With my garden planning steaming ahead, I had to start choosing the actual plants I am going to try to grow this year. The Baker Creek catalog of heirloom seeds has been my constant companion for the past few weeks, and I have nearly read it cover to cover. You can order it from them, but last year, the catalog took about four weeks to arrive, and I was way too impatient for that this year, so I picked it up at Barnes & Noble.


Learning the stories behind the plant seeds that the Missouri-based company has gathered from around the world is fascinating to me, and the photography in the catalog is absolutely gorgeous.


After a few weeks of perusing the extensive seed catalog, and researching plant spacing and square foot gardening approaches, I was ready to order.

Here is what will be growing in my 2016 garden, Mother Nature willing:

Beans:
  • Blue Lake Bush
  • Calima Bush
  • Purple Dove Bush 
  • Red Swan Bush
  • Dragon Tongue Bush
  • Barnside Sweet Runner Bean
  • Scarlet Runner Bean
  • Purple Podded Pole Bean

Carrots:
  • Atomic Red
  • Carnival Blend
  • Short n Sweet

Cucumbers:
  • Marketmore 76
  • National Pickling
  • Tendergreen Burpless

Eggplant:
  • Antigua
  • Casper
  • Diamond

Onion: Flavor King

Peppers:
  • Chinese Five Color
  • Jalapeno
  • Sweet bells, including California Wonder, Diamond, Golden California Wonder, Orange Sun and Purple Beauty

Pumpkins:
  • Baby Boo
  • Jack-Be-Little

Snow Pea: Oregon Sugar Pod II

Squash:
  • Black Beauty zucchini
  • Burpee's Fordhook zucchini
  • Early Prolific Straightneck squash
  • Summer Crookneck squash

Tomatoes: These are my real loves and where I plan to spend most of my space and time. I've allotted 34 in-ground spaces for tomatoes, and likely will stick a couple in grow bags at home, as well. So far, only two on the list are hybrids - Sun Gold or Sun Sugar and Super Sweet 100s. The rest are heirlooms, and even their names are intriguing. Here is what I chose:

Cherry tomatoes:
  • Black Cherry
  • Chocolate Cherry
  • Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry
  • Purple Bumblebee
  • Sunrise Bumblebee
  • Chocolate Pear
  • Yellow Pear
  • Ivory Egg

Slicers and saucers:
  • Arkansas Traveler
  • Aunt Ruby's German Green
  • Bonny Best
  • Kellogg's Breakfast
  • Green Zebra
  • Orange Strawberry
  • Black From Tula
  • Mr. Stripey
  • Amish Paste
  • Stupice
  • Cherokee Purple
  • Mortgage Lifter
  • Box Car Willie
  • Beefsteak
  • Black Brandywine
  • Red Brandywine
  • Yellow Brandywine

A couple (Cherokee Purple, Mr. Stripey) are seeds I saved from 2015 plants. A handful, I picked up at Ott's Exotic Plants in Schwenksville. The rest, I ordered from Baker Creek. When the order arrived, I was like a kid in a candy store.


Now, to get them all started in time...
The chill of winter is on the wane here in Pennsylvania, at least for now. Though we likely are in for another spell or two of cool to cold weather, the temps in the 60s and 70s have launched me into full-on garden planning mode.

Each year that I have gardened here in my little slice of suburbia, my plans and ambitions have, well, grown. From containers,  to one 4x4 raised bed,



to two 4x4 raised beds (for which I tore out an old, dead lavender bush:



to the two beds and a conglomeration of grow bags and containers of all sizes in 2015.


This year, I'm getting serious.

The nearby town of Perkasie created a community garden space on an unused piece of land donated by Kenneth Kratz Real Estate. Would-be green thumbers can rent a 12x12 plot of land for $10 for the summer. That includes water, which is provided by the borough.

So, being a Gemini and all, I decided to go big. I rented two 12x12 plots for Gardenpolooza 2016. Now, 288 square feet of garden may be old hat to many gardeners, but for me, this is a pretty big leap.

In addition to greatly expanding the amount of land I'm going to garden, I also am tackling another project - starting all (or most) of my plants from seed.

I started seedlings for the first time ever last year - and was a bit surprised when it actually worked. In the intervening months, many winter hours have been spent poring over seeds catalogs, such as the one from Baker Creek.

The list of favorites and must-trys is expanding by the day. What will end up on my final order? We will have to wait and see.

Instagram

My Latest Pins

Popular Posts

Search This Blog

Gallery