many tiny flowers.  Each of those little pokey bits in the middle?  A whole flower in and of itself!  The petals on the outside?  Modified aesexual flowers!  HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Okay, enough nerding out.  I hope these get as big as the package says, because I love tall things.

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own.

Montana Green Bean

Purchased from: Fisher's Garden Store for $3.60
Type: Green Bean
Growth: Bush

This, unlike the past few posts, was one of my great successes from last year, and I've talked about it previously.  Seriously.  This green bean is going to be a yearly addition to my garden because it is amazing- and it's really well-suited to Montana, though I imagine, of course, it will do well elsewhere, too.  Homegrown green beans are amazing anyway, but I really enjoy this variety and it was easy to grow and surprisingly productive even after I had determined the plants must be 'on their way out.'  The darned things produced all season!  And I only planted two blocks- I think I could have been happy with an entire bed full of these wonderful beans.  This year I'm definitely planting more.

Beans do pretty well in square foot gardening, but I will say that the bush type do have a bit of an issue with crowding.  This did not seem to affect my harvest at all, but it did make me think that the plants were on their way out when they were still quite productive- which is why I'm glad I did not just rip them up like I initially planned.  If this is something you worry about, you could do only 4 plants per square foot instead of 9- but if you don't care how it looks and you are willing to maul the plants a bit to get to the good stuff, don't sweat it.

These were a perfect example of why Square Foot Gardening is really only suited for small levels of production, though.  It was way harder to get in there and pick the beans than it ever was when I picked beans from my grandfather's rows.

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own. 

Lemon Cucumber

Purchased from:  Fisher's Garden Store for $2.25
Type: Cucumber
Growth: Vining

This is another leftover from last year that I didn't have much luck with, mostly because I think my cucumbers ended up being shaded out and were never able to get going.  I'm going to plant some at the house this year as well as at the garden, so hopefully between those two places I will have at least one area that gets enough sun to produce.  There were some of these cucumbers planted in one of the public beds, so it wasn't a complete disaster- that was a pleasant surprise!

"Lemon" cucumbers are called such not because they taste like lemon, but because of their shape and color, which is small, round, and yellow.  They taste just like a regular, mild cucumber- but the shape makes them more fun because the slices are bigger, so if you wanted to do sandwiches or something they could be larger, etc.

I love cucumbers just raw and sliced with a little bit of italian salad dressing.  Sadly, my stomach doesn't love me as much for eating them this way, but if I moderate that, it should be OK.  I'm looking forward to having some of my own homegrown cucumbers this summer to eat raw and possibly make fridge pickles with.

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own. 

Jackpot Hybrid Zucchini

Purchased from: Fisher's Garden Store for $2.95
Type: Summer Squash
Growth: Bush

All jokes about locking your doors during zucchini season aside, I love this stuff.  I still have some shredded and frozen from last season, and I didn't even grow my own!  As such, I'm only going to be growing a single bush, but that's going to take up a good chunk of one of my beds, so one is more than enough.

Zucchini (and summer squash in general) is one of those things that I do enjoy eating, but I grow mostly because it is satisfying.  There's not really a way to screw up here- except maybe planting too late, like I did last year.  But in general, summer squash will take off on its own and before you know it, you're having to dive in every day to harvest the fruits before they get too big to eat, and even then you're going to miss one and the next thing you know you have a giant 3-foot zucchini and after you pick that sucker you do like 5 loaves of zucchini bread because despite the name, the main ingredient isn't zucchini, so you always have leftover.

Not that I'm speaking from experience, or anything.  *shifty eyes*

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own. 

Green Goliath Broccoli

Purchased From: Fisher's Garden Store for $2.65
Type: Broccoli

Broccoli is my favorite vegetable, and it's also one that I've had no success whatsoever actually getting to grow.  I think I have a block from childhood, because my mother declared that we wouldn't grow it in our garden because it was "difficult."  I've had to overcome a few of those types of things, mostly related to crafts rather than gardening, but I'm determined to someday get broccoli to actually grow.  Maybe this year will be the one?

There's always lots of talk on the broccoli packet about getting a second crop, but I don't really know if we have the kind of weather to allow for that- brassicas in general (broccoli being no exception) enjoy it a bit cooler, and the hot hot summer weather that we get here can be a bit of a downer.  Since our spring and fall aren't really mild and long, that puts another damper on things.  We're one of those climates that people describe as "Almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction."

I have these started in my seed flat, though they're not germinating very quickly.  Hopefully they'll be ready to go by time I get the early plantings in, though!

