What’s happening in your garden corner? Last week the weather was so beautiful – I couldn’t wait to get out in the garden. Every morning here in Kansas suburbia I hear the birds in full voice – even today when it is 19F outside as I write. They remind me that there’s a whole world to be explored away from the kitchen, laundry room, and my computer desk. When it’s 19F, I’m sorry, but I’m not rushing out into the garden. Now, when it’s 70F outside that’s a whole other thing; time to warm up my bones and freeze out the last 3 months of chill!
Changeable Weather
It’s hard to believe how warm it was last week; how short the memory is for things like this. On Friday I worked on my raised beds and prepared them for planting. My fingers itched to put in the early, spring seeds. There was only one problem – my nice collection of spring vegetable seed packets had gone AWOL. It was impossible not to plant something; fortunately I have several stashes of older seeds. 2001, 2005, 2006 seeds – in they went. Time will tell whether any of them will see the light of day. Right now, with the shift back to cold weather I’m not expecting miracles anytime soon, but, if it happens, I’ll let you know.
Rain is Great
Warm Kansas weather is almost always followed by rain. It’s the air that comes up from south and the Gulf of Mexico – it’s warm and moist and when it meets the cold air from the north I know the garden will be watered for me. My missing seeds turned up on Saturday, stashed carefully in a nice, small and surprisingly hard to spot, ziploc baggie at the back of the fridge. I got out in the garden again and put in more seeds. Sure enough, within a day or two we had a good amount of rain. It’s too cold for my seeds now, but the grass is greening up.
My Favorite Seeds
I counted my seed packets and I have 43 of them, without having ordered anything new for 2009! Here’s my list of favorites, things which have done well for me in 2008 and previous, from what I’ve planted so far:
- Lettuce, Butterhead Buttercrunch LT392 – a compact lettuce with a tight head which did well for me in the fall. The leaves are delicate and the heart is a little sweet. I’m not sure how it will do here in spring as it gets warm pretty quickly. We’ll see.
- Lettuce, Organic Crisp Mint LT433/L – a romaine lettuce which did well for me both in spring 2008 and in the fall. I love the tall heads on the romaine lettuce. They are mild with a good crunch.
- Dwarf Pac Choi, Ching-Chiang OV578/S – a miniature oriental vegetable which we all loved last fall. Guess what though? I didn’t read the directions until now and it says to plant outside after danger of frost has passed!
- Radish – I don’t have a particular recommendation, but I like the mild ones myself. They all seem to grow well for me. It’s too bad I’m the only one in my family who likes them; I plant them just because I like to give them away to friends and neighbors
The codes are for Territorial Seeds, where I’m fond of shopping. If you remember, my fall experiment with brassicas didn’t go so well for me – it did go well for the caterpillars! I’m keeping the spring greens and kale seeds to try again this fall under the blanket. Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson – the blanket will go on right away next time!
Isn’t gardening a learning process. What lessons have you learned? What’s going on in your garden corner?
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