A much-touted snowstorm did not materialize at our elevation, and someone in me was disappointed to miss some drama. However, the cold front did definitely move through and today I have been feeding logs into the wood stove at an alarming rate. Even at that, much of the house is quite chilly.
We did get a lot of rain, so the soil is too wet to do anything in at this time. I was going to cut back the other rosemary bushes, but they have begun to bloom and I can't stand to cut off the soft color. It can wait. Penny is bundled up in the garage making shelves and rearranging things and just generally enjoying a project.
My project has been to order a few seeds for when it is time to plant again. With what I brought home from the FoCuS seed-sharing event and what we have left from last year, there is little to buy this time around. But we did decide to try a few new varieties and we needed some more seed-starting trays.
We're looking ahead to spring and summer crops; it won't be too long before at least some of these can be started in the greenhouse. Here's the list we have created; I already know there is more here than we can find room for or be successful with! These are, somewhat, in the order they will be planted - some in the greenhouse, some direct seed.
Onions: Alisa Craig, Walla Walla, White Lisbon scallions (older seeds we have had for a while)
Beets: Early Wonder Tall Top, Forono (recent Bountiful Gardens order)
Radishes: Bountiful Gardens Radish Mix and Purple Plum - both ordered today
Lettuce: The intention is to always have some growing. The varieties on hand are Freckles (my favorite), Little Gem, Chinese Sword, Cocarde, Jericho, Amish Speckled, Deertongue (another favorite), Buttercrunch, Emerald Oak, Sunset, Ben Shemen. And, I count arugula in with the lettuces.
Carrots: Nantes, Chantenay, Early Market
Tomatoes: Pineapple and Orange King (left from last year); Cherokee Purple, Camalay, and Brandywine (from Outer Aisle at the seed sharing event); and two news ones ordered today from Bountiful Gardens - Arkansas Traveler and Lake.
Summer squash: Green scallop, from the seed share
Winter squash: Burgess Buttercup and Guatemalan Blue - both ones we had success with last year; two new ones ordered today from Bountiful Gardens - Butternut and Japanes Red Kuri.
Cucumbers: Lemon (seed share) and Striped Armenian (left over from previous year)
New Zealand Spinach (ordered from Bountiful Gardens) - this is a warm weather spinach.
Melons and watermelons: Orange Flesh Honeydew and Green Honeydew (Outer Aisle at the seed share); Red-seeded watermelon (seed share); Sugar Baby and Crimson Sweet watermelons from older seed packets.
Beans are a maybe - we have: Bush bean mix (Bountiful Gardens); Bacchia Flat green (seed share), and three different drying beans from the seed share - Calypso, Tiger's Eye, and one I forgot to label (ooo, I think I remember they are a small fava, so that will be a fall planting).
Potatoes for sure, but we have not yet thought about what we will get and from where.
There are also some flower seeds we might do something with. Particularly, I will plant the Mammoth Sunflower seeds I got at the seed share. We also have some left over Nasturtium and Calendula from Bountiful Gardens.
Two miscellaneous seed packets to explore: red fig from the seed share and clary sage that we were given in West Point at the Blue Mountain Coalition for Youth and Families when the Zen Monastery Peace Center did a PeaceStorming event there.
Wow, having written that all out, I think I have some research to do on all of these - to be sure we plant at the right time, know how to feed and water....all those things. And, somehow, to connect what we plant with what we can realistically use, so that we don't have too much or too little. That kind of planning seems to be the biggest challenge for me. I love thinking of what things will look like and taste like, but I dan't seem to connect the right number of plants with providing a reliable source of food, even supplemental food, for two people.
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