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own. 

Fisher's Earliest Sweet Corn

Purchased From: Fisher's Garden Store for $6.50
Type: Sweet Corn

Yet another leftover from last year.  The thing about Square Foot Gardening?  You don't use nearly the entire package of seeds, and if you don't have a ton of people to share with, you are definitely going to have overlap.  The good news there is that you can usually get 2-3 years out of a packet of seeds.  Each year will have a lower germination rate, as the seeds become less viable, but you generally get a good rate for a couple years in my experience.  The only important thing to do is to keep the seeds someplace dry, cool, and dark.  I've even seen people keep seeds in their own freezer!  Definitely make sure that the packets and seeds themselves are completely dry if you do this though- and put them in an airtight container that won't let any moisture in.  Your mileage may vary with that method, but it can extend viability for some things.

I did not have a lot of luck with this one last year- I think it got a bit of a late start, and it started to form ears when the corn plants were kind of stunted.  I think this may have been due to my attempt at three sisters- this year I won't be doing that.  Just corn.  And I'm going to see if starting earlier under a row cover helps at all.

In general, Corn isn't terribly well-suited to square foot gardening, but I know it's possible to do, since there were a couple people last year who had a decent fruiting.  Since corn is wind-pollinated, it can also be a bit of a hassle when you have so much growing close together to get full pollination.  A vigorous shaking of each plant when the tassles at the top of the plant have formed and silks are starting to peek out of the immature ears can be really helpful for that.

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own. 

Dwarf Gray Sugar Snow Peas

Purchased From: Fisher's Garden Store for $2.60
Type: Snow Pea
Growth: Dwarf Vining

So, these are the peas I tried to grow last year.  They did not really work out.  I think I planted them a bit late, and that the bunnies at the community garden decided that the shoots tasted quite nummy.  Because they were getting chewed down to the nibs.  I'm going to plant these midway through April, hopefully an earlier planting will result in a much better result this year.

These are the type of pea that supposedly can self-support, but I'm going to use a small trellis anyway, because I hate the point when the peas start falling over.  Plus I think a trellis will make the pea plants less of a mess, so picking peas will be easier.  I really hope this year works better, because I adore fresh peas.  And it's always so satisfying when something works out rather than not.  I'd hate to have another empty area in my garden this year.  I want the spot to be completely overgrown!

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own. 

Dwarf Blue Curled Kale

Purchased From:  Fisher's Garden Store (Catalog) $2.55
Type: Curly Kale

I grew this last year, and while I wish that Kale took up a bit less space, it was easy to grow, and of course tasty.  Well, the way I use kale- I make chips.  I'm not really a fan of bitter greens raw, and I didn't get a chance to let the kale sit through a hard frost to see if it sweetened up like I've been told- I will be growing some at the house this year for those purposes.  Yum!

Kale isn't terribly suited to square foot gardening, as you can only grow one bunch per square, but this one is a bit smaller so I may be able to squeeze 2 into the block this year- especially since my blocks are slightly bigger than they were last year, as I believe I mentioned in my first planning post.

It should be noted that I bought these from Fisher's Garden Store, which doesn't have its own website, but you can go to this post to find out how to get a catalog.  Once you make an order, you are on the mailing list for the following year as well, so if you buy from them every year (this year I've ordered seed potatoes), you'll not have to pay for the catalog again.  They really do have great customer service, since we're talking about that.

click here to learn about my experience with Fisher's Garden Store and to learn how to get a catalog of your own. 

Finalized Plot Designs for Pea Pods

I've pretty much finalized the layouts for the two plots I am renting at the community garden this year.  Surprisingly, I ended up with even more space than I anticipated, especially after going through the entire long list of items that I was planting this year!  I truly thought I was going to run into space issues, but, nope!  I had more than enough space, and there are only a couple things I am growing here at the house, so that didn't even really save much space. 

I believe I've mentioned it before, but one thing I'm doing for sure is not inter-planting my sweet corn, and I'm going to be growing the spaghetti squash here at the house so that I can really let it go crazy- supposedly it is quite productive, so I'm hoping that turns out to be the case. 

Before I go into more detail, if you're wondering how I did these layouts, I made them in the spreadsheet program in LibreOffice, which is a pretty good free word processing suite.  You could use pretty much any spreadsheet program (Excel counts) to do this, or you could just draw it out in a graphics program or similar.  Or just do it on paper.  I prefer to have it done nicely with text and whatnot on the computer, but your mileage may vary.  Doing it this way also allows me to print it out in a small but readable fashion that I can put in my 5"x7" gardening journal. 

