Learn with recipes

Good seeds, and true, you must have if your garden is to attain that highest success which should be our aim. Seeds vary greatly - very much more so than the beginner has any conception of. There are three essentials; if seeds fail in any one of them, they will be rendered next to useless. First, they must be true; selected from good types of stock and true to name; then they must have been good, strong, plump seeds, full of life and gathered from healthy plants; and finally, they must be fresh. It is therefore of vital importance that you procure the best seeds that can be had, regardless of cost. Poor seeds are dear at any price; you cannot afford to accept them as a gift. It is, of course, impossible to give a rule by which to buy good seed, but the following suggestions will put on the safe track. First, purchase only of some reliable mail-order house; do not be tempted, either by convenience or cheapness, to the gaily lithographed packets displayed in grocery and hardware stores at planting time - as a rule they are not reliable; and what you want for your good money is good seed, not cheap ink. Second, buy of seedsmen who make a point of growing and testing their own seed. Third, to begin with, buy from several houses and weed out to the one which proves, by actual results, to be the most reliable.

Yes, its time to be ordering your seeds, if you havent already! We just finished up this week, leaving only the potatoes and sweet potatoes to be determined. Ive said a lot about ordering seeds before, here and here, and I wont get into describing all the seed suppliers again. Go and check them out through the links..

Once again, let me draw your attention to the Seeds of Diversity site. Their list of available varieties in Canada is a wonderful resource.

We are definitely slowing down on the ordering of 60 gazillion different seeds each year; after 3 years gardening some distinct favourites are starting to emerge. Also, we bought a lot of seed last year and still have much of it. The big exception is beans; the heirloom varieties tend to come in small packets. I would have saved seed, but we had a bean virus in the garden last year, so we are ordering new this year. And of course, there are always a few things we just have to try.

From Heritage Harvest, we are trying a lot of beans: Desoronto Potato Bean, Dolloff Bean, Mennonite Purple Striped (a local heirloom for me!), Annelino Yellow and Early Riser. Were also going to have a go at Listada de Gandia eggplant, Weavers Mennonite Stuffing pepper, and Gaspé Flint corn.

From Cottage Gardener, we are getting Cherokee Trail of Tears bean, Chervena Chuska, Sweet Chocolate, Fish, and Orange Thai peppers, Guatamalan Blue squash, Patisson Panache Verte et Jaune summer squash, Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon, Country Gentleman and Double Standard corn and Australian Brown onions.

From Annapolis Seeds we are getting First & Best #2 and Misty peas, Purple Peacock beans, Musquee de Provence and White Bush Lebanese squash. We just sent him off a cheque, but I notice he is getting set up to start taking PayPal orders which will make things much easier there.

From Prairie Garden Seeds, True Red Cranberry and Grandma Nellies beans, St. Hubert dried peas, Costata Romanesco squash, Orchard Baby and Simonet corn.

From Ontario Seed Company, Chioggia and Early Wonder beets (starting to look like staples for us), Sweetness III carrots, Hollow Crown Improved parnips, White Vienna Kohlrabi, and our old fave, Early Yellow Globe onions.

From William Dam, Spaghetti Squash, Sun Sugar tomatoes, Groninger Blue leaf cabbage (like collards, I guess), Imperial Star artichokes, DeCicco broccoli, and Harris Model parsnips.

The main new seed supplier for us this year is Hope Seeds in Nova Scotia, from whom we have ordered Red Express cabbage, Jaune de Doubs carrot, Gilfeather rutabaga, Golden Midget watermelon (totally an impulse purchase) and Golden Grex beets (ditto). They have some very interesting stuff here, including a lot of east-coast heirlooms. Our main object here was to get the Red Express cabbage. We got seeds for it last year from Gretas Organic Seeds, but alas, not a one germinated. Hope its not a system-wide problem.

That just left King of the Garden lima beans from Stokes (had to throw in some Painted Mountain corn and Jersey Giant asparagus too), and Santa Clara Canner tomatoes from Upper Canada Seeds.

So you see, this year we are really restraining ourselves on the new variety front! Hardly a single new, experimental item! So, yeah, when you stop laughing here are some more links for you, to my latest time-waster: old gardening books on line. The following 4 are probably worth dipping into:

The Plain Path to Good Gardening, by Samuel Wood. (1871)

Vegetable Gardening, by Samuel B. Green. (First published in 1901.)

Vegetable Gardening, Ralph, L. Watts (First published in 1911; also, written as a textbook and more technical and detailed than the others.)

Sweet Potato Culture, James Fritz, (1886) Short and, er, sweet!

Oh hey, and let me add: Squashes, and How to Grow Them, James J. H. Gregory, 1867.

And also, The Field & Garden Vegetables of America, Fearing Burr, 1865

What exciting things are you growing this year? Seriously, Id like to hear!

Were in the garden, of course. Thats not us above; those are some turkey vultures that were hanging around in the garden this morning. Weve often seen them circling above, but theyve never landed this close before. They are usually very wary birds. They disappeared once we went out and got to work.


Mr. Ferdzy has invested in a drip irrigation system and he is testing it out. He made an idle comment that he might guest-post about it once it has been in long enough to get an idea of how it works. I will probably hold him to that. One less post for me to do!


And there he is again. Work, work, work. Ive decided he is like the Energizer Bunny. I, on the other hand am definitely Flopsy.

Most of the potatoes are now planted. And yes, we are planning to dig 2 more beds there. Because we are keeping up so well with the ones we already have, ha ha.


More planted potatoes, along with garlic, and in the next bed still too tiny to see, carrots and onions.


The peas that we planted in March (March!!!) came up nicely then decided that had probably been a mistake. Fortunately they are tough and they can take it. They hunkered down and sat there until last week, when they decided it was probably safe to start growing again. They have tripled in size since then and will be climbing the trellises shortly.


Last years new wet beds are a discouraging mess of weeds. Not in any way unexpected. We think it will take at least 3 or 4 years to get them into good condition. The afternoon was spent weeding one, and dumping composted manure on it. Well add a little of the sandy topsoil from the higher parts of the garden, then plant it with celeriac and celery.


And, no kidding, we planted our peppers. We will keep them under the hoophouse for a week or 2 as needed, but there is no frost forecast for the next 2 weeks and then we are past the expected last frost date. They were getting large, floppy and starting to want to form blossoms so it is great to get them out of our plant room, leaving more room for the tomatoes.

So there it is; not much cooking going on. This is a difficult time of year anyway. Potatoes and other stored things getting sprouty, new things just starting to grow. Well be picking some asparagus this week with a bit of luck and maybe some rhubarb too. Spinach still going strong, in fact it is going to seed. Lettuce is up and starting to look a bit leafy. Lots of things to look forward to!