Suburban Valkyrie: In the Garden: Selecting Seeds

In the Garden: Selecting Seeds

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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.