I like being able to put the layouts in my journal as well, because I can tape over them and then be able to use a vis-a-vis marker on them to mark them up and be able to wipe it off if I need to.  This of course means that if I leave the marks on, they come off on the opposite page, but that isn't a huge deal for me.  It is helpful when I need to mark up replants or things that I've already seeded.

The top layout is for the bed I"m going to be doing most of my "early" plantings, which I'll do halfway through April.  I'll be using a row cover on them to keep things from freezing too much.  You might notice that I've put most of the more cold tolerant things in that bed as well- I really hope that getting my peas in earlier this year will result in a better yield, because last year they never really got going, not even as a fall planting.  Judging from the nibble marks on the young shoots, I think that was in part because of the resident bunnies that hung out at the garden, but there were other people who had great luck with peas, so I'm really hoping for better turnout this time.  I'll be planting peas at the house as well.

Anyway, hopefully we'll be back to more scheduled posting next week.  This weekend I need to photograph some of my leftover seed packets from last year so I can do little write-ups like I did on the ones from this year.  I hope you guys enjoy that :)

My Seed-starting Setup

I know it's not terribly fancy or nice looking.  But the only space I have is in my closet, which is just.. Well, unfinished in the extreme.  It's also chilly, but thanks to the warming mat I got (review later), that isn't affecting things at all.  My tomatoes are farthest from the camera, and they have several true leaves, with cabbages and broccoli and cauliflower closer, with fewer leaves.  You can see some bare stems- blame the cat!  I'm not sure if it was my cat, or the new kitten, but one of them got into the closet and nommed things.  I'm using a fluorescent lamp for light, since this is a closet and there's no light. 

Obviously, this is not my ideal situation.  Even in the new house, there aren't a lot of windowed spaces that would serve well for seed starting- we don't even really have a good place for houseplants, as the one window that would serve currently has an exercise bicycle in front of it.  So here you have it- a completely artificially lighted seed-starting station.

Glass Gems Corn

Purchased from:  Native Seeds/SEARCH for $5.95/50 seeds
Type: Flint Corn

I've been on the waiting list for this beauty for over a year, and I was really excited to see that it had come up available this year for purchase- even if the price was a bit steep, at nearly $6 for a mere 50 seeds.  Hell, I'm not even 100% sure that I'm going to have a long enough growing season for this, but I'm sure as hell going to give it a try.

For seed-saving purposes, I am growing this variety only at home to avoid cross-pollination.  The thing to know about corn is that it is a natural outcrosser, so if you have different varieties of corn growing together, you can forget about saving your seed and getting the same thing you planted.  Sometimes this can also affect the actual edible corn that you're able to get, but if 2 varieties are similar enough (i.e. they're both sweet corn or popcorn), it won't matter.  Since I'm growing Fisher's Earliest Sweet Corn as my other variety, I don't dare put them near one another.  Also, I don't want cross-contamination from the community garden, so this one is going to be planted in my front yard.  How gauche!

Also, if it isn't apparent why I purchased this from the seed packet, here's the original picture that started circulating around the internet a couple years ago:

True to the name "Glass Gems," eh?  I'm not the only one who had a garden-gasm over the gorgeous picture, either.  The story of this variety is also incredibly interesting, and can be found on the Seeds Trust website:

"Seedsman Greg Schoen got the seed from Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee man, now in his 80's, in Oklahoma.  He was Greg's "corn-teacher".   Greg was in the process of moving last year and wanted someone else to store and protect some of his seeds.  He left samples of several corn varieties, including glass gem.  I  grew out a small handful this past summer just to see.  The rest, as they say is history.  I got so excited, I posted a picture on Facebook.  We have never seen anything like this. "

 That photo went viral last year sometime, and I'm just thrilled to be able to grow it this year.  I am going to baby the crap out of these plants- starting early with row covers to keep them warm, etc.  I really hope that our growing season proves conducive to getting some gorgeous ornamental ears as well as some saved seeds.

Parisienne Carrot

Free Gift from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  Available for purchase here for $2.50/800 seeds
Type: Carrot

If I didn't know better, I'd swear that Baker Creek are mind-readers, because this was actually on my short list of carrots to buy.  I ended up only picking one variety to purchase- Cosmic Purple, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this free gift tucked in with my order of bean seeds.

