Winter vegetable seedlings: cauliflower, broccoli, some
kind of hardy lettuce, red cabbage and green cabbage.
(And I managed to keep it all within a $100 budget!)
It started with garden bloggers who have written posts on their seed and bulb purchases (thereby planting the idea in my head). I tend to procrastinate on such things, so if it weren't for them, I'd have put off the task until it was too late...and end up waiting out the seed order rush later on. Vegetables will always come first in the
orto of course, but as tulips are my favorite blooms, 7 dozen assorted varieties should be making their debut in the yard come spring.
In other news... The situation went from bad to worse for the japanese red maple. Wilting and dried out leaves earlier in the year alerted us to the presence of Verticillium wilt which gradually engulfed and destroyed the 8-foot tree by the end of July. Such a loss, as we've had it for only a year and it was the first tree to be planted when we bought our home. My husband is not looking forward to digging it out!
Now as to the list — I go insane for the unusual, and wrestled ongoing debates between me...and myself. Bet I'm not the only one. You got a spot for that in the garden? I'll find one. Will a cute name alone justify the effort to grow it? Oh c'mon...what's in a name anyway? The weirder, the better, but in the end Prickly Caterpillar got the axe (and no, not because it's a caterpillar per se). Oh yes I'd toss it in a salad for interest and crunch, it's just that I'm not so sure my husband would find anything that resembles a bug equally as thrilling.
Dragon Tongue beans
Tiger's eye bush bean
Bull's Blood beets
Rat tail radish
Dwarf gray sugar peas
Quadrato d'Asti Rosso (italian red bell pepper)
Listada de Gandia eggplant
Kamo eggplant
Lau's Pointed Leaf lettuce
Merveille des quatre saisons lettuce
Tigger sweet melon
Collective Farm Woman sweet melon
Yellow Scallop summer squash
Red Kuri winter squash
Shishigatani or Toonas Makino winter squash
Waltham Butternut Squash
Tomatillos (both green and purple types)
Tomatoes: Marmande, Japanese Black Trifele, Omar's Lebanese, Black Krim, Rose De Berne, Ananas Noire/Black Pineapple
Kyoto Kujo Negi bunching onion
Red Beard bunching onion
Stella Alpina (Edelweiss)
Teddy Bear sunflower
Herbs: Pyrethrum, Basil Nufar, Epazote, FeverfewAdd to that seeds from this past season that I neglected to plant at all. Sis, if you read this, remember it's free for the taking! But if your garden gnome meets the gnome girl of his dreams, can I adopt one of the kids?
Borage
Chinese Long White bittermelon
Salsify
Rampion
Wapsipinicon Peach tomato
Keckley's Sweet watermelon
Carosello Tondo di Manduria (a small oval-shape cucumber)
Ronde de Nice round zucchini
Edible Chrysanthemum
Sorrel
Purple Beauty bell peppers
Black Aztec sweet corn
Ping Tung eggplant