I think God has spoken to my weaknesses is giving me this love of gardening. My personality of anal-retentive-perfectionism is quickly lost in gardening, because as all gardeners know, 'perfection' (heck, even mild success) can be impossible.
There are weeds. And spiders. Sometimes plants die. Sometimes they are eaten by worms. And sometimes, despite your greatest effort, the tomatoes fail to set fruit.
Oh, did I mention sometimes your cantaloupes get run over by the lawn mower?
Gardening is not the type of hobby you do to feel good about yourself (although there are sweet rewards!). It is a hobby that will surely humble you before our Creator.
Who knew we could be outsmarted by these guys?
As I prepare to order seeds for our 2012 garden, I'm working very hard at thinking properly before I order, applying what I've learned these past few years:
- In our short-season climate (North Central Washington), we need short season varieties.
- Novelty items are fun to grow, but I've got limited space. I want to provide the majority of our produce, and therefore, must stick with growing more of the things we eat daily.
- Healthy soil. Healthy soil. Healthy soil. I've heard it said once that gardeners harvest vegetables but grow healthy soil - how true this is. I took extra time this year to mix chicken compost, horse manure, leaves, and straw into our beds but springtime will still bring more work!
When I began gardening, I found it helpful to have someone point me in the right direction for seeds, so I wanted to share with you the company I have ordered from for the past few years. We touched on them a little bit last year, which you can read about here. Seed Savers specializes in heirloom seeds, which we all know, aren't the easiest to grow. I must have self-destructive tenancies. That being said, the selection and taste are wonderful.
Here's a list of the specific varieties we will be growing this year, to light your gardening fire:
Arugula: Apollo
Bean: Provider, Pencil Pod Golden Wax, Ideal Market
Beets: Detroit Dark Red, Burpee's Golden
Cabbage: Copenhagen Market
Carrot: Danvers
Parsnips: Andover
Pea: Amish Snap
Spinach: America
Cucumbers: Double Yield, Bushy
Eggplant: Listada de Gandia, Black Beauty
Lettuce: Seed Savers Mixture (Australian Yellowleaf, Forellenschuss, Pablo, Red Velvet, Yugoslavian Red Butterhead, Slobolt...)
Zucchinis: Black Beauty
Squash: Waltham Butternut
Kale: Dwarf Blue Curled, Lacinato
Melon: Hearts of Gold, Amish
Peppers: Sweet Chocolate, Napolean Sweet, King of the North
Potatoes: Yukon Gold (ordered from The Maine Potato Lady)
Onions: Stuttgarter, from sets (ordered from The Maine Potato Lady)
Garlic & shallots, already planted
Herbs: Basil, dill, cilantro, thyme, rosemary, sage, green onions, mint, etc.
The only variety of vegetable I haven't figured out yet is the tomatoes. Early Girl? Gold Metal? Seed Savers has so many choices and even offers the option of purchasing transplants for some of the varieties. Though I've never started a tomato plant from seed, I'm kind of itching to give it a try. What do you think? Are there any other short-season growers out there who have a favorite variety of tomato we should try?
Also - do I have any readers in the southern region of Mississippi? What's gardening like down there? Is it possible to grow citrus? Or artichokes? Is raw milk legal?
You never know where the Lord will take us, I'm just trying to be prepared. Send help.
How's YOUR 2012 garden coming?
Still need inspiration? WATCH THIS!!!!!!!!!
Shaye,
ReplyDeleteI love this. My hubby just wrote a short snippet about not being able to grow anything- he works all day in the field and we have plenty growing, but it's truly God who does it. It's incredibly humbling and miraculous to see seeds turn into fruit! I'm impressed that you have such a large garden! We live in SC and we're in the same 'planting zone' as Southern MI (according to this map: http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/) Raw milk is legal here (not in GA and I don't know about MI) we have a couple of citrus plants and are planning on more- we had an awesome grapefruit tree in our front yard about an hour away from the farm we are renting now... our friends grow lemons and oranges... it's not Florida, but it works.