This is a smaller, "stubby" type carrot that is intended to be grown in less carrot-friendly soils.  I don't have too much problem with carrots at the community garden, since we use raised beds and I always do a good job of fluffing up the soil, but these would be very useful for anyone who has a heavier soil, for sure.  As for me, I'm just excited to grow something cutely-shaped and definitely excited to see how they turn out.  I think that thinly slicing a fat little carrot would make for great 'medallions' to put in salad or something, or maybe even to use as little dip-holders in appetizers or something. 

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Purple Podded Pole Bean

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for  $2.75/40-60 seeds
Type: Green Bean
Growth: Vine

I kind of like that this one doesn't have a fancy name- it's just a 'Purple-Podded Pole' bean.  There were a few solid purple varieties available and I settled on this one pretty much entirely because one of the reviewers was located in Alaska and had good luck growing it in a raised bed- I figure if they had time for it in Alaska, I should have no issues getting this puppy to grow here in Montana.

The interesting thing about this bean- and from what I can see, other purple beans as well- is that it turns green when cooked.  So you can have a gorgeous addition to your garden, but you won't creep out anyone who has a "thing" about oddly colored foods.  Of course, I would personally be happier if they stayed purple when cooked, but color changing veggies are kind of cool, too.  I am also thinking of pickling beans this year, but we'll see about that.  This is another pole bean, and another one I'll be planting both at home and at the community garden.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Gold Marie Pole Bean

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $3.00/40-60 seeds
Type: Green Bean
Growth: Vine

It's probably funny and a bit confusing that I call this a "green bean" when it is actually golden-colored, but I use that terminology to mean that I intend to eat the pods whole rather than drying the seeds to use as dry beans.  Some of these beans can do double duty, but I don't generally use dry beans so I'll probably stick mostly to eating them when they are tender, and just save a few pods for next year's seeds.

These beans are supposedly on the larger side, and I love that they are yellow- which will make them easier to harvest as well.  I always have problems with missing beans, peas, and other green podded things that I should be harvesting young- I invariably miss a few, and they end up overripe.  That isn't necessarily the worst thing, but it helps to keep harvesting things like beans as constantly as possible to keep the plants producing for longer periods.

I'm hoping that this year's experiment with pole beans goes better than last year's- I will be just trellising them this time, as opposed to growing them up corn stalks.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Dragon Tongue Bush Bean

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $2.75/40-60 seeds
Type: Green Bean
Growth: Bush

I ended up putting in a second order from Baker Creek, because I forgot to order green beans.  While the 'Montana Green' bush bean from Fisher's Seeds is fabulous and I am growing that again this year, I also wanted to try something new.  I had trouble narrowing down what I was going to plant, and I may have gone a little overboard (good thing I like green beans!), but I knew this one was going to make the cut, because, well, look at it!  So pretty!

One of the things that keeps gardening interesting for me is definitely planting varieties like this.  I love growing my own food, as well, but if I can have something pretty *and* yummy, why not go for the double whammy?  I have high hopes for this little beauty, and I'm planning on planting some both at home and at Pea Pods.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Ananas D'Amerique a Chair Verte Melon

Source: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Free Gift.  Buyable here for $3.00/25-50 seeds.
Type: Melon
Growth: Vine

I think that Baker Creek must have assumed I am some kind of melon enthusiast, because in addition to the three types I purchased, they decided to include this free gift for me.  Supposedly famous for being grown in the US by Thomas Jefferson, this one is interesting because the name means something akin to "Green Fleshed Pineapple."  I'm interested to see what this beauty tastes like, assuming I can actually get the melons to full maturity, which is always a question mark in the north.  This one looks to have a fairly short season, but the fact of the matter is that melons generally love the heat, so I may need to take steps to ensure that the soil is warm enough.

I love the coloring and design on this packet and I wonder if they have a variety of free gifts with similar packet designs, or if this design is specific to this type of melon- who knows!  These are the weird thoughts that go through my head.

This melon brings the total I have to try up to 5- I may have a problem.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Golden Sweet Snow Pea

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  for $2.75/100 seeds
Type: Snow Peas
Growth: Vine

I love peas.  It was incredibly difficult to narrow down the varieties to just one, but I wanted to try again with the "Dwarf Grey Sugar" peas from last year (my seedlings were eaten to the roots by munchy bunnies), so I knew I couldn't go overboard.  I finally settled on these yellow snow peas, because snow peas are my favorite, and yellow will make them easy to spot.

