Last week we ordered a bunch of seeds from Territorial Seed (a local company outside of Eugene, Oregon). I was really excited when I opened the mailbox today and there were our seeds! This is what we ordered:
Beans:
Bingo - Dry shelling bean
Malibu - Pole bean
Dragon Tongue - Bush Bean
Venture - Bush Bean
Soleil - French/Filet Bush Bean
Peas:
Serge - Shelling pea
Super Sugar Snap - Snap pea
Lettuce:
Salad Bowl - Loose-leaf
Italienischer - Loose-leaf
Victoria - Butterhead
Tom Thumb - Butterhead
Jericho - Romaine
Summertime - Crisphead
Onions:
Guardsman - Scallion onion
Carrots:
Parano Hybrid
Baltimore Hybrid
Nantes - These were included for free to promote Plant a Row for the Hungry
Peppers:
Miniature Yellow Bell
Miniature Red Bell
Brussel Spouts:
Roodnerf
Cabbage:
Ruby Ball Hybrid
I am waiting for another order to arrive that we placed with Seed Savers Exchange. That order had Jacob's Cattle beans (dry shelling bean), Pinto beans (another dry shelling bean) and the one I am most excited about - Muscade de Provence (squash). We should get those in about a week.
Some things I like to get as plants from the nursery, so we didn't order seeds for them. They include: Tomatoes, Bell peppers (standard size, we did get seeds for a miniature version), and cucumbers. I still need to get seeds for broccoli, corn and some seed potatoes.
Almost all of the seeds we are getting are open pollinated varieties. This basically means that if I saved the seeds from these certain plants (providing no cross pollination had occurred) that when I planted those seeds the next year that they would grow true to type - or look just like their parents. If I saved the seeds from a hybrid variety, the seeds would either A) be sterile, and nothing would grow or B) Grow to be nothing like its parent plant. Hybrid plants are unable to reproduce themselves like open pollinated plants can (which seems unnatural at best, downright scary at worst - especially since more and more plants that you will find at your local garden center are hybrids). Since saving seed is something that I am interested in doing down the line, I thought it would be wise to start growing as many open pollinated, or heirloom vegetables as I can, to see what ones grow best in our garden, and which varieties I would want to save seed from in the future. I plan on keeping detailed notes :)
We thought that we were going to get a small greenhouse for the backyard but after researching it carefully, we decided that wouldn't be the best option for what we wanted to do. So we are going to set up a seed germination area in the garage to get these little guys underway. We are ordering heat mats, and buying the lighting at home depot, and we are going to be using the workbench in the garage to place all our seed trays on. I am really excited about this, its just another step towards independence to be able to start our own seeds. I have been researching how to start seedlings, Linda lent me a great book on the subject and I took a class on the subject this past weekend. But I wont know how much any of it has helped until we get started...I cant wait!
Beans:
Bingo - Dry shelling bean
Malibu - Pole bean
Dragon Tongue - Bush Bean
Venture - Bush Bean
Soleil - French/Filet Bush Bean
Peas:
Serge - Shelling pea
Super Sugar Snap - Snap pea
Lettuce:
Salad Bowl - Loose-leaf
Italienischer - Loose-leaf
Victoria - Butterhead
Tom Thumb - Butterhead
Jericho - Romaine
Summertime - Crisphead
Onions:
Guardsman - Scallion onion
Carrots:
Parano Hybrid
Baltimore Hybrid
Nantes - These were included for free to promote Plant a Row for the Hungry
Peppers:
Miniature Yellow Bell
Miniature Red Bell
Brussel Spouts:
Roodnerf
Cabbage:
Ruby Ball Hybrid
I am waiting for another order to arrive that we placed with Seed Savers Exchange. That order had Jacob's Cattle beans (dry shelling bean), Pinto beans (another dry shelling bean) and the one I am most excited about - Muscade de Provence (squash). We should get those in about a week.
Some things I like to get as plants from the nursery, so we didn't order seeds for them. They include: Tomatoes, Bell peppers (standard size, we did get seeds for a miniature version), and cucumbers. I still need to get seeds for broccoli, corn and some seed potatoes.
Almost all of the seeds we are getting are open pollinated varieties. This basically means that if I saved the seeds from these certain plants (providing no cross pollination had occurred) that when I planted those seeds the next year that they would grow true to type - or look just like their parents. If I saved the seeds from a hybrid variety, the seeds would either A) be sterile, and nothing would grow or B) Grow to be nothing like its parent plant. Hybrid plants are unable to reproduce themselves like open pollinated plants can (which seems unnatural at best, downright scary at worst - especially since more and more plants that you will find at your local garden center are hybrids). Since saving seed is something that I am interested in doing down the line, I thought it would be wise to start growing as many open pollinated, or heirloom vegetables as I can, to see what ones grow best in our garden, and which varieties I would want to save seed from in the future. I plan on keeping detailed notes :)
We thought that we were going to get a small greenhouse for the backyard but after researching it carefully, we decided that wouldn't be the best option for what we wanted to do. So we are going to set up a seed germination area in the garage to get these little guys underway. We are ordering heat mats, and buying the lighting at home depot, and we are going to be using the workbench in the garage to place all our seed trays on. I am really excited about this, its just another step towards independence to be able to start our own seeds. I have been researching how to start seedlings, Linda lent me a great book on the subject and I took a class on the subject this past weekend. But I wont know how much any of it has helped until we get started...I cant wait!