Every year for Jeff’s birthday in April, my Grandma Jensen sends him a gift certificate to Seed Savers, where we get to pick out heirloom seeds. Looking through the catalog together is always so exciting each spring. We flip through the colorful pages wondering ‘what goodies are we going to pick out this year?’
Along with this yearly gift of seeds, we save a lot of our own seeds from the garden, and that makes for quite an abundance of good things to plant!
We always end up planting more than we originally plan because our zest for gardening gets us so darn excited.
Here are some seeds, from our order, that we are planting this year:
(Above are some herbs, which are always a big part of the garden.)
A whole lotta Greens! We eat greens every day and can never grow too many of these in the garden.
Kale, Arugula, Spinach, and Chard.
We’ll be planting Winter Squash again. Butternut Squash (my favorite!) and a new one we are growing for the first time, Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck. I saw organic Butternut Squash at the grocery store, 2 for $11. With how much we love it, we’re inspired to grow it ourselves again this year. (And the price is further encouragement.) I love storing it in the pantry and enjoying it throughout the winter.
Cucumbers and Zucchini (which is always in our garden.) We’ll grow the cucumbers for fresh eating, salads etc. We used to grow them to turn into Jeff’s raw fermented pickles, but harvesting each day and throwing them in the crock made for everything in the crock getting finished at different times. So for pickles we buy a huge bag of cukes at a local farm and ferment them in the crock all at once. We’ll plant less cucumbers this year since we are only having them for fresh eating.
And you gotta love abundantly growing zucchini, that you can always count on when it’s mealtime and you need some garden produce.
We grew Runner Beans on Jeff’s Bean Trellis last year and loved them. We ate so many out of the garden, they became daily fare. We grew the Scarlet Runners. This year we also ordered Painted Lady Improved and Sunset.
For fun Jeff ordered these Gourds for creative endeavors. One for making birdhouses and the other for spinning tops (they make great natural toys for little ones.)
And of course lots and lots (and lots!) of Sunflowers. They bring us a deep joy. Plus we love to eat the seeds and we recently discovered we like to eat the sprouts too.
We had some gift certificate money left over so besides getting seeds (which was so exciting in itself) we got a book called ‘Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning.’
I’m fascinated.
~
What are you planting in your garden this year?
…Or on your patio or in your windowsill?
Or
What are you dreaming of planting?
Also, it’s wonderful knowing Seed Savers as a source for non-GMO seeds. I’m curious, what are some of your favorite sources for buying seeds?
Ashley- Thanks for the heads up! Glad to hear you are growing it again. I’m excited to see how it tastes. π
Watch out for the Pennsy Dutch Crookneck, Taryn! I had one vine in my garden last year, and it spread in total of probably about 100′ in several directions! The reward was ample, though…two 15lb.+ squash that we turned into amazing homemade ravioli. π Yum! Needless to say, we’re growing it again in our garden this year!
Abby- I really don’t think the word excited can be over used!! π Gardening excitement is so contagious, isn’t it? Thanks for the seed source, I’m gonna check them out. (Plus my maiden last name was Baker so the names appeals to me.) π
Lindsay- A living sunflower fence sounds amazing!!
Wow, so many great things to plant! We’re doing our biggest garden yet, this year. The list of plants is almost too long, and I’m so excited to get everything in the ground!
We’ve also got lots of sunflowers. I want to plant a living fence π
My favorite place for seeds is Baker Creek. Their website is http://www.rareseeds.com. All heirloom and they have a really excellent selection! You guys have a great variety of seeds there. It is so exciting growing food from seed. I can’t even begin to count how many times I have used the word EXCITED since growing season began π I am pretty excited, loving tending all our plants.
Happy Mother’s Day back to all of you mamas!!
Kathi- How wonderful to have your own fresh herbs for cooking. And that sounds like an awesome plant sale, woderful to have your money support what you love. Good for you doing apartment gardening! (And I hope the maintenance guy will leave your sunflowers alone too!) π
Megan- We used the runner beans in stir fries and soups mostly. They are so delicious. Thanks for the seed shop tip. It’s good to know a source that sells smaller amounts.
Carys- I’ve heard of a few of those seed companies before, and I’m glad to learn about the others. I like the names of your squashes. I like- oregon homestead sweet meat. π They all sound really delicious.
I love bitter melon when it’s pickled. I tried growing it here before, but didn’t have any luck.
Your garden sounds amazing!
And I’m so glad to know you read that book. Now I know someone I can ask questions to! π
Sarah- Wow! That is a bumper strawberry crop! Sounds wonderful! I made strawberry jam one year, but never used it so I decided to freeze strawberries instead. I used them in smoothies a lot. I’ve never tried them dried. I wonder how they taste?