The reviews at Baker Creek were also pretty conclusively awesome, so I'm sincerely hoping these do well.  I missed out on a crop of peas last year and I really have my fingers crossed for one this time around.  Did I mention that I love peas?  Especially snow peas.  I love to sautee them with a little butter until they are just tender but still fresh and crispy, and then munch away.  I could seriously make a main dish out of fresh snow peas and fresh green beans all by themselves.  Yum!

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Vegetable Spaghetti: Or, how amazingly well winter squash keeps

It seems like so long ago that this photo was taken.  You can see on the bottom there the squash vine and the fruit that I cooked this morning, in its younger stages, of course.  In the excitement of moving last year and whatnot, the 2 spaghetti squashes that I'd harvested from my bed had been lost in the shuffle and I only just recently found them.  Any other vegetable and you might think "Ewwwww," but winter squash really does hold up quite well as long as it doesn't get too warm, and since my Father-in-law keeps the house fairly cool (one of the few benefits, I'm still usually frozen), the two squash were completely fine.  I only finally got around to cooking them today because I stepped on the bag containing them and inadvertently cracked the smaller one, so I figured I'd better get them baked before it went bad.

Can I just say, um, YUM?  I used this 'recipe' (I'd call it more of a tutorial).  I still have 2 halves of the larger squash and 1 half of the smaller one leftover, but I ate the entire half of the smaller squash and it was just yummy.  Seasoned with salt, pepper, a bit of butter, and then I put some shredded cheese on top.

I'm really pleased to see that being "stored" for six months (!) did not seem to affect the flavor at all, and I am definitely going to allocate a bit more space to Vegetable Spaghetti this year, because the variety is supposed to be a heavy producer, and I'm pretty sure the only reason mine wasn't was due to it being interplanted with the sweet corn.  I've read several accounts of people getting 20+ squash per PLANT so I'm going to have to find a bit of space for them here at the house.  Since they store so well I am hoping to get a much bigger crop this coming season.

Cour Di Bue Cabbage

Purchased From:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $2.00/300 seeds
Type: Cabbage

Cabbage doesn't seem terribly exciting to most people, and I can't say it's a favorite for square foot gardening because it does take up a bit of space, but this one looks like it will be interesting.  This cabbage has what is known as an "oxheart" shape, which I find very interesting, and is quite an old European heirloom.  I'm not the cabbage-eater in this family, but I took requests and one of the requests was for cabbage.  I will plant a few blocks of this and see how it turns out- if it is a hit, I will do more next year. I'll be starting these indoors in the next couple weeks and I think that they will end up being prime candidates for the sunny basement window.

This is another one I'd love to grow in a cold frame if I can get one built- there is a bit of flowerbed near the side door of our house that I am thinking of tearing out and replacing with a couple cold frames so that we can have easily-accessible winter veggies.  One of my projects in the coming weeks as spring starts to come upon us is to assess the areas we have for growing and see what I might be able to do.  It may end up being beneficial to convert the entire flowerbed on the kitchen side of the house into a kitchen garden.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Ching Chang Bok Choy

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $2.50/200 seeds
Type: Bok Choy
SFG Spacing:  9 per Square Foot

According to the description of this one, this Bok Choy variety is meant to be harvested when small, so I guess this is technically a "baby" variety.  The name just gets me- it seems a bit stereotypical for a traditionally Asian green, but if the product turns out to be worthwhile, I guess I can handle the slightly off-color name.

The main reason I'm trying this one out is a desire to expand my horizons when it comes to greens both as food and as plants in the garden.  Right now the main ones I consume are pretty much iceberg lettuce and baby spinach.  It just seems like a shame to let all the wonderful different types of greens out there go to waste!  So here goes nothing- I hope this isn't a disappointment.


curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Snowball Self-Blanching Cauliflower

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $2.50/200 seeds
Type: Cauliflower

I'll be honest- I have not had the greatest luck with Brassicas, despite the fact that they are supposed to be fairly easy to grow.  But someone else at Pea Pods did grow cauliflower last year, and would have had great luck had they not been out of town when it needed blanching.  I'm skeptical about the self-blanching claim that this cauliflower makes, but I will be going to the garden enough to cover the heads if needed.

There's really nothing else particularly special here; I considered growing a purple cauliflower or something similar but decided against it and instead picked a classic old variety.  I plan to do both a spring and a fall planting of these as well as the other "cool-weather" crops in the garden, since sometimes a fall or spring planting will work better than the other. 

