New Seeds For The Garden

JOI CHOI × 1 SEED / 1 gram RED BARON × 1 SEED / 1/2 gram SIMPSON ELITE LETTUCE × 1 ORGANIC SEED / 1/2 gram ITALIENISCHER LETTUCE × 1 ORGANIC SEED / 1/2 gram HEAT TOLERANT LETTUCE MIX × 1 ORGANIC SEED / 4 grams SWEET BASIL × 1 SEED / 1/2 gram DILL, DUKAT × 1 SEED / 2 grams CONFETTI CORIANDER × 1 SEED / 1 gram CRUISER CORIANDER× 1 SEED / 1 gram

It’s mostly fill-in for what’s been used up over the last few years. Looking at the weights, it’s a lot smaller quantities per variety than we’ve historically purchased. In retrospect it might have been better to buy some larger amounts.

For some other things, we’ve been setting a few aside and drying the pods — Fortex beans, Rattlesnake beans, and Super Sugar Snap peas, and replanting with “seeds” from the previous year. We also let some cross-section of the Guardsman bunch onions (scallions) go to seed so those are self-sustaining as well. We used to have Red Barons but I must have failed to propagate those, so more are on the way.

We’ve tried Bok Choi and Pak Choi in the past and those always got wiped out by bugs. We’ve tried row covers and organic pest solutions and neither really helped. I see other people succeeding so it must be possible. It’s worth a cheap try.

I’m going to hang some of the heat-averse herbs and lettuces in planters under the west-facing edge of the 2nd story deck, both to avoid the worst of the sun, and to keep squirrels from digging everything up. If at the end of the summer I feel smarter than the squirrels then it’ll be a win. I may add shade cloth around or over the hanging planters, though that might be too much shade in total. I’m always trying to increase our yield on lettuces and “under the edge of the deck” is one more thing to try.

Now that I think about it — Maybe under the north-facing side of the deck would work better. No direct hot sun during the day.