Gardening in the Blind

Garden Planning

I fell behind this year planning my garden, but I can tell you I am finally done ordering.  This year was a little more money as I was not that good at saving any tomato seeds except for the Radiator Charlie.  I didn’t have any to use for this year.  It was unbelievable as it was the first time that I was out of seeds for them.  I guess it happens.

I decided to change it up a bit for where I purchased the seeds.  I chose to try to stay more local for the most part, however I did order a fair amount from Baker Creek Heirloom.  I ordered 14 different tomato seeds, ground cherries, mixed greens, sweet peppers and tomatillos, radishes and more.  I wanted to make sure that I gave Baker Creek some business as they do a great job protecting seeds and will test them to make sure that each seed was non-gmo.  I feel that the fact that they are actively protecting the heirloom seeds is worth supporting.

Next I explored Comstock, Ferre and Co.  This is located in CT, under an hour away from me.  They are owned by Baker Creek Heirloom.  This seed company has been around for over 200 years.  They were having to close the doors when Baker Creek purchased them to keep the company going.  What came with that was an invaluable amount of documentation, history, seeds and more.  I find it amazing to read the catalog where it shares descriptions found back in the 1800′s and I can still order them.  Going to the store is fun as well.  With all the equipment that they found, they have a kind of museum showcasing how they would sort the seeds, count them etc.  They still use some at the store today.  So I ordered hot peppers, herbs, celeric, kale, cucumbers, beans, parsnips as well as a could squash plants.  I will be blogging about them after I get them started.

I ordered from a new company as well this year.  High Mowing Organic Seeds located in VT is a great family business that has amazingly fast shipping!  I ordered Arugula, more beans, carrots, more cucumbers, more greens, more hot peppers, more herbs and lastly more tomatoes from them.  I hope it is all fantastic as I would love to give them more business next year.

Lastly was two of the oldie but goodies – Johnny Seeds in Maine and Richter’s in Canada.  Richter’s I always order a leek plug tray (12 plugs) as well as any herbs I want to start this year.  I will be having more room this year in my herbal area, so I was excited to be able to get new as well as my hopefully great raised bed in my front that I will be building first thing this spring.  Johnny’s is where I order misc. seeds, shallots and onions.  I can’t wait for spring.  I think that the mild winter we are having has made my spring fever worse as it isn’t that cold, but it is not warm either.  I just want to plant!

I will be working hard to get rid of the mice I have this year and preparing the basement for planting in the next couple of weeks.  I plan on starting my planting earlier this year – mid February with herbs, tomatoes started at the end of February.  It is amazing to be able to go downstairs in my little green oasis waiting for spring!

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