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Rich Sweetness 132 Melon

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $3.00/15 seeds
Type: Melon
Growth: Vine

If you are thinking at this point that I went a little melon crazy this year, you'd be right.  I am really excited about this one, too.  This is another one you're going to want to click the link for, because the melons for this are just gorgeous- orange with yellow stripes.  And small.  And supposedly pretty tasty, also.  Same deal with this as with the watermelons- I will start a few indoors and a few out, and we'll see what happens.  This is apparently a Russian heirloom, though, so I am optimistic that we'll have luck with it here in Montana.

I also kind of like this packet design, which I think may be something they use for a "generic" type, since the website indicates that Rich Sweetness 132 is a newer acquisition for them. 

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Cool Gardens: Penn & Cord's Garden

Sometimes you just stumble on something awesome while you're browsing the great world wide web, and in this case, it's the website of Penn and Cord, a couple of Colorado residents with an amazing high-altitude homesteading/gardening setup that I am in awe of.

Before I dive into the nitty gritty, can I just say- these two seem like awesome people and I totally wish I lived near them so I could be their friend?  Seriously.  Apparently Cord is a master blacksmith, to add to the list of cool things.  They employ "bio-intensive gardening" techniques (not entirely unlike Square Foot Gardening, either) to get the most out of their space and limited water supply, and the website has some great pictures of how they've integrated their gardening space into their environment.

Penn's Blog has even more great info and pretty much makes me just insanely jealous of this awesome pair.

I don't really have much else to add, but you should definitely take some time to browse around and soak in the great pictures, information, and attitude of Penn and Cord.  They're definitely on my list of garden inspirations.  I may not be able to have something as awesome as they do right now, but someday!

2013 Preliminary Garden Planning

It may still be early, but since I'll be starting some seeds this week and I have just about all the seeds I need this year, I've been working on garden planning.  I have not sketched out the garden space we have here at home, but I did start on the two garden beds I'll be renting at Pea Pods this year.

Obviously this is a rough sketch.  Once I get it pretty much 'down' I will make a spreadsheet and printout which I'll then paste into my gardening journal/notebook.  I'm not doing strict Square Foot Gardening this year, because we have these great irrigation systems at the garden which roughly divide the length into thirds rather than fourths, and I found that doing the square foot layout was just too much of a pain to keep with the irrigation system.  Last year I did not bother with the irrigation, but this year I definitely want to use it, so I am dividing the garden up so I can use the irrigation apparatus as a partial divider.

At this point I still have a chunk on the top bed, which you can sort of see has no plants indicated in it.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with that section yet.  I am considering putting a zucchini plant there, next to the other summer squash, but I may change my mind and decide to grow more types of peppers or something.  I'm not sure yet.  It's interesting to note that with this, even though I feel like I have SO many different things picked out to grow- I am still left with space after I've slotted everything I'm planting at the community garden for sure- which is most of my seeds!  It is amazing how much you can fit in a small space if you have the ability to intensively manage the crops.

You probably can't make out my handwriting, but the bottom bed is going to be my "early planting" bed.  I plan to get a floating row cover and start this one up in April sometime by planting all the cool-weather crops.  I should probably consult the local extension office (*makes note to self*) to find out when the general planting times are if you don't use any season extenders, and then just plant a couple weeks earlier than that.  I've tried to group everything that I can put in the ground fairly early in that one spot, though there are a couple other cool season crops in the top bed- namely ones that I won't need to cover (kale, cabbage) in the first place.  I hope that getting an early start means I'll have better luck this year with some things- like peas.

Cosmic Purple Carrot

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $3.00/300 seeds
Type: Carrot

Carrots are one of those vegetables that I could probably do an entire garden full of and still feel like I did not have enough.  I love them, and there are such wonderful colors available that it was really hard to narrow this down to just one that I wanted to grow- I may pick up a very basic variety later, but for now, this beauty is my number one choice.

These, unfortunately, are only purple-skinned, which is pretty standard for purple carrots.  I've yet to see a purple variety of carrot that is purple all the way through, though white, red, and yellow carrot varieties can indeed be colored the entire way through, as I found out several years ago when I grew a "rainbow mix" of carrots back in Rochester.

Speaking of the "rainbow mix," that is one thing I wish Baker Creek offered.  It would be so much less stressful to choose if I could just get a variety mix and roll the dice as to what I end up with! 

