Monday, January 31, 2011

Dreaming of Spring . . . And My Garden

I should be putting together my shopping list as I've got to get out to the store today, but one of those lovely vegetable/flower catalogs came in the mail today . . . and the spring fever bug hit.

I've spent every spare moment since my kids went down for their nap pouring over the contents of that catalog (and a couple of others) . . . dreaming.


(Just click on the pictures of the catalogs to go the online versions.)

My current all time favorite is from Seed Savers Exchange. They have beautiful pictures (warning: don't peruse this catalog when you're hungry) and they only sell heirloom varieties.

I LOVE heirloom varieties . . . probably 'cause I'm cheap. Oh, and they tend to taste scrumptious. Ya see, heirloom varieties are open pollenated. Which means that I can save seeds from them and they will come back true to type (providing of course that they haven't cross-pollenated with another plant from the same family and therefore will come back as a cross of the two).

Still there are many vegatables that are self pollinating and that don't cross pollinate easily - most tomatoes and beans come quickly to mind. So all my purple podded beans that I grew last year and saved seed from will be replanted in my garden this year. And that is where the CHEAP part comes in. I don't have to continously keep buying seeds. Once I have a particular variety, if I like it, I can just save seeds. Of course, for certain vegatables this requires more work than for others. But that can be another post at a later date.

Okay, now to get some REAL work done.   : )
Posted by Erin @ 1FaithfulSteward at 5:59 PM

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2011 at 12:56 AM

    I really wanna get my garden going this year. :( :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Erin @ 1FaithfulStewardFebruary 2, 2011 at 4:50 PM

    Last year was my second garden at this house. The first year, we tried to put in a garden before we ever moved in. The plants looked nice and green at the end of summer, but were a total of 6 to 12 inches tall (for tomatoes; the basil was a couple inches only). Anyway, we concluded that our soil was lacking . . . Last year, we brought in compost and peat moss. The garden did wonderfully -tomatoes, okra, sunflowers, zucchini, strawberries, green beans, cucumbers (not the best year for these), eggplant, basil, onions, lettuce, cilantro, beets, and radishes. I have great ambitions for this year . . . but we both know how hard it can be to garden with kids. : ) I'll have two little ones that will for sure want to be right beside me. Hmmm . . .

    But we can dream together. : )

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