Lettuce seed heads full of aphids

Dang, the backyard lettuce seed heads are full of aphids, so I might just not collect any lettuce seeds this year.

The Great Seed Giveway

Finally got around to purging the seed collection by giving a bunch away to the local buy nothing group.

These were given away:

Basil: Genovese - two packs available (commercial)

Basil: Thai (home-collected)

Bok choy: Bietola (commercial) I find it bolted to seed quickly

Bok choy: unknown variety (home-collected) I find it bolted to seed quickly

Broccoli: Waltham (commercial)

Broccoli: Green Sprouting (commercial)

Carrots: Touchon (commercial)

Carrots: Nantes Scarlet (commercial)

Kale: Premier Forage (commercial)

Kale: Siberian (commercial)

Kale: White Russian (commercial)

Lettuce: Black-seeded Simpson (home-collected)

Lettuce: Tom Thumb Butterhead (commercial)

Malabar spinach: Green Vine - 4 seeds left - can be tricky to grow (commercial)

Parsley: Single Hardy Italian (commercial)

Rosemary: Unnamed variety (commercial)

Swiss Chard: Barese (commercial) - this is a dwarf variety bought last year - very similar to bok choy - I found it bolted to seed very quickly

Tomato: Sweetie - cherry variety (commercial)

Tomato: Rainbow Blend (commercial)

Tomato: miscellaneous cherry variety (home-collected)

Tomato: miscellaneous large variety (home-collected)

Tomato: miscellaneous medium variety (home-collected)

Zucchini: Golden - 3 seeds left (commercial)

Zucchini: Golden Rush - 7 seeds left (commercial)

Zucchini: Ronde de Nice (round) - 4 seeds left (commercial)

Flowers:

Marigold (home-collected)

Nasturtium: Peach Melba (commercial)

Poppy: Oriental Scarlet (home-collected)

Poppy: Oriental Scarlet (commercial)

Poppy: Flanders Field (commercial)

Purple coneflower (home-collected)

Sunflower: Mammoth (commercial)

Sunflower: Mammoth (home-collected)

Sunflower: Evening Sun (commercial)

Sunflower: miscellaneous (home-collected)

These are still left over as of when I'm writing this:

Flowers:

Bidens (home-collected)

Black-eyed Susan (home-collected)

Forget-me-not: cynoglossum amabile -- the flowers are fully blue with a blue centre (not the yellow-center variety) (home-collected) -- I love these and grow them every year from home-collected seed, have lots of seeds so would love to share

Hollyhock (home-collected)

Lupin (home-collected)

Wild evening primrose (home-collected

Seeds to buy for 2024 season (notes during 2023 season)

Stevia (because only ~3 seeds left)

Hollyhock flower(seed) branches placed into yard for birds

Took the long (very long!) hollyhock flower stems off the front plants and put them into the yard in three spots along the west bed, supported by tomato cages (and most cut in half so that they stay upright).  The house sparrows had been eating them when they were out front, so hopefully someone will enjoy them in the yard as well.

So, if holly hocks spring up in the yard next year, this is why!

DISEASE RESISTANCE is priority in choosing varieties this year -- ordered seeds today

Given so many issues with diseases in my garden in recent years, this year I decided to really research varieties and choose ones that indicate some level of disease resistance.

Bought the following today from Johnny's Seeds, after checking out prices at a few online sources:

- Basil:  Prospera (resistant to downy mildew which destroyed my basil in 2021)

- Zucchini:  Golden Glory (intermediate resistance to powdery mildew, watermelon mosaic virus, and zucchini yellow mosaic virus -- powdery mildew being one of the banes of my squash's existence)

- Round zucchini:  Eight Ball (intermediate resistance to powdery mildew, watermelon mosaic virus, and zucchini yellow mosaic virus -- powdery mildew being one of the banes of my squash's existence)

