Well, I finally sat down and wrapped my head around all of the seeds we have left over from packets purchased last year (and a few from the year before…yes…2010!), seeds we have saved from our garden and from organic veggies obtained from the grocery store or our CSA as well as the wonderful seeds that came in the mail from Daphne, Dave and Mary.
- Basil – Genovese, Dark Purple Opal & Lettuce Leaf
- Beans – Broad fava Windsor, Bush Trio, Kentucky Wonder Pole, Kentucky Wonder Pole, Blue Lake White Seeded Pole, Black Turtle & Trail of Tears
- Beets – Early Wonder & yellow/white heirloom
- Bell peppers – sweet red, California Wonder, Chocolate beauty & a mystery bell pepper which was black outside, green inside and semi-sweet (from our CSA)
- Peppers – Hot Happy Yummy & Sweet Happy Yummy
- Broccoli
- Carrots – Carnival Blend & Parisienne
- Cilantro
- Corn – Blue & Strawberry popcorn
- Cucumber – Beit Alpha & Lemon
- Dill – Bouquet & Elephant
- Echinacae/Cone Flower
- Eggplant
- Jalapeno – Early
- Kale – Red Winter & Red Russian
- Lettuce – mixed & Little Gem
- Melon – mystery #1 & mystery #2 (both from our CSA)
- Onion – Long white bunching
- Oregano Vulgare
- Peas – Dwarf Gray Sugar, Super Sugar Snap & Sugarsnap
- Pie Pumpkin
- Pumpkin – Jack-o-lantern
- Radish – Cherry belle
- Spinach
- Squash (winter) – Hubbard, Butternut, Delicata, Acorn (bush) & Spaghetti
- Swiss Chard
- Tomatoes – Yellow Taxi, Italian Heirloom, Martino’s Roma, Black from Tula, Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge, Barnes Mountain Yellow, Yellow Pear, Brandywine, mystery #1 (big purple and red, from our CSA), mystery #2 (small sweet red cherry), Bi-Color cherry & Cherokee Purple
- Sunflowers (several types)
- Turnips
- Watermelon
- Zucchini
Now, I’m kind of freaking out because, if you’ll remember, we only live on 1/8 acre. This means that I (we) have some serious decisions to make about a few of these items…I mean really…how many tomato varieties can we squeeze into a few beds? How many varieties of winter squash do we need? Do we need to grow two varieties of pumpkins or should we stick to pie pumpkins in order to make the most of our small space in relation to what we can and will actually eat? So many questions!!!
- Summer Squash
- Sage
- Tomatillos
- Swiss Chard
- Carrots (Dragon & reg. Orange)
- Marigold
- Nasturtium
- Chamomile
- Potatoes (German Butterball)
- Sweet Corn
- Spinach
All questions (space, time, water…) aside, this short list of what needs to be purchased is quite exciting! I’m guessing that if I purchase all organic seeds, with the packets at $3 each and the potatoes (10 pounds) at $40, we’ll spend less than $100 on seeds this year (hopefully closer to $75)! This is extremely exciting since we’re trying to tighten our purse strings a bit around here.
We also have several flower seeds saved, including morning glories and the family cosmos and I recently received some super cool luffah seeds from Katie that I’m excited to learn how to grow!
Alright, are you still with me (this is the longest post ever!)? So, here begins a bit of fun 🙂 As I mentioned above, some of these seeds are only a year or two old, but I’m not sure we can use them all before their germination rates decline, so I will begin offering a bit of a giveaway each week with my Little Things post on Saturdays for the next few Saturdays.
So, don’t forget to come back here tomorrow, see what’s being offered and enter!!! Oh, how I love to give things away 🙂
Next year 2013 Im not buying but 3 packets at the most. AND that is if I get through all the carrot seed which is possible. Probably be a lettuce pckg purchase. Bought a bunch this year. Perhaps Ill manage to get through it all.
Angela – What a phenomenal goal! I can only imagine how amazing it will all look once completed!
Our goal last June which will last through this June was to plant 150 fruit trees and bushes and shrubs. So far we only have 45 planted, but with the 30 going into the courtyard, 30 more espaliered around where we park our cars we’ll be closer than ever to reaching that 150 mark.
We won’t be able to start the work in the courtyard until all the ducks are out of there and in their pond. They love to strip everything bare.
Allison – Yeah…seed catalogs are dangerous…so much beauty and bounty and hope in those pictures! I could happily go broke just ordering seeds!
melbatoast68 – YAY! Good luck with your gardening! Once you start, you’ll be hooked! Check out my Little Things post today (Saturday)…I’m giving away seeds!
Julia – YES! Your brand new garden! So exciting!!!
Kelli – I know, right?! It’s really a problem!
Malay-Kadazan girl – Exactly! This is the year I’m really getting organized around it all! I know it will make my life so much easier in the future! And it’ll save money since I won’t be buying seeds I don’t need! Yay for spreadsheets!
Angela – Seed inventories are the best! And yes, I totally remember Garbage Pail Cards, so…lol…we’re both officially dated! I am sketching out some plans for some vertical gardening since we are limited on space and really, the way to go is UP! Thank you so much for the book idea, I will definitely check it out! I look forward to reading about your courtyard adventures! that’s a lot of trees you have going on there! We have 3 espalier trees and love them! I’m hoping our fruit trees produce more this year than last!!!
We just did our seed inventory from last year (I posted it a few days ago on my blog) and for things I just had to have but never actually used. 😉 I found it fun to take out the packets. It kind of felt like I was kid again with a new batch of Garbage Pail Kids cards. Do you remember those, or am I REALLY dating myself right now? LOL
Are you doing any vertical gardening also? In a few of the photos I’ve seen of your yard you have some nice vertical space. Here’s a book that could be interesting if you choose to move into vertical gardening in depth:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1605290831/ref=asc_df_16052908311850404?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=1605290831
We’ll be doing vertical container gardening in our courtyard using a DIY self watering system. I’m pretty excited about that since my whole courtyard is concrete. There is an area that isn’t concrete (gravel and dirt) were we will be espaliering 25-30 fruit trees. A mini orchard on the wall in a small amount of space. 🙂
Last year I finally written all my collection of seeds in microsoft excel to avoid reordering the same seeds again next year. I also found that I had too much unopened packet of Asian greens that in a nick of time save me from ordering them again. It is also easy to decide which seeds to collect from the garden this year. Hope you can grow many plants vertically this year to save some space.
This is so very impressive! I am going to try gardening for the very first time this spring…should be interesting!
I know what you mean — I need to sit down and goe through ours and trying to decide what to order this year is so hard — i want to choose EVERYTHING!
wow, that’s a lot of seeds!
Yay! This will be fun! We need some good healthy seeds to get started with out garden.