Renee's Garden / More Starters!

Like I posted before, I started four Renee's Garden Spitfire Nasturtiums on February 26th. I planted these in roughly 2 in. x 2 in. x 4 in. (depth) pots using a mixture of Black Gold potting soil and cheaper, sandy garden soil. I left two seeds alone while nicking the other two. The ones that I nicked have each come up while only one of the others is barely poking out of the soil. The first one germinated in about 8 days, which would beat what it says on the back of the seed packet by one day (it says '9-12 days').

To the right, I have created a quick and easy reference point to when I started the Spitfires. Time permitting, I will plant these in several different ways, times, locations, and perhaps even different soils.

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More Starters! I went to work one day and came back to discover that Julia planted 7 (SEVEN!) egg cartons of seeds. This was probably two or three days ago.


Egg Carton #2 (as we already have a Egg Carton #1): Marigold, R.G. Rose Cosmos, Purple Dahlia Zinnia, Bright Lights Cosmos, Mixed Zinnia (two of each kind, four mixed zinnias)

Egg Carton #3: Cali Poppy Orange, Mikado Cali Poppy, Tall Shasta Daisy, Larkspur, Lobelia White Lady and Crystal Palace (two of each kind)

Egg Carton #4: Delphinium, Cosmos, Blue Love in a Mist, Snapdragons (multiples)

Egg Carton #5: Celeriac di Praga (celery root, the whole carton)

Egg Carton #6: Scented Basil Trio, Victorian Blue Sage, Lemon Bergamot

Egg Carton #7: Tomatoes, Bradywine, Yellow Taxi, Yellow Pear (2008), Yellow Pear (2009), Purple Cherokee

Egg Carton #8: Peppers,Criolla Sella, Aji Amarillo, Bolivian Rainbow, Tangerine Pimento

Some of the above seeds are from R.G., some from Abbo, and some (snaps, purple cherokee, some cosmos) were harvested by us.

The other egg carton (#1) is doing well. The snaps, basil, cosmos, blue love, morning glory, arugula, forellenschluss, swiss chard, and yellow pear are all coming up. The only ones not germinated yet are basil, lucullus chard, and aji amarillo. In the pots, everything is up except for one nasty, one chard, and the cilantro.

I have started to put the chard and some of the lettuce outside during the day to harden off. I would like to put these in the ground in a week or two. I know that I still will have to worry about a snow storm or two but perhaps I can figure out how to cover them quickly and easily if necessary. These plants should be okay outside in March in Colorado.

Seeds

Got a Seed Savers Exchange catalog today, made a little wish list.

Please let me know if you see any red flags or if anyone has grown any of these varieties.

Tomatoes: German Pink, Isis Candy, Moonglow, Nebraska Wedding, Purple Russian, Purple De Milpa

Watermelon: Golden Midget, Moon and Stars (Cherokee)

Pepper: Fish

Lettuce: Lettuce Mixture of Amish Deer Tongue, Australian Yellowleaf, Bronze Arrowhead, Forellenschluss, Lollo Rossa Pablo, Red Velvet, Reine des Glaces

We also plan to grow purple cherokee, yellow pear, green zebra, brandywine, and marvel stripe tomatoes.

It's Cold Outside

Since it is currently 3 degrees outside and there is about 3-4 inches of fresh snow on the ground, I'll use this opportunity to be productive with some gardening housecleaning.

First, a list of seeds that we have currently: purple cherokee, chadwick cherry, green zebra, marvel stripe, brandywine, yellow pear cherry, yellow taxi, garlic, mammoth okra, rossa di milano, yellow valencia, lucullus chard, violet wave kale, elephant head amaranth, love lies bleeding amaranth, aji amarillo pepper, criolla sella pepper, bolivian rainbow, tangerine pimento, merlot, arugula, green leaf oak, forellenschluss, claremont, hyper red rumple, bright light cosmos, pink and magenta cosmos, nigella blue love in a mist, snapdragons, hollyhocks, dill, mixed greens, cilantro, (the rest are either old or there are not too many left or we haven't had luck in the past, 'others') radicchio, onion, yellow watermelon, delphinium, blue/red/yellow poppy, lemon cucumber, blue sage, lemon bergamot, blue ballat squash, butternut, hopi maxima squash, celeriac di praga, morning glory, stripped toga eggplant, sunflowers, purple dahlia zinnia, mixed zinnia, rainbow inca corn, hopi black blean, garbanzo bean, flageolet bean.

One seed that we do not have any of is rainbow chard. There are a few others on the wish list as well. We will have to obtain these seeds from either Johnny's, Seeds of Change, or Abbondanza.

We also have several different kinds of potatoes (fingerlings, purple peruvian, etc.) in the fridge that we will try to plant.

Harvesting seeds is something we will try to focus on more this year.