- Tomato (big):  Big Beef Plus (High resistance to Alternaria stem canker, Fusarium crown and root rot, Fusarium wilt races 1 and 2, gray leaf spot, tomato mosaic virus, and Verticillium wilt; and intermediate resistance to nematodes and tomato spotted wilt virus) (various diseases that I'm not sure what exactly they were have affected my tomatoes in recent years -- this variety doesn't list blight, so it will be interesting to see how it does)

- Tomato (cherry):  Jasper (High resistance to late blight; and intermediate resistance to early blight) (various diseases that I'm not sure what exactly they were have affected my tomatoes in recent years -- this variety lists blight but not the other various diseases that the Big Beef Plus lists, so it will be interesting to see how it does)

(I also bought more Bolero carrot as part of the same order, but not because of disease resistance, just because it grew amazingly last year.)

These are ALL F1 hybrids, which at first I balked at, but this post explains that hybrids are not GMOs, and, I have a very limited growing area (especially in 2022 if they end up digging up for the east wall), so since I can't grow extras for buffer or give things lots of room etc., I feel like hybrids may be my best option for now.

Getting excited!

Seeds collected from a so-so forget-me-not

From the front bed.  A decent forget-me-not, but not the best --  Collected these seeds as an insurance policy in case a tragedy were to befall the stunner of a plant (super tall, had so many flowers) before its seeds have a chance to mature.

Snipped/bagged onion seed heads

Snipped off two onion seed heads and placed them in a brown paper bag, where hopefully they will finish drying up and then I can shake the remaining seeds out.  I noticed the individual seed "containers" that were already brown were empty, guess the seeds fell the ground.  Wonder if any will self-seed. 

These seed heads are from one of the onions I started last year from bought seed, which survived the winter and I let just keep growing.  Several other onions are also in flower, but not sure which were from the store-bought onion that I planted a month or two ago, so leaving those ones be.

Seeds started: cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, & onions

Started the first batch of cabbage (Golden Acre), kale (Premier Forage), Brussels sprout (Catskill), and onion (Evergreen Bunching) seeds today, all of which are from the Open Seed Vault set -- here's hoping they'll germinate!   Put 2 seeds in each pot, with the hopes that at least one will do well (the other will be removed). Will start a second batch of them all in a week or two, to try to spread out the harvest a little.  (Well, that's assuming they make it to harvest!)

Soil for indoor seed-starting

I should mention, I'm trying a different approach with indoor seed-starting medium this year.  In past years I always used vermiculite, with several seeds all in one margarine tub, as in Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening book, which was the first how-to gardening book I read.  That was back in the 90s when I had a plot at the Three Sisters Community Garden on University of Ottawa property -- which, sadly, later turned into a shiny new building.

This year, since I was almost out of vermiculite, I figured I'd try something else.  So, this year everything is being started in soil, and, right in their hopefully-one-and-only-indoor-pot, so less transplanting needed.  Each pot will have at least one backup seed in the hopes that at least one will germinate.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have petunias!!!

Look what has popped out of the soil already!  I planted them only 1 week ago; really thought they would take longer.  I guess they liked their little plastic greenhouse.  Now, into the light they go, putting my VSSS to its first plugged-in use.



Nice to have a sign of life and a bright light on a dreary rainy day.

It must be spring! Brand new VSSS, and -- wakey wakey, petunias and tuberous begonias!

Oooooooh, look at my brand new Super-Duper Professional Grade Vertical Seed Starting Structure (VSSS)! 

Actually just a run of the mill metal shelving unit from the hardware store, plus some boot trays to better support the flimsy plastic greenhouse trays, with one of my ancient grow lights hooked up to test it out.  I love it!  So exciting!  Can't wait to get it all filled up with seeds and plantlings soon! 

Alas though, too soon to get much started just yet.  But, I did plant some petunia seeds (my first time trying that), and I'm hoping to wake up last fall's begonia tubers by potting them (my first time trying that, too).   There they are soaking in some rays on the bottom shelf!  Ooooh!  Ahhhh!

Ooooooooh!!!!

Lookie lookie, what a friend gave me!  And just when I had started to wonder if/what I would grow from seed this winter. Now, the possibilities are endless!





Woot!