February 20, 2023
Hi Garden Family,
I am pretty sure the pendulum swung back the other way on the morning of February 14. The morning air just felt different. It is like a silent alarm clock waking up the world. Every day now we will see new bursts of life. I think I am already behind!
We spent quite a bit of time figuring out our seed order. We like to get a mix of old favorites as well as a few newbies. First we tackled the Totally Tomatoes catalog. Their website is Totallytomato.com if you don't have a hard copy sitting around.
Clearly, I ordered too many tomatoes. For a yellow, Jordan recommended Lemon Boy Plus. I fell in love with a little pear shaped green called Mint Julep.
I grew Jersey Devil plums last year as well as in the past. They are
a large meaty fruit with good flavor so that one is a repeat. There are a bunch of others but you can cruise around the catalog to find what tickles you.
Corbaci peppers are a must have. I wasn't thrilled with any of the eggplants
I grew last year. I ended up trying something new from the Park's Seed Catalog. Parkseed.com It's called Amadeo. I really
just want some robust fruits to make capanata and baba ganoosh. We'll see how these do. I also ordered poppy seeds, 2 kinds of zinnias and a very expensive French green bean. It's a climber and supposed to be a heavy producer. The Dragon Tongue beans from last year were interesting by not much of a yield. And I have always been pleased with my flowers from Park. I think their zinnia collection is exceptional.
But the most fun catalog is the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog. Rareseeds.com They have the butterfly pea seeds. The flowers can be used to make a tea or a cold drink like lemonade. It starts out blue but if you add a drop of lemon juice it turns pink. According to my daughter, Kira, it was the favorite tea of Queen Elizabeth. She visited London and came back with that bit of Trivia.
Also from BC I ordered some edamame, a weird cucumber, orange okra, strawberry spinach, and blacktail watermelon. This is a small watermelon with red flesh but almost black rind. It is supposed to be very sweet. We will see. But the final item just blew me away. I was done with tomatoes already. But when I saw this one I just could not resist. Black Beauty Tomato. I will try to have a few for the plant exchange.
YES! The Plant Exchange is still on the calendar. May 20. More details to follow.
As to The Garden Show, we are hoping to work things out with WOLD, 95.1 FM. It is a different structure. We have to get our own advertising to pay for the time but Andy from South River is taking the lead. If it all comes together we hope to be on the air in March. The time will shift to 10-Noon on Sundays but we can work with that. So if you know of anyone that might be interested in advertising please let me know.
On a very cheery note, we have a new member of our family. Meet Juniper. She is a 9 month old rescue from Alabama. We were told half standard poodle and half shepard mix. That could be anything. I don't really see much poodle in her but she is a sweet girl. 53 pounds at the moment. She should end up at 60 or 65 pounds which was what my wonderful Becky weighed. Juniper has already made friends with Kousa but the cat and the chickens are still a challenge.
Please let everyone know to sign up here on the website so I can send out notices about what is happening. If you know of anyone that might be interested in advertising that would be a big help. Spring is about to burst out all over so start getting ready. Until we get back on the air, if you want to send me questions I will do my best to answer them.
Happy Gardening,
