Seed List

I guess i was slepping last night when I posted about the seeds, so below is a list of whats new this year.

• Mary Washington Asparagus
• Green Globe Artichoke
• Yellow and Green Bush Bean
• Tall Telephone Pea
• Glaskins Perpetual Rhubarb
• Vegetable Marrow Squash
• Vegetable Spaghetti Squash
• Black Pearl Soy Beans
• Yin Yang Beans
• Early Pink & Calico Popcorn
• Chichiquelite Huckleberry
• Emerald Gem Melon
• Scaly Bark Watermelon
• Striped Stuffing Tomato
• Virgina Peanuts
• Jerusalem Artichoke
• Bull's Blood Beet
• Indigo
• Black Hollyhock
• Golden Margerite
• Wild Indigo
• Safflower
• Chinese Woad
• Flax
• Milk Weed
• Erlene's Green Cotton
• Mississippi Brown Cotton
• Bo-Tree
• Rainbow Mix Aster
• Pacific Beauty & Pink Surprise Calendula
• Halequin Marigold
• Farinacea Blue Bedder Salvia
• Music Box Sunflower
• Kong Sunflower
• Chinese Latern

Seed Starting Time

First i need to apologize for not blogging about my seeds this year. After last years disastrous results I guess it wasn't that important, but then it is since I haven't given up and have started my seeds this year and got lots of new ones back in January.

Something that I learned last year was to start not only the cool weather veggies yearly, but also start the perennial and herb seeds early. Last year some of them didn't even germinate and the rest were small when I planted them out side and didn't even survive. If there are any that don't come up then I can start them again and see if I can get them to germinate. If not then I just can't grow that stubborn plant, so it the plants lose any way.

Some new seeds that I got this year are asparagus, artichokes, rhubarb, scaly bark watermelon, melon, peanuts, some new dye herbs. I got milk weed, because I found out that you can use it to spin flax. I know what your thinking the seed fluff, nope that is to brittle and will break down of time. But it has been used for stuffing in life jackets so they will float. I'm told the fiber are hallow and that is the reason they work. The part that you use in spinning is the stem, you don't have to rett the stem after they are dry. You can bend the dry stems to realise the outer casing and expose the inner fiber, then you hackle it like flax.

I'm also going to try Jerusalem artichokes, they are not here yet since I could only get they tubers. I would suspect that the will arrive just in time for planting. We shall wait and see.

I also got a soil test kit just to make sure the soil at the farm is alive. Not so much alive because there are plenty of worms in it in the spring when I plant. I guess I just want to make sure everything is in the ranges they are supposed to be at. Since they farm was turned in to a nursery there are a lot of full grown trees and bushes. They may have taken a lot of the nutrients out of the soil. I can't do any tests though since the mountain is still covered in about six inches of snow. They are saying that its going up into the fifties this weekend I hope so then I can get some soil sample and plan out the garden this year.

I've been stalling on the planning out, until I know how many plants and what soil amendment I may have to do. Amending the is the problem so much as knowing how many plant I will have.

More Seeds Planted

Today was seed planting day. I got all my summer seeds sowed and in there warm little incubators so they can germinate. A total of 36 different varieties of plants in 4 flats of 72 cells per flat, that a total of 288 seeds that I sowed today that’s a lot. I do have a couple of more trays to plant yet one for the front yard of the house and one for a garden near the vegetable garden. I have to wait for the seed I planted today to germinate so I have room for the next two trays. Below I have a list of all the seeds I planted if you would like to check it out.

• Delivious Tomato
• Principe Borgehese Tomato
• Chrimson Cushion Tomato
• Amish Paste Tomato
• French Marigold
• Parsley
• Basil
• Nastrium
• Pomigranate
• Egg Plant
• Dill
• Cheese Pepper
• Paprika Pepper
• Cayanne Pepper
• Hungerian Black Pepper
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Sesame
• Thyme
• Oregano
• Amaranth
• Indigo
• Woad
• Henna
• Weld
• Dyers Broom
• Fullers Teasel
• Eucalyptus
• 2 Variaties of Zinnia
• Ipomosis Rubra
• Kiss me over the garden gate
• Snapdragon
• Cosmos

The Children are here

My little seedling children arrived, If you believe this or not on Friday the 13th. Most of them took only three days to germinate, the celery and soap wart are being suborn in when they wish to be born. While I was checking in on everyone today I did notice what looked like some celery pocking through. So we will give it a few days to see what happens.

The first set of pictures are from last Friday when they started showing there little leaves. The second set of pictures was taken today. So they will be a week old tomorrow and are doing really well.

In the nest few days I will be getting the rest of my seed in the ground so they can sprout. These seeds will be the summer veggies. Such as tomatoes, peppers, herbs, ect. As they grow and develop I will blog about them as well.

Seed Germination

Now that I have my shelves and lights up Wednesday was seed planting day. I do realize for the area that I live in I should have started my cool weather seeds earlier. That just wasn’t a reality this year so I got them in on Wednesday.

I started celery, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, soap wart and cotton. I know what your saying the list of seeds that I post back in January didn’t have cotton in it. Ya’ I know that’s because the supplier couldn’t send them to me. So I had to search for a new supplier and I found one that would send them to PA. So I have green cotton and brown cotton. Yes cotton comes in a natural green and brown, no dyeing necessary. I do know that cotton is a hot weather plant but I was reading up on it and I found out it could take up to three weeks to germinate. So I wanted to get that started now to give it a little extra time.

So after they come up I will post all about how they are doing.

Seed Starting System

What has been taking me so long to get my seeds started is I needed a self and lighting system. So Tuesdays project was just that, we went out and got the wood for the shelves and I picked up the lights on Monday and we put it all together on Tuesday.

The shelves are eight feet tall; I used 1” by 3” for the uprights. The rest of the lumber is 1” by 2” for the side brasses, shelf supports and self slates. The construction was very easy; I have the shelves over a desk so the first self had to be 40” from the floor. The rest of the shelves are 20” apart. This is for room to move the light up as the plants get bigger.

The cost of the shelves was $18.00 for the wood; I already had a box of screws from other projects so they were free. But if I had to buy some I think they would be about ten dollars for the box, depending on the type that you are going to get. The lights were $45.00 total the one light cost $10.00 the other $15.00. The $15.00 light guarantees that it will turn on in -20 degree weather. I really didn’t need that guarantee but they were all out of the $10.00 lights except for the one I bought. The bulbs were $10.00 a pack and I had to buy two packs; I did buy a pack of warm fluorescents and cool fluorescents. This will give me a full spectrum of light or as close to humanly possible, that is.

The last two things were the hooks to hang the lights from which cost $3.00 a pack of four and a timer for the lights to come on by them selves at $4.00. So for $70.00 I have an in door green house. That sure beats the hundred or hundreds of dollar ones you see in the catalogs.