The high and lows of laying in a garden…
In the beginning, there’s a lot of anticipation. Catalogs! As you’ve already read, I really wanted to source organic/heritage seed. And I did. There are great resources out there (Seed Savers, High Mowing, etc.). Then, comes figuring out when to get seeds started. Starting them indoors and moving them out or direct sow all required plotting each item on a calendar. Be careful — I got a little carried away my first time out of the gate and found my seeds and calendar ruling my life.
I don’t think I did a very good job starting seeds indoors. I had success with some and total failure with others. I think too that I didn’t have the right gear to give my seedlings a good start. I’m not so discouraged that I won’t try again next year, but I’ll do it differently. So for now I’ll end up trying to source locally seedlings (particularly tomatoes) that are organically grown and plan better for next year.
My garden to date:
- peas (direct sow, growing like gangbusters)
- potatoes (ditto)
- carrots (doing well — scarlet nantes variety)
- onions (several varieties, including cipolini, doing well)
- strawberries (seem to be doing well and past the trauma of tranplant)
- raspberries (ditto)
- concord grapes
- herbs
- green beans (too early to tell)
- and finally, tomatoes (not strong enough and shocked — will pull the plug shortly if I don’t see improvement and replace with local stock)