Starting from Seed

Most of the plants in my garden are grown from seed. This year I started to wonder about the possibility of saving seeds from these plants and using them next year. I know that some plants are hybrids and that the seeds from those may not be able to germinate. I'm hoping the good folks at Burpee can let me know if I can save seeds from this year's Cherry Belle Radish.

I let just one of them "go to seed." I got impatient over the weekend and asked my father when the seeds would show up. He said after the flowers died off. If nothing else the flowers were lovely. Lo and behold, this morning I was rewarded with what appear to be seed pods! Next I have to figure out when to harvest the seeds, how to dry and save them.

A-Mulchin' We Will Go...

D'you think 10 yards will be enough?

I'm going to mulch the pathways of the veggie garden, which is all you've heard about so far. Here at Reservoir Gardens, we also have a large front bed of ornamentals (Burning Bush, Weeping Cherry tree, Lilac bush, Lupine, Azaleas, etc.), the bed around the mailboxes, the base of the maple tree, the beds in front of the house, the base of the Lilac tree in the High Yard, the Hillside that slopes into the backyard, and the area around the Fire Patio.

We didn't have enough last year to mulch to the appropriate depth and we didn't even get to the Hillside. We also didn't mulch the pathways of the garden. And to be fair, the Fire Patio was so overgrown, we just let it go last year and tried not to burn the place down. So, this year we doubled our order from Bakers and it arrives tomorrow.

HUGE thanks to the husband for attacking the overgrown Fire Patio--wish I had before and after pics... The shot above shows the area at its best from last year and that's pretty rough.

On another topic, what do you know about Irish Moss?? We need to put in a pathway from the drive to the house. We've got a ton of large irregular slate, but we need something to fill in the gaps other than scraggly grass.

My Garden Grows...

...glass. Yes, glass. I wish I had a picture of all I found while I was "pre-weeding" the garden. Pretty sure the yard was a hangout for beer-drinking teens during the 18 months the house was empty before we moved in.

Decided that next year I will pre-weed before I burn...so hard to find the little buggers when they're not sprouting! Pre-weeding finished on Saturday morning and by noon all the pathways and 3'x3' squares were cordoned off with twine.

Onion sets are down, peas are down (so late with those!), radish, carrots and spinach are down. The garlic cloves are down in the herb garden.

What else does my garden grow? Here's the complete listing for this year...

16 Vegetables, 22 Varietals
Spacemaster Cucumber
Big Mama Tomatoes
Health Kick Tomatoes
Purple Rain Eggplant (if I say Prince eats these, do you think my husband will?)
Bush Blue Lake 47 Green Beans
Beananza Green Beans
Tall Utah Celery
Blockbuster Peppers
Godfather Peppers
Cherry Belle Radish
Danvers Half-Long Carrots (a local favorite?)
Sugar Snax Carrots
Baby Leaf Spinach
RSVPea Peas
Butterbush Squash
Hollow Crown Parsnip
Onions - Red, White, and Yellow
Heirloom Small Sugar Pumpkin
Prizewinner Hybrid Pumpkin
Rhubarb

Yep. The rhubarb's the only original item left in the bed. Though I wouldn't be surprised if a few of those strawberries snuck back in, they sure were hard to dig up. The asparagus? That scary looking root octopus now resides in my folks' backyard. I wish him well.

I've made big plans this year. I've ordered quality seeds from Burpee instead of the 3 for $1 packs at the discount store that are leftover from last year's stock. I'm planting a lot more items and keeping things a little closer together (faux square foot gardening), because the weeding last year was ridiculous.

Think I'm overdoing it? Yeah, me, too. I've never grown half of these things before and I don't even like some of them. No idea what I'm doing. Between the Burpee site and a copy of Month-by-Month Gardening in New England (thanks KM!) I hope I can learn enough to make all this work worth it.