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Golden Beet

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for $2.50/250 seeds
Type: Beet

I'll be honest, I'm not really a fan of beets.  I keep trying them because tastes change and I may find a variety I like, but in general I find that they taste too much like, well, DIRT.  I picked this variety because it supposedly has both tasty greens and tasty roots.  I figure if I don't like the "Golden" beets any better than the red ones, I may enjoy the greens.  I'm all about new experiences.

Some of my family members enjoy beets, also, so again, no waste here!  In addition I actually do enjoy beet chips, so I'm hoping these work well for that.  It's interesting how many vegetables become palatable (or just tastier) when you dehydrate them into something crispy and wonderful.  Kale being the big one, but lots of other things as well.

One thing I have to say, also, is that Baker Creek has an insanely big selection of beets.  Seriously.  Some are considered better for feeding livestock, but still- it was a rough choice.  

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Purple Top White Globe Turnip

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  $1.50/600 seeds
Type: Turnip

If you don't click my link to the product page for any other veggie here, you should still click the link for this one.  The adorable photograph with the little girl is pretty much the entire reason I picked this variety.  I've never grown turnips, and my grandfather (my gardening inspiration- I'll have to talk about him someday) did not either.  At least, he didn't while I was helping him garden.  I'm not sure what to expect, but we'll see.  I'm sure that if no one in this house cares for the turnips that I'll be able to unload free produce on someone else, so I'm not worried about "waste."

This variety seems to be quite old- according to the description, pre-1880, which appeals to me.  I do think that "modern" varieties, hybrid or not, have a place in the world, but there is something fun about growing something from what I used to call "olden times" when I was a kid.  "Tried and True" can be better than "New and Improved" depending on the situation.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Rocky Top Lettuce Mix

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  $3/1000 seeds
Type: Lettuce!

Last year's Burpee lettuce blend that I purchased from Wal*Mart was sadly a bust, which is part of the reason I'm not purchasing any seeds from physical stores this year.  Nope, not even from garden centers.  I will purchase plants from the local nurseries (Probably Bundi's, as I was quite happy with the plants I got from there last year), but all my seeds are mail-order only.  Why?  Because physical store locations, especially ones like Wal*Mart, really have no concept of keeping temperature correct for seeds, and as a result my germination rates are crap.

That little rant aside, Baker Creek claims "With more brightly colored and unique lettuces, it makes a flavorful and brilliant salad." and that the mix "Includes some non-listed rare varieties."  For a few bucks, this is a great buy for me.  Where I'm paying a premium for some of the other seeds this year, this is just a fabulous deal.  The added excitement of seeing what pops up from this little packet is just an added bonus.

Additionally, I'm also kind of hoping that I might be able to get my fiance's uncle to help me set up a cold frame or two so that I might extend the season a bit, and have fresh greens for longer.  Supposedly there is a guy nearby that grows greens from February through November.  Yum!

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

White Sugar Lumps Watermelon

Purchased From: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  $3.50/15 seeds
Type: Watermelon
Growth: Vine

I'm taking a bit of a risk with the White Wonder watermelon, but this beauty is the really risky one, because I've got absolutely no idea how long the season on these is supposed to be!  Unfortunately, Baker Creek does not give a harvest time on these, though the description claims that they ripen early, so I'm optimistic.  The only reviews are utterly unhelpful, as one person grew them in a greenhouse, and the other is in zone 9.

I'll admit, too, that I kind of am growing this one just for the sake of rarity.  The description on the website took me in, I'll admit, and I just want to try it out.  If it works out, I'll save seeds and be able to give my friends this rare beauty so they can try it out in their gardens.  If it doesn't work out?  C'est la vie!  Which is why I think gardening is a great pasttime for people who have trouble "going with the flow."  No matter how well you plan, you're going to have to just roll with the punches because some things are just beyond your control.

As with White Wonder, I'll be starting these indoors and outdoors to experiment with the best method for getting them going.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Laurentian Rutabaga

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  $1.50/400 seeds
Type: Rutabaga (aka Swede)

"Laurentian" isn't exactly an uncommon variety, but when it comes to rutabagas, there isn't exactly a lot of choice in the first place.  I am a fan of roasting these bad-boys, and my grandmother used to slice them and fry them, which was also very tasty.

This is the second type of seed packet I got in my order, and as you can see it has a bit more of a vintage feel than the black seed packets with photos on them, and has some lovely artwork of the bulb that I'll be growing.  I can say that they don't generally look quite as pretty as the picture, but really, it's a rutabaga!  It isn't that exciting in the first place, though I'm not any less excited to be growing them.

