Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Seeds Are Here!

I ordered from Pinetree Garden Seeds as I usually do mainly because they are cheap and their seeds always germinate for me (what more do you need?).  I didn't order a lot of things because I still have a lot of seeds here and I mainly just wanted to get the tomatoes seeds since they have to be started so early here. It is supposed to be 70 degrees F here today and tomorrow. We don't seem to be having any winter this year which means the ticks and the plant eating bugs will likely be terrible next summer. 
Anyway, I'll start with the things that aren't tomatoes: Greyzini Summer Squash. This is the only zucchini that ever produced a few squash in my garden and I hope it will do well in the raised beds. It is a hybrid. No, I don't buy all heirlooms/open-pollinated all the time. I also got Dinosaur Kale, also knows as Tuscan Black or Lacinato. I normally grow just Red Russian Kale but have wanted to try this one for a while. It is, of course, an heirloom variety.
The rest are all tomatoes: 
Gold Nugget  is a small determinate yellow tomato that I bought for the hanging baskets that hang from the porch. I may start a few in other containers as well. 
Taxi is another determinate tomato that is a bright yellow. I have grown it before and I was not real impressed with the flavor but Phil liked it quite a lot so I am growing it again for him. It is an early maturing tomato which we need here because once our real heat and humidity sets in everything suffers. 
Tip Top is a small red tomato with a little tip on the bottom. Also a determinate. These tomatoes are good in salads and have thick walls and low water content which makes them good for tomato paste and sauces as well. I have grown this one before too but can't remember how well it did. 
Martinos Roma is our heirloom tomato this year. It is supposed to be a very good producer and also determinate as well. Being a roma it is, of course, a good paste/sauce tomato. 

These are all the seeds I will likely order this year. The rest I will get at the store. I will probably buy a few Celebrity or Patio tomato plants since they always have done well in my garden. I still have some Cubanelle seed for peppers. We do not like a particularly thick walled pepper which makes these ideal (if I can just get them to produce). I have had no luck with any type of sweet pepper in the garden for the last two years though the jalapeno peppers grow just fine.

I have already planted some leftover pea seeds (Little Marvel which grows only 2 ft tall) and some snow peas in the raised bed in the back yard. The raised bed is where I will likely put radishes, onions, spinach and kale since they did so well there last year.

I'll leave you with current picture of the garden beds that actually have something growing in them.



8 comments:

  1. Becky, Your site doesn't give a location, but it is obviously warmer than my mountains. The raised beds looks wonderful for late December!

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  2. We are in Thomson, GA. It used to show where we are from. I don't know what happened to that.

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  3. New seeds much be so exciting. I'm currently debating if I'm going to order to buy from the store, and what I'm going to buy as seed or as plants. I'm just starting this whole vegetable gardening thing, so I guess we'll see how ambitious I feel!

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  4. I used to buy most everything from the store until I realized the seed catalogs had a lot more variety but nothing wrong with buying from the store.

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  5. Glad to see that someone else is as obsessed with tomatoes as I am! I ordered my seed potatoes yesterday, so that is another annual milestone passed...

    Your brassicas certainly look healthy - and they have got some sunshine too. We've had precious little of that recently.

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  6. Well, I said this was going to be all I was going to order and then last night I ordered a few more things from a different company, lol. I can't help it. If it says it produces prolifically, I just really have to try it. I don't believe I will even try potatoes this year unless I find some good containers to try them in. I am really trying to limit myself to what I know will grow and keep the experimenting to a minimum this year. I tend to overcrowd things if I don't.

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  7. Beautiful winter garden! Happy New Year!

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