TOMATOES: We love us some tomatoes. :)
My favorite are Cherokee Purple- delicious and beautiful. We are also growing: glacier, moskovich and brandywine beefsteak. Last year we had many more varieties, but we're sticking with these. We're starting from seed in the hoop house. If you have a cold frame that will help get your tomatoes started and give them fighting chance to produce fruit before the cold gets them. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with official short season varieties. We also use Seed Savers Exchange. Johnny's and Southern Exposure are good companies too. They all have the same goal: to keep our seeds from becoming GMO. :)
Are you sure God's not leading to Savannah, GA or Charleston, SC or Hampton, SC in between both? Let me know if He does. :)
I'm afraid my comment is going to be longer than your blog. Peace.
Please consider planting some Southern cowpeas. So many people who do not live in the South are unaware of the delicious black-eyed or purple-hull pea. They are my favorite vegetable, maybe...but who can really pick a favorite vegetable or favorite child? I buy a bag of grocery store dried black-eyes and just plant them; they are always wonderful and prolific, and they are fantastic cooked fresh with just some garlic powder and salt, or they can be canned very easily. They are good cooked from the dry ones, but I really LOVE the fresh or home canned ones. I've never dried them, but they can be. Just shell and cook some till tender, (pick when the pod is fat, but not dry and shells easily) serve with a pan of cornbread, and you'll have a feast. If you add sliced tomatoes, onions, and something like fried squash (just dip slices in egg, then corn meal and fry till browned and serve with ketchup), ...oh, my! I live in zone 7 in Texas, but I think they would have time in your zone if you plant as soon as frost is over.
ReplyDeleteShaye, We live in Southern Louisiana (very similar to Southern Miss.) We can grow just about anything well.. except cherries and apples. (This has been my experience, our summers are just too hot). I have an orange tree and lemon tree and they do very well. My in-laws grow delicious peaches and blackberries. We also have blueberries, green beans, butter beans, merit corn, cucumbers galore, yellow squash, tomatoes, loads of peppers, various greens, onions, etc. The good thing about the deep south is a long growing season, but you do omit several plants that cannot handle the scorching summer sun down here. I have never tried artichokes... We would just be a few hours from Southern Miss...come on over and I'll fix you a shrimp and crab gumbo ;-)
ReplyDeleteHere's a tool to help you find raw milk.
ReplyDeletehttp://realmilk.com/where01.html
Here's a tool to help find various grass-fed meats.
http://www.eatwild.com/
My sunny spot is actually under some pine trees, but I've managed jerusalem artichokes, okra, squash, some puny garlic, oregano, parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, chard, honeydew, mint, and whatever other interesting stuff comes up in the compost pile. Also, I think some birds helped out by planting some blackberries. By the back fence, poke and lamb's quarter came up on their own. These last three can often be foraged in Arkansas (neighbor to MS). Muscadines can sometimes be found in the wild, and spring onions, and persimmon, and a lot more.
Best to you wherever you land.
brenda from ar
Hi Shaye,
ReplyDeleteIm from Louisiana about 45min from mississippi state line. One good plus is the long growing season, put it gets difficult sometimes like this summer with a drought and the intense heat. We have fruit trees and blueberries, and lots of veggies. I grew swiss chard and some pak choi for the first time in my fall garden, this was my first attempt at growing a year round garden, and was very pleased. Check out my blog i too love gardening and putting up what we grow. I did cross over into Mississippi to buy raw goat milk and that was legal,im not sure about cows milk, i know in Louisiana any raw milk is ilegal. I hate that.
I'd like to second the Cherokee Purple tomatoes - they are my favorite, and they grow well here in CT, which is also a short season state. Tomatoes are easy to start from seed. I start mine in late March under lights in the basement, and move them to the front porch in early May. If frost threatens, I cover them with an old quilt overnight and they do fine. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteI live in south Alabama. We grow satsumas (citrus) here, and they are great! I'm almost positive they grow these in Mississippi as well.
ReplyDeleteLanie
South Louisiana here! I would second the purple hull peas! Check out "the bayou gardener", he has a lot of info about gardening in this area. Also, I was looking into raw milk a while back. From what I found, goats milk is legal in Miss, but not cows milk. Gardening is great here, year 'round gardens are such a gift!!
ReplyDelete