Patti- Thank you! You always brighten my day!
Trish- I love gifts like that too. My Grandma Jensen is really good at giving gifts that you need and enjoy at the same time.
Your garden sounds yum! I hope you get some rain soon! We sure don’t say that much here in Oregon, lol.
Kelly- That sounds like a wonderful container garden. Enjoy all the fresh goodness.
Happy Mother’s Day back to all of you mamas!!
Kathi- How wonderful to have your own fresh herbs for cooking. And that sounds like an awesome plant sale, woderful to have your money support what you love. Good for you doing apartment gardening! (And I hope the maintenance guy will leave your sunflowers alone too!) π
Megan- We used the runner beans in stir fries and soups mostly. They are so delicious. Thanks for the seed shop tip. It’s good to know a source that sells smaller amounts.
Carys- I’ve heard of a few of those seed companies before, and I’m glad to learn about the others. I like the names of your squashes. I like- oregon homestead sweet meat. π They all sound really delicious.
I love bitter melon when it’s pickled. I tried growing it here before, but didn’t have any luck.
Your garden sounds amazing!
And I’m so glad to know you read that book. Now I know someone I can ask questions to! π
Sarah- Wow! That is a bumper strawberry crop! Sounds wonderful! I made strawberry jam one year, but never used it so I decided to freeze strawberries instead. I used them in smoothies a lot. I’ve never tried them dried. I wonder how they taste?
Patti- Thank you! You always brighten my day!
Trish- I love gifts like that too. My Grandma Jensen is really good at giving gifts that you need and enjoy at the same time.
Your garden sounds yum! I hope you get some rain soon! We sure don’t say that much here in Oregon, lol.
Kelly- That sounds like a wonderful container garden. Enjoy all the fresh goodness.
It all looks so exciting. I wish I could grow some vareities of squash, but we’re in a rental this year and I just can’t swing it in a container. We have lots of kale chard and lettuce growing though, and some herbs too.
Happy Mothers Day!
I tried to leave you a message Taryn, but not sure if it worked!! Anyway what I said was what a lovely gift from your Grandma Jenson. I really like gifts like that!
I love butternut squash. I roast it and make it into soup. Beautiful!
Today I planted a row of parsley seed and a row of rocket seed.
I have lots in pots waiting to be planted out- kale, beans, squashes and sweetcorn. We desperately need some rain.
Happy Mothers day to you Taryn.
Much love
What a fantastic selection for your garden—–lots of yumminess on the way!
Happy Mother’s Day to you, Taryn!
Blessings, Patti
Wow, I am super interested in the book on preserving! I was just looking today at ways to preserve strawberries as we are definitely getting a bumper crop from our little patch this year (I can pick about 20/day for at least the next month or so). We’re trying out freezing, but maybe I can find other ways too. Dehydrating seems like a waste as they are so good, but maybe I’ll try that too. Let me know how the book is! It looks like your garden will be wonderful!
most of my seeds are from baker creek (rareseeds.com); a few are from wild garden seed, adaptive seeds, territorial, and nichols.
i’ve got some tomatoes started inside (mama leone paste, pearly pink and black cherry) and just started my squashes: costata romanesco, oregon homestead sweet meat, sweet dumpling, small sugar pumpkin, katy stoke’s sugar meat, sugar loaf hessel. i’ve got a bunch of types of radishes, carrots, and beets started outside, and i’ll be starting my cukes this week — ihave a bunch of different heirloom varieties. and lots of herbs!
your sunflowers look like they’ll be wonderful; i have some black oil sunflower seeds for the birds and i’ll be sowing some of those and some millet and buckwheat for them.
i haven’t tried gourds before — they look fun!
i have some bitter melon and yard long beans, runner beans, and purple pole beans.
i planted poppy, linaria, cosmos, and calendula seeds today, too *g*
it was a perfect gardening day!
your new book is my favourite preserving book! i’m going to try the mixed greens in salt this year.
carys
I’ve never tried runner beans, though I know that a lot of gardeners here grow them. How did you prepare yours?
Choosing the garden seeds each year is one of my absolute favorite things to do. We grow a lot of tomatoes, and I’m always finding new varieties that I’d like to try. A smaller source that I love is The Sample Seed Shop. She carries a lot of really interesting heirloom varieties in smaller sized packages, so you can afford to experiment a little more with new crops.
Megan
We went to a plant sale today that was a benefit for our favorite environmental center. I bought basil, Oregano, thyme, sage, and tomatoes. I want chives but they didn’t have any. I will put all the herbs in a strawberry pot. The tomatoes will go in a hanging basket. We live in an apartment so that’s about all we can do. We have some sunflower seeds in a planter in the window. If they live we will plant them outside and hope the maintenance guy will leave them alone.
Kathi