I have grown rutabagas in the past, and I'm pretty relaxed about it.  My grandfather used to let his get GIGANTIC.  I mean, HUGE.  I wish I had some photos, but alas, I do not.  They would be way bigger than softballs, though, which seems to be the metric used with this particular root vegetable.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

White Wonder Watermelon

Purchased from:  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds $2.50/15 seeds
Type: Watermelon
Growth: Vine

This one.. I am taking a risk on.  According to the description, this should be ready to go in about 80 days, which should give me enough time here in Great Falls.  I'll be starting them indoors, even though melons are notoriously not good about that sort of thing, and I will also start a plant or 2 outside after frost has passed.  I figure this will cover my bases.

A few things- I enjoy watermelon, and I LOVE the small watermelons, so I'm really hoping this one turns out well.  If it does, of course, I'll be sure to save my seeds so I can share the love.  According to reviews, the flavor is light and sweet, which in my book is just another bonus.  You don't see these melons much even at farmer's markets because they have a very thin rind, which you can see even in the picture.  I'll admit that I'm imagining them as kind of being like a pawpaw, but that's the way my brain works.  I hope you'll send me oodles of good vibes, because I really want these to work!

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Poona Kheera Cucumber

Purchased from: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  $2.50/25-35 seeds
Type: Cucumber
Growth: Vine

I can't just grow a "normal" vegetable, can I?  No plain cucumbers for me, no siree- I had to try something new.  The reviews for this cucumber were what sold me on giving it a try.  I pretty much exclusively eat cucumbers fresh, though I am not averse to pickles, I tend to not actually be up for making my own (though I'd love to try). 

This cucumber is supposed to not only be very productive, but also very tasty, which are two things I'm looking for after a disappointing year last year in regards to cucumbers.  I'm hoping this year will turn out better, and in addition to these I'll also be trying again with the Lemon cucumbers from Fisher Seeds.  Of course my seeds could end up being completely bad, but I'm optimistic that I'll be able to get enough to germinate that I can also grow them.  Last year, my cucumbers were all but shaded out when I stupidly planted them nearby tomatoes, which I should have, of course, known were going to be problematic since those were transplants.  That isn't a mistake I'll make this year.

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Patisson Strie Melange Squash

Purchased from: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds $3/20 seeds.
Type: Summer Squash
Growth: Bush, according to reviews

I'm pretty excited about this one- I mean, wouldn't you be?  Just look at it!  I adore summer squash for eating, so I WILL be picking these young, but I am also going to probably leave some to get bigger for ornamental use, because it's a shame to *only* have something so pretty go for food.

The picture on the right is the seed packet- as you can see, it's fairly basic, but I kind of like the design.  I've never seen a black seed packet before.  Not all of their seed packets look like this, as you'll see in the coming weeks- some are white with hand-drawn artwork and more "old timey" font on them.  For once, though, I am actually planning to save the seed packets past the point when they are filled with seeds- so that says something.  I like that they're a bit different.

I will of course try to keep you updated on how this little beauty actually ends up growing, but I can say this is one of the plants I'm really looking forward to trying this year!

curious about my impressions of Baker Creek?  click here for my original post!

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

In an effort to combat the late start I got last year when it came to gardening, I've already gathered most of my seeds and am now in the scheduling mode- later this month I will start a few things indoors, and hope for the best.  We have moved to a different house, but we still have essentially no "sunny" area, though there is a small window in the basement (I know!) I'm going to try to make use of for some of my seedlings.

This year I've primarily ordered from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which is not a catalog/site you want to go to if you're at all fond of "interesting" varieties, heirlooms, or old-timey stuff and would like to avoid spending a huge amount of money.  I am currently awaiting my physical catalog in the mail, but my seeds arrived already and the packaging- as you'll see in my posts about each specific variety- is just to die for.  The prices are not too bad, either, and since I'm still doing square foot gardening (new house has *some* gardening space, but it is still quite limited), even the smallest package (which was a rare watermelon with ~15 seeds) is going to be more than enough for me.

If you peruse the Baker Creek site, you'll find in addition to their wide variety of available seeds, they also have a lot of information about heirloom varieties, gorgeous photos from their pioneer village and headquarters in Missouri.  If I ever make it down there, I'm certainly going to be visiting because it looks like a blast.  I've been following their Facebook Page for a while, so I get wonderful updates about events they host and photos of their harvest throughout the season.  It's really just a wonderful place, as far as I can see.

I will update this post later with photos and more information once I get my physical catalog, which is quite popular as well.