I've had seed catalogs stacking up on the shelf of my coffee table for months now. Finally, it is nearing mid-March and I'm ready to order seeds. So far, my order is going to be through Seed Savers, a favorite heirloom seed source that I've ordered from in the past - always with nice results.
Limerick wants to make pickles this summer, so we're ordering A&C Pickling Cucumbers. Dill self seeds here virgorously, so I haven't had to order that in years! *grin* I am planning to order the Seed Savers Lettuce Mixture which includes Amish Deer Tongue, Austrailian Yellowleaf, Bronze Arrowhead, Forellenschuss, Lollo Rossa, Pablo, Red Velvet and Reine des Glace. It sounds delicious and colorful. I can hardly wait for a summer salad!
I am going to try growing soybeans as an experiment. They are grown commercially in my state, so I am imagine they will grow well here. The variety I'm going to try is called "Envy." This is the year I'm going to try growing Potimarron, an aromatic chestnut-like winter squash from France. It has intrigued me for several years, but I always turn it down in favor of the tried and true. And, I'm going to grow a bit of the herb Stevia here to add to some herbal tissanes. It is nice to have natural sweetness, so that my children aren't tempted to add a lot of processed sugar!
This photo taken in the early hours of the morning shows part of the garden area as it appears at this time of year. This part of the yard will be verdant and lush by mid-summer, filled with beds of herbs and vegetables, fruit trees and berry bushes, roses amid the tea garden, and hollyhocks by the playhouse. In these days of middle-March, the garden sleeps, but the gardener's dreams are green and growing.
photos by Aisling, March 2008 1) seed catalogs 2) dill seed head 3) overlooking